Historical+Biographies

15 Important People


 * 1) Hans Christian Andersen
 * 2)  Niels Bohr
 * 3) Margrethe II
 * 4)  Bertel Thorvaldsen
 * 5)  Soren Kierkegaard
 * 6)  Edvard Grieg
 * 7)  Jacob Christian Jacobsen
 * 8)  Lars von Trier
 * 9)  The Danish king Canute (Knut) II
 * 10) Caroline Wozniacki,
 * 11) Ludvig Holberg
 * 12) Harald Høffding
 * 13) Søren Kierkegaard,
 * 14) Peter Lundin
 * 15) Palle Sørensen

Photo Story:

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Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, on Tuesday, April 2, 1805. He was an only child. Andersen's father considered himself related to nobility. His father’s mother had told his father that their family had in the past belonged to a higher social class, but investigations prove these stories untrue. The family apparently was associated with Danish royalty, but through employment or trade. Today, many wonder if only one of Andersen’s had been royal. According to writer Rolf Dorset, Andersen's ancestry cannot be determined. Whatever the reason, King Frederick VI took a personal interest in him as a youth and paid for a part of his education. Later, Hans Christian was forced to support himself. He worked as a weaver's apprentice and later, for a tailor. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, he began to focus on writing.  Jonas Collin, who met Andersen by chance, immediately felt a great affection for him, sent him to a grammar school in Slagelse, covering all his expenses. Andersen had already published his first story, //The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave//, in 1822. Although he was not a good student, he also attended school at Elsinore until 1827. He later said his years in school were the darkest and bitterest of his life. At one school, he lived at his schoolmaster's home. There he was abused in order "to improve his character", he was told. He felt different from his classmates, being older than most of them. He also may have suffered from dyslexia which would make him feel different from the other students even more so. He later said the faculty had discouraged him from writing in general, causing him to enter a state of depression  It was during 1835 that Andersen published the first installment of his immortal //Fairy Tales.// More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1836 and 1837. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels: //O.T.// (1836) and //Only a Fiddler.// In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to England and enjoyed social success during the summer. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where brilliant and famous people could meet, and it was at one party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked together which was of much joy to Andersen. He wrote in his diary, "We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most." Ten years later, Andersen visited England again, primarily to visit Dickens. He stayed at Dickens' home for five weeks. Shortly after Andersen left, Dickens published //David Copperfield//. His legacy includes In the English-speaking world, stories such as "Thumbelina", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Match Girl", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Little Mermaid", " [|The Emperor's New Clothes] ", " [|The Steadfast Tin Soldier] ", and " [|The Princess and the Pea] " remain popular and are widely read. "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Ugly Duckling" have both passed into the English language as well-known expressions. In the [|Copenhagen]  harbor there is a [|statue of The Little Mermaid] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">, placed in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. April 2, Andersen's birthday, is celebrated as <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|International Children's Book Day] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. The year 2005 was the bicentenary of Andersen's birth and his life and work was celebrated around the world. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In the United States, statues of Hans Christian Andersen may be found in Central Park, New York, and in <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|Solvang, California] <span style="font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif';"> like the one of <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Hans Christian Andersen and " <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|The Ugly Duckling] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">" in <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|Central Park, New York] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. The <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|Library of Congress] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Rare Book and Special Collections Division hold a unique collection of Andersen materials given to them by the Danish-American actor <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[|Jean Hersholt] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial Unicode MS','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. Of particular importance is an original scrapbook Andersen prepared for the young Jonas Drewsen. Lastly A $13-million theme park based on Andersen's tales and life opened in Shanghai at the end of 2006. This concludes the life of Hans Christian Andersons Life, The End

Glogster:

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Obituary:

**<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">Niels Bohr: ( Born: ****<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%;">October 7, 1885, Died: November 18, 1962) ** <span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Neils Bohr was born on October 7th 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark to Christian Bohr and his wife Ellen. He is probably best known for his version of the atomic model for which he won a Nobel Prize for in 1922. He also was the Professor of Theoretical Physics at Copenhagen University from 1920 until his death in 1962. Niels Bohr died in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962. He is survived by his four sons, Hans Henrik (M.D.), Erik (chemical engineer), ﻿﻿ [|Aage] ﻿﻿ (Ph.D., theoretical physicist, following his father as Director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics), Ernest (lawyer).