Born on 12^th June 1929, in Frankfurt located in Germany, Anne Frank is one of most acknowledged and renowned Jewish victims known for her extraordinary writing skills and during her life she has become one of the world’s favourite person among readers and her personality has been portrayed in a number of films and plays. She has acquired international fame posthumously after the publication of her diary written by her that documents her life experiences during her stay in Germany and her struggle being employed in German occupation in the state of Netherlands in the World War II era.

Quick Facts:

• Nick name: Anneke, Mrs. Quack Quack
• Date of birth: 12^th June 1929
• Place of birth: Frankfurt, Germany
• Origin: Germany
• Profession: Author
• Known for: Her book The Diary of Anne Frank
• Website: http://www.annefrank.org/

Childhood and growing up years:

Ann Frank was born in the year of 1929 on June 12^th in Frankfurt which is located in Germany. Anne was the second daughter born to the blessed couple of Edith Frank-Hollander and Otto Frank. She had another sister who was elder to her and was named Margot Frank. The family was liberal Jews and they did not strictly follow the traditions and customs of the section of Judaism. The community they were living in comprised of non-Jewish citizens of several religions. Her mother was a devout parent while her father was more interested in scholarly pursuits and he also had a large library. Anne’s parents always encouraged their children to read books. Anne Frank is one of the popularly discussed victims of the Holocaust. Although, she was born in the city of Frankfurt in Germany she spent most of her life in Amsterdam which is located in Netherlands but, by nationality she was considered a German until the year of 1941 as she lost her nationality due to anti-Semitic policies of the Nazi’s in Germany. In the year 1933, the family moved to Germany which was the same year when the Nazis had gained control over the country of Germany and by the beginning of 1940 the family was seen trapped in the state of Amsterdam by the Nazi group. As the litigation against the Jewish people grew by the year of 1942 in July, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding and were found rescuing in the office rooms of Anne Frank’s father’s office building. Two year later, the Jewish community was betrayed and relocated to concentration camps in which Anne Frank and her sister were transferred to the concentration camps that were situated in Bergen-Belsen. It was in these concentration camps that both of them out of typhus in the year of 1945 in March. Her father was the only survivor in the family and so he returned to Amsterdam when the war ended in search of Anne’s diary which was published in the year 1947 due to her father’s efforts. The book was originally written in Dutch but made its first publication in English in the year of 1952 which was titled as The Diary of a Young Girl. Since then the book has been translated into various languages. The diary which was gifted to Anne on her 13^th birthday comprises of the chronicles of her life from the year of 1942 June 12^th till 1944 August 1^st.

In the year of 1933 on 13^th March when elections were held in the municipal council in the city of Frankfurt, Adolf Hitler won the elections and it was during this time that Anne Frank started to fear about what would happen to their lives if they still remained in Germany. With this fear, mother and the children shifted to Aachen where they shared their life with Edith’s mother named Rosa Hollander. While the wife and children were living away from home, Otto Frank stayed in Frankfurt and later in the days he received an offer to start a company in Amsterdam. In order to organize the business he left to Amsterdam and arranged accommodations for his family to relocate to this place. By the year of 1934 February, the family arrived at Amsterdam and the two daughters were enrolled in a school. During her school education, Anne Frank demonstrated aptitude towards writing and reading. She also had the love for writing although she refused from discussing the content of her writing. The two sisters were quite different from each other while the elder daughter Margot was studious, well-mannered and reserved and on the other hand Anne Frank was an extrovert, energetic and also outspoken. In the year of 1938, Otto Frank started his second company which was named as Pectacon and it was a wholesale store for herbs, mixed spices and also pickling salts which could be used in the production of sausages. The following year, Edith’s mother shifted to live with the Frank family and she remained here till her death which was in the year 1942 in January. In 1940 in the month of May, Germany invaded Netherlands. The same time the Frank sisters were excelling in their studies and also made a number of friends when she attended the Jewish Lyceum. In this school she made a friend Jacqueline Van Maarsen.

Claim to fame:

In the year of 1942 on 12^th June when Anne Frank turned thirteen she received a book from her father. It was the book that she had shown him a few days earlier and she had been gifted with the same gift on her birthday. It was an autograph book that was bounded with red and white checkered cloth and it also consisted of a small lock in front of the book. So, Anne Frank chose to use this has her personal diary and began writing in the diary immediately when she received it. Majority of her entries in the book relates to the routine activities of her life while she also describes about some of the major changes that had taken place in her life while relocating from the German occupation to Netherlands. In her diary, dated 20^th June 1942 she lists out the many restrictions that had been imposed on their lives for being a part of the Dutch Jewish population. Along with this she also notes down the grief that she underwent after facing her grandmother’s death in the earlier days of the year.

Anne Frank initially dreamt of becoming an actress and also had a great interest for watching movies although the Dutch Jews were restricted from going to theatres since the year of 1941. In the year of 1942, just one month before Anne’s 13^th birthday she along with her family went into hiding. It was during these days that her parents showed her the movie Rin Tin Tin in their house in apartments along with some of her friends. In the same year in the month of July Anne’s sister received a notice call to relocate her living to a working camp. During this time her father asked them to go into hiding behind the rooms of Opekta’s premises which is situated in Princengracht a street which is located alongside Amsterdam’s canals. However, it was this notice call that had forced them to shift their living place however it was earlier than they had predicted. In 1942 on 6^th July, the family went into a hiding place which was a secret annex. The apartment from where they left was in a shabby condition so as to get the impression that the people had left the place suddenly. Also, Anne’s father also left a note which hinted that they were going to Switzerland. While the family was leaving to a new place, in order to maintain secrecy they were forced to leave behind their cat, Moortje. During this time, the Jews were not suppose to use public transport and for this purpose they had to walk kilometers to reach their destination with each of the family member wearing layers of clothing so that nobody saw them carrying luggage. In the year of 1942 on 13^th July, the Frank family was joined by the van Pels family and later with another friend who was close to the family and a dentist by occupation. At this time, Anne Frank used to write but however she wrote for pleasure and her happiness but as time passed tensions started to develop while they were forced to live in the group that was confined to restrictions. She shared her room with Pfeffer whom she found to be a person who is resented to tensions and is insufferable and when she shared space with Auguste van Pels she figured that he was foolish and thought he was selfish as he ate a lot of food. Later, she also met Peter van Pels with whom she lost her awkwardness and shyness. When she realized the spark between them both of them and so they got into a relation and Anne Frank received her first kiss from Peter. But however, the romance between them started to fade when Anne started to question Peter about his feelings. In Anne Frank’s diary, she explained in detail the relationship that she shared with all her family members while also describing the differences in everyone’s personalities. Anne Frank was emotionally close with her father Otto Frank and the reason for their emotionally strong relation might be as Margot rarely express her feelings and also that she did not require the support as she did not suffer from mood swings like her other sister. However, the relation between the Frank sisters grew when the family went into hiding but Anne would always be jealous of her sister as the relatives praised Margot for being a gentle and humble person. This jealously faded away as Anne Frank began to mature in her life and the sisters began to confide in each other.

The diary also comprises material that describes her struggle to carry a relation with her mother despite the hatred towards her. But later in life she realized that differences between her mother and her came because of their misunderstandings which are equally the faults of both. But later on Anne realized that she was just adding to her mother’s already existing sufferings and since the realization Anne Frank treated her mother with respect, patience and tolerance. The Frank sisters were eagerly waiting to get back to school and continue with their studies during their hiding period. For this purpose, Anne’s sister Margot took up a short-hand course through correspondence near Bep Voskuiji’s where she faired in exams by receiving high grades. On the other hand, Anne spent most of her time studying and reading while she also wrote and edited her own articles. Her diary not only comprises of the narration of events that had occurred but also her feeling, ambitions and beliefs. As she grew older she wrote mostly about abstract subjects where she defined human nature and also described her belief for God. Dated 5^th April 1944 she wrote that she aspires to become a journalist in her diary.

In the year of 1944, in the morning of 4^th August, The Achterhuis – the place where the family was hiding was raided by the German Security Police that was followed by a tip-off from an informer who was never identified. This storm that included a minimum of three members from the Security Police had the Frank, Pfeffer and also van Pelses taken to the headquarters which is located in Gestapo. In this headquarters the three were interrogated and were held in custody overnight and on 5^th August they were shifted to the Huis van Bewaring which was the House of Detention. This house was overcrowded with prisoners so two days later they were once again shifted to Westerbork. Having that these people was arrested during their hiding they were considered criminals, so for this purpose they sent to the Punishment Barracks where they had to do hard labor. Fortunately, Otto Frank had survived all his time of internment, once the war had come to an end Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam where he took shelter with the Miep and Jan Gies. It was during his stay with this family that he came to know about his wife Edith’s death in Auschwitz but he just hoped for the survival of his daughters. But after several weeks he discovered that his daughters too had died.

The book written by Anne Frank and titled “The Diary of a Young Girl” was published in the year of 1945 in the month of June when the Red Cross association confirmed that death of the Frank sisters and so Miep Gies handed to Otto Frank the diary of Anne Frank along with some other loose notes which was wanted to return to Anne. The publication of Anne’s diary had first started as a private expression comprising of her thoughts. Also, in her diary she wrote a handful of times that she would not allow anyone to read her personal diary. Anne Frank in her diary perfectly describes her life, her feelings and also the complications that she faced with her family members. She also wrote about recognizing her ambition to publish a fiction book while writing for her diary. In the year of 1944 in the month of March, Anne Frank heard a radio broadcast by the famous Gerrit Bolkestein who was the member of the Dutch government and he said that he would start a public forum where people could submit their letters and diaries. This was started in order to create a public record for Dutch population who were being oppressed by the German government at that time. So when Anne Frank heard him she began editing her works by removing unwanted sections and also rewriting parts of her works in the view of getting her works published. Basically, her original notebook consisted of additional note-leafs and also notebooks were she created pseudonyms for all the members of the household and also the helpers. So, Otto Frank named the original book as “Version A” and the edited book as “Version B” in order to produce the first version for publication. The edited version has certain passages removed where she is critical about her parents and sections were Anne Frank discusses about her growing sexuality. The pseudonyms were retained were as the true identities of the family members were restored. Anne’s father gave the diary to a historian known as Annie Romein-Verschoor who tried to have it published but failed to do so. Then later, she gave the diary to her husband Jan Romein who then wrote about the book and also gave it a title as “Kinderstem” (A Child’s Voice). He then got it published in the newspaper Het Parool in the year 1946 on 3^rd April.

Presently:

Anne Frank’s diary is largely praised for its literary merits and Anne’s writing is commented by the famous dramatist Meyer Levin as being “a sustaining tension of well-constructed novel”. She was also largely praised for her quality of work. Meyer was obsessed with the dramatization of Anne Frank and for this purpose he wrote an autobiography of Anne Frank which is known as “The Obsession”. The autobiography is a unique depiction of life and it perfectly describes the stage of conversion from being a child into a person while all this happens precisely and in an economically styling manner. Anne Frank was made a mark for being both a humanist and also a writer has she grew up in her life. She has been the topic of discussion as she stood as a symbol of the Holocaust victims and also a representative of the persecution. In the year of 1999, the Time Magazine published a special edition which was titled “Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century” and Anne Frank made it to this list of Heroes and Icons. Today she stands as a person who is a victim of Holocaust and has risen above for her Judaism and also the goodness in her nature that had made her the totemic figure in the modern world.

When her diary became extremely popular in the late years of 1950’s, a number of allegations were raised against the diary that was published. The first criticisms had occurred the Norway and Sweden. Later in the year of 1957 on 3^rd March, Otto Frank along with a group of other citizens constructed the Anne Frank Stichting to mark the effort and also rescue the Princengracht building which was going to demolished and to make to reachable to the public. With great efforts, the Anne Frank House was inaugurated in the year of 1960 on 3^rd May. This house comprises of Opekta warehouse and also the offices of Achterhuis. All this was unfurnished so that visitors can walk through the rooms freely. Two years later, Otto Frank along with his second wife, Elfriede Geiringer-Markovits established the Anne Frank Fonds which was a charitable foundation situated in Basel in Switzerland. This organization raises money and donates to the causes that it thinks requires help. Following the death of Otto Frank, the copyrights of Anne Frank diary was passed on to Fonds as specified by Otto in his will. Over the years followed by Anne’s death a number of films focus on the life of Anne Frank. Her writings and life had inspired various groups of artists and a number of social commentators also at times take her references in the fields of literature, television, music and various other forms of media. In 1999 the Time magazine named Anne Frank was being a top icon in the 20^th century. And also in the year of 2007 a group of Dutch historians named Anne Frank as being the official Canon of Dutch History.

Personal Quotes:

“How true Daddy’s words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

“If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.”

“And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.”

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin better known as “Rasputin” was allegedly a religious individual from the Orthodox Christina fait that live during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Rasputin’s relationship with the Russian imperial family the Romanovs it is surrounded with controversy and mystery. As an individual that considerably influenced the royal family, Rasputin gain the affection of the Czar and his family by “healing” or improving the Russian emperor’s younger son (Alexei) condition who suffered from a blood illness Hemophilia. This illness cause Alexei to bleed uncontrollably and since the doctors at the time did have an actual explanation about the condition, the Romanovs had to rely on “The Mad Monk’s” (Rasputin) mystical abilities as healer.

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born in a small town in the coldest region in Russia on January 22^nd 1869 (*all dates are in the new style format). As a child coming from a peasant family, Rasputin had little or no education, nevertheless his abilities as healer as well as his religious views allowed him to play an important roll in Russian history. Sometimes historians refer to Rasputin as “one of the most polemic figures in Russia”. His involvement with the Romanovs and Russian nobility played an important roll in the events that took place about a year after Rasputin’s murder. Some said that Rasputin’s main intention was to make the Russian people change their perception about the imperial government.

Even though Rasputin is quite famous in Russia and in the western world, little is known about his early life and although he died almost a century ago, there are still some unsolved mysteries about his life as a persuasive individual. Opinions about Rasputin fall into 2 categories, those ones who think that he was a really good person and that his actions were some how beneficial for the nation and those who believe that his involvement with the Romanovs was the worst thing that could have happened to the Empire and the Royal family.

Quick Facts

Nick name: “the Mad Monk”, “the Siberian mystic healer”, “the Black Monk”, Strannik

Born: (new style format) January 22^nd, 1869

Place of birth:  Pokrovskoye, Siberia

Died: December 29^th 1916 at the Moika Palace

Profession:  Monk from the Russian Orthodox faith, Poet, Magician, Prophet

Origin: Russian

Known for: Negatively influencing the Czar’s wife Alexandra who was taking care of the nation while the Czar focused on the Great War, Having some kind of supernatural healing abilities, helping in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty

Childhood and growing years

Not that long ago, official Russian records were found and the exact date when Grigori was born was finally determined. Prior to this discovery historians thought that he was born anywhere between 1863 and 1873. Nowadays as the records revealed, Grigori’s (Rasputin) birthday was on January 22^nd 1869. Grigori was born in a poor family in a small town in Siberia name Pokrovskoye. Even though that there is not enough information about Rasputin’s early life, the little information available has been obtained by some family members’ testimonies which can be a little inaccurate for obvious reasons.

As a child Grigori had a brother and a sister whose lives ended tragically. Maria considering the way her family members describe her death, it can be determined that there’s a strong possibility that she had epilepsy. As a result from this condition she accidentally fell in a river dying minutes after. Grigori’s brother Dimitri fell into really cold water when he was playing with Grigori but even though he didn’t drowned, Dimitri died soon after as result of respiratory problems.

In regards to Rasputin allege supernatural powers there is a story, whose origins are unknown, that says that Rasputin using his powers identified the man who stole a horse from his dad. As this may be just a simply coincidence or true to some extend, there is no evidence that can proof or deny this story.

During his late teens, Grigori began a journey to several holly places for the Orthodox Christina faith. He first spent around 3 months in a monastery located right at the heart of the Ural Mountains, also known as the Siberian Gateway. During this time of seclusion at the monastery, Grigori says that the Virgin Mary herself appeared right before his eyes an experience which in combination with 3 months of total seclusion turned him into a man of strong religious believes and mysticism. It is also believed that during this time of seclusion Rasputin came into contact with an extremist Christian sect known as Flagellants whose rituals allegedly involved in self infliction of pain and sexual pleasure.mesotheliomalawyers.com is responsible for handling most of the Mesothelioma settlements effectively. People can find the details of the experienced lawyers by visiting this http://www.mesotheliomalawyers.com site.

After this time of seclusion ended, Rasputin returned home where he married Praskovia Fyodorovna Dubrovina when he was 19 years of age. Rasputin had three children with his wife plus one more “illegitimate” child with another woman. 2 of Rasputin sons were named after his death siblings Vladimir and Maria. His other child was named Varvara. By 1901, Grigori continued his Religious pilgrimage as Strannik. He visited Greece and the holly Christian city of Jerusalem. 2 years after he began his journey he came back to Russia to the city of Petrograd, nowadays ST Petersburg. In this city throughout the years he became pretty popular because of his healing powers and ability to foreseen the future.

Decisive years

Before arriving to Petrograd, Rasputin was touring around Siberia when suddenly he heard that the Czar’s son had a weird condition that made him bled uncontrollably. This rare condition was unknown by doctors at the time and were unable to control Alexei’s excessive bleeding. This rare condition name Hemophilia is an illness that was inherited by Alexei and several other European nobles from the Queen Victoria from England who was Alexei’s grand mother. Desperately trying to control their son’s rare disease, the Czar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra began to look for anyone who could stop their son’s uncontrollable condition. When the royal family learned about Rasputin’s great abilities as a religious healer, he was quickly brought to the royal palace in an attempt to stop Alexei’s unstoppable bleeding. The royal family doctors advised Alexei’s parents that if he wasn’t treated by professionals his son could die. Ignoring the doctors’ advices Rasputin was brought to the palace and miraculously Alexei got better after being healed by Rasputin. For obvious reasons Rasputin got instant affection from the royal family and as sudden as he appear Rasputin became an inseparable member of the Romanov family.

Skeptics argued that Rasputin could’ve used the power of hypnosis in a way that the boy would relax causing him to have a wicker pulse resulting in less blood coming out from an injury. Even though that this supernatural healing powers can be explained by science, there is one occasion in which Rasputin wasn’t near the boy and simply by sending a telegram from far away the boy got virtually better. Regarding other methods used by Rasputin to help the boy’s condition, skeptics believe that Rasputin’s advices that allow Alexei to rest instead of being constantly disturbed by doctors could have played an important roll in Alexei’s body to heal itself. Although there could be hundreds of different explanations, the fact is that Rasputin managed to improve Alexei’s health resulting in the unconditional admiration from the Czar and his wife that refer to Rasputin as a friend and as a blessing.

In the years that followed Rasputin’s reputation as the healer who had improved the Czar’s son grew considerably allowing him to be involved in political matters as his advices were extremely important to Alexandra. The Russian empress strongly believed that “God” was communicating with her through Rasputin, “the holy man”. This inexplicable behavior from the empress that listen to everything what Rasputin had to say, cause a lot of discontent and suspicion towards the mysterious healer. In addition to political unconformity, there were people that accused Rasputin of several unmoral acts that did not reflect the life of a religious person as Rasputin preached. He was accused by important members of the Orthodox church of being some kind of a sex addict whose religious attitude was only a way to cover up his real behavior as a degenerate. Rasputin was even accused of raping a nun, however this hasn’t been proven.

These public accusations towards Rasputin were not accepted by him but also were not denied, instead, he strongly believed that sin and penitence were totally linked to each other, therefore he believed that by sinning (meaning to have lots of sex and plenty of alcohol) he would some how prepared to differentiate between good and evil. And that is exactly what he did with his followers, a group of ladies from Russian high society that constantly followed Rasputin ideas. In the other hand, Rasputin was totally against the Great War, he argue that war would bring chaos to the nation and because it wasn’t morally appropriated. As the WWI continued, Rasputin was constantly accused by Russian nationalist (together with the Russian Empress who had German origins), who believed that he was helping the Germans as some kind of spy.

Then after an unsuccessful attempt to bless the Russian army, the “Mad Monk” had a vision in which he saw that the only possible way in which Russia could win the war was if the Czar took control of the army. Following Rasputin “Vision”, Nicholas assumed control of the Russian army resulting in terrible consequences for himself, his family and for the Russian Empire. As Nicholas’ attention focused on the war, the empress became responsible of domestic affairs. She was constantly influenced by his advisor (Rasputin), every decision taken by her was a result of Rasputin ideas. The empress removed several government officials and in their place she filled the positions with people that were approved by Rasputin. The Empress erratic behavior influenced by Rasputin doomed the faith of the Romanov dynasty. This escalated in such way that the Czar was forced to surrender his absolute power as emperor and perform several reforms in Russia. The events that followed known as the October Revolution by the Bolsheviks tragically ended the Romanov dynasty. Before these revolutionary events took place, Rasputin’s fait had already been decided as somebody was planning to murder him.

Rasputin’s murder

As information from another rasputin biography reveal, Rasputin suffered a murder attempt when he visited his hometown, nevertheless Rasputin manage to survive despite the fact that the perpetrator severely injured him on the abdomen. Referring to Rasputin’s actual murder, there are that many variations from the persons that actually killed him that Rasputin’s murder has become a very controversial story

The story behind Rasputin’s death is linked to the fact that his influence over the Russian empress was compromising the Russian empire. As a result a group of aristocrats (Felix Yusupov, Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevichi) devised a plan to stop once and for all the negative influence of Rasputin over the empress. As they knew that Rasputin couldn’t refuse to have women as company, these men lure Rasputin to the Moika Palace by telling him that Princess Irina would have a get together at the palace with her friends. Rasputin unaware of these men real intentions he was taken to the cellar where the group of aristocrats fed them with poisoned food. To their surprise, Rasputin didn’t show any signs of intoxication despite the fact that the food had lots of cyanide. As the plotters could killed Rasputin with the high dosage of cyanide they simply shot at him several times and wrapped his body in a carpet before throwing him into the nearby river. 3 days after his body was found and as the autopsy revealed the cyanide would’ve have been enough to kill him and because of water was found in Rasputin lungs doctors believe that he was still breathing at the time he was tossed into the river even though that he was shot in 4 occasions.

The murder as it is explain above is the way that the perpetrators allegedly murdered Rasputin; nonetheless, his daughter Maria in made an important point that changes everything. Maria argues that after his dad suffered a killing attempt prior to his death, is less likely that he would’ve been poisoned by eating cake or wine as the side effects of Rasputin’s injury months prior his death cause him to avoid food containing sugar. This is why Maria does not believe that the story of his dad getting poisoned with food is true. There are suggestions that explain that the reason why Rasputin did not die after eating poisoned food due to the fact that he was some how immune to poison because of periodic poison consumption throughout the years. A hypothesis that can explain the autopsy results that Rasputin died drowned instead of poisoned.

There are also other stories that contribute to the idea that Rasputin was some kind of evil sorcerer. One of them says that when Rasputin’s body was dug out from his grave by some Petrograd workers during the October Revolution, his body was burning when suddenly it appear as if Rasputin was trying to sit. Skeptics say that this is due to an incorrect cremation of the body. When bodies are cremated (burned), tendons must be cut off before the body catches on fire otherwise the tendons will shrink and the lifeless body would appear as if it move by itself. Even though that most of the evidence from Rasputin murdered disappeared during the Russian civil war, in very recent years some documents were found which totally prove that Rasputin’s accusations of being a sexual pervert are totally false. Raising even more questions about Rasputin’s true nature as an evil sorcerer or perhaps, a holy man?

Edson Arante do Nascimento “Pele” is simply the best football player that has ever walked on earth. Pele’s original name (as it appears in his birth certificate) is Edison instead of Edson, name given by Pele’s parents in honor of the light bulb inventor Thomas Alba Edison. Even thought his parents wanted to name him Edison, years after Pele was born his parents decided to call him Edson but his birth certificate was never modified. Edson was born in October 21^st 1940, nevertheless for unknown reasons Edson himself says that he was born 2 days after they day mentioned in the birth certificate

There is a lot of people that strongly believe that Pele is the greatest football player that ever existed, however there also a substantial amount of people that in contrast believe that Pele was “the king of football”, but Maradona is “the god of football”. These opinion derivates simply by the way these football players performed in the field without considering the amount of goal scored by each one. Pele’s style was simply unique; the way he dribbled was extremely graceful making the audiences think that what he was doing was the easiest thing to do in the world. Every time Pele was on the football field everyone would simply stare at him, people from around the world would simply follow every single move made by Pele in awe. From the first time Pele participated in a football world cup he was only a teen ager, having only 16 years of age. From the very fist moment he began playing people realized the extremely great potential from this young fellow that seemed as if the football was stuck on his feet.

Pele debuted as a professional football player at the incredible young age of 15 in the famous Brazilian football team Santos du Brasil. The following year as a prominent young player he appeared for the first time in an international match with the Brazilian team in 1956 bearing the number “10” on his jersey. By age 17, Pele won his first world cup as part of one of the most famous Brazilian teams ever formed with names such as, Bellini, Nilton Santos, Zito etc. some of the most outstanding awards and recognitions given to Pele include, the Best Athlete of the Century, awarded by the International Olympic Committee, Football Player of the Century, awarded by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS).

As the best football player of all times, Pele is the only player in the planet that has being part of a national team to have won 3 world cups. Pele scored almost 1300 goals in 1363 football matches, allowing him to be the player holding the record for the most goals scored in football history with a total of 760 goals in international matches and 541 in domestic matches. In Brazilian football history Pele also holds the record of the player with the most goals scored, a record that hasn’t been beaten yet despite the fact that Pele retired more than 30 years ago. For obvious reasons Pele is considered to be more than a hero in Brazil, he is the nation’s pride and for football lovers all around the world, Pele is the “King” of football, followed by the “God”, Diego Armando Maradona.

As a retired athlete, Pele makes a living being a sport’s celebrity, making commercials for famous brands and being the football ambassador all over the world. Currently age 71, Pele is the honorary president of a football team in the U.S., also he founded a charitable organization that helps poor children in the poorest Brazilian neighborhoods. As a really nice gesture towards poor kids, Pele dedicated his goal number 1000 to them. Allegedly the nick name “Pele” was given to Edson by people that knew him as the result of hearing him pronounce the word Bile, Edson’s favorite Brazilian player at the time. In an autobiography written by himself, he says that he has no clue whatsoever about an actual meaning of the word “Pele”. His friends also have no idea about the word’s meaning. During his “golden years”, Pele was pretty much the most famous athlete in the planet and probably the best paid.

Quick Facts

Nick name: Pelé, “The King”, “The King of Football”.

Born: October 21^st 1940. *for unknown reasons Edson himself says that his birthday was on October 23^rd

Place of birth:  Três Corações, Brazil

Died: The king is still alive

Profession:  The best football player on earth

Origin: Brazilian with African ancestry

Known for: Being the “king” of football, scoring the most goals that any other player in football history, being the only player in football history to have won 3 world cups.

 Childhood and growing years

 Edison Arantes do Nascimento is the oldest son of Joao Ramos do Nascimento and Celeste Arantes, who had 2 other children. Edison’s parents name him after the famous inventor Thomas Alba Edison but without pronouncing the letter “I”, nevertheless there was a mistake on Edison’s birth certificate which caused certain confusion about Pele’s real name. Although Edson’s parents used to call him “Dico”, years later at school Edson’s school mates began calling him “Pele”, as he recalls, it was the result of the way he pronounced the name of his favorite Brazilian player, “Bile”. Edson said that the more he dislike his new nickname the more his peers would call him “Pele”, a word that has no meaning in Portuguese (Edson’s native language).

When little Edson’s family had economic difficulties resulting in a very limited life as a kid. Sometimes he made some extra bucks by working as a helper in restaurants and tea shops. As one of thousands of children leaving in the poorest neighborhoods (fabelas) in Sao Paulo, one of the few things that would make them forget the fact that they were poor was the love for “football”. Pele together with other kids would play football almost everyday, but since pretty much everyone couldn’t afford to buy and actual football, they would use pretty much anything rounded to play the best sport on earth, “football”. Pele’s parents would even prohibit him to play football because his shoes would wear out faster because of playing football and since his parents didn’t have enough money they couldn’t afford to buy new shoes for him. Young Pele would play football with pretty much anything he could kick, empty bottles, grapefruits, stuffed sucks etc simply because him nor any of his friends couldn’t afford to buy an actual football. Following his passion for football, Edson joined a football club in Sao Paulo name, “Club Atletico Bauru”.

In an average day, Pele was playing like usual on the streets together with other kids and suddenly a famous Brazilian football player (Waldemar de Brito) saw him and instantly became aware of the enormous potential of young Edison. Waldemar knew that young Edison was extremely talented but some technique improvement was needed. Soon after, Waldemar took young Pele to professional Brazilian football team tryouts.

Decisive years
When the famous Brazilian football player Waldemar de Brito discovered Pele, he knew that Pele will become “the best football player the world would ever see”. These were the words used by de Brito when he introduced young Pele to the directors of the famous Brazilian team, Santos (Santos Futebol Clube). 15 year old Pele impressed the football club recruiters by his amazing ability to play the sport. Pele was a genius on the field, the way he dribbled had no comparison, the way he kicked the ball was extremely accurate, it seemed that Pele knew his adversary’s moves allowing him to pass them with extreme ease. Despite Pele’s young age, he was accepted as part of Santos. A year after Pele join Santos, he debuted as a professional player in a friendly match against Corinthians. In this match Pele scored his first goal as a professional player, since the beginning his particular playing style captivated everyone alike. Then the football season officially started and Pele had already secured a starting position in Santos. To everyone’s surprise, Pele score more goals than any other player during his first season.

Less than a year after he sign up a contract with Santos as a professional football player, the coach from the Brazilian national team heard about the amazing abilities of a young individual who was drawing everyone’s attention. Pele’s excellent control over the ball, amazing dribbling abilities and outstanding ability to score goals allow him to wear the Brazilian jersey bearing the number “10”. Pele’s unique playing style was admired by millions at the world cup, several of the most famous and wealthy football clubs in Europe, made extremely appealing offerings to Pele’s team Santos. Although these football clubs offered a lot of money to Pele and Pele’s team, the Brazilian government declared Edson “A Brazilian treasure”, enabling any foreign football team to draft him as a player.

Even though Pele played his entire professional career in Brazil, his football level was incredible, his achievements helped his team become one of the most important and successful teams in Brazil. As a result of the amazing success of Pele’s team, Santos was able to participate in the most important football clubs’ tournament in the continent, La Copa Libertadores. Seeing Pele performing on the field was no less than breathtaking, his “beautiful” and timely goals allow his team to win important matches and win prestigious championships. By age 29, O’Rey (the King) score his goal 1000 in one of the most famous and one of the biggest football stadiums on earth, El Maracana. As every one knew that in this match “the King” would score his 1000^th goal, a huge celebration was pre planned as people expected “O Milesimo” (the thousandth goal). Pele scored his one thousandth goal after a penalty kick against the team Vasco Da Gama. Another remarkable event that took place in this famous football stadium was when Pele scored the incredible goal regarded as “El Gol Placa” (the goal worth being remembered in a plaque), yes this goal was that amazing! And that beautiful! that a plaque had to be commissioned in order to commemorate the most amazing and beautiful goal in the history of the stadium known as “El Maracana”. Even though everyone considers this goal to be “unreal”, Pele himself considers another goal as “his most beautiful goal ever scored”; unfortunately there isn’t available footage of this goal.

The way Pele scored goals and the way he moved on the field resulted in sudden international popularity and admiration. The whole world loved the way “the king” played. As a result of this admiration, Pele’s team Santos toured around the world so the people could admire the distinctive way Pele played and to have a chance to watch a “beautiful” goal score by the “king”. In fact, there was a matched scheduled to take place in an African country in which civil war broke out and surprisingly the parties that were involved in the conflict decided to ceasefire only to admire the way “the king” played football in a friendly match.

At age 32, Pele retired from Brazilian football after being a player of Santos Football Club for 17 seasons. A couple of year later in 1974, Pele signed a contract with a team in northern United States, New York Cosmos. Even though Pele’s greatest years were behind, he helped the New York Cosmos win the 1977 North American Soccer League Championship as well as helping football soccer become more popular in the U.S.

Days before his 37^th birthday Pele officially retired from the football fields in an emotive friendly match between his teams Santos do Brasil and New York Cosmos. In this unforgettable match, the “king” scored 2 goals one with his U.S. team and another with his beloved Santos. This match was televised world wide as the world was interested in the last goodbye of the greatest football player of all times, Edson Arantes do Nascimento “Pele”, “The King of Football”. By the end the match ended, Pele started crying in the middle of the field right before his teammates from both teams quickly rushed to him. Pele said goodbye by going around the football field together with his teammates holding a Brazilian flag in one hand and a Flag from the U.S. in the other.

 The King’s personal life

 Pele married twice in his life, the first time in 1966 and the second time in 1994, unfortunately his marriages didn’t work out well and in current times Pele hasn’t remarried. From his first marriage Pele had 2 daughters and one son and from his second marriage he had twins, a daughter and a son.

 Awards and nominations received by the King

Pele has received has received a vast number of awards and honorary nominations for his successful career as a football player. Some of the most important nominations include, UN ambassador, Minister of Sport, UNESCO “Good Will Ambassador”, Honorary Knight Commander, Honorary New York Cosmos’ president etc.

Pele’s professional achievements include 2 Copa Libertadores Trophies, 10 Campeonatos Paulistas, 5 Taca Brasil, and 8 more important Brazilian tournaments. 1 U.S. championship, 3 world cups (58, 62, 70), 2 Roca Cups (57,63), top scorer 13 times as a Santos and Brazilian national team player, several FIFA awards and the best Athlete of the Century.

 This pele biography tells the story of one of the most famous athletes that has ever walked the face of earth. Pele’s achievements as a very talented football player haven’t been surpassed yet despite the fact that he retired more than 30 years ago. For this and many other reasons Pele is and will always be “The King of Football”.

Pancho villa “el centauro del norte” (the northern centaur) biography

Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula better known as “pancho villa” was born in 1878 in a small town in Durango (a state located in the northern part of mexico) named “la hacienda de Rio Gande” a municipality of “San Juan del Rio”. His parents were Agustin Arango and Micaela Arambula. Agustin unfortunately died when Jose Arango a.k.a. “francisco villa” was only a teen ager. In his teenage years Francisco Villa became the head of the household supporting and taking care of his younger brothers and sister whose employers “hacendados” (name given to hacienda owners. Hacienda= a big extension of land used for crops and the place where several farmers worked and lived for a very small fraction of money) took advantage of her.

Francisco Villa after an attempt to help his sister was forced to abandon her to avoid retaliation from the hacienda owners and from justice itself. After fleeing, Jose Arango Arambula change his name for the name that has given him not only recognition in Mexican history, but recognition all over the world, that remembers him as Pancho Villa.*Jose Arango changed his name to Francisco Villa, but among Mexicans, people named Francisco are also known as “Pancho”. For example, the name Anthony and “Tonny”.

Quick Facts:
Nick name: “el centauro del norte”. That exactly translates in “the centaur of the north”, “La Cucaracha” (cockroach) etc.
Born: June 5^th 1878
place of birth: “la hacienda de Rio Grande”, Durango, Mexico.

Died: July 16^th 1923 in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. Assassinate while driving on the streets of Parral Chihuahua
Profession: Mexican revolutionary fighter that reached the rank of general for the northern Mexican armed forces
Known for: Pancho Villa is the only person that has attacked U.S. soil without significant retaliation and one of the most famous characters in the Mexican revolution of 1910.

Childhood and growing years

 In June 5^th 1878 Pancho villa was born in an hacienda/small town called “hacienda de San Juan del Rio under the name Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula given by his parents Agustin Arango and Micaela Arambula. Jose had 4 younger siblings which had to take care of after his father Agustin died. Pancho attended school for only few years, but after his dad died, he was forced to drop out from school in order to support his family as a farmer.

During Jose’s teenage years he found out that his sister got raped by the hacienda owner “Agustin L. Negrete”. As revenge for his beloved sister, Jose killed Agustin Negrete and in order to escape justice Jose fled his small town to become an outlaw in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains, the north western region of Durango.  After some time as an outlaw, Pancho became part of a group of bandits led by “Ignacio Parra”, a well known thief in the state of Durango. During Pancho’s years as a bandit he was known as “Orango”.

In the early 20^th century (1902), Pancho was arrested for stealing working animals from some farmers as well as for committing other crimes. Because of these acts, Jose was sentenced to die, but thanks to his influence with a powerful individual (Pablo Venezuela, the person who bought stolen property from Pancho) his life was spare but consequently he was forced to join the Mexican army. After some time of joining the Mexican army, Pancho killed an army officer that forced him to flee to the nearby state of Chihuahua to be known as Pancho villa. Some historians are inconsistent about the time when Francisco became known as Pancho Villa. Some said he changed his name after killing his sister rapist and some others argue that he became known as Pancho Villa after killing the army officer in 1903. What historians agree is that Pancho Villa was also known as “La Cucaracha” (cockroach). Because of this nickname, there was a song composed in his honor named “la cucaracha” that mocked some of his actions and his physical condition at the time the song was composed.

In 1910 Pancho changed his perspective about being an outlaw after meeting Abraham Gonzalez, a politician that was against Porfirio Diaz and was part of the ideas represented by Francisco I. Madero. Abraham was able to persuade Pancho that by helping him he was going to cause substantial damage on the “hacendados” as well as to help the poor Mexican farmers who had no rights and owned no land.

Decisive years
By 1910, Mexico was going through a total turmoil after president Porfirio Diaz had remained in power for more than 30 years. As most people don’t know, during Porfirio Diaz years, Mexico’s economy was almost as good as the northern neighbor’s economy (The United States) something that wasn’t very convenient for the U.S. economy at the time. During these years the Mexican economy saw an unprecedented growth thanks to the dictatorial decisions taken by President Porfirio Diaz that pretty much were copied from France and other European countries. Because of this, the U.S. felt that if the Mexican economy’s growth continued as projected, there will be some serious consequences that could spell disaster for the U.S. economy and other U.S. interests that couldn’t be achieved if the Mexican economy got strong or stronger. As it is well known when something affects the interests of the U.S. almost instantly their secret agencies begin gathering intelligence and information to determine how to achieve the U.S. goals without caring for consequences, without caring who will be affected by these actions and the most important thing, doing it without anyone knowing who is the actual perpetrator behind such infamous acts.

In 1910 the U.S. government saw the perfect opportunity to plot against the Mexican government not by using force, but, by using the resource most appreciated by the U.S. and a resource that the Mexican government has lacked the most throughout its history, “Intelligence”. When the U.S. government realized that the vast majority of the Mexican population (poor people, “jornaleros and campesinos”) were unhappy and needed someone, a hero perhaps, so, the U.S. government relied not in a spy or force but an insider, from with in Mexico, someone that knew exactly how Mexican people think and how Mexican people act as well as someone who understood Mexican laws and Mexican politicians at that time. The U.S. government played its cards really well, it found the perfect person for the job, a Mexican citizen that came from a wealthy family that had completed his studies in a U.S. university, this man’s name was Francisco I. Madero. Madero was contacted by the U.S. government in order to explain him the whole plan, obviously Madero wasn’t told the real plans that the U.S. government had in mind, but of course after a generous contribution and fundings it was pretty hard not to accept to contribute in this cause funded by the northern neighbor. The U.S. wanted Madero to become President of Mexico to use him as their personal puppet and do whatever they wanted to without the Mexican people really knowing what was going on. Madero’s main motto was “sufragio efectivo, no reeleccion” that literally translates to “effective vote, no reelection”, which was intended for

President Porfirio Diaz, who had been in power for more than 5 presidential terms, lasting 6 years each.

The approach that the U.S. wanted from Madero towards the Mexican population was by persuasion and chaos ending in a revolution in which the whole country was going to be involved in. Madero knew that this couldn’t be achieved by himself only, so he needed not a person like him, with education and with a wealthy family, he needed someone that could relate to the Mexican people at the time, someone who understood exactly how the “jornaleros and campesinos” thought, someone who could start a revolution without actually knowing the true reason and the real interests behind it, someone that had little or no education, some one like Pancho Villa and “Emiliano Zapata” (Zapata was also a general during the Mexican revolution that fought in the south for the people’s rights, freedom and land. In fact Zapata’s motto was “Tierra y Libertad” that literally translates into “land and freedom”. Emiliano Zapata as Pancho Villa, came from poor families and both had similar experiences during their teenage years, making them perfect candidates for Madero’s and the U.S. government plans of claiming “la silla presidencial”, the presidential chair).

Madero knew exactly how to persuade Pancho, Madero offer Pancho the opportunity to fight against the oppressor, fight for the people, fight for his own cause, and the most important thing, fight with almost unlimited fundings given by Madero who obtain generous fundings from the northern neighbor. Pancho saw an incredible opportunity in Madero’s offering for liberating his people and his country, plus a substantial amount of money that Pancho simply couldn’t refuse. After everything was arranged, the fighting began in 1911, when Pancho’s army help Madero’s army fight against federal forces of President Porfirio Diaz in the battle of Ciudad Juarez (Chihuahua). There were several battles that were won by Pancho’s army mainly because of Pancho’s expertise, fighting tactics and leadership skills. It is believed that the main reason why Pancho was so successful in his campaigns of “la division del norte” (the northern division. Name given to Pancho’s army because it fought in the northern part of mexico) because of Pancho’s knowledge of the terrain he fought on.

After several battles won by Madero’s army, Pancho’s army, Zapata’s army “El ejercito liberador del sur” (the southern liberator army), plus other volunteers, the federal army was defeated and after 33 years, Porfirio Diaz finally gave up the Mexican presidency allowing democratic elections. After Porfirio Diaz lost the war, he was forced into exile. When democratic elections took place in Mexico for the first time after more than 30 years, Madero became Mexico’s president by a considerable amount of votes, but when Madero name “Venustiano Carranza” (a Mexican politician coming from a wealthy family that supported Porfirio Diaz until Diaz refused to make Carranza Coahuila’s governor one year before the Mexican revolution started) as his war secretary, Pancho became very upset and began having second thoughts about supporting Madero.

During the Madero’s presidential term, a Madero’s army commander name Pascual Orozco, found out about Madero’s real intentions and actions that were favoring the U.S. government, starting another rebellion against newly elected president Madero. Pancho despite the fact that he had second thoughts about Madero, aid him together with “Victoriano Huerta” (a Mexican military officer that wanted to become Mexico’s dictator. Huerta ordered his men to assassin Madero in the infamous events of “La decena tragica”, the tragic tenth.) against Pascual Orosco’s revolt.

When Pancho and Victoriano Fought together, Victoriano realized that Pancho could compromise his plans to become Mexico’s president. Because of this, Victoriano accused Pancho of perpetrating insubordinate acts and stealing property. Victoriano later realized that his plans didn’t work as expected, so he got Pancho sentenced to death by a shooting squad. Allegedly, few minutes before Pancho was about to be killed, the army officer commanding the shooting squad received a telegram from President Madero himself lowering Pancho’s sentence to imprisonment only, allowing Pancho to escape death once more. In 1912, after spending a small amount of time in jail, Pancho escape and decided to head towards the U.S. only to come back to Mexico to fight once more against Victoriano Huerta. In 1913, Pancho was declared provisional governor of the state of Chihuahua, a situation that will play a very important roll later in time in the war against Victoriano huerta’s regime.

Pancho Villa’s involvement in the second part of the Mexican Revolution

After spending some time in the U.S. Pancho returned to Mexico when he found out that Madero had been assassin by Victoriano’s orders. Pancho entered Mexico passing through the state of Chihuahua with only 8 men; later thousands of volunteers join Pancho’s army to help overthrown Victoriano Huerta from power. It was at this time when Pancho created a sub division of “El Ejercito Constitucionalista de Mexico” (Mexico’s constitutionalist army), name “La division del norte” to fight against Victoriano, which became Mexico’s president by unconstitutional means. This army had such name because its main intention was to give the power to the right person by constitutional means mentioned in “La Constitucion de 1857” (1857 constitution). Zapata and other important generals at the time (Pablo Gonzalez and Alvaro Obregon), joined Pancho in the fight against Victoriano. In March 7^th 1913 Pancho’s anger towards Victoriano grew bigger after Victoriano ordered Abraham Gonzalez (Pancho’s mentor in earlier years) to be executed. The war against Victoriano was the time where Pancho’s fame and military tactics and expertise grew unprecedented.

During the war against Victoriano, Pancho devised pretty ingenious ways to get money to fund his army thus funding the war against Victoriano. These methods used by Pancho despite being a little unorthodox, were key in overthrowing Victoriano from power. Some of these methods used by Pancho included the creation of money notes (an action that was possible because Pancho was Chihuahua’s provisional governor at the time), forced loans from “hacendados” (hacienda owners), robberies, and other illegal activities very characteristic from Pancho Villa. The constitutional army also received fundings from U.S. president at the time Woodrow Wilson that supported Venuztiano Carranza’s war against Victoriano. Venuztiano at some point ordered Pancho to attack certain cities in the northern part of Mexico, which Pancho realized that were backed by selfish intentions of seizing the power. Because of this, Pancho resigned from the Constitutionalist army for only a brief time before being convinced by his army men to return to direct the attack against Victoriano’s army in “Saltillo” (the city capital of Coahuila state located in northern Mexico) as ordered by Venuztiano. During the time Pancho was fighting Victoriano’s army, he became that popular in the U.S. that he received several offers from Hollywood to make movies about his life and his actions during the war that gave Pancho and his army extra money to support “La Revolucion Mexicana” (the revolution). Pancho was so popular in some border cities in the U.S. that some El Paso banks accepted his money notes with the same value as Mexican currency (“Peso”) which at the time were made of gold and silver.

By the time the revolution was won over a year later in July 1914, by the “El Ejercito Constitucionalista”, Pancho together with Zapata and other “Revolucionarios” (revolutionaries) marched towards Mexico City to occupied “El palacio presidencial” (the presidential palace). When they reached the presidential palace, Pancho sat on the presidential chair next to Zapata and others in which a crucial conversation took place between Pancho and Zapata that change the course of Mexican history. A very famous picture was taken that day that depicts Pancho, Zapata and other revolutionaries occupying the presidential palace. When Pancho first sat on the presidential chair, he was pretty much overwhelmed about what he had accomplished together with Zapata and other volunteers, Pancho confess to Zapata that the presidential chair was really big to be occupied by him. In other words, Pancho could have become Mexico’s president, but when he realized that he wasn’t capable of such task, he pretty much surrender the power to Carranza.

Pancho Villa and Venuztiano Carranza

 After Victoriano Huerta was defeated by the constitutionalist army commanded by Pancho Villa, Alvaro Obregon (Alvaro Obregon was Venuztiano Carranza’s General fighting in a different front against the federal army from Victoriano Huerta. After the war against Victoriano, Alvaro Obregon fought against Pancho’s and Zapata’s army in different battles. Alvaro Obregon Agreed with Venuztiano Carranza’s views as the elected Mexican president) and Emiliano Zapata, Pancho realized that Venuztiano had similar characteristics as dictator as Porfirio Diaz who had been thrown out only a few years back, making Pancho very upset and disappointed so he began fighting against Venuztiano’s Army commanded by Alvaro Obregon who previously fought together with Pancho and Zapata against Victoriano’s federal army.

Almost at the end of 1914, the same year that the constitutionalist army won the war against Victoriano’s army, Pancho gathered his men to begin the fight against Venuztiano. Pancho’s main reason to fight Venuztiano was that Pancho knew that Venuztiano would not respect his political approach to have a democratic government, (the main reason why the Mexican revolution started) and indeed after Venuztiano became the leader of the revolution, he did not follow what was agreed at a national convention that took place in the state of Aguascalientes. In this convention all the important generals and commanders that fought Victoriano’s army gathered to determine Mexico’s future as a democratic nation. It was in this convention that Venuztiano agreed to allow democratic elections in Mexico, but after he gain the power, Venuztiano suddenly change his mind and his true political views as a dictator surfaced making Pancho extremely angry. Zapata, who also shared Pancho’s ideas of Venuztiano as a new dictator, decided to fight Venuztiano together with Pancho. Zapata was also very suspicious about Venuztiano’s real intentions, making him join forces with Pancho ending again in civil war that will last several years, but now against a different dictator, Venuztiano Carranza.

 After the civil war began, Venuztiano knew that the only way to defeat Pancho’s and Zapata’s army was by using the expertise and military tactics of his best general, Alvaro Obregon. Even though Pancho’s and Zapata’s army was way better, Alvaro Obregon was a better army tactician, one of the most important factors that determined the outcome of the civil war between Venuztiano and Pancho. In 1915, Alvaro encounter Pancho’s and Zapata’s army at “La Batalla de Celaya” (battle of Celaya) in central Mexico, were Pancho’s army suffered thousands of casualties and thousands of captured men. Is estimated, that in this battle alone, Pancho lost more than 4 thousand “revolucionarios” and more than 6 thousand men captured. Later that year in April 29 1915, Pancho encounter Alvaro’s armies once again at “La Batalla de Trinidad” (battle of Trinidad) were Pancho was terribly defeated. 6 months after, Pancho decided to head north to Sonora where Venuztiano’s army commanded by Alvaro had their main forces. By the time Pancho reached “Agua Prieta” (Sonora), he realized that Venuztiano had reinforced the state pretty well defeating Pancho’s army yet again at “La Battalla de Agua Prieta” (battle of Agua Prieta). At this battle Pancho’s army suffered a substantial amount of casualties bringing the remaining 1,500 men’s morale down. Soon after the remaining men became discontent of Pancho and turned on him. Consequently the survivors of the Battle of Agua Prieta accepted an amnesty presented by Venuztiano. In the following month, some of the best Pancho’s combatants were captured and executed, while others decided to turn on Pancho accepting Venuztiano’s amnesty. Is estimated, that only a small fraction of Pancho’s men (approximately 200 men) remained loyal to him. Pancho together with his remaining men decided to flee to the mountains of Chihuahua State to avoid certain death. Even though Pancho’s army was extremely diminished, they did not desist in continuing fighting Venuztiano’s army. Pancho had very few chances of defeating Venuztiano’s army mainly for 3 reasons, Venuztiano at the time that the civil war began had control of 2 states, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, which had 2 of the most important ports in Mexico allowing Venuztiano have more fundings for his army to battle Pancho’s army. The second reason is that Venuztiano’s army commanded by Alvaro Obregon was better prepared and disciplined that Pancho’s army mainly composed of farmers or individuals with no prior fighting experience.

At the end of 1915, the U.S. government accepted Venuztiano as the legitimate Mexican president, cutting off supplies of ammunition, money and weapons, making Pancho extremely angry. Pancho after learning about Woodrow Wilson’s position favoring Venuztiano’s presidency, decided to retaliate against the U.S. by plotting several attacks in U.S. towns. Despite the fact that Pancho had lost thousands of men a had no longer an army, he decided to gather more men to keep fighting Venuztiano’s government and the U.S.

Pancho Villa attacks U.S. soil

 For many years the U.S. government supported Pancho’s actions against Porfirio Diaz because he presented a huge treat against the U.S. economy that needed some kind of economical boost to fight WW1. The U.S. government knew that war in Europe was inevitable as well as taking part in it and after fighting a war against Spain, the U.S. economy was in desperate need of money in order to fight the Germans in WW1. It was obvious that the U.S. wasn’t interested in helping Mexicans overthrown Porfirio Diaz from power in order for Mexicans to have democratic elections, rather, the U.S. government was interested in overthrowing Diaz so a person like Madero or Venuztiano Carranza (bribed by the U.S. government) gain the Mexican presidency to support U.S interests (finance the imminent war against Germany). By helping Pancho Villa and other “Revolucionarios” (that had no clue whatsoever about the U.S. government real intentions) the U.S. government was able to fulfill its goals of placing a Mexican president who was going to support the U.S. interests.

After Pancho’s help was no longer needed by the U.S., almost instantly the U.S. government stopped supporting Pancho’s campaing against Diaz, Huerta and Carranza. For obvious reasons, Pancho decided to attack the U.S. after feeling betrayed by the U.S. government. By the time Pancho stop receiving help from the U.S. it made fighting Venuztiano’s forces nearly impossible. After gathering approximately 500 men, Pancho together with his Lieutenants began planning the attacks against the U.S. By the late 1915’s early 1916’s, some of Pancho’s attention focused on making as much damage to the U.S. as possible, but without forgetting about his war against Venuztiano Carranza.

In March 1916, a group of 100 “Villistas” (Pancho Villa’s supporters) attacked Columbus New Mexico causing serious damage. There is certain discrepancy about the Columbus New Mexico raid ordered by Pancho Villa. Some said that the reason behind this attack was because Pancho had purchased some defective ammunition from the U.S. causing Pancho to loose important battles against Venuztiano’s army and because Woodrow Wilson officially recognized Venuztiano Carranza as the legit Mexican president. Others believe that Pancho was in desperate need of resources to continue fighting Venuztiano’s regime, and by attacking Columbus he would get the supplies needed to continue his campaign which makes a lot sense from a military point of view. There were several other attacks that took place in U.S. territory, but haven’t been officially attributed to Pancho Villa’s forces (“Los Villistas).

After the attack on Columbus New Mexico was officially confirmed to be perpetrated by “Villistas” following Pancho Villa’s orders, President Woodrow Wilson order John Pershing (U.S. army General) and 10 thousand, men to take Pancho into custody. Unfortunately this attempt to catch Pancho Villa did not succeed, mainly because the Mexican population wasn content of the fact that, U.S. troops were in Mexican territory. However, 190 “Villistas” were killed during this attempt to catch Pancho and making pay for his infamous actions on U.S. soil.

Important battles won and lost by Pancho Villa:

• First, second and third battle of Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua (W,W,L)
• Battle of Tierra Blanca (W)
• Battle of Chihuahua (W)
• Battle of Ojinaga (W)
• Battle of torreon (W)
• Battle of Gomez Palacio (W)
• Battle of Saltillo (W)
• Battle of Celaya (L)
• Battle of Zacatecas. By far the bloodiest of all battles. This battle was decisive in overthrowing Victoriano from the power (W)
• Battle of Trinidad (L)
• Battle of Agua prieta (L)
• Battle of Parral (W)

Pancho villa’s personal life and other achievements

Pancho Villa dedicated most of his life fighting, but during Pancho Villa’s life he had a lot of mistresses. Legally, Pancho married Maria Luz Corral on May 29 1911; nevertheless, he was involved in countless marriage ceremonies. Pancho had only to children, a daughter that died only years of being born, and a boy name Hipolito. Very little is known about Pancho’s son. When Pancho was assassin, 5 different women together with Maria Luz Corral claimed to be Pancho’s widows. When Pancho lived in Chihuahua, he owned several butcher shops and livestock. Pancho Villa was a very joyful and sort of charismatic man; he loved to drink “Aguardiente” and tequila. Pancho Villa was a person whose life was shaped by the abuse of the rich over the poor. As the Chihuahua governor, Pancho reestablished order in the state, he lower the prices of many different first necessity articles, he also founded “El Insituto Cientifico y Literario” and issued money notes that were accepted as currency.

 Pancho Villa’s assassination

After many years of fighting for a democratic government, Pancho saw a lot of bloodshed and had lost several of his friends in the Mexican revolution. Nevertheless he was committed to keep fighting against Venuztiano’s regime at any cost. He continued fighting until mid-1920’s, when Alvaro Obregon sympathizers killed Venuztiano Carranza and Venuztiano’s cabinet and supporters. Before Venuztiano was killed on May, 1920, Pancho fought several other battles against Venuztiano’s army, but the third Battle of Ciudad Juarez was his last one. After losing the third Battle of Juarez, Pancho accepted a cease fire against Venuztiano’s army. Despite the fact that Pancho accepted to stop fighting, he continued to do so but with little success. When Venuztiano Carranza was killed, Pancho was finally ready to stop fighting for good and finally retire.

On July, 1920, Pancho contacted Mexican intern President “Adolfo de la Huerta” to discuss peace to discuss an appealing retirement plan. Only 6 days after Pancho contacted Mexican intern President, Adolfo offered him a huge “Hacienda” in Canutillo Chihuahua together an allowance of 500,000 “pesos de oro” (gold pesos). The remaining Villistas stayed with Pancho in his Canutillo Hacienda. Adolfo also allowed Pancho to have 50 of his men to serve as his personal bodyguards.

On July 20^th, 1923, Pancho Villa was assassin in “Parral” Chihuahua, when he was in town to withdraw some money from the bank to pay his hacienda employees. Most of the times when Pancho went outside his hacienda, his bodyguards accompanied him, when Pancho was killed only his main bodyguards were with him. When Pancho was on his way back to his hacienda, a man on the street randomly stood in front of his car (a dark 1919 Dodge roadster) and shouted “Viva Villa”, seconds after, 7 men that were situated in strategic positions shot Pancho’s car multiple times. Pancho got killed instantly together with the bodyguards that were with him at the time. Only one man survived the attack. It is believed that Pancho was killed because he was interested in running for the Mexican presidency, a very inconvenient situation for “Plutarco Elias Calles” (Mexican presidential candidate). Others believe that his numerous enemies that Pancho made throughout his life hire the assassins that killed Pancho.

 Pancho was buried in Parral Chihuahua but a tomb was also erected in Mexico City as a memorial for Pancho Villa the Mexican legend. *this Pancho Villa Biography contains information that has not been officially corroborated simply because is related to details that are not supposed to be known by the general public.

Angelina Jolie is an award-winning movie actress, former model, and UN Good Will Ambassador. She is popularly cited as “The Most Beautiful Woman” in the world by the media.

Quick Facts

Nickname: Angie, AJ

Date of Birth: 4^th June, 1975

Place of Birth:  Los Angeles, California

Origin: Dutch and French Canadian

Profession: Actress, Director, Producer, Writer, Humanitarian

Known for: Awards-winning Actress

Website: www.angelinajolieweb.org

 Childhood and Growing Years

She was born Angelina Jolie Voight in LA, California into a family of actors. Her father Jon Voight, was an actor (who later won an Academy Award and also a Golden Globe) and Marcheline Bertrand, who was also an actress. She has an older brother James Haven, who is also currently an actor/producer. Her parents separated a year after her birth, and her mother gave up her acting career to raise her children.

She was a movie buff since childhood, and regularly used to watch movies with her mother, which she later said inspired her to become an actress. She collected snakes and other reptiles as a child; she was always fascinated by them. She had many pet lizards and snakes, and she named her favorite lizard Vladimir, and her fav pet snake Harry Dean Stanton. She appeared as a child actor in her first movie alongside her father – Lookin’ to Get Out. She enrolled in acting classes at age eleven and trained there for two years, appearing in various stage shows.

She started working as a model at the age of fourteen, landing modeling projects in New York, Los Angeles and London. She aspired to become a funeral director, and it was during this time that she wore black all the time, and expanded her knife collection and experimented with drugs.

She graduated from Beverly Hills High School, and admitted to always having felt out of place among the kids who came from rich backgrounds.

She suffered from bouts of suicidal depression when she was a teenager, and this continued throughout her early twenties. She started experimenting with drugs, and by the time she had turned 20, she had already tried all the drugs available on the street, and had started cutting herself. She attributes that to being unable to emotionally connect with anyone, saying that cutting herself, and feeling the pain, made her feel alive. She always had a complicated relationship with her dad, as she blamed his infidelity for destroying her parents’ marriage.

Claim to Fame

She started starring in her brother’s student films when she was a teenager. She started to learn from her father, how he used to observe people so that he can act like them.

She officially began her career in movies in 1993, with her debut in Cyborg 2. She was very unhappy with the movie and did not audition for any films for an year. After that, she starred in two movies Without Evidence and Hackers in 1995, both of which failed to impress at the Box Office. For the next 4 years, she appeared in close to 7 movies, all of which were not received well, but her performance was appreciated in most of them.

Her first major breakthrough came when she starred in a biographical movie about George Wallace. She won an Academy Award for her performance in that movie, and after this her career prospects significantly improved. In 1998, she also starred in a HBO series Gia, which portrayed the life of supermodel Gia Carangi. She separated from her then-husband Jonny Lee Miller, and also decided to give up acting as she felt she had nothing more to contribute to the industry. After she gained recognition and after the awards she received, she decided to come back to the acting world.

She starred in many movies until her next big break in 1999 with Girl, Interrupted, to be later followed by a small role in the Nicholas Cage film, Gone in 60 seconds.

Her role as the main protagonist in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, earned her international fame, and though the movie in itself was not well-received by critics, it was an international B.O hit.

After that she starred in a slew of movies, the most notable of which are Original Sin (2001) with Antonio Banderas, a sequel of her Tomb Raider movie, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), and opposite Brad Pitt in the action comedy Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) which went on to become one of the biggest movies of 2005. She also co-starred in a 2008 movie Wanted, which was another international hit.

Presently

The twice divorced Angelina, currently lives with current steady boyfriend, Brad Pitt, with whom she has six children, three of them fathered by Pitt. She gave birth to her first child, Shiloh Nouvel, in 2006 in Namibia. She then had twins, a boy and a girl - Knox Léon, and Vivienne Marcheline in 2008. She also has three adopted children, Maddox (from Cambodia in 2002), Pax (from Vietnam in 2007), and Zahara (from Ethiopia in 2005).

She is currently one of the highest paid Hollywood actresses, and is the most sought after celebrity for brand endorsements. She is associated with major brands like Louis Vuitton and a lot of international brands as well.

She still does a lot of humanitarian work, and makes regular generous contributions to various children-based charities. She has been touted as one of the world’s most beautiful women by People Magazine, and she has been voted one of the sexiest women alive by various others. Her relationship with Brad Pitt has always been the subject of intense media scrutiny, and continues to be so.

Awards and Nominations

She won multiple awards for performances in her movies Gia and Girl, Interrupted. Some of her other notable movies include George Wallace, Playing by Heart, A Mighty Heart and Changeling, all of which earned her nominations for a range of prestigious awards.

She won an Academy Award in 1999 as Best Supporting actress for her role in Girl, Interrupted. She also won three Golden Globe Awards, in three consecutive years – 1998, 1999 and 2000 for Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress and then again for Best Supporting Actress. She also has two Screen Actors Guild Awards to her name.

Personal Quotes

“I don’t believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don’t judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free.”

“Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from over mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.”

“We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”

“I am odd-looking. I sometimes think I look like a funny Muppet.”

“I never felt settled or calm. You can’t really commit to life when you feel that.”

“I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – That’s when I get in trouble.”

responsible for various attacks on civilians and military organizations of many western countries. He was most notorious for being responsible for the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in the U.S on September 11^th, 2001, and he was also one of the most wanted terrorists by the F.B.I (with a $25 million reward on his capture) before he was killed in Pakistan in a covert operation by the U.S military operatives ordered by Barack Obama.

Quick Facts

Nickname: Geronimo, Mujahid Sheikh, Lion Sheikh

Date of Birth: 10^th March, 1957

Place of Birth:  Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Origin: Saudi Arabian

Profession: Islami Militant and Terrorist

Known for: Terrorist Activities

Website: http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/usama-bin-laden

Childhood and Growing Years

Osama bin Laden, was born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, to a wealthy family. His father, Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a billionaire of Yemeni origin, who was a wealthy construction magnate, investor and astute businessman with a close relationship with the royal Saudi family. His mother was Alia Ghanem, who was Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden’s tenth wife. Osama bin Laden was born on March 10^th, 1957 in Saudi Arabia in the town of Riyadh. He was the only child born to his parents, and they were divorced soon after his birth. He was the seventh child of his father, who fathered a total of 50 children from his 22 marriages. His father was a billionaire, and bin Laden inherited around $30 million after his father’s death in September 1967.

Bin Laden was raised in a religious and rigid household, and he was a Wahhabi Muslim. Osama studied at the Al-Thager Model School, which was one of the most elite high schools in Jeddah at the time, from 1968 to 1976. By the age of 14, he was clearly acknowledged as a brilliant albeit shy student. Because of his outstanding academics, he was invited to be a part of a small Islamic study group for extra credits. It was here that he memorized the Qoran in its entirety, and it was also here that he got introduced to the concept of a violent jihad. He and a group of friends started adopting an activist approach towards Islam, advocating the implementation of a pure Islamic law at their school, dressing in imitation of the prophet etc.

He got married at the age of 18 to his first cousin Najwa Ghanem, in Syria. He then went on to study business administration and Economics at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, where there are varying accounts of his graduation. While some believe he got a degree in Public Administration, others believe he studied Civil Engineering which would be useful to him when he joined his father’s business.

He is said to have married a total of 6 times, and fathered around 20-25 children. Most of his wives and children are said to have fled to Iran after the September 11 attacks, where their movements are currently closely monitored by Iranian Authorities.

Claim to Fame

Osama bin Laden, soon after graduating college in 1979, made his way to Pakistan and met a few refugees and leaders in the Soviet War in Afghanistan and was inspired by them. He started collecting supplies and funds to support the mujahideen in Afghanistan to facilitate them in the war. He did this for quite a few years, helping the mujahideen grow stronger, and his trips to Afghanistan increased in frequency. By then he had inherited his father’s fortune, and he used this money, and his status in his country to gather support from locals in the war. The Afghan Jihad was also being backed by money and weapons from the U.S Military, and after the withdrawal of Soviets from Afghanistan, he felt betrayed as his contribution was overshadowed by that of the U.S. in 1989.

Meanwhile, he had also started Al-Qaeda in 1988, as he wanted a more military role and say in Afghanistan. He started this formal group with its focal point as jihad.  This was in one way responsible for the withdrawal of Soviet troops, and

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Iraq in 1990, and he immediately sent letters to the king suggesting a plan of action on how to deal with the situation, and offered the help of his men, and suggested various military tactics which would ensure their victory. But the Saudi government enlisted the help of the U.S military in this regard. He took it as a personal affront, and he was vociferously discontent about the presence of U.S troops on Saudi soil. This led to his exile from Saudi Arabia in 1992, after which he lived in Sudan.

Attacks

His first attack was a bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen in which two civilians were killed. This was the first organized attack from his end which justified his ideology of killing innocent people in the name of jihad. They believed that the killing of innocent people who are in the vicinity of “the enemy” is justified as that person would find his true reward after death, by going to heaven or hell, as they deserve. This fatwa (directive) was circulated amongst the Al-Qaeda.

He funded various militant groups in countries like Egypt, Afghanistan and Algeria, where he encouraged Islamist groups to start war rather than attempt peaceful negotiations with the governments of those countries.

His next major attack was the Luxor Massacre, in Egypt on 17^th November 1997, which resulted in the death of around 62 civilians. He supported an Islamist organization in Egypt which was trying to undermine the 1997 Non-violent peace initiatives which were in place and to propel the Egyptian economy into regression.

He was also strengthening his ties with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and carried out a few successful attacks there helping the Taliban kill thousands of people.

Osama bin Laden first came to the notice of the U.S due to the simultaneous bombings of the U.S Embassies that were carried out in 1998 on his command. Hundreds of people were killed in these explosions.

He truly became infamous with the organized attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the partial destruction of the Pentagon in Virginia. He is said to be the mastermind behind the attacks that was arguably one of the most sudden and destructive attacks in U.S history, causing massive loss of life and property. Close to 3000 people were killed in these explosions, which were carried out by hijacking four commercial planes, and crashing them into these buildings. He personally claimed responsibility for recruiting and training the 19 hijackers responsible for the attack, in a video released a few days after the attack.

This act of his spawned the War on Terrorism initiative by the U.S, to put an end to these wrongful acts by terrorists. The major focus of the war was the Taliban in Afghanistan, and to remand the operatives of Al-Qaeda which was responsible for this attack. Three administrations of the U.S government continued this initiative, and was ultimately successful in the capture and deayth of this Most Wanetd Fugitive.

Presently

After almost a decade in hiding, the manhunt for Osama came to an end in May, 2011 when a covert military operation by the C.I.A and U.S Navy Seals found the elusive Laden in his luxury hideout, a private residence in Abottabad, Pakistan. He was killed in a gun battle following his discovery, and he was shot in the eye.

Following his death, he was then taken to Afghanistan, and after confirmation of identity, he was buried at sea as there was no country willing to accept to bury the remains of a wanted terrorist on its soil. The Al-Qaida acknowledged the death of their leader a few days after the news became public, and also vowed to retaliate against the death of their leader.

Personal Quotes

“I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don’t want to die humiliated or deceived.”

“We treat them in the same way. Those who kill our women and innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they refrain.”

“I support any Muslims, whether here or abroad.”

“America is a great power possessed of tremendous military might and a wide ranging economy but all this is built on an unstable foundation, which can be targeted, with special attention to its obvious weak spots. If America is hit in one hundredth of these weak spots, God willing, it will stumble, wither away and relinquish world leadership.”

Getting to Know: Justin Bieber – The International Teen Idol

Born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Justin Drew Bieber is a global teen singing and style sensation.

He was ranked number 2 in the Forbes June 2011 exclusive list of all celebrities who are Best-Paid and aged below thirty years.

Quick Facts:

• Nick Name: JBiebs
• Date of Birth: March 1^st, 1994
• Place of Birth: Stratford, Ontario, Canada
• Origin: Canada
• Profession: R/B singer, songwriter, actor and teen idol
• Known for: Music hits and his inimitable hairstyle, predictably named “The Bieber”
• Website: www.justinbiebermusic.com

Childhood and Growing Up years:

Justin born to Jeremy and Pattie was raised by a single mother, who was just 18 years old when she was pregnant. He has a half-sister Jazmyn and half-brother Jaxon. His dad, Jeremy and his mother Pattie later split and his dad continues to live in Canada.

From a very early age, Justin showed a keen ear for music and soon taught himself to play many musical instruments including the piano, guitar, trumpet, drums and violin.

He finished school with a high GPA score. This was after changing 3 schools vis. Avon Public School, Bedford Public School and Downie Central Public Schools and finally resorting to homeschooling.

 Claim to fame:

At age 12, in the year 2007, Justin participated and came second in a local talent competition for gifted youngsters. After this, his mother, Pattie Mallette posted his singing videos on a popular site on the internet, YouTube. In 2008, these videos caught the attention of a local talent scout named Scooter Braun. This soon prompted Braun to set up an audition for Justin, in Atlanta, with popular singer, actor and producer, Usher Raymond.

Usher was much impressed with Justin’s videos and singing talent and so arranged to sign a record deal with him.

Scooter Braun then became Justin’s manager and had a contract for Justin with Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG) which was a joint business between Braun and Usher. He also got a contract in place with Island Records.

His first single, ‘One Time’ released in 2009 and ranked in the Canadian top ten as well as in the top fifty songs in many international music charts. When he released his debut album, ‘My World’, it skyrocketed to become a ‘platinum record’ in the U.S. the album was also an international bestseller.

This debut album had seven hit singles that went on to feature on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

This led to the launch of a 3-D concert film – ‘Justin Bieber – Never Say Never’. This grossed $12.4 million on the first day, when it opened in over three thousand theatres, simultaneously.

In 2010, Justin released his first studio release called My World 2.0. This album debuted locally in the number one slot and within the top ten songs in various international music charts. In the U.S., very soon this album gained ‘platinum’ status.

Justin also released a remixed version of My World and My World 2.0 titled ‘My Worlds Acoustic’.

In 2011, the second full studio album ‘Under the Mistletoe’ was released and debuted at the number one position in the Billboard 200. Within a week of its international release, this album had sold over 210,000 copies.

Presently:

Justin Bieber, now a worldwide superstar and youth icon, spends his time travelling around the world, recording albums and having music concerts. He acted in many movies and TV series. His guest appearance in CSI: Crime Scene Investigator in 2000 is still remembered by his loyal fan base.

His fans call them “Bliebers” and like to think have “Bieber Fever”.

Bieber is busy recording his third studio album titled, ‘Believe’. He has the opportunity to sing along many famous singers such as Sean Kingston, Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown and Will.i.am, Usher and many more.

He has taken the world music stage by storm and has made a mark for himself. Now Justin’s albums are instant hits and his videos give stiff competition to well-established artists in the Pop and R/B genre. It is estimated that in the year 2010 alone he earned about $51 million. He has also lent his name to a fragrance named ‘Someday’. In addition, Bieber has his own line of merchandise like nail paints and toothbrushes. These are massive hits with his immense worldwide fan base.

Further, Justin strives to do his bit for charity and he campaigns for many known and lesser known charitable organizations around the globe.

Awards and Nominations Received:

Bieber, has since his childhood days received many prizes, awards and accolades for his multifaceted musical talents.

He won the Artist of the Year award in the 2010 American Music Awards.

Further, at the 53^rd Grammy Awards, he was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best New Artist.

At the 2011 Teen Choice Awards, he won four awards like Top Male Hottie, Choice Male Music Artist and so forth.

At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Justin won the award of Best Male Video for ‘U Smile’.

Trivia:

• Justin can do the ‘moonwalk’.
• He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Justin considers the best and weirdest gift from a fan is a rubber golf club.
• Likes to use his money wisely and buy expensive gadgets like a Macbook Pro.
• Wherever Justin travels his mother, Pattie, accompanies him.
• Loves basketball, hockey and videogames.
• Likes social networking sites like Twitter, where he tweets on a daily basis.
• The single, ‘Baby Baby’ is still the most viewed and popular video on YouTube today.
• Bieber is a faithful Christian and admits t having long talks with Jesus.
• Justin is left-handed.
• He once owned a dog called Sam.
• He can speak French fluently.
• Bieber is fond of vitamin water, cherry cheesecake, spaghetti, and Captain Crunch cereal and Sour Patch Kids candy.
• Justin likes to write and sing songs about puppy love, parent’s splitting up and growing up.

 Personal Quotes:

“I’m crazy, I’m nuts. Just the way my brain works. I’m not normal. I think differently. My mind is always racing.”

“You guys are evil. Canada’s the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and you don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.”

“I want to be a young dad. By 25 or 26 I want to see myself, like, married or start looking for a family.”

The nation league pennant winning baseball player-Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson was named as Jack Roosevelt Robinson and he was born in the year 1919 in a sharecropper’s family. The mother’s name of Robinson was Mallie Robinson and she worked hard to raise Jackie and other 4 children.  It was the only black family that lived in that block. After working hard and going through several obstacles and harassment, Robinson became the first baseball player in the Africans-Americans who played for the major league. Because of the financial problems, Robinson joined the army and gave his service for 2 years and became as a second lieutenant. Because of the racial discrimination he was arrested while he was in the service but again he was given a honorable discharge after knowing the details and facts of Robinson.  In 1946 he got married to Rachael Isum who was a nursing student. He had three children.  The life of the Robinsons was considered as the important matter in the history of America. The 50th anniversary of Robinson was celebrated in the year 1997. He was the only person who fought against the racism and succeeded in gaining the civil rights. The Post office of the United States has given him the honor by considering him as the subject of the commemorative postage stamp.

Quick Facts:

• nick name: Jackie
• date of birth: 31st January 1919
• place of birth: Cairo, Georgia
• origin: Cairo
• profession: Baseball player
• known for: The first African American who played the major league base ball
• website:  www.jackierobinson.com

Childhood and growing years

Jackie Robinson was born on 31 st January 1919 at Cairo in Georgia. Robinson was the first person as the African-American who played the major league baseball match. He strived hard for the civil rights to the black athletes. In 1957 he went through the retirement and at that time he has around .311 of battering average. He was a baseball player and at the same time civil rights activist.  He was youngest among all the five children in their family and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. He completed his education in Pasadena junior college with schooling in John Muir High School. He was a great athlete from school time and showed interest in playing sports like baseball, track, basketball and football. He was the famous player for baseball and gained this fame in the year 1938.

Mathew Robinson was the elder brother of Robinson and he gave inspiration to Robinson to participate in the athletics. Later he continued his further studies in California University and he was the first person to gain the varsity letters for the 4 sports.  Despite of this success, he left the California University because of the financial crisis. Later he travelled to Honolulu to play for the football match. But even this journey was unsuccessful because of the World War II. Then he served as the lieutenant for the U.S. Army for 2 years. Later he entered the major league baseball team and played for that team.

Claim to fame

After the honorable discharge from army, Robinson was selected for the baseball team. In those days, whites and the African- Americans played separately in the separate leagues. At first, Robinson played for the Negro leagues and after some duration, he was selected for the major league baseball. He travelled to Florida to get some training with royals and his first game was played on 17^th march 1945.

The person who has selected Robinson for the major league already knows that he has to face some problems of racism. So has taken a promise from the Robinson that he will never fight back with the team members when there is a point of racism. The team members refused this person to be a part of their team and the Robinson family has to go through several threats during his play. Despite of all these obstacles, Robinson remained strong and gained highest batting average of all the team members. Even after playing for the major league, the people continued to harass Robinson. But Robinson still remained with the team and only his loyalty has supported him to have success in his career.

Almost all the tea, members including the captain of the team defended the play of Robinson In their team. In the mean while Robinson strived hard for the civil rights and he succeeded in getting the justice and the racial strife was put aside. He proved his talent in his way of play and he always helped the team to gain success. He even achieved the award of the most valuable player in National League. Very soon he became as the hero of that sport and the persons who criticized Robinson started to praise him for his work. He was the highest paid person in the history and this success of an African American guy has opened the doors for the other players.

Presently

After the success of the Robinson in the baseball team, he became as a champion for the remaining athletes mainly in the African-Americans. In his complete career, he had won national league pennant for many times. In 1955 he worked hard and supported his team to win the World Series. At last he got retired in 1957 with the excellent batting average. His records remain forever in this world. He is the person who opened the doors to the African- Americans to participate in the major league.

After his retirement, he started his business and continues as the social activist. Robinson was always remembered for his great work and contributions that is given towards the team. He suffered from the diabetes and the heart problems and died in the year 1972. After the death of Robinson, his wife has established Jackie Robinson foundation and it was dedicated for his work and for the entire life. This foundation helps the Young person’s by giving them the scholarships and offering other mentoring programs.

Awards and Achievements:

During the entire career of the Robinson, he gained three honorable awards in baseball. One is most valuable player, rookie of the year, and the most honorable one is entry into the hall of fame.  The main achievement of Robinson was gaining the civil rights through which he removed the racial barriers that exists among people. After the success of Jackie as the baseball star, everyone understood that the skin color doesn’t matter for the success of the person. It is the ability of the person that determines the success.

Personal Quotes:
The personal quotes of the Jackie Robinson inspires every one and they are the best quotes that we can never find and they remain forever. They resemble the strongest of that man and tells us about his zeal for not to be dominated or pushed down.  All the quotes that are given by Robinson will be against the racism. Let us see some of the popular quotes of Jackie Robinson

• Above anything else, I hate to lose.”
• “The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.”
• “The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.”
• “We have a social responsibility and we are held to a higher standard than other institutions,”
• “But as I write these words now I cannot stand and sing the National Anthem. I have learned that I remain a black in a white world.”

All about America’s greatest Rock and Roll Singer – Elvis Aaron Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular singers during the 20^th century in America. Born in Mississippi, he had a twin brother named Garon. Elvis Presley was considered as cultural icon and he was considered as the “King of Rock and Roll” or just simply “the King”.

Quick Facts:

• Nick name : The King, The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Pelvis.
• Date of birth: January 8^th, 1935
• Place of birth: Tupelo Mississippi
• Origin: Mississippi
• Profession: Rock and Roll Solo Singer
• Known for: Rock and Roll Music
• Website: http://www.elvis.com/

Childhood and growing Up years:

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on the 8^th of January, 1935 to the parents of Gladys and Vernon in an eastern city of Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis was a twin and had a twin brother who was named Jessie Garon. At the age of 13, in 1948, Elvis and his parents moved on to live in Tennessee where they resided in the state of Memphis. Elvis Presley graduated from the prestigious school of Humes High School in the year 1953. After the completion of his graduation, Elvis took up odd jobs by working as a truck driver for a Crown Electric Company, in a movie theatre usher in order to support this family. He had a great liking towards music as he was greatly influenced by the country and pop music at that time as he heard a lot of gospel music played at church. Elvis used to frequently attend the all-night gospel concerts and absorbed his knowledge for roll and roll culture also from the Black R & B during his stay in Memphis teenager. He started singing as “The Hillbilly Cat”, when he signed up with a local recording company. The next project of his was with RCA in the year 1955. Elvis worked hard to establish himself with the rock and roll music and he brought back the black blue singing at his teenage. People of his age became madly hysterical over Elvis Presley’s blatantly gyrations, particularly the song which gave him the name “Elvis the Pelvis”.

Early Life:

His first public appearance was made in the year 1945 on October 3^rd when he performed for the musical contest held in Mississippi which was a Dairy Show and an Alabama Fair. Elvis was dressed in a cowboy dress while he stood on a chair to reach the microphone where he sang the song ‘Old Shep’. He stood at the fifth place in this contest. A few months after this contest, he was presented with a Guitar on his birthday which was the lease expected gift as he hoped for a bicycle or a rifle. Over the years, he took up guitar lessons seriously from the help of his two uncles and his also from his family’s church pastor.

Elvis Presley was joined in a new school in Milam to do hi sixth grade in September 1946. He was not easy for him to get accustomed to this new educational environment and in this regard he was considered a loner. To cope with his loneliness, he started carrying his guitar on a daily basis to his school and he often played hillbilly music during his recess sessions. Due to this he was considered a trashy kid in school. In November 1948, Presley’s family moved to Memphis in Tennessee where they had to spend tough days living in rooming houses till they were granted public houses. In the high school days, Elvis barely did well in studies as he always obtained a ‘C’ grade and thus was considered as an average student. Although he did great in music as he obtained an eighth grade. As a school student, Elvis is known to be a shy student who was often bullied by his classmates and named him as a mama’s boy. In the year 1950, he began practicing music seriously under the guidance of Jesse Lee Denson, who was his neighbor and two and a half years senior at school. Elvis and three other boys – brother of Jesse Lee formed a band and collectively performed around the surroundings of the court. However, by his junior year, Presley grew out of his shyness and began to stand out among his classmates largely because he gained confidence within himself as he got a transformation in his appearance by gelling up his hair and got rid of his sideburns. While on his free times, he used to head towards the Beale Street which was situated in the heart of Memphis to glaze at the scenes of blues from the windows of the Lansky Brothers. In his senior year, he competed at the Humes annual Minstrel shows by singing out and playing his guitar. Elvis Presley recalls that it was these performances that gained him a lot of recognition and reputation.

Elvis who did not receive much formal music training or learnt music studied and played his guitar by listening and capturing the cords. For this purpose, he often visited record studios to listen to jukeboxes and other listening booths. He was thorough with the entire Hank Songs and loved the music of Roy Acuff, Jimmie Davis, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills.

It was in the year 1953 when Elvis Presley recorded his first album in the studios of Sun Recordings. His first album was “My Happiness” and with this album he confessed that he was paying a tribute to his mother or it was a gift to his mother.

By the year 1956, Elvis Presley created an international sensation with the sound and style he used in his songs. He had diverse influence that blurted out social and racial barriers. His songs ushered into a totally new era of America’s music and he created a popular culture. Elvis made his presence in 33 popular films and made a history with his appearance in television special events. He also acclaimed publicity through his live concerts by conducting tours to many countries such as Las Vegas. His love-concerts were always record-breaking. It is said that he sold over more than 1 billion copies globally which is the highest when compared to many other artists. The sales his albums had made in America earned him multi-platinum, platinum and golden awards. Among the many accolades and credits that he received were fourteen Grammy nominations in which in won three Grammy awards at a very young age of 36 years. He was named among the top ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation in the year 1970 by the United States Jaycees. He is also famous for honorably serving the country in the U.S Army.

At the beginning, Elvis Presley teamed up with the famous guitarist Scotty Moore and Bassist Bill Black to create music. Elvis was one among those people who invented rockabilly which is an up-tempo backbeat driven fusion of rhythm blues and country. RCA Victor was the person who signed a contract which was arranged by Colonel Tom Parker and he was given the responsibility to take care all the necessities of the singer. He worked with Presley for over two decades. Elvis Presley’s first RCA single was released in the year 1956 in January and it was named as “Heartbreak Hotel”. It was a number one hit. With the release of this album, Presley became a number hit and a leading public figure of the popular rock and roll genre and soon made a series of television appearances for his chart-topping records. His songs generally depicted interpretations from the African American sources and his energetic performances and style made brought him enormous success along with a number of controversies. Elvis Presley also made a film debut in the November 1956 titled Love Me Tender. He then left to serve the military in the year 1958. Elvis relaunched his music career after two years by releasing some commercial work with was also a great success. He performed at various concerts and was all the time guided by Parker who inspired him to make Hollywood movies and design sound tracks in the year 1960.

In the year 1958 when Elvis started working for the military of the U.S Army, he relocated his living and shifted to Bad Nauheim in Germany. It was in this place that he met a fourteen-year old army damsel Priscilla Ann Wager and fell in love with her. It was due to Presley’s military service and also the invasion of the British that resulted in reduced concerts of Elvis Presley’s although his movie recording went out. It was only the movie recordings that stood as a source of income for Elvis. Presley announced that he wanted to be treated in the same way as the rest of the people serving the military. On the day of his appointment to the U.S. Army, Presley’s arrival was blocked by a number a photographers, media and fans. As soon as he commenced his basic training in the army, Presley firmly believed that his musical career had ended. He had to return to Memphis when his mother was diagnosed with Hepatitis and her condition worsened. So this purpose, he was granted an emergency leave and he arrived on August 12 1959. Two days after his arrival, Presley’s mother left this world as she died of heart failure. She was aged 46 at the time of her death. Elvis Presley was devastated by his mother’s loss as he shared a very strong relation with her even in his adulthood. Over the years in 1960’s, Levis Presley settled in Hollywood where in acted for more than twenty movies sharing screen space with some famous actors in Hollywood. After seven and half years of courtship, Presley was married to his lady love Priscilla Ann who now became Priscilla Presley. In the year 1968 on February first, Presley had his daughter who they named as Lisa Marie Presley.

Claim to fame:

Elvis Presley was given the title of a Sergeant on March 5^th 1960 during his return to United States. The train in which he travelled to U.S was mobbed by his fans and he was called up on every stop to please his fans. It was on the night of 20^th March that Presley made his come back to his musical career by entering the doors of the RCA Nashville Studio where he had to cut tracks for an album accompanied by a single “Stuck on You” which swiftly gained a number one position on the chart-hits. Along a long gap, he made his comeback in the year 1970 with his stage appearance in Las Vegas where he performed to fifty-seven total sold-out shows. After this, he also made a visit to a number of places in the United States where he gave over 500 live performances all of them being sold-out shows. He made his first television comeback on May 12^th 1967 when he arrived as a guest in the television show ‘The Frank Sinatra Timex Special’ although given that the show was not a rock and roll script.

Of the eight releases of Elvis Presley’s between the year 1967 and 1968, only two could make up to the charts of top 40. And his upcoming soundtrack album “Speedway” stood at the 82^nd position on the Billboard chart. Presley had not appeared on television after his Timex show and now it signed up a new deal with NBC so that they would finance him for his theatrical feature which was due to be aired during the Christmas season. Recorded in the late June, the show was aired on the 3^rd of December 1968 which came be known as ’68 Comeback Special’. The show focused on the lavish stage productions and songs of Presley in front of audiences since his first performance in the year 1961. These segments saw Elvis in black leather clad clothes playing the guitar in the style of his rock and roll culture. Steve Binder was the director and coproducer for this show and he had worked very hard to ensure a good produce. The show soon was on the highest rated show in the charts of the NBC as it captured more than 42 percent of viewing audiences.

His tours, live-concerts and his work kept him busy while he was increasing space with his wife. Finally in the year 1971, an affair of his with Joyce Bova resulted in the divorce of Priscilla and Elvis as Joyce was pregnant. The couple separated in the year 1972 on February 23^rd when Priscilla too disclosed her relationship with Like Stone who was her Karate instructor.

In the year 1973, Presley performed for a social cause which raised funds for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund. For this purpose he made a special TV show named Aloha from Hawaii. This was s global satellite concert and it had estimated to have 1.5 million viewers on live. Later during this year, when Presley’s divorce took effect, his health conditions were deteriorating.  Twice in the year he was overdosed of barbiturates and was in coma for three days in his hotel suite. After his comeback, in the year he staged the most number of live shows and that year saw 168 concerts of Elvis Presley and it was his busiest schedule. Despite his poor health conditions, in the year 1974, Presley took up another intensive tour. After his concerts, he spent time in studios virtually recording contents between the years of 1973 and 1976. Though he no longer had a major response in the charts, his five albums entered the top five country music charts and from this three stood on the number one stand.

Presently:

Between the years of 1981 and 1977, six releases of Presley topped the country hits and Graceland was opened to public in the year 1982. Till date it attracts a million visitors and is the most visited homes in the United States. It was declared as the National Historic Landmark in the year 2006.

In the year 2005 a total of 17 albums of Presley were reissued and all of them made it to the top five of the British chart list. For the fifth consecutive year, Elvis Presley was named in the top-earning celebrity with a gross income of $45 million. In 2010, November, Viva Elvis: The Album was released that set a new voice to recorded instrumental tracks. By the mid 2011, there are 15,000 licensed Elvis Presley products. He also holds the record for obtaining the top 40 and 100position in the charts of the Billboard’s. At present there are about 625 active fan clubs in honor of Elvis Presley all over the globe. The popularity Elvis gained is an all-time high and his legacy is set to reach new generation of audiences.

In the year 1992, the United Postal Service released a stamp that had Elvis Presley’s image and this stamp could be used as commemorative postage stamps. To decide on the artwork of the stamps two sizzling pictures of Elvis from his famous 1950’s rock star image and his superstar-svelte image of 1973 were penned down. In the situation not being able to take a decision, the United States Postal  Service gave the authority to the citizens of America to take a decision on the artwork of the stamp. For this purpose, more than 1.2 million people casted their vote and the image of a young rock star won was decided to be placed on the stamp. The stamp was successfully released in the year 1993 on January 8^th in Graceland. Till date the Elvis Presley’s stamp remains the most widely publicized stamp issue and it is one of the highest selling commemorative postal stamps. A number of countries outside United States have also issued Elvis stamps through the years.

On 16^th of August 1977 when Presley was scheduled to go to Memphis in evening to begin another historical tour, he was found unresponsive in his bathroom floor that afternoon. Many attempts were made to revive his life but the doctors failed and his death was officially announced at 3.30 pm in the Baptist Memorial Hospital. It is said that Elvis died of cardiac arrhythmia which means a severe irregular heartbeat and just another form of a heart attack. And Presley in the past years had been treated with hypertension, enlarged colon and pneumonia. His funeral was held at his hometown Graceland were huge crowd gathered killing two women and injuring atleast three. It is said that an approximate of 80,000 people gathered to witness the funeral of the great King of Rock and Roll. Within a few days, his album “Way Down” topped the UK pop charts. At the time of Elvis Presley’s death, they sold more than 600-million copies of his albums and singles.

To mark the twentieth century of Elvis Presley’s death on August 16^th, 1997 a video that starred Elvis Presley was showed in the concert that staged thirty former band mates accompanied with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. The show took place in the midst of Elvis Presley fans that had come to Memphis to be a part of this extravagant concert which was staged in the remembrance of Presley.

It was the talent, sensuality, good looks, charisma and the good humor of Elvis Presley that he was loved by millions of people and he also demonstrated kindness in the form of a number of human kindness acts in his life. Known by people all over the world, it remains to the most popular and important figures of the 20^th century era who was a popular culture.

Trademarks of Elvis Presley:

• His Onstage Karate moves.
• Husky voice tone
• White sequined jumpsuits combined with rhinestones.
• Famous left-sided grin
• The most popular Pelvis movement that gave him the nickname “Elvis, the Pelvis” which he disliked
• Southern accent
• Black hair most often greased.

Awards and Nominations Received:

Elvis Presley has quite a number of awards on his name. Some of them are as follows:

In the year 1960, He won the Sour Apple Award in the category of Least Cooperative Actor.

1963 he was awarded with the Golden Laurel in the category of Top Male Musical Performances.

1965, Levis was awarded with a Golden Laurel Award for the Best musical Performance (Male).

1966, again won the Golden Laurel Award fin the category of Musical Performance Male for the song Tickle Me.

In the year 1968, he was given the prestigious Grammy Award in the category of Best Sacred Performance for “How Great Thou Art”

1973, gave Elvis Presley another Grammy Award for the Best Inspirational Performance for “He Touched Me”

1975 he was awarded his third Grammy Award for the Best Inspirational Performance in “How Great Thou Art”

In 1986, he won the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of Performer.

1998, Won the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Nominations:

Following are his nominations:

1961 was nominated for Grammy Awards in the category of Best Soundtrack Album for G.I Blues.

1962 – nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Soundtrack Album for Blue Hawaii.

1963 – Nominated for Golden Laurel for Top Male Star.

1964 – Nominated once again for Top Male Star.

1966 – Nominated for Golden Laurel for Male Star.

1985 – Nominated for ACE in the category of Performance in a Music Special.

2005 – Nominated for MOJO Vision award.

Personal Quotes:

“Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do ‘em all together, I guess”.

“Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes”.

“When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comics and I was the hero in the movies. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times… I learned very early in life that: ’Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain’t got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend – without a song.’ So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.”

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”

“Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from my problems, an my way of release”

“Till we meet again, may god bless you. Adios.”

Person who brought the rhythm of Jazz- Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was the famous poet, playwright and the writer. His first and famous poem was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” which was published in the year 1921. He joined the Colombia University in 1921 but has to leave that because of the financial crisis. Later he worked as a freighter and travelled to Rome, Paris and gained the financial support by doing several odd jobs. Later when the poetry of the Hughes was promoted, he joined the Lincoln University in 1929 and there he launched all the books that are related to poems. This was the first time he launched the books as a writer in his entire career. He was famous for the jazz rhythms and he has his own creation in using these rhythms. He was the founder of the cultural activity called as Harlem Renaissance. He mostly used the urban blacks’ life for the poetry or for the stories.  He continued his writing for the continuous four decades and he worked even as a social activist. As a part of this profession he used to protest against the injustice that happens towards the Africans-Americans.

In his last stage of his career and life, he wrote an autobiography of 2 volumes and even included some pictorial volumes in the biography. He was considered as the inspirative model for the African Americans and was appreciated by every person.

Quick Facts:

• Nick name: Ask Him
• Date of birth: 1^st February 1902
• Place of birth: Joplin, Missouri.
• Origin: Illinois
• Profession: American poet, novelist, social activist, columnist and playwright
• Known for: Jazz poetry
• Website

Childhood and growing years:

Langston Hughes came into this beautiful world in the year 1902 on 1^st February. He was born in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes parents got divorced at his childhood and thereafter his father took him to Mexico. He was brought up in the hands of his grandmother and lived with her until he reached 13 years old. Later he was moved to Illinois where his mother lived. He began writing his poetry in this location.

He completed his schooling in the central high school which is located in the Ohio. There he began writing his poetry and at that time he was in eighth grade. Unfortunately, Hughes father did not support him in choosing this career and he was moved to Columbia University to pursue engineering.  After completion of the graduation he went to Mexico and lived for about one year. Later he joined Colombia University and lived there for another year. During his education, he joined several jobs to gain the financial support and later he moved to Europe. In 1924, he travelled to Washington. Later he stopped this engineering course and started writing the poetry. The poem that was first published was the Negro Speaks of Rivers. This was one of the famous poems in his career. Later the poems of the Hughes started to appear in NAACP, and other magazines. The first book of the poetry of Hughes was published in the year 1924. Later he completed his education from the Lincoln University. Later he started writing Novels and the first novel that was written by Hughes was Not Without Laughter. Hughes received Harmon gold medal for the literature in the year 1930.  He succeeded in writing several novels, stories throughout his entire career.

Claim to fame

Langston Hughes gained his fame as a famous poet, playwright, story writer, novelist, translator, author, and even as a lecturer. In the initial days of his career he worked as the assistant cook, busboy, and launderer and has worked with many odd jobs because of his financial crisis. He lived at many places like Spain, Italy, France, Mexico and at the Soviet Union. Hughes achieved his degree in the year 1929 and he was the young poet in his generation. The first book of Hughes was the weary blues which was published and appeared in the year 1926.  He was considered as the leading voices for 1920s Harlem renaissance. The first Novel of Hughes was written with the financial and moral support from the charlotte Mason. He travelled all the colleges of the southern America by working as a teacher as well as continued writing his poetry.

He was the first black author who did not receive any support from any individual throughout his career. He worked on his own to gain the fame and he supported himself through his writings. Later he travelled to Soviet Union, Japan and Haiti and during this journey he wrote the poem ‘goodbye, Christ’. But unfortunately this was attacked by the religious group in the year 1940.  He even concentrated on emphasizing about the African culture and its importance.  Thus he succeeded in gaining his fame both as a poet as well as social activist.

Presently

At last Hughes died because of the prostate cancer in the year 1967 in the New York City. In his memory the residence of Hughes was given the name as the Langston Hughes place and it is given the landmark status.  He left us by giving the great poetry. He has written total 11 plays and several poems and books.

He was considered as the important black writers and he was the person who thought of the Harlem renaissance. He was very creative in his thoughts and became as an inspiration to every African American. Americans have succeeded to shape out their politics and literature only because of the literary works of Hughes. He was always against the racism and worked hard to prevent this racism in their country. He fought for his entire career for this motive and succeeded in maintain his racial pride.   He always tried to promote equality, spirituality and humor in his poems and even he tried to condemn injustice and racism. The thoughts of this author were clearly exhibited in his books and poems.

Awards and Honors Received: 

Let us see the details of the awards and the honors that are received by the Hughes:

In 1943, Hughes was honored with the Litt.D by the Lincoln University. In the year 1960, Hughes was awarded with the Spingarn medal by the NAACP because of his achievements as the African American. In 1963, he gained the honorary doctorate by the Howard University. He was awarded with the Langston Hughes medal by city college of New York in the year 1973. He was the first person to receive this medal. Later in 1982, the house of Langston Hughes was considered as the historic place and is given place in the registry of the historic places. In 2002, the postal department has honored him by adding the image to the postage stamps.  He was listed in the list of the Top 100 greatest African Americans in the world. He achieved many awards throughout his life time. Though this famous personality is not alive today, but his achievements remain forever in this world.

Personal Quotes:

• An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
• Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.
• I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
• Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby

We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.