Joseph II: Did you mean...?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer who wrote a wide range of works including piano concertos, string quartets, symphonies, operas, and sacred music. Regarded as one of or perhaps the greatest natural...

The Magi are the visitors who came to Bethlehem to worship the newly-born Jesus of Nazareth in the gospel of Matthew (2:1-2). 'Magi' is a transliteration of the Greek magos from old Persian magus ("powerful") as a reference to the Zoroastrian...

Paul Revere (1735-1818) was an American silversmith born in the British colony of Massachusetts. He was an active member of the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution (c. 1765-1789) and became a folk hero for his midnight...

The Declaration of Pillnitz was a joint statement issued on 27 August 1791 by Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1790-1792) and King Frederick William II of Prussia (r. 1786-1797). The declaration appealed to all European...

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) was a German conductor and composer of both innovative late-Romantic and Modernist music. He is best known for his symphonic poems and operas like Salome and Elektra, both of which caused a sensation...

Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (1761-1793) was a French lawyer, politician, and one of the most influential orators of the early stage of the French Revolution (1789-1799). He is notable for being a champion of constitutional...

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard (P. G. T. Beauregard, 1818 to 1893) was an engineer and Confederate general during the American Civil War. He is famous as the first general commissioned to...

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the leader of Nazi Germany, was intent on attacking the USSR in the summer of 1941. With Western Europe subdued in 1940, Hitler could finally pursue his dream of territorial expansion in the...

The oldest surviving photograph, taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) in 1826 using a camera obscura. The photograph (then known as a heliograph) is titled View from the Window at La Gras. Nièpce's innovation...

Of all the careers that soared to meteoric heights during the chaotic decade of the French Revolution (1789-1799), none was more spectacular nor impactful than that of Napoleon Bonaparte...