Malcolm X was an African American religious and political leader in the 1950s and 1960s.
Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His father was a Baptist minister killed in 1931. Malcolm had a difficult childhood. He was removed from his mother’s care at age six and placed in a foster home. As a young man he moved to New York City and became involved in crime. In 1946 Malcolm was arrested for robbery. When he was in jail he learned of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, an ascetic sect. He joined it in 1952. Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, taught that white men were devils and that complete separation of the races was the only solution to racism in America. Malcolm dropped his last name and replaced it with X to symbolize the identity and history that whites had stripped from blacks during slavery. In contrast to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, advocacy of nonviolence, integration, and inter-racial harmony, Malcolm X utilized fiery rhetoric to launch a fearless assault on America’s racial hypocrisy.
In January 1958, Malcolm married Sister Betty. They had six daughters.
In 1959 Malcolm X went to Africa for the first time, visiting the United Arab Republic (Egypt), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana.
More »

Simon Bolivar was the most influential and well-known leader of the war of the Spanish colonies in America, Venezuela’s national hero. He liberated Venezuela, New Granada (present-day Colombia and Panama), Royal Audiencia of Quito (now Ecuador) from Spanish rule. In 1819-1830 he was a president of Gran Colombia. In 1824 he freed Peru and became the head of Upper Peru (modern day Bolivia, named in his honor). He is known as Liberator.
Simon Jose Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolivar de la Concepcion y Ponte Palacios y Blanco was born on July 24, 1783 in Caracas. He was the son of Juan Vicente Bolivar and Marfa de la Concepcion Palacios y Blanco, one of the most distinguished Creole (American-born Spanish) families in the city of 20,000 inhabitants.
In 1799 Simon was sent to Spain where he studied law. Then he traveled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England and France.
In in May 1802 he married in Madrid and eight months later his wife died.
More »

Frederick Douglass was an American writer, educator, abolitionist, editor, and speaker. He was one of the most famous fighters for the rights of the black population of America, the head of the Negro liberation movement. Douglass was the first African American citizen to hold an important position in the U.S. government. Born a slave, Frederick Douglass became the most prominent African-American voice for abolition in the 19th century.
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (his real name) was born on February 14, 1818 in Talbot County (Maryland). His mother was a slave. He never knew his father, who was a white man. He lived with his grandmother, Betty Bailey. His mother died when Douglass was about seven years old and the boy was sent to Baltimore to serve Hugh and Sophia Auld.
When Douglass was about twelve years old his owner, Sofia Auld, began to teach him the alphabet, despite the fact that the law forbade teaching slaves to read and write.
More »

Pancho Villa was one of the revolutionary generals and leaders of peasant rebels during the Mexican revolution 1910-1917.
Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula (better known as Francisco Villa or Pancho Villa) was born on June 5, 1878 not far from the village of San Juan del Rio, Durango State. The boy early lost his father and was forced to work on the hacienda, but because of the intolerable conditions he tried to escape. Pancho’s younger sister was raped by one of the owners of hacienda. According to his own memoirs, Pancho killed him and was forced to flee to the mountains, where he spent his adolescence. He became a bandit chief and horse trader.
In 1909 Villa met Abraham Gonzalez, a local representative of the liberal presidential candidate Francisco Madero. Gonzalez became the political mentor and friend of Villa.
During the uprising uneducated Villa, who only knew how to read and write, showed himself capable commander. He was able to create a division of well-trained soldiers. After the victory of the rebels Villa stayed in the guerrilla army.
More »

Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese political activist and Marxism-Leninism follower, the founder of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the head of the August Revolution, the first president of North Vietnam, the creator of the Viet Minh and the Viet Cong, philosopher, poet. He was a powerful leader of Vietnam during a troubled period of that country’s history.
Ho Chi Minh (his real name was Nguyen Sinh Cung, also known as Nguyen Tat Thanh and Nguyen Ai Quoc) was born on May 19, 1890 in the village of Kim Lien, province of Nghe An, central Vietnam. His father, supporter of Confucian Patriotic Party, was the most educated man in the village. His mother died at the age of 32 when she gave birth to the fourth child. According to Vietnamese tradition, before entering school, Nguyen Sinh Cung received a second (official or “book”, name) – Nguyen Tat Thanh.
In 1911, Tat Thanh using a false name joined the ship crew as a sailor. 30 years later he returned home. He visited America and Europe. In 1916-1923 he lived in the US, UK and France.
In Paris he took the pseudonym Nguyen Ai Quoc (Nguyen-patriot).
More »

U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third United Nations Secretary-General from 1962 to 1971. He was appointed to the post in November 1962 after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, the previous Secretary-General, in a plane crash in Africa in September 1961. U Thant was the first non-European secretary general of the United Nations.
U Thant was born on January 22, 1909 in Pantanaw, Burma (now called Myanmar). He was born in a family of wealthy landowners and merchants. He was the first of four sons.
He received his secondary education at the local school, and then graduated from the history department of the University of Rangoon. In 1929, young Thant published his first book, Cities and Their Stories, about Athens, Rome, and other great cities of history.
Prior to his diplomatic career, U Thant was a senior lecturer at the National High School in Pantanaw and in 1931 he became its director. At that time, U Thant became friends with future Prime Minister U Nu, and began to write regularly in newspapers and magazines under the pseudonym “Tilaua” and made translations of several books. Before World War II he was a member of the Council of National Education and a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of School Principals.
More »

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand was a French politician and diplomat, who served as Foreign Minister. He served the throne of France from the time of Louis XVI to Louis- Philippe (the last king). He was renowned master of political intrigue. From November 2, 1788 to April 13, 1791 he was a bishop of Autun.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was born on February 2, 1754 in Paris in a noble aristocratic family of Charles Daniel de Talleyrand-Perigord (1734-1788). Charles Maurice enrolled in College d’Harcourt in Paris, later he studied at the Saint-Sulpice Seminary (1770-1773) and at the Sorbonne. In 1779, Talleyrand was ordained to the priesthood.
In 1780 Talleyrand became general agent of the Gallican church at the court. In 1788 Talleyrand became bishop.
On July 14, 1789 he was included in the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly. Talleyrand was involved in the writing of the Declaration of human and civil rights and produce a draft of the Civil Constitution of the clergy.
In 1791, he was defrocked by the Pope for taking part in revolutionary activity.
More »