Author: Hiromimarie

On August 30, 1797, author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born. She was born in London, England to political philosopher William Godwin, and philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1816. Only one of their four children survived beyond infancy, a son named Percy Florence Shelley. She is best known for her first novel, Frankenstein. It was originally published anonymously in 1818 and remains widely read, and has inspired many theatrical and film… Read the full story

On this day, actor Kiefer Sutherland was born. Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland was born on December 21, 1966 in London, England to actors Donald Sutherland and Shirley Douglas. He was named after writer-director Warren Kiefer, who had directed Donald Sutherland in his first featured film, Castle of the Living Dead. His maternal grandfather was Thomas “Tommy” Douglas, a Scottish-born Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961. Sutherland’s first… Read the full story

On this day in 1881, director and producer Cecil B. DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts to Henry de Mille and Matilda Samuel. His surname is of Dutch origin and was spelled as de Mille which he used in private life, however he chose to use the spelling DeMille for professional purposes. He is recognized as a founding father of the Hollywood film industry. Edendale, a historical name for a district in Los Angeles, California was originally… Read the full story

Today we remember Scottish American industrialist and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, who died on August 11, 1919 at the age of 83 in Lenox, Massachusetts. He founded the Keystone Bridge Company in 1865 which was an important bridge building company, but he made his fortune in the steel industry. In 1892 he started the Carnegie Steel Company, it was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke (a type of fuel derived from coal)… Read the full story

On this day in 1928, American country music singer and businessman Jimmy Dean was born in Plainview, Texas to George Otto Dean and Ruth Taylor. His best known song was in 1961 called “Big Bad John”; the song won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording. Dean was also a television host, he had a variety TV series called The Jimmy Dean Show which featured comedy, popular music artists and country music… Read the full story

On August 9, 1854, Henry David Thoreau‘s novel Walden was published. Walden is Thoreau’s most famous novel, he also wrote the essay Civil Disobedience. Thoreau was also a poet, philosopher and abolitionist. His writings inspired many notable leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts to John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar. His name at birth was David Henry, named… Read the full story

Happy birthday, Laura Linney! Today the Emmy Award winning actress turns 52. Laura Leggett Linney was born on February 5, 1964 in New York. Her father was well known playwright, Romulus Zachariah Linney IV. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and studied acting at the Juilliard School. Linney started out in minor film and television roles such as Lorenzo’s Oil, Dave and General Hospital. Her big breakthrough was her role in The Truman Show as Jim Carrey’s… Read the full story

Today we remember singer Karen Carpenter, who died on February 4, 1983. She is best known as the lead singer of the Carpenters – a duo act with her brother, Richard Carpenter. They had two hit singles “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun”. Karen was born on March 2, 1950 in New Haven, Connecticut. In June 1963 her family moved to Downey, California. She attended Downey High School where she… Read the full story

Today we remember W. K. Kellogg, who passed away on this day in 1951. He was best known as the founder of the Kellogg Company, which produces a wide variety of breakfast cereals. Kellogg was born Will Keith Kellogg on April 7, 1860 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He helped his brother, John Harvey Kellogg run the Battle Creek Sanitarium which was where they pioneered the process of making flaked cereal. In 1906, Kellogg founded the Battle… Read the full story

Today in 1932, aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean. She started the flight on May 20, 1932 from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland and intended to fly to Paris, but do to bad weather she landed in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland. Earhart received the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government and the Gold Medal… Read the full story

On May 5, 1942, country musician Tammy Wynette was born in Bounds, Mississippi. Her birth name was Virginia Wynette Pugh, she decided to use the stage name Tammy Wynette once she was signed with Epic Records. Wynette’s best known song was “Stand by Your Man” and she was called the “First Lady of Country Music”. She charted 23 No. 1 songs in the late 1960s to early 1970s which included “Stand by Your Man”, “Take… Read the full story

Oliver Winchester was an American businessman and politician. He was known for manufacturing and marketing the Winchester repeating rifle. He discovered that a division of Smith & Wesson firearms was failing financially with one of their newly patented arms during the time he was a clothing manufacturer. Winchester took the opportunity and acquired the Smith & Wesson division (known as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company) with other stockholders in 1850. The name of the company… Read the full story

Lucy Stone was an orator, abolitionist and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. She helped initiate the first National Women’s Rights Convention, she assisted in establishing the Woman’s National Loyal League to help pass the Thirteenth Amendment, and she then helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association. Stone influenced Susan B. Anthony to take up the cause of women’s suffrage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that “Lucy Stone was the first person… Read the full story

Jacob Perkins was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. He is known to have been the father of the refrigerator. He is credited with the first patent for the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle titled “Apparatus and means for producing ice, and in cooling fluids” assigned on August 14, 1835.  He had 21 American patents and 19 English patents. Perkins had created machines for cutting and heading nails at the age of 24 in 1790 and… Read the full story

Are you starting your family tree on Geni, but you don’t know a lot about your family history? Whether your goal is to simply create a small tree, or find a way to connect to the World Family Tree, one of the best things to do is to interview your relatives. Your relatives can share their knowledge of your family history with you and help you build your family tree. Plan some time to meet… Read the full story

Charles G. Dawes was the 30th Vice President of the United States from 1925-1929. He was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations. He served in World War I, was the Comptroller of the Currency, the first director of the Bureau of the Budget, and later the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Charles Gates Dawes was born on August 27, 1865… Read the full story

Percival Lowell was an author, mathematician, and astronomer. He is known for having fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. Lowell formed the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto fourteen years after his death, the name Pluto and its symbol were partly influenced by his initials “PL.” He graduated from Harvard University in 1876 with distinction in mathematics and at his graduation he gave a speech which was considered… Read the full story

Henry Brooks Adams was a journalist and was keen on exposing political corruption. He was appointed Professor of Medieval History at Harvard in 1870 and is considered to have been the first to conduct historical seminar work in the United States. One of his students was Henry Cabot Lodge, who worked closely with Adams as a graduate student.  Adams wrote two novels, he is credited as the author of Democracy, which was published anonymously in 1880… Read the full story

John Davis Lodge was an American actor turned politician, he was 79th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955, and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland. He graduated from Harvard University in 1925 and Harvard Law School in 1929. After a brief career as a lawyer, Lodge worked as an actor on screen and stage from 1933 to 1942. He appeared in movies such as Little Women, The Little Colonel in which he played Shirley Temple‘s… Read the full story

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist and is widely considered to be one of the founders of modern macroeconomics and the most influential economist of the 20th century. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics. According to Keynesian economics, state intervention was necessary to moderate “boom and bust” cycles of economic activity. Criticisms of Keynes’s ideas had begun to gain significant acceptance by the early 1970s as… Read the full story

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was a British statesman ho succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. He was Postmaster General, First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He is best known for the claim that he was the inventor of the sandwich. John Montagu was born on November 13, 1718 to Edward Montagu,… Read the full story

General George Smith Patton, Jr. was best known for his command in the European Theater of World War II of the Seventh United States Army, and later the Third United States Army. He had participated in the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and was instrumental in designing the Model 1913 Cavalry Saber referred to as the “Patton Saber”. In between World War I and World War II, Patton remained a central figure in the development of armored… Read the full story

Known as the father of photojournalism, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was the first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine having served from 1899-1954. He is credited with having built the magazine into the publication that it is today. Grosvenor was also president of  the National Geographic Society  from 1920-1954 and made it into one of the world’s largest and best known science and learning organizations through its magazine of ambitious natural and cultural explorations around the world…. Read the full story

Charles A. Pillsbury was the founder and namesake of the Pillsbury Company and was a flour industrialist. He was a flour miller in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pillsbury was a Minnesota State Senator from 1877-1897 and held the chairmanship of the Finance Committee of the Senate. Charles Alfred Pillsbury was born on December 3, 1842 in Warner, New Hampshire to George Alfred Pillsbury and Margaret Sprague Carleton. Pillsbury married Mary Ann Stinson who was the daughter of… Read the full story

On May 10, 1872 Victoria Woodhull, a leader of the woman’s suffrage movement, became the first woman nominated for President of the United States. She was nominated by the then newly formed Equal Rights Party. In 1871, she had spoken publicly against the government being composed only of men; she proposed developing a new constitution and a new government. In 1870, Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin were the first women to operate a brokerage… Read the full story

On May 9, 1949, Rainier III became the Sovereign Prince of Monaco on the death of his grandfather Prince Louis II. His mother Princess Charlotte, Duchess of Valentinois had renounced her rights to the throne in 1944 in favour of her son. Prince Rainier III was one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20th century having ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years. He was best known outside of Europe for having… Read the full story

On May 8, 1947, Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. died in London, England. Selfridge invested in building his own department store, Selfridges, in London when he was unimpressed with the quality of British retailers and had noticed that the large stores in London had not adopted the latest selling ideas that were being used in the United States. He was the first to promote Christmas sales with the catchphrase “Only __ Shopping Days Until Christmas”, while… Read the full story

William Drew Washburn was an American politician and founded the Pillsbury-Washburn Milling Company, which later became the Pillsbury Company. He served in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was born on January 14, 1831 in Livermore, Maine to Israel Washburn and Martha Benjamin. He made a large fortune from his business ventures in lumber and flour milling, and by the 1880s he was among the wealthiest men in… Read the full story

Lydia Field Emmet was best known for her work as a portraitist. Her paintings can be found hanging in the White House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other prestigious art galleries. In 1883, at the age of sixteen, she was commissioned to illustrate Henrietta Christian Wright’s children’s book Little Folk in Green. Emmet was an illustrator for Harper’s Bazaar magazine and was commissioned to paint an official portrait of the First Lady, Lou Henry… Read the full story

On April 24, 1907 Milton S. Hershey opened Hersheypark which is a family theme park founded by Hershey originally for the exclusive use of his employees. He was the founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company and Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Did you know that Hershey and his wife Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney were to travel on the Titanic? Kitty Hershey was ill at the time so they cancelled their reservations. A copy of the check Hershey wrote to the… Read the full story

Francis Preston Blair, Sr. was an American journalist and politician. He was made editor of the Washington Globe in 1830 which was the recognized organ of the Andrew Jackson party. Blair was a member of Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet” that gave him a powerful influence. The Globe was the administration organ until 1841 and the chief Democratic organ until 1845. In 1849, Blair ceased to be its editor.  He was convinced after the Mexican War that slavery should not… Read the full story

John Huston was a film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote screenplays and directed films which are considered classics such as The Maltese Falcon (1941),  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), The Misfits (1961), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975). Most of Huston’s films were adaptions of novels that often depicted a “heroic quest” as in Moby Dick or The Red Badge of Courage. John Huston was born… Read the full story

Samuel Morse was an inventor, contributing to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs and he was a co-inventor of the Morse code. He was also an accomplished painter. Morse had gone to England for three years to perfect his painting techniques and by the end of 1811 he gained admittance to the Royal Academy. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands at the academy he produced his masterpiece, Dying… Read the full story

William S. Burroughs, Jr. was an American novelist who wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed in 1970 and Kentucky Ham in 1973. Prakriti Junction, his third novel that he began in 1977 was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third published work Cursed From Birth. He appears briefly in the 1983 documentary Burroughs, about his father, in which he discusses his childhood, his liver problems, and his relationship with his… Read the full story

On March 23, 1775 one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America Patrick Henry made his best known speech in the House of Burgesses in Richmond, Virginia during the American Revolutionary War. Henry argued in favor of mobilization for military action against the encroaching British military force when the House was undecided whether to mobilize or not. He ended his speech with the famous words: “Give me Liberty, or give me Death!” Patrick… Read the full story

On March 21, 1928 aviator Charles Lindbergh was presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight. At the age of 25, Lindbergh flew solo non-stop from New York City to Paris, France from May 20-21, 1927. His non-stop flight instantaneously gained him world fame and won him the Orteig Prize. Check out Charles Lindbergh’s family tree and help connect him to over 68 million people on Geni!     View Charles Lindbergh’s… Read the full story

On March 20, 1727, English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton died at the age of 84. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. Newton’s book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation. He built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into… Read the full story

On March 13, 1862 Jane Delano, founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service was born in Montour Falls, New York. She is a descendant of one of the first settlers to America, Philippe de la Noye (Delano) and 11th cousin with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Jane was a leading pioneer of the modern nursing profession and almost single-handedly created American Red Cross Nursing when she united the work of the American Nurse Association, the… Read the full story

Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. He published more than 30 books, inventing and popularizing terms such as “Spaceship Earth”, ephemeralization, and synergetic. He developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, including widely known geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres. He was the second president of Mensa from 1974-1983. He was born Richard Buckminster Fuller on… Read the full story

Sir Winston Churchill was a British politician, known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. Churchill served as Prime Minister twice from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. He was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British Prime Minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature… Read the full story

John Foster Dulles served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-1959. He advocated an aggressive stance against communism throughout the world which made him a significant figure in the early Cold War era. He also advocated support of the French in their war against the Viet Minh in Indochina and it is widely believed that he refused to shake the hand of Zhou Enlai at the Geneva Conference in 1954…. Read the full story

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. She wrote the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin which was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery, it became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. The novel energized anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. She was influential both for her writings and her public stands on social issues of the day. After the start of the Civil War, Stowe… Read the full story

Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills. He graduated from Boston Latin School at age 13, then enrolled at Harvard University where he won two Bowdoin prizes and was elected the Class Poet. In 1839, Hale graduated second in his class and then studied at Harvard Divinity School. He was licensed to preach as a Unitarian minister in 1842 by the… Read the full story

Oliver Ames was the 35th Governor of Massachusetts during 1887-1890 and a financier. Prior to being governor he was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts from 1882-1886. Ames had entered public life avowedly to vindicate his father’s memory. Ames was born on February 4, 1831 in North Easton, Massachusetts to Oakes Ames and Eveline Gilmore. Oakes Ames was an American manufacturer, capitalist, and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. As a congressman, he is credited… Read the full story

Silas Wright Titus, known as “The Water Wizard”, was an engineer who discovered and patented deep water pumping technology. He also discovered early water supplies for New York City and other towns and cities in the United States in the late nineteenth century. Silas Wright Titus was born on January 18, 1849 in Syracuse, New York to Colonel Silas Titus and Eliza McCarthy. Titus was named for a friend of his father’s, Silas Wright, a… Read the full story

William E. Dodge, Sr. was a founding member of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and represented New York’s 8th congressional district in the United States Congress for a portion of the 39th United States Congress in 1866-1867. He was a noted abolitionist and Native American rights activist, and served as the president of the National Temperance Society from 1865-1883. He was born on September 4, 1805 in Hartford, Connecticut to David Low Dodge and Sarah Cleveland…. Read the full story

Mariana Victoria of Spain was born on March 31, 1718 in Spain and died on January 15, 1781 in Portugal. She was the eldest daughter of Felipe V of Spain and Elisabetta Farnese. At the age of seven Mariana Victoria of Spain was engaged to the young Louis XV of France, but was rejected due to her age. At the time of her birth, Mariana Victoria was fifth in line to the throne of Spain. In… Read the full story

Nicholas Biddle was an American financier who served as the President of the Second Bank of the United States. His ancestors were Quakers who emigrated from England to America in 1681 in part to avoid religious persecution. The Biddle family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania produced numerous and diverse people of interest. Biddle was born on January 8, 1786 to Charles and Hannah Biddle. Charles Biddle served as Vice-President of Pennsylvania (now known as the office of… Read the full story

George Mason IV was an American Patriot, statesman and a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He is considered as one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States as he is called the “Father of the United States Bill of Rights” along with James Madison. The Bill of Rights were based on the earlier Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason had drafted in 1776. George Mason IV was born on December 11,… Read the full story

Robert R. Liviingston IV was an American lawyer, politician, diplomat from New York, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, although he was recalled by his state before he could sign the final version of the document. Livingston was the first Chancellor of New York from 1777 to 1801 which at the time was the highest judicial officer in… Read the full story