Category
Nzinga Mbande (c. 1583–1663) ruled the kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba, in what is now Angola, and spent roughly four decades resisting Portuguese expansion and the slave trade that drove it — by war
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847) was a composer and pianist of considerable ability whose work was suppressed by her own family — a case unusually well documented, because the letters explaining
There is no contemporary evidence that she did, and the story entered public life almost a century after the events it describes — presented by her own descendants. The story as told. In 1776, a
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) was a mathematician and US Navy officer who did more than almost anyone to make programming something other than writing machine instructions by hand. The bug story is true
He was a Dracula, and he lent Bram Stoker a name and a little atmosphere — but the vampire is essentially Stoker's invention, and the historical figure has almost nothing to do with it. The
Ibn Battuta (1304 – c. 1369) was a Moroccan scholar and traveller whose journeys covered a distance far exceeding Marco Polo's, across some three decades — and whose account is one of the richest
Almost certainly not as told — the story appears two centuries after his death, in a source not otherwise noted for rigour, and the physics as described does not work well. The story. Hiero II of
Bessie Coleman (1892–1926) was the first African American woman, and the first Native American woman, to earn a pilot's licence — and she had to leave the United States entirely to do it. Her
He said he did, but the account is thinner than its fame suggests, and historians have raised serious doubts. What the record contains. Franklin published a brief description of a proposed kite
Nobody knows, and the question has been debated for over two thousand years. It has a name — the Homeric Question — and the range of serious positions is wide. What is attributed to him. The Iliad
A Kenyan environmentalist and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement and became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Background. Born in rural Kenya in 1940,
Almost certainly not. The story derives from two hostile sources written long after his death, and even the earlier of them says only that he intended to — reported as a rumour. What the sources say.
A Hungarian physician who discovered that handwashing dramatically reduced deaths in childbirth — and was rejected, ridiculed and ultimately institutionalised for it. The observation. Working at the
No verified prediction of a specific future event has ever been demonstrated in advance. Every celebrated "hit" has been identified after the event, by interpreting deliberately obscure verse to fit
The adjective derived from his name describes something close to the opposite of what he spent most of his life advocating — which makes it one of history's more unfair eponyms. Who he was. Niccolò
An American investigative journalist who pioneered undercover reporting and became internationally famous for a record-breaking journey around the world. Background. Born Elizabeth Cochran in
Almost certainly not. Godiva was a real person; the ride appears to be a legend added roughly two centuries after her death. The real woman. Godgifu — Old English for "gift of God" — was an
Probably, but the question is genuinely contested among historians, and the doubts are more substantial than popular accounts suggest. The book. The Travels of Marco Polo was not written by Polo. He
Almost certainly not. The relationship was known and used for over a thousand years before he was born, across several civilisations. The prior evidence: Babylonian mathematics. The clay tablet
No. Ferdinand Magellan died partway through the voyage and never completed the circumnavigation his expedition is named for. What happened. Magellan, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish
A German mathematician whose work underpins both modern abstract algebra and theoretical physics — and who spent much of her career barred from the positions her work merited. Noether's theorem,
A British-Jamaican businesswoman and healer who travelled independently to the Crimean War and provided care and provisions to British soldiers, funding the enterprise herself. Background. Born Mary
The famous account — poisoned, shot, beaten, drowned, and surviving each — comes almost entirely from one participant's self-serving memoir, and the physical evidence contradicts key parts of it. The
Almost certainly not, and the phrase would have made little sense in April 1775. Why the wording is wrong. The colonists at that point still largely considered themselves British subjects. Announcing