Edmund Hillary was one of the greatest explorers and mountaineers of the 20th century. He was the first man to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. He made three visits to the Himalayas before trying to climb the world’s highest mountain. On 29th May, 1953 (the same day as Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation), Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, one of the Sherpas (local people who carry equipment on Himalayan expeditions), reached the top of Everest.
Edmund Percival Hillary was born on July 20, 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. He discovered his joy in the mountains on a school trip to Mount Ruapehu, and it never left him.
During the 1940s he made many climbs in New Zealand, particularly in the Southern Alps.
In 1953 he got the invitation to join Sir John Hunt’s expedition to Everest. The group left Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 10, 1953. On May 29, Hillary and Tenzing reached the peak.
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Howard Hughes was one of the richest and most powerful men of his time. He was an industrialist, director, Hollywood producer, and aviator.
Howard was born in 1905 in Houston, Texas. His father started the Hughes Tool Company. From his father, Howard learned to be a successful but ruthless businessman. Howard was the only child in the family. His mother, Allene, had mental problems and was afraid of germs and disease. She was obsessed with Howard’s health, and he became obsessed with it too. He attended private schools in California and Massachusetts, Rice Institute in Houston, and the California Institute of Technology. His mother died when Hughes was 16 and his father when he was 18. After his parents death Howard inherited Hughes Tool Company.
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Jane Goodall is the British scientist, primatologist and ethnologist, known for her research on chimpanzees. Her discoveries changed the way chimpanzees are studied and understood.
Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England. When she was two years old, her father gave her a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. It was her favorite toy. In her childhood Jane dreamed of living in the African forests among the animals.
Goodall attended the Uplands private school, receiving her school certificate in 1950 and a higher certificate in 1952. At age eighteen she left school and found employment as a secretary at Oxford University.
In 1957, when she was about 23 years old, a school friend invited Goodall to Kenya, Africa. There she met the famous scientist Dr. Louis Leakey. Leakey was studying wild chimpanzees in order to find out more about the origins of human life.
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Henry Brown was born a slave in 1815 in Virginia. He spent his early life on a rural tobacco plantation. In 1830 he was moved to Richmond.
He married a fellow slave and they had three children. One day the owner of his wife decided to sell her and the children to a different slave owner and they were sent to North Carolina.
It was then that Brown determined to escape from slavery. He decided to send himself by mail to one of the northern states, where there was no slavery. At the end of March 1849 with the help of a friendly merchant Henry packed himself in a wooden box which was sent by Adams Express Company, known for its efficiency and confidentiality. Brown took food and some water with him. During the trip his box was transported by wagon, railroad, steamboat, wagon again, railroad, ferry, railroad, and finally delivery wagon.
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David Livingstone was a famous explorer and missionary. From the age of ten to twenty-four he worked in a cotton factory. He studied at evening classes and eventually he qualified as a doctor. In 1840 he went to Africa as a missionary. He ‘discovered’ most of the Zambesi River and in 1866 he started looking for the source of the River Nile.
David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813, in Blantyre. The Livingstones were poor, so the 10-year-old boy had to work in the textile mills 14 hours a day, studying at night and on weekends.
In 1836 he entered the University of Glasgow to study medicine and theology.
In 1840 he received his medical degree and was accepted by the London Missionary Society. At the end of the same year he sailed to Africa and arrived in Cape Town on March 14, 1841.
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He was an attractive and educated young man, 25-year-old gentleman, who arrived in Barbados from England, and served as a major colonial militia.
By the age of 28 Stede had his own home in Bridgetown, prosperous plantation and a young wife – Mary.
People thought he would have a bright future in politics, but fate decreed otherwise. After a quarrel with his wife Bonnet became a pirate. He bought a large sloop and called it Revenge.
Not far from Nassau Bonnet met Edward Teach – famous pirate Blackbeard. He became either a prisoner of the terrible Edward Teach or his powerless companion. So Blackbeard became a captain of the Revenge and Bonnet walked on the deck and read his books and gain experience. A few months later, on behalf of Teach, Bonnet went to Virginia to ask for the royal pardon for them. A gentleman with a good education was just perfect for this mission. Bonnet met with Governor Charles Eden and received amnesty. With this document, he returned to Teach and… there was an unpleasant surprise. Blackbeard took all guns and gears, and went to Ocracoke Island. Bonnet’s ship was simply left on a desert island with 17 team members.
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He was a thief and a killer. Yet he is considered a national hero and one of the most romantic figures in Australian history. Poems and songs were written, and thousands of post cards with the pictures of the gang were sold.
Edward Kelly was born on June 3, 1854. He was born into a family of John Kelly and Ellen Quinn. His parents were both Irish born, but they met and married in Australia. His father was exiled to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) for stealing two pigs. He was freed after five years in prison and moved to the province of Victoria where he married Ellen Quinn, the daughter of a local farmer. Ned was the third child in the family (of the eight). He received his primary education at a local school.
When Ned was about 12 years old, his father was accused of stealing a calf. John Kelly died on December 27, 1866 in prison.
Ned first got into trouble with the law when he was only 14. He and his family used to steal horses, rebrand them and sell them. The owners of the horses offered large rewards for Kelly’s arrest.
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