On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the world’s first flight in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine that cost about $1000 to build. With Orville at the controls and Wilbur on the ground, the plane flew 120 feet in twelve …[Continue]
Biographies Resources
E.B. White
In the world of children’s literature, E.B. White is a super-star: the author of three beloved classics “Stuart Little,” “Charlotte’s Web,” and “The Trumpet of the Swan.” He also co-authored my favorite guide to the writer’s craft, “Elements of Style.”…[Continue]
Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) was an English author, illustrator, and conservationist best known for her children’s books featuring Peter Rabbit and other animal characters. The first draft of “The Story of Peter Rabbit” was based on a letter she …[Continue]
Margaret Wise Brown
Although “Goodnight Moon” is her best known work (it has sold forty-eight million copies since 1947), children’s author Margaret Wise Brown (1910 – 1952) wrote more than a hundred children’s books before dying suddenly at forty-two while recovering from surgery. …[Continue]
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson (born August 25, 1918) is an African-American physicist and mathematician who worked on calculating trajectories for NASA. Her work was critical to the success of Project Mercury, the Apollo missions, and the Space Shuttle, but her story wasn’t …[Continue]
Ben Franklin
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, and he has not …[Continue]
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was the third Vice President of the United States (1801–05), serving during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term. Despite his successful career as a politician and lawyer, Burr is frequently remembered …[Continue]
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) was one of the best-known abolitionists of the nineteenth century. Born a slave in New York in approximately 1797, she was freed in 1828. She took the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 when she began …[Continue]
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart, the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic, was born July 24, 1897 at her grandparents’ home in Atchison, Kansas. Despite her many pioneering achievements, she is best known for her tragic disappearance over the Pacific …[Continue]
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) was a tireless leader of the women’s rights movement, fighting over fifty years for women’s suffrage (the right to vote), equal education, property rights and even dress reform. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who …[Continue]
