Curated playlist
1813 births
- Giuseppe VerdiComposer Giuseppe Verdi liked to claim peasant roots, but his father, an innkeeper, pushed for his schooling.
- Richard WagnerRichard Wagner grew up believing his stepfather was his real father.
- John SnowIn 1854, John Snow had a London council remove a water pump's handle during a cholera outbreak.
- William Smith (lexicographer)William Smith taught himself Greek and Latin as a law clerk. He then won both prizes at University College London.
- David Dixon PorterDavid Dixon Porter first stood watch on a Navy frigate at age ten. He served 62 years on active duty.
- John SedgwickUnion General John Sedgwick told his men enemy sharpshooters couldn't hit an elephant.
- George Peter Alexander HealyGeorge Healy did not pick up a paintbrush until he was sixteen. He later painted presidents, popes and kings.
- Søren KierkegaardSøren Kierkegaard invited a satirical newspaper to attack him, and it did.
- Henry BessemerA sixteen-year-old confronted Henry Bessemer in London over her father's unpaid work.
- Otto JahnOtto Jahn gave away his entire Mozart manuscript collection. It went to Ludwig von Köchel for his catalogue.
- David LivingstoneDavid Livingstone, a Scottish doctor and missionary, once explained his obsession with Africa to a friend in a single blunt sentence. The sources of the Nile, he said, were "valuable only as a means of opening my mouth with power among…
- John C. FrémontJohn C. Frémont served just 175 days as a U.S. senator. He was in Washington for only twenty-one working days.