People in the News

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria was born May 24, 1819 in London, England. She was 18 when she became queen after the death of her uncle King William IV. In 1840 she married her first cousin Albert and was shattered by his death in 1861, after which she went into a period of mourning. She re-emerged into public life in the late 1860s and as years passed she became loved by her subjects. She presided over a period of British industrial progress, artistic successes and political empire-building which became known as the Victorian Era. She died in 1901 after a 64 year reign. The phrase "The sun never sets on the British Empire" was used to describe her reign.




Karl Marx

Karl Narx was born May 5, 1818 in Trevirorum, Germany. His father was a lawyer which gave Marx the opportunity to study law himself. He went to Bonn University to study law and then to Berlin. At age 18, he began courting his childhood friend named Jenny von Westphalen. They moved to Paris and Marx got a job at a magazine. He married Jenny on June 12, 1843. He became friends with Friedrich Engels and together they created a magazine and wrote the Communist Manifesto. He died on March 14, 1883 and is best known as the Father of Modern Communism.





George Stephenson

George Stephenson was born June 9, 1781 in Wylam, Northumberland, England. He was a chief coal mine mechanic which sparked his interest in steam engines that led to experiments on a machine to pull coal-filled cars out of the mines. In 1815 he created a "steam blast" system that made the locomotive practical and in 1825 he created a steam locomotive for the first passenger railway which could carry 450 people at 15 mph. In 1829,with the help of his son, he built his improved locomotive, the Rocket, which won a speed competition at 36 mph and became the model for later locomotives.