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Terrible People from History
Charles-Henri Sanson, Royal Executioner
There’s nothing that epitomises the attitudes of pre-Revolutionary France quite like the job of executioner. The men in this job served the royal will, dealing out death and torture as decreed by the upper classes. Officially they were…
Elizabeth “Nellie Bly” Cochrane Seaman, Intrepid Journalist
“Journalism”, as a concept, is an entirely new development of the last several centuries. Before the printing press led to mass literacy and the desire for “news”, there was no need for people to go and find it out. Over time it evolved,…
John Tawell, Forger and Murderer
We live in an increasingly interconnected world. A friend may live on the other side of the planet, and yet their words appear on your computer screen to tell you how their day is going. You can pick up your phone and chat to people on…
Margaret Brown, the Unsinkable Lady
Lives are rarely defined by a single event, but memories of them often are. Margaret Brown was a woman who became best known as “the Unsinkable Molly Brown”, after she was one of the most high-profile survivors of the Titanic disaster. In…
Robert Smalls, War Hero and US Congressman
Freedom is a strange thing. Those of us born into it take it for granted. But for those born into slavery freedom is something they would never undervalue. Being a slave is bad enough, but worse is for a slave to see their child born into…
Archibald Ramsay, British MP and Bigot
The history of England’s flirtation with fascism before World War 2 is a fascinating one. The philosophy of absolute authority had a great draw for an aristocratic upper-class who had seen their grip on authority gradually loosen over the…
James MacPherson, Scottish Poet and Translator (or Fraud)
There’s a thin line between lying and creating, sometimes. Is the forger who creates new paintings in the style of the old masters any less of an artist than they were? His work is skillful, his subjects original, though he may match their…
Lady Jane Wilde (alias Speranza), Writer
“Great people” rarely come from a vacuum. Though genius can blossom on the hardest ground, it most often finds root on the fertile soil of supportive and almost-equally talented family members. Sadly however, the bright light of genius…
Boniface VIII, The Man Who Would Be Pope
To paraphrace Carl von Clausewitz, violence is politics by other means. When debate and discussion just becomes too difficult, it can be very tempting for those involved to take "direct action" instead. History is littered with examples of…
Sophia Jex-Blake, Ground-Breaking Doctor and Teacher
It takes a lot of courage to do something nobody has ever done before. There’s a reason why we describe it as “ground-breaking”. Once the ground is broken, it becomes easier for those who follow after you. Sophia Jex-Blake wasn’t the best…