Portal:Biography.html |
| | | ca | | | de | | | en | | | es | | | fr | | | it | | | nl | | | no | | | pl | | | pt | | | ru | | | ro | | | fi | | | sv | | | tr | | | vo | | |
| |  |
Culture · Geography · Health · History · Mathematics · Natural sciences · Philosophy · Religion · Society · Technology
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, Brahmo philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose avant-garde works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A celebrated cultural icon of Bengal, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. His home schooling, life in Shelidah, and extensive travels made Tagore an iconoclastic pragmatist; however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused the internationalist Tagore to back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the loss of virtually his entire family and his regrets regarding Bengal's decline, his life's work — Visva-Bharati University — endured. Tagore's major works included Gitanjali and Ghare-Baire, while his verse, short stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation — received worldwide acclaim. (read more...)
McCoy Tyner (born December 11, 1938) is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet, playing with Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. His brother, Jarvis Tyner, was the Communist Party USA vice-presidential candidate in 1976. (read more...)
Photo credit: Gisle Hannemyr
- ... that former Regimental Sergeant Major Harry Lapwood was known as having the loudest voice in the New Zealand House of Representatives?
- ... that in 1951, Bulgarian politician and exile G. M. Dimitrov helped found the first Bulgarian NATO company?
- ... that Edith Killgore Kirkpatrick published a short book of favorite songs titled Louisiana Let's Sing in honor of her husband Claude's unsuccessful candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in 1963?
- ... that canal engineer Hugh Henshall was both pupil of and brother-in-law to James Brindley, the famous canal architect of the Industrial Revolution?
- ... that it took Peter Steinfeld six and a half weeks to write the opening eleven pages of his first screenplay, Drowning Mona?
List of projects that involve biography articles:
See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)
"History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth."
Interviewed by George Plimpton in The Paris Review, Winter 1986
- Write
- Review
Births
- 1592 - Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1666)
- 1779 - Zebulon Pike, American explorer (d. 1813) (pictured)
- 1917 - Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)
- 1931 - Robert Duvall, American actor
- 1932 - Umberto Eco, Italian writer
- 1938 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
- 1946 - Diane Keaton, American actress
- 1969 - Marilyn Manson, American singer
Deaths
- 1066 - Edward the Confessor, King Of England
- 1933 - John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., 30th President of the United States (b. 1872)
- 1982 - Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1998 - Sonny Bono, American entertainer and politician (b. 1935)
- Academics • Scientists
- Actors • Artists • Comedians • Dancers • Directors • Musicians • Photographers • Playwrights • Writers
- Astronauts • Aviators • Explorers • Mountain climbers
- Businesspeople • Computer pioneers • Innovators
- Heads of state • Humanitarians • Journalists • Lawyers • Politicians • Warriors
- Sportspeople • Baseball players • Basketball players • Football (soccer) players • Olympians
