Jane Addams (1860) It was on this date, September 6, 1860, that American social reformer Jane Addams, was born in Cedarville, Illinois. Addams graduated valedictorian from the Rockford Female Seminary in 1881. She met and became life-long friends with Ellen Gates Starr,* with whom she traveled in Europe from 1883-1885. There they studied social conditions. […]

Richard Wright (1908) It was on this date, September 4, 1908, that African-American writer Richard Wright was born outside Natchez, Mississippi, the son of an illiterate sharecropper father and a well-educated school teacher mother. Early on, Wright developed a fascination with books – a love of learning that only deepened his dissatisfaction with life as […]

Gregory the Great (Gregory I) Becomes Pope (590) How Great Was He? It was on this date, September 3, 590, that the son of a wealthy patrician named Gordianus, whose name history does not recall, was made Pope in the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name Gregory and is remembered as Pope St. Gregory […]

“A woman might piss it out.”

Auguste Forel (1848) It was on this date, September 1, 1848, that Swiss physiologist Auguste-Henri Forel was born in La Gracieuse, near Morges, Switzerland. He was fascinated as a boy with insects of all kinds, but was persuaded to study medicine at the University of Zürich, 1866-1871. In spite of that, he published papers on […]

Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) It was on this date, September 1, 1938, that Harvard law professor and civil liberties lawyer Alan Morton Dershowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. First in his class at Yale Law, he was appointed to the Harvard Law faculty at age 25 and became the youngest full professor in the […]

Théophile Gautier (1811) On this date, August 31, 1811, French poet and journalist Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was born in Tarbes, in the southwestern region of France. Although he was inclined to paint, he was influenced by Victor Hugo to write poetry and got a job at the Chronique de Paris with help from Honoré […]

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821) It was on this date, August 31, 1821, that German physician and physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was born in Potsdam, Prussia, in what is now Germany. The son of a classics teacher of small means, Hermann was persuaded to set aside his love of natural science in favor of […]

Jacques-Louis David (1748) On this date, August 30, 1748, that the most important European painter of the French Revolutionary period, from 1785-1815, Jacques-Louis David, was born into the Parisian merchant class. David's father must have been both prideful and foolish, because he died in a duel when his son was 10. Educated at the Académie […]

Warren Buffett (1930) It was on this date, August 30, 1930, that Warren Buffett, known as "the Oracle of Omaha," was born in Omaha, Nebraska. As Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett became perhaps the greatest investor of all time – reportedly worth almost $43 billion – second in wealth only to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. […]