John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade. He was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under the...

Frederick IV was the king of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of Christian V and Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel). For much of Frederik IV's reign Denmark was engaged in the Great Northe...

Robert Roy MacGregor was a Scottish outlaw, who later became a folk hero. Rob Roy became a well-known and respected cattleman—this was a time when cattle rustling and selling protection against theft were commonplace means of earning a l...

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, Italian composer. Born to a wealthy Venetian family, he was not obliged to work for a living and became a highly prolific composer. He had more than 50 operas successfully produced between 1694 and 1741, though few...

The Franco-Dutch War, often called simply the Dutch War (French: La Guerre de Hollande) (1672–78) was a war fought by France, Sweden, the Bishopric of Münster, the Archbishopric of Cologne and England against the United Netherlands, which w...

Peter the Great ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his elder half-brother, Ivan V. Through a number of successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a muc...

Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–87). His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah (Emetullah) Râbi'a Gül-Nûs; Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajiog...

Thomas Twining was an English merchant, and the founder of Twinings of London. The son of a fuller who moved to London when the boy was nine years old, Thomas was at first apprenticed to a weaver. He changed careers, however, and worked for...

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, King of the Romans was the elder son of Emperor Leopold I and his third wife, Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg, who was the daughter of Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. Bo...

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher and cleric. Born in Venice, he was recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. H...

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer...

Ephraim Chambers was an English writer and encyclopaedist, who is primarily known for producing the Cyclopaedia, or a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. The first edition of the Cyclopaedia appeared by subscription in 1728, in two v...

In the year 1598 AD, Portuguese sailors landing on the shores of the island of Mauritius discovered a previously unknown species of bird, the Dodo. Having been isolated by its island location from contact with humanity, the dodo greeted the...

Vitus Bering was a Danish explorer. Explored the Siberian Far East and Alaska and claimed it for Russia. The value of Bering's work was not fully recognized for many years, but Captain Cook was able to prove Bering's accuracy as an observer...

Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque music composer, born in Magdeburg. Self-taught in music, he studied law at the University of Leipzig. The most prolific composer in history (at least in terms of surviving oeuvre), he was a contem...