Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is that individual who holds the credit for bringing two unknown worlds close to each other. He is the navigator who sailed west of the Atlantic Ocean in search of a direct route to Asia but accidentally ended up discovering the Americas.

Early Life

There is an ongoing argument over the place and date of birth of Christopher Columbus, however, it is widely accepted that he was born in Genoa, Italy around the year 1451. His father’s name happened to be Domenico Colombo. His father worked as a weaver and his mother was named Susanna Fontanarossa. Besides, he had three brothers whose names were Bartolommeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo. A lot of information about Columbus’ childhood is not available and hence all that we can rely on are his writings. It was also concluded from one of his journals that he had first gone to the sea at an early age of ten years. Christopher spent most of his childhood weaving with his father and thereafter he turned out as a sailor across Mediterranean. His younger brother Bartholomew was an expert chart maker and that’s the reason Christopher is also known as one of the good chart makers of that age. Christopher’s early discoveries include that of Lisbon around the year 1476. That age was usually referred to as the “golden age of Portuguese exploration”. He was then engaged as a sugar buyer in the islands of Madeira, Cape Verde and Azores. On his way he met several navigators and pilots and he was amused by the fact that they all believed that there were islands existing far west. He paid his tribute to his native country but he never took up any citizenship and remained a Genoese all his life. In 1479, he married Dona Fillipa Perestrelloe Moniz.

At the same time as he reached thirty one years of age, he became a master sailor and he happened to be motivated by a number of people of the same profession. His brother was one of those who accompanied the ship during the discovery of Cape of Good Hope. Christopher was one of those who believed that some land was to be discovered when sailed across the West. A lot of attempts were made before this by sailors to find lands in the west, but none of them succeeded. Columbus was unique and that’s the only reason he was persistent enough and stuck to his plan for realizing his dream.

The Darker Side

The American media portrays Columbus as a good and a humble Christian, however, a lot of accounts prove that Christopher was the one to only preach the good word but hardly followed it himself. In one of his private diaries, he believed that the world will end completely in the year 1650. Christopher in company with the other Spaniards often placed bets as to who could slice the Native American in exactly two halves. Such acts were passed to the next generation as well. His son Ferdinand wrote a book in order to scare the Native Americans called “Indians and Christians”.

In addition, Christopher strongly supported slavery and there are a number of places in his narratives that prove that he had put the Native Americans to work in the mines and plantations of himself as well as his followers. Such is an act of clean cruelty and devastating unawareness. Thus it wouldn’t be wrong to conclude that the American perception of Columbus as a person is false. Scores of contemporary historians believe that most of his discoveries were a birth of slavery and yet, such reviews are never exposed in text books. We happily celebrate Columbus Day every year in memory of such a person since the year 1792. He is indeed the American hero today, but do we all have enough evidence to prove that?

Voyages and Theories

Christopher was an intelligent individual. He never claimed that his idea of sailing to the west was original, as a matter of fact; Christopher was a strong believer of science. He flipped over all the knowledge that was collected through a number of years. He worked out a number of theories to help him in his navigation. During the Greek and the Roman times, it was believed that there was a huge water body that connected Europe and Asia. Hence one could ideally sail from east to west and vice versa.

Christopher’s ideas about the size of the globe and the distance between Asia and Europe were based on pure calculations illustrated in the geographical manuscripts of the second century. Unfortunately, his calculations were not as accurate as he thought them to be and his discovery of the Americas is a proof to that. He actually believed that he had successfully reached Asia and celebrated his success only to realize how wrong he was.

With every progressing voyage, Christopher decided to seek the royal patronage and with some extra efforts, the Portuguese kingdom had supported the explorations for more then a century. Thus all discoveries across the Atlantic were Portuguese. It was also very well known that the King John II was personally responsible for sailing around Africa and hunting down the direct route to Asia.

To over stress the chronological importance of Christopher Columbus is complicated. Amazing transformations took place from his voyages. At the same time as he failed to come across a new-fangled way to Asia, Columbus introduced the western culture to the Europeans and that took history to a completely new era. His interactions with the Europeans are known as the important Columbian Exchange in the history of mankind. His voyages were followed with the exchanges in cultures, traditions and goods. Even American diseases such as malaria, small pox and measles were exchanged and that disrupted the Americans. A lot of growth took place on the agricultural front as well.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe has an ever-lasting impact on today’s civilization. She placed elevated values for herself and was a motivation to a lot of youthful individuals. Marilyn Monroe transformed Hollywood’s stance on women eternally. Her illustration, body, smile, and individuality are what are expected in a new actress or in the least the models at the moment. Nowadays, just because of Marilyn’s sky-scraping standards, it is a lot more intricate for women to make it large as an artist or model. She was something further than just a mere megastar or beauty queen, Marilyn Monroe was a universal sensation in her life span.

Early Life

Marilyn Monroe was born as Norma Jean Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, in the Los Angeles General Hospital. Before she was born, Marilyn’s father bought a motorbike for himself and immigrated north to San Francisco, dumping the people in Los Angeles. Marilyn grew up without knowing who her father was. She often spent time guessing and that was one of the regrets she had all her life. Her mother, Gladys Baker has several romantic encounters all through her life and that further confused her. Gladys gave her the name Norma Jean Baker after a boyfriend she had after Mortenson. Norma had a very troubled childhood. There was never ending poverty in the family. However, her mother had an extremely attractive personality and worked for the RKO studios as a film cutter. She suffered from a series of mental illnesses and hence little Norma had to be sent to foster homes while her mother was being cured in the medical institutions. In the year 1937, Norma Jean moved in with her mother’s friend. So that’s the reason most of her primary education comes from orphanage and foster schools. Her mother’s friend Grace took care of her and she spent some of the most important years of her life with her. Grace would teach her to apply make up and dress appropriately.

First Wedding

In 1942, Grace’s husband was transferred to the East Coast as he was working in the army, hence she could not afford to take young Norma with her. Thereafter Grace arranged her marriage to their young neighbor, Jimmy Dougherty. In June, 1942 Norma got married and turned into Norma Jean Dougherty. It should not be forgotten that Norma was sixteen when she was married to Jimmy. Their marriage started off really well but within four years, she divorced him. She took up modeling as her career after that. She started to model swimsuits and also bleached her hair blonde. A lot of attention was paid to her photo shoots and very soon she gained immense popularity. These pictures were seen by the head of the RKO pictures who in turn offered a screen test to Norma.

Career Progression

Some agent advised her to be associated with 20th Century Fox as that is a better studio than RKO. She then signed a contract with 20th Century Fox for $125 a week for six months. It was at that time that Norma Jean became Marilyn Monroe. Her contract was then extended with an extra $25 per week for another six months. The first film that she featured in was “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” in the year 1947.

She then had to undergo a rough patch in her career. Her performance was highly neglected in the film Scudda Hoo! She left 20th Century Fox and went back to the acting school. Her first commercial success was after she posed nude on the cover of the playboy magazine. After the year 1953, she saw a lot of success in her films as well as the modeling career. She gained a lot of popularity with the movies like “Monkey Business” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. It was the same year when she began dating the great baseball star banes Joe DiMaggio. She then started drawing a lot of audience with merely her appearance. She then appeared in her next hit called “How to Marry a Millionaire”. Her co-stars were often jealous of her onscreen presence as she clicked with most of her audience, especially the males. In 1954, she officially married Joe DiMaggio and also continued acting for the film “There’s No Business like Show Business”. This film was followed by the unforgettable comedy called “The Seven Year Hitch”. It was this movie that showcased Marilyn standing on the subway station and the wind blowing her white dress. This scene is by far the best scene in the history of Hollywood. By eight months after her wedding to the baseball star, she declared her divorce.

Those were the bad times of her career, mostly self-invited. She was suspended by the 20th Century Fox for not coming on time for the forthcoming movies. She carried a non-cooperative attitude towards her producers, directors including her co-stars. Finally in the year 1956, she married the legendary playwright Arthur Miller. Their marriage lasted four years and then they got divorced as well. Marilyn had to wait really long before her next hit in the form of “Some Like it Hot”. This film was the best hit she ever gave in terms of commercial success. Then she starred in her last film which is called “The Misfits” which was also the last film of her co-star George Cukor. In 1962, she was cast for the move “Something’s Got to Give” but her late coming attitude went beyond control and the studio planned to fire her. It cost them a lot of money when such delays happened and she was already 36 by then.

The End

Marilyn came across a lot of obstacles in her life. She also went through a lot of therapies and medications of all sorts. She was suffering from Anemia and severe Bronchitis. In the year 1962, she decided to remarry Joe DiMaggio, who happened to be over protective to her. But before that she was invited to the President John F. Kennedy’s birthday dinner and was believed to have an affair with both John Kennedy and his brother Bobby in the same night. However, no one can confirm the reports of her actually having an affair with both of them but there are a lot of sources that confirm her closeness with John. F. Kennedy.

On August 5th, 1962, Marilyn was found dead in her bed by a maid servant. According to the doctors, she had taken an overdose of sedatives. Doctors also concluded that stress and her family’s mental history was partially responsible for her death. It was also rumored all over the world that she killed herself because John Kennedy refused to divorce his wife and marry her. She was laid to rest in the Corridors of Memories, number 24, Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Marilyn Monroe made sure that she realized her dreams, amidst of all difficulties. However, there were a lot of dark sides to her personality. Well, she shall be remembered as a dedicated, extremely sexy model as well as a motivational human being. She has set both, the good as well as the bad examples to the world!

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Woods, also known as “Tiger Woods” was born on the 30th of December,1975. He happens to be a professional golfer from America whose achievements until today place him amongst the most successful athletes of all times. He is currently the world’s best golfer and is also considered as one of the highest earning sportsman of the world. His estimated worth, which includes his endorsements and winnings come up to $100 million. According to the Golf Digest, Woods is on his way on becoming the world’s first billionaire athlete by the year 2010.

Early Days

Eldrick Woods was born in Cypress, California. His father’s name was Earl Woods and mother was Kutilda Woods. His mother was from the Thai origin and his dad was a retired US army lieutenant colonel. He often calls himself as an ethnic make up of the Caucasian, Black, American-Indian and Asian origins. Woods is a thorough Buddhist. He has confirmed that his faith in Buddhism was acquired from his mother and also that it helps him control rigidity and anxiety.

A Vietnamese soldier friend of his father was the first one to give him the name “Tiger”. Thereafter, Woods usually was referred by that name and by the time he won the national popularity in amateur golf was simply called “Tiger Woods”. On his 21st birthday, he officially changed his name from Eldrick Woods to “Tiger Woods”. He grew up in Orange City, California and attended the high school at Western High in Anaheim.

Personal Life

Woods was engaged to a Swedish model called “Elin Nordegren” in November, 2003. They were formerly introduced by the Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik. Elin was working as a nanny for Jesper Parnevik, prior to meeting Tiger Woods during an Open Championship in 2001. On October 5th, 2004, they got married at the Sandy Lane resort on the Caribbean island of Barbados. They currently reside at the Isleworth, a community in Windermere also in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida. Besides, they also possess homes in Jackson, California, Sweden and Wyoming. In January 2006, the couple purchased a $39 million property in Jupiter Island, Florida. They intend to make this as their permanent residence. This island also has homes of famous golf stars Gary Player, Greg Norman and Nick Price. Celebrities like Celine Dion and Alan Jackson also reside here.

In June, 2007, Elin gave birth to their first biological child, a daughter named Sam Alexis Woods, in Orlando, Florida. Ironically, the birth happened on the day after Woods tied second in the 2007 US Open Championship. Tiger personally named his daughter because of his late father who thought he looked like Sam.

Amateur Career

Eldrick Woods was a child prodigy who started playing golf at the age of 2. Hence in the year 1978, he starred in the famous Mike Douglas show against the comedian Bob Hope. At a very young age of 3 years, Woods shot a 48 over 9 holes at the Navy Club in his hometown Cypress, California. After that at the age of 5 he appeared in the Golf Digest and in the ABC’s “That’s Incredible”. In 1984, he made his first appearance at the Junior World Golf Championships. He played this tournament six times which include his four consecutive wins from 1988 to 1991. At the age of 15, he became he became the youngest ever US Junior Amateur Champion, was voted Southern California Amateur Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and Golf Digest Junior Amateur Player of the Year 1991 while he was still at the Western High School in Anaheim.

Professional Career

Tiger Woods became the professional golf sportsman in the year 1996 and thereafter signed several endorsements from Nike to Titleist. He was on his way to making millions out of these endorsements and also collecting the winnings. He played his first round of professional golf tying for 60th place, but went on to win the other two events in the next three months to be selected for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Tiger Woods was pronounced the Sports Illustrated 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Rookie of the Year. It was then that he began his well-known tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, which is a link to his college days at Stanford and a color he firmly believes symbolizes aggression and assertiveness.

During the same time next year, Tiger Woods won his first golf major. He became the youngest Masters winner by a record margin of 12 strokes. He happened to be one the first winners of the Masters from an African-American or Asian-American descent. There a total of 20 Masters records on his name and he has tied six of them. He also won another PGA tour during the same time that year. In June, close to 42 weeks of him playing professional golf, he rose from the 42nd rank to the World’s number one spot. This is one of the fastest ascents to the World’s number one ranking. Thus, due to all this he was named the PGA player of the year and by far the first golfer to win that award.

Rough Patches

It is pretty obvious that the expectations from such a player is always going to be high, however, Woods seemed to lose his form in the year 1997. This form gave him only one win in the PGA tour. The critics slammed him with their comments but his fine strokes in the very famous Memorial tournament were an answer to them. Woods, along with his coach Butch Harmon assured that they were working and hoping to do better in the future. In 1999, Memorial tournament happened and it marked the beginning of his dominance in the golfing world. In 1999, he won the PGA tour event and also finished the season successfully with eight wins. This was a feat which was never achieved in the past 25 century.

Thence, he was then awarded the prestigious PGA Tour player of the Year award and also received the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the second time in the span of 3 years.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was officially known as Elvis Aaron Presley. He was born on January 8, 1935 to Vernon Presley and Gladys Love Presley (nee Smith) in a humble house in Tupelo, Mississippi. He had a twin brother named Jessie Garon was a stillborn. Such circumstance left Elvis as an only child. Born during the Depression Period, Elvis was no stranger to life’s hardship. In 1948, his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where Elvis finished his secondary schooling at Humes High School in 1953.

Elvis’s contribution to the music industry is legendary. John Lennon was reportedly quoted as saying: “Before Elvis, there was nothing!” His musical influence was a rich tapestry of pop, country music, gospel music and the black R&B which he heard on historic Beale Street, Memphis. It was in 1954 when Elvis he began his singing career. His records where produced by the Sun Records label in Memphis. However, in the late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor.

Elvis Presley was not only the symbol of the American Idol Dream; he lived the American Idol Dream. He was popular, sensational, scandalous and revolutionary. He rose to international fame in 1956. Elvis displayed his uniqueness by producing a sound and style that showcased his diverse musical influence. The way he danced on stage caused a furor among the moralists of society. Elvis’s gyrations on stage earned him the moniker “Elvis the Pelvis.” His danced steps were immortalized on his version of the songs “Hound Dog” and “Heart Break Hotel.” As the protectors of morality expressed their disapproval of Elvis’s dance steps, his audience loved it. The more controversial he became, the more he became famous and adulated by his teenage fans. Without any doubt, the combined effect of Elvis’s unique sound and style was considered revolutionary. His style broke the social and racial barriers prevalent during his time. His songs broke not only the record charts but international barriers, as well.

Elvis did a lot of concert tours which were often record-breaking. Due to the technological upheaval of the time, Elvis’s fame was fueled by his television appearances and TV specials. His fame did not stop from being a singer. He starred in 33 films considered successful not only in the USA but and in any other country as well. His first movie was, Love Me Tender, which was initially shown at the Paramount Theater in New York City. The movie was originally titled The Reno Brothers, but was re-named to bank on the soon-to-be-released single from the soundtrack. Surprisingly for a rookie, the movie critics rated his acting “not bad” for a melodrama.

On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was drafted into the U.S. Army and was assigned serial number 53310761. The Army draft did not post a hindrance from his career nor his popularity. On September 19, 1958, Elvis found himself on a train bound to New York, where he boarded the USS. Randall on his way to Germany. He was stationed in Friedberg for 18 months. While in Europe, Elvis discovered that his European fans accepted him as much as his American fans did. While the army, Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker, worked to ensure that Elvis’s career be kept alive via promotions and sure-hit record releases.

In November, 1959, Elvis met Priscilla Ann – then a fourteen and a half year old teenager – the step-daughter of Captain Joseph Beaulieu. He was with his wife – Ann Beaulieu. Priscilla Ann was an only child from Ann Beaulieu’s first marriage to James Wagner – a Navy pilot killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant. Through a mutual friend, Priscilla was invited to Elvis’s party at his home after her arrival in Germany.

While serving the army, Elvis was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on January 20, 1960. He was officially discharged from active duty on March 5, 1960. After his official discharge, the public was treated to a more mature Elvis Presley. Besides the series of movies and concerts he did during this period, Elvis’s involvement in giving back to society was highly notable. He supported about 50 charities in the Memphis, Tenessee alone.

On December, 1966, Elvis proposed marriage to Priscilla. On May 1, 1967, they got married at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada in a very private ceremony attended only by family members and a highly select group of friends. Priscilla gave birth on February 1, 1968 and presented Elvis a daughter – nine months to the day after their her marriage. The named the baby Lisa Marie Presley. The marriage lasted until late 1971. Sometime early 1972, Elvis and Priscilla separated and Priscilla . She moved out on her own with daughter – Lisa Marie.

The 60’s and early 70’s saw Elvis performing as a movie actor and doing live concerts and charitable works. Come 1973, Elvis was hospitalized in Memphis. At this time, he was battling health problems which included increased dependency on prescription drugs. On August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died of heart failure.