biography online net

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These stars are more talented than you might realize.

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The relationship of the French emperor and empress is featured prominently in the new movie ‘Napoleon,’ starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

.css-1lkfdhu{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Gilroy-robotoFallback,Gilroy-localFallback,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-1lkfdhu:hover{color:link-hover;}} What We Know About ‘The Crown’ Season 6

Underrated Stephen King Novels for Halloween

Key Takeaways from the 2024 Grammy Nominations

Elvis and Priscilla’s Turbulent Relationship

Notable now.

Rosalynn Carter

Dolly Parton

Bayard Rustin

Sean “Diddy” Combs

Notorious figures.

A Breakthrough Clue Might Untangle the Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

For 174 years, we’ve wondered exactly what—or who—caused the author’s untimely demise. Is the true answer here at last?

.css-1p0b1bw{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Gilroy-robotoFallback,Gilroy-localFallback,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#ffffff;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-1p0b1bw:hover{color:link-hover;}} Could Evidence Solve the Lindbergh Baby Mystery?

New Gypsy Rose Blanchard Docuseries Is Coming Soon

The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother

Amateur Sleuth Sues For D.B. Cooper Clues

A Timeline of Natalee Holloway’s Unsolved Case

Here’s When Gypsy Rose Blanchard Will Be Released

Where Is Alex Murdaugh Now?

Charles Manson and 4 More Infamous Cult Leaders

Wynonna Judd Explains Her Odd CMAs Performance

‘The Iron Claw:’ The Von Erich Family’s True Story

‘Priscilla’ Reportedly Divided the Presley Family

The Amazing Yet Controversial True Story of ’Nyad‘

People you should know.

7 Native American Chefs to Watch

12 Influential Native American Leaders

10 Famous Poets Whose Enduring Works We Still Read

22 Famous Scientists You Should Know

10 Famous Explorers Who Connected the World

.css-1aq4sl:before,.css-1aq4sl:after{visibility:hidden;} connections.

Elvis Presley’s Family Tree

Who Are Britney Spears’ Kids? Meet Sean and Jayden

Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton Share a Special Bond

Get to Know David and Victoria Beckham’s Kids

8 Facts About “Son of a Sinner” Singer Jelly Roll

15 Famous Country Singers of the Past and Present

The History of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’

Taylor Swift Is Officially a Billionaire

Shop Patrick Mahomes’ Lululemon Underwear

Use This Hairspray to Get Kelsea Ballerini’s Hair

Shop Timothée Chalamet's $70 Converse Sneakers

Chris Stapleton x Filson Travel Collection Collab

Matthew McConaughey

John McEnroe

Suge Knight

Kurt Warner

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Dorothy Parker

Olivia Rodrigo

Biography Online

Michael Jackson Biography

Despite achieving his goal to be a music performer, Michael’s childhood was far from happy. He was regularly beaten and threatened by his authoritarian father. This legacy of abuse left Michael scarred throughout his adult life.

Solo Career Michael Jackson

His second solo album, Thriller , launched Michael Jackson into a position as the most famous pop singer in the world. With little commercial advertising and promotion, Thriller rose to number one on album sales and remained at the number one spot for a total of 37 weeks. It gained one of many Guinness World Records for Michael Jackson, attaining 110 million global sales and 29 million sales in the US. Thriller included number one hits such as Beat It, Billie Jean .

Michael Jackson with the Reagans

In March 1983, Michael Jackson performed live on Motown 25, ‘Yesterday, today, forever’, – a TV special. He performed his distinctive and memorable dance move – the Moonwalk. In the dance routine, he effortlessly moves backwards with seemingly keeping one leg perfectly straight. His performance made him a global icon of not just music, but dance. Michael Jackson pioneered the importance of music video in promoting a pop artist. This iconic performance has been compared to the famous Beatles’ appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

By the late 80s, there was an increasing number of stories speculating on Jackson’s personal life, health and physical appearance. Michael Jackson underwent numerous operations of plastic surgery to fix his nose and add a dimple in his chin. During the 1980s, his skin started to lighten; this was due to a rare skin pigment disease, but it didn’t stop a wave of speculative press stories that he was bleaching his skin colour. The press covered a range of speculative stories about Michael Jackson, including imaginary stories Michael had invented himself (such as sleeping in an oxygen tent to avoid the ageing process)

“I’ve been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old, and as Charles Dickens would say, “It’s been the best of times, the worst of times.” But I would not change my career… While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.”

—Michael Jackson

The press attention made Michael increasingly reclusive, spending much of his time in his ‘Never Land’ ranch.

Speaking on the Oprah Winfrey show, Jackson addressed the issue of skin colour change:

“OK, number one. There, as I know of, there is no such thing as skin bleaching…I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin, it’s something that I cannot help, OK? But, when people make up stories that I don’t want to be who I am, it hurts me…it’s a problem for me, I can’t control it.”

He married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994; it lasted two years though they remained friendly after the divorce. In 1996, he married Deborah Rowe in Sydney. Together they had two children. They divorced in 1999 and Rowe gave full custody of children to Jackson.

Allegations of child abuse were first raised in the 1980s and re-appeared in the 1990s. This led to the trial of The People v Jackson on 31 Jan 2005, in Sante Maria, California. After five months of high publicity, Jackson was acquitted. Though the experience left him physically weak and emotionally stressed. He departed America for the Persian Gulf Island of Bahrain.

“The minute I started breaking the all-time record in record sales—I broke Elvis’s records, I broke Beatles records—the minute it became the all-time best-selling album in the history of the Guinness Book of World Records, overnight they called me a freak. They called me a homosexual. They called me a child molester. They said I bleached my skin. They made everything to turn the public against me.”

– Remarks at National Action Network headquarters (9 July 2002)

Towards the end of his life, he was increasingly plagued by money troubles and ill health. He increasingly became dependent on a variety of drugs, which was said to have contributed to his ill health and premature death. Despite concerns over finance, he is said to have made career earnings of $500m and had assets in Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalogue worth over $300m alone.

“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe”

– M. Jackson Quoted by CNN June 2009.

Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009, at a rented mansion in the district of Los Angeles.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Michael Jackson”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 28th Jul 2010. Updated 11th February 2018.

Charity Work of Michael Jackson

• Michael Jackson supported many charities. This included a burns charity in Culver City, California. This followed an incident where Michael Jackson was burnt in filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.
• He also supported HIV / AIDS charities at a time when it was still unfashionable.
• In 1984, he received an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities which help overcome alcohol and drug abuse.
• From his 1984, Victory Tour he donated all funds (around $8million to charity)
• In 1985, he also co-wrote the charity single “We are the World” with Lionel Richie. It sold over 30 million copies, and the proceeds were sent to the poor in the US and Africa.
• He continued his charity work to the end of his life supporting charity concerts such as Aid for victims of Kosovo war.

The Essential Michael Jackson

The Essential Michael Jackson at Amazon

The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson

The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson at Amazon

Related pages

• Top 100 famous people
• Michael Jackson.com

Inspiring People

Monday, november 18, 2013, positive aspects of the first world war.

"there was no bitterness at all. There's many a German who helped our wounded people down the communication trenches, even carried them down. There was no hatred between the forces. Although we were shooting at one another."

"You didn't hate them as individuals, no, no, you felt sorry for them."

• Heroes of the First World War
• People of the First World War

Sunday, September 29, 2013

People who died for their faith.

• St. Stephen as recorded in the Acts 6:8–8:3, the first Christian Martyr.
• James the Great (Son of Zebedee) was beheaded in 44 A.D.
• Philip the Apostle was crucified in 54 A.D.
• Matthew the Evangelist killed with a halberd in 60 A.D.
• James the Just, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned.
• Matthias was stoned and beheaded.
• Saint Andrew, St. Peter's brother, was crucified.
• Saint Mark was dragged in the streets until his death
• Edith Stein (Carmelite nun, died at Auschwitz), 1942
• List of courageous people throughout history
• Spiritual/religious figures
• Quotes on Courage

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Top 10 french artists.

Lived in France

• Great French people who changed the world 
• Famous French people
• Top 10 Artists of all Time
• Top 10 Italian Artists

Monday, July 22, 2013

Explorers from the golden ages of exploration, the elizabethan age of exploration - 15th, 16th century.

• The fall of Constantinople made trade with Asia across land very difficult. There was an incentive for Europeans to find direct sea routes to the India continent. This was first achieved by the Portuguese Vasco de Gama in 1498, when he arrived in Calicut, India.
• A wealth of Europe. European countries, like Spain, Portugal, Holland and England became increasingly wealthy and good afford to fund exploration. In addition, these explorations became quite profitable due to trade and/or plundering of raw materials. The Spanish monarchy funded Christopher Colombus in 1492 to travel to America.
• Christian missionary movement. Part of the motive for exploration was to share the principles of Christianity and convert 'heathen pagans'
• Empire rivalry. One of the biggest motivations was to extend the political, military and political power of the European nations by claiming parts of the 'new world.' For example, one of England's most famous explorers Sir Walter Raleigh was executed after fighting the Spanish.
• Improvements in technology which enabled longer sea journeys.

The dark side of the age of exploration.

The heroic age of exploration - polar regions.

• Ernest Shackleton .British Antarctic Expedition 1907 (Nimrod Expedition)
• Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole in 1911.
• Robert F Scott's - Antarctic expedition of 1910-11 - which led to death of all five members, close to the South Pole
• Ernest Shackleton - Endurance 1914-17 - First transcontinental crossing attempt

Other great periods of exploration

• Space Exploration 1950s and 1960s
• Marco Polo's journeys to Asia in the 13th Century
• African explorations of the Nineteenth Century. Led by David Livingstone's attempt to find the source of the Nile, the late Nineteenth Century saw a 'dash for Africa'
• Top 10 explorers

Is professional cycling clean or is doping still prevalent?

• Test for EPO which has caught riders
• Biological passport which looks for evidence of blood manipulation
• Changed atmosphere in the peleton. The days of bullying riders who speak against doping is hard to imagine. Riders, such as Kittel, have been increasingly vocal in their opposition to doping.
• No evidence from former employees of Team Sky (unlike US postal where there was a steady drop of former mechanics, riders coming out to say doping was endemic in the team)
• Greater transparency in allowing access to team and data.
• Froome was tested 19 times during the tour.

"In the late 1990s and early 2000s if you were going to be competitive and win the Tour de France you would have to be able to cycle between 6.4 and 6.7 watts per kilogram at the end of a day's stage. "What we are seeing now, in the last three or four years, is that the speed of the front of the peloton [of] men like Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali, is about 10% down compared to that generation and now the power output at the front is about 6W/kg." ( Are drug free cyclists slower? )

• Top 100 sporting personalities

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Who deserves to be in the top 100 greatest britons.

• Robbie Williams
• William Wordsworth (poet)
• John Wycliffe 
• Emily Bronte (poet, author)

Friday, January 25, 2013

30 facts about j.r.r. tolkien.

• The Tolkien name was derived from German. Tolkien (who was fascinated with languages said the  surname came from the German word tollkühn , meaning "foolhardy"
• Tolkien was born in Orange Free State, South Africa, but moved to England aged three.
• When he was a baby, the young Tolkien was kidnapped for a day, by a house boy, who was captivated by the baby.
• Tolkien became a Catholic in 1900, this caused a family rift with his Baptist relatives.
• Tolkien remained a Catholic throughout his life. C.S.Lewis credits Tolkien with his decision to become a Christian in the 1930s.
• From his early teens, Tolkien invented several languages. Quenya became an important aspect of his middle earth Legendarium. In a letter published in Observer, 1981, Tolkien wrote: The stories were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me name comes first and the story follows .'
• Aged 16, he met his future wife Edith. But, his guardian Father Francis Morgan prohibited Tolkien seeing her until Tolkien came of age, aged 21. 
• As a young student at Exeter College, Oxford University, he spent his first few years often getting into debt trying to keep up with richer students, who had more disposable income. Tolkien admits he had a great love of beer and talking into the early hours of the morning.
• Initially, Tolkien studied the classics but switched to English Literature when he found he could study Middle English.

• Tolkien said his character of Sam Gamgee was based on the ordinary soldiers who he commanded and who faced so much hardship without rancour. 
• The first work that Tolkien wrote was The Silmarillion; this wasn't published until after his death and was revised at different periods throughout his life.
• In 1918, he got a job working on the Oxford English Dictionary, which had begun in 1879. 
• Tolkien was saved from further fighting through developing trench fever. Though he later recalled that most of his friends died in the First World War.
• Tolkien was a great lecturer. When giving lectures on Beowulf , he would often startle students by exclaiming in Anglo-Saxon and speaking in the manner of an old bar.
• W.H.Auden later said, he thought the voice of Tolkien giving lectures, was the voice of Gandalf!
• The Hobbit was written initially for his own children.
• The first famous lines to the hobbit were written down on a blank, empty exam paper he was once marking. 'In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit"
• When agents from Nazi Germany wished to translate the Hobbit into German, they sent a letter asking to prove he was 'Aryan'. Tolkien gave a scathing reply, saying amongst other things that he wished he had Jewish ancestors.   
• Tolkien had a dislike for cars and spent most of his adult life relying on bicycles and trains. He had a particular love of the Oxfordshire countryside and was dismayed when it was covered with new roads.
• When an American company published an authorised copy of 'Lord of the Rings' It became a best-seller. But, because Tolkien maintained a long correspondence with many fans, he helped to encourage people to boycott the pirated copy. This boycott proved successful and eventually, the company made a donation to Tolkien and dropped the edition. 
• Tolkien left a significant body of work unpublished, which his son Christopher Tolkien later published. This included The Silmarillion, The History of Middle Earth and Unfinished Tales.
• Initially, Tolkien only wanted The Lord of the Rings to be published alongside the Silmarillion, almost going to another publisher.
• When Tolkien's son joined the army, he listed his father's occupation as 'Wizard!'
• In one sense Tolkien was a typical conservative. He was highly critical of the Stalinist and Hitler regime's. But, he also had a strong libertarian streak and once said: 'My political opinions lean more and more to anarchy.'
• Tolkien credited the works of William Morris as being a great inspiration. 
• In 1999 Amazon.com customers voted Lord of the Rings as the most popular book of the Millenium
• Tolkien was voted 94th on the list of Greatest Britons
• One of his favourite sayings was: Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool!
• He was buried at Wolvercote cemetery with his wife Edith. The description reads:
• Tolkien Quotes
• Why is the Lord of the Rings so popular?

Monday, September 10, 2012

Hate is never conquered by hate.

For hate is never conquered by hate. Hate is conquered by love. This is an eternal law.

• Differences between Buddhism and Christianity

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Gretel mahoney - mrs mahoney's secret war.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Suggest someone who has made a difference.

• Humanitarian
• People who made a difference
• Women who changed the world
• People who promoted peace
• Great Humanitarians

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

George bernard shaw facts.

"My speciality is being right when other people are wrong."

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."

• George Bernard Shaw was an iconoclastic playwright, journalist, polemicist, scintillating public speaker, arts reviewer and campaigning socialist,
• Shaw actually hated the George in his name, and used just Bernard Shaw
• With Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and Graham Wallas, George Bernard Shaw was a co-founder of the London School of Economics.
• George Bernard Shaw was a leading member of the Fabian society (a, along with luminaries such as Annie Besant and the Webbs
• A committed vegetarian
• A socialist
• Opponent of First World War
• Supported belief in Eugenics.
• Despite nearly dieing from smallpox, Shaw joined a public campaign in opposition to vaccination against smallpox.
• Shaw helped T.E. Lawrence , with his book the Seven Pillars of Wisdom
• Shaw was a keen amateur photographer.
• He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938) for work on transcribing Pygmalion (adaption of his play of the same name).
• He married but it was never consummated and he had no children
• When George Orwel l asked George Bernard Shaw for permission to quote from one of his works in a BBC interview for the 'Voice', magazine programme, to be broadcast by the Indian Service Shaw responded with the terse refusal "I veto it ruthlessly".
• In George Orwell's Animal Farm , Mr. Whymper a man hired by Napoleon to represent Animal Farm in human society, is loosely based on George Bernard Shaw who visited the U.S.S.R. in 1931 and praised Stalin and what he found.
• George Bernard Shaw rejected many honours during his lifetime. He only accepted the Nobel Prize at the behest of his wife who thought it would bring honour to Ireland.
• Shaw was a strident critic of contemporary education. in his Treatise on Parents and Children he considered the curriculum useless.
• George Bernard Shaw had no particular religion, but was receptive to a range of religious views: "(my) religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative revolution."

"The apparent multiplicity of Gods is bewildering at the first glance; but you presently discover that they are all the same one God in different aspects and functions and even sexes. There is always one uttermost God who defies personification."

George Bernard Shaw telegrammed Winston Churchill just prior to the opening of Major Barbara : "Have reserved two tickets for first night. Come and bring a friend if you have one."

Churchill wired back, "Impossible to come to first night. Will come to second night, if you have one."

• Quotes by Bernard Shaw
• Biography Bernard Shaw

Monday, January 24, 2011

Facts about wilfred owen.

• Wilfred Owen (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) is best known as one of the most powerful war poets, who depicted the reality and horrors of the First World War.
• He was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England - where there is now a memorial to him.
• Owen was influenced by the great romantic poets of Keats, Byron, Shelly, Coleridge and Wordsworth.
• When war broke out, Owen was teaching in France. He even considered joining the French army but joined the British army in 1915.
• Owen's first experience of the war was in hospitals treating the wounded soldiers - often without anaesthetic.
• Wilfred Owen was invalided out of the army in 1916 suffering from shell shock.
• Recuperating in an Edinburgh hospital, Wilfred Owen became close friends with poet Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon played a key role in encouraging the young war poet.
• When Owen returned to the front in 1918, he hid the fact from his friend Siegfried Sassoon, who didn't want him to return.
• His poem ' Anthem for Doomed Youth ' is one of the best-known war poems of all time.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons.

• In his preface to his collection of war poetry, Owen writes this fitting analogy:

' My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. '

• His famous poem "Dulce et Decorum est" takes its first line from a poem of Horace.

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped  Five-Nines  that dropped behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, .... To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.

• Owen's poetry was influenced by his friend Siegfried Sasson, in particular, the use of satire and sarcasm in his poetry. For example, "The ecstasy of fumbling' for gas masks is turning the use of the word ecstasy on its head.
• Wilfred Owen was killed in battle during the last month of the war - November 1918. He died exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice which ended the war.
• His parents received a telegram on Armistice day 1918, as the bells were ringing in celebration at the end of the war.
• After his death, he was awarded the Military Cross. Owen wanted this medal to make his anti-war poetry appear even stronger.
• Wilfred Owen is buried between two privates in the corner of a village cemetery at Ors. His grave is marked with a simple cross and gravestone. 
• His life and relationship with Siegfried Sassoon is the subject of Pat Barker's 1991 historical novel Regeneration
• More on Wilfred Owen at Biography of Wilfred Owen
• People of First World War

Heroes of First World War

Wednesday, january 19, 2011.

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,

• Famous people of the First World War
• Was the First World War justified?
• Tragedy of First World War
• Events that changed the world
• Heroes of World War Two

Monday, September 27, 2010

Britain's finest hour.

• Greatest Britons
• Famous British Quotes

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Random interesting facts.

• Coca Cola was invented by John Pemerton in 1886. It used to be made from coca leaves and could contain traces of cocaine (from 0.1% to 0.9% depending on where grown) Though it is no longer made with cocaine.
• The Guinness World Record for holding the most Guinness Records is set by Ashrita Furman . Ashrita has set - 303 - official Guinness Records since 1979 and currently holds - 121 (sept 2010)
• A googol is a large number. the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros: 10,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000,­000.
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
• The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
• There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.
• The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep.
• No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
• 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover
• It is unknown if odd perfect numbers exist
• A perfect number is a number whose divisors add up to itself such as 28: 1+2+4+7+14=28
• 5% of the world population lives in the US but 22% of the world's prisons population are held in the US.
• If you walk outside George Orwell's old house in London you are now captured on surveillance cameras 33 times.
• Approximately 105 million bicycles are made every year. This is double the number of motor cars made every year.
• In Chinese the words for 'crisis' and 'opportunity' are the same.
• The Netherlands has the highest rate of cycling with an average of 2.5 Km per day per person. In the US, this rate is 0.1 Km per person. In the UK 0.2Km ( cycling facts )
• The Rhubarb Triangle is a small area in West Yorkshire between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell. At one time, the 'Rhubarb triangle' produced 90% of the world's forced winter rhubarb. ( Yorkshire Facts )
• Everything weighs one per cent less at the equator.
• The mosquito has killed more human beings than any other animal.
• Birmingham(UK) has 22 more miles of canals than Venice.
• 9 out of every 10 living thing lives in the ocean.
• Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian Pharoahs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
• H There have been over 2,00 known nuclear bomb explosions since World War Two.
• A snail's reproductive organs are in it's head.
• An adult giraffe´s kick is so powerful it can decapitate a lion.
• The largest toy distributor in the world is Mcdonalds.
• The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and Britain in 1896.Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
• Each king in a pack of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades-King David , Clubs-Alexander the Great ,Hearts-Charlemagne and Diamonds-Julius Caesar.

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Definition of biography

Did you know.

So You've Been Asked to Submit a Biography

In a library, the word biography refers both to a kind of book and to a section where books of that kind are found. Each biography tells the story of a real person's life. A biography may be about someone who lived long ago, recently, or even someone who is still living, though in the last case it must necessarily be incomplete. The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person it's about. Autobiographies are of course also necessarily incomplete.

Sometimes biographies are significantly shorter than a book—something anyone who's been asked to submit a biography for, say, a conference or a community newsletter will be glad to know. Often the word in these contexts is shortened to bio , a term that can be both a synonym of biography and a term for what is actually a biographical sketch: a brief description of a person's life. These kinds of biographies—bios—vary, but many times they are only a few sentences long. Looking at bios that have been used in the same context can be a useful guide in determining what to put in your own.

Examples of biography in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Late Greek biographia , from Greek bi- + -graphia -graphy

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near biography

biographize

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biography. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of biography, more from merriam-webster on biography.

Nglish: Translation of biography for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of biography for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about biography

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Online Biographies

• Eric Henry Leduc – East Palatka, FL
• Karl Simon PA-C – Houston, TX
• Joe Wolfe – Thurston County, WA

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