Aaron Burr was an American lawyer and politician. He was born in 1756 at Newark, New Jersey and died in 1836. After graduating from Princeton in 1772 he joined the army at the outbreak of the revolution and served in Arnold's expedition through Maine to Canada, afterwards rising to the rank of colonel. He was a Republican Senator for New York from 1791 until 1797 and later a member of the New York Assembly. He was Vice-President to Thomas Jefferson from 1801 to 1805, having achieved the same number of votes for President as Thomas Jefferson, but having not been chosen for President by the House of Representatives which preferred Thomas Jefferson. In 1804 he fought a duel with Hamilton which resulted in Hamilton being mortally wounded. After retiring from the position of Vice-President he allegedly plotted the formation of an independent state in the Southwest, and was arrested and charged with treason, but was acquitted and subsequently left the USA for Europe, returning some years later to obscurity and poverty. Research Aaron Burr
Clara Mass was an American nurse. She was born in 1876 at East Orange, New Jersey and died in 1901 at Havana, Cuba of yellow fever. She was the only woman and the only American to die during the yellow fever experiments of 1900 to 1901. After graduating from the Newark German Hospital School of Nursing in 1895 she volunteered to serve as a contract nurse with the U.S. Army Medical Department at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war of 1898. During her first term of service she worked at army camps in Florida, Georgia, and Cuba. She volunteered again in 1900 and was sent first to the Philippines and then back to Cuba, where at the Las AnimasHospital in Havana, she volunteered to take part in an experiment conducted by Major William C Gorgas and John Guiteras on yellow fever immunization. The experiment involved her being infected with the disease, from which she promptly died ten days later. Research Clara Mass
David Hartley was an English philosopher. He was born in 1705 near Halifax and died in 1757. He became a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and finally practised medicine at Newark, Bury St Edmund's, and in London. In 1749 he published his work 'Observations on Man' which explained mental phenomena of the mind as proceeding from molecular nervous vibrations. Research David Hartley
David Leslie was a Scottish soldier. He was born in 1601 and died in 1682. A younger son of Sir Patrick Leslie, a Fifeshire land-holder, he sought his fortune in the service of Gustavus Adolphus. He became a colonel in the Swedish army, and then returned home in 1640 upon hearing that war between Charles I and his enemies was imminent. He was made major-general in the army commanded by Alexander Leslie, that was raised to assist the English parliamentarians, and had much to do with the victory at Marston Moor. Upon being recalled to Scotland he defeated the Marquess of Montrose at Philliphaugh, and served in the Highlands. He stood aside from the disastrous expedition that ended at Preston, but was the real commander of the Scottish army raised to oppose Cromwell. His authority having been weakened, he was defeated at Dunbar, but continued to resist Cromwell in Scotland, and afterwards fought at Worcester. He was imprisoned until 1660, and fined. In 1661 Charles II made him a peer as Lord Newark. Research David Leslie
The moundbuilders is a name given to an American prehistoric race the principal remains of which are extensive earthworks found in the MississippiValley extending from the lakes southward to the gulf. Many of these are clearly defensive works or places of sepulture. Fort Hill, Ohio, has a line of circumvallation about four miles in extent. These defensive works also include structures used for religious purposes. Many mounds are of regular outline assuming the form of various geometrical figures. In Newark, Ohio, works of this character cover an area of more than two square miles. A mound near St Louis is 700 feet long by 500 broad at the base and ninety feet high. Some mounds of this character contain skeletons. Mounds, such as those near Wheeling, West Virginia, and Miamisburg, Ohio, are possibly the graves of distinguished personages. In Wisconsin and Iowa are earthworks which assume the outline of men and animals. One in Adams County, Ohio, has the form of a serpent. It is over 1000 feet in length and its mouth is partially closed around an egg of perfectly regular dimensions. The figure reaches a height of about five feet. Various theories prevail as to the question what race built the mounds. It is now frequently thought to have been a race related to the Indians. Research Moundbuilders
Paul Simon is an American musician and actor. He was born in 1941 at Newark, New Jersey. He released a number of songs in partnership with his school friend, Art Garfunkel, first under the name 'Tom and Jerry' and later as 'Simon and Garfunkle'. After the break-up of the partnership he continued recording music under his own name. Research Paul Simon
The Puritans were a group of religious people who wanted what they perceived to be extreme purity in church services. They observed a strict code of behaviour with few amusements.
The name Puritans was first used in England to designate those Protestant members of the Church of England who, while not desiring to separate from or to destroy the existing establishment, desired to see it infused with a spirit of greater earnestness and purged of many still-remaining Catholic ceremonies.
The settlers of Massachusetts Bay came from this set, which is not to be confounded with the Separatists or Independents, from whom the Pilgrim Fathers came. The Separatists were the extreme wing of the Puritan party, we may say, so extreme that they preferred to abandon the Established Church, and would gladly have seen it abolished. As the contest in England went on, and deepened into civil war, the Puritans mostly became either Presbyterians or Independents. Similarly in America circumstances made of the settlers at the Bay a body of Independents whose ecclesiastical polity did not differ from that of the Plymouth Pilgrims.
The Puritan spirit was one of severe moral earnestness, united with a Calvinistic theology. Their opposition to amusements grew more and more severe, and the persecuting spirit prevailed among them. Toward the end of the century, Puritanism in Massachusetts began to relax. In New Haven it was more rigid than in Massachusetts; in Connecticut somewhat less so. Rhode Island was partly Puritan in sentiment, but never under control of the Puritans. In the other colonies there were some Puritan settlements, as at Newark in New Jersey, at Providence (Annapolis) in Maryland, and at Dorchester in South Carolina. Research Puritan
William Ewart Gladstone was an English statesman and both Tory and Liberal member of parliament. He was born in 1809 at Liverpool in 1809 and and died in 1898. After some years at Eton he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1828, and graduated in 1831, with high honours. After leaving Oxford he spent six months in Italy. In 1832 the first Reform Act was passed, and William Gladstone's public career commenced by his being returned as member of parliament for Newark, and when Peel assumed office in 1834 ho accepted the post of Junior Lord of the Treasury. At this period he was a Tory, and as his party quickly went out it was not until 1841 that he again held any public office, in which year he became, under Peel, Vice-president of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint.
In 1842 great fiscal reforms were inaugurated, some of which were understood to be due to William Gladstone. Having become President of the Board of Trade, he carried, in 1843, a measure for the abolition of restrictions on the exportation of machinery, and in 1844 he carried a railway bill, establishing cheap trains. He took part with Peel in the repeal of the corn-laws, a course which cost him his seat for Newark.
In 1847 he was returned for Oxford University, and he then supported the bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities, the repeal of the Navigation Laws, etc. He now began to develop remarkable ability as a financier, and fiercely attacked Disraeli's Budget of 1852. The same year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer under the Earl of Aberdeen, a post which he also held for a short time in 1855 under LordPalmerston.
In 1858 he became High Commissioner Extraordinary to the Ionian Islands, and his Studies on Homer appeared about the same time. In 1859 he again took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer under LordPalmerston. At the general election of 1865 William Gladstone was returned for South Lancashire, and on the decease of LordPalmerston he became the Liberal leader in the Commons in the Russell administration, still continuing to hold the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. The Government, being defeated on the reform question, went out in 1866, and LordDerby came into power. In 1867 a Reform Bill, establishing household suffrage in burghs, was carried by the Conservatives, but to the final shape of it William Gladstone and Bright materially contributed.
In 1868 William Gladstone succeeded in abolishing compulsory church rates, and he also carried his resolutions dealing with the Irish Church, but his Irish Church Suspensory Bill was rejected by the Lords. At the general election of 1868 he lost his seat for South Lancashire, but was returned by Greenwich. There being a great Liberal majority in the new parliament Disraeli was soon forced to resign, and William Gladstone became premier.
Next year he carried his bill for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and in 1870 his Irish Land Act, the English Education Act being also passed. In 1871 army purchase was abolished by royal warrant.
The Ballot Act and the Scottish Education Act were passed in 1872. Parliament was dissolved in 1874, and the Conservatives ousted William Gladstone from office, as they had secured a good majority. During Lord Beacons-field's tenure of office William Gladstone denounced the Bulgarian atrocities, the Anglo-Turkish Treaty, and the Afghan War, and his speeches during his candidature for Midlothian greatly helped to render the government unpopular.
In 1880 the general election reinstated William Gladstone firmly into power (Midlothian being now his constituency), and his second Irish Land Bill became law in the following year. In 1882 a Prevention of Crimes and an Arrears Act for Ireland were passed, and in 1883 measures relating to bankruptcy, etc, were also carried. In 1884 the bill extending household suffrage to the counties was carried, and the Gladstone ministry fell the next year. LordSalisbury, who had formed an administration, got the Redistribution of Seats Bill passed, and under it took place the general election of 1885, William Gladstone still continuing to represent Midlothian. Next year LordSalisbury resigned after an adverse vote in the Commons, and William Gladstone again came into power. He now introduced a Home Rule bill for Ireland on April the 8th, 1886. It failed to pass the Commons, and the result of the general election which followed was emphatically adverse to William Gladstone's proposals. He had to make way for LordSalisbury, but in 1892 he again became premier. After passing a Home Rule bill through the Commons he resigned office in 1894, and next year retired from political life. His works include The State in its Relations with the Church (1838); Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age; Juventus Mundi; Homeric Synchronism;
Landmarks of Homeric Study; The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, etc. Research William Gladstone
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