History
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On June 12 1964, eight defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment — one of them being Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela, at the Rivonia Trial I am the First Accused. I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and practised as an attorney in Johannesburg for a number of years in partnership with Oliver Tambo. I am a convicted prisoner serving five years for leaving the country without a permit and for inciting people to…
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Anne Frank *VI 12 1929 — The Life You Give
Anne Frank, born Annelies Marie Frank, June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, February/March 1945, is the girl whose diary of her family’s two years in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands became a classic of war literature. Early in the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler, Anne’s father, Otto Frank (1889–1980), a…
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Carl Linnaeus *V 23 1707 — The Life You Give
Carolus Linnaeus, born on May 23, 1707, in Råshult, Småland, Sweden, is the naturalist and explorer who was the first to frame principles for defining natural genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them (binomial nomenclature). Linnaeus was the son of a curate and grew up in Småland, a…
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Bartolomeo Cristofori *V 4 1655 — The Life You Give
Bartolomeo Cristofori, born Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori, May 4, 1655, in Padua, Republic of Venice, Italy, is the harpsichord maker generally credited with the invention of the piano, called in his time gravicembalo col piano e forte, or “harpsichord that plays soft and loud.” The name refers to the piano’s ability to change loudness according…
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Leonardo da Vinci *IV 15 1452 — The Life You Give
Leonardo da Vinci, born April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, near Vinci, Republic of Florence [Italy], is the painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–19) are among the most widely popular…
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Maya Angelou *IV 4 1928 — The Life You Give
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., is the poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural…
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Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *IV 1 1755 — The Life You Give
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, born April 1, 1755, in Belley, France, is the lawyer, politician, and author of the celebrated work on gastronomy, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste). Brillat-Savarin followed the family profession of law. A deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates-General of 1789, he was forced to flee the country during…
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Aretha Franklin *March 25 1942 — The Life You Give
Aretha Franklin, born Aretha Louise Franklin, on March 25 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A., is the singer who defined the golden age of soul music of the 1960s. Franklin’s mother, Barbara, was a gospel singer and pianist. Her father, C.L. Franklin, presided over the New Bethel Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan, and was a minister…
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Leontyne Price *II 10 1927 — The Life You Give
Metropolitan Opera audiences began an extraordinary love affair with American soprano Leontyne Price immediately upon her debut on January 27, 1961. She was by then an internationally heralded singer and an experienced, refined musician and artist. But more than anything, it was the sheer beauty of her voice that excited her listeners. What they heard…
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Rosa Parks *II 4 1913 — The Life You Give
Rosa Parks, born Rosa Louise McCauley, on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.A., is the civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. Born to parents James…
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improbable
so it seems to look onto this quiet horizon quiet sunny and realize that until 25 years ago this was a war zone
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Louis Braille *I 4 1809 — The Life You Give
Louis Braille, born January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, near Paris, France, is the educator who developed a system of printing and writing, called Braille, that is extensively used by the blind. Braille was himself blinded at the age of three in an accident that occurred while he was playing with tools in his father’s harness…
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Nostradamus *XII 14 1503 — The Life You Give
Nostradamus, born Michel de Notredame, on December 14 1503, in Saint-Rémy, France, was an astrologer and physician, the most widely read seer of the Renaissance. Nostradamus began his medical practice in Agen, sometime in the 1530s, despite not only never having taken a medical degree but also apparently having been expelled from medical school. In…
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Compay Segundo *XI 18 1907 — The Life You Give / La Vida Que Das
The Aristipposian Poet celebrates the life and music of Compay Segundo November 18 at 3 pm EST on Clubhouse Lea la biografía en Castellano al fondo Compay Segundo was born Máximo Francisco Repilado Muñoz Telles on November 18, 1907, in Siboney, Cuba. He was a reputed Trova guitarist, singer, and composer of Cuba. Compay Segundo…
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Auguste Rodin *XI 12 1840 — The Life You Give
Auguste Rodin, born November 12, 1840, in Paris, France, is the sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, considered by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. His The Gates of Hell, commissioned in 1880 for the future Museum of the Decorative Arts in Paris, remained unfinished at his death…
Sila Blume 