Read about Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza, Andrew Carnegie, the First Thanksgiving, Chinese-American martial artist Bruce Lee, Randy Newman, Louis XVI recognizes Protestants, Mark Twain, and more …

Read about “Frailty” and doing what God commands, English experimental physicist Patrick Blackett, American film actress and director Jodie Foster, English Romantic poet Thomas Chatterton, Voltaire, American comedian Rodney Dangerfield, American poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, and more …

Read about actor Richard Burton, science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr, feminist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton, feminist and atheist activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, French painter Claude Monet, German philosopher and theologian Albert the Great, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and more …

It was on this date, November 13, 1969, that Somali-born American feminist and atheist activist, writer and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born Ayaan Hirsi Magan in Mogadishu, Somalia. While her father, a leading figure in the Somalian Revolution, was in prison, Ayann’s grandmother had the 5-year-old young girl’s genitals ritually cut off in what […]

Read about Henry VIII joining church and state, American comedian Kathy Griffin, historian Will Durant, American film director Mike Nichols, French nuclear physicist Marie Curie, French statesman Émile Combes separating church and state, American science author Carl Sagan, and more …

It was on this date, November 4, 1960, that American comedian and actress Kathy Griffin was born Kathleen Mary Griffin in Oak Park, Illinois. At about age 18, she moved to Los Angeles to study drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, becoming a member of The Groundlings improvisational comedy troupe like her […]

Read about the devil’s violinist Niccolò Paganini, the late conversion of Constantine the Great, the religious tolerance of Cyrus the Great, the Deism of John Adams, Martin Luther’s Reformation, the free speech of pornographer Larry Flynt, Annie Laurie Gaylor’s fight for freedom from religion, and more …

Read about philosopher John Dewey, Alfred Nobel and his prize, a disappointing end of the world, an unbelievable beginning of the world, Scottish philosopher James Mackintosh, Geoffrey “Canterbury Tales” Chaucer, Seth “Ted” MacFarlane, and more …

Read about comic Lenny Bruce, Moonies over America, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, the consecration of Chartres Cathedral, feminist and atheist Rebecca Watson, writer Leigh Hunt, and more …

It was on this date, October 18, 1980, that American blogger and podcast host Rebecca Watson was born. Sometimes known as “The Skepchick,” Watson is the founder of the “Skepchick” blog and, from 2006, co-hosts “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” podcast. Watson grew up in New Jersey and earned a Bachelor of Science degree […]