History Class

[Emiliano]

Whether they are from ancient history or modern history, someone well known or someone nearly forgotten - who are some important/interesting people that you think more of us should know about, that have caught your personal interest or influenced you somehow, or that are just worth taking another look at?

[Anocxu]

Ajay Bhatt

There is a 90% chance this clever chap influences your life every single day.
With the support of intel ,He invented U.S.B.
(Universal Serial Bus) .

Computers,Cell phones, Tablets, Cameras, Music Equipment / Instruments , Storage media/devices etc. are equipped with U.S.B.ports.

There is very little escaping his genius invention..

The keyboard and mouse in your laptop is U.S.B..
To charge most phones ..you'll use U.S.B..

I love that I was around when it was invented..
I love that most digital devices must have this port for it to be considered efficient..

(I am a tech-head..apologies..lol)

[Emiliano]

Alfred Ely Beach was the first to build a subway in NYC, in 1870 - (the current NYC subway was opened in 1904). It was one block long underneath Broadway in lower Manhattan and was constructed in secret. When it opened, he charged 25 cents to ride it. The really cool thing was that it was powered by air - a pneumatic tube. There was interest in investing with him to build it on a larger scale, but the financial crisis in the 1870s ended that, and it 1873 the line was closed. It was rediscovered in 1912 by workers constructing the modern NYC subway.

[jimcrackcorn]

George Washington spent 7 percent of his income on Alcohol...

He must have thrown a lot of Freaky Friday parties!!!!

[Emiliano]

George Washington spent 7 percent of his income on Alcohol...

He must have thrown a lot of Freaky Friday parties!!!!

Id like to think that I'd like to party with George Washington. Especially with an alcohol budget like that. Ive been to Mount Vernon too... he had a nice place.

[TigerLover]

Emperor Hadrian.

Most people only know him as the guy who built Hadrian's wall. But he was so much more than that, he deserves to be considered the equal of Augustus and Julius Ceaser.

When roman Emperors seized the throne it's was almost always accompanied by at least one murder if not a civil war. But not Hadrian he seized the throne without spilling a drop of blood. He wasn't even related to the old emperor he just seized the throne through pure force of cunning whilst he was serving in Syria about 2000 miles from the capital city. The senate basically got three messages at once.

The emperor is dead long live the emperor
The eastern legions have declared support for Hadrian.
Hadrian is the new emperor all hail Hadrian Augustus.

Hadrian almost succeeded in his plan to unify and rebuild ancient Greece to it's former glory.
He stabilized the empire.
He can be largely credited with empire's longevity he's the one who decided to stop wars of conquest and turn the legions into a defensive force. Building many astounding feats of engineering to fortify the empire. Ironically probably the least impressive was the Britannic wall now known as "Hadrian's wall".
He led a successful campaign to purge corruption from the empire.

So if he was so great why isn't he more famous?
Because he was openly gay and Victorian scholars did not like that one bit. But his legacy was far too great to ignore so they decided to focus on his engineering and architecture and erase Hadrian the man from the history books. Also because he sadly died before he succeeded in restoring Greece.



Plus side note the first thing he did was to accidentally revolutionize Roman male fashion. He wasn't just openly gay he was the worlds first fashionista.

[Virge]

[MENTION=22948]TigerLover[/MENTION]
You left out Hadiran making a religion for his adored Antinous after he drowned in the Nile.



Hadrian was pretty great but he was no Augustus IMO. He never let his power keep him from being a man of principles not matter the consequences. He exiled both his daughter and granddaughter for breaking his laws. He was obligated to have feasts for guests but would leave them to eat in private with his servants and boyhood lovers even though the affairs with them were over.

But the one guy I admire is Jean-François Champollion. He figured out the basics of translating Egyptian hieroglyphics when he was 16 from noticing the same glyphs in cartouches for Ptolomey and Cleopatra. None of the "experts" at that time believed him. hahahahahaha! But he was right! He went on to translate most of the know hieroglyphs known at that time. He died at 40 thinking he was a failure.

[jimcrackcorn]

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben:

Was a Prussian-born American military officer. He served as inspector general and Major General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is credited with being one of the fathers of the Continental Army in teaching them the essentials of military drills, tactics, and disciplines. He wrote Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, the book that served as the standard United States drill manual until the War of 1812. He served as General George Washington's chief of staff in the final years of the war.

Von Steuben died on November 28, 1794, and was buried in a grove at what became the Steuben Memorial State Historic Site in a town named Steuben, New York.

He did not marry and had no children. He did not much care for his European relatives. Thus, he left his estate to his former lovers and aides-de-camp, Captains Benjamin Walker and William North, with whom he had had an extraordinarily intense emotional relationship ...

He was a gay man in the United States Military who held the positions of Inspector General, Major General, and Chief Of Staff during the American Revolutionary War.

[Emiliano]

Jacob Riis is one of my all time favorites. He was a photographer / activist who exposed the conditions of tenement life on the lower east side at the turn of the century. His book How The Other Half Lives, led to widespread attention and reflection, and eventually legislation on the situation of lower class, immigrant life. His photographs have become iconic of life at the turn of the century in New York.

[Emiliano]

Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary were the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Hillary was from New Zealand and Norgay was from Nepal. Hillary also helped set up many programs to support and educate the Sherpa people of Nepal, who often work behind the scenes laying rope, installing ladders, and carrying the loads of the foreign climbers who go to the Himalayas.