• Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba- Always have a Chair for the Queen

    The Portuguese had begun colonizing Africa after their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.  The English and the French had begun exploring northeast Africa, so the Portuguese concentrated on the south, what is now Congo and Angola.  Their chief aim was to provide slaves for their colony of Brazil in South America. Ndongo was ruled by a king called a Ngola, and the government was run by slaves.  This was similar to the system of the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire.  Slaves loyal to the royal family took high positions in the government and the military to ensure absolute loyalty.  Ndongo was a trading partner of the…

  • Diane de Poitiers

    Diane de Poitiers, noblewoman and infamous mistress of King Henri II of France, was born on 2 September in 1499. Diane de Poitiers was born to Jean de Poitiers, Seigneur de Saint Vallier and Jeanne de Batarnay at the Château de Saint-Vallier in the province of the Dauphine. As a young woman, she was educated in the typical Renaissance manner for young women. She studied music, hunting, languages, and continued her love of hunting throughout the rest of her life. Diane married Louis de Brézé, Seigneur d’Anet, at the age of fifteen. Her husband was thirty-nine years older and was a grandson of King Charles VII and had served as…

  • Babur

    There was the blood of conquerors in his veins.  On his mother’s side, he was descended from the great Genghis Khan.  On his father’s side, the man who took on the Mongols and founded his own empire, Timurlane.  It made sense that this young man would found an empire of his own.  However, he was born far from it. Zahir al-Din Muhammad was born February 15, 1483 in the principality of Fergana, what is now Uzbekistan. Umar Shaykh Mīrzā,his father, was the ruler of Fergana, but died early when his young son was only eleven.  His death was reported as happening “”while tending pigeons in an ill-constructed dovecote that toppled…

  • Fidel Castro

      In 2006, President George W. Bush said, “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away.” On November 25, 2016, to the delight of Cubans both on the beautiful island nation and all over the world, Raul Castro announced the death of his brother, 90-year old dictator and former Cuban President Fidel Castro. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, in Birán, a village in the province of Holguín to a wealthy family. His father was a well-respected and successful farmer – in fact, he owned a 23,000 acre plantation in the village. Castro then went on to study law at the University of Havana…

  • Emperor Norton I of the United States

    So those of us here in the United States go to the polls today.  Wouldn’t it be just easier if we just had an emperor?  According to one man in San Francisco, we did and it was him.  On September 17, 1859, Joshua A. Norton declared himself the “Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico”.  Who was this illustrious emperor and why haven’t we heard of him? Joshua A. Norton was born February 4, 1819, probably in Scotland.  Not much is known about his early life, but before settling in San Francisco he lived in Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope and was a member of the Cape…