Portal:Biography

The Biography Portal

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter. (Full article...)

Featured biographies –

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

Image 1

Leblanc with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2012

Louis Jean Joseph Leblanc (born January 26, 1991) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. Leblanc played minor hockey in the Montreal region before he moved to the United States in 2008, playing one season with the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) and becoming Rookie of the Year. Eligible for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, he was selected 18th overall by the Montreal Canadiens. He then enrolled at Harvard University and spent one season with the Crimson, being named Ivy League rookie of the year, before he signed a contract with the Canadiens in 2010. Later that year Leblanc joined the Montreal Juniors, who had earlier acquired his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) playing rights.

Leblanc spent three seasons with the Canadiens, mainly playing for their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, before being traded in 2014 to the Anaheim Ducks, who kept him in the AHL. In 2015, Leblanc moved to Europe, joining HC Slovan Bratislava of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), though he played only seven games for them before being released. After appearing in four games for Lausanne HC of the Swiss National League A, he retired from hockey. Internationally, Leblanc played in the 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where Canada won the gold medal, and in the 2011 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, where he helped Canada win a silver medal. Leblanc was considered a draft bust, having failed to reach his potential and retiring from hockey at an early age. (Full article...)
Image 2

Lorde performing in June 2022

Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde (/lɔːrd/ LORD), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is known for her unconventional musical styles and introspective songwriting.

Lorde expressed interest in performing at local venues in her early teens. She signed with Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2009 and collaborated with producer Joel Little in 2011 to start recording music. Their first effort, an extended play (EP) titled The Love Club, was self-released in 2012 for free download on SoundCloud before UMG's commercial release in 2013. The EP's international chart-topping single "Royals" helped raise Lorde to prominence. Her debut studio album Pure Heroine was released that same year to critical and commercial success. The following year, Lorde curated the soundtrack for the 2014 film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and recorded several tracks, including the single "Yellow Flicker Beat". (Full article...)
Image 3
Vaughan Williams c. 1920

Ralph Vaughan Williams (/ˌreɪf vɔːn ˈwɪljəmz/ RAYF vawn WIL-yəmz; 12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

Vaughan Williams was born to a well-to-do family with strong moral views and a progressive social life. Throughout his life he sought to be of service to his fellow citizens, and believed in making music as available as possible to everybody. He wrote many works for amateur and student performance. He was musically a late developer, not finding his true voice until his late thirties; his studies in 1907–1908 with the French composer Maurice Ravel helped him clarify the textures of his music and free it from Teutonic influences. (Full article...)
Image 4

Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1938

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.

The future George VI was born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria; he was named Albert at birth after his great-grandfather Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and was known as "Bertie" to his family and close friends. His father ascended the throne as George V in 1910. As the second son of the king, Albert was not expected to inherit the throne. He spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward, the heir apparent. Albert attended naval college as a teenager and served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he engaged speech therapist Lionel Logue to treat his stutter, which he learned to manage to some degree. His elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII after their father died in 1936, but Edward abdicated later that year to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. As heir presumptive to Edward VIII, Albert became king, taking the regnal name George VI. (Full article...)
Image 5

Richard Hawes Jr. (February 6, 1797 – May 25, 1877) was a United States representative from Kentucky and the second Confederate Governor of Kentucky. He was part of the politically influential Hawes family. His brother, uncle, and cousin also served as U.S. Representatives, and his grandson Harry B. Hawes was a member of the United States Senate. He was a slaveholder.

Hawes began his political career as an ardent Whig and was a close friend of the party's founder, Henry Clay. When the party declined and dissolved in the 1850s, Hawes became a Democrat, and his relationship with Clay cooled. (Full article...)
Image 6

Taylor with the Portage Lakes Hockey Club in 1905

Frederick Wellington "Cyclone" Taylor, MBE (June 23, 1884 – June 9, 1979) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and civil servant. A cover-point and rover, he played professionally from 1906 to 1922 for several teams, and is most well-known for his time with the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). Acknowledged as one of the first stars of the professional era of hockey, Taylor was recognized during his career as one of the fastest skaters and most prolific scorers, winning five scoring championships in the PCHA. He also won the Stanley Cup twice, with Ottawa in 1909 and Vancouver in 1915, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947.

Born and raised in Southern Ontario, Taylor moved to Manitoba in 1906 to continue his hockey career. He quickly departed to play in Houghton, Michigan and spent two years in the International Hockey League, the first openly professional hockey league in the world. He returned to Canada in 1907 and joined the Ottawa Senators, spending two seasons with the team. In 1909 he signed with the Renfrew Creamery Kings, becoming the highest-paid athlete in the world on a per-game basis, before moving to Vancouver in 1912. Taylor played for the Millionaires until 1922, when his career ended. (Full article...)
Image 7

Trumble in around 1893

Hugh Trumble (19 May 1867 – 14 August 1938) was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 21.78 runs per wicket. He is one of only four bowlers to twice take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Observers in Trumble's day, including the authoritative Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, regarded him as ranking among the great Australian bowlers of the Golden Age of cricket. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1897 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, established in 1996, inducted him in 2004.

A tall and thin off spinner, Trumble delivered the ball at a quicker pace than most spin bowlers, using his height and uncommonly long fingers to his greatest advantage. He was at his best on the softer pitches of England, but his accuracy and variations in pace enabled him to take wickets on the harder pitches of Australia. He was a dependable lower order batsman and a fine fielder in the slips. He was recognised as a shrewd thinker about the game and was popular with team-mates and opponents, with a penchant for practical jokes. (Full article...)
Image 8

Art Houtteman in 1953 with the Detroit Tigers

Arthur Joseph Houtteman (August 7, 1927 – May 6, 2003) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 12 seasons in the American League with the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles. In 325 career games, Houtteman pitched 1,555 innings and posted a win–loss record of 87–91, with 78 complete games, 14 shutouts, and a 4.14 earned run average (ERA).

Known on the sandlot for his pitching motion, Houtteman was signed by scout Wish Egan in 1945 at 17 years of age. He was recruited by major league teams, and joined a Tigers pitching staff that had lost players to injuries and World War II. After moving between the major and minor leagues over the next few years, he was nearly killed in an automobile accident just before the 1949 season. Houtteman rebounded from his injuries and went on to win 15 games that season and made his only All-Star appearance in the following year. (Full article...)
Image 9
Socrates Nelson (January 11, 1814 – May 6, 1867) was an American businessman, politician, and pioneer who served one term as a Minnesota state senator from 1859 to 1861. He was a general store owner, lumberman, and real estate speculator and was associated with numerous companies in the insurance and rail industries. He was involved in the establishment of the community of Stillwater, Minnesota and was an early member of the first Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge in Minnesota. He served on the University of Minnesota's first board of regents before being elected to the Minnesota Senate.

Nelson was a member of an 1848 committee that met in Stillwater to petition the U.S. Congress to create the Minnesota Territory. He took part in the early organization of the Minnesota Democratic Party. He was a county treasurer, territorial auditor, and county commissioner. As a senator, he voted in favor of a failed bill to legalize bringing slaves in to Minnesota temporarily and helped to repeal the Loan Amendment – intended to expedite the creation of railroad infrastructure – from the Minnesota Constitution. He was elected as a delegate for the 1864 Democratic National Convention. (Full article...)
Image 10

Gravestone marking the burial site of Justus in St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury

Justus (died on 10 November between 627 and 631) was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Gregory the Great, sent Justus from Italy to England on a mission to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arriving with the second group of missionaries despatched in 601. Justus became the first Bishop of Rochester in 604 and attended a church council in Paris in 614.

Following the death of King Æthelberht of Kent in 616, Justus was forced to flee to Gaul but was reinstated in his diocese the following year. In 624, Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury, overseeing the despatch of missionaries to Northumbria. After his death, he was revered as a saint and had a shrine in St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. (Full article...)
Image 11

Colossal granite statue of Atlanersa from his Osiris-Dedwen temple at Jebel Barkal, now in the National Museum of Sudan

Atlanersa (also Atlanarsa) was a Kushite ruler of the Napatan kingdom of Nubia, reigning for about a decade in the mid-7th century BC. He was the successor of Tantamani, the last ruler of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt, and possibly a son of Taharqa or less likely of Tantamani, while his mother was a queen whose name is only partially preserved. Atlanersa's reign immediately followed the collapse of Nubian control over Egypt, which witnessed the Assyrian conquest of Egypt and then the beginning of the Late Period under Psamtik I. The same period also saw the progressive cultural integration of Egyptian beliefs by the Kushite civilization.

Atlanersa may have fathered his successor Senkamanisken with his consort Malotaral, although Senkamanisken could also be his brother. He built a pyramid in the necropolis of Nuri, now conjecturally believed to be Nuri 20 and may also have started a funerary chapel in the same necropolis, now called Nuri 500. Atlanersa was the second Nubian king to build a pyramid in Nuri after Taharqa. Excavations of his pyramid produced many small artefacts which are now on display in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, US. Atlanersa's most-prominent construction is his temple to the syncretic god Osiris-Dedwen in Jebel Barkal called B700, which he finished and had time to only partially decorate. This suggests that he died unexpectedly. The temple entrance was to be flanked with two colossal statues of the king, one of which was completed and set in place and is now in the National Museum of Sudan. (Full article...)
Image 12

In this c. 1772 portrait, Adams points at the Massachusetts Charter, which he viewed as a constitution that protected the peoples' rights.

Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16] 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams.

Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious and politically active family. A graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. He was an influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s, and he became a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, eventually resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system in 1772 to help coordinate resistance to what he saw as the British government's attempts to violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies, which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Adams was actively involved with colonial newspapers publishing accounts of colonial sentiment over British colonial rule, which were fundamental in uniting the colonies. (Full article...)
Image 13
Luo Yixiu (Chinese: 羅一秀; 20 October 1889 – 11 February 1910), a Han Chinese woman, was the first wife of the later Chinese communist revolutionary and political leader Mao Zedong, to whom she was married from 1908 until her death. Coming from the area around Shaoshan, Hunan, in south central China – the same region as Mao – her family were impoverished local landowners.

Most of what is known about their marriage comes from an account Mao gave to the American reporter Edgar Snow in 1936, which Snow included in his book Red Star Over China. According to Mao, he and Luo Yixiu were the subject of an arranged marriage organised by their respective fathers, Mao Yichang and Luo Helou. Luo was eighteen and Mao just fourteen years old at the time of their betrothal. Although Mao took part in the wedding ceremony, he later said that he was unhappy with the marriage, never consummating it and refusing to live with his wife. Socially disgraced, she lived with Mao's parents for two years until she died of dysentery, while he moved out of the village to continue his studies elsewhere, eventually becoming a founding member of the Communist Party of China. Various biographers have suggested that Mao's experience of this marriage affected his later views, leading him to become a critic of arranged marriage and a vocal feminist. He married three more times, to Yang Kaihui, He Zizhen and Jiang Qing, the last of whom was better known as Madame Mao. (Full article...)
Image 14
Lazarus Leonard Aaronson (24 December 1894 – 9 December 1966), often referred to as L. Aaronson, was a British poet and a lecturer in economics. As a young man, he belonged to a group of Jewish friends who are today known as the Whitechapel Boys, many of whom later achieved fame as writers and artists. Though less radical in his use of language, he has been compared to his more renowned Whitechapel friend, Isaac Rosenberg, in terms of diction and verbal energy. Aaronson's poetry is characterised more as 'post-Georgian' than modernistic, and reviewers have since been able to trace influences back to both the English poet John Keats, and Hebrew poets such as Shaul Tchernichovsky and Zalman Shneur.

Aaronson lived most of his life in London and spent much of his working life as a lecturer in economics at the City of London College. In his twenties, he converted to Christianity and a large part of his poetry focused on his conversion and spiritual identity as a Jew and an Englishman. In total, he published three collections of poetry: Christ in the Synagogue (1930), Poems (1933), and The Homeward Journey and Other Poems (1946). Although he did not achieve widespread recognition, Aaronson gained a cult following of dedicated readers. Upon retiring from teaching, he moved to Harpenden, Hertfordshire, where he died from heart failure and coronary heart disease on 9 December 1966. His poetry was not widely publicised, and he left many unpublished poems at his death. (Full article...)
Image 15
Charles Domery (c. 1778 – after 1800), later also known as Charles Domerz, was a Polish soldier serving in the Prussian and French armies, noted for his unusually large appetite. Serving in the Prussian Army against France during the War of the First Coalition, he found that the rations of the Prussians were insufficient and deserted to the French Army in return for food. Although generally healthy, he was voraciously hungry during his time in the French service, and ate any available food. While stationed near Paris, he was recorded as having eaten 174 cats in a year, and although he disliked vegetables, he would eat 4 to 5 pounds (1.8 to 2.3 kg) of grass each day if he could not find other food. During service on the French ship Hoche, he attempted to eat the severed leg of a crew member hit by cannon fire, before other members of the crew wrestled it from him.

In February 1799, the Hoche was captured by British forces and the crew, including Domery, were interned in Liverpool, where he shocked his captors with his voracious appetite: despite being put on ten times the usual rations, he ate the prison cat and at least 20 rats, and would often eat the prison candles. In one experiment, over the course of a day he ate 16 pounds (7.3 kg) of raw cow's udder, raw beef and tallow candles and four bottles of porter, all of which he ate and drank without defecating, urinating, or vomiting. (Full article...)

Did you know... -

... that Israeli diplomat Yosef Avidar met his future wife after a grenade accident?
... that Spanish diplomat Ángel Sagaz Zubelzu secured the release of more than 1,500 Jews from prison in Egypt by arguing they were descended from expelled Jews and thus entitled to Spanish citizenship?
... that Disney once created a political advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower (featured)?
... that writer Malcolm Neesam was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Harrogate, England, by the town council for services to local history?
... that the writer of Poison Ivy: Thorns felt the titular DC Comics character was "tailor made for [her] interests as a nature-loving, gay makeup enthusiast"?
... that one of the districts in the city of Astrakhan is named after Bolshevik leader Aleksandr Trusov?
... that Anne Baker's book Wings over Kabul: The First Airlift describes the first significant use of airpower in an insurgency campaign?
... that Cathie Dunsford was unable to find many books about lesbianism in the 1970s, but by the 1980s had herself become a writer and anthologist of lesbian literature?
... that Smoke over Birkenau by Polish writer Seweryna Szmaglewska, published in 1945, was one of the first and most influential works about the Auschwitz–Birkenau concentration camp?
... that Montserratian playwright Edgar Nkosi White only wrote his first play after he was dared by actor Martin Sheen?
... that Austrian mountaineer Franz Oppurg was the first person to achieve a solo ascent of Mount Everest, climbing alone from the South Col to the summit on 14 May 1978?
... that writer Naoko Sato was initially worried that the character Kat would come off as "too Japanese" for overseas audiences?

General images

The following are images from various biography-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1John Foxe's The Book of Martyrs, was one of the earliest English-language biographies. (from Biography)
Image 2Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote Confessions, the first Western autobiography ever written, around 400. Portrait by Philippe de Champaigne, 17th century. (from Autobiography)
Image 3James Boswell wrote what many consider to be the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, in 1791. (from Biography)
Image 4Eminent Victorians set the standard for 20th century biographical writing, when it was published in 1918. (from Biography)
Image 5Einhard as scribe (from Biography)
Image 6Third volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans printed by Jacob Tonson (from Biography)
Image 7A scene from the Baburnama (from Autobiography)
Image 8Cover of the first English edition of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, 1793 (from Autobiography)

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Selected portrait

Image 1
Enrico Caruso
Photo: Bain News Service; Restoration: Michel Vuijlsteke
Enrico Caruso (1873–1921) was an Italian tenor who was one of the most famous male opera singers in history. He sang to great acclaim at major opera houses around the world, and spent 18 consecutive seasons as the lead tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He was one of the first major classical vocalists to make numerous recordings (more than 260), and his 1902 recording of "Vesti la giubba" was the first to sell over a million copies. His records sold so well that the Collector's Guide to Victor Records asks, "Did the phonograph make Caruso, or did Caruso make the phonograph?"
Image 2
Dilma Rousseff
Photo: Agência Brasil
Dilma Rousseff is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil, holding the position from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She was the first woman to hold the office. Previously she was Chief of Staff to the President of Brazil, serving under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from 2005 to 2010. The daughter of a Bulgarian entrepreneur, she is an economist by training and co-founder of the Democratic Labour Party. She served as Da Silva's Minister of Energy and became Chief of Staff after José Dirceu's resignation amidst scandal. She was elected the presidency in a run-off election on 31 October 2010.
Image 3
David Suchet
Photo credit: Phil Chambers
A portrait of David Suchet OBE, an English actor best known for his television portrayal of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot. For this role, he earned a 1991 British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nomination. In preparation for the role he says that he read every novel and short story, and compiled an extensive file on Poirot.
Image 4
Agnes Milowka
Photo: James Axford
Agnes Milowka (1981–2011) was an Australian technical diver, underwater photographer, author, and cave explorer. She gained international recognition for extending cave systems across Australia and in Florida, and as a public speaker and author on the subjects of diving and maritime archaeology. She participated in National Geographic and Discovery Channel expeditions. Her passion led her to act as a stunt double on Andrew Wight's feature film Sanctum and to participate in shooting real scenery in Mount Gambier caves, where she drowned just a few weeks after the movie's premiere.
Image 5
Brian Nankervis
Photo: John O'Neill; edit: JJ Harrison
Brian Nankervis (b. 1956), an Australian comedian and writer, shown here during a live performance. Nankervis rose to popularity while playing Raymond J. Bartholomeuz on Hey Hey It's Saturday; since 2005 he has been a host of the gameshow RocKwiz.
Image 6
Sri Mulyani Indrawati
Photo: the International Monetary Fund
Sri Mulyani Indrawati is an Indonesian economist who served for five years as Minister of Finance of Indonesia before being selected as managing director of the World Bank. In 2011 she was ranked as the 65th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.
Image 7
Stephen Merchant
Photo: Carolyn Djanogly
Stephen Merchant (b. 1974) is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, with whom he co-wrote and co-directed the popular British sitcom The Office, co-hosts The Ricky Gervais Show, and co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in Extras.
Image 8
Lillian Gish
Photo credit: Bain News Service
A portrait of Lillian Gish from 1921. Gish was one of the first female movie stars, called "The First Lady of the Silent Screen", starting in 1912 and continuing to appear in films until 1987. The American Film Institute named Gish 17th among the greatest female stars of all time and awarded her a Life Achievement Award, making her the only recipient who was a major figure in the silent era. Remarkably, she never won an Academy Award for her work, although she did receive a Special Academy Award in 1971.
Image 9
Buffalo Bill
Photo credit: Moffett
William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, was one of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes. He got his nickname for supplying Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with bison meat, having won the name from Bill Comstock in a bison killing contest. In addition to his documented service as a soldier during the Civil War and as Chief of Scouts for the Third Cavalry during the Plains Wars, Cody claimed to have worked many jobs, including as a trapper, bullwhacker, "Fifty-Niner" in Colorado, a Pony Express rider in 1860, wagonmaster, stagecoach driver, and even a hotel manager, but it's unclear which claims were factual and which were fabricated for purposes of publicity.
Image 10
Marguerite de Navarre
Engraver: John James Hinchliff; Restoration: Adam Cuerden
An engraving of Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre, from an 1864 English edition of the Heptaméron, a collection of her own short stories. She was a patron of humanists and reformers, and as the older sister of King Francis I of France, Marguerite held tremendous influence in France, so much so that French historian Jules Michelet called her the "Mother" of the French Renaissance and American scholar Samuel Putnam called her the "First Modern Woman".
Image 11
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Photo: International Monetary Fund
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (b. 1954) is the current Finance Minister of Nigeria. An economist who earned her degrees at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, she also served as a managing director of the World Bank, and Foreign Minister of Nigeria. She is credited with bringing increased transparency to her country's government, as well as helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign credit rating.
Image 12
R. J. Palacio
Photograph credit: Rhododendrites
R. J. Palacio (born July 13, 1963) is an American author and graphic designer. During her career, she has designed hundreds of book covers, including for both fiction and non-fiction works. She is also the author of several novels for children, including the best-selling Wonder, which has won several awards. Palacio is seen here signing a book at the 2019 BookCon convention in New York City.
Image 13
John Henry Newman
Painting: John Everett Millais
John Henry Newman (1801–90) was a British cleric and leader in the Oxford Movement, a group of Anglicans who wished to return the Church of England to many Catholic beliefs and forms of worship traditional in the medieval times. In 1845 Newman converted to Catholicism, eventually rising to cardinal.
Image 14
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Painting: Lemuel Francis Abbott
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, (1758–1805) was a British flag officer who served in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. Born in Norfolk, Nelson entered the navy at age 13, and in 1778 he obtained his own command. During his career he suffered from seasickness, and by the time of the Trafalgar Campaign he had already lost his right arm and sight in an eye in battles in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Corsica, respectively.

In 1805 he took over the Cádiz blockade, and on 21 October of that year Nelson's fleet engaged the Franco-Spanish one at the Battle of Trafalgar. The battle was a British victory, but during the action Nelson was fatally wounded by a French sharpshooter. Numerous monuments, such as Nelson's Column, have been created in his memory, and his signal "England expects that every man will do his duty" has been widely quoted, paraphrased and referenced.
Image 15
Raden Saleh
Painting: Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel
Raden Saleh (1811–1880) was a Romantic painter of Arab-Javanese ethnicity from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Born in Semarang, in 1829 he was sent to the Netherlands to study portraiture and landscape painting under artists such as Cornelis Kruseman and Andreas Schelfhout. Upon returning to Java in 1851, Saleh focused predominantly on the day-to-day lives of the Javanese, although he also completed his magnum opus, The Arrest of Pangeran Diponegoro, in this period.

This painting, though long thought to be a self-portrait, is now attributed to Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel, a German artist whom Saleh knew during his time in Europe.

On this day – November 30

Winston Churchill

Births

1667 - Jonathan Swift, Irish writer and satirist (d.1745)
1835 - Mark Twain, American writer (d. 1910)
1874 - Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965) (pictured)
1929 - Dick Clark, American television host (d. 2012)
1965 - Ben Stiller, American actor and writer

Deaths

1900 - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (b. 1854)
1996 - Tiny Tim, American entertainer (b. 1932)
2003 - Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (b. 1906)

In the news

26 November 2023 – 2023 Booker Prize: Irish writer Paul Lynch wins the Booker Prize for his novel Prophet Song. (AFP via RFI)
17 November 2023 – 2023 Israel–Hamas war: An Israeli airstrike kills Ahmad Bahar, a senior leader in Hamas who served as the vice president of the Palestinian Legislative Council. (Times of Israel)
15 November 2023 – APEC United States 2023: U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping hold talks in San Francisco, California, United States, their first meeting in over a year. The talks are described as being positive with "real progress" being made on key issues such as drug trafficking and artificial intelligence. (Reuters)
14 November 2023 – Mali War: The Malian Armed Forces recapture the town of Kidal from Tuareg separatist forces, according to junta leader Assimi Goïta. (AFP via France 24)
13 November 2023 – Philippine drug war: A Regional Trial Court grants bail to opposition leader and former Senator Leila de Lima on her last drug case, ending her six years in detention. (CNN)
13 November 2023 – 2023 Polish parliamentary election: Poland 2050 leader Szymon Hołownia is elected as Marshal of the Sejm. (AFP via Le Monde)

Updated: 6:33, 29 November 2023

Quote of the week

"Blue Moon, now I'm no longer alone,
without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own."

— Lorenz Hart

Blue Moon, 1934

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List of all portals
The arts portal

The arts portal
Biography portal

Biography portal
Current events portal

Current events portal
Geography portal

Geography portal
History portal

History portal
Mathematics portal

Mathematics portal
Science portal

Science portal
Society portal

Society portal
Technology portal

Technology portal
Random portal

Random portal
WikiProject Portals

WikiProject Portals

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