Curated playlist
1820 births
- Susan B. AnthonySusan B. Anthony was arrested on the 18th of November 1872 for the crime of casting a ballot. A U.S. Deputy Marshal came to her door in Rochester, New York, and charged her with voting illegally in the presidential election held just days…
- Victor Emmanuel IIVictor Emmanuel II rode into Rome on the 20th of September 1870, entering a city that no Italian king had controlled since the fall of the Western Roman Empire over thirteen centuries before. He was not a romantic figure. A British…
- Friedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was born on the 28th of November 1820 in Barmen, a Prussian industrial town his contemporaries called the "German Manchester". He would spend his adult life moving between factory offices, revolutionary barricades,…
- William Tecumseh ShermanWilliam Tecumseh Sherman was born on the 8th of February, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio, and by the time he died seventy-one years later, he had helped reshape the way wars are fought and won. His name conjures a single image for most…
- Earl Van DornEarl Van Dorn died not on a battlefield but at his own desk, shot in the back of the head by a doctor who accused him of seducing his wife. It was the 7th of May, 1863, in the Spring Hill mansion where Van Dorn had made his headquarters,…
- George Templeton StrongGeorge Templeton Strong entered the world at 50 Franklin Street in New York City on the 26th of January 1820. His family background placed him within the city's established circles from birth. He received his early education at Columbia…
- Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale was born on the 12th of May 1820 at the Villa Colombaia in Florence, Tuscany, and was named after the city of her birth. She would become an English social reformer, a statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. A…
- Lorenz FrølichLorenz Frølich was born on the 25th of October 1820. He died on the same date in 1908, completing his eighty-eighth year on the very day of his birth. Carl Nielsen composed a cantata in his honor when Frølich turned eighty. The celebration…
- John TyndallJohn Tyndall died on the 4th of December 1893 from an accidental overdose of chloral hydrate, administered by his own wife. As he realized what had happened, he turned to Louisa and said: "My darling, you have killed your John." It was the…
- Afanasy FetAfanasy Fet died on the 21st of November 1892 with a paper knife in his hand and a suicide note on the table. His secretary had just wrestled the blade away from him, cutting her own hand in the struggle. Moments later, chased through the…