Freethought Almanac

Lighting a candle in toxic air.
2014-08-12
August 12: George Soros (1930)

It was on this date, August 12, 1930, that Hungarian-born American multi-billionaire, business magnate, investor and philanthropist George Soros was born Schwartz György in Budapest. His family name was changed in 1936 from Schwartz to Soros because of systemic anti-Semitism. In 1947, Soros emigrated from Hungary to England. Soros earned a BSc in philosophy in […]

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2014-07-06
July 6: Peter Singer (1946)

It was on this date, July 6, 1946, that Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer was born Peter Albert David Singer in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The product of Viennese Jewish parents who emigrated after Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany, three of his four grandparents were killed or disappeared by the Nazis. Singer is currently the Ira […]

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2014-06-14
June 14: Che Guevara (1928)

It was on this date, June 14, 1928, that Argentine-born Marxist revolutionist, physician and military leader Che Guevara was born Ernesto Guevara (Lynch) in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. He grew up in a family which already had leftist leanings, but which also valued education: Guevara’s reading list not only included Karl Marx but William Faulkner, […]

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2014-05-20
May 20: John Stuart Mill

Mill said he believed in a "probable God," or a "limited liability God," but disbelieved in miracles and immortality.

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2014-05-07
May 7: David Hume

Boswell reported that whenever Hume “heard a man was religious, he concluded that he was a rascal.”

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2014-01-08
January 8: Stephen Hawking (1942)

It was on this date, January 8, 1942, that English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author of A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford. He entered Oxford University in 1959, showing an interest in classical music and science fiction as well as physics and cosmology. With a reputation as something of a […]

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2013-12-07
December 7: Noam Chomsky (1928)

It was on this date, December 7, 1928, that American linguist, logician, political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky was born Avram Noam Chomsky into an affluent Jewish family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family was highly educated and instilled in Chomsky a love of learning that took him to the University of Pennsylvania at age 16. […]

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2013-11-27
November 27: Bruce Lee (1940)

It was on this date, November 27, 1940, that Chinese-American martial artist, actor and creator of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee (李小龍) was born Lee Jun-fan (李振藩) in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the son of a Chinese opera star father and a half-Caucasian mother. Lee’s family returned to their home in Hong Kong after his birth, […]

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2013-11-23
November 23: Jennifer Michael Hecht (1965)

It was on this date, November 23, 1965, that American poet, historian, philosopher, and author Jennifer Michael Hecht was born on Long Island, in New York. By 1995 she had earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Columbia University, where she now teaches poetry in the Graduate Writing Program, while also teaching poetry […]

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2013-09-08
September 8: Michael Shermer (1954)

It was on this date, September 8, 1954, that American science writer and science historian Michael Shermer was born Michael Brant Shermer in Glendale, California. Shermer earned a B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, an M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate […]

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Ronald Bruce Meyer

Our Fearless Leader.


Daily Almanac

August 27: Georg W. F. Hegel

Georg W. F. Hegel (1770) It was on this date, August 27, 1770, that the great the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart. After studying theology at the University of Tübingen, he tutored at Bern and Frankfurt, then lectured at the University of Jena (1801-06), before becoming headmaster of a Nuremberg […]



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