What historical figure do you find fascinating?

[FunBobbyMucha]

What person, living or dead, famous or infamous, do you enjoy reading about, discussing, etc?

I have two favorites: Harry S. Truman and Howard Hughes. For vastly different reasons. I admire HST because the more you learn about his origins, the more you realize his life is a Frank Capra movie that even Frank Capra wouldn't have believed. He was, for the most part, undereducated, an underachiever, and more or less failed his way thru Missouri politics all the way to the Oval Office (He only met FDR twice, and nothing of any consequence was discussed--FDR apparently didn't even like the man). He was the ballsiest Democrat to ever hold the office (or at least tied with FDR). The Gary Sinese HBO pic didn't tell a fraction of his story.

Howard Hughes was a fascinating enigma, "the last private man" according to Eudora Welty. Seemingly unstoppable as a captain of industry, a visionary, etc, he made a list of accomplishments at age 19 and that included being a famous director, an aviator, the richest man in America, etc, and arguably achieved them all (that his famous direction was famously awful still applies). He wrote a book's length of memos to his personal assistant about topics like the proper support and style of Jane Russell's brassiere in "The Outlaw," successfully stone-walled the government's attempts to commandeer his failed Spruce Goose project (roping them into funding it long after its military feasibility was debunked). He was a fabulous nutcase.

Sidebar: Scorsese is now directing a biopic on HH, with Leo Decaprio (Luke Wilson woulda been my choice), Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn, and Gwen Stefani, etc, as Jean Harlow, and other starlets he banged.

I also find Walt Disney fascinating/scary as hell.

How's about you?

[Loonman]

1. Genghis Khan

Reshaped Asia.

[grannylib]

2. Einstein, Mother Teresa, Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Margaret Sanger

Mary Magdalene

[wtmusic]

3. Abe Lincoln

Prone to depression, high, squeaky voice coming from a 6+ foot frame, eloquent and steadfast beyond compare.

[FunBobbyMucha]

6. And don't forget the dynamic between Abe and Mary Todd

What a case study in co-dependence! She was a truly haunted spirit, right up there with Sarah Winchester.

[dbt]

4. Johnny Cash

I'm serious dammit! It had to be hard to live with the fact that he was never recognized as the True King of Rock and Roll!

:evilgrin:
dbt

[FunBobbyMucha]

5. I bought my wife his autobio for Xmas

and she is fascinated. He was a true individual, practically the human equivalent of a huge oak tree.

[felonious thunk]

7. Louis XIV

While there would certainly be better human beings, the absolute power and opulence in which Louis XIV lived is fascinating. A man with dellusions of his own diefication, that was so feared no one dared question him.

[Faygo Kid]

8. John Marshall

Unbelievably influential figure in American history; also a great raconteur and companion. Abe, too; also FDR and MLK. Too many to choose from!

[rogerashton]

9. Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte

OK, that's muy macho, I admit it. But these two guys because they were so much more than successful generals -- creative and political, fountains of energy, ready to solve every problem -- very different with the, um, fairer sex -- Caesar with his amours, Nappy hopelessly bonkers over that adventuress Josephine -- plus, they were both pretty good commanders who had really superb troops to command and, most important, wrote their own press releases.

[LynneSin]

10. Queen Elizabeth I

She ruled a country that was divided by religious warfare and she ignored all her advisor's warnings that she had to get married and bare a child in order to be a successful Queen.

And she somehow managed to be the 'Virgin' queen despite numerous affairs.

She's my hero

[Bozola]

11. Simple

Eratosthenes of Cyrene
Ptolemy I Soter
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
Pericles

[FunBobbyMucha]

13. Umm....are these the guys from Gwar?

Me am not stupid! Me am Bizarro!

[Bozola]

23. Gwar? (Aha!) Thank Google, no. They're all dead drummers for Spinal Tap

Eratosthenes of Cyrene
A philosopher/mathmatician/etc... who once taught\studied at an old, old school University.


Ptolemy I Soter
Chilled in the 'hood with Big Alex for a while then settled down and started a University.


Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
Writer, Lawyer, early Natural Historian. Almost got baked in volcanic eruption in Italy a few years ago, but lived to write about it.


Pericles
An opinionated Greek guy.

[HawkerHurricane]

12. General Smedley Butler, USMC

The war hero they don't tell the recruits about.

The Wright Brothers, the amatuers who flew before the professionals.

Charles Darwin, who spent 5 years of his life exploring the world, 20 years trying to describe what he saw, and the rest of it defending his discription.

[Rowdyboy]

14. Mary Queen of Scots

Queen of Scotland from birth, married to the dauphin of France at 14 and behind Elizabeth in line for the English throne. Had her weakling husband survived, all three countries might have been united.

Also Catherine the Great, and Rasputin!

[Screaming Lord Byron]

15. Sure, had she not been a complete idiot and married Bothwell.

Terrible judgement, that woman.

[Rowdyboy]

18. God, don't get me started

Send the woman out to screw up and she'd screw up on the way out. She couldn't have made any dumber moves if she'd been trying.

[brainshrub]

16. Myself (nt)

[Mikimouse]

17. Arnold de Gorgei...

My family's founder (and a scoundrel in his own right).

[markses]

19. Alcibiades

Most beautiful boy in Athens, then grows up to be a stealer opf wives and shrewd political gamesman. Just before the greeks set forth on the Sicilian expedition (415 BC), several folks come forth claiming that he has profaned the Eleusian Mysteries in private homes, and his enemies quickly seize on it to cast him into trouble. But, he's the co-commander of the expedition, and has an army with him (including the poor that he's armed at state expense much to the displeasure of his own aristocratic class), so off he goes to Sicily (despite his shrewd please to have the matter settled immediately), while his enemies in Athens continue to press intrigue and slander against him in his absence.

Soon, the whole Athenian polis is in an uproar over the profanation of the mysteries and the destruction of the Herms (and probably just worried about the usurpation of the democracy by the oligarchic class, for if Alcibiades was meeting in secret with his friends, what else were they meeting in secret on?). Alcibiades is recalle4d to stand trial for the profanation of the mysteries, as dozens are rounded up in a witch-trial atmosphere, many executed and forced to flee into exile. Alcibiades, however, slips his captors/escorts, and off to Athens main enemy - Sparta - to help them in the war (not least by advising them to fortify the plain outside Athens, causing "great hardship," according to Thucydides). Oh, and he supposedly sleeps with the king of Sparta's wife at this time, while the Athenian general defector! HUH!?! Legendary. He later returns to Athens but sells out again to the Persians.

Alcibiades is the coolest Greek. Let's not forget his role in Plato's "Symposium," and other dialogues.

[terrya]

20. Eleanor of Aquataine.

The wife of Henry II of England. She was a strong woman in a time when women were treated as nothing more than chattel. A remarkable woman.

[Cat Atomic]

21. T.E. Lawrence, Robert Clive.

Clive was a dark figure, but interesting. I remember reading a quote of his somewhere... at least I think it was Clive who said it. It was something like:

I was considering putting a bullet in my head, when it suddenly occurred to me that it would be much more fun to put bullets in other peoples' heads.

[Draven]

22. Galileo...

Nicholas Steno, James Hutton(father of modern geology), William Smith, et cetera...

All these dudes, except Galileo, had something to do in the formation of modern geology. Cool guys they are. :thumbsup:

[Mr. McD]

24. Clara Wieck Schumann

The Premier Female Musician of the 19th Century
Accomplished Composer and Virtuoso Pianist
Born September 13, 1819 - Died May 20, 1896

[CanuckAmok]

25. Emma Goldman and Gen. Smedley Butler.

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Guide/

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

please feel free to join me in my fascination!

[displacedtexan]

26. Lizzie Borden

I used to think she was innocent...
Now I think she was brilliant. She managed to get away with a very messy crime of passion! Of course, she inherited tons of money after the murders, and the judge just happened to be running for governor...

[OneBlueSky]

27. Louis Armstrong . . .

aka "Satchmo," aka "Pops" . . . the granddaddy of American popular music . . . everyone since -- in jazz, blues, pop, and rock -- owes a huge debt to this magnificant innovator . . . there are things he did on the trumpet that NO ONE has ever duplicated to this day! . . .



from the Louis Armstrong Tribute Site http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/riff/11/

Those Early Years

"Upon being released from the waif's home at age fourteen, Louis worked selling papers, unloading boats, and selling coal from a horse and cart. He also listened to bands at clubs like the Come Clean Dance Hall, Funky Butt Hall, and Mahogany Hall, in Storyville. Joe "King" Oliver with the Kid Ory Band was his favorite and he quickly became young Louis's mentor. By 1917 Louis was playing in various groups at dive bars in New Orleans' Storyville section. In 1919 he joined Fate Marable's band in St. Louis, and stayed with him until 1921. Marable headed a band that worked on the Strekfus Mississippi River Boat Lines. When Louis returned to New Orleans he played in Zutty Singleton's Trio, Papa Celestin's Tuxedo Orchestra, The Silver Leaf Band, and from time to time with Kid Ory's band, he also played in parades with the Allen Brass Band. When King Oliver left New Orleans in 1919 to go to Chicago, Louis took his place in Kid Ory's band, at the suggestion of Oliver.

"In 1922 Louis received a telegram from Joe Oliver, asking him to join his Creole Jazz Band at Lincoln Gardens in Chicago. I must interject at this point Nat Gonella's comment, "I can't imagine Louis playing second trumpet to anyone", however, Louis learned much working with Oliver. The experience of playing second cornet helped to develop his ear and harmonies, and, the importance of playing straight lead, as Oliver did, were lessons that he would use for the remainder of his life. While playing in Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Louis met Lillian Hardin the piano player for the band, and they were married in February of 1924. By the end of 1924 she pressured Louis to leave the Oliver band. He moved to New York to play in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for 13 months. While in New York he worked many recording sessions with numerous Blues singers including Bessie Smith on her 1925 classic recording of "St. Louis Blues".

"In 1925 Armstrong moved back to Chicago and joined his wife's band at the Dreamland. He recorded his first Hot Five records that same year. This was the first time Louis had made records under his own name. The records made by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven are considered to be absolute jazz classics and peak of his creative powers. The band never played live, but continued recording until 1928."

- much more . . .

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/riff/11/

note: there are many, many sites devoted to Louis Armstrong; this one just happened to be handy . . . and it's alway LOUIS, never LOUIE!!! . . .

[jpgray]

28. US Grant

A miserable, gullible failure in everything but the Civil War. His memoirs, which he wrote while dying from throat cancer (and taking not a bit of cocaine), are still the most satisfying account of the Civil War I have read. I'm going to plow through Sherman's later this year.

[HawkerHurricane]

30. Poor Grant...

Grant's main accomplishment of the Civil War was (time after time) to look at the situation, where his men had been manhandled by the enemy, outmanuevered, and outfought, do the math, and figure that since he still outnumbered Lee (or Johnston, or whoever) and NOT RETREAT. While his predecessor, McClellan, would give up the field after being outfought in a one day battle, Grant would force it into a weeklong battle that the Confederates couldn't win.

[mitchum]

29. Vlad Tepes...

because he possessed a sardonic sense of humor only rivaled by that of Caligula

[djeseru]

31. Howard Carter...

...excavator. Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker and Sylvia Plath. Abraham Lincoln. Bix Biederbecke. Buddha and Jesus.

[SOteric]

32. Marius, and Athelred the Unready

[HereSince1628]

33. Rachel Carson, Ernst Shakleton

That is sort of in order of my interest,

Admittedly very different people. I think Racheal Carson was one of the most influential people of the last century.

Shakelton was the most obsessed with fulfilling the obligations of a leader to his personnel.

[AngryAmish]

34. Timur lang

or Tamerlane. Pyramids of skulls. Very cool.

[HawkerHurricane]

35. Tamur the Lame

The man who made the Mongols evil reputation...

Which history has backdated to cover Ghengis Khan, so the Mongols always look evil.