Bonnie and Clyde – adventurers or killers?

Their names have become household name, and the time has smoothed the events of previous years. And now they are called extraordinary individuals who defied society.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow traveled the southern states of the USA in the early 1930s. And they were not like the characters of Hollywood film 1967 with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the lead roles.
Bonnie Parker was born on October 1, 1910 in the Texas town of Rowena and was the middle of three daughters. In 1914 her father died and her mother took children and moved to the Dallas suburb. At school Bonnie was considered one of the best students. She enthusiastically read magazine stories about the adventures, wrote poems and was fond of photography. Teachers and parents believed that Bonnie had a chance to become successful in the future. But … six days before her 16th anniversary Bonnie left school and married her classmate Roy Thornton. In 1929 he was jailed for robbery, and Bonnie would never see her husband again. Bonnie was only 19 years old. She dreamed of a life full of events and adventures.
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Giacomo Casanova – Italian adventurer

There were a lot of adventurers in France of the XVIII century. Many magicians, alchemists, astrologers, soothsayers, sorcerers, healers appeared. Franz Mesmer, the discoverer of “animal magnetism”, had a great popularity. But Casanova was the most famous of them. He gained fame as a healer: he helped La Tour D’Auvergne to get rid of aches, removed acne from Duchess of Chartres’ beautiful skin, and managed to sell the Prince of Courland recipe for … gold! They say Casanova arranged sessions of clairvoyance for the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst – brilliant Catherine II.
Like all the adventurers of the XVIII century, Casanova was a fine fencer and a good shooter, but his main weapon was the word. He was a well-read man, knew ancient, Italian, and French literature, and was a connoisseur of art and theater.
Giacomo Jacopo Girolamo Casanova de Seinglat, the first child of an actor and actress, was born in 1725 in Venice.
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Philippe Nizier – genius doctor or charlatan?

He was one of the most famous magicians of all time, the adviser of the Russian tsar, who treated the most distinguished people of Europe. He predicted the birth of the heir to Nicholas II and his own death.
Philippe Nizier was born in 1849. He was considered a genius from an early age, some people even proclaimed him returned Jesus. And after his death in 1905 he became known as maestro Philippe. He never studied anything and said he received a gift from God: “I was six years old, when I gained the ability to heal.” The boy was obviously gifted, but none of the adults around him advised him to get the medical profession. At the age of fourteen he became a butcher’s apprentice in Lyon where he demonstrated his healing ability for the first time. Later he began healing people. However, he didn’t believe in medicine. Nizier was closer to the shamans. His methods of treatment were not traditional, therefore aroused the protests of scientists and doctors, envy colleagues who unsuccessfully treated serious illnesses.
Some people believed he was only a hypnotist, able to convince the patient that the pain had gone. But it wasn’t so. He helped many people and even saved from amputation – when the surgeons claimed that gangrene had begun! How could it be? Probably with the help of the Lord and talent to diagnosis and treatment. But soon there were rumors that he was a true charlatan and practiced occult medicine. He felt uncomfortable in Lyon. He had to look for a new home…
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Adolf Hitler – German dictator

Adolf Hitler was a German dictator who led the extreme nationalist and racist Nazi party and served as chancellor-president of Germany from 1933 to 1945.
Adolf Schicklgruber was born on April 20, 1889, in the small Austrian town of Braunau. His father, Alois, was a customs official, and his mother, Klara, was a gentlewoman.
As a teenager Adolf was rebellious and in 1905 he left formal education. Then there were long years of dilettante, aimless existence, reading, painting, wandering in the woods, and dreaming of becoming a famous artist.
After the death of his mother in 1907, he moved to Vienna in an attempt to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts. His failure led him into a period of deep depression and seclusion. Later he returned to Munich.
When World War I began in 1914, he joined the German army.
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Pharaoh Tutankhamen

Tutankhamen was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt in the 1300s BC. He was the twelfth King of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty. Today he is famous because of the many treasures found inside his tomb in the 20th century.
He became pharaoh when he was still a child and died at about age 18. There are two most popular theories about his death. According to one version he was killed and according to another he broke his leg, and the infection got into the wound led to the death.
It is believed that the young Pharaoh’s father was Akhenaton, who was married to Nefertiti. Akhenaton also had wife Kira who supposedly gave birth to Tutankhamen.
Tutankhamen married one of the six daughters of Akhenaton and Nefertiti. By the way, the real name of Akhenaton was Amenhotep IV.
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Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier

On June 5, 1783 there were a lot of people in the central square of a small French town. They heard that Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Etienne, owners of a paper factory, decided to surprise the world – they made a balloon and wanted to run it into the sky. Nobody believed it. People said they were madmen, because only birds could fly.
A special platform was erected in the center of the town square and they made a fire. Eight volunteers brought a giant bag made of fabric, which was placed over the fire. Suddenly the bag took the form of a giant balloon, hovering over the fire. The balloon began rising higher. People could not believe their eyes. Human creation rose above the flying birds. The wind carried it away, and the balloon began falling. Joseph and Etienne were happy, they managed to lift the balloon in the air and it landed safely. Brothers became the first people in the world to launch artificial air flying machine which flew several hundred meters. The flight lasted more than ten minutes. The successful experience was reported to the king Louis XVI. The king invited the brothers to Paris to demonstrate their flying machine. At the same time, he demanded the Academy of Sciences to study the issue of aeronautics and explain the magic of the lift. The arrival of the brothers to Paris delayed. They began to build another balloon with a basket for the passengers. They wanted to surprise not only the audience, but the king.
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Steve Biko – father of the Black Consciousness movement

Steve Biko was a well-known fighter for the rights of black South Africans. He is considered the founder of the Black Consciousness movement.
Stephen Bantu Biko was born on December 18, 1946 in King William’s Town, South Africa into an ordinary family. He was the third of four children.
Since childhood, Steve was interested in politics. For political reasons he was expelled from the prestigious Lovedale School in Alice (South Africa), and then continued his studies in the more liberal Roman Catholic St. Francis College.
In 1966 he entered the Medical Faculty of the University of Natal in Durban. There he met his future friend and mentor Joshua Mboya Dada. Biko became a member of National Union of South African Students.
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