The 1790s was a pretty significant time for both Europe and Africa — for better or worse, it was the time that Europe was experiencing a surge in economy and what you might call “swelling of the collective ego,” and people began to realize that the continent of Africa existed, and they didn’t know anything… Continue reading

Superstar singer-songwriters aren’t hard to find nowadays, from Taylor Swift to Bob Dylan to who knows how many others. But is this just a modern phenomenon? Probably not. Nicholas Lanier, who was born (or at least baptised) September 10, 1588, may have been the first. His family had come from France, escaping persecution because they… Continue reading

We know him in English as Leo Tolstoy, but he would have been more familiar with “Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. He was born September 9, 1828 in Russia, into an aristocratic family (hence the title “Count”). He’s regarded as one of the greatest writers — not just from Russia, and not just from the 1800s… Continue reading

Have you ever noticed that automobiles, which at this point are very well understood technology, are manufactured by relatively few companies? Not only that, but they’re based in relatively few nations. There are American, Japanese, German, Italian, Chinese, and Indian cars, but why, for instance, aren’t there any Canadian automobile companies? The answer is that… Continue reading

In centuries past, when Europeans began to emerge from a long period of (self-imposed) ignorance and a few thought leaders started to report findings based on actual observations and experiments rather than religious dogma, church officials took a dim view of the whole thing. Whether because they enjoyed the positions of power they had, or… Continue reading

Until I discovered that Jessie Willcox Smith was born September 6, 1863, I had never heard of the “Golden Age of American illustration.” It happened between about 1880 and about 1920, when printing went through a period of technological advancement pretty much like what happened with personal computing a century later. Mass production of paper… Continue reading

It’s hard to really grasp how utterly different everything was in the Europe of five centuries ago. One reason it’s hard to grasp is that we just don’t know that much about it. But one of the things we do know a bit about is the life of Maria of Jever, who was born September… Continue reading

In the western world we learn a lot about ancient geniuses like Socrates, Plato, and I’m sure you can add more names to that list. But have you heard of al-Biruni? He was the equal of any of them, but lived in a different part of the world, so he’s not included in our educational… Continue reading

The 19th Century wasn’t just a stodgy, old-fashioned century eagerly awaiting the technological hellscape of the 20th Century. Among other things it was a time of social and cultural experimentation when a lot of new and different ideas were tried. John Humphrey Noyes, who was born September 3, 1811, was one of the pioneers.  Noyes… Continue reading

Sometimes running away to join the circus can provide a pretty good foundation. Guy Laliberté was born September 2 in Quebec, in 1959. When he was a boy, his parents took him to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which turned out to be a big event for him. He liked it so… Continue reading