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Napoleon Bonaparte (Birth)
Napoleon Bonaparte, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution. -
Simon Bolivar (Birth)
Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan military and political leader who was instrumental in helping Latin American countries achieve independence from the Spanish Empire. During his lifetime, he helped many countries such as Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia to achieve independence. -
Abraham Lincoln (Birth)
A self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the U.S. in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Lincoln proved to be a shrewd military strategist and a savvy leader: His Emancipation Proclamation paved the way for slavery’s abolition, while his Gettysburg Address stands as one of the most famous pieces of oratory in American history. -
Otto von Bismarck (Birth)
Otto von Bismarck rose to power in Prussia 1851, where he served as Prussian representative under king Frederick Wilhelm IV. Eleven years later, in 1862, he was appointed prime minister of Prussia and sought to unite the German states in pot a single empire. He fought Austria and France, the Catholic Church, which gained him control of the united Germany. After disagreeing with the new emporer in 1890, he resigned and retired to his home, where he died in 1898. -
Napoleon Bonaparte (Death)
After a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicated the throne two years later, he was exiled to the island of Elba. In 1815 he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, where he died at 51. -
Harriet Tubman (Birth)
Born in 1823, Harriet Tubman was a civil rights activist and suffragette in the 19th Century who ran the Underground Railroad and helped thousands of slaves find freedom after escaping from slavery herself. In the civil war, she became a cook and a nurse, until she was moved to unarmed scouting and spying for the Union Army, where she became the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. She retired to her family home and died on March 10, 1913. -
Simon Bolivar (Death)
From the end of the wars of independence in 1824 until his death in 1830, Simon Bolívar served as president of Venezuela. During the wars and until his death, Bolívar kept the company of Manuela Saenz, a mistress. -
Sitting Bull (Birth)
Sitting Bull was the Native American chief who the Sioux tribes united in their struggle for survival on the North American Great Plains. Following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874, the Sioux came into conflict with U.S. authorities. The Great Sioux wars of the would culminate in the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn, which Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and a confederation of tribes would defeat federal troops under George Armstrong Custer. -
Theodore Roosevelt (Birth)
The young Republican politician Theodore Roosevelt unexpectedly became the 26th president of the United States in September 1901.He brought a new energy to the White House, and won a second term on his own merits in 1904. He confronted the struggle between management and labor head-on. Also became known as the great “trust buster” for his strenuous efforts to break up industrial combinations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. -
Kaiser Wilhelm II (Birth)
Wilhelm II, the German kaiser and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I. He gained a reputation as a swaggering militarist through his speeches and ill-advised newspaper interviews. -
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The American Civil War
In the 1860s, tensions over slavery and states rights reached an all time high with the southern states of the U.S. seceding from the Union. Over the course of four years, Americans would meet brothers, cousins, and uncles on the battlefield in one of the bloodiest wars in American history. -
Abraham Lincoln (Death)
In April 1865, with the Union on the brink of victory, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. His untimely death made him a martyr to the cause of liberty, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history. -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Birth)
Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his second term as governor of New York when he was elected as the 32nd president in 1932. With the country mired in the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt immediately acted to restore public confidence. Proclaiming a bank holiday and speaking directly to the public in a series of radio broadcasts or “fireside chats.” -
Benito Mussolini (Birth)
Benito Mussolini was an Italian dictator in the early to mid twentieth century. He was, at first, a member of the socialist party, but was expelled in the 1910s and founded the fascist movement, and in 1922, he lead a march on Rome with his fascist comrades, quickly rising to power afterwards. He supported Hitler in World War II, which led to the near-decimation of the Italian army and was executed in 1945. -
Sitting Bull (Death)
After several years in Canada, Bull finally surrendered to U.S. forces with his people on the brink of starvation, he was finally forced to settle on a reservation. In 1890, Sitting Bull was shot and killed while being arrested by U.S. Indians fearful that he would help lead the growing Ghost Dance movement aimed at restoring the Sioux way of life. -
Otto von Bismarck (Death)
Otto von Bismarck rose to power in Prussia 1851, where he served as Prussian representative under king Frederick Wilhelm IV. Eleven years later, in 1862, he was appointed prime minister of Prussia and sought to unite the German states in pot a single empire. He fought Austria and France, the Catholic Church, which gained him control of the united Germany. After disagreeing with the new emporer in 1890, he resigned and retired to his home, where he died in 1898. -
Harriet Tubman (Death)
Born in 1823, Harriet Tubman was a civil rights activist and suffragette in the 19th Century who ran the Underground Railroad and helped thousands of slaves find freedom after escaping from slavery herself. In the civil war, she became a cook and a nurse, until she was moved to unarmed scouting and spying for the Union Army, where she became the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war. She retired to her family home and died on March 10, 1913. -
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World War I
In 1914, disagreements over foreign policy and uneasy alliances came to a head after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his pregnant wife Sophie. Every world power fought each other for the bloodiest war in history. -
Theodore Roosevelt (Death)
In the foreign policy arena, Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War and spearheaded the beginning of construction on the Panama Canal. After leaving the White House and going an safari in Africa, he returned to politics in 1912, mounting a failed run for president at the head of a new Progressive Party. -
Kaiser Wilhelm II (Death)
Some historians maintain that Wilhelm was controlled by his generals, while others argue that he retained considerable political power. In late 1918 he was forced to abdicate. He spent the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands where he died at age 82. -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Death)
He spearheaded the successful wartime alliance between Britain, the Soviet Union and the U.S. also helped lay the groundwork for post-war peace organization that would become the United Nations. The only American president in history to be elected four times, Roosevelt died in office in April 1945. -
Benito Mussolini (Death)
Benito Mussolini was an Italian dictator in the early to mid twentieth century. He was, at first, a member of the socialist party, but was expelled in the 1910s and founded the fascist movement, and in 1922, he lead a march on Rome with his fascist comrades, quickly rising to power afterwards. He supported Hitler in World War II, which led to the near-decimation of the Italian army and was executed in 1945.
