Friedrich Engels (1820) It was on this date, September 28, 1820, that German political philosopher and Socialist leader Friedrich Engels was born in Barmen, Prussia. His father ran a factory in Manchester, in the north of England, and sent him there as a young man to gain management experience. But Engels was shocked at the […]

Horace Walpole (1717) It was on this date, September 24, 1717, that English man of letters Horace Walpole was born in London. The youngest son of England's longest-ruling Prime Minister, Robert Walpole (who was most likely an Atheist), Horace's original first name was Horatio. Educated according to his social station, at Eton and King's College, […]

H. G. Wells (1866) It was on this date, September 21, 1866, that English author Herbert George Wells, who wrote about 100 books, half of them novels, as H.G. Wells, was born in Bromley, Kent. About his early days he said, I was indeed a prodigy of Early Impiety....There was a time when I believed […]

Upton Sinclair (1878) It was on this date, September 20, 1878, that American writer Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland. In a 67-year career, Sinclair published over 90 books, mostly novels with a social reform theme. But he began life as a religious boy – it is said his two great heroes were Jesus […]

H.L. Mencken (1880) It was on this date, September 12, 1880, that the "Bard of Baltimore," Henry Louis Mencken – H.L. Mencken – was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His father was an Agnostic, his mother a Lutheran, and Mencken grew up with a disdain for all orthodoxies, especially Christian. In a letter to historian Will […]

Stephen Jay Gould (1941) It was on this date, September 10, 1941, that "One of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century and perhaps the best known since Charles Darwin"[1] - Stephen Jay Gould - was born. He grew up in New York City, graduated from Antioch College and in 1967 earned his […]

Richard Wright (1908) It was on this date, September 4, 1908, that African-American writer Richard Wright was born outside Natchez, Mississippi, the son of an illiterate sharecropper father and a well-educated school teacher mother. Early on, Wright developed a fascination with books – a love of learning that only deepened his dissatisfaction with life as […]

Alan M. Dershowitz (1938) It was on this date, September 1, 1938, that Harvard law professor and civil liberties lawyer Alan Morton Dershowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. First in his class at Yale Law, he was appointed to the Harvard Law faculty at age 25 and became the youngest full professor in the […]

Théophile Gautier (1811) On this date, August 31, 1811, French poet and journalist Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was born in Tarbes, in the southwestern region of France. Although he was inclined to paint, he was influenced by Victor Hugo to write poetry and got a job at the Chronique de Paris with help from Honoré […]

"How any man who should inquire and know for himself can content himself with a faith or belief taken upon trust, is to be astonishing."