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The Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II is often referred to as Rameses the Great. He fully lived up to the "Great" part. His reign lasted for 67 years, the second longest in Egypt's 3,000-year history. He had dozens of wives and more than 100 children, outliving many of them. He was a military leader who expanded the borders of his country. That resulted in decades of peace and prosperity for his people. He ordered huge statues of himself to be erected all...
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To some people, Genghis Khan was a very evil man. He reportedly killed millions of people, most of them in cold blood. To others, he was the man who established an era of peace and prosperity. This achievement allowed the free exchange of ideas and new inventions between Asia and Europe. One thing is certain. According to the results of a newspaper poll, he was the Man of the Millennium. That means he was the most important human being to live between...
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Moses is probably the most important figure in the Old Testament of the Bible. Born into a Hebrew family, he was rescued from a cruel death and raised in the court of the Pharaoh. But after killing an Egyptian, he fled into the desert. Many years later, God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. He ordered Moses to go back to Egypt and lead the Hebrews out of bondage and into the Promised Land. It wasn't easy. The Hebrews spent many years...
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Until she was thirteen, Joan of Arc led a normal life. Then she began hearing voices. She believed these voices spoke for God. At first, they told her to be a good girl. A few years later, they told her that her destiny was to save France from its English invaders. Joan s inspirational leadership helped the French to defeat the English at the city of Orleans. Soon afterward, she persuaded the crown prince Charles to become King of France. A few months...
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Julius Caesar is one of the most famous figures in ancient Rome. He was born into a turbulent era, when different factions were trying to control the government. He survived and began a steady rise in importance. He became a very successful military commander who added more than 200,000 square miles to the territories under Rome s control. But his triumphs created powerful enemies in Rome. They wanted to strip him of his power. He defeated those enemies...
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Greek soldiers defeated numerically superior Persian armies in several battles near the beginning of the fifth century BCE. That set the stage for what is known as the Golden Age of Greece, several decades of almost unparalleled accomplishments in art, politics, and civil affairs. The leader during this inspired era was a citizen of Athens named Pericles. He led many important political changes in the city. He was also largely responsible for the...
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The Roman emperor Nero is one of the most notorious figures in history. He is most famous for fiddling while Rome burned, then blaming Christians for setting the fire and beginning a series of persecutions against them. He even ordered the murder of his own mother. Find out why the Romans declared him a public enemy, and what happened when he tried to run away.
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Many people believed that Hungarian-born Franz Liszt was the greatest piano player of all time. Certainly, he was the first musical superstar. During an eight-year concert tour in the 1840s, he revolutionized the way that pianists performed in public. He had several love affairs before taking Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. One of the most versatile figures in music history, he was also a composer, concert promoter, and conductor. He was a very...
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French composer Hector Berlioz believed in love at first sight. When he was 23, he attended a performance of Shakespeare s play Hamlet and fell head over heels in love with Harriet Smithson, an English actress who had a leading role. Harriet didn't show any interest in him. She ignored his letters. When he tried to meet her backstage, she ordered the guard to throw him out.
Berlioz was hurt and angry. He wanted revenge. He got it by murdering Harriet...
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The ancient Greek writer Herodotus is known as the father of history. He provides most of what is known about one of the most important periods in world history. It began in 490 BCE. An invading Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Marathon. It concluded just over ten years later with Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea. The triumph allowed the Greeks to develop ideas and institutions in politics, economics, science, and even sports. These...
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Nineteenth century German composer Richard Wagner s Ring of the Nibelung consists of four separate operas. Also known as the Ring Cycle, it was the crowning point of Wagner s career. Wagner was somewhat of a late bloomer in music. His first major composition was performed when he was nearly 30, and the Ring Cycle premiered when he was 53. While Wagner was among the world's greatest composers, he was not a particularly good person. He didn't repay...
12) Vincent van Gogh
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A biographical profile of nineteenth century Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh discussing his early struggles his bouts of depression his development as an artist and his posthumous fame. Includes a chronology as well as essays on artists and topics contemporary to Van Gogh.
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Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a family that lived in extreme poverty. Yet by the time of his death he had become one of the most financially successful classical music composers who ever lived. It wasn't easy. His family had to move several times while Hannes (as he was nicknamed) was still a boy. He had to go to work when he was just 13, playing the piano in rough waterfront taverns in Hamburg. Often he wouldn't come home until...
14) Paul Revere
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Paul Revere was an expert silversmith. He became one of America's first industrialists. He was active in the movement that led to American independence.
Yet Paul Revere's fame rests almost entirely on the few hours that he sped through the Massachusetts countryside in the early morning of April 19, 1775. He was warning the inhabitants that the British regulars were on their way. It marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
Few people outside...
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Ferdinand Magellan made one of the most famous ocean voyages of all time. He left Spain in 1519 with five ships. He was trying to find a quicker route to the Spice Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Along the way, he encountered many problems. Many of his men turned against him. He ran into heavy storms. Food and fresh water were often in short supply. But he kept going-until he was killed in battle. A year later, one of his ships returned to Spain. It...
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For centuries, ordinary Russians lived under the absolute power of the czars, the country's hereditary rulers. For many, such a life involved few rights and grinding poverty. The Russian people increasingly wanted a greater voice in the way they were governed and a higher standard of living. These desires put pressure on the government of the czars. The civil unrest finally came to a head in 1917. The last czar, Nicholas II, was overthrown in what...
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Many scholars regard Plato as the greatest philosopher of all time. Yet he was much more than a man with his head in the clouds. Plato grew up in a turbulent era. A violent civil war divided the Greeks. The turbulence carried over into his personal life. His beloved teacher, Socrates, was executed by the city of Athens. From the teachings of Socrates and his own experiences, Plato developed important theories about government, ethics, love, beauty-even...
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For many centuries in ancient history, people believed illnesses were handed down by the gods. In the fifth century BCE, a Greek physician named Hippocrates changed that attitude. He began looking for natural causes of illnesses. Many of his treatment methods seem primitive. For example, he performed brain surgery by drilling into a patient s skull with a sharp piece of wood. There were no anesthetics. It was a very painful procedure. In other ways...
20) Hernando Cortés
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Spanish explorer Hernando Corts is a very controversial figure. To some people, he was heroic. Even though he was greatly outnumbered, he was able to defeat the Aztec Emperor Montezuma and conquer the Aztec empire because of his personal courage and leadership abilities. The Aztec empire was centered in modern-day Mexico. Its religion was based on human sacrifice. Corts replaced it with Christianity.To others, including many Mexicans, he was a villain...
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