It was on this date, December 2, 1547, that the Spanish conquistador of Mexico, during the time of Aztec King Montezuma II (1466-1520), Hernando Cortes (Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro), died peacefully on a lavish estate near Seville. About a generation after Columbus discovered the Americas as a good source of Christian converts, Cortes […]

It was on this date, December 1, 1935 that American comedian and film director Woody Allen was born Allen Stuart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, New York. According to his official biography, he was a humorist from age 15, when he started selling one-liners. He graduated high school and spent one semester at New York University before […]

It was on this date, November 30, 1835, that American writer and humorist Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, but brought up in Hannibal, Missouri. Although first encountering writers by apprenticing to a printer, he became a Mississippi riverboat pilot and adopted his pen-name from the call – “Mark twain!” meaning […]

Religious Toleration It was on this date, November 29, 1787, that King Louis XVI (1754-1793) promulgated an edict of tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants under French law. French Protestants, then called Huguenots, had gained toleration a century before for their religious beliefs (and respite from the Wars of Religion) with the Edict of Nantes, […]

It was on this date, November 28, 1832, that the British writer, and first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1891), Leslie Stephen was born in Kensington Gore, London. Brought up in a Clapham Sect household of Christians, Stephen was educated first at Eton, then graduated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he excelled in […]

It was on this date, November 28, 1943, that American songwriter and singer Randy Newman was born Randall Stuart Newman in Los Angeles. In his youth, he spent time in New Orleans with his mother’s family, and was influenced by the music there. He is the nephew of Al Newman, who wrote classic movie scores […]

It was on this date, November 26, 1941, that U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Although today this thoroughly American holiday is commemorated by church services and family gatherings, and Presidents George Washington (a Deist) and Abraham Lincoln […]

It was on this date, November 25, 1835, that industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. Hard times in Scotland forced his family to emigrate to the US in 1848. Andrew naturally entered the textile industry as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill near Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He quickly graduated to the […]

It was on this date, November 24, 1632, that Portuguese-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a family settled in Holland. The family were Portuguese crypto-Jews – that is, Jews forcibly converted to Christianity while secretly remaining Jewish. Spinoza was a bright student in the Talmud Torah school and might have become a […]

It was on this date, November 23, 1654, that French mathematician and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal had his famous religious conversion. The story goes that on the proverbial dark and stormy night, while Pascal was riding in a carriage across the Neuilly bridge in the Paris suburb, a sudden fright caused the horses to bolt, […]