Neil Armstrong (#90)

Background

Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He was the eldest of the three children of Stephen Armstrong and Viola Engel. Stephen Armstrong served as an auditor for Ohio's government and the family was constantly moving around the state during Neil's childhood. In 1936, when Neil was only 6 years old, he had his first plane ride in a Ford Trimotor. As a child, Neil Armstrong became a Boy Scout, eventually acheiving the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1947, Armstrong studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University. In 1949, the Navy called up Armstrong and sent him to the Naval Air Station Pensacola. In 1950, Armstrong became a fully qualified Naval Aviator. A year later, Armstrong went into combat in the Korean War, where he earned the Air Medal, a Gold Star, the Korean Service Medal, and the Engagement Star. Armstrong left the Navy in 1952 and went back to Purdue to finish his degree. While at Purdue, Armstrong met Janet Elizabeth Shearon, to whom he would get married to in 1956. The couple would have three children together.

Pilot

After Armstrong graduated from Purdue in 1955, he became a test pilot in the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory. Armstrong flew several types of planes, and by 1957, he started flying rocket planes. He soon became involved in flying X-15, logging 2,400 flying hours before he retired as a test pilot.  Armstrong became part of the Man in Space Soonest program in 1958. In 1960, he became further involved in space travel when he became a pilot consultant for the X-20 Dyna-Soar military space plane and later became one of the six pilots to fly the plane when finished. In 1962, Armstrong also applied for a position as a potential NASA astronaut and was quickly brought into the program. Armstrong became involved in the Gemini program and was assigned as the Command Pilot of Gemini 8. He also was the backup pilot for Gemini 11.

Apollo 11

In 1968, Armstrong was named as the head of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. He would be flying to the moon with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. The three left for the moon on July 16, 1969, arriving on the moon four days later. Armstrong and Aldrin took the landing ship. Eagle, down to to the moon's surface. Armstrong's step onto the moon made him the first man to walk on the moon. It was here that Armstrong said "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong and Aldrin spent about two and a half hours on the moon, during which they tested human capabilities on the moon, planted the American Flag, left memorial items to deceased cosmonauts and astronauts, and had a minute and a half long phone call with Richard Nixon.

After Apollo

After coming beck to Earth, Armstrong announced that he would no longer fly anymore space missions. He took up a teaching position at NASA and later at the University of Cincinnati. He also served during several NASA accident investigations. Armstrong rarely made public appearances, though he did do several television commercials, and he refused to give out autographs. Armstrong had several health problems during his later life, including having the tip of his ring finger ripped off, though he had it surgically reattached. 

The End

Armstrong died after undergoing surgery to relieve blocked coronary arteries. He died on August 25th of that year due to post-surgical complications. Neil Armstrong is on our list because his actions on the moon led the world into a new era and changed the size of the world where humans could go. Armstrong's accomplishment on the moon really was one giant step for mankind.

Tamar the Great (#91)

Young Life

Tamar was born around the year AD 1160, the daughter of George III of Georgia. During her childhood, Georgia was in a state of upheaval. Many of the nobles of Georgia were rebellious and attempted to overthrow the king in 1177, but George quickly crushed the rebellion, and soon afterwards,  George decided to name Tamar as his heir. In 1778, Tamar was crowned as co-ruler of Georgia along with her father.

Ruled by the Nobles

In 1184, George III died, and Tamar became the sole ruler of Georgia. Along with inheriting the kingdom, Tamar inheritted her father's rebellious nobels, and they weren't too happy with having a female ruler. Tamar was the first ever female ruler of Georgia, and this led many nobles to question her legitimacy as queen. Tamar's claim to the throne was solidified only through Tamar's aunt Rusudan and the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, catholicos Michael IV Mirianisdze. Even so, Tamar's early rein was basically run by the nobles. The nobles made Tamar appoint Michael IV as chancellor, putting at the head Georgian politics and religion. The nobles also forced Tamar to dismiss several of her father's political officers, and they even chose Tamar's husband for her. In 1185, Tamar married the noble-chosen Yuri Bogolyubsky, the son of a prince from North Caucasus. 

Ruling the Nobles

Soon after the marriage, the chancellor and catholicos Michael IV died. Tamar quickly appointed her supporter, Anton Glonistavisdze, as chancellor. The death of Michael IV allowed Tamar to expand her power bases, taking more power away from the nobles. In 1187, Tamar had her divorce with Yuri approved on the basis of addiction to drunkenness and marital unfaithfulness. She then took David Soslan, an Alan Prince, as her husband. David Soslan was a very capable military commander and was a firm supporter of Tamar's rule. After the divorce, Yuri made two attempts at coup, but both were crushed by David. Tamar and David had two children during their marriage, both of whom would become rulers of Georgia. With her new power, Tamar revived the expansionist foreign policy of Georgia. Under David Soslan, Georgia was able to to take over several of the regional states, reduce Shirvan into a tributary state, and expand into the territory of the Great Seljuq Empire by 1204. In the same year, Tamar turned her attention to the southeast. The Byzantine Empire was very weak, partially due to the attacks by Muslim states in the Middle East, but mainly because of the Fourth Crusade that decided to attack Constantinople. Tamar took advantage of the Byzantines' weakness and helped to turn the Byzantine state of Pontic into the kingdom of Trebizond. Tamar had helped Trebizond because it gave Georgia a friendly neighbor to the south and it helped Georgia to affirm its position as the protector of Christianity in the middle east. Tamar was sending missionaries and supporting churches all the way to Cyprus, Egypt, and Bulgaria. Tamar also supported several monasteries within Jerusalem, and when Ayyubid sultan Saladin took Jerusalem in 1187, Tamar sent envoys to request that the the confiscated possessions of the Georgian monasteries be returned. Tamar created a friendly relationship with Saladin, and even when Western Europeans were not allowed into the holy land, Georgian pilgrims were. 

The End

Tamar died in 1213, shortly after her husband David Soslan had. Tamar is on our list because she was the first female ruler of Georgia. She also was able to take a kingdom on the verge of falling apart and turn it into an expansionist nation stronger than any of those around it. Also, as the Byzantine Empire deteriorated, Tamar turned Georgia into the leading Christian power within the Middle East, and while the Western Europeans continued to attack the Holy Land for the next 300 years, Tamar was able to get her pilgrims peacefully into Jerusalem whenever they wanted. Tamar is on our list because she made a small, obscure nation like Georgia into a thriving, strong power in the Middle East.

Jane Austen (#92)

Childhood

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 into an English family. She was the daughter of George Austen, a rector for Anglican parishes. She had six brothers and one sister, Cassandra. For the most part, Jane and Cassandra were educated together, going to the same schools and receiving the same education. Unlike most families, though, Jane and Cassandra were encouraged to read from her father's library and write their own pieces of writing. As early as 1787, Austen began to write stories for her family's amusement, some of which has been compiled into the book Juvenilia. For the most part, these works were comedic and satirical.

Adulthood

Austen continued to live with her parents in adulthood. She continued to experiment in writing, creating a short play in 1793 and Lady Susan, her first real novel by 1795. After finishing Lady Susan, Austen began to write the novel Elinor and Marianne, whose first draft was finished around the year 1796. When Austen was twenty, she met Tom Lefroy, the nephew of Austen's neighbors. Over the several months that they were together, Austen and Lefroy grew very close, but Lefroy's family intervened in the relationship because neither Lefroy nor Austen had any money. In 1796, Austen began working on her second novel, First Impressions, finishing the initial draft in 1797. Jane's father, George Austen, attempted to have First Impressions published in London, but the novel was rejected. In 1798, Austen began writing the novel Susan, which was a satire on Gothic novels. In 1803, Jane's brother, Henry Austen, was able to sell the copyright for Susan to a London publisher for £10, though the publisher never printed the novel. In December of 1800, the Austens moved to Bath. The period of time while Austen was in Bath is marked by a  lack of writing by Austen. For some reason, Austen did little writing other than revising her previously written novels. In 1802, Austen received an offer of marriage from Harris Bigg-Wither, which Austen initially accepted, but withdrew her acceptance by the following morning. In 1804, Austen began writing The Watsons, which was the only book she wrote in Bath, but abandoned this novel shortly after her father died in 1805, possibly because the family in her book mirrored her actual family too closely. In 1806, Jane Austen moved in with her brother Frank and his wife in Southampton, but soon left to live in Chawton with her mother and sister.

Publishing

In October 1811, Jane Austen was able to get Elinor and Marianne published under the name Sense and Sensibility. The book received good reviews and the edition sold out in 1813. In January 1813, First Impressions was also published as Pride and Prejudice. This book was an immediate success and by October of that year, a second edition had come out. In 1814, Mansfield Park, a revision of Susan, came out, and though it did not get many great reviews, the public loved the book. The success of her books gave Austen and her mother and sister financial security. Austen continued to write new books, publishing Emma in late-1815 and finishing the first of The Elliots by 1816. 

The End

Unfortunately, Austen became unwell in early 1816, though she ignored her illness. By mid-1816, she had serious symptoms and in July of 1817, Jane Austen had died. In December of 1817, Jane's siblings, Cassandra and Henry, arranged for Persuasion to be published. This book was also a success. Austen is on our list because she made some of the most enduring stories of all time. She was popular when she was alive and she is still popular now. My father has also made sure that movies based on her books take up half the space of our DVD collection, so I had to mention her.

John Harrison (#93)

Background

John Harrison was born on March 24, 1693, the first of five children of an English carpenter. When he was six years old, Harrison contracted smallpox and was given a watch to amuse himself. This watch would help to form Harrison's later career as a clock maker.

Pre-Marine Clock

In 1713,  Harrison made his first longcase clock. He built almost all of his early clocks entirely out of wood, and from 1713 to 1728, John and one of his brothers built several precision pendulum clocks. Harrison is responsible for many innovations that have been used in clocks throughout the ages. Harrison invented the gridiron pendulum, which was made of alternating brass and iron rods. In different weather conditions, one of the metals would contract while the other expanded, canceling each other out and allowing the pendulum to swing at the same pace. Harrison also invented the grasshopper escapement, which allowed the driving power of the clock to be released in small increments. The grasshopper escapement allowed clocks to function without requiring lubrication.

The Marine Clock

As people began to travel over the ocean much more frequently, a need for an accurate time keeping method was needed aboard ships. The Board of Longitude in London offered a £20,000 pound prize to anyone who could come up with an accurate way to tell time aboard a ship. Most proposed ways to calculate the time on a ship revolved around astronomical observations and the current position of the ship. Ships would use their distance from London, along with observations stars and planets, to calculate an estimate of the time in England. Unfortunately, these calculations took quite a bit of time to calculate and even longer to invent. Harrison, instead of creating calculations, decided to actually make a clock that was accurate on board a ship. Most clocks at the time were not reliable at sea because of changes in pressure, temperature, and humidity, and pendulums do not work well when rocking violently at sea. By 1730, Harrison had created a description and drawings for a marine clock that got around these obstacles. The first model, Harrison Number One, or H1, was finished in five years. Harrison's design was tested by the Board of Longitude in 1736, when it sailed to Portugal. The clock performed well, but the Board wanted a transatlantic sea trial. Because Harrison's proposal was the first proposal worthy of a sea trial, the Board gave Harrison £500 to continue his work. By 1741, H2 was finished, but at this time, the British were fighting the Spanish in the War of Austrian Succession. H2 was deemed too important to risk being taken by the Spanish, so the sea trial was canceled. Harrison gave up on H2 when he discovered a major flaw in it, so he began working on H3 while he waited for the war to end. After seventeen years of working on it, H3 did not perform as he had hoped it to, so in 1758, Harrison moved to London to find new ideas. It was in London that he realized that he could turn his marine clock into something as small as a watch. In six years, Harrison had finished H4, which was the first marine watch. Since he was 68 years old at the time, Harrison sent H4 with his son, William, on the sea trial in 1761. When  H4 reached Jamaica, it was off by only 5 seconds, corresponding to an error of only 1.25 minutes of longitude. When H4 returned, the Board of Longitude claimed that the accurate reading was due to luck and demanded another trial. When Harrison demanded the prize, the Board offered only £5000 for the design. Harrison refused, but sent H4 on another trial. On the same voyage, Reverend Nevil Maskelyne tested his Lunar Distances Method of time as well, which used the angle between the sun and the moon to calculate the time. When the Americas were reached, H4 was, in longitude, 10 miles off, while the Lunar Distance Method was 30 miles off. Though H4 had succeeded, Nevil Maskelyne had secured a position on the Board of Longitude, where he gave a negative review of H4. The Board kept H4 indefinitely for 'testing', giving Harrison only £10,000 for his work, so Harrison began to work on H5, finishing three years later.  

The End

To try to get the prize money from the Board, Harrison obtained a petition with King George III. King George, who was already annoyed with the board, force the Board to test H5, and in 1772, the clock was found accurate within a third of a second per day on a land-based test. In 1773, when Harrison was 80, he received £8,750 from the Board. If the grants and the £10,000 payment are included in the prize money, Harrison received a total of £23,065 for his work, which, adjusting for inflation, would have made him a multimillionaire in today's world. He died three years after he received his prize money. John Harrison is on our list because he was not only the best at what he did. He also dedicated his life to his work and created an accomplishment that has helped sailors around the world know when to eat lunch.

Saint Dionysius Exiguus (#94)

Background

Dionysius Exiguus, later known as Dennis the Humble, was born in in the Roman empire around the year A.D. 470. Little is known about his life, but most believe he was born in the section of the Roman Empire known as Scythia Minor. He was amember of the Scythian monks from the city of Tomis. Dionysius was a Catholic and was fluent in both Latin and Greek.

Works

The main work of  Dionysius  was a Scythian monk was to translate religious documents from Greek to Latin. His translated works include The Life of St. Pachomius and Instruction of St. Proclus of Constantinople. He also translated a history of the discovery of the head of St. John the Baptist. In total,  Dionysius  is said to have translated 401 ecclesiastical canons which were collected into the book Collectio Dionysiana. At the request of Pope John I in 525,  Dionysius  also created a table listing out all the future dates of Easter and a set of arguments justifying the calculations.  Dionysius  ignored the Easter Tables used by the Church of Rome that were prepared in 457 by Victorius of Aquitaine. He stated that they did not obey Alexandrian principles. His tables were not, however, used to calculate Easter, using, instead, the tables created by Cyril of Alexandria. By far, though,  Dionysius 's most famous work is as the inventor of the Anno Domini era. Using different references and documents,  Dionysius  calculated the year in which Jesus was born, stating that the year that he made this calculation was 525 years "since the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ." This year system was then applied to both the Julian and the Gregorian calender as a way of referencing the year. Before the birth of Jesus, the years are noted as B.C., or the years Before Christ. The years after the birth of Jesus are noted with A.D., or Anno Domini, or "In the Year of Our Lord. The Anno Domini era became dominant in Western Europe after it was used in 731 by the Venerable Bede to date events in his book, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The Anno Domini year system is now the most used system of noting the year.

The End

Not much is known about the death of Dionysius Exiguus except that it was around the year A.D. 544. Dionysius is on our list because without him, we would really have a way of telling what year he did die in. Even though some people now use the notation C.E. and B.C.E. (Current Era and Before Current Era), they still are based on Dionysius's calculation of the birth of Jesus, and even though Dionysius's calculation are off by about three years, his system was still accepted and is used to this day. Without him, we wouldn't have any cool doomsday names like "Y2K" or "Twenty-Twelve."

Edwin A. Abbott (#95)

Background and Education

Edwin Abbott Abbott was born on December 20, 1838. His mother, Jane Abbott, as a first cousin of his father, Marylebone Abbott, which explains the two Abbotts in his name. He was educated at the City of London School and later, at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took highest honors in classics, mathematics, and theology. In 1861, he was Smith's prize, a prize given to Cambridge students in the fields of theoretical Physics or mathematics. 

Teacher and Writer

In 1863, Abbott married Mary Elizabeth Rangeley, with whom he would have two children. After getting his master's degree at King Edward's School, he became the headmaster of the City of London School in 1865. As headmaster, he oversaw the education of H.H. Asquith, who would one day become the Prime Minister. As headmaster, Abbott began to write, and he continued to do so even after he retired in 1889. Abbott's works, including Shakespearian Grammar, Silanus the Christian, and The Kernel and the Husk covered a wide range of topics from the English language to theological discussion. He also wrote an article, "The Gospels", for the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and a textbook on the Latin language.. He also wrote biographies on several people, including Francis Bacon and St. Thomas of Canterbury. His most famous work, however, is Flatland (1884), which he wrote under the name 'A. Square.' In Flatland, Abbott writes about a two-dimensional world which is populated by shapes. In this book, Abbott discuss how life would function in a two-dimensional world and what it would take to get shapes to understand other dimensions.

The End

Abbott died of influenza on October 12, 1926. Abbott is on our list because he thought outside of the box. He looked into the matter of how a population would function in a two-dimensional world, and he made fun of the fact that people believe there was no fourth dimension simply because they could not imagine how a fourth dimension would look. He also wrote a whole book on how Shakespeare's grammar worked, which is a feat of its own.

William Wallace (#96)

Background 

Sir William Wallace was born around the year AD 1272 as a minor member of the Scottish nobility. In 1286, King Alexander III of Scotland died after falling off his horse. Margaret, Maid of Norway, was the heir to the throne, but she became sick while on the voyage from Norway and died in Orkney. The lack of an heir led to "the Great Cause", a period of time in which several families claimed to be heir to the throne. With the threat of civil war, the Scottish nobility invited King Edward of England to arbitrate, though he insisted on being called Lord Paramount of Scotland. In November of 1292, John Balliol as found to have the strongest claim to the throne. King Edward reversed the rulings and summoned King John Balliol to stand before the English court as a common plaintiff. When Balliol refused, Edward stormed Berwick-upon-Tweed, a Scottish border town, defeating the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296. Edward forced Balliol to abdicate and instructed the almost 2,000 Scottish nobles to pay homage to the King of England. This attack by Edward began the First War of Scottish Independence.

Uprising and War

Wallace's first known act of revolt was in 1297, when he assassinated William de Heselrig, an English Sheriff. With the help of William the Hardy, Wallace raided Scone as well. Uprisings had taken place throughout Scotland, but most nobles were forced to submit at Irvine in July of 1297. Wallace and the noble, Andrew Moray, continued to rebel, joining forces in September of 1297 around the time of the siege of Dundee. Wallace and Moray, to put the odds in their favor, abandoned the ideas of chivalric warfare, strength in arms, and knightly combat. Instead, they used opportunistic tactics and strategic use of terrain. Moray and Wallace's first major victory was at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September of 1297. In this battle, an English army, under the command of John de Warenne, tried to cross to the northern side of the Stirling bridge. The Scottish, waiting on the other side, were easily able to defend the northern side of the bridge from the English infantry. When the cavalry was sent in to aid the infantry, it was unable to get across the bridge due to all the retreating infantry men. When the battle was won,Moray and Wallace took the title of Guardians of the Kingdom of Scotland on behalf of King John Balliol, though Moray died later in 1297. The English attempted to draw Wallace out in the open by invading Edinburgh as well as several strategic castles. Wallace, using hit and run and scorched earth tactics, continued to elude the English until April of 1298 at the Battle of Falkirk. Wallace arranged his men into schiltrons, where they used spears, sharpened stakes,and shields to create a protective shell around them, but Welsh long bowman broke these schiltrons and English cavalry was able to break up groups of Scottish archers. The Scottish had a devastating defeat at the Battle of Falkrik, and even though Wallace survived, he gave up the title of Guardian of Scotland to Robert the Bruce and John Comyn of Badenoch. Wallace continued to play an essential role in the war, attempting to get support from King Philip IV of France as well as from Rome and Norway. 

The End

Wallace as able to elude the English until August of 1305, when John de Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, turned Wallace over the English soldiers. Wallace was brought to London, where he was tired for treason. Wallace, in response to the charges, said, "I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject," implying that John Balliol was still Wallace's king. On August 1305, Wallace was stripped naked, dragged through London by a horse, then was hanged, drawn and quartered, and beheaded. His head as put on a pike on London Bridge. In 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton was signed, which ended the First Scottish War for Independence, established Scotland as a fully independent nation, and put Robert the Bruce on the throne of Scotland. William Wallace is on our list of important people because he was the victor, but not the victor. Like Joan of Arc, Wallace did not get to see the fruit of his labor and was even killed for his cause, but he stood up for his cause when nobody else could and played an essential role in the War of Scottish Independence.