Random Last Known Photos Taken Of Legendary Historical Figures (17 items)

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  (#17) Mao Zedong

  • Dec. at 83 (1893-1976)

  Photo details: Beijing, China, May 27, 1976

  Mao Zedong is a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which he sought after he was exposed to Marxist literature. In 1927, the CCP's former allies, the Kuomintang nationalist party (KMT), chased the communist group out of northern China and into northwest China. There the CCP set up a new base, and when WWII broke out, the groups became allies once again. Their partnership was short lived, however, and in 1949, Mao Zedong and the CCP ran the KMT out of the country and started the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). 

  Under communist rule, the country's industrial farms and businesses are owned by the state, and any opposition is "ruthlessly oppressed." Mao attempted to instate his own form of communism which would mobilize labor on a massive scale. The program, called the "Great Leap Forward," failed, and millions suffered from famine and poor harvest. 

  Mao attempted to restore order with military power. In the final years of his life, he wanted to reconcile with the US, Japan, and Europe. 
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  (#3) Albert Einstein

  • Dec. at 76 (1879-1955)

  Photo details: Princeton, NJ, March 1955

  Albert Einstein spent the years leading up to and throughout WWII earning his education and building his reputation as a notable professor at several prestigious universities across continental lines. After the war, he became a leading figure in the World Government Movement, declined Presidency over the State of Israel, and he worked with Dr. Chaim Weizmann to establish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

  Einstein is well known for his 1905 paper on the photon theory of light in which he used what he discovered about the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics to determine that E=mc². A few years later, in 1916, he wrote about another revelation which hypothesized his theory of gravitation. 

  Einstein is a Nobel Prize winner who spent his life studying quantum theory as a professor, ambassador, and clerk. He made discoveries which have since influenced the modern understanding of physics and relativity. 
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  (#11) Diana, Princess of Wales

  • Dec. at 36 (1961-1997)

  Photo details: August 31, 1997

  Diana of Wales is remembered  as "the people's princess," because of her relatability and charm. Diana lived the life she wanted, in spite of royal repercussions. She married Prince Charles in 1981 due to public and familial pressure. The couple appeared to be inlove, but later revealed that they both had reservations. After a tumultuous fifteen years of marriage and two children, Diana and Charles divorced in 1996. One year later, on August 31, 1997, she perished in a car accident, with then boyfriend Dodi Fayed. 

  Diana was widely mourned and her sons went on to restore royal popularity, which faltered with an apparent lack of grief for the fallen princess. Diana worked as a kindergarten teacher prior to her marriage, and continued to put her efforts into charitable causes for the remainder of her life. 
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  (#10) Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • Dec. at 63 (1882-1945)

  Photo details: Warm Springs, GA, April 11, 1945

  Franklin D. Roosevelt won the democratic nomination and served as the 32nd president of the US in 1932 at the height of the Great Depression. He was the 5th cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt, and sought to serve the American people while combating his own ailments. FDR was elected to the New York Senate in 1910, and became governor in 1928. His ultimate goal was to recover from the economic disaster that left 13,000,000 Americans unemployed. He proposed the New Deal program which implemented a series of programs over FDR's eight years in office that aimed to stabilize the economy and provide jobs. 

  FDR suffered from poliomyelitis which paralyzed him from the waist down over time. He fought to maintain control of his own body, and served the American people while often confined to a wheel chair. He supported Great Britain in the European war while withholding military efforts until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, which eventually forced the US to take part in WWII. He is remembered for his successful reformation of banks, social security, public utilities, and employment.
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  (#5) Abraham Lincoln

  • Dec. at 56 (1809-1865)

  Photo details: April 5, 1865

  Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the US and is responsible for enacting the Emancipation Proclamation which began America's progression toward the abolition of slavery. He was a vocal advocate for freedom during civil unrest among the states and as the war was ending, in 1865, Lincoln's life was taken by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

  Lincoln was not only an advocate for civil rights, but he was a self-taught lawyer known for his honesty and his indiscriminate clientele. He and his wife, Mary Todd, had four children, two of whom passed before their father. He began serving in the US House of Representatives in 1847 and was notably controversial because he opposed the Mexican-American War. 

  Lincoln's Gettysburg address legendarily explained the purpose for the civil war and is famously studied to this day. He also advocated for the 13th amendment, which outlaws slavery, and which was passed after his untimely demise. 
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  (#6) Mark Twain

  • Dec. at 75 (1835-1910)

  Photo details: April 1910

  Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, was a popular novelist, humorist, and journalist. He is known for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as narratives such as Life on the Mississippi and The Innocents Abroad. Like his most famous characters, Clemens is said to have been quite the mischief maker as a child. In fact, the events of his childhood, growing up in Missouri in the 19th century,  heavily influenced the content of his later novels. 

  For example, though he was taught that slavery was a social right and was approved of by God, he was naturally disheartened by the institution, something he reflects upon in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also witnessed several traumatizing events involving the deceased which take shape in his novels. 

  Clemens matured under the instruction of Joseph P. Ament’s Missouri Courier, and later published occasional works in his brother Orion Clemens' weekly newspaper. Eventually he established his own journal in Iowa called the Muscatine before setting up a print shop which he abandoned when he moved to Ohio. He spent some time learning from riverboat captain Horace Bixby, earning adventures that also made it into his later works. 

  By 1865, Clemens had gained literary notoriety and the name Mark Twain became famous. 

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