The Behistun Inscription is to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs: the document most crucial in the decipherment of a previously lost script. It is located in the Kermanshah Province of Iran. The inscription include...

Caroline Lucretia Herschel was a German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigollet, which bears her name. She was the younger sist...

Count Josef von Radetz was a Czech nobleman and field marshal, a member of House of Radetzky in the Kingdom of Bohemia. He served as chief of the general staff in the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy during the later period of the Napoleonic Wars...

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States (1841) served the shortest time of any American President - only thirty-two days. He also was the first President from the Whig Party. He had won his nickname, "Old Tip," as the tou...

Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 as the leader of the Orléanist party. As a member of the cadet branch of the Royal House of France and a cousin of King Louis XVI of France by reason of his descent from their common...

Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich was a German-born Austrian politician and statesman and was one of the most important diplomats of his era. He served as the Foreign Minister of the Holy Roman Empire and its successor state, the Austria...

The Daoguang Emperor was the eighth emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty and the sixth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1820 to 1850. His reign was marked by "external disaster and internal rebellion," that is, by the First Opium War, an...

Martin Van Buren was the first President (1837-1841) not born a British subject, or even of British ancestry. The Van Burens were a large, struggling family of Dutch descent. Martin's father, Abraham Van Buren -- a supporter of Thomas Jeffe...

William Tierney Clark was an English civil engineer particularly associated with the design and construction of bridges. He was among the earliest designers of suspension bridges. He designed the first suspension bridge to span the River...

At the time he became 12th President of the United States (1849-1850), Zachary Taylor was the most popular man in America, a hero of the Mexican-American War. However, at a time when Americans were confronting the explosive issue of slavery...

Shuja Shah Durrani (also known as Shah Shujah, Shoja Shah, Shujah al-Mulk) was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Shuja Shah was of the Sadozai line of the Abdali group of Pashtun...

Lin Zexu, courtesy name Yuanfu, was a Chinese scholar and official of the Qing dynasty. He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "moral high ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the o...

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a...

Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger was an Anglo-Irish soldier and colonial administrator who became the first Governor of Hong Kong (1843-1844). Pottinger accepted Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's offer of the post of envoy and pl...

John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (1841-1845), signaled the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House. Born a few years after the American Revolution in 1790 to an old family from Virginia's ruling class, Ty...