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When you've got a lot of people together, it makes sense to pick someone to be in charge. As exploration expanded, individuals were chosen to oversee colonies and settlements. This section highlights those men (and some women), as well as the leaders and attendant ruling class -- nobles, peerage, wannabes and hangers-on --back home.
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Cross-listed in Military

Babur

aka: Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad
borndied
1483, Feb 141530, Dec 26
a conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty in the Indian subcontinent and became the first Mughal emperor. He was a direct descendant of Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamurlane) from the Barlas clan, through his father, and also a descendant of Genghis Khan through his mothe...
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Timeline (4)Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryWriters

Vicente Bacallar

borndied
1669, Feb 61726, Jun 11
a nobleman, military officer, linguist, historian, politician and Spanish ambassador. He was born to a noble Sardinian family when the kingdom of Sardinia was part of the Spanish crown. He wrote the short poem Las Tobias (The Tobies, 1709), the poem El Palacio de Momo (Momo's Palace, 1714), the treaty Monarchia Hebrea (The Hebrew Monarch...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Felice Baciocchi

borndied
1762, May 181841, Apr 28
born at Ajaccio into a noble, but poor, Corsican family. He was second lieutenant in the French army in 1778, lieutenant in 1788, then Captain in 1794. Around 5 May 1797, he married Elisa Maria Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger sister, in Marseilles. Baciocchi was then promoted to colonel in 1802, to Brigadier General in 1804, and to Major General in 1809. He wa...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in WritersScientistsLegal

Francis Bacon

aka: 1st Viscount St Alban
bornactivedied
1561, Jan 221579-16261626, Apr 9
an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution.
Timeline (3)Links (20)


Cross-listed in WritersLegal

Nathaniel Bacon [3]

bornactivedied
1593, Dec 121645-16601660
an English Puritan lawyer, writer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1645 and 1660. Bacon was a Parliamentarian, active in support of the New Model Army from 1644, Bacon became Member of Parliament for Cambridge University in 1645, as a recruiter to the Long Parliament until he was excluded after Pride's Purge. Bacon's Hi...
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Links (1)


Nathaniel Bacon [5]

bornactivedied
1647, Jan 21660s-16761676, Oct 26
a colonist of the Virginia Colony, famous as the instigator of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died from dysentery. After accusations that Nathaniel cheated another young man of his inheritance, Thomas Bacon gave his son the considerable sum of £1,800 and the young man sailed into exile across the Atlantic.Upon arriving in Virg...
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Timeline (3)Links (1)


Nathaniel Bacon [6]

borndied
18021869
a member of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1855 to 1857. Bacon was born at Ballston Spa, New York. He graduated from Union College in 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1827 and in 1828 opened law offices in Rochester, New York. In 1833 he moved to Niles, Michigan. Bacon served as a prosecutor and a probate judge before he became a Supreme Court Judge.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Astorre Baglioni

borndied
1526, Mar1571, Aug 4
an Italian condottiero and military commander. He was born in Perugia, the son of Gentile Baglioni, a member of a condottieri family of central Italy. At the death of his father, he was first at Tagliacozzo under Ascanio Colonna, and then to Città di Castello where he was introduced to the military career by his uncle Alessandro Vitelli. In 1540 he fought u...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Astorre Baglioni

borndied
1526, Mar1571, Aug 4
an Italian condottiero and military commander. In 1540 he fought under the latter at Pest against the Turks. In 1550 he was on a frigate in a Christian fleet led by Carlo Sforza, to fight against the northern African raider Dragut. In August Baglioni was at the siege of Mahdia with Giordano Orsini. In 1556-1558 he was hired by the Republic of Venice, for whi...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Astronomers

Jean Sylvain Bailly

bornactivedied
1736, Sep 151759-17871793, Nov 12
a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of Paris from 1789 to 1791, and was ultimately guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Abraham Baldwin

borndied
1754, Nov 221807, Mar 4
an American minister, Patriot, politician, and Founding Father. Born and raised in Connecticut, he was a graduate of Yale University Divinity School, after the Revolutionary War Baldwin became a lawyer. He moved to the U.S. state of Georgia in the mid-1780s to work under the governor and develop its educational system. Baldwin is noted as the developer and f...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Roger Sherman Baldwin

borndied
1793, Jan 41863, Feb 19
an American politician who served as the 32nd Governor of Connecticut from 1844 to 1846 and a United States Senator from 1847 to 1851. As a lawyer, his career was most notable for his participation in the 1841 Amistad case. He attended Hopkins School, and entered Yale College at the age of fourteen, and graduated with high honors in 1811. At Yale, Baldwin wa...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Composers

Barbara of Portugal

borndied
1711, Dec 41758, Aug 27
an Infanta of Portugal and later Queen of Spain as wife of Ferdinand VI of Spain. Although Barbara was not considered beautiful by her contemporaries — her homely looks were thought by observers to cause her future husband a visible shock when he was first presented to her — Ferdinand became deeply attached to her, sharing her passion for music. Ferdin...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Pirates

Aruj Barbarossa

aka: Uruj, Redbeard, Oruc Reis, Oruç Reis, Baba Oruç,  Baba Aruj
bornactivedied
1473/741495-15181518
Ottoman Bey (governor) of Algiers and Beylerbey (chief governor) of the West Mediterranean and the elder brother of Hayreddin Barbarossa. He was born on the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos in modern Greece) and was killed in a battle with the Spanish at Tlemcen in the Ottoman Eyalet of Algeria. He became known as Baba Oruç or Baba Aruj (Father Oruç) when...
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Links (4)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Writers

Robert Barclay

borndied
1648, Dec 231690, Oct 3
a Scottish Quaker, one of the most eminent writers belonging to the Religious Society of Friends and a member of the Clan Barclay. He was also governor of the East Jersey colony in North America through most of the 1680s, although he himself never resided in the colony. Barclay was an absentee governor, never having set foot in the colony. he governed throug...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Writers

Joel Barlow

bornactivedied
1754, Mar 241778-18121812, Dec 26
an American poet and diplomat, and French politician. In politics, he supported the French Revolution and was an ardent Jeffersonian republican. He worked as an agent for American speculator William Duer to set up the Scioto Company in Paris in 1788, and to sell worthless deeds to land in the Northwest Territory which it did not own. Scholars believe that he...
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Links (14)


Cross-listed in Writers

Ambrose Barnes

borndied
16271710
an English nonconformist and Mayor of Newcastle. Barnes wrote a Breviate of the Four Monarchies, an Inquiry into the Nature, Grounds, and Reasons of Religion, and a Censure upon the Times and Age he lived in. Extracts only from these works, which all display much learning, have been published; they went in manuscript in the library of the Literary and Philos...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

P. T. Barnum

aka: Phineas Taylor
bornactivedied
1810, Jul 51832-18881891, Apr 7
an American politician, showman, and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me", and his personal aim was...
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Timeline (3)Links (19)Notes (3)


Cross-listed in Military

Robert Barnwell

borndied
1761, Dec 211814, Oct 24
a South Carolina revolutionary and statesman who was a delegate to the Confederation Congress and a United States Congressman. His education was by a private tutor after he had exhausted the resources of the Beaufort common school. But he interrupted this and entered the revolutionary war at the age of 16 as a private in the militia. By the end of the war ha...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

William T. Barry

bornactivedied
1784, Feb 51805-18351835, Aug 30
an American statesman and jurist. He served as Postmaster General for most of the administration of President Andrew Jackson, and was the only Cabinet member to not resign in 1831 as a result of the Petticoat affair. Born near Lunenburg, Virginia, he moved to ...
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Timeline (1)Links (6)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Physicians

Josiah Bartlett

bornactivedied
1729, Nov 211750-17901795, May 19
an American physician and statesman, delegate to the Continental Congress for New Hampshire, and signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He was later Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court of Judicature and Governor of the state. Before Bartlett turned 21, in 1750, he moved to Kingston, New Hampshire, in Rockingham County, and began his prac...
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Timeline (1)Links (17)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Naval

Washington Allon Bartlett

borndied
1816 ca1865, Feb 6
the first alcalde (mayor) of the American-era San Francisco serving from August 14, 1846 to January 31, 1847. While some sources state that Bartlett was born in Maine, citing dates of 3 September 1812 to 1820, other sources have stated he was related to Josiah Ba...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Burwell Bassett Jr.

borndied
1764, Mar 181841, Feb 26
a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1787 to 1789, and the Virginia Senate from 1794 to 1805. Born in Williamsburg, Virginia to Burwell Bassett, Sr. and Anna Marie (née Dandridge), the sister of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, Bassett attended the College of William and Mary. He was the nephew of George and more
Links (1)


Elizabeth Bathory

aka: Báthory
borndied
1560, Aug 71614, Aug 21
a serial killer from the Báthory family of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary. She has been labelled by Guinness World Records as the most prolific female murderer, though the precise number of her victims is debated. Báthory and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of young women between 1585 and 1609. The highest number of vi...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Sigismund Bathory

aka: Zsigmond Báthory
borndied
15731613, Mar 27
was Prince of Transylvania several times between 1586 and 1602, and Duke of Racibórz and Opole in Silesia in 1598. He was the son of the Roman Catholic Christopher Báthory (an elder brother of Stephen Báthory, Prince of Transylvania), and the Calvinist Elisabeth Bocskai. After being elected King of Poland in 1575, Stephen Báthory made Sigismund's father ...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Stephen Bathory

aka: Báthory
borndied
1533, Sep 271586, Dec 12
Voivode of Transylvania (1571–76), Prince of Transylvania (1576–86), from 1576 Queen Anna Jagiellon's husband and jure uxoris King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576-1586). The son of Stephen VIII Báthory and a member of the Hungarian Báthory noble family, Báthory was a ruler of Transylvania in the 1570s, defeating another challenger for that...
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Timeline (2)Links (1)


Jean Chretien Baud

aka: Jean Chrétien, Baron Baud
borndied
1789, Oct 231859, Jun 27
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1833 until 1836. He was a civil servant and politician who served under William I and William II of the Netherlands. He sped through the ranks of the civil service until he reached the post of Vice President of the Council for the Dutch East Indies. Following Johannes van den Bosch, as acting Governor-General a...
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Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Alexandre de Beauharnais

aka: Alexandre François Marie, Viscount of Beauharnais
bornactivedied
1760, May 281775-17941794, Jul 23
a French political figure and general during the French Revolution. He was the first husband of Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, who later married Napoleon Bonaparte and became empress of the First French Empire. Beauharnais was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
Links (1)


John J. Beckley

borndied
1757, Aug 41807, Apr 8
an American political campaign manager and the first Librarian of the United States Congress, from 1802 to 1807. He is credited with being the first political campaign manager in the United States and for setting the standards for the First Party System. Twice, he served as mayor of Richmond, Virginia, from 1783 to 1784 and again from 1788 to 1789.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryCommerce

William Becknell

borndied
1787/881865, Apr 30
an American soldier, politician, and freight operator who is credited with opening the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, which became an early major transportation route through central North America that connected Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. It served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. Beckn...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Edward Belknap

borndied
unknown1521, Mar 25
active in the service of the English crown, both on the battlefield and as a court official, during the 15th and 16th century. A descendant of one of William the Conqueror's companions in arms, he fought for Henry VII at the battles of Stoke Field and Blackheath and possibly at other battles as well. In August 1508, he was appointed to the newly created offi...
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Links (1)


Camillo Benso

aka: Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri, Count Cavour
borndied
1810, Aug 101861, Jun 6
an Italian statesman and a leading figure in the movement toward Italian unification. He was one of the leaders of the Historical Right, and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, a position he maintained (except for a six-month resignation) throughout the Second Italian War of Independence and more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Charles Bent

borndied
1799, Nov 111847, Jan 19
appointed as the first civilian Governor of the newly acquired New Mexico Territory by military Governor Stephen Watts Kearny in September 1846. Charles Bent had been working as a fur trader in the region since 1828, with his younger brother, William and later partner Ceran St. Vrain. Though his office was in Santa Fe, Bent maintained his residence and a tra...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Gillis van Berlaymont

borndied
1545 ca1579, Jun 18
stadtholder for the Spanish Crown of Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen and Overijssel (1572-1573), stadtholder of Guelders (1572-1577), substitute stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht (1574-1577), stadtholder of Namur and Artois (after 1578) and baron of Hierges. In 1567 Gilles commanded the Siege of Valenciennes, the first siege of the Eighty Years' War....
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Bernard of Saxony-Weimar

aka: Bernard of Saxe-Weimar
borndied
1604, Aug 161639, Jul 18
a German prince. Bernard was the eleventh and youngest son of Duke John III of Saxony-Weimar and Dorothea Maria of Anhalt-Zerbst. In the Thirty Years' War , he sided with the Protestants, and he was commander in the service of Sweden and France . On the side of the Dutch insurgents took part in the Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch (1629).
Timeline (1)


Gabriel Bethlen

borndied
1580, Nov 151629, Nov 25
Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629) and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625. He was also King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of the whole kingdom. Modern historians try to reconstruct the major events of Gabriel's youth based on sources (primarily memoirs and letters) complited decades later, because only two documents writt...
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Timeline (6)Links (7)


Cross-listed in Military

Benkos Bioho

aka: Biohó, Domingo Biohó, King of Arcabuco
borndied
unknown1621
a Mandinka and South American leader who escaped from the slave port of Cartagena with ten others and founded San Basilio de Palenque, then known as the "village of the maroons", located in what is now Northern Colombia. In 1713 it became the first free village in the Americas by decree from the King of Spain, when he gave up sending his troops on futile mis...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

James G. Birney

borndied
1792, Feb 41857, Nov 25
an abolitionist, politician, and attorney born in Danville, Kentucky. He published an abolitionist weekly publication titled The Philanthropist and twice served as the presidential nominee for the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Birney pursued a legal career in Danville after graduating from the College of New Jersey and studying under Alexander J. Dallas. He vo...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Black Hawk

bornactivedied
17671810s-1830s1838
a war leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian tribe in what is now the Midwest of the United States. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle from his father, he was not a hereditary civil chief. Black Hawk earned his status as a war chief or captain by his actions: leading raiding and war parties as a young man, and a band of S...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Black Kettle

bornactivedied
1803 ca1850s-1860s1868
a prominent leader of the Southern Cheyenne, who led efforts to resist American settlement from Kansas and Colorado territories. He was a peacemaker who accepted treaties to protect his people. He was fired upon and killed by Union soldiers in 1868 during the Battle of Washita River.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Naval

William Bligh

bornactivedied
1754, Sep 91761-18141817, Dec 7
an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. He is best remembered for the historic mutiny which occurred during his command of HMS Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, 3,618 nautical miles (6,701 km; 4,164 mi), after being set adrift in Bounty's launch by the mutineers.
Timeline (4)Links (9)


Cross-listed in Military

Joseph Bloomfield

bornactivedied
1753, Oct 181775-18231823, Oct 3
the fourth Governor of New Jersey. The township of Bloomfield, New Jersey is named for him. He attained the rank of major on November 28, 1776, and was appointed judge advocate of the northern army. He was wounded at the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777. He resigned from the Continental Army on October 28, 1778, after he was elected clerk of the New Je...
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Timeline (3)Links (12)


Charles Blount [1]

aka: 5th Baron Mountjoy
borndied
1516, Jun 281544, October 10
an English courtier and patron of learning. Succeeding to the title after his father's death in 1534, Mountjoy was regular in his attendance in the House of Lords. In May 1537 he was one of the peers summoned for the trial of lords Darcy and Hussey and he was also on the panel of 3 December 1538 for the trial of Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, and Henry Court...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Charles Blount [2]

aka: 8th Baron Mountjoy, 1st Earl of Devonshire
borndied
15631606, Apr 3
an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, then as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under King James I. He succeeded to the family title of Baron Mountjoy in 1594, before commanding the Crown's forces during the final years of Tyrone's Rebellion. He was able to defeat Tyrone at the Battle of Kinsale, and captured ...
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Timeline (1)


James Blount

aka: 6th Baron Mountjoy
borndied
1533 ca1582
an English peer. He inherited his title on the death of his father. He was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Queen Mary (29 September 1553); and was Lord Lieutenant of Dorset in 1559. He was one of the commissioners who tried the Duke of Norfolk in 1572, and spent the fortune of his family in the pursuit of alchemy. Lord Burghley encouraged him ...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Mountjoy Blount

aka: 1st Earl of Newport
borndied
1597 ca1666
created Baron Mountjoy in the Irish peerage (1617), baron Mountjoy of Thurveston in the English peerage (1627) and Earl of Newport (1628) was appointed master of ordnance to Charles I of England (1634) and played an ambiguous part in the early years of the English Civil War. When the Civil War broke out, however, Newport served in the royalist army, and took...
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Links (1)


William Blount [1]

aka: 7th Baron Mountjoy
borndied
1561 ca1594
an English peer. William Blount was born circa 1561, the eldest son of James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy (c.1533-1582) and Catherine Leigh. He inherited his title on the death of his father. He never married. On his death in 1594 in Hook, Dorset the title passed to his younger brother Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy.
Links (1)


William Blount [2]

bornactivedied
1749, Mar 261776-18001800, Mar 21
an American statesman and land speculator, and a signer of the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and led efforts in North Carolina to ratify the Constitution in 1789. He subsequently served as the only governor of the Southwest Territory, and played a leading role in helping...
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Timeline (3)Links (13)


Blue Jacket

aka: Weyapiersenwah
bornactivedied
1743 ca 1770s-1800s1810 ca
a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the pre-eminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, in which a pantribal confederacy fought several battles with the nascent United States, he was an important predecessor of the famous Shawnee leader more
Links (1)


Anne Boleyn

bornactivedied
1501 ca1513-15361536, May 19
Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII, and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to her, and her subsequent execution by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the star...
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Timeline (7)Links (14)


George Boleyn

aka: 2nd Viscount Rochford
borndied
1503/04, Apr ca1536, May 17
an English courtier and nobleman, and the brother of queen consort Anne Boleyn. This made him the brother-in-law of King Henry VIII and the maternal uncle of Queen El...
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Timeline (3)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Simon Bolivar

aka: Simón Bolívar
bornactivedied
1783, Jul 241807-18301830, Dec 17
a Venezuelan military and political leader who played a leading role in the establishment of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama as sovereign states, independent of Spanish rule. Bolívar was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Creole family and, like others of his day, was educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and...
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Timeline (9)Links (5)


Caroline Bonaparte

aka: Maria Annunziata Carolina Murat
borndied
1782, Mar 251839, May 18
the seventh surviving child and third surviving daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, and a younger sister of Napoleon I of France. In 1793, Caroline moved with her family to France during the French Revolution. There, she fell in love with Joachim Mur...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Joseph Bonaparte

aka: Giuseppe, José I, Jose I
borndied
1768, Jan 71844, Jul 28
a French diplomat and nobleman, the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808), and later King of Spain (1808–1813, as José I). After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself Comte de Survilliers. As a l...
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Timeline (2)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Napoleon Bonaparte

aka: Napoleon I
bornactivedied
1769, Aug 151799-18151821, May 5
a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again in 1815. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coali...
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Timeline (77)Links (21)


Napoleon Louis Bonaparte

aka: Napoléon-Louis, Louis II of Holland
borndied
1804, Oct 111831, Mar 17
the middle son of Louis I of Holland and Hortense de Beauharnais. His father was the younger brother of Napoléon I and reigned as King of Holland from 1806 to 1810, while his mother was the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoléon's first wife. He was the older brother of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, future Emperor Napoleon III. In 1809, Napoléon I app...
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Links (1)


Charles Boone

bornactivedied
unknown1715-1722unknown
a British governor of the Bombay Presidency during the period of the Honourable East India Company, serving from 1715 to 1722.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Commerce

John Beale Bordley

borndied
1727, Feb 111804, Jan 26
a Maryland planter and judge. He married Margaret Chew, (June 29, 1735 – November 11, 1773), in 1750, and went to live at Joppa, Maryland, then in the "wilderness" of Baltimore County. For the next 12 or 13 years he worked his plantation, and held the county clerkship. In 1768, he was one of the commissioners to help determine the boundary between Maryland...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in ClergyMilitary

Cesare Borgia

aka: Duke of Valentinois
bornactivedied
1475, Sep 131490-15071507, Mar 12
an Italian condottiero, nobleman, politician, and cardinal, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Machiavelli. He was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492–1503, born Rodrigo Borgia) and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei...
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Timeline (4)Links (11)Gallery (1)Notes (3)


Borommarachathira IV

aka: Somdet Phra Borommaracha Thirat IV, Somdet Phra Borommarachathirat No Phutthangkun, Prince Athittayawong
bornactivedied
unknown1529-15331533
the short-reigning king of Ayutthaya from 1529 to 1533. Prince Athittayawong was the son of Ramathibodi II and became the Uparaja in 1515. Following his father's death, Athittayawong succeeded the Ayutthayan throne as Borommaracha IV. He appointed his brother, Prince Chairachathirat, as the Uparaja at Phitsanulok. Borommaracha IV died abruptly in 1533 due to...
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Links (1)


Pieter Both

borndied
15681615, Mar 6
the first Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Not much is known of his early years. In 1599, Both was already an admiral in the New, or Brabant Company. In that year, he traveled to the East Indies with four ships. When the newly founded Dutch East India Company set up a government for the Dutch East Indies, Pieter Both was invited to become the Gover...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Elias Boudinot

bornactivedied
1740, May 21760-18211821, Oct 24
a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (more accurately referred to as the Congress of the Confederation) and served as President of Congress from 1782 to 1783. He was elected as a U.S. Congressman for New Jersey following the American Revolutionary War. He was appointed by President more
Timeline (1)Links (10)Notes (1)


Francois de Bourbon

aka: François, Prince of Conti
borndied
1558, Aug 191614, Aug 3
the third son of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, a junior line of the House of Bourbon, and his first wife Eléanor de Roucy de Roye). He was given the title of Marquis of Conti and between 1581 and 1597 was elevated to the rank of a prince. The title of Prince of Conti was honorary and did not carry any territorial jurisdiction. Conti, who belonged to t...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Explorers

Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier

borndied
1705, Jan 141786
a French sailor, explorer, and governor of the Mascarene Islands. He became a lieutenant of the French East India Company in 1731. He succeeded in convincing his employer to provide him with two ships and send him on an exploration mission in the South Atlantic. With his ships Aigle and Marie he discovered on 1 January 1739 a tiny island which was named Bouv...
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Timeline (1)Links (2)


Alvan E. Bovay

borndied
1818, Jul 121903, Jan 13
a founder of the United States Republican Party. As early as 1852, Bovay was calling for a new party to form with a platform to stop slavery. At that time, Bovay visited New York and had a conversation with Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York tribune...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Billy Bowlegs

bornactivedied
1810 ca1830s-1860s1859
a leader of the Seminoles in Florida during the Second and Third Seminole Wars against the United States. One of the last Seminole leaders to resist, he eventually moved to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
Links (1)


Edward Boys [1]

borndied
15791646
an English politician, born in Fredville, Nonington, Kent. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Fowey in 1614, Christchurch c. June 1625, Sandwich 21 February 1626 and Dover April 1640 and November 1640-11 August 1646.
Links (1)


Countess Charlotte Brabantina of Nassau

borndied
1580, Sep 171631, Aug
the fifth daughter of William the Silent and his third spouse, Charlotte of Bourbon.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in Writers

William Bradford

borndied
1590 ca1657
an English Separatist leader who grew up in Yorkshire, and later moved to Leiden, Holland, and helped found the Plymouth Colony. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact while aboard the Mayflower in 1620. He served as Plymouth Colony Governor five times covering about thirty years between 1621 and 1657. His journal, Of Plymouth Plantation, covered the pe...
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Timeline (2)Links (1)


Charles Brandon

aka: 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Viscount Lisle
borndied
1484 ca1545, Aug 22
the son of Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. Through his third wife Mary Tudor he was brother-in-law to Henry VIII, King of England. His father was the standard...
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Links (1)


Joseph Brant

aka: Thayendanegea
bornactivedied
1743 ca1750s-1800s1807
a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the American Indian of his generation best known to the Americans and British, he met many of the most significant Anglo-American people of the age, including both more
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Carter Braxton

bornactivedied
1736, Sep 101760-17941797, Oct 10
a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, as well as a merchant, planter, and Virginia politician. A grandson of Robert “King” Carter, one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners and slaveholders in the Old Dominion, Carter Braxton was active in Virginia's legislature for more than 25 years, generally allied with Landon Carter, Be...
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Links (12)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Military

David Brearley

aka: Brearly
bornactivedied
1745, Jun 111776-17901790, Aug 16
a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and signed the U.S. Constitution on behalf of New Jersey. With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Brearley was at first a captain in the Monmouth County militia after having spent many years speaking out against the Parliamentary absolutism. He eventually rose to the rank of colonel in Nathaniel H...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryLegal

John C. Breckinridge

bornactivedied
1821, Jan 161841-18751875, May 17
a lawyer, politician, and soldier from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. After non-combat service during the Mexican–American War, Breckinridge was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives...
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Links (9)Notes (1)


Cross-listed in Astronomers

Thomas Brisbane

borndied
1773, Jul 231860, Jan 27
a British Army officer, administrator, and astronomer. Upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he had served, he was appointed governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. A keen astronomer, he built the colony's second observatory and encouraged scientific and agricultural training. Rivals besmirched his reputation and the British Sec...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Sir James Brooke

aka: Rajah of Sarawak
bornactivedied
1803, Apr 291819-18681868, Jun 11
a British soldier and adventurer who founded the Raj of Sarawak in Borneo. He ruled as the first White Rajah of Sarawak from 1841 until his death in 1868. Brooke was born and raised under the Company Raj of the British East India Company in India. After a few years of education in England, he served in the Bengal Army, was wounded, and resigned his commissio...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryPhysicians

John Brooks

borndied
1752, May1825, Mar 1
a doctor, military officer, and politician from Massachusetts. He served as the 11th Governor of Massachusetts from 1816 to 1823, and was one of the last Federalist officials elected in the United States. Trained as a doctor, Brooks was an officer of the Reading, Massachusetts militia when the American Revolutionary War broke out, and led his troops in the B...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in PiratesExplorers

Hendrik Brouwer

aka: Enrique Brower
bornactivedied
15811606-16431643, Aug 7
a Dutch explorer, admiral, and colonial administrator both in Japan and the Dutch East Indies. He is thought to first have sailed to the East Indies for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1642, the VOC joined the Dutch West Indies Company in organizing an expedition to Chile to establish a base for trading gold at the abandoned ruins of Valdivia.
Links (1)Notes (1)


James Buchanan

bornactivedied
1791, Apr 231857-18611868, Jun 1
the 15th President of the United States (1857–1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, then served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jac...
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Timeline (3)Links (15)Notes (2)


Buckongahelas

bornactivedied
1720 ca1770s-1800s1805
a regionally and nationally renowned Lenape chief, councilor and warrior. He was active from the days of the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War) through the Northwest Indian Wars, after the United States achieved independence and settlers encroached on territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio River. He became involved in the Western Confedera...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryLegal

Archibald Bulloch

borndied
1730, Jan 11777, Feb 22
a lawyer, soldier, and statesman from Georgia during the American Revolution. He was also the great-grandfather of Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, and the great-great-grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. In 1776, Bulloch fought under the command of Colonel Lachlan McIntosh in the Battle of the Rice Boats and the Battle of Tyb...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryWriters

John Burgoyne

bornactivedied
1722, Feb 241743-17921792, Aug 4
a British army officer, politician and dramatist. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762. John Burgoyne is best known for his role in the American Revolutionary War. He designed an invasion scheme and was appointed to command a force moving south from Canada t...
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Timeline (5)Links (1)


Cross-listed in ClergyNaval

Philip of Burgundy

aka: Philip van Bourgondie
bornactivedied
14641498-15241524
Admiral of the Netherlands from 1498 to 1517 and bishop of Utrecht from 1517 to 1524. In the years 1505-1507 he acted on behalf of the Habsburg dukes Philip the Fair and Maximilian I as governor of Gelre and Zutphen. As bishop, he lived as a true Renaissance prince, and allowed himself little interest in religious matters, he subcontracted by deputies. He di...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Writers

Edmund Burke

borndied
1729, Jan 121797, Jul 9
a British-Irish statesman born in Dublin, as well as an author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after moving to London, served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for many years in the House of Commons with the Whig Party. Burke is remembered mainly for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, Catholic emancipation, the impeachme...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Legal

Richard Burke Jr.

borndied
1758, Feb 91794, Aug 2
a barrister and Member of Parliament in England. He was born in Battersea, the son of Edmund Burke and Jane Mary Nugent. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1780. His father had high hopes for "the Whelp", never to be realized. He was Recorder of Bristol from 1783 until his early ...
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Links (1)


Peter Burnett

borndied
1807, Nov 151895, May 17
an American politician and the first Governor of California as a state in the U.S., serving from December 20, 1849, to January 9, 1851, and the first to resign from office. Burnett was governor for almost one year before California's admission in 1850. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, but raised in rural Missouri, Burnett did not receive any formal education as...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in MilitaryScientistsCommerce

Ambrose Burnside

aka: Ambrose Everett
bornactivedied
1824, May 231843-18811881, Sep 13
an American soldier, railroad-executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island. He served as Governor of Rhode Island and as a United States Senator. In October 1853, Burnside resigned his commission in the United States Army, and was appointed commander of the Rhode Island state militia with the rank of major general. He held this positi...
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Links (5)


Cross-listed in Legal

Aaron Burr

bornactivedied
1756, Feb 61775-18081836, Sep 14
an American politician. He was the third Vice President of the United States (1801–1805), serving during President Thomas Jefferson's first term. Burr served as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, after which he became a successful lawyer a...
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Timeline (7)Links (24)Notes (2)


Cross-listed in Inventors

William Austin Burt

borndied
1792, Jun 131858, Aug 18
an American inventor, legislator, surveyor, and millwright. He was the inventor, maker and patentee of the first typewriter constructed in America. He is referred to as the "father of the typewriter". Burt also invented the first workable solar compass, a solar use surveying instrument, and the equatorial sextant, a precision navigational aid to determine wi...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Inventors

David Bushnell

borndied
1740, Aug 301825 ca
an American inventor, a patriot, a scholar, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War. He had invented the first submarine to be used in battle. Bushnell is credited with creating the first submarine ever used in combat, while studying at Yale in 1775. He called it Turtle because of its look in the water. His idea of using water as ballast for submerging...
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Timeline (1)Links (1)


Andrew Butler

borndied
1796, Nov 181857, May 25
a United States Senator from South Carolina who authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Butler was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a young man, and in 1824 was elected to the South Carolina Senate. He served two terms and part of a third in the state senate before being appointed judge of the sessi...
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Links (1)


James Butler

aka: 9th Earl of Ormond, 2nd Earl of Ossory
borndied
14961546, Oct 28
the son of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond and Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond. He was created, in 1535, Viscount Thurles, and was confirmed by Act of Parliament, 6 November 1541, in the Earldom of Ormond, as 9th Earl with the pre-eminence of the original earls. His death by poisoning in London has remained an unsolved mystery to this day. About 152...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Military

Pierce Butler

borndied
1744, Jul 111822, Feb 15
recognized as one of United States' Founding Fathers and was a soldier, planter, and statesman. He represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress, the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the U.S. Senate. One of the largest slaveholders in the United States, Butler defended American slavery for both political and personal motives even though he had p...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Naval

John Byng

borndied
1704, Oct1757, Mar 14
a Royal Navy officer who was court-martialled and executed by firing squad. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participated at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. Over the next thirty years he built up a reputation as a solid naval officer and received promotion to vice-admiral in 1747. He also served as Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland Colo...
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Links (2)

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