Portal:Biography

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The Biography Portal A General History of the Pyrates A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts (education, work, relationships, and death), a biography also portrays a subject's experience of these events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of a subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Biographical works in diverse media—from literature to film—form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and, at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is about a life of a subject, written by that subject or sometimes with a collaborator. More about biographies…    Featured biography Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was a British dramatist, librettist and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert's most popular collaborations with Sullivan, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado (one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre) and most of their other Savoy operas continue to be performed regularly today throughout the English-speaking world and beyond by opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups. Lines from these works have permanently entered the English language, including "short, sharp shock", "What never? Well, hardly ever!", and "let the punishment fit the crime". (Read more...)    Selected portrait Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 (his "miracle year"). (Read more...) Photo credit: Oren Jack Turner, Source: Library of Congress.    Things you can do Write an article Expand an article about: a person an actor an animator an artist a businessperson a diplomat an educator an engineer a jurist a military person a musician a politician a scientist a sportsperson a writer Improve an article by: adding references Review an article Stuart Milk • George M. Stratton • Paul S. Walsh • José Rizal • Joan Pujol Garcia • Lucius Arruntius the Younger • William Bliss Baker • Joe Clifford Faust • Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo • A. R. Rahman • Anna Hazare • Heather O'Rourke • Johnny Bright • Frithjof Tidemand-Johannessen • Frithjof Tidemand-Johannessen • Luigi Facelli Assess an article Assessment requests Unassessed articles    Categories Biography • People By association • By behavior • By ethnicity • By gender • By language • By nationality By occupation: Academics • Scientists Actors • Artists • Comedians • Dancers • Directors • Musicians • Photographers • Playwrights • Writers Astronauts • Aviators • Explorers • Mountain climbers Businesspeople • Computer pioneers • Innovators Heads of state • Humanitarians • Journalists • Lawyers • Politicians • Warriors Sportspeople • Association football players • Baseball players • Basketball players • Olympians By place • By political orientation • By religion By status: Award winners • Billionaires • Celebrities By time • Lists of people ▼ Biography ► Biography awards ► Biographers ► Biography Channel shows ► Family history ► Biography journals ► Biographical museums ► Oral history ► Person databases ► Biographical works ► Biography portals    On this day – May 26 Births 1478 - Pope Clement VII (d. 1534) 1799 - Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian author (d. 1837) 1907 - John Wayne, American actor (d. 1979) 1926 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter and composer (d. 1991) 1951 - Sally Ride, (pictured) astronaut 1953 - Michael Portillo, British politician 1948 - Stevie Nicks, American songwriter and actress 1966 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress Deaths 604 - Augustine of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury 1703 - Samuel Pepys, English civil servant and diarist (b. 1633) 1908 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Punjabi founder of the Qadianism (b. 1839) 1943 - Edsel Ford, American automobile executive (b. 1893) 1976 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (b. 1889) Recent days: May 25 – May 24 – May 23    Did you know... ... that Poet Ali Haider accepted the Sufi position of Hazrat Mai Safoora Qadiriyya after watching her famous miracle of praying Salah in Ravi river ? ... that Queen Victoria rescued Dash the Dog from a carriage accident? ... that Dutch merchant Hendrik Pieter Nicolaas Muller established the Oost-Afrikaansche Compagnie (East African Trading Company) in 1882, which was to be mainly successful in West Africa, and is a trade mark for quality in Liberia to this day. ... that Ronald Skirth, an artilleryman in the British Army during World War One, deliberately mistargeted British guns to prevent the loss of enemy life? ... that botanist Thomas Frederic Cheeseman (pictured) had a wide range of interests: he also described a few species of marine gastropods? ... former Regimental Sergeant Major Harry Lapwood was known as having the loudest voice in the New Zealand House of Representatives? ... that in 1951, Bulgarian politician and exile G. M. Dimitrov helped found the first Bulgarian NATO company? ... that Edith Killgore Kirkpatrick published a short book of favorite songs titled Louisiana Let's Sing in honor of her husband Claude's unsuccessful candidacy for Governor of Louisiana in 1963? ... that canal engineer Hugh Henshall was both pupil of and brother-in-law to James Brindley, the famous canal architect of the Industrial Revolution? ... that Jagadguru Rāmabhadrācārya (pictured), a Hindu religious leader who has been blind since the age of two months and never used Braille or any other aid to learn or compose, can speak 22 languages.    Quote of the week "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" — Albert Einstein Apocryphal    WikiProjects List of WikiProjects and work groups that involve biography articles: Arts and entertainment Actors and Filmmakers Composers Canadian Dictionary of Biography Initiative Living persons Persondata Philosophers Saints Military Peers and Baronets Politics and government U.S. congresspersons U.S. presidents Royalty and nobility Science and academia Aerospace Sports and games Baseball players List of all WikiProjects See also: Biographies of living persons • Manual of Style (biographies)    Related portals Anthropology Community Criminal Justice Culture Death Gangs Human rights LGBT Mind and Brain Personal life Philosophy Sexuality Social and political philosophy Thinking Transgender    Associated Wikimedia What are portals? 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