Biography of Steven Paul Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was born in San Francisco, California on February 24 1955. His biological parents, unwed college graduates Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah Jandali, had him adopted by a lower-middle-class couple from south of the Bay Area, Paul and Clara Jobs.

Young Steve grew up in a valley of apricot orchards that was already turning into the world center of computer technology: Silicon Valley. It was not uncommon to see engineers fill their garages with all kind of electronic devices in that part of California. Steve Jobs was fascinated by these, and that’s why, in 1969, he met with a computer whiz kid who shared his interests in electronics: Stephen Wozniak — commonly known as Woz. Steve and Woz quickly became friends even though Woz was five years older.

When Steve Jobs reached college age, he decided he would go to Reed College in Oregon. It was an expensive liberal arts college, way too pricey for his modest parents; but they had to keep their promise to Steve’s biological mother, and therefore paid for the tuition. Steve only stayed at Reed for one semester though, after which he dropped out. He then spent a lot of time learning about Eastern mysticism and adopted strange diets, fasting or eating only fruits: it was his hippie period. He even traveled to India with a friend to seek enlightenment at age 19.

Apple’s early years (1975-81)

After Steve came back to the Valley, he focused on Woz’s work on a computer board. Woz was attending a group of early personal computer hobbyists called the Homebrew Computer Club, where he got the idea of designing his own computer (which consisted only of a circuit board at the time). Steve Jobs saw that many people were interested in his friend’s brilliant work: he suggested they sell the board to them. Apple Computer was born.

Apple’s first year in business consisted of assembling the boards in Steve’s garage and driving to local computer stores to try and sell them. Meanwhile, Woz worked on a new, much improved computer, the Apple II, which he basically finished in 1977. Both Woz and Steve knew the Apple II was a breakthrough computer, much more advanced than anything the market had ever seen. That’s why Steve set out to find venture capitalists to fund Apple’s expansion. After a while, he made a deal with Mike Markkula, an enthusiastic former Intel executive who invested $250,000 in their business and assured them their company would enter the Fortune 500 list in less than two years.

Mike was right. The Apple II soon became the symbol of the personal computing revolution worldwide. It crushed all competition both because of its breakthrough hardware features (including its color graphics) and its very large supply of compatible software. The key to Apple II’s success was actually VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program ever brought to market. Thousands of people bought Apple IIs just to use it. As a result, the company grew at a very fast rate, and went public after just four years of existence, in December 1980. Steve Jobs’ net worth passed the $200 million mark on that day — he was only 25.

But Apple’s success was threatened, as industry giant IBM was planning to enter the personal computer market in 1981. Apple had to fight back or they would go out of business in a couple of years’ time. Their Apple III computer had already bombed on the marketplace. They focused all their energy on a project headed by Steve Jobs: Lisa. He had named it after his ex-girlfriend’s daughter, although he denied all paternity (that difficult situation actually caused him to miss Time Magazine’s Man of the Year 1982). The Lisa computer was a breakthrough because it used a graphical user interface instead of a command-line interface. This technology, like many others that would revolutionize computing, was invented at Xerox PARC — but Apple was the first company to bring it to market.

Macintosh (1981-85)

Yet Steve Jobs was soon thrown out of the Lisa project because he was considered too temperamental a manager. Deeply angry, he took revenge by taking over a small project called Macintosh, determined to make it a cheaper GUI computer that would cannibalize sales of Lisa. Macintosh was in development since 1979 and its concept was “a computer as easy to use as a toaster.” Steve Jobs recruited brilliant young engineers in his Mac team and invigorated them by insufflating a spirit of entrepreneurship and rebellion, calling them “pirates”, unlike the rest of the company,“the Navy.”

Even though the Mac project was controversial as it threatened both Apple II and Lisa, and because Steve Jobs antagonized it against the rest of the company, it soon became crucial to Apple’s future because Lisa proved yet another market failure. Steve was supported in his mission by John Sculley, Apple’s CEO, whom he hired in 1983 to help him run the company and groom him into a top executive. In January 1984, he introduced Macintosh in great fanfare.

Although Mac’s first months were encouraging, sales soon started to plummet. There was growing fear in the company that this third flop in a row would put Apple out of business. Besides, Steve Jobs’ continued arrogance drove everyone nuts, starting with CEO John Sculley. After a failed board coup initiated by Jobs in mid-1985, Sculley announced he and the directors had agreed on a new org chart for Apple, in which Steve had no managerial duties whatsoever. He was only to remain chairman of the board.

Steve was stunned. Apple was his life, and he was kicked out of it. He started traveling around looking for new ways to spend his energy. It was actually in that second half of 1985 that he was introduced to a small team of brilliant computer graphics experts that George Lucas was trying to sell. They all shared a common dream of making animated movies with computers. Steve was interested and he eventually bought the company for $10 million in 1986, incorporating it as Pixar.

The NeXT years (1985-95)

Yet his main passion was still to make great computers. In September 1985, he announced to the Apple board that he was going to found a new company, called NeXT, to build an advanced computer for higher education and scientific research. He was going to take with him some of the best engineers and salesmen from the Mac team. Apple disapproved and threatened to sue him. It was at that point that Steve left his company for good and sold almost all of his stock in disgust.

NeXT started work on its computer in early 1986, after Apple dropped its lawsuit. Steve aimed at the highest possible standards for his new machine: he wanted the best hardware, built in the world’s most automated factory, and running the most advanced software possible. He decided the computer’s operating system, NeXTSTEP, would be based on UNIX, the most robust and most complex system in the world — but that it would also be as easy to use as a Macintosh, thanks to its own graphical user interface. In addition, it would make software development real easy with its object-oriented programming technology. These ambitious plans put off the release date of the computer — called the NeXT Cube — to October 1988.

However great it was, the NeXT Cube didn’t sell. It was overpriced and missing useful software. NeXT struggled for years to sell it, expanding its target from just education to businesses, and introducing a cheaper box, the NeXT Station. Yet the number of computers they sold each month remained in the hundreds. The company was bleeding money and all its co-founders left one after the other, as well as its first outside investor, Texan billionaire Ross Perot. By 1993, NeXT had to give up its hardware business and focus only on promoting its advanced software technology. NeXT Software, far from beating Apple, had turned into a niche software development business. Steve was devastated.

In addition, his investment in Pixar also seemed to lead nowhere. The small company had tried to sell advanced graphic workstations to specialized markets since it had been founded, without success. Jobs shut down Pixar’s hardware operations in 1990, decided to focus on developing an advanced 3D language called RenderMan. He kept the animation division, headed by John Lasseter, only because its work on TV commercials were one of the company’s only source of revenues. Hope was brought by a contract with Disney to make a full feature film with computers in 1991. But by the end of 1993, the contract was canceled by Burbank. With both his ventures failing, Steve had reached the nadir of his career. He spent most of his days at home with his young son Reed and his wife Laurene, whom he had married in 1991.

Comeback (1995-97)

Fortunately, as John Lasseter came back to Disney with an improved script for the feature film, called Toy Story, the project got back on track. The movie was to be released for Thanksgiving 1995. As the date approached, Steve Jobs realized what an incredible power the Disney brand was. He decided Pixar would go public the week after the release of Toy Story, cashing in on the media hype surrounding the first computer-generated animation movie of all time. It worked wonders: Toy Story’s box-office success was only surpassed by the Pixar stock’s success on Wall Street. Steve Jobs, who owned 80% of the company, saw his net worth rise to over $1.5 billion — five times the money he had ever made at Apple in the 1980s!

Speaking of Apple, the fruit company was in the midst of his worst year ever. After the release of Windows 95, the Mac, which had turned profitable but had failed to evolve for a decade while Steve Jobs was away, started losing market share at an alarming rate. By 1996, the company’s newly appointed CEO, Gil Amelio, was looking for new software to replace the old and bloated Mac OS. He eventually chose Steve’s NeXTSTEP. Apple paid $400 million to acquire NeXT, and Steve was back to the company that had thrown him out a decade earlier. His official title was that of “informal adviser to the CEO.”

But when Amelio announced Apple’s losses of $700 million for the first quarter of 1997, the board decided it was time to get rid of this terrible manager. Steve Jobs organized a board coup and was named interim CEO of Apple in July 1997. He immediately started an extensive review of the whole company, cutting the number of projects from hundreds to a dozen. The number of hardware products would be cut down to just four. He also made a shocking announcement at Macworld Boston in August: Apple would be teaming up with its arch-rival Microsoft, in an unprecedented deal that would put an end to interminable patent disputes.

Apple back on track (1998-2001)

Steve Jobs quickly gave confidence back to the Apple community. The company launched a revolutionary marketing campaign around a new slogan: Think Different, spreading the idea that people who used Macs were dreamers who could change the world. As the Apple brand grew stronger, the company launched a couple of new successful products, the Power Mac G3 and the PowerBook. Six months after he had come back, Steve Jobs had led the company to profitability.

Yet Apple’s resurgence really came a little later, when Steve introduced a new, amazing consumer desktop computer: iMac. Introduced in May 1998, it was Apple’s first really innovative product basically since the original Macintosh in 1984. The iMac’s stunning translucent design blew away the whole personal computer industry, which had failed to produce anything but black or beige boxes for over a decade. Moreover, iMac was a hot seller, and it was essential in bringing back tons of developers to the Mac platform. Design innovations continued throughout 1998 and 1999 with the colored iMacs and iBook, Apple’s consumer notebook. After three years in charge, Steve Jobs had brought Apple back to greatness. That’s why he finally accepted to become full-time CEO of Apple in January 2000 — the first time one man became CEO of two public companies at the same time.

Still, the very reason Steve Jobs was brought back to Apple had not yet materialize — it was to bring NeXT’s software technology to the Mac platform. This eventually happened in early 2001, as Apple released the first version of its breakthrough operating system, Mac OS X. Mac OS X was really NeXTSTEP with a Mac facade. But it turned out an essential asset to Apple as the company developed breakthrough applications for its Macs as part of the digital hub strategy.

The digital hub strategy was unveiled by Steve Jobs at Macworld San Francisco in January 2001. It was a vision for the future of the personal computer. Although many analysts and self-appointed experts were proclaiming PCs would disappear within a couple of years to be replaced by Internet terminals, Apple believed they would evolve into digital centers or hubs for our new digital lifestyles. In other words, the PC would become the centerpiece of our new lives filled with digital cameras and camcorders, MP3 players, smart phones and other digital devices. The digital hub strategy led Apple to develop a suite of applications designed to manage our new lifestyle, the so-called iApps: iMovie (1999), iTunes (2001), iDVD (2001), iPhoto (2002), iCal and iSync (2002), GarageBand (2004) and finally iWeb (2006). The iApps were a strategic move in Apple’s greater plan to gain market share over the PC, as there was simply no equivalent solution on the Windows platform. Other moves included an aggressive ad campaign (Switchers) and the start of Apple’s retail operations in mid-2001.

The iPod revolution (2001-2006)

However the greatest momentum for Apple came from an unexpected source: the iPod. iPod was an integral part of the digital hub strategy. It was started in early 2001, when Steve Jobs realized that he had misplaced his enthusiasm for “desktop video”, i.e. the ability to edit movies on the computer — which was still far from mainstream. What was really hot at the turn of the century was not movies but digital music, as exemplified by the success of Napster. He focused on catching up and bought an outside hardware developer to work on Apple’s own MP3 player, which was brought to market in record time, just in time for 2001’s holiday season.

iPod’s breakthrough features — its beautiful design, its brilliant user interface and click wheel, its fast FireWire connectivity and its ability to sync with iTunes seamlessly — made it a hot seller from the start. For the first time, people were buying Macs just so they could use this little music player the size of a cigarette box. Apple cashed in on that success and went further in the following years, first by making iPod Windows-compatible in 2002, then by opening the iTunes Music Store and developing a Windows version of iTunes in 2003.

As of 2006, after Apple had continually pushed innovation in its music business by introducing iPod mini in 2004, iPod shuffle then iPod nano in 2005, and expanded its Music Store internationally, it had become the undisputed leader of the new digital music era. A significant landmark was passed in 2006 when Apple’s revenues from iPod equaled those made on computers. For the first time in its history, the firm from Cupertino had left its niche markets to become as influential a player in consumer electronics as Microsoft was in the PC space. iPod’s market share was close to 75%!

The Pixar-Disney merger (2003-2006)

Interestingly enough, iPod also played a critical role in setting Pixar’s future. After having released success after success (A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003)), the animation studio had decided to let go of its distribution deal with Disney, mainly because of increasing tensions between Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Steve Jobs openly said he would not make another deal with the Magic Kingdom until Eisner was out. Turns out his opinion was shared by many an executive at Disney — including Walt’s own nephew, Roy Disney, who started a public campaign to oust the company’s CEO. This led to the nomination of Bob Iger as new CEO in March 2005.

Steve Jobs and Bob Iger started working together because Apple decided to sell TV shows on its iTunes store. In October 2005, in front of an audience of stunned journalists, Steve Jobs shook hands (as Apple’s boss) with the new CEO of Disney — implying a renewed cooperation with Pixar in the near future. This eventually led to no less than the merger of both companies, announced in January 2006. Steve Jobs, who still owned half of Pixar’s stock, became Disney’s largest individual shareholder (owning 7% of the company’s stock). As for Pixar executives Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, they were given critical roles in the new studio.

Apple Inc. (2006-today)

2006 was a critical year for Apple in three respects.

The first was the success of the Mac. Mac sales were finally taking off, and after years of struggle to gain market share, its growth rate was exceeding that of the PC. Several factors accounted for this historic change: the success of iPod of course, and the positive side effect it had on the Apple brand. The move to Intel as well: after years of fighting the so-called Wintel monopoly, Steve had announced in 2005 that the company would start using Intel processors in their Macs form then on. The entire product line was transitioned over in less than a year. Intel Macs were faster and cheaper, but their main advantage was their ability to run Windows — which was a key argument in making Windows users switch, afraid as they were not to find their favorite software on the Mac. Finally, Apple was encountering unexpected success with its chain of retail stores, the fastest growing in the US.

The second crucial development from 2006 was the full acceptance by Apple of its new status of consumer electronics powerhouse, thanks to the success of iPod, the walkman of the digital age. It became obvious in February 2006, when the company released iPod hi-fi, a boom-box designed to work only with iPod (which was discontinued the following year), and Apple TV less than a year later. But the biggest move of course came in January 2007, when Steve Jobs introduced iPhone at Macworld. iPhone was arguably the ultimate Apple product. Its beautiful hardware ran no less than Apple’s full operating system, OS X. Its multi-touch technology, Web surfing and iPod capabilities, easy-to-use interface, and more, made it a smartphone “light-years ahead of its competition”, as Steve Jobs said. It shook the phone industry to its core, down to the exclusive deal that Apple cut with AT&T for subscription plans. Three years after it was introduced, it is already fair to say that iPhone will go down in history as the first digital convergence device, equivalent to putting a computer, an iPod and a phone in your pocket. It was such an obvious part of Apple’s move outside the PC business that Steve announced at the end of Macworld 2007 that the company’s name would be changed from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.

Finally, the third major event of 2006 for Steve was the so-called backdating scandal. Backdating consists of picking a date in the past, when a stock's value is lower, to assign the exercise price of options. It is an illegal practice that was commonplace in Silicon Valley until it was exposed by a Wall Street Journal article in 2006. Apple swiftly hired lawyers to lead an internal investigation of its own records. They did find irregularities, which were confirmed by the SEC in mid-2007. Two big frauds were unveiled that took place in 2000 and 2001, under Steve Jobs’ leadership. However he was cleared the following year as the SEC found out he had no idea of the legal or accounting implications of the matter. The SEC only charged Apple’s former CFO and legal counsel with fraud. The scandal was significant in the sense that it raised the issue of Apple’s future without Steve Jobs... But the main occasion this issue was raised was not the SEC investigation, it was unfortunately after Steve’s health problems.

In late 2003, Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, his tumor was not of the deadly type: Steve would be saved if he agreed to have surgery. But he didn’t, and for nine long months, followed a special type of diet that he thought would cure him from the disease. It was only in August 2004 that he agreed to have the surgery. Everybody thought the troubles were over, as he claimed he was “cured”. Of course there is no such thing as being cured from cancer, and in 2008, people started commenting heavily on Steve’s being increasingly thinner. Although he and Apple kept on denying any serious problem, in December 2008, they announced to everyone’s surprise that the CEO would not go on stage for the last Macworld keynote in history in January 2009. Steve Jobs took six months off (the first half of 2009), as he was awaiting a liver transplant — which he got in April 2009. The whole story of Steve’s cancer raised many a discussion about a public company’s necessary transparency regarding its CEO’s health, especially when that CEO is as essential to its market value as Steve Jobs is to Apple’s.

2010 has seen the incredible rebirth of Steve Jobs as a very active CEO. In sharp contrast with 2009, he came back on stage for many Apple events that year, and surprised the world many times over with insanely great new Apple products. The biggest announcement of all was undeniably iPad, Apple’s iOS-based tablet, which Steve unveiled on January 27, 2010. At the industry conference D8 in June 2010, Steve Jobs clearly stated that in his opinion, iPad had started the post-PC era, and that PCs would eventually become “like trucks”, a marginal part of a market dominated by portable tablets... If this comes true, this one man Steve Jobs will have played a crucial part in both giving birth and putting an end to the personal computer industry.

Conclusion

Steve Jobs is undeniably an extraordinary man by any standard. He has left his mark on no less than five industries: personal computers with Apple II and Macintosh, music with iPod and iTunes, phone with iPhone, and animation with Pixar. The middle-class hippie kid with no college education that he was built a computer empire and became a multi-millionaire in a few years, was fired from his own company before coming back a decade later to save it and turn it into one of the world’s most influential corporations, with millions of fans around the world. He has also contributed to the creation of the new leader in animated movies for decades to come. He has been called a fluke for years, but is now widely acknowledged as one the world’s most eminent business executives and an unrivaled visionary. He has changed millions of lives by making technology easy-to-use, exciting and beautiful.… And you know what the best part is? He’s not done yet.

 

Horace Greeley was born February 3, 1811 on a farm near Amherst, New Hampshire. His family lived in relative poverty, although his parents were hard-working farmers. Surprisingly, Greeley developed an interest in books at an early age. He was reading by the time he was 3 years old, and when he was 4, Greeley was sent to stay with his grandfather in order to attend school. He returned to the farm when he was 8 years old, where he attended school on and off for the next two years.

In 1821, Greeley's family lost their farm and moved to a two-room cabin in West Haven, Vermont. When he was 13 years old, Greeley's teacher told his parents that he had learned everything the teacher could teach. He never returned to school. In 1826, Greeley secured a position as a printer's apprentice at the Northern Spectator in East Poultney, Vermont. At the same time, his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and Greeley was on his own.

When the Northern Spectator stopped publication in 1830, Greeley was left without a job. He traveled to Pennsylvania to stay with his family, and for a short time, he worked as a printer in Erie. However, in 1831, Greeley decided it was time to strike out on his own. He traveled to New York City, where he found a job as a journeyman printer. In addition, he wrote editorials for several New York publications. In 1832, Greeley began a partnership with a friend, Francis Story, and they opened the printing firm of Greeley & Story. In 1834, Greeley began publishing a literary magazine, which he called The New Yorker.

In 1836, Greeley married Mary Cheney, and in 1838, he began a political partnership with Thurlow Weed and New York governor William H. Seward. Greeley agreed to edit a Whig publication entitled the Jeffersonian Log Cabin. It was necessary for Greeley to work half of the week in Albany to produce the Whig publication, and the other half of the week in New York City to produce The New Yorker.

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In 1841, Greeley founded the New York Tribune, a daily newspaper, and the first issue was published on April 4. The Tribune promoted Whig philosophy. Greeley set high standards for the quality of writing, and he demanded that all the facts be accurate. The Tribune opposed slavery, promoted educational reforms, and urged elevation of the masses. Greeley was considered the outstanding newspaper editor of the day, and he edited the Tribune until his death.
Greeley had a life-long ambition to be elected to a high public office, and he felt that the Whig party was not supporting those ambitions. In 1854, Greeley broke his alliance with the Whig party and transferred his political allegiance to the newly formed Republican party. He later transferred his allegiance to the Liberal Republican party and ran for president. Greeley died on November 29, 1872 before the Electoral College met, but he received more than 40 percent of the popular vote.

Biography of George Gershwin

George Gershwin was born Jacob Gershwin on Sept. 26, 1898 in what is now Brooklyn, New York. He died in Hollywood, California on July 11, 1937. He parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants who had come to this country in search of a better life. The family name had been Gershovitz in Russia, but George anglicized it when he began school. He heard jazz first when he was six, and he was exposed to other forms of music as much as possible. When he was 12, George began to study piano.

Gershwin had a significant impact on American music. He wrote the scores for several Broadway musicals, but he was also able to blend different styles of music into something that became totally new. Even after he was a successful composer, George continued to study with people who had a different focus on composition.

In 1918, George began his professional career as a pianist/vocalist for the Jerome Remick music publishing company.

In 1916, he published his first song, When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get 'Em.

Sigmund Romberg, who was famous for his many operattas, included one of Gershwin's songs in The Passing Show of 1916. At this same time, Gershwin was employed as a rehearsal pianist while also continuing his studies of piano, harmony, and orchestration.

Several of Gershwin's songs were performed by the singer Al Jolson in 1918-1919, and from 1920 to 1924, he wrote many of the songs in the productions of George White's Scandals. In 1920, La La Lucille had only Gershwin's songs, and the music for the 1920 Scandals was written entirely by Gershwin. Paul Whiteman, a famous band leader, was so impressed with Gershwin's work that he commissioned a symphonic opus for the Whiteman orchestra. Rhapsody in Blue, one of Gershwin's most famous works, was written in 1924. It was originally scored for two pianos, but the composer Ferde Grofe, who was Whiteman's arranger, scored it for piano and orchestra, which is the way it is most often heard.

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Gershwin wrote many songs that are still heard and enjoyed today. Some of them are Lady Be Good! (1924), Strike Up the Band (1927), Funny Face (1927), and Shall We Dance (1937). Gershwin also wrote instrumental music, including Lullaby for string quartet (1920), Piano Concerto in F (1925). the tone poem An American in Paris (1928), and the Cuban Overture (1932). His folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935) is still in the repertoire of many opera companies. This music contains classical styling, dramatic orchestration, jazz rhythms, and some popular song singing style.

Although George Gershwin was a friend of Arnold Schoenberg, he was not influenced by his style of composition. Gershwin's music was considered melodic and moving. He used a symphony orchestra to play jazz. This was the forerunner of the "Big Band" sound of groups like Benny Goodman, the Dorseys, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller and came to be known as "swing."

Biography of Benjamin Franklin

 

Benjamin Franklin, born January 17, 1706, was the 10th son, and 15th child, of 17 children in the Josiah Franklin family. Josiah was a soap and candlemaker, who lived in Boston, Massachusetts with his second wife, Abiah Folger. Although Franklin learned to read at an early age, he only attended grammar school for two years. By the time he was 10 years old, Franklin was working for his father. However, he did not enjoy the candlemaking profession, and two years later, Franklin was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer.

For five years, Franklin sought to master the printers' trade. During this time, he also strove to improve his education. Franklin read numerous classics and perfected his writing style. One night, Franklin slipped a letter, signed "Silence Dogood," under the door of his brother's newspaper, the New England Courant. That letter and the next 13 written by Franklin were published anonymously. The essays were widely read and acclaimed for their satire.

After a quarrel with his brother in 1723, Franklin left Boston for Philadelphia, where he again worked in the printing industry. He established a friendship with the Pennsylvania governor, Sir William Keith, and at Keith's suggestion, Franklin decided to go into business for himself. Keith offered to arrange letters of credit and introduction for Franklin's trip to London to purchase equipment. Unfortunately, Keith proved unreliable, and Franklin arrived in London with no means. However, he quickly found employment in two of London's largest printing houses, and after two years, earned enough money to return to America.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 and resumed his trade. By 1730, Franklin had his own business. That same year, he married Deborah Read, a woman he met before his trip to England. Together they had a son, who died at four years of age; and a daughter, who survived them both.

Franklin's business ventures included the purchase of the Pennsylvania Gazette, which, after his improvement, was considered one of the best colonial newspapers; Poor Richard's Almanac, written under the pseudonym, Richard Saunders, and published from 1732 to 1757; and the printing of Pennsylvania's paper currency. In 1731, Franklin founded what is considered the first public library. During the next several years, Franklin was instrumental in establishing the first fire department, a police force, and the Academy of Philadelphia, which became the University of Pennsylvania. Around 1744, Franklin invented a stove which reduced excessive chimney smoke. The Franklin stove is still in use today.

In the 1740's, Franklin began experimenting with electricity, which led to the invention of the lightning rod. By 1748, Franklin had sold his printing business to devote himself to his scientific experiments. His famous electricity experiment, which included flying a kite during a lightning storm took place in 1752. In addition to his science projects, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania assembly and held the post for 14 years. In 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster general. The following year, Franklin became a Pennsylvania delegate to the intercolonial congress, which met in Albany. His suggestion to unite the colonies as a defense against the French and natives was considered premature and rejected.

In 1757, Franklin was sent to England to petition the king for the right to levy taxes. He remained in England for the next five years, as the representative of the American colonies. Franklin returned to England in 1764 as an agent of Pennsylvania, to negotiate a new charter. He was able to secure the repeal of the Stamp Act, but Parliament continued to levy taxes on the colonies. In 1775, with war seemingly inevitable, Franklin returned to America. Shortly thereafter, he was made a member of the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson supposed stated that the only reason Franklin didn't write the entire Declaration was because he would include too many jokes.

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In December, 1776, Franklin, age 71, traveled to France to successfully negotiate a treaty of commerce and defensive alliance. He remained in France for nine years, working on trade treaties. Franklin became a hero to the French, and his company was sought by diplomats and nobility. He was honored by Louis XVI, and his portrait was placed on everything from chamber pots to snuff boxes.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1785. Two years later, he became a member of the Constitutional Convention. Franklin was bedridden during the final year of his life and died on April 17, 1790. As one of his final public acts, he signed a petition to the U.S. Congress urging the abolition of slavery, just two months before his death.

biography of Henry Ford

 

Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 in Wayne county, Michigan. He was the son of Irish immigrants, William and Mary Ford, who had settled on a farm in Dearborn. In addition to helping his father with the harvest, Ford also attended school in a one-room schoolhouse. However, Ford disliked both school and farm life, and at age 16, he walked to Detroit in search of employment.

Ford was employed as an apprentice in a machine shop, where he learned about the internal combustion engine. After several years of learning his trade, Ford returned to the family farm and worked part-time for the Westinghouse Engine Company. Ford set up a small machine shop on the farm and began tinkering with engines and machines. During this time, Ford fell in love with Clara Bryant, who he married in 1888.

Several years later, Ford and his wife moved back to Detroit when Ford was made chief engineer at the Detroit Edison Company. The position required Ford to be on-call 24 hours a day, but the irregular hours allowed him time to experiment. He had experimented with gasoline-powered vehicles and horse-less carriages for several years before his first vehicle was completed. The "Quadricycle," a vehicle with a buggy frame mounted on four bicycle wheels was completed in 1896. Ford sold the "Quadricycle" to raise capital for more creations.

During the next several years, Ford continued to fine-tune his passenger vehicles. In addition, he built racing cars and even drove them himself. In 1903, Ford produced an automobile he was ready to market, and he formed the Ford Motor Company with capital from Detroit citizens. In 1908, Ford introduced the successful Model T, which was manufactured for 19 years. However, Ford's successes were not without problems. Soon after the incorporation of the Ford Motor Company, Ford was threatened by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers. After years of legal battles, Ford won his case in 1911, which made it possible for more people to become automobile manufacturers.

Ford was able to market the Model T to the general public because of his advanced production technology. The Ford Motor Company's plant in Highland Park, Michigan, Ford introduced the first assembly line in 1913, which drastically reduced production time. As a result, more automobiles were made available at a lower cost. Ford also instituted the $5.00/day minimum wage, which he claimed increased productivity.

However, not everyone was impressed with Ford's business practices, and in 1917, he was sued by his stockholders for diverting profits into company expansion. Although the court ruled in favor of the stockholders, by 1920, Ford was able to buy them out. He built a huge plant in River Rouge, and the company became almost entirely self-sufficient.

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In 1926, Ford began losing sales to General Motors because the Model T was becoming outdated. The Ford plants were shut down for five months, after which Ford introduced the Model A and later the V-8. Both models received moderate success but were outsold by General Motors and Chrysler.

The problems Ford Motor Company encountered can be attributed to Ford's stubborn and authoritarian management style. Although Ford's only child Edsel had been named president in 1919, his father remained in strict control. When General Motors and Chrysler signed contracts with the United Automobile Workers, Ford refused to follow suit. He employed spies and company police to prevent his workers from unionization. Ultimately, Ford was persuaded to sign a contract with the UAW in 1941.

Ford's son Edsel died in 1943, and Ford resumed the presidency. However, he had experienced two strokes by that time, and two years later handed over the presidency to his grandson, Henry Ford II. Ford died at his home on April 7, 1947.

Biography of Duke Ellington

 

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born in Washington, DC in 1899. His mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington, recognized her son's talents when he was a child. Daisy's husband worked as a blueprint maker for the U.S. Navy. Occasionally he worked as a butler, sometimes at the White House. Neither parent could have imagined that their son would be an honored guest and performer at the White House before four different presidents. In 1969, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments as a musician and conductor.

Nicknamed "Duke" by his boyhood friends because of his love for dressing in fine clothes, Ellington displayed talent as a pianist when he was quite young. His piano teacher tried to make Duke learn the piano in a conventional way. Duke did learn, but he always added creativity and expression to his playing.

Ellington strove for excellence and elegance in everything he did. When still in high school, he designed the winning poster for a contest sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He graduated from high school in 1917 and was offered a scholarship from the Pratt Institute of Applied Art in New York City, but music was his first love, and he followed his instincts.

Ellington struck out on his own. He organized a band in Washington and began to play regular engagements. His band went to New York City, where they made their first recordings. When Duke Ellington and his Washingtonians played at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, they were on their way to success.

The band played in movies during the 1930s. They also toured Europe for extended periods of time. Each musician had his own style, but they all played together under Ellington's leadership to create wonderful sounds.

He and his band performed in all the major concert halls in the United States and Europe. Liberia, in West Africa, commissioned Ellington to write music to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Another West African nation, Togo, was honored by Ellington's work entitled "Togo Brava." Millions of fans around the world loved his music.

Although the 1950s were not popular years for bands, Ellington kept his band together. He stayed in business while he composed other types of music. He wrote pieces for his band, music for Broadway shows and ballets, jazz compositions, concert hall music, and sacred music. Altogether he wrote more than 6,000 pieces of music.

"He has made us all happier and richer by having lived among us. He will not be easily replaced on this earth." The great African-American singer Sarah Vaughan spoke these words of Duke Ellington after his death in 1974. Fans of Duke Ellington know they will never need to replace this great man - his creative spirit is still very much alive in his music.

Biography of Edward VIII

"I, Edward, do hereby declare my irrevocable determination to renounce the throne for myself and my descendants." These words were spoken by Edward VIII, the only British monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne.

Edward VIII, later known as Edward, duke of Windsor, was the eldest child of George, duke of York and Princess Mary of Teck. He was born June 23, 1894 in Richmond, Surrey, England. With his father's accession on May 6, 1910, Edward became heir to the throne.

From ages 13 to 17, Edward trained at the naval preparatory college at Osborne, then attended the Royal Navy College. In addition, he was schooled at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. During World War I, Edward served as a staff officer in the Army?s Grenadier Guards. After the war, Edward traveled extensively throughout the British empire as a goodwill ambassador, and his popularity was great. In 1932, Edward instituted several occupational policies to battle growing unemployment, which also increased his popularity.

Edward lived in an 18th century home called Fort Belvoir, which was given to him by his father, King George V. He enjoyed the privacy of "the Fort" and became an expert on gardening, especially roses. Through his small, private circle of friends who visited him at the Fort, Edward met Wallis Warfield Simpson. At the time, she was married to Ernest Simpson, but by 1934, Edward considered himself "deeply in love."

Soon after, on January 20, 1936, George V died, and Edward was proclaimed king. Edward was determined to marry the now-separated Mrs. Simpson, and he attempted to gain the royal family's acceptance of the relationship. However, Edward's family, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and British political leaders were opposed to a marriage. Through government pressure of the press, the relationship was kept secret from the British public until December 2, when the entire matter was revealed. Cries for abdication began the next day.

Edward submitted his abdication on December 10, and announced it to the public during a radio address the next evening, saying "I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." On December 12, after Edward had already departed for Austria to stay with friends, his brother, now King George VI, named him the duke of Windsor.

Mrs. Simpson's divorce became final several months later, and the two were married on June 3, 1937. They lived in France until the outbreak of World War II, at which time Edward accepted the governorship of the Bahamas offered to him by Winston Churchill. Edward remained in the Bahamas until the end of the war. Still, the division between he and his family was not yet remedied.

While living in Paris after the war, Edward returned only twice to Great Britain; in 1952, after the death of his brother, George VI, and in 1953, after the death of his mother, Queen Mary. He was not formally invited to an official public ceremony until 1967, when he and Simpson, now the duchess of Windsor, were invited to the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to his mother, Queen Mary.

For the rest of his life, Edward lived with Wallis in both Paris and the United States. He died in Paris on May 28, 1972. She died in Paris nearly 14 years later on April 24, 1986. The duke and duchess were buried side by side within the grounds of Windsor Castle.

Biography of Thomas Alva Edison

In his lifetime, Thomas Alva Edison profoundly affected the technology of modern society. The American inventor was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Edison, Jr. and Nancy Elliot Edison. When Edison was 7 years old, his family moved to Port Huron, Michigan, after his father hired on as a carpenter at the Fort Gratiot military post.

Edison entered school in Port Huron, but his teachers considered him to be a dull student. Because of hearing problems, Edison had difficulty following the lessons and his school attendance became sporadic. Nevertheless, Edison became a voracious reader and at age 10, he set up a laboratory in his basement.

When his mother could not longer stand the smell of his chemistry lab, Edison took a job as a trainboy on the Grand Trunk Railway and established a new lab in an empty freight car. He was 12 at the time. Edison also began printing a weekly newspaper, which he called the Grand Trunk Herald.

While Edison was working for the railroad, something happened that changed the course of his career. Edison saved the life of a station official's child, who had fallen onto the tracks of an oncoming train. For his bravery, the boy's father taught Edison how to use the telegraph.

From 1862 to 1868, Edison worked as a roving telegrapher in the Midwest, the South, Canada, and New England. During this time, he began developing a telegraphic repeating instrument that made it possible to transmit messages automatically. By 1869, Edison's inventions, including the duplex telegraph and message printer, were progressing so well, he left telegraphy and began a career of full-time inventing and entrepreneurship.

Edison moved to New York City and within a year, he was able to open a workshop in Newark, New Jersey. He produced the Edison Universal Stock Printer, the automatic telegraph, the quadruplex, as well as other printing telegraphs, while working out of Newark. During this same period, Edison married Mary Stilwell.

Edison was a poor financial manager and by 1875, he began to experience financial difficulties. To reduce costs, Edison asked his widowed father to help him build a new laboratory and machine shop in Menlo Park, New Jersey. He moved into the new building in March, 1876 along with two associates, Charles Batchelor and John Kruesi. Edison achieved his greatest successes in this laboratory and he was dubbed the "Wizard of Menlo Park."

In 1877, Edison invented the carbon-button transmitter that is still used in telephone speakers and microphones. In December of the same year, he unveiled the tinfoil phonograph. (It was 10 years before the phonograph was available as a commercial product). In the late 1870s, backed by leading financiers including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, Edison established the Edison Electric Light Company. In 1879, he publicly demonstrated his incandescent electric light bulb. In 1882, he supervised the installation of the first commercial, central power system in lower Manhattan. In 1883, one of Edison's engineers William J. Hammer, made a discovery which later led to the electron tube. The discovery was patented the "Edison effect."

In 1884, Edison's wife Mary died, leaving him with three young children. He married Mina Miller in 1886, and began construction on a new laboratory and research facility in West Orange, New Jersey. The new lab employed approximately 60 workers and Edison attempted to personally manage this large staff. The story goes that when a new employee once asked about rules, Edison answered, "There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something." However, the operation in West Orange lacked the intimacy of Menlo Park, and Edison's time was often consumed by administrative chores.

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During his time in West Orange, Edison produced the commercial phonograph, the Kinetoscope, the Edison storage battery, the electric pen, the mimeograph, and the microtasimeter. In 1913, Edison introduced the first talking moving pictures. In 1915, he was appointed president of the U.S. Navy Consulting Board. In all, Edison patented more than 1,000 discoveries. Edison's inventions were often in response to demand for new or improved products. However, others also came about accidentally or serendipitously.

Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, New Jersey on October 18,1931. At the time of this death, he was experimenting on rubber from goldenrod. After his death, Edison became a folk hero of legendary status. His inventions had truly and profoundly affected the shaping of modern society.

Biography of Amelia Earhart

  

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace with yourself." These are the words of Amelia Earhart, one of the world's most celebrated aviators, a woman who broke records and charted new waters.

Amelia Earhart was the first child born to Edwin Stanton and Amy Otis Earhart on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. Amelia and her sister, Muriel, who was born three years later, had a difficult childhood. Their father was an alcoholic and because he often lost jobs, the family traveled a great deal. The girls frequently missed school but still excelled academically. They enjoyed books and often recited poetry while doing their chores. Amelia and Muriel also loved sports, including basketball and tennis. Their parents encouraged them to try new things, and they did.

After graduating from high school, Amelia planned to attend college, but her plans were put on hold after she met four wounded World War I veterans on the street. After hearing of their plight, Amelia decided to study nursing. During the war, Amelia worked as a military nurse in Canada. At the war's end, she became a social worker at the Denison House in Boston and taught English to immigrant children.

Amelia enjoyed watching airplane stunt shows, which were quite popular during the 1920s. One day, after taking a ten minute plane ride, which cost $1, Amelia knew she must learn to fly. By working several odd jobs and with the help of her mother, Amelia earned the $1,000 fee to take flying lessons. Her first instructor was nicknamed "Snooky." Ten hours of instruction and several crashes later, Amelia was ready to fly solo. She made her first solo flight in 1921. Except for a poor landing, the flight was uneventful. By the next year, Amelia had saved enough money to buy a plane of her own.

During the 1920s, Amelia lived with her mother and sister in Boston and continued teaching at Denison House. Flying was merely a hobby for her at that time. However, in 1928, Amelia received a call from Captain Hilton H. Railey asking her to join pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on a flight from America to England. Although she was only a passenger, Amelia became the first woman to cross the Atlantic on a plane called the Friendship on June 17-18, 1928. A publisher named George Putnam covered the story, and in 1931, the two married.

Amelia's 1928 flight brought her tremendous publicity, and she subsequently endeavored to justify this renown. On May 20-21,1932, Amelia crossed the Atlantic on her own, establishing a new transatlantic crossing record of 13 hours, 30 minutes. Amelia was celebrated throughout Europe and the United States and received a medal from President Herbert Hoover. Several years later, Amelia became the first woman to successfully complete the hazardous flight from Hawaii to California.

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In June 1937, Amelia began what was to be her final flight. Amelia and navigator Fred Noonan set out in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra in an attempt to fly around the world. They departed from Miami, Florida to South America, and then across the South Atlantic Ocean to Dakar, Africa. After crossing the Sahara desert, they flew to Thailand, Singapore, Java, and Australia. However, after departing Lae, New Guinea for Howland Island, the U.S. Coast Guard lost contact with the plane. They received a final message on July 2 at 8:45 a.m., and Amelia's tone was described as frantic.

The United States Navy searched extensively but never found a trace of the aviators or the plane. The mysterious disappearance of Earhart and her plane has raised considerable speculation throughout the years. Some believe that she and Noonan were captured and executed by the Japanese. Others speculate that President Roosevelt sent Earhart on a secret spy mission. However, none of the many theories for her disappearance have ever been confirmed. In 1939, Earhart's husband published a biography entitled Soaring Wings, in tribute to Amelia.

Biography of Frederick Douglass

 

Born: February, 1818
Died:  February 20, 1895
Birthplace: Maryland

If the old adage "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword" ever needed substantiation, one need look no farther than the life of Frederick Douglass.

Born a slave, Douglass embraced both the written and spoken word to achieve political and social heights no African-American of his time, and precious few since, even dared dream of.

Like many second-generation and after slaves, Douglass was the product of a slave woman and her white master in February 1818 on Maryland’s eastern shore.

His youth didn’t offer any insight into the man he was to become, as he lived the life of most slaves, enduring backbreaking labor and witnessing his peers suffer intense whippings.

Unlike many other slaves, young Douglass was taught to read, an avocation he engulfed with pleasure.  As a teenager, he organized illegal schools to help other slaves learn to read and write.

His ever increasing knowledge made the shackles of slavery all the tighter and, after a failed attempt that landed him in jail, Douglass escaped for good and fled to New Bedford, Massachusetts with his young bride in 1838.

Douglass continued to educate himself and became caught up in the Abolitionist movement to end slavery forever.  William Lloyd Garrison, one of the Abolitionist leaders, became Douglass’s mentor.

"No face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments (anti-slavery) as did those of William Lloyd Garrison," Douglass wrote in his autobiography.

At the tender age of 23, Douglass gave a speech to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that stirred passion into even the most obtuse heart.  It was the start of a public speaking career that continued throughout his life.

In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself.  Fearing recapture as a slave, Douglass went to the British Isles for two years.

While in Britain Douglass spoke in favor of Irish home rule and eventually would speak on behalf of the European peasantry, women's suffrage, prison reform, free public school education and universal peace.

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While in England, a group got enough money to buy Douglass’s freedom from slavery.  He returned home and started a newspaper, the North Star, out of Rochester, NY.
Douglass was still firmly in the Abolitionist camp, but preferred using politics and debate as a means to an end, where Garrison was more radical, pushing for solutions that included the dissolution of the Union.  Douglass thought such a move would lead to even further isolation for Blacks in the South, and the two had a bitter falling out that lasted well into the Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln enlisted Douglass as a consultant during the war, using the African American leader to help enlist Black troops to fight for the Union.  Douglass continued to speak out for the rights of all people, throughout his life, emphasizing three keys for success in life:

1. Believe in yourself.
2. Take advantage of every opportunity.
3. Use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive     change for yourself and society.

"What’s possible for me is possible for you," Douglass said. 
Aside from being an advisor to the President, Douglass was also marshal of the District of Columbia, recorder of deeds for DC, and minister to Haiti.