It was on this date, December 13, 1797, that one of the greatest poets of the mid 1800s, Heinrich Heine, was born in Düsseldorf. Heine was pushed toward a commercial career, studied at the universities of Bonn (under Schlegel), Berlin (under Hegel) and Göttingen. But though he took a degree in 1825, Heine was more […]

It was on this date, December 12, 1731, that British physiologist, and grandfather of Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin was born in Nottinghamshire. He was educated at Cambridge and Edinburgh. His medical practice became so respected that he was invited, though he declined, to be personal physician to King George III. Erasmus Darwin was also a […]

It was on this date, December 12, 1821, that the French novelist of the Realist school, Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen into a family of doctors. Naturally he began to train for a medical career, but rebelled against that, took up law, failed his exams, and turned to literature. He lived with his mother […]

It was on this date, December 11, 1803, that French Romantic composer Louis Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte St. André, Isère. His father, a well-to-do physician, aimed his son toward a medical career, but his son missed the mark when he taught himself harmony and learned the flute and guitar. Berlioz never studied […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1608, that the second greatest English poet, John Milton, was born in London. Best known for his 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton had turned away from study for the ministry and toward letters. He is known widely as a “great Christian poet,” but his Paradise Lost is […]

It was on this date, December 10, 1198, that the Spanish Arab-Muslim scholar and philosopher known in the West as Averroës died in the Andalusian part of what is now Córdoba, Spain. He was born on an unknown date in 1126 in Córdoba, Al Andalus, the grandson of the chief judge of Cordoba, of a […]

It was on this date, December 10, 1953, that the first issue of Playboy magazine was published, undated, by 27-year-old Chicago-born entrepreneur Hugh Marston Hefner. A former promotional copywriter for Esquire magazine, Hugh Hefner begged, borrowed and invested $7,600 to print his first issue – undated because he wasn’t sure there would be a second […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1790, that rebel publisher and Freethought fighter Richard Carlile was born in Ashburton, Devon, the son of a shoemaker who abandoned the family four years later. He received some education at a Church of England school, then took to work, marrying and starting a family in London. Hard […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1842, that Russian geographer Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Пётр Алексеевич Кропоткин) was born in Moscow into a noble family. As a 15-year-old, he was a page to the Tsar and later served as attaché to the Governor of Siberia. At age 22 Kropotkin was awarded the Gold Medal of […]

It was on this date, December 9, 1953, that American actor John Gavin Malkovich was born in Christopher, Illinois. John Malkovich was educated at Eastern Illinois University and Illinois State University. At age 30 he won an Obie award for an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s play True West, then starred with Dustin Hoffman in […]