Ernst Biron was a count, duke of Courland, regent of Russia, imperial favorite. The dark era of foreign dominance is known as Bironovshchina.
Ernst Johann Biron was born on November 23, 1690. He was one of three sons and five daughters.
Ernst rose through court service to Anna Ioanovna in her capacity. He had a great influence on the Empress.
Biron gained status by marriage to Benigna Gotlib Trott von Treyden. The couple had two sons and one daughter.
In 1730 Biron became grand chamberlain and count of the Holy Roman Empire and his wife became lady- in-waiting. His brothers entered the Russian army.
In 1737, with the assistance of Anna Ioanovna, he was elected Duke of Courland. After Anna Ioanovna death on October 17, 1740 Biron became regent for infant Ivan VI.
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Benito Mussolini was an Italian politician and statesman, writer, National fascist party (NFP) leader, the dictator, the leader (Duce), who led Italy as prime minister in 1922-1943. He was the First Marshal of the Empire (30 March 1938). After 1936 his official title was His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Duce of Fascism and the founder of the empire. Mussolini was one of the founders of Italian Fascism. He led Italy into three successive wars, the last of which overturned his regime.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Predappio, Emilia Romagna. His father was a blacksmith and an ardent Socialist, and his mother was a schoolteacher.
In 1900 Mussolini became a member of the Socialist party. In 1901 he took his diploma di maestro and then taught secondary school briefly.
In 1904 Mussolini became engaged in politics. The young man had an amazing oratorical abilities and strong character, which helped him to get to state heights. He attacked clericalism, militarism, and reformism. In each attack he was extremist and violent. His Marxism was greatly influenced by Nietzsche’s reactionary modernism and Social Darwinism, Spengler’s anthropological and historical pessimism, and Sorel’s revolutionary syndicalism.
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Dwight David Eisenhower was an American statesman and military leader, US army General (1944) and the 34th president of the United States (January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961). His two terms in office were a time of peace and prosperity. Eisenhower was the only postwar president who received more positive than negative ratings for his entire time in office.
Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas. He was the third of the seven sons. Eisenhower was called Ike from an early age.
In 1915 Dwight graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1916 he married Mamie Geneva Doud. They had two sons.
During World War I Eisenhower commanded a tank training center. After the war he served in the United States, the Panama Canal Zone, Europe, and the Philippines.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the thirty-second president of the United States, who led the nation out of the Great Depression and later into World War II. Before he died, he established the United Nations. He was the only president elected to the office four times.
Franklin Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 at Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of James and Sara Delano Roosevelt. When Franklin was born, his father was 51 years old and his mother was 28.
At the age of 14 he went to Groton School. He studied in Harvard University where he was an editor of the Harvard newspaper.
Despite his mother’s opposition, Franklin married his cousin Eleanor on March 17, 1905. The couple had six children. In the same year he entered Columbia University Law School. He became a lawyer and entered a clerkship in the Wall Street firm of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn.
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Mao Zedong was a Chinese state and political figure of XX century, the main theoretician of Maoism. Having joined in his youth the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in 1930s Zedong became the leader of the Communist areas in Jiangxi Province. After the Long March he managed to take the leading positions in the CCP. Mao ruled China from 1949 until 1976.
Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in the village of Shaoshan in southeastern China. He was the son of a prosperous farmer from the Hunan Province in central China.
Mao briefly served in the army during the Chinese Revolution (1911-12).
After school he worked as a library assistant at National Beijing University. There he became involved in the May Fourth Movement of 1919.
In July 1921 Mao was one of 12 men who formed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai. He started a communist revolution among peasants in the countryside.
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Samuel Adams was an American statesman and philosopher, politician and writer. He was a leader of the American Revolution. He stirred the colonists against British rule.
Samuel Adams was born on September 27, 1722 in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a brewer. Adams operated his father’s malt house for some time. The second president of the United States, John Adams, was his cousin.
In 1740 Samuel graduated from Harvard College. Soon he entered local politics.
In 1749 he married Elizabeth Checkley. Adams’s wife died in 1757 and in 1764 he married Elizabeth Wells.
In the 1760s Adams led protests against the British. One of the first calls for the unification of the American colonies against the British was a circular letter written by Adams in 1768.
From 1765 to 1774 he served in the Massachusetts legislature.
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Jane Addams was an American social reformer and peace activist who devoted her life to helping the poor. She founded Hull House to serve needy immigrants in Chicago, Illinois.
Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. She was the eighth child in the family. Jane was just two when her mother died, so, the girl and her siblings were brought up by their father. Their father was an idealist and philanthropist, and a state senator of Illinois for 16 years.
In 1882 she graduated from Rockford Female Seminary and then went to Europe. In 1887 she visited Toynbee Hall in England. The reformers tried to improve the lives of workers exploited by the Industrial Revolution.
In 1889 Addams and Ellen Gates Starr rented a big house in Chicago, which was opened to immigrants. The women called their social settlement Hull House. They helped revolutionize social services for the poor and immigrants.
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