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Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer from Edinburgh. His most popular works include the pirate-themed adventure novel "Treasure Island" (1883), the poetry collection "A Child's Garden of Verses" (1885), the Gothic horror novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1886) which depicted a man with two distinct personalities, and the historical novels "Kidnapped" (1886) and "The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses" (1888). Stevenson spend the last years of his life in Samoa, where he tried to act as an advocate for the political rights of Polynesians.

In 1850, Stevenson was born in Edinburgh. His father was Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887), a civil engineer, lighthouse designer, and meteorologist. Thomas was a co-founder of the Scottish Meteorological Society, and one of the sons of the famed engineer Robert Stevenson (1772-1850). Thomas' brothers were the engineers David Stevenson and Alan Stevenson. Stevenson's mother (and Thomas' wife) was Margaret Isabella Balfour, a member of a centuries-old gentry family. Stevenson's maternal grandfather was Lewis Balfour (1777-1860), a minister of the Church of Scotland. Lewis was himself a grandson of the philosopher James Balfour (1705-1795).

Both Stevenson's mother and his maternal grandfather had chronic problems with coughs and fevers. Stevenson demonstrated the same problems throughout his childhood. His contemporaries suspected that he was suffering from tuberculosis. Modern biographers have suggested that he was instead suffering from bronchiectasis (a congenital disorder of the respiratory system) or sarcoidosis (an autoimmune disease which affects the lungs).

Stevenson's parents were Presbyterians, but they were not particularly interested in indoctrinating their son. Stevenson's nurse was Alison "Cummy" Cunningham, a fervently religious woman. While tending to Stevenson during his recurring illnesses, she read to him passages from the Bible and from the works of the Puritan preacher John Bunyan (1628-1688). She also narrated to him tales of the Covenanters, a 17th-century religious movement.

Stevenson's poor health as a child kept him away from school for extended periods. His parents had to hire private tutors for him. He did not learn to read until he was 7 or 8-years-old. However, he developed an interest in narrating stories in early childhood. When he learned to write, he started writing tales as a hobby. His father Thomas was happy about this hobby, as he was also an amateur writer in his early life. In 1866, Stevenson completed his first book. It was "The Pentland Rising: A Page of History, 1666", a historical narrative of a Covenanter revolt. It was published at his father's expense.

In November 1867, Stevenson entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. He showed little interest in the subject matter. He joined both the debating club Speculative Society, and an amateur drama group organized by professor Fleeming Jenkin (1833-1885). During the annual holidays, Stevenson repeatedly joined his father in travels to inspect the family's engineering works. He displayed little interest in engineering, but the travels turned his interests towards travel writing.

In April 1871, Stevenson announced to his father that he wanted to become a professional writer. His father agreed, on the condition that Stevenson should also study to gain a law degree. In the early 1870s, Stevenson started dressing in a Bohemian manner, wore his hair long, and joined an atheist club. In January 1873, Stevenson explained to his father that he no longer believed in God, and that he had grown tired of pretending to be pious. He would eventually rejoin Christianity, but remained hostile to organized religion until his death.

In late 1873, Stevenson visited London. He had an essay published in the local art magazine "The Portfolio" (1870-1893), and started socializing with the city's professional writers. Among his new friends was the poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). Henley had a wooden leg, due to a childhood illness which led to amputation. Stevenson later used Henley as his inspiration for the one-legged pirate Long John Silver.

Stevenson qualified for the Scottish bar in July 1875, at the age of 24. He never practiced law, though his legal studies inspired aspect of his works. In September 1876, Stevenson was introduced to the American short-story writer Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne (1840-1914). She had separated from her unfaithful husband, and lived with her daughter in France. Fanny remained in his thoughts for months, and they became lovers in 1877. They parted ways in August 1878, when she decided to move back to San Francisco.

In August 1879, Stevenson decided to travel to the United States in search of Fanny. He arrived to New York City with little incident. The journey from New York City to California negatively affected his health, and he was near death by the time he arrived in Monterey, California. He and Fanny reunited in December 1879, but she had to nurse him to recovery. His father cabled him money to help in his recovery.

Stevenson and Fanny married in May 1880. Th groom was 29-years-old, and the bride was 40-years-old. They spend their honeymoon at an abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena. The couple sailed back to the United Kingdom in August 1880. Fanny helped Stevenson to reconcile with his father.

Stevenson and his wife moved frequently from place to place in the early 1880s. In 1884, they settled in their own home in the seaside town of Bournemouth, Dorset. Stevenson named their new residence "Skerryvore". He used the name of a lighthouse which his uncle Alan had constructed. In 1885, Stevenson reacquainted himself to his old friend, the novelist Henry James (1843-1916). James had moved to Bournemouth to care for his invalid sister. Stevenson and James started having daily meetings to converse over various topics. Stevenson wrote several of his popular works while living in Bournemouth, though he was frequently bedridden.

In 1887, Thomas Stevenson died. Stevenson felt that nothing tied him to the United Kingdom, and his physician had advised him that a complete change of climate might improve his health. Stevenson and much of his surviving family (including his widowed mother) traveled to the state of New York. They spend the winter at a cottage in the Adirondacks, with Stevenson starting to work on the adventure novel "The Master of Ballantrae" (1889).

In June 1888, Stevenson chartered the yacht "Casco" to transport him and his family to San Francisco. The sea air helped restore his health for a while. Stevenson decided to spend the next few years wandering in the Pacific islands. He visited the Hawaiian Islands, and befriended the local monarch Kalakaua (1836-1891, reigned 1874-1891) and his niece Ka'iulani (1875-1899). Stevenson's other voyages took him to the Gilbert Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Samoan Islands.

In December 1889, Stevenson and his family at the port of Apia in the Samoan islands. He decided to settle in Samoa. In January 1890, he purchased an estate on the island. He started building Samoa's two-story house, and also started collecting local folktales. He completed an English translation of the moral fable "The Bottle Imp".\

Stevenson grew concerned with the ongoing rivalry between Britain, Germany and the United States over their influence in Samoa. He feared that the indigenous clan society would be displaced by foreigners. He published various texts in defense of the Polynesians and their culture. He also worked on "A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa" (1892), a detailed chronicle of the Samoan Civil War (1886-1894) and the international events leading up to it.

Stevenson's last fiction writings indicated his growing interest in the realist movement, and his disdain for colonialism. In December 1894, Stevenson suffered a stroke while conversing with his wife. He died hours later, at the age of 44. The local Samoans provided a watch-guard to protect his body until a tomb could be prepared for it. Stevenson was buried at Mount Vaea, on a spot overlooking the sea. A requiem composed by Stevenson himself was inscribed on the tomb.

Stevenson was seen as an influential writer of children's literature and horror fiction for much of the 20th century, but literary critics and historians had little interest in his works. He was re-evaluated in the late 20th century "as an artist of great range and insight", with scholarly studies devoted entirely to him. The Index Translationum, UNESCO's database of book translations, has ranked him as the 26th most translated writer on a global level. Stevenson ranked below Charles Dickens (25th) in the index, and ahead of Oscar Wilde (28th). His works have received a large number of film adaptations.

Guy de Maupassant was born on 5 August 1850 in Château de Miromesnil, France. He was a writer, known for La criada de la granja (1953), Black Sabbath (1963) and Masculine Feminine (1966). He died on 6 July 1893 in Paris, France.

Robert Brower was born on 14 July 1850 in Point Pleasant, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Little Minister (1921), Vanity Fair (1915) and How Mrs. Murray Saved the American Army (1911). He died on 8 December 1934 in West Hollywood, California, USA.

At the age of 6, Lafcadio Hearn, who had been born in Leucos in the Greek Ionian Islands to a Greek mother and an Irish father, was made a ward of his Irish great-aunt, who packed him off to Jesuit boarding schools in France and Britain. At the age of 16, he was sent to the US, where he worked as a journalist in Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He translated French literature into English and began to develop his own taste, which was for the foreign, the exotic, and--sometimes--the macabre. Hearn's life changed radically when he traveled to Japan in 1890. He fell in love with the place and then with Setsu Koizumi, the daughter of a samurai family whose husband had deserted her and left her penniless. They were married in 1891. Hearn enthusiastically became a Japanese citizen, took the name Yakumo Koizumi, and acquired a teaching position at Imperial University, which he held until 1903. His interpretations of things Japanese--customs, geography, folk tales and literature--were internationally translated, widely admired, and adapted into films such as Kwaidan (1964); any of his works are still in print today. His loyalty and love for his adopted country was unflagging throughout his life. He died at the age of 54.

Joseph J. Dowling was born on 4 September 1850 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Yankee Way (1917), Sink or Swim (1920) and The Christian (1923). He was married to Sarah J. Hassen and Myra Davis. He died on 8 July 1928 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Pierre Loti was born on 14 January 1850 in Rochefort, Charente-Inférieure [now Charente-Maritime], France. He was a writer, known for Pêcheur d'Islande (1959), Le roman d'un spahi (1914) and Le roman d'un spahi (1936). He was married to Jeanne Amélie Blanche Franc de Ferrière. He died on 10 June 1923 in Hendaye, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France.

Famous American poet and author. She wrote numerous poems starting when she was 7 years old. She would go on to write poems such as The Price He Paid, Inherited Passions, The Beautiful Lie and The Belle of the Season amoung other. In her later years she went to the battle fields in France during World War 1 to lecture to the soldiers, and assist with the Red Cross. While in France Ella became ill and was taken back to the United States where she died of Cancer at her Short Beach estate. She was cremated and sealed in a vault with her husbands ashes on the property.

E.J. Smith was born on 27 January 1850 in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He was married to Sarah Eleanor Smith. He died on 15 April 1912 in North Atlantic Ocean.

Mari Jászai was born on 24 February 1850 in Ászár, Hungary [now in Kisbér, Hungary]. She was an actress, known for Bánk bán (1915) and The Undesirable (1915). She was married to Vidor Kassai. She died on 5 October 1926 in Budapest, Hungary.

Sophus Bauditz was born on 23 October 1850 in Aarhus, Denmark. He was a writer, known for Historien om Hjortholm (1950). He died on 16 August 1915 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Octave Mirbeau was born on 16 February 1850 in Trevières, Calvados, France. He was a writer, known for The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) and Business Is Business (1915). He was married to Alice Regnault. He died on 16 February 1917 in Paris, France.

Georges Demenÿ was inventor, chronophotgrapher, filmmaker and gymnast born at Douai, France. After studying at Douai and Lille, he reached Paris and enrolled in the physiology course of Étienne-Jules Marey, quickly becoming one of the scientist's closest associates. Together they established a programme of research which was to lead to the creation of the 'Station Physiologique', which opened in 1882 in the Bois de Boulogne. Demenÿ was Marey's assistant there, and the two researchers produced a considerable body of work, photographing human and animal movement using sequential photography (chronophotography). The 'film' career of Marey and Demenÿ really began in 1888 when Marey's camera recorded on a sensitive strip several series of images. From 1890 they were using celluloid film. On 3 March 1892, Demenÿ filed a patent for the Phonoscope, an apparatus for glass discs with a series of chronophotographic images on their circumference which could be projected using a powerful Molteni lantern. After the Phonoscope was successfully presented at the Exposition Internationale de Photographie de Paris (1892), Demenÿ dreamed of commercialising chronophotography, and pushed Marey to order the manufacture of six cameras intended for sale. Relations between them soured when Demenÿ formed, in December 1892, the Société de Phonoscope. Marey refused to co-operate in this enterprise, so Demenÿ devised his own camera, inventing the 'beater' mechanism - used in many later projectors - to move the film. In 1894 Demenÿ was dismissed from the Station Physiologique. He installed himself at Levallois-Perret, rue Chaptal, and made about a hundred very diverse Phonoscope scenes. On 22 August 1895 Demenÿ and sleeping partner Léon Gaumont signed their first contract, and in November the Phonoscope (renamed Bioscope) was offered for sale. Early in 1896, the Biographe camera using 60 mm unperforated film was also on offer. Projection by means of Phonoscope/Bioscope discs offered a very brief entertainment. The Biographe camera was already archaic in 1896, in contrast to those of Lumière or de Bedts, and Demenÿ's machines were a financial failure. However, Gaumont exploited Demenÿ's principle of the beater movement with great success, and Demenÿ entrused to him the financial battle of cinematography, returning to his first passion, gymnastics.

Kate Chopin was born on 8 February 1850 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was a writer, known for American Playhouse (1980), Grand Isle (1991) and The End of August (1981). She was married to Oscar Chopin. She died on 22 August 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in Ballylongford, Ireland on June 24, 1850, the son of Lt. Col. Henry Kitchener. After attending boarding school in Switzerland, Horatio was admitted to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, England in 1868. Commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers in 1871, he spent most of the next 28 years at British army posts in Africa, rising to the rank of major general. He led part of the British-Egyptian Expeditionary force in the reconquest of the Sudan from 1896 to 1898 against the Dervish Mahdists where at the Battle of Omdurman on September 2, 1898, he defeated the Mahdists and was later given the title Baron Kitchener of Khartoum, later elevated to earl.

During the 1899-1902 Boer War in South Africa, General Kitchener was assigned as chief of staff to the British commander, Lord Roberts. While General Sir Redvers Buller handled operations in the eastern theater of operations, Kitchener served as Roberts' second in command in the western theater, spearheading the British advance into the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal in early 1900, leading to the capture of the Boer capital of Pretoria. When Roberts and Buller returned to England in November 1900, Lord Kitchener succeeded Roberts as commander in chief for the drawn-out guerrilla phase of the war. From then on, Lord Kitchener directed the British campaign against General Louis Botha's Boer guerrillas launching hit-and-run raids against British posts everywhere in South Africa. In a long and brutal campaign, Kitchener imposed a "scorched earth" policy of burning crops, destroying Afrikaner farms and villages, and establishing a network of blockhouses across parts of South Africa which slowly tied down the Boers, impairing their commando raids. It was not until May 31, 1902 that the Boer leaders gave in and within months the last of the Boer guerrillas were starved into surrendering. Kitchener was then made commander of the British troops in India and promoted to Field Marshall.

y 1914 at the start of World War I, Kitchener was appointed secretary for war and placed in charge of organizing the British war effort. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Kitchener believed that the war would be long and costly, and accordingly instituted a massive recruiting drive. Almost 2.5 million British and Colonial troops were raised through this effort. In addition to the mass mobilization and supply of his armies, Lord Kitchener personally oversaw the British campaigns from the Near East, to the Western Front in France, to Africa. Kitchener was made a Knight of the Garter, Great Britain's highest honor in June 1915.

Lord Kitchener died in the line of duty on June 5, 1916 when, en route to a conference with the Russian high command in St. Petersburg, the ship he was on, the HMS Hampshire, struck a mine off the Orkney Islands. Kitchener was not among the few dozen survivors. He was then declared missing in action, and later declared dead. Had he survived, some experts believe that World War I would have ended a year earlier than it did.

Mary Davenport was born on 1 April 1850 in the USA. She was an actress, known for The Widow of Red Rock (1914). She was married to J. Duke Murray (manager). She died on 26 June 1916 in Fresno, California, USA.

H. Kyrle Bellew was born on 28 March 1850 in Prescot, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1905), The Great Sword Combat on the Stairs (1902) and A Gentleman of France (1905). He was married to Eugènie Marie Séraphie Le Grand. He died on 2 November 1911 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

Pat Garrett was born on 5 June 1850 in Cusseta, Alabama, USA. He died on 29 February 1908 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.

Thomas Lipton was born on 10 May 1850 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He died on 2 October 1931 in London, England, UK.

André Sylvane was born on 27 March 1850 in L'Aigle, Orne, France. He is known for The Sad Sack (1928), Tire au flanc (1933) and Tire au flanc (1950).

Harry Duffield was born on 3 May 1850 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for For Those We Love (1921), Smiling All the Way (1920) and A Wise Fool (1921). He was married to Jessie B, Phosa McAllister and Mary E.. He died on 13 October 1921 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Prince Arthur Duke of Connaught was born on 1 May 1850 in Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, England, UK. He was married to Princess Margaret Louise of Prussia Duchess of Connaught. He died on 16 January 1942 in Bagshot, Surrey, England, UK.

Jerry Sinclair was born on 3 August 1850 in the USA. He was an actor, known for Back Pay (1922), So's Your Old Man (1926) and The Bond Boy (1922). He died on 15 September 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Amelia Vieira was born on 17 February 1850 in Lisbon, Portugal. She was an actress, known for Rainha Depois de Morta Inês de Castro (1910) and Fado, Ombre et Lumière (1995). She died on 9 January 1928.

Mihai Eminescu was born on 15 January 1850 in Botosani, Principality of Moldavia. He was a writer, known for Adela (1985), Poetry Is Not Dead (2015) and Great Romanians (2006). He died on 15 June 1889 in Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania.

Lujza Blaha was born on 8 September 1850 in Rimaszombat, Hungary [now Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia]. She was an actress, known for A Nagymama (1916) and A táncz (1901). She was married to Ödön Splényi, Sándor Soldos and János Blaha. She died on 18 January 1926 in Budapest, Hungary.