Topic: Biography (Page 13)

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πŸ”— The "If By Whiskey" speech

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Biography/politics and government πŸ”— United States/Mississippi

Judge Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr. (October 2, 1922 – February 23, 1996) was a judge, law professor, and state representative in the U.S. state of Mississippi, notable for his 1952 speech on the floor of the Mississippi state legislature concerning whiskey. Reportedly the speech took Sweat two and a half months to write. The speech is renowned for the grand rhetorical terms in which it seems to come down firmly and decisively on both sides of the question. The speech gave rise to the phrase if-by-whiskey, used to illustrate such equivocation in argument.

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πŸ”— Why the lucky stiff Wikipedia entry page to be deleted

πŸ”— Biography

Jonathan Gillette, known by the pseudonym why the lucky stiff (often abbreviated as _why), is a writer, cartoonist, artist, and programmer notable for his work with the Ruby programming language. Annie Lowrey described him as "one of the most unusual, and beloved, computer programmers" in the world. Along with Yukihiro Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson, he was seen as one of the key figures in the Ruby community.

_why made a presentation enigmatically titled "A Starry Afternoon, a Sinking Symphony, and the Polo Champ Who Gave It All Up for No Reason Whatsoever" at the 2005 O'Reilly Open Source Convention. It explored how to teach programming and make the subject more appealing to adolescents. _why gave a presentation and performed with his band, the Thirsty Cups, at RailsConf in 2006.

On 19 August 2009, _why's accounts on Twitter and GitHub and his personally maintained websites went offline. Shortly before he disappeared, why the lucky stiff tweeted, "programming is rather thankless. u see your works become replaced by superior ones in a year. unable to run at all in a few more."

_why's colleagues have assembled collections of his writings and projects.

Later his website briefly went back online with a detailed explanation of his plans for the future.

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πŸ”— Albert Stevens

πŸ”— Biography

Albert Stevens (1887–1966), also known as patient CAL-1, was a victim of a human radiation experiment, and survived the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human. On May 14, 1945, he was injected with 131 kBq (3.55 Β΅Ci) of plutonium without his knowledge or informed consent.

Plutonium remained present in his body for the remainder of his life, the amount decaying slowly through radioactive decay and biological elimination. Stevens died of heart disease some 20 years later, having accumulated an effective radiation dose of 64 Sv (6400 rem) over that period, i.e. an average of 3 Sv per year or 350Β ΞΌSv/h. The current annual permitted dose for a radiation worker in the United States is 0.05 Sv (or 5 rem), i.e. an average of 5.7 ΞΌSv/h.

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πŸ”— William of Rubruck

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— France πŸ”— Middle Ages πŸ”— Middle Ages/History πŸ”— Biography/arts and entertainment πŸ”— Christianity πŸ”— Catholicism πŸ”— Middle Ages/Crusades πŸ”— Military history/Crusades πŸ”— Belgium πŸ”— Christianity/Christianity in China

William of Rubruck (Dutch: Willem van Rubroeck, Latin: Gulielmus de Rubruquis; fl. 1248–1255) was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer.

He is best known for his travels to various parts of the Middle East and Central Asia in the 13th century, including the Mongol Empire. His account of his travels is one of the masterpieces of medieval travel literature, comparable to those of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.

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πŸ”— Solomon Shereshevsky

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Russia πŸ”— Russia/mass media in Russia πŸ”— Psychology πŸ”— Russia/science and education in Russia

Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky (Russian: Π‘ΠΎΠ»ΠΎΠΌΠΎΠ½ Π’Π΅Π½ΠΈΠ°ΠΌΠΈΠ½ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ‡ Π¨Π΅Ρ€Π΅ΡˆΠ΅Π²ΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ; 1886 – 1 May 1958), also known simply as 'Π¨' ('Sh'), 'S.', or Luria's S, was a Soviet journalist and mnemonist active in the 1920s. He was the subject of Alexander Luria's case study The Mind of a Mnemonist (1968).

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πŸ”— Mark Hofmann

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Latter Day Saint movement

Mark William Hofmann (born December 7, 1954) is an American counterfeiter, forger, and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. When his schemes began to unravel, he constructed bombs to murder two people in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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πŸ”— Fabrice Bellard

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Computing πŸ”— France πŸ”— Computing/Software

Fabrice Bellard (French pronunciation: ​[fa.bʁis bΙ›.laʁ]) is a computer programmer who created the FFmpeg and QEMU software projects. He has also developed a number of other programs, including the Tiny C Compiler.

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πŸ”— Sequoyah – Inventor of the Cherokee Script

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Writing systems πŸ”— Indigenous peoples of North America πŸ”— Oklahoma

Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ Ssiquoya, as he signed his name, or αŽα‰α― Se-quo-ya, as is often spelled in Cherokee; named in English George Gist or George Guess) (c.1770–1843), was a Native American polymath of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821 he completed his independent creation of a Cherokee syllabary, making reading and writing in Cherokee possible. This was one of the very few times in recorded history that a member of a pre-literate people created an original, effective writing system (another example being Shong Lue Yang). After seeing its worth, the people of the Cherokee Nation rapidly began to use his syllabary and officially adopted it in 1825. Their literacy rate quickly surpassed that of surrounding European-American settlers.

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πŸ”— Gladys West's vital contributions to GPS technology

πŸ”— United States πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Computer science πŸ”— Women scientists πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Virginia

Gladys Brown West (nΓ©e Gladys Mae Brown; October 27, 1930 – January 17, 2026) was an African American mathematician. She was known for her contributions to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of satellite geodesy models, which were later incorporated into the Global Positioning System (GPS).

West was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018. She was awarded the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for the development of satellite geodesy models.

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πŸ”— April 12, 1961: First man in space

πŸ”— Biography πŸ”— Aviation πŸ”— Soviet Union πŸ”— Russia πŸ”— Russia/technology and engineering in Russia πŸ”— Spaceflight πŸ”— Military history πŸ”— Military history/Military aviation πŸ”— Biography/science and academia πŸ”— Military history/Military biography πŸ”— Biography/military biography πŸ”— Aviation/aerospace biography πŸ”— Military history/Cold War πŸ”— Biography/sports and games πŸ”— Russia/Russian, Soviet, and CIS military history πŸ”— Military history/Russian, Soviet and CIS military history πŸ”— Russia/history of Russia

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarinβ€Š (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule Vostok 1 completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

Born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (a town later renamed after him), in his youth Gagarin was a foundryman at a steel plant in Lyubertsy. He later joined the Soviet Air Forces as a pilot and was stationed at the Luostari Air Base, near the Norwegian border, before his selection for the Soviet space programme with five other cosmonauts. Following his spaceflight, Gagarin became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was later named after him. He was also elected as a deputy of the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet.

Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight but he served as the backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. Fearing for his life, Soviet officials permanently banned Gagarin from further spaceflights. After completing training at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy on 17 February 1968, he was allowed to fly regular aircraft. Gagarin died five weeks later when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting with his flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach.

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