World of faces

Famous people all over the world

Category Archive: History

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald – so easy to be loved, so difficult to love

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald - so easy to be loved, so difficult to love

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald – so easy to be loved, so difficult to love

The nickname “king and queen of Jazz Age” was given to them by journalists. Their bright, stormy life was the embodiment of “roaring 20s” and uneven rhythm of their love was very similar to jazz. But at one point the music for Zelda and Scott ended.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was a long-awaited first-born in a poor Irish family. His father was an ordinary salesman. Mother’s legacy improved things and Scott was able to go to Princeton. The prestigious university, however, was not the purpose of his life. He wanted to play football, Princeton had a strong team, or play on the stage, there was a great theater club at the university. However, a week after the start of the course he was kicked out of the football team and never joined theater club because it was only for excellent students. Scott, alas, did not shine at the university, and in general did not like all those wealthy mama and daddy’s sons, with whom he had to study. After a while he was expelled from Princeton. It was in 1917, at the height of World War I, and Fitzgerald decided to go to the front. However, Scott was sent to the town of Montgomery, Alabama.
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Jiang Qing – girl from the village

Jiang Qing - girl from the village

Jiang Qing – girl from the village

American writer Agnes Smedley was a witness of the meeting of Mao and the young actress Lang Ping (her real name was Jiang Qing). In 1937 she attended a “special area” controlled by the army of 44-year-old Mao Zedong, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China.
Lang Ping was a pretty girl, who recently arrived from Shanghai. She came there when her second husband, a popular actor, attempted to commit suicide. The actress left Tang because she had an affair with the director. Shanghai newspapers showed actor and director as victims of a cunning peasant woman.
Lang Ping was born in Shandong Province in a family of small entrepreneur. Her mother was the sixth wife of Lee and, according to Chinese tradition, the most powerless. Soon, unable to withstand the abuse, she left the family. Lang Ping was raised by her grandparents.
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John Glenn – American astronaut and senator

John Glenn - American astronaut and senator

John Glenn – American astronaut and senator

John Glenn was the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, test pilot, Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean War, Senator from Ohio.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. His parents had two other children who died in infancy, and they later adopted his sister Jean.
He graduated from primary and secondary schools in New Concord, then attended Muskingum University.
In 1943 he joined Marine Corps. During World War II John made 59 sorties, flew the F4U Corsair over the Marshall Islands.
When peace came, Glenn remained in the corps, serving as a fighter pilot and then as a flight instructor. In 1952, Major Glenn was sent to Korea. He participated in the Korean War and then graduated from the Test Pilot School.
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Ernesto Che Guevara – Great Comandante

Ernesto Che Guevara – Great Comandante

Ernesto Che Guevara – Great Comandante

Ernesto Che Guevara was a Latin American revolutionary and the trusted adviser of Cuban premier Fidel Castro. He used nickname Che to emphasize his Argentine origin. He became one of the main persons of the Cuban revolution, and remains a symbol of commitment to ideals.
Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He had two brothers and two sisters. Ernesto was keen on chess. At the age of 11 he became interested in Cuba, when Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires.
At 19 Guevara entered the medical school of the University of Buenos Aires.
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Sir Sandford Fleming – railway engineer

Sir Sandford Fleming - railway engineer

Sir Sandford Fleming – railway engineer

Sir Sandford Fleming was a railway engineer who became a widely recognized publicist for various scientific, imperial, and public causes.
Sandford Fleming was born on January 7, 1827 in Scotland. In 1845 he went to Canada and qualified as a civil engineer.
In 1849 Fleming was engaged in founding the Canadian Institute at Toronto. In 1851 he designed the first Canadian postage stamp, the threepenny beaver.
In 1855 Sandford married Ann Jean Hall of Peterborough. They had six children.
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Franz Joseph I – Emperor of Austria

Franz Joseph I - Emperor of Austria

Franz Joseph I – Emperor of Austria

Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was an Emperor of the Austrian Empire and King of Bohemia from December 2, 1848, Apostolic king of Hungary from December 2, 1848 to April 14, 1849 (1st time) and 13 August 1849 (the 2nd time). On March 15, 1867 he became the head of Austro-Hungarian monarchy. He ruled for 68 years.
He was the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl and Princess Sophie of Bavaria. During the Austrian revolution of 1848 his uncle abdicated, and his father refused the inheritance rights in favor of his son and 18-year-old Franz Joseph I became the head of a multinational power of the Habsburgs. Franz Joseph I was well-read man and spoke Latin, English, French, Italian, Polish and Czech. Emperor patronized geographical research, supported the development of the industry.
In 1854 Franz Joseph married Bavarian princess Elisabeth, known in the family circle as the Sisi. She didn’t get on well with Franz Joseph’s mother Archduchess Sophia of Bavaria. As a result she had nervous breakdown. Since the 1860s the Empress spent her time traveling, rarely met with her husband.
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Charles Manson – leader of Manson Family

Charles Manson

Charles Manson

Charles Manson is an American musician, the leader of the Manson Family. Manson is a hardened recidivist criminal.
Charles Mills Manson was born on November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother, Kathleen Maddox (1918-1973), was only 16 years old. Cincinnati was not her native city; she fled there from Ashland, Kentucky. At birth, he was named “no name Maddox”, but a week later he received the name – Charles Mills Maddox. Shortly after his birth, Kathleen married William Manson. His biological father, presumably, was Colonel Scott Walker (May 11, 1910 – December 30, 1954). When Charlie was six years old, Kathleen and her brother was sentenced to five years for armed robbery. The boy was forced to live with relatives.
In 1942, Kathleen was released. The moment when she hugged him at their first meeting after prison Charles later called the only happy memory from childhood. He briefly lived with his mother, and then Kathleen gave the boy to an orphanage. The following years he was in institutional care for boys.
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