Augustus was the first emperor of Rome. His reign became known as the Augustan Age. The Roman world entered an era of wealth, peace, and cultural achievement. He headed the empire for 40 years.
Augustus was born on September 23, 63 BC. His original name was Gaius Octavius. His father held several political offices and had earned a fine reputation. He died when Octavius was 4 years old. His mother, Atia, was Julius Caesar’s niece. The Roman leader, Julius Caesar, before his death in 44 BC had chosen him to be the next leader. From then on he was called Octavian. Octavian’s enemy in his rise to power was Mark Antony.
In 32 Octavian declared war against Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Octavian won a decisive naval victory, which left him master of the entire Roman world. The following year Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide, and Octavian annexed Egypt to Rome. According to historians, Octavian’s victory over Antony marked the beginning of the Roman Empire.
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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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Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States, who served two terms, from 1993 to 2001. His wife, Hillary Clinton was the First Lady during that time, and was a Democratic Party candidate in the 2008 presidential elections.
William Jefferson Blythe III was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. His father died in an automobile accident before Bill was born. His mother, Virginia Dell Blythe, later married Roger Clinton. At the age of 14 Bill adopted his stepfather’s surname. At school, Clinton was one of the best students and, in addition, he was a leader of the jazz band, where he played the saxophone. In July 1963 Bill as a member of the delegation of the National Youth Organization, took part in a meeting with John F. Kennedy.
In 1968 Bill graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Then he attended Oxford University in England. In 1973 he graduated from Yale University. On October 11, 1975 Clinton married Hillary Rodham, a fellow graduate of Yale Law School. Hillary Clinton was the first wife of a sitting president to be elected to public office. Their only child, Chelsea, was born on February 27, 1980. In July 2010 Chelsea Clinton married Marc Mezvinsky. Their daughter Charlotte was born on September 26, 2014.
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Alexander II was an emperor of Russia from 1855 to 1881. He is called the ‘‘czar liberator’’ because he emancipated the serfs in 1861.
Alexander Nicholayevich Romanov was born on April 17, 1818 in Moscow. He was the eldest son of Nicholas I. The boy’s principal tutor was Russian poet and courtier, Vasili Zhukovski. Alexander spoke four foreign languages – German, French, English, and Polish.
Alexander traveled extensively in Russia and abroad from an early age. In 1837 Alexander became the first emperor to visit Siberia.
In 1838 Alexander fell in love with a princess from the small German state of Hesse-Darmstadt during his trip to Europe. In April 1841 Alexander married Maria Alexandrovna. They had eight children, two of whom died young.
From 1840 Alexander was a member of the state council and from 1842 of the committee of the ministers.
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Benjamin Harrison was the twenty-third president of the United States.
Benjamin Harrison was born on August 20, 1833 in North Bend, Ohio. He was the second of nine children. His father was a congressman and a great-grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Harrison attended Farmers’ College near Cincinnati and in 1852 he graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
In 1853 Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott, daughter of the president of a woman’s college in Oxford. They had two children.
In 1857 he was city attorney of Indianapolis. The following year he became a secretary of the Republican State Central Committee.
Harrison was a commander of the Seventieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War and rose to the rank of brigadier general. After the war he was a lawyer.
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Millard Fillmore became the 13th president of the United States after the death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850.
Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800 in Locke Township, New York in a poor family. Fillmore was largely self-educated and self-made. At the age of 15 he worked in a cloth factory. Fillmore moved to Buffalo after attending an academy at New Hope and studying law briefly under a local judge. In 1823 Millard became a lawyer.
In 1826 Fillmore married Abigail Powers, the daughter of a clergyman. They had two children. Abigail died in March 1853.
In 1833, Fillmore entered the House of Representatives as a member of the Anti-Masonic-National Republican coalition. A year later he joined political party the Whigs.
In the 1830s and 1840s he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1846 he was elected comptroller of New York State.
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John Adams was the first vice president and the second president of the United States. He fought for independence from Great Britain and played a major role in the colonial movement.
John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. His father was a farmer and a community leader. John was the eldest child in the family and had two brothers.
In 1755 Adams graduated from Harvard College and became a lawyer. For about a year he taught school in Worcester.
In 1758 Adams was admitted to the Boston bar.
In 1764 Adams married Abigail Smith who made a major contribution to his public career. They had five children.
In 1768 Adams was elected representative from Boston to the Massachusetts Legislature.
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