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- Henry James was born 15 April 1843, to a wealthy family. He was born in New York, New York USA. His parents were Henry James Sr. and Mary Robertson Walsh; He had one brother William James (January 11 1842-August 26 1910) and one sister Alice James. When Henry James was a young boy he would enjoy reading the classics of English, American, German, French, and Russian literature. Also when he was a kid he and his family would travel back and forth to England and the United States of America. Henry James educated in New York City, London, Paris and Geneva.
He tried to strive for a higher education then he decided it was not for him and writing was his calling in life. (When Henry James was at the age of 19 he briefly attended Harvard Law School, but preferred reading literature to studying law). When Henry James hit the age of 21 he decided to write his first novel, A Tragedy of error. From that point on he started to write. He went on to write 23 more novels in his lifetime (this is a short list of the book's he wrote the Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl, The Portrait of a Lady, The American, Washington Square, The Bostonians, and The Wings of the Dove). Henry James also was an extraordinarily productive on top of all of his novels he wrote he published articles an, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays (one of them being Guy Domville), some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. Henry James also wrote a whole lot of short stories for either the local news or just for fun. He often wrote for the New York tribune. Henry James was a key stone writer of his time (He was one of the foremost literary figures of his time, leaving us an enormous body of novels, 'tales' (short stories), literary and art criticism, autobiography and travel writing). Throughout his life he was in love with his cousin, Mary Temple, but later in life while he was in London he became homosexual, the young man he started to wright was at the age of 27 and Henry James was at the age of 56. He also wrote another guy named, Howard Sturgis. They started to write back and forth and they started to have more emotion in the letters. He also started to write a woman named Lucy Clifford; But Henry James never got married in his lifetime. Henry James brother William James died when Henry James was at the age of 67; Henry James had a stroke on Dec 2nd of 1915. His health started to decline from then. He died in London in Feb. 28th of 1916. When he died he was not only a citizen for the United States of America but also a British subject. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes are interred at Cambridge, Massachusetts. - Gregory Rasputin was one of Russia's most controversial and mysterious figures who posed as a "holy man" and destroyed the political image and reputation of Russia's Emperor Tsar Nicholas II and his family through a series of political manipulations, disgusting scandals and treachery, provoking a huge wave of public anger and helping the communists to prepare the disastrous Russian revolution. His mysterious activity is still disputed by historians and religious authors, mostly because he left no papers or documents with the exception of a few messages, while acting behind-the-scenes inside the Palaces of the Russian Tsars, and he remained inaccessible to public because of the heavy security that surrounded the Russian Imperial family.
He was born Gregory Efimovich Rasputin in 1869 into a Russian peasant family in Pokrovskoye village, Tobolsk province in Siberia. He was the only surviving child of Efim Yakovlevich Rasputin and Anna Vasilevna Rasputina--their four previous children died before he was born. The family name, Rasputin, has a negative connotation, similar to "ill-behaved" or "ill-aimed". His mother died when Rasputin was young and his father was imprisoned for some time. Gregory had very little schooling and was unable to read or write. At age 16 he was arrested for theft, and the citizens of Pokrovskoe appealed to the authorities to excommunicate and exile him. Rasputin was sentenced to three months in prison, which was later commuted to serving his term at Verkhoturye Monastery in Siberia. Rasputin settled with the lonely monk Makariy, who lived in a rugged hut and practiced rituals akin to ancient shamanic and tribal traditions of the Siberian people. Rasputin mentioned that Makariy had cured him of a severe sleep disorder and trained him to practice hypnotism and a vegetarian lifestyle, which included some alcohol and also the use of various weeds and drugs for "spiritual transformation" according to ancient shamanic rituals.
Rasputin stated later that he modeled himself after Makariy. At that time he became interested in manipulating people through their weaknesses and beliefs, including use of their personal and social habits as well as their politics and religion. He was also introduced to the banned mystical sect of Khlysty (flagellants), whose had a strong sexual content among other exotic practices. Rasputin evolved into a cynical and ruthless manipulator who practiced his principle that "any sin shall make me a holy man" and was spreading his beliefs around. In 1889 Rasputin married Praskovia Feodorovna and had three children, but left his family in Siberia and became a wanderer. He walked across Russia on foot from Siberia to Kiev and back several times during the 1890s, then made a pilgrimage on foot to Greece and Jerusalem during 1901, walking back to Russia and staying in Kazan with a local priest who gave him a letter of recommendation to St. Peterburg, the Russian capital. He arrived in the city in 1903, and solicited money to build a church in his home village of Pokrovskoe. In St. Petersburg Rasputin was accommodated by none other than Father Sergiy (who later, in 1942, was appointed by Joseph Stalin the Head of Orthodox Christianity in the Soviet Union), who was at that time Director of St. Petersburg Holy Academy and Seminary and also was a clandestine political opponent of Tsar Nicholas II. At several reception parties staged by Father Sergiy, Rasputin stunned St. Petersburg society by his forecasts that Russia would be defeated in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904, and that the Russian navy "would sink down", which was exactly what happened next.
Soon the Ober-Procurator of Russia, Pobedonostsev, issued a ban on public appearances of Father Sergiy and Rasputin, declaring that Rasputin was hiding his manipulative traits under the cover of "holyness" and illegally declared himself an Orthodox Christian mystic. Rasputin, however, ignored that ban and continued posing as a "prophet" and healer. He continued his wanderings as a self-proclaimed "holy man", often using lies and hypnotism to intimidate people into submission and then used them for his own goals. He made loose affiliations with various monasteries, then appointed himself a religious "elder" in St. Petersburg. At that time mystical interpretations of Christianity were in vogue, and official Orthodox Christianity was losing its control over people amidst the proliferation of disastrous wars and civil unrest, including revolutions. After the failure of several "religious advisers" to bring peace into the seriously dysfunctional Russian royal family of Tsar Nicholas II, Rasputin was summoned by Anna Vyrubova and the famous ascetic mystic, Father Theofan, the religious adviser to the royal family. In October of 1905 Father Sergiy and Father Theofan arranged Rasputin's introduction to the royal household through some relatives of reigning Romanov family. Rasputin instantly found a way to use the weaknesses and insecurities of Crown Prince Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov, whose incurable illness--he was a hemophiliac, having inherited the disease from his grandmother, Britain's Queen Victoria--was the main concern of the royal family. Rasputin convinced the Empress, Tsarina Alexandra, that he could improve the health of young Crown Prince Aleksey. Both Tsar Nicholas II and his wife were devastated and demoralized by their son's illness, and their anxiety and desperation was used by Rasputin, and the people behind him, in a crafty way to achieve goals that suited their political agenda.
At the same time Tsar Nicholas was warned by his loyal prime minister, Count Stolypin, that Rasputin was a dangerous fraud who could become a threat to the royal family and to Russia. However, at Tsar Nicholas' insistence, Stolypin had a private meeting with Rasputin. Not long afterward Stolypin was assassinated by a hired terrorist, and the resulting investigation by the authorities was stopped order of the Emperor. Stolypin's records revealed that he had an argument with Rasputin, but he was stopped and intimidated by the hypnotic stare of Rasputin's piercing eyes. Stolypin and many other political figures of that time had documented that Rasputin had "satanic eyes" and he was possessed of a powerful and hypnotic glare that he used to intimidate and cow his enemies. Rasputin also often used verbal abuse and intimidation, including the most foul profanities--a practice considered shocking in the rarefied air of the Russian court--to intimidate and manipulate people into submission. At the height of his political influence, Rasputin was constantly guarded by six agents provided by the Russian security service by order of Tsarina Alexandra. Also by the Imperial order Rasputin was given a new name, Novykh, meaning the "new man", an exclamation attributed to the suffering boy, Crown Prince Aleksey.
Rasputin apparently persuaded both the Empress and her ailing son to ensure that he kept a permanent presence in the tsar's palaces, and he was appointed to an official court position as "personal healer" to Crown Prince Aleksey Nikolaeyvitch Romanov. Rasputin may had some limited beneficial effect on Prince Aleksey's condition through hypnotism, but it apparently was enough to convince both the Empress and the Prince to depend more and more on Rasputin's presence and his hypnotic abilities. Rasputin also insisted that real medical doctors should be kept away from Alexey, constantly telling the family, "Don't let the doctors bother him, let him rest." On the occasions when Aleksey's health had actually improved, Rasputin used the opportunity to take personal credit for the Prince's "improvement", thereby solidifying his control over access to the royal family.
The Empress became a patron of Rasputin, who soon established himself as an extremely powerful figure within the Russian court. The Emperor was calling Rasputin a "holy man" and referred to him as "our friend". Rasputin referred to the Emperor and the Empress only as "papa" and "mama" and always used a frank and "sincere" tone in conversations with the royal family. Meanwhile, government security sources reported about wild orgies at the many parties and gatherings at Rasputin's residence, located just a few blocks away from the Tsar's palace and paid for out of the Russian Treasury. Rasputin's drinking binges were reported as "massive and wild" that often degenerated into drunken and violent sex orgies, designed to entangle politicians and other guests who could prove useful to Rasputin's ambitions. He aggressively indoctrinated his victims by using, among other methods, his motto "Sin that you may obtain forgiveness!", which was in line with the views he learned from the sect of Khlysty.
Soon Rasputin and people behind him succeeded in using his influence to entangle many politicians in scandals, including dirty manipulations involving their wives, drinking parties, promiscuity, and massive embezzlement of the government funds during the First World War, by diverting money to special interests through insiders within the Treasury of Russia. Rasputin also manipulated the Empress Tsarina Alexandra to make controversial political appointments, which led to a bitter divide within all classes of the Russian society, causing a blow to the public image of the Imperial House of the Romanovs. Rasputin's manipulative activities provoked many conflicts within the Russian government and the Russian military command during the First World War. Rasputin was using his position inside the Tsar's Palace to directly interfere with Tsar's communications with the government and media, thus undermining the Tsar's public image. At several times Rasputin was able to interfere with the Tsar's schedule of meetings with political figures as well as military commanders during the war.
In 1914, while visiting a church in Siberian city of Tobolsk, Rasputin was attacked by his former prostitute-friend, Khionia Guseva, who then turned a religious disciple of monk Iliodor. Ms. Guseva approached Rasputin with a knife and wounded him in the stomach, but he recovered from the wound and soon gained an even stronger influence on the Empress Tsarina Alexandra. Later Ms. Guseva said to the Grand Jury that she acted in clear mind and full understanding that "Rasputin is the Antichrist harmful to the people of Russia." However she was declared insane and was forcefully placed in an asylum in Siberia. Rasputin's most destructive actions were committed in 1916, when he convinced the Tsar Nicholas II to move from the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, to the front-lines in Belarus, leaving the Empress Alexandra alone under his influence and in charge of internal politics of the country. In absence of the Tsar, St. Petersburg was surreptitiously over-taken by the revolutionary communists, who penetrated into many regiments of the Army, the Navy, as well as into the local political circles in the capital of Russia, thus preparing for the Communist Revolution of 1917. The decade of Rasputin's destructive manipulations led to irreparable political and economic damage and caused a bitter divide within the government and military command, as well as within all social layers of Russia. At that time the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue made a record that the "Russian Empress is mystically devoted to Rasputin."
Communist leader Vladimir Lenin wrote, "monstrous Rasputin is pushing the Tsar's regime to a disaster", which was helping the communist revolution. According to historians Rasputin was used by a secret group behind the communist revolutionaries, which acted to destroy the Romanov dynasty and the monarchy, and eventually fulfilled their plans and came to power through revolution. That explained how and why Rasputin was manipulated to discredit the royal family and personally the Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin's main handler was a St. Petersburg's underworld drug lord, named Dr. Badmayev, who controlled Rasputin through his drug addiction and often instructed Rasputin about his political moves. Rasputin often stayed overnight after having a fix at Dr. Badmayev's home in St. Petersburg. At the same time, Rasputin's hypnotic influence over the Empress Alexandra and the Crown Prince Alexey remained very strong, allowing him to make political, ecclesiastical and military appointments for those who served his interests. Rasputin created and used public scandals and rumors about his sexual and alcoholic excesses, and designed crafty entrapments for many members of the Russian political establishment into orgies and scandals for immediate blackmail and exploitation. He polarized the society by using his political influence in securing the appointments and dismissals of several military commanders and government ministers during the First World War. Rasputin's abuse of power and his notorious debauchery was used by the communist propaganda to depict Rasputin with the Empress Alexandra in numerous pornographic comics, drawings and provocative publications as part of a massive negative publicity campaign against the House of Romanovs and the Russian monarchy. In the communist propaganda Rasputin was shown as a peasant who turned the Russian Tsar into a wimp, so the country was in "bad hands" and "proletarians must join with peasants to overthrow the monarchy and take power", so declared the communist leader Vladimir Lenin, who in turn was secretly financed by the German military.
In 1916, during the most difficult time in the First World War, brothers of Tsar Nicholas II obtained evidence that Rasputin was secretly negotiating a peace treaty with Germany while Russia's position in the war was not good. Rasputin said on record that "too many peasants were dead because of the war", indicating his agenda to settle "peace at any cost" which was also in line with the communist propaganda, and helped the German Armies. Peasants deserted from the Russian Army by hundreds of thousands, then armed peasants came to St. Petersburg and joined the communist revolutionary brigades. Rasputin's secret activity and his contacts with the Germans became a political scandal. Tsar's cousin, Grand Prince Nicholas, announced that he wants to hang Rasputin for treachery as a spy in German employ, albeit Rasputin was under the protection of the Empress Tsarina Alexandra, who herself was German. That led to a plot by a group of aristocrats, led by Prince Feliks Yusupov, a relative of the Tsar, to assassinate him, but Rasputin was officially guarded by six agents from the Russian Imperial Security under constant supervision of specially assigned officers who lived in Rasputin's house in St. Petersburg.
In November of 1916, Prince Yusupov pretended that he had chest pains and obtained a high recommendation to become a patient of Rasputin. Prince Feliks Yusupov made several visits to Rasputin as a patient and soon he made friends with Rasputin and presented him a picture of his wife, beautiful Princess Irene Yusupov, niece of the Emperor Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin immediately became horny and expressed his desire to meet the beauty. On December 16, 1916, Prince Yusupov and his fellow officers designed a plan centered on using the beautiful Princess Irina Yusupov, as a bait. On December 29, 1916, Prince Feliks Yusupov personally invited Rasputin to a dinner and drove him to Yusupov's Moika Palace in St. Petersburg. There Rasputin was waiting for the appearance of the Princess Irina Yusupov, but she never showed up. Meanwhile, Rasputin was plied with wine and food that had been laced with cyanide, albeit the plotters were oblivious to the fact of chemistry that cyanide is often neutralized by some ingredients in food, as it turns into a harmless salt in most desserts and wines. Rasputin also had a condition with hyper-acidity and post-surgical stomach problems which caused him to minimize his intake of sugar and alcohol. When the poison had no apparent effect on Rasputin, Prince Feliks Yusupov pulled out his gun and fired, but Rasputin's life was saved because the first bullet was reflected by the hard metal button on his coat, he was wounded, but still managed to jump up and tried to escape out of the Moika Palace. Then Prince Yusupov and Count Vladimir Purishkevich together with their friend, British intelligence officer Oswald Rayner, pulled out their guns and fired at Rasputin, then, noticing that he was still trying to get up, they clubbed him into submission. In the early morning of December 30, 1916, members of the plot wrapped Rasputin and dragged him into the icy waters until he finally drowned in the Neva River.
Even after his death, Rasputin still remained dangerous and could be used as a destructive and divisive tool, because he left a wild and threatening message to Emperor Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra, predicting their death and disaster for Russia. Crown Prince Alexey remained gravely ill and was heavily dependent and conditioned to Rasputin's hypnotic influence. Rasputin's body was buried upon Empress Alexandra's and Prince Alexey's request at the location in the park of Tsarkoe Selo, near the Summer Palace of the Russian Tsars. Two months after Rasputin's assassination, Emperor Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, then was arrested as citizen Romanov who was obediently sweeping snow from roads while waiting for his sentence under supervision of communist revolutionaries. Soon both Nicholas and Alexandra became increasingly paranoid about having Rasputin's grave next to his Summer Palace. Ironically, Tsar Nicholas II was under the house arrest in that same palace during the year of 1917, and both Empress Alexandra and Prince Alexey were not allowed to make visits to Rasputin's grave, which was vandalized by revolutionaries in search for valuables. By that time, Rasputin's body was removed upon the order from Aleksandr Kerensky, the head of the Russian provisional government, who previously was a student at the same school and at the same time with the future communist leader Vladimir Lenin. Initially Kerensky ordered to remove Rasputin's body to a remote cemetery, but during the move, Rasputin's body, masked as a piano in a wooden box, was destroyed in the fire started by a group of revolutionaries. Shortly after the Communist Revolution, the entire family of Tsar Tsar Nicholas II with his wife and five children were executed, then Tsar's Palaces were vandalized by the revolutionary communists and Rasputin's grave was again burglarized by poor proletarians in search for jewelery.
Later, while in emigration outside of the Communist Russia (then Soviet Union), both accounts by Prince Feliks Yusupov (who lived through the 1960s) and Count Vladimir Purishkevich (who died in the 1920s) were published in their respectful books of memoirs about their plot and assassination of Rasputin in the context of their participation in the historic events. Prince Yusupov compared Rasputin's cynical and manipulative treatment of the Tsar's family to the Communist Party's ruthless methods of control over innocent people of Russia. Rasputin's own "religious" speeches were interpreted and recorded by his enchanted admirers and titled "holy wanderings" and "holy thoughts" when first published in Russia in 1907 and in 1915. In 1942, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin appointed the notorious St. Petersburg Bishop Sergiy the Patriarch of Orthodix Christianity in the Soviet Union. Then Patriarch Sergiy brought back the name of Gregory Rasputin from oblivion. At the same time some sectarian monks organized rumors about possible canonization of Gregory Rasputin as a "martyr and saint" who was assassinated by the family of the "bad" tsar.
Rasputin's daughter, Matrena Solovyova-Rasputina, and her husband, Boris Solovyov, who secretly collaborated with the Communist regime, took money and jewelery from Empress Tsarina Alexandra in exchange for a promise of assist the Tsar Nicholas II and his family to escape from the Communist regime. They betrayed the Tsar and his family and left them to be killed by the communists, while themselves escaped to France. There Rasputin's daughter, who was money hungry, read the memoirs of Prince Feliks Yusupov, and filed several law suits against Prince Yusupov, who gave accounts of Rasputin's death under oath in 1934 and 1965. Eventually Rasputin's daughter ended up working for a circus as a tiger tamer, then she moved to Los Angeles, and died there in 1977. - Jack London was the best-selling, highest paid and most popular American author of his time.
He was born John Griffith Chaney, on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco. He was raised by his mother Flora Wellman and his stepfather John London (he didn't know who his father was until his adulthood). After graduation from a grammar school he worked 12 to 18 hours a day at a cannery. Jack had a special relationship with his black foster mother, Virginia (Jenny) Prentiss. She loaned him some money and in 1891 he bought a sloop and became an oyster pirate. A few months later he joined the California Fish Patrol. In 1893 he joined the crew of a sealing schooner, bound for Japan. His first story, "Typhoon off the Coast of Japan", based on his sailing experiences, was published in November of 1893. Still unemployed, he became a tramp and hoboed around the country. In 1894 he was arrested for vagrancy and spent a month in jail, where he was a witness to "awful abysses of human degradation." His entire life, after these events, became a race to erase the traumatizing memories of his childhood and youth.
He continued his self-education at the Oakland Public Library. Among his readings were works by Gustave Flaubert and Lev Tolstoy. In 1896 he was admitted to the University of California, but after a year was forced to leave due to financial reasons. In 1897 he went to the Canadian Yukon and joined the Klondike Gold Rush. There he experienced all the hardships of uncivilized life and suffered from--among other things--severe frostbite, scurvy, malaria and dysentery. This left his health seriously impaired. London's struggles for survival inspired "To Build a Fire" (1902), which is considered his best short story. Writing became his ticket out of poverty; a way, in his words, to "sell his brains". His first marriage to Bess Maddern began as a friendship, not love, and ended 3 years later, leaving her with two daughters. His second marriage to Charmian Kittrdge, an editor, lasted until his death.
"The Call of the Wild" (1903) was his biggest success. "The Sea-Wolf" (1904) was turned into the first full-length American movie. Later came "The Iron Heel" (1908), a premonition of the Orwellian world, and the autobiographical "Martin Eden" (1909). The highest-paid writer of his time, he earned over $2 million yet he was always broke. In 1905 he bought a ranch in California, where he designed the first concrete silo in the state. His books provided operating income. He once said, "I would write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate." His ecological approach and effort to adapt the ideas of Asian sustainable agriculture was ahead of his time. In 1913 his Big House was ruined by a devastating fire and Jack was financially and mentally hurt. He built a small cottage and made big plans, but he lived only 3 more years. His 1400-acre ranch is now a National Historic Landmark, named Jack London State Historic Park. The writer's cottage was preserved by his wife Charmian, who lived there until her death in 1955.
His changing views and philosophy were often misunderstood as he grew out of his own mistakes. At one time he wrote, "I have been more stimulated by [Friedrich Nietzsche] than by any other writer in the world." Later London disregarded the "superman" theory of Nietzsche, calling himself Nietschze's "intellectual enemy." His readings of Carl Jung contributed to his complex philosophy. His other influences ranged from Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson to Charles Darwin, Aldous Huxley and Karl Marx. While sympathizing with the Mexican revolution in "The Mexican", he wrote differently about it when he was sent to Mexico as a reporter in 1914. By age 40, somewhat disillusioned, he resigned from the Socialist party and from various clubs. During his last years London was in extreme pain, caused by complications from kidney failure (uremia is recorded on his death certificate). He was laid to rest at his ranch according to his will: "And roll over me a red boulder from the ruins of the Big House." - Soundtrack
Mildred J. Hill was born on 27 June 1859 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Mildred J. died on 5 June 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Handsome, dark wavy-haired leading man who appeared on the New York stage, starred in early silent films (1-3 reelers) as well as directed and wrote scenarios. Worked for various studios including Edison, American, Powers, Rex, Big U (Universal), Laemmle, Nestor and Selig. Still working until the year of his death, he passed away at the age of 37 from paralysis associated with multiple sclerosis which affected his spinal cord. He left his wife Ann and their two year old daughter as well as his parents and two sisters.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Arthur V. Johnson was born on 2 February 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Beloved Adventurer (1914), Annie Rowley's Fortune (1913) and The Adventures of Dollie (1908). He was married to Maude Webb. He died on 17 January 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.- Henryk Sienkiewicz was born on 5 May 1846 in Wola Okrzejska, Poland, Russian Empire [now Wola Okrzejska, Lubelskie, Poland]. He was a writer, known for Quo Vadis (1951), Na jasnym brzegu (1921) and Invasion 1700 (1962). He was married to Maria Babska, Maria Romanowska and Maria Emilia Kazimiera Szetkiewicz. He died on 15 November 1916 in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland.
- Mrs. George W. Walters was born in 1835 in England. She was an actress, known for Granny (1913), Romeo and Juliet (1911) and The Wolf (1914). She was married to George W. Walters. She died on 21 February 1916 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (18 August 1830 - 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 2 December 1848 until his death. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation. He was the longest-reigning ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as the longest-reigning emperor and seventh-longest-reigning monarch of any country in history
- Sholom Aleichem (translated from Hebrew as a greeting "Peace be with you") was the pseudonym of Sholom Yakov Rabinovitz. He was born on February 18, 1859, in Pereyaslav near Kiev, Ukraine, in the Russian Empire. His father was a religious scholar and the family was trilingual. After his mother died of cholera, when he was only 12 years of age, his father encouraged his writing, even through the hard times. Young Sholom Aleichem attended a Russian secular high school, but never attended university. He was drafted into the Russian Army and upon being discharged became a rabineer for 3 years. Throughout his entire lifetime, he was not wealthy. He had a humble, modest disposition, a quiet voice, and was described by many as a man of great wisdom and wit. It was the humbling experience of his life in Russia under the Czars that led to his special style of "laughing through tears" humor.
Sholom Aleichem began serious writing in the 1880's. He was instrumental in the foundation of "di Yidishe folks bibliotek" (the popular Yiddish library) in 1888. At the same time during the 1880's Jews in Russia came under attack (known as "pogrom"); they suffered loss of property and of lives. In 1905 Sholom Aleichem fled from Russia. He lived in several countries of Europe until WWI. Large numbers of Jews were dislocated because their communities, known as "shetls, were destroyed. With the suffering came an increased cultural awakening of Jews, expressed in literature written in Yiddish. Yiddish was the every day language of European Jews, derived from Hogh German with enrichment from Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and English (among other languages). Sholom Aleichem wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian; he was also fluent in Polish, Ukrainian and other languages.
From 1883 to 1916, Sholom Aleichem wrote about 40 volumes of stories, novels, and plays ; he became the leading writer in Yiddish, and one of the most prolific writers ever. He also wrote scholarly works in Hebrew and secular works in Russian, the only acceptable language of official publishers in the Russian Empire. His works about the life of Jews in traditional communities were based on real life stories and were published throughout Europe and in the United States. His best known work is "Tevye the Milkman" ("Tevye der milkhiker" in Yiddish). It describes the Russian Jewish milkman, who deals with the complex world with humor, pain, optimism, and wisdom. It was adapted for stage production as the play 'Fiddler on the Roof' which became a Broadway success. The eponymous film, starring 'Haim Topol', won three Oscars. A successful staging of the 'Fiddler on the Roof' was done at the Moscow Lenkom Theatre by director Mark Zakharov, starring Evgeniy Leonov and later Vladimir Steklov in the title role.
The dangers of WWI forced Sholom Aleichem to emigrate to America. He settled in the Bronx. The tragedy of separation from his son Misha, who suffered from tuberculosis, was unbearable. After Misha's death in 1915, Sholom Aleichem followed him on May 13, 1916 in Bronx. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands.
The great value of his works is in the meticulous literary preservation of the traditional life of a shtetl, before it disappeared in the tragic abyss of history. "You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew", wrote Sholom Aleichem. - Page Peters was born in 1889. He was an actor, known for Madame la Presidente (1916), The Gentleman from Indiana (1915) and The Call of the Cumberlands (1916). He died on 22 June 1916 in Hermosa Beach, California, USA.
- Edith Ritchie was an actress, known for The College Widow (1915), The Wolf (1914) and The Great Ruby (1915). She was married to Steven Morris. She died on 24 March 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Sôseki Natsume was born on 9 February 1867 in Edo, Japan [now Tokyo, Japan]. He was a writer, known for Botchan (1953), Botchan (1935) and I Am a Cat (1936). He was married to Nakane Kyoko. He died on 9 December 1916 in Tokyo, Japan.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Enrique Costanzo Granados y Campiña was born on July 27, 1867, in Lèrida, Catalonia, Spain. His father was born in Cuba, and served in the Spanish Military. From the age of 8, young Granados studied piano in Barcelona under the tutelage of Joan Baptista Pujol. From 1883-1887 he studied composition with Pedrell, who was also the teacher of 'Isaac Albeniz' and Manuel de Falla. In 1887 Granados went to Paris for two years. There he studied at Paris Conservatory and established direct connections with such composers as 'Gabriel Faure', Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas, and Camille Saint-Saëns.
In 1889 he returned to Barcelona to begin his career as a concert pianist. In 1892 he gave the Spanish premiere of the Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg. His own compositions of that time were written in a nationalistic and neo-romantic style, bearing some influences from Frédéric Chopin and Edvard Grieg. During the 1890's Granados wrote piano pieces, chamber works, and nationalistic songs inspired by the paintings and sketches of Madrid, mostly by Francisco Goya, whom Granados idolized. His love of the Spanish folklore was expressed in his theatrical work in the form of zarzuela, a Spanish musical theatre, titled 'Maria del Carmen'. It was premiered in Madrid in 1898, and earned him the attention of King Alfonso XIII and a Royal pension and a decoration from the King. In 1901 he founded the Granados Academy of Music, that was to become a reputable school in Barcelona. From 1905-1911 he worked on his suite for piano, titled 'Goyescas', which was a set of six pieces based on paintings of Goya. In 1911 Granados himself premiered his suite for piano in Barcelona, then in the Salle Pleyel in Paris, where it was so successful that he was awarded the French Legion of Honour. On the commission from the Paris Opera, Granados expanded his piano suite into the same-name opera, which eventually became the most famous of his works. The opera 'Goyescas' was completed in 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented it from being staged in Paris. In 1916, he made a voyage to the United States for the premiere of 'Goyescas' at New York's Metropolitan Opera. After the successful premiere, Granados was invited to perform a piano recital for President Wilson.
On his way back to Spain he stopped in Liverpool, England, then boarded the steamer Sussex for Dieppe, France. While crossing the English Channel, the Sussex was attacked by torpedoes from a German submarine and sank. Granados, who had a fear of water, did make it into a life raft, but saw his wife struggling in the water. He jumped out of the lifeboat in an attempt to save his wife Amparo. They both drowned. That was on March 24, 1916.- Dorrit Weixler was born on 27 March 1892 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for Das rosa Pantöffelchen (1913), Die das Glück narrt (1913) and Todesrauschen (1914). She died on 30 November 1916 in Berlin, Germany.
- Sam Lucas was an African-American actor, comedian, singer and songwriter born to free black parents in 1848. A former barber, he was once described as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage". As a youngster he showed talent for guitar and singing. He started as a black-face minstrelsy on riverboats around 1858, later became a more serious drama actor with roles in 'The Creole Show' and 'A Trip to Coontown', his best known performances was in 'Out of Bondage' in 1875 and became the first actor to portray the role of Uncle Tom on stage and later starred in the movie version of 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' for the Peerless Film Company in 1914, during the filming he became sick and died two years later on January 5, 1916.
- American journalist, novelist and playwright Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1864 (literary talent ran in his family: his father was a newspaper editor and his mother was a writer). He attended Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, and in 1886 he began his literary career as a journalist on the "Philadelphia Record" newspaper. Three years later he went over to "The New York Sun". The next year he was hired as managing editor of "Harper's Weekly" magazine, and in that capacity traveled all over the US, Central America and the Mediterranean. He showed a facility for war coverage, reporting on the Greco-Turkish War, the Boer War in South Africa, the Cuban front of the Spanish-American War and World War I. His coverage of the German invasion of Belgium in that war brought his name to the international forefront, and was considered by many to be the quintessential example of war correspondence.
His first effort as a fiction writer, "Gallagher", was published in "Scribner's" magazine in 1890 and began his long and successful career as a writer and novelist. His second wife was stage actress Bessie McCoy, whom he married in 1912 (his first marriage lasted from 1899 to 1910), and Davis began yet a third successful career as a playwright (he wrote 25 plays altogether) and became a celebrated member of the New York City "social set". Many of his novels and plays have been made into successful films.
He died of heart disease in 1916 at his home in Mt. Kisco, NY. - Hector Hugh Munro was born on 18 December 1870 in Akyab, Burma [now Myanmar]. He was a writer, known for Great Ghost Tales (1961), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and The Addends. He died on 13 November 1916 in Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France.
- Jean Webster was born on 24 July 1876 in Fredonia, New York, USA. She was a writer, known for Daddy-Long-Legs (1919), Vadertje Langbeen (1938) and Daddy Long Legs (1955). She was married to Glenn Ford McKinney. She died on 11 June 1916 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Charles Manley was born on 25 September 1830 in Ireland. He was an actor, known for Uncle Josh in a Spooky Hotel (1900), Uncle Josh's Nightmare (1900) and Uncle Josh at the Moving Picture Show (1902). He was married to Amelia Badeau Marcher and Marie ?. He died on 26 February 1916 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Writer
- Composer
Julius Fucík was born on 18 July 1872 in Prague, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer and composer, known for Big Fish (2003), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) and Downton Abbey (2019). He was married to Christina Hardegg. He died on 25 September 1916 in Berlin, Germany.- Edwina Robbins was born on 18 January 1884 in Hudson County, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Man Who Couldn't Beat God (1915), The Turn of the Road (1915) and The Win(k)some Widow (1914). She was married to Henry B. Robbins. She died on 12 December 1916 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
- Actress
"May Elmore Bensen, known as "Mother Bensen", is one of the most interesting women on motion pictures, and one of the very few who frankly tell their age. (...) She attended schools in New York and in Boston. She became a teacher and later a professional reader. For some time she was on the Lyceum platform, and at various times did legitimate stage work. She is decidedly well informed, a serious thinker, and an authority on many questions. She can speak several languages, and decides all questions pertaining to English for her associates. She was educated in music and became known as a singer.
She went to California twenty-six years ago. Her first picture was Jewels of Sacrifice (1913), in which she played the part of the wife. Recently she appeared in The Old Cobbler (1914), The Foundlings of Father Time (1914), an allegorical subject. She was featured in Their Golden Wedding (1914) with Charles "Daddy" Manley. Recently she appeared in "In the Folds of the Flag" ?) (maybe The Flag of Fortune (1915)), The Measure of Leon Du Bray (1915), and in Marianna (1915) she took the part of the blind wife. She had a very good part in The White Feather (1914), a recent anti-war picture.
Mother Bensen is of a sunny disposition and, as her nickname implies, is mother to all the players at Universal City. Her hair, once dark, is now slightly gray, and she has bright blue eyes."- Lizzie Conway was born on 10 April 1846 in Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Lena Rivers (1914), When the Men Left Town (1914) and A Story of Crime (1914). She was married to George W. Conway (actor, manager). She died on 4 May 1916 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.
- Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in Ballylongford, Ireland on June 24, 1850, the son of Lt. Col. Henry Kitchener. After attending boarding school in Switzerland, Horatio was admitted to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England in 1868. Commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers in 1871, he spent most of the next 28 years at British army posts in Africa, rising to the rank of major general. He led part of the British-Egyptian Expeditionary force in the reconquest of the Sudan from 1896 to 1898 against the Dervish Mahdists where at the Battle of Omdurman on September 2, 1898, he defeated the Mahdists and was later given the title Baron Kitchener of Khartoum, later elevated to earl.
During the 1899-1902 Boer War in South Africa, General Kitchener was assigned as chief of staff to the British commander, Lord Roberts. While General Sir Redvers Buller handled operations in the eastern theater of operations, Kitchener served as Roberts' second in command in the western theater, spearheading the British advance into the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal in early 1900, leading to the capture of the Boer capital of Pretoria. When Roberts and Buller returned to England in November 1900, Lord Kitchener succeeded Roberts as commander in chief for the drawn-out guerrilla phase of the war. From then on, Lord Kitchener directed the British campaign against General Louis Botha's Boer guerrillas launching hit-and-run raids against British posts everywhere in South Africa. In a long and brutal campaign, Kitchener imposed a "scorched earth" policy of burning crops, destroying Afrikaner farms and villages, and establishing a network of blockhouses across parts of South Africa which slowly tied down the Boers, impairing their commando raids. It was not until May 31, 1902 that the Boer leaders gave in and within months the last of the Boer guerrillas were starved into surrendering. Kitchener was then made commander of the British troops in India and promoted to Field Marshall.
y 1914 at the start of World War I, Kitchener was appointed secretary for war and placed in charge of organizing the British war effort. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Kitchener believed that the war would be long and costly, and accordingly instituted a massive recruiting drive. Almost 2.5 million British and Colonial troops were raised through this effort. In addition to the mass mobilization and supply of his armies, Lord Kitchener personally oversaw the British campaigns from the Near East, to the Western Front in France, to Africa. Kitchener was made a Knight of the Garter, Great Britain's highest honor in June 1915.
Lord Kitchener died in the line of duty on June 5, 1916 when, en route to a conference with the Russian high command in St. Petersburg, the ship he was on, the HMS Hampshire, struck a mine off the Orkney Islands. Kitchener was not among the few dozen survivors. He was then declared missing in action, and later declared dead. Had he survived, some experts believe that World War I would have ended a year earlier than it did. - Carolina Invernizio was born on 28 March 1851 in Voghera, Lombardy, Italy. She was a writer, known for Il nano rosso (1917), Satanella (1919) and Piccoli martiri (1917). She died on 27 November 1916 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.
- Soundtrack
Joe Hayden was born in 1845. Joe died on 15 December 1916 in Santa Rose, California, USA.- Doris Thompson was born on 16 August 1859 in Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for A Maid of Mandalay (1913), The Lonely Princess (1913) and The Mystery of the Stolen Jewels (1913). She was married to William V. Ranous. She died on 19 January 1916 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.
- Frank Danby was born on 30 July 1863 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was a writer, known for The Heart of a Child (1915) and The Heart of a Child (1920). He was married to Arthur Frankau. He died on 17 March 1916 in London, England, UK.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Curt A. Stark was born on 2 February 1880 in Springe, Lower Saxony, Germany. He was a director and actor, known for Ihre Hoheit (1914), The Dawn of Freedom (1914) and Gretchen Wendland (1914). He was married to Henny Porten. He died on 2 October 1916 in Transylvania, Romania.- Charles Cummings was born in Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Mysteries of the Grand Hotel (1915), The Hidden Children (1917) and The Chalice of Sorrow (1916). He died on 4 October 1916 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Max Reger was born on 19 March 1873 in Brand [now Brand im Fichtelgebirge], Bavaria, Germany. He is known for Fury (2014), Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988) and Christmas in Vienna (1992). He was married to Elsa von Bercken. He died on 11 May 1916 in Leipzig, Germany.- Guy Rathbone was born on 29 May 1884 in Toxteth Park, Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Julius Caesar (1911) and Macbeth (1911). He was married to Theodora De Selincourt. He died on 21 April 1916 in Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, Turkey.
- Mr. Hunter was born in 1853 in Ramsgate, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Good Joke (1899), The Two Old Sports (1900) and The Last Glass of the Two Old Sports (1901). He was married to Vera Dudley (actress) and Florence Bayley (actress). He died on 26 December 1916 in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK.
- Maurice Vinot was born on 3 November 1888 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Le proscrit (1912), La châtelaine (1914) and Le fou (1909). He was married to Marthe Vinot. He died on 23 June 1916 in Pontlevoy, Loir-et-Cher, France.
- John Philip Quinn was born in 1851 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was a writer, known for Gambling Inside and Out (1915). He was married to Maude Goff. He died on 18 April 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Joseph Ransome was born in 1854 in New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ferrets (1913), Into the Genuine (1912) and Where Love Is, There God Is Also (1912). He died on 26 April 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Soundtrack
Charles A. Zimmerman was born in 1861. Charles A. was married to Ida Sullivan. Charles A. died on 16 January 1916.- Wilhelmine von Hillern was born on 11 March 1836 in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria [now Bavaria, Germany]. She was a writer, known for La Wally (1932), Die Geierwally (1940) and La leggenda di Wally (1930). She was married to Hermann von Hillern. She died on 25 December 1916 in Hohenaschau, Bavaria, Germany.
- Arthur Hoops was born in 1870 in Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for The Song of Hate (1915), Mistress Nell (1915) and Such a Little Queen (1914). He was married to Mabel Amber. He died on 16 September 1916 in Long Island, New York, USA.
- Max Clifton was born on 19 June 1882 in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. He was an actor, known for The Christian (1911), The Life and Adventures of John Vane, the Australian Bushranger (1910) and The Squatter's Daughter (1910). He died on 4 August 1916 in Pozières, France.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Billy Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. He was an actor, known for The Best Man (1999), The Faith of Sonny Jim (1915) and The Little Revue (1949). He died on 12 September 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Bartley McCullum was born in Portland, Maine, USA. He was an actor, known for The Third Degree (1913), The College Widow (1915) and The Lion and the Mouse (1914). He died on 25 March 1916 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Jack Martin was born in 1866. He was an actor, known for The Heart of Romance (1918). He died on 18 August 1916 in Browsville, Wisconsin, USA.
- Eben E. Rexford was born on 16 July 1848 in Johnsburgh, New York, USA. He was married to Harriet Bauman Harsh. He died on 18 October 1916 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA.
- Mabel Eaton was born in 1875 in Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Fable of the 'Good Fairy' (1914). She was married to William Farnum and Leo Kamerman. She died on 10 January 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Eric Blind was an actor, known for Then I'll Come Back to You (1916), The Woman in 47 (1916) and Jaffery (1916). He was married to Frances Carson. He died on 31 December 1916 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Francis Carlyle was born on 27 August 1868 in Birkenhead, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Perils of Pauline (1914), Detective Craig's Coup (1914) and Arizona (1913). He died on 15 September 1916 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
James Whitcomb Riley was born on 7 October 1849 in Greenfield, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for An Old Sweetheart of Mine (1923), The Girl I Loved (1923) and A Hoosier Romance (1918). He died on 22 July 1916 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach was born on 13 September 1830 in Schloss Zdislawitz, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Zdislavice, Kromeríz, Czech Republic]. She was a writer, known for Heimatland (1955), Ruf der Wälder (1965) and Krambambuli (1940). She was married to Moritz von Ebner-Eschenbach. She died on 12 March 1916 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now in Austria].