It was on this date, February 7, 1885, that Nobel-winning American novelist Sinclair Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, a prairie village in Minnesota, the son of a country doctor. As a boy he was interested in all religions, but particularly the Roman Catholic Church, yet he taught Protestant Sunday School as a youth and […]

It was on this date, February 7, 1812, that the greatest novelist in the English language, Charles Dickens, was born in Landport, Hampshire, England. While his father was in Marshalsea debtor’s prison for living beyond his means, Dickens interrupted his education to work in a bootblacking factory. He later completed his education with self-education and […]

It was on this date, February 6, 1564 (by some accounts), that British poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was born in Canterbury, the son of a shoemaker. He nevertheless studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, excelling in the Bible and Reformation theologians as well as philosophy and history. Pausing from his studies to work in […]

It was on this date, February 5, 1840, that English engineer and prolific inventor Sir Hiram Maxim was born in Sangersville, Maine. His first engineering work was in America, and he took out patents for such things as gas appliances and electric lamps. Maxim also invented a pneumatic gun, a smokeless gunpowder, a mousetrap, carbon […]

It was on this date, February 5, 1866, that Scottish anatomist and physical anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith was born in Aberdeen. After earning a Bachelor of Medicine Degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1888, Keith traveled as a physician on a gold mining trip to Siam (now Thailand), where he did his first field […]

It was on this date, February 5, 1962, that the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were in conjunction as viewed from Earth. Sometimes called the Great Aquarian Conjunction, the heavenly bodies were not in a straight line, but only within 16 degrees of each other. They were joined by a solar […]

It was on this date, February 4, 1842, that Danish critic and scholar Georg Brandes was born Georg Morris Cohen Brandes in Copenhagen, to a Jewish middle-class family of non-orthodox leanings. As Brandes recalled, “Neither of my parents was in any way associated with the Jewish religion, and neither of them ever went to the […]

It was on this date, February 3, 1943, that four chaplains aboard the US Army Transport Dorchester, sinking from a German U-Boat attack in the icy North Atlantic, helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out, thereby sacrificing their lives to save the lives of sailors […]

It was on this date, February 2, 1859, that English psychologist and sexologist Havelock Ellis was born Henry Havelock Ellis in Croydon, Surrey. In his youth, he traveled around the world with his father, a sea captain, stopping in Australia, where he worked as a teacher in New South Wales. There he read Life in […]

It was on this date, February 2, 1882, that Irish author James Joyce was born James Augustine Aloysius Joyce in Dublin, the son of a Roman Catholic mother and an underachieving father. James Joyce’s early education was from Irish Jesuits, who (he said) taught him to think straight — but he rejected their religion while […]