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Date of Birth
On this day in Florida, Missouir, Samuel L. Clemens was born as the sixth child in his family. -
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Mark Twain
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Moved to Hannibal
It was a bustling town, in which his father, "John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculato, dreaming of wealth but never achieveing it, sometimes finding it hard to feed his family" ("Mark Twain Biography" -
Violence was a Common
When Samuel was only 9 years old he saw a lockal man murder a cattle rancher and later on when he was 10 he saw a slave die from being beat with iron. All of these harmful experiences better helped him become a man. -
Hannibal Western Union
At age 15 Clemens got a job as a printer and occasional writer at Hannibal Western Union, which was a small newspaper owned by one of his brothers. This was one of the first times he truly experienced writing. -
Steamship
At age 21 he fullfilled his long term goal of learning how to become a pilot of a steam ship -
Civil War
"Clemens opted for the latter, joining the Confederat Army...but serving for only a couple of weeks until his volunteer unit disbanded" ("Mark Twain Biography"). -
Virginia City Territorial
After going to Nevada and California, struggling to find silver and gold, "he became convinced that he would become the savior of his struggling family and the sharpest-dressed man in VIrginia City and San Francisco" ("Mark Twain Biography"). He also decided that he needed a real job in which he became a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, where he wrote stories and editorials and became known as Mark Twain. -
Big Break
Twain became one of the best storytellers in the West, known for his writing style that was humorus and often satrical. He got his big break when his tale "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" was printed in newspapers and magazines around the country -
Famous
"At 34, this westerner--handsome, red-haired, affable, canny, egocentric, ambitious--had become one of the most popular and damous writers in America" ("Mark Twain Biography") -
Death of Susy
Early in to Twain's marriage with Livy they had lost their todler son, but now in 1896 he lost his favorite daughter Susy at the age of 24 due to spinal meningitis -
Death of Mark Twain
Samuel Clemens died at the age of 74, in his country home in Redding Connecticut, and was later buried in Elmira, New York ("Mark Twain Biography").
