To some people, Genghis Khan was a very evil man. He reportedly killed millions of people, most of them in cold blood. To others, he was the man who established an era of peace and prosperity. This achievement allowed the free exchange of ideas and new inventions between Asia and Europe. One thing is certain. According to the results of a newspaper poll, he was the Man of the Millennium. That means he was the most important human being to live between...

French composer Hector Berlioz believed in love at first sight. When he was 23, he attended a performance of Shakespeare s play Hamlet and fell head over heels in love with Harriet Smithson, an English actress who had a leading role. Harriet didn't show any interest in him. She ignored his letters. When he tried to meet her backstage, she ordered the guard to throw him out. Berlioz was hurt and angry. He wanted revenge. He got it by murdering Harriet...

Many people believed that Hungarian-born Franz Liszt was the greatest piano player of all time. Certainly, he was the first musical superstar. During an eight-year concert tour in the 1840s, he revolutionized the way that pianists performed in public. He had several love affairs before taking Holy Orders in the Catholic Church. One of the most versatile figures in music history, he was also a composer, concert promoter, and conductor. He was a very...

Julius Caesar is one of the most famous figures in ancient Rome. He was born into a turbulent era, when different factions were trying to control the government. He survived and began a steady rise in importance. He became a very successful military commander who added more than 200,000 square miles to the territories under Rome s control. But his triumphs created powerful enemies in Rome. They wanted to strip him of his power. He defeated those enemies...

Nineteenth century German composer Richard Wagner s Ring of the Nibelung consists of four separate operas. Also known as the Ring Cycle, it was the crowning point of Wagner s career. Wagner was somewhat of a late bloomer in music. His first major composition was performed when he was nearly 30, and the Ring Cycle premiered when he was 53. While Wagner was among the world's greatest composers, he was not a particularly good person. He didn't repay...

The Roman emperor Nero is one of the most notorious figures in history. He is most famous for fiddling while Rome burned, then blaming Christians for setting the fire and beginning a series of persecutions against them. He even ordered the murder of his own mother. Find out why the Romans declared him a public enemy, and what happened when he tried to run away.

From an early age, Galileo Galilei was curious about the world around him. He began conducting scientific experiments. No one had ever done that before. He invented many useful devices, such as improved clocks and tools to help sailors find their way at sea. His greatest fame came after he invented a more powerful version of the telescope. This new telescope allowed him to observe the skies in more detail than anyone before him. His observations...

For many centuries in ancient history, people believed illnesses were handed down by the gods. In the fifth century BCE, a Greek physician named Hippocrates changed that attitude. He began looking for natural causes of illnesses. Many of his treatment methods seem primitive. For example, he performed brain surgery by drilling into a patient s skull with a sharp piece of wood. There were no anesthetics. It was a very painful procedure. In other ways...

Examines the life and work of John Adams, the second president of the United States.

Paul Revere was an expert silversmith. He became one of America's first industrialists. He was active in the movement that led to American independence. Yet Paul Revere's fame rests almost entirely on the few hours that he sped through the Massachusetts countryside in the early morning of April 19, 1775. He was warning the inhabitants that the British regulars were on their way. It marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Few people outside...