This is a comprehensive look at the famous and the notorious, their achievements and the legacies they have left humankind. Organized by theme - explorers, inventors, leaders, artists, sportspeople, musicians, politicians, scientists, writers, reformers etc - each chapter looks at the famous figures pre-1000 AD to put the rest of the chapter in its historical context.

This volume is a guide to the people who matter. It contains the stories of 1000 women and men whose lives have influenced the course of history. Learn about the famous and the infamous - leaders from Genghis Khan to Bill Clinton.

The Declaration of Independence & the invention of plastic. The flush toilet & the discovery of the potato. The first novel & man's first steps on the moon. These are some of the 100 most important events, discoveries & magnificent moments of the past 1,000 years, as selected -- & ranked -- by the editors of LIFE Magazine in this highly readable & lushly illustrated tour of the millennium. This book is an encyclopedic & entertaining account of human progress from the year 1001 to the present -- a book you'll want to save for the next 1,000 years. Includes 200 black-&-white & color illustrations.

Most of us can point to one or two moments in our lives when everything changed, when a stroke of fate forever altered the future, or a single decision sparked a lifetime of consequences. Across the broadest spectrum of famous people, that moment happens more often at 22 than any other age. Brad Dunn's When They Were 22 tells the stories of famous people and the fateful events and choices they faced at the all-important age of 22. From writers, actors, and musicians to politicians, hip-hop moguls, criminals, and porn stars, When They Were 22 chronicles some of the most legendary, influential, and controversial celebrities during the most pivotal year of their lives. Just a few examples: * Oprah Winfrey dropped out of college to become a newsreader in Nashville, and at 22 moved to Baltimore to work at another station where she landed her own talk show. * Jack White had his own upholstery business at age 22, but while practicing the guitar he asked his wife, Meg, to try the drums--he liked her playing so much they began performing as a two-piece band, the White Stripes. * When Karl Rove was 22, he was accused of espionage and deceitful campaign tactics by the College Republicans and wound up meeting future president George W. Bush. With an eclectic lineup that includes Bill Murray, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Marilyn Monroe, Stephen Hawking, Pamela Anderson, Malcolm X, Stanley Kubrick, Andy Warhol, Larry Flynt, Jane Goodall, Harvey Weinstein, and many more, When They Were 22 is perfect for graduates, job searchers, celebrity watchers, biography lovers, or anyone who doubts that in life anything is possible.

We have all heard of famous people like Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Cleopatra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and William Shakespeare. But what do we know about their childhoods? Play a game and guess which celebrity is hidden on each spread. Clues from their childhood will help you to discover them! There are twenty-five celebrities waiting for you to uncover them. Rulers, inventors, scientists, musicians, and many others lead you through their childhoods and show you what life was like back then, what they liked to play with, and what their interests were--but they will keep their names to themselves. Each character gives hints to help you figure out who they are. Then lift the flap and find out whether you guessed correctly.

Finalist for a 2019 Sidewise Award “Conceptually adventurous yet full of feeling. . . . smart, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable.” —Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown Wherever Hel looks, New York City is both reassuringly familiar and terribly wrong. As one of the thousands who fled the outbreak of nuclear war in an alternate United States—an alternate timeline, somewhere across the multiverse—she finds herself living as a refugee in our own not-so-parallel New York. The slang and technology are foreign to her, the politics and art unrecognizable. While others, like her partner, Vikram, attempt to assimilate, Hel refuses to reclaim her former career or create a new life. Instead, she obsessively rereads Vikram’s copy of The Pyronauts—a science fiction masterwork in her world that now only exists as a single flimsy paperback—and becomes determined to create a museum dedicated to preserving the remaining artifacts and memories of her vanished culture. But the refugees are unwelcome and Hel’s efforts are met with either indifference or hostility. And when the only copy of The Pyronauts goes missing, Hel must decide how far she is willing to go to recover it and finally face her own anger, guilt, and grief over what she has truly lost. With Famous Men Who Never Lived, K Chess has created a compelling and inventive speculative work on what home means to those who have lost it forever.

The “intimate and expansive” (Time) memoir of “one of the most important artists working in the world today” (Financial Times), telling a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating his artistic process “Poignant . . . An illuminating through-line emerges in the many parallels Ai traces between his life and his father’s.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, BookPage, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as “Little Siberia,” where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol and the artworks of Marcel Duchamp. With candor and wit, he details his return to China and his rise from artistic unknown to art world superstar and international human rights activist—and how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime. Ai Weiwei’s sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions around the globe, and his architectural achievements include helping to design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing. His political activism has long made him a target of the Chinese authorities, which culminated in months of secret detention without charge in 2011. Here, for the first time, Ai Weiwei explores the origins of his exceptional creativity and passionate political beliefs through his life story and that of his father, whose creativity was stifled. At once ambitious and intimate, Ai Weiwei’s 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows offers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.

Over the centuries, Chinese civilization has produced many important inventions and innovations, including paper, printing, porcelain, the magnetic compass, and gunpowder. Similarly, China has produced a host of exceptional and accomplished individuals in all fields of human endeavor. Famous People of China profiles a handful of remarkable figures from China's long history. Among the intriguing people included in this volume are Confucius, China's most influential philosopher; the emperor Qin Shihuang, who unified China and built the Great Wall; the beloved poet Su Dongpo; and Zheng He, whose epic seagoing expeditions predated the famous Spanish and Portuguese voyages of exploration by more than half a century.

In the following pages, we will get to know about the 50 Famous People in Modern History. We will get to see their pictures, learn about their lives and even understand the reasons why they became famous. It’s important to know, but not necessarily memorize, these facts in order to learn lessons and even get a sense of belonging with the world. Get a copy today.