Crispus Attucks (1723 - March 5, 1770) was the first American to die for the Revolutionary cause: "The first to defy, the first to die." Attucks was shot in the "Boston Massacre," the first fight leading up to the Revolutionary War.
Attucks was the American son of a native African father and a woman belonging to the Natick Indian tribe. As a young adult, Attucks escaped his "owner" in Framingham, Massachusetts, and went to sea as a whaler and worked as a ropemaker in Boston, Massachusetts. He learned to read and write, and studied government.
Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000) was an African-American artist who was associated with the Harlem Renaissance art movement. Lawrence was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but at 13 years old, moved to New York City, New York, where he studied art. He soon became successful, both artistically and commercially.
Lawrence often painted scenes of ordinary life in vibrant colors and with a startling angularity. In 1946, Lawrence said of his philosophy of art, "My belief is that it is most important for an artist to develop an approach and philosophy about life - if he has developed this philosophy he does not put paint on canvas, he puts himself on canvas."
Abraham Baldwin (1754-1807) Baldwin was born at Guilford, Conn., in 1754, the second son of a blacksmith who fathered 12 children by 2 wives. Besides Abraham, several of the family attained distinction. His sister Ruth married the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, and his half-brother Henry attained the position of justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Their ambitious father went heavily into debt to educate his children.
Charles Darwin attended Christ's College at Cambridge with initial thoughts of entering the clergy, but soon took up studies in biology, zoology and geology. From 1831 to 1836, he served as naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle on its scientific mission to South America and the Pacific. Back in England, he published a series of scientific treatises which established his reputation as one of the prominent thinkers of his day. From 1842 onwards, he lived on a country estate in Kent and pursued his studies among its gardens and livestock.
Henry Ford: When Henry was twenty-eight he became an engineer at Edison Company which made electrical generating stations. He was made chief engineer two years later and advanced to a salary of $125 a month.
The first car he made was a "gasoline buggy" called the Quadricycle. He drove it around for two years, and it drew a crowd everywhere he went.
In 1903 he built two race cars to advertise the automobile. One he named the "999" and the other the "Arrow". He hired Barney Oldfield, a professional bicycle rider and race car driver to race for him. In 1904 Ford himself driving the Ford Arrow set a new land speed record in his car - over 91 miles per hour! The event took place on the frozen ice of Lake St. Claire.
|
