Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France in 1822, and by the age of 25, he had earned bachelor of arts and science degrees, as well as a doctorate in science from Paris’ École Normale. Within a year, he joined the faculty at the University of Strasbourg as a chemistry professor. In 1854, he joined the University of Lille as […]
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Amongst the pantheon of notable public television personalities, Bob Ross easily ranks alongside the likes of Mr Rogers and Elmo as a star who is almost universally loved and respected by the public. Despite being famous the world over for his balmy, soothing demeanour, his show The Joy of Painting and his amazing ‘fro, we know surprisingly little about arguably one of the best […]
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History is littered with individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, but it could be argued that few have made a last stand as explosive and witty as the Dutch Naval hero, Jan van Speijk. Born in 1802 on January 31st in the city of Amsterdam, Jan van Speijk (or Speyk, if you prefer), was orphaned just weeks after being […]
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At the close of the 19th century, a young immigrant arrived in New York’s Chinatown. Within a year, Sai Wing Mock, better known as Mock Duck, had taken control of one of the neighborhood’s principal criminal syndicates, the Hip Sing Tong. Immediately challenging the power of rival On Leong Tong, in 1900, Mock Duck started a war between the gangs […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Sherlock Holmes, Jean Valjean, and the FBI can all trace their roots back to one Frenchman who turned a life of crime into a life of fighting crime. SPLIT PERSONALITY In 1809 a 34-year-old petty criminal named Eugène François Vidocq (pronounced vee-DOCK) was doing yet another stint in a French […]
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In November of 1557, the Mapuche warrior, Galvarino, led a division of his fellow soldiers in a desperate battle against Spanish colonial forces in the Araucania in central Chile. Remarkably, since he no longer had hands, Galvarino rushed headlong into the fray armed only with his teeth and a knife strapped to each wrist. The Spanish campaign to conquer Chile […]
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One of only two highwaymen sufficiently dashing to have earned a place in Lord Macaulay’s famous History of England, in the summer of 1676, John “Swift Nick” Nevison famously galloped from Kent to York, a journey of about 200 miles, in a single, very long day- all to create an alibi. Like much of his life, little is definitively known […]
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Over a 20-year career in post-Civil War New York, Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum is estimated to have fenced as much as $10 million in stolen property (around a quarter of a billion dollars when adjusted for inflation). Sitting at the center of a vast crime web the spanned large areas of the United States, Ma Mandelbaum was then known as “the […]
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Jack Kirby was one of the principle minds and artists behind some of the best known comic characters in history, including, among many others, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, X-Men, and Captain America. Few people realise, though, that like his most patriotic creation, Kirby spent a good portion of WW2 fighting the Nazis as well, though never managing to duplicate […]
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Over here in Blighty (the UK), Margaret Thatcher is an incredibly polarizing figure in British politics, which is why today instead of talking about any of that, I’m going to tell you about a somewhat lesser known facet of the “Iron Lady”. As you may or may not know, the Prime Minister of England resides at number 10 Downing Street […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Once there was a man, a biographer noted, “more interested in words than people.” That turned out to be a great thing for BRI writers and other wordsmiths. It gave us a book that is of great use, utility, value, help, worth, and functionality. The List Maker Peter Mark Roget […]
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Jeremy Bentham was born on February 15, 1748 in London, England. His father, a lawyer, believed Bentham would follow in his footsteps and enter the law profession. Due to his son’s very apparent intelligence, being something of an intellectual prodigy, he even had wild ambitions for Jeremy to ascend to the position of Lord Chancellor of England. And, indeed, Young Jeremy […]
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Captain Robert Campbell began his British Army career in 1903 at the age of 18. Shortly after WWI started, in July of 1914 Campbell and the soldiers he was leading, the First Battalion East Surrey Regiment, were sent to Mons-Condé canal in the north west of France. One week later, after an attack by German forces, Captain Campbell was seriously […]
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Hatshepsut was the eldest of two daughters born to Egyptian King Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose Nefertari. Her younger sister died in infancy, meaning twelve year old Hatshepsut was Thutmose I’s only surviving child from his marriage to the queen. However Thutmose I, like other Egyptian pharaohs, maintained secondary wives also known as harem wives. Any sons born from those […]
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“We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” This is the opening line from the highly acclaimed roman à clef Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream written by Hunter S. Thompson, one of America’s most countercultural and anti-authoritarian writers. The […]
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Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta is arguably one of the most famous men in the history of Mexico and yet, rather paradoxically, there are few people who know his name and even fewer who know his face. This is because for almost five decades Huerta was known to the public only as a silver faced luchadore called El Santo. And in that time, […]
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As you may know, naturally created diamonds are formed from carbon subjected to extreme pressure (725,000 pounds per square inch or so) and heat (1,650 to 2,370 °F) some 90-120 miles down. The world’s natural diamond supply (that has come to the surface) was formed in this way some 1-3 billion years ago. However, scientists only realized that diamonds are […]
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For 17 days in the summer of 1982, Barry Prudom was the most wanted man in all of England. Barry’s uncanny ability to blend into the woods of North Yorkshire and evade capture, even when hundreds of polices officers were searching for him in a relatively small area, earned him the nickname “The Phantom of the Forest”. According to the British […]
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