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Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics.<br/><br/> Sometimes referred to as the <i>Princeps mathematicorum</i> (Latin, 'the foremost of mathematicians') and the 'greatest mathematician since antiquity', Gauss had an exceptional influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians.
Japan: 'The Actor Sakata Hangoro III in the Role of a Yakko'. Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Katsukawa Shun'ei (1762-1819), c. 1788-1792.<br/><br/> Katsukawa Shun'ei (1762 - 13 December 1819), real name Isoda Shun'ei, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist from Tokyo. He joined the Katsukawa school of ukiyo-e artists, and mainly designed <i>yakusha-e kabuki</i> portraits, though he also dabbled in <i>musha-e</i> warrior prints and prints of sumo wrestlers. He became head of the Katsukawa school in 1800.
The print shows an alleged incident of an enslaved African girl whipped to death for refusing to dance naked on the deck of the slave ship Recovery, a slaver owned by Bristol merchants. Captain John Kimber stands on the left with a whip in his hand.<br/><br/> Captain John Kimber was denounced before the House of Commons by William Wilberforce over the incident. In response to outrage by abolitionists, Captain Kimber was brought up on charges before the High Court of Admiralty in June 1792, but acquitted of all charges.
Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class.<br/><br/> The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as Bushidō. While they numbered less than ten percent of Japan's population, samurai teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in martial arts such as Kendō, meaning the way of the sword.
In 1776, in response to the long years of civil war and harsh government by both the Trinh and Nguyễn Lords, the Tây Sơn Rebellion broke out near Qui Nhon in the south.<br/><br/>Enjoying wide popular support among both the peasant and merchant classes, the three Tây Sơn brothers overthrew the Nguyễn Lords in 1777. The last Nguyễn Lord, Nguyen Anh, fled abroad and sought French assistance. Ten years later, in 1787, the Tay Son overthrew the Trinh Lords in Thang Long, provoking a Chinese invasion.<br/><br/>The greatest of the Tay Son brothers, Nguyễn Huệ, crushed the Chinese and proclaimed himself Emperor Quang Trung. Unfortunately he died unexpectedly in 1792, opening the way for the return of the fugitive Nguyễn Anh.
Iona Abbey is located on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest and most important religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity throughout Scotland and marks the foundation of a monastic community by St. Columba, when Iona was part of the Kingdom of Dál Riata.<br/><br/> In 563, Columba came to Iona from Ireland with twelve companions, and founded a monastery which grew to be an influential centre for the spread of Christianity among the Picts and Scots. Kings were crowned, and also buried, on Iona. The Book of Kells, a famous illuminated manuscript, is believed to have been produced by the monks of Iona in the years leading up to 800.<br/><br/> The Chronicle of Ireland was also produced at Iona until about 740. In 806, Vikings massacred 68 monks in Martyrs' Bay, and Columba's monks returned to Ireland, and a Monastery at Kells: other monks from Iona fled to the Continent, and established Monasteries in Belgium, France, and Switzerland.
Sassoon was born in Baghdad, where his father, Saleh Sassoon, was a wealthy businessman and chief treasurer to the pashas (the governors of Baghdad) from 1781 to 1817, and leader of the city's Jewish community.<br/><br/> The family were Sephardim whose ancestors once lived in Spain. His mother was Amam Gabbai. After a traditional education in the Hebrew language, Sassoon married Hannah in 1818. They had two sons and two daughters before she died in 1826. Two years later he married Farha Hyeem (who was born in 1812 and died in 1886). The pair had six sons and three daughters.<br/><br/> Following increasing persecution of Baghdad's Jews by Daud Pasha, the family moved to Bombay via Persia. Sassoon was in business in Bombay no later than 1832, originally acting as a middleman between British textile firms and Gulf commodity merchants, subsequently investing in valuable harbour properties. His major competitors were Parsis, whose profits were built on their domination of the Sino-Indian opium trade since the 1820s.<br/><br/> When the Treaty of Nanking opened up China to British traders, Sassoon developed his textile operations into a profitable triangular trade: Indian yarn and opium were carried to China, where he bought goods which were sold in Britain, from where he obtained Lancashire cotton products. He sent his son Elias David Sassoon to Canton, where he was the first Jewish trader (with 24 Parsi rivals). In 1845 David Sassoon & Sons opened an office in what would soon become Shanghai's British concession, and it became the firm's second hub of operations.<br/><br/> In 1844, he set up a branch in Hong Kong, and a year later, he set up his Shanghai branch on the Bund to cash in on the opium trade. David Sassoon died in his country house in Pune in 1864. His business interests were inherited by his son Sir Albert Sassoon.
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the 'Grand Style' in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. King George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those enslaved that were transported to the New World, many on the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, were West Africans from the central and western parts of the continent sold by western Africans to western European slave traders, or by direct European capture to the Americas.<br/><br/> The numbers were so great that Africans who came by way of the slave trade became the most numerous Old World immigrants in both North and South America before the late 18th century. Far more slaves were taken to South America than to the north. The South Atlantic economic system centered on producing commodity crops, and making goods and clothing to sell in Europe, and increasing the numbers of African slaves brought to the New World.
A lubok is a Russian popular print, characterized by simple graphics and narratives derived from literature, religious stories and popular tales. Lubki prints were used as decoration in houses and inns. Early examples from the late 17th and early 18th centuries were woodcuts, then engravings or etchings were typical, and from the mid-19th century lithography. They sometimes appeared in series, which might be regarded as predecessors of the modern comic strip. Cheap and simple books, similar to chapbooks, which mostly consisted of pictures, are called lubok literature. Both pictures and literature are commonly referred to simply as lubki. The Russian word lubok itself means the inner bark of the linden tree and refers to a technique of woodcut from the bark of the linden tree, which used to be a common material in Russia for manufacturing various items.
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics.<br/><br/> Sometimes referred to as the <i>Princeps mathematicorum</i> (Latin, 'the foremost of mathematicians') and the 'greatest mathematician since antiquity', Gauss had an exceptional influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians.
The Bowring Treaty is the name given to an agreement signed on April 18, 1855 between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Siam that liberalized foreign trade in Siam. The Treaty was signed by King Mongkut of Siam and Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong and Britain's envoy. Sir John Bowring, KCB (Chinese translated name: 寶寧,寶靈 or 包令) (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer, polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong. In 1849, Bowring was appointed British consul at Canton (today's Guangzhou), and superintendent of trade in China, a post which he held for four years. On 13 April 1854, Bowring was sent to Hong Kong as governor. During his governorship, a dispute broke out with the Chinese and the irritation caused by his spirited or high-handed policy led to the Second Opium War (1856–1860). At the same time, he allowed the Chinese citizens in Hong Kong to serve as jurors in trials and become lawyers. Finally, Bowring is credited with establishing Hong Kong's first commercial public water supply system and establishing the Hong Kong buildings ordinance, ensuring the safer design of all future construction projects in the colony. In 1855 he visited Siam, and negotiated with King Mongkut a treaty of commerce, now commonly referred as the Bowring Treaty. Bowring retired in March 1859 and received a pension for his duties.
Selim III (Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثالث Selīm-i sālis) (24 December 1761 – 28 or 29 July 1808) was the reform-minded Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. The Janissaries eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV.
"A caricature on Lord Macartney's Embassy to China and on the little which the Ambassador and his government are presumed to have known of the manners and tastes of the people they wanted to conciliate (the purpose of the visit was to propose the creation of a permanent English mission to the court of Peking). Chinese etiquette is, that extreme prostrations should be made before the Emperor, which it was intimated Lord Macartney would not conform to. The whole contour of the Emperor is indicative of cunning and contempt and his indifference to the numerous gifts displaying the skill of British manufacturing, is evident. As soon as Lord Macartney had declined to make the required prostrations, only going down on one knee, he was dismissed from the presence of the Emperor. He was later ordered to quit Peking within two days and was given a letter addressed to George III wherein the Emperor states that,'As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures'. An attache, Aeneas Anderson, later recalled that "we entered Pekin like Paupers, remained in it like Prisoners and departed from it like Vagrants".
The Dutch West India Company was a chartered company (known as the 'WIC') of Dutch merchants. On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America.<br/><br/> The area where the company could operate consisted of West Africa (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope) and the Americas, which included the Pacific Ocean and the eastern part of New Guinea. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the various trading posts established by the merchants.<br/><br/> The company became instrumental in the Dutch colonization of the Americas.
Monarda is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. The genus is endemic to North America.<br/><br/> Common names include bee balm, horsemint, oswego tea, and bergamot, the latter inspired by the fragrance of the leaves, which is reminiscent of bergamot orange (Citrus bergamia). The genus was named for the Spanish botanist Nicolás Monardes, who wrote a book in 1574 describing plants of the New World.
A member of the Thirty-six Medieval Poetry Immortals, Izumi Shikibu served at the court of Empress Shoshi (988–1074).<br/><br/> She is best known for the Izumi Shikibu Collection (和泉式部集 Izumi Shikibu-shū) and the Imperial anthologies. Her life of love and passion earned her the nickname of 'The Floating Lady' from Michinaga. Her poetry is characterized by passion and sentimental appeal. Her style was the direct opposite of that of Akazome Emon, even though both served in the same court and were close friends.<br/><br/> At the court she also nursed a growing rivalry with Murasaki Shikibu, who had a similar poetic style, though this rivalry pales in comparison with Murasaki Shikibu's spirited competition with Sei Shōnagon. Izumi Shikibu's emotional poetry won her the praise of many at the court, including Fujiwara no Kinto.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.<br/><br/> Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy. Ozymandias remains one of the most influentail of English Orientalist poems ever written, along with Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan'.<br/><br/> Shelley used opium to alter his state of thinking and free his mind. Shelley took laudanum, according to letters he wrote, as well as biographies. Shelley believed opium created confusion for him between cause and effect, as well as between memory and forgetfulness. Shelley began experiencing body spasms and upon visiting his new doctor, Andrea Vacca Berlinghieri, he was warned to stop taking laudanum. Shelley did not heed the doctor's warning and continued to have spasms, haunting dreams, and confusions about reality. Opium both helped with Shelley's creativity and harmed his mental state.
Sassoon was born in Baghdad, where his father, Saleh Sassoon, was a wealthy businessman and chief treasurer to the pashas (the governors of Baghdad) from 1781 to 1817, and leader of the city's Jewish community.<br/><br/> The family were Sephardim whose ancestors once lived in Spain. His mother was Amam Gabbai. After a traditional education in the Hebrew language, Sassoon married Hannah in 1818. They had two sons and two daughters before she died in 1826. Two years later he married Farha Hyeem (who was born in 1812 and died in 1886). The pair had six sons and three daughters.<br/><br/> Following increasing persecution of Baghdad's Jews by Daud Pasha, the family moved to Bombay via Persia. Sassoon was in business in Bombay no later than 1832, originally acting as a middleman between British textile firms and Gulf commodity merchants, subsequently investing in valuable harbour properties. His major competitors were Parsis, whose profits were built on their domination of the Sino-Indian opium trade since the 1820s.<br/><br/> When the Treaty of Nanking opened up China to British traders, Sassoon developed his textile operations into a profitable triangular trade: Indian yarn and opium were carried to China, where he bought goods which were sold in Britain, from where he obtained Lancashire cotton products. He sent his son Elias David Sassoon to Canton, where he was the first Jewish trader (with 24 Parsi rivals). In 1845 David Sassoon & Sons opened an office in what would soon become Shanghai's British concession, and it became the firm's second hub of operations.<br/><br/> In 1844, he set up a branch in Hong Kong, and a year later, he set up his Shanghai branch on the Bund to cash in on the opium trade. David Sassoon died in his country house in Pune in 1864. His business interests were inherited by his son Sir Albert Sassoon.
John Adams (October 30 – July 4, 1826) was an American lawyer, author, statesman, and diplomat. He served as the second President of the United States (1797–1801), the first Vice President (1789–97), and as a Founding Father was a leader of American independence from Great Britain.<br/><br/> Adams was a political theorist in the Age of Enlightenment who promoted republicanism and a strong central government. His innovative ideas were frequently published. He was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and key advisor Abigail.
O Jae-sun (1727-1792) was an erudite scholar who served in high government posts during the reign of King Jeongjo. He headed the Office of the Inspector-General (Saheonbu), Office of Special Advisors (Hongmungwan) and the Royal Secretariat (Jungchubu), among other posts.<br/><br/> This portrait was painted by Yi Myeong-gi when O Jae-sun was 65 years old
Chae Jegong (蔡濟恭, 채제공, 1720-1799) was a Chosun dynasty literati bureaucrat. He was of the Pyeonggang Chae Clan (平康菜氏, 평강채씨); his courtesy name (字, 자) was Baekgyu (伯規, 백규); his pen name (號, 호) was Beon’am (樊巖, 번암); and his posthumous name (諡, 시) was Munsuk (文肅, 문숙).<br/><br/> He passed the regional civil examination (鄕試, 향시) at the age of 15, and held high government offices throughout his life.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron; Leigh Hunt; Thomas Love Peacock; and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.<br/><br/> Shelley is perhaps best known for such classic poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud and The Masque of Anarchy. Ozymandias remains one of the most influentail of English Orientalist poems ever written, along with Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan'.<br/><br/> Shelley used opium to alter his state of thinking and free his mind. Shelley took laudanum, according to letters he wrote, as well as biographies. Shelley believed opium created confusion for him between cause and effect, as well as between memory and forgetfulness. Shelley began experiencing body spasms and upon visiting his new doctor, Andrea Vacca Berlinghieri, he was warned to stop taking laudanum. Shelley did not heed the doctor's warning and continued to have spasms, haunting dreams, and confusions about reality. Opium both helped with Shelley's creativity and harmed his mental state.