Malala Yousafzai Biography

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani school pupil and spokesperson for women’s right to education. In retaliation for her high profile campaign for education and criticism of the Taliban, she was shot in the head at close range by a Taliban gunman. She survived the gunshot wound and has become a leading spokesperson for human rights, education and women’s rights. She has received numerous peace awards and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 along with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist.

Early Life Malala

Malala was born (12 July 1997) in Mingora, the Swat District of north-west Pakistan to a Sunni Muslim family. She was named Malala, which means ‘grief-stricken’ after a famous female Pashtun poet and warrior from Afghanistan.

Biography of Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth (1952 – ) was crowned Head of State, Head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England in 1952.

She is the longest serving British monarch and has presided over half a century of continual change both within the Royal Family, Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth was the eldest child of Prince Albert, the Duke of York (later George VI) and his wife Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother). Her father Prince Albert was second in line to the throne, until his elder brother Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 – pushing the shy Prince Albert into an unexpected role of King. King George VI rose to the challenge though he died early in 1952.

15 teachings of Lord Buddha that will help you live a better life

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhartha Buddha was a sage who started to impact thousands of lives in sixth and fourth BCE (Before Common Era) with his profound spiritual wisdom. The word ‘Buddha’ means the enlightened one or the awakened one.

No matter what religion you follow, what culture you have been born and brought up in, Buddha’s teachings are universal. His teachings have the strength to awaken people to reality and make them introspect themselves. Lord Buddha’s teachings have not only given a deeper insight into one’s existence, but also made significant contribution in liberating one from the day-to-day conflicts in minds.

Biography of Lord Buddha

Siddhartha, who later became known as the Buddha – or The Enlightened One – was a prince who forsook the comforts of a palace to seek enlightenment. He realised the essential unreality of the world, and experienced the bliss of Nirvana. After his enlightenment he spent the remainder of his life teaching others how to escape the endless cycle of birth and death.

Biography of Lord Buddha

Buddha was born approximately 400 BCE in the area now known as Nepal. He was brought up in a palace with all the comforts and luxuries possible. Growing up a young noble prince, it is said his father sought to shield the young prince Siddhartha from the pain and suffering of the world. It is said his father had a premonition that Siddhartha would one day renounce the world.

Stephen Hawking Biography

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author. He is best known for his attempts to explain in clear terms the origins of the universe and some of the most complicated aspects of the cosmos and physics. Hawkings was the first scientist to offer a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Stephen Hawking

Early life Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, England. His family had moved to Oxford to escape the threat of V2 rockets over London. As a child he showed prodigious talents, if unorthodox study methods. On leaving school he got a place at University College, Oxford University where he studied Physics. His physics tutor at Oxford, Robert Berman, later said that Stephen Hawkins was an extraordinary student. He used few books and made no notes, but could work out theorems and solutions in a way other students couldn’t.

Biography of Plato

Plato (423 BC – 348 BC) was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato influenced a whole range of subjects from philosophy to maths, logic and ethics.

Biography of Plato

The early life of Plato is only partially recorded, but he was born in an aristocratic family in Athens. This enabled him to gain a good education, where he soon impressed those around him with his speed of learning and clarity of thought.

Biography of Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942)  is an English singer / songwriter and a key member of the Beatles. After the Beatles split up in 1970, he pursued his own successful solo career, recording with a variety of artists, including his group The Wings. According to the Guinness Book of Records he is the best selling artist of all time.

Biography of Paul McCartney 

Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, 1942, and became interested in music from an early age.

Biography of Albert Einstein

Born in Germany 1879, Albert Einstein is one of the most celebrated scientists of the Twentieth Century. His theories on relativity laid the framework for a new branch of physics, and Einstein’s E = mc2 on mass-energy equivalence is one of the most famous formulas in the world. In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to theoretical physics and the evolution of Quantum Theory.

Biography of Albert Einstein

Einstein is also well known as an original free-thinker, speaking on a range of humanitarian and global issues. After contributing to the theoretical development of nuclear physics and encouraging F.D. Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project, he later spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Einstein settled in Switzerland and then, after Hitler’s rise to power, the United States. Einstein was a truly global man and one of the undisputed genius’ of the Twentieth Century.

Elvis Presley Biography

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. Elvis Presley became one of the most influential cultural icons of a generation. He is commonly referred to as the “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll” and epitomises the post-war pop generation.

Elvis Presley Biography

Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. When he was 13, his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

Charles Darwin Biography

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English Natural scientist who laid down a framework for the theory of evolution – showing how Man evolved from lower life forms. At the time, his research and publication led to bitter controversy, but his theory of evolution and natural selection later became accepted within the scientific community.

Charles Darwin Biography

Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was born into a wealthy and influential family. His grandfathers included – China manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood, and Erasmus Darwin, one of the leading intellectuals of 18th century England.

Biography George Orwell

Early Life of George Orwell

George Orwell, (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) has proved to be one of the twentieth century’s most influential and thought provoking writers. His relatively small numbers of books have created intense literary and political criticism. Orwell was a socialist, but at the same time he did not fit into any neat ideology. At times, he exasperated the more doctrinaire left wingers with his enthusiasm for taking opposing views. He was foremost a political writer, but for Orwell his object was not to promote a certain point of view, but to arrive at the truth; exposing the hypocrisy and injustice prevalent in society.

Christopher Columbus Biography

Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506)  was an Italian explorer, colonizer, and navigator. He is remembered as the principle discoverer of the Americas and helped bring the Americas to the forefront of the western consciousness. His discoveries and travels laid the framework for the later European colonisation of Latin and North America.

Christopher Columbus

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

– Christopher Columbus

Short bio Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506)

Charles de Gaulle Biography

Charles de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who acted as leader of the Free French during the Second World War.

Charles de Gaulle Biography

 One of the most influential French politicians of the Twentieth Century, he helped found the Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969. He was a right wing conservative and was a keen French Nationalist. His brand of right wing conservatism is branded Gaullism.

Biography of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) was Britain’s first female prime minister (1979-90). She was known for her tough uncompromising, conservative political views, and became dubbed as ‘The Iron Lady’. 

Biography of Margaret Thatcher

On the UK domestic front she instituted many free market reforms, implemented the controversial poll tax and reduced the power of trades unions. In international affairs, she cultivated a close relationship with American President Ronald Reagan and also developed a working relationship with Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the Cold War drew to a close.

Mahatma Gandhi Biography

Mahatma Gandhi was a prominent Indian political leader who campaigned for Indian independence. He employed non-violent principles and peaceful disobedience. He was assassinated in 1948, shortly after achieving his life goal of Indian independence. In India, he is known as ‘Father of the Nation’.

Mahatma Gandhi Biography

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.”

– Gandhi

Muhammad Ali Biography

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. January 17, 1942 – 3 June 2016) was an Olympic and World Champion boxer, who also had a unique personality, based on self-belief and strong religious and political convictions.  In 1999, Ali was crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated. He won the World Heavyweight Boxing championship three times and won the North American Boxing Federation championship as well as an Olympic gold medal.

Muhammad Ali Biography

“I’m not the greatest; I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ’em out, I pick the round. “

– Muhammad Ali

Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr., (who was named after the 19th century abolitionist and politician Cassius Clay). Ali would later change his name after joining the Nation of Islam. He subsequently converted to Sunni Islam in 1975.

Biography of Bill Gates

William Henry Gates was born on 28 October 1955, in Seattle, Washington. As the principal founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the most influential and richest people on the planet. Recent estimates of his wealth put it at US$84.2 billion (Jan. 2017); this is the equivalent of the combined GDP of several African economies. In recent years he has retired from working full time at Microsoft, and has instead concentrated on working with his charitable foundation “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

Biography of Bill Gates

Early life of Bill Gates

His father parents William Gates Sr, was a senior lawyer, and his mother, Mary, served as an executive for a major bank. The family were wealthy but, remembering the challenges of the Great Depression, they encouraged their children to work hard and take nothing for granted.

Aged 13, Gates attended the private Lakeside school. It was here that Gates had his first introduction to computers. He taught himself to programme in Basic, making a simple ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’ game. Gates enjoyed the process of working with computers and arranged with a company Computer Center Corporation (CCC) to spend time on their computers – learning source code, such as Fortran, Machine Code and Lisp.

Winston Churchill short biography

Sir Winston  Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War.

Churchill was famous for his stubborn resistance to Hitler during the darkest hours of the Second World War.

Short Bio Winston Churchill

Winston was born at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock near Oxford to an aristocratic family – the Duke of Marlborough. He was brought up by servants and friends of the family. He rarely spoke to his father, and he spent most of his childhood at boarding school – Harrow. Churchill wasn’t the best student, having a rebellious nature and was reportedly slow to learn; but Churchill excelled at sports and joined the officer cadet corps, which he enjoyed.

Biography Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) was a South African political activist who spent over 20 years in prison for his opposition to the apartheid regime; he was released in 1990. 

Biography Nelson Mandela

In 1994, Mandela was later elected the first leader of a democratic South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with F.W. de Klerk) in 1993 for his work in helping to end racial segregation in South Africa. He is considered the father of a democratic South Africa and widely admired for his ability to bring together a nation, previously divided by apartheid. Nelson Mandela is one of the most admired political leaders of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century for his vision to forgive and forge a new ‘rainbow’ nation.

Martin Luther King Biography

Martin Luther King Jr was one of America’s most influential civil rights activists. His passionate, but non violent protests, helped to raise awareness of racial inequalities in America, leading to significant political change. Martin Luther King was also an eloquent orator who captured the imagination and hearts of people, both black and white.

Early Life of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta on 15 January 1929. Both his father and grandfather were pastors in an African-American Baptist church. M. Luther King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, (segregated schooling) and then went to study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and Boston University.