It was on this date, January 27, 1756, that Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg. His father, the Catholic musician Leopold Mozart, was a court favorite and professional violinist in Salzburg. His patron encouraged the careers of Leopold’s precocious children, and Wolfgang and his sister “Nannerl” (Maria Anna) both became accomplished pianists […]

It was on this date, January 26, 1564, that Pope Pius IV, in a document called “Benedictus Deus,” ratifying the proceedings of the Council of Trent, instituted the ten rules for suppressing free thought and thereby created the Index of Prohibited Books. There was no real Index until 1564 because literature and literacy were so […]

It was on this date, January 25, 1759, that the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, was born in Alloway, near Ayr. Most of his poems were written in the meter of the popular songs of his day, so Burns could be called a lyricist as well as a poet. At age 21 Burns became […]

It was on this date, January 25, 1874, that British novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham was born in the British Embassy in Paris. His parents died before Maugham was ten. Brought up by a religious aunt and uncle, he got himself into medical school, clerked in the slums of Lambeth, and when his first […]

It was on this date, January 25, 1882, that British novelist Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London. She was the daughter of Julia Jackson Duckworth, a member of the Duckworth publishing family, and Sir Leslie Stephen, the literary critic and founder of the Dictionary of National Biography. Virginia gave little thought to […]

It was on this date, January 24, 76 CE, that the Roman Emperor Hadrian was born in Rome, or perhaps in Spain. From a successful military career, and a quick rise through the political elite of Rome, Hadrian became the adopted son of Emperor Trajan and succeeded him as Emperor. Hadrian mitigated but did not […]

It was on this date, January 24, 1712, that Frederick the Great was born in Berlin. The future Hohenzollern King of Prussia spent his youth under a harsh and pious father, for whom Frederick learned to hide his hatred, and trained for a military career until he saw a chance to escape to England. His […]

It was on this date, January 23, 1295, that Boniface VIII (Benedetto Gaetano) was made Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was born about 1235 in Agnani, Italy, and served the papacy for many years as a canon lawyer. On the death of Nicholas IV, Celestine V, a pious monk, was drafted to be […]

It was on this date, January 23, 1783, that the French novelist known as Stendhal was born Marie-Henri Beyle in Grenoble. He hated the Jesuit education provided by his pious aunt, so Beyle moved to Paris to study and to write. When the French Empire fell in 1814, he moved to Italy, which resulted in […]

It was on this date, January 22, 1561, that English science essayist Francis Bacon was born in London, a contemporary of William Shakespeare in Elizabethan England. Elizabeth did not favor him, but after 1603 James I did. Bacon became Baron Verulam, Viscount St. Albans and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon was a promoter of scientific […]