Birth Locations – Page 144 – The Exasperated Historian

77) Joan of Arc

77) Joan of Arc

Heavenly Warrior

Born: 6 January 1412, Domrémy-la-Pucelle, France

Died: 30 May 1431, Rouen, France

Original Name: Jeanne d’Arc

Jeanne grew up as a peasant farmer in the French countryside. At the age of thirteen she began to receive messages from Angels sent from God.

Jeanne believed it was her divine mission to help place the rightful king of France back on the throne. She left home at the age of sixteen after her father tried to arrange a marriage for her (Jeanne had taken a vow of chastity after beginning to hear the angels).

Jeanne began her journey in May of 1428 with a band of followers who believed she was prophesied to return France to glory and restore the rightful (Catholic) king.

During this time, she cut her hair short and began to wear male garb; for some time, Jeanne was victorious in fighting the English back and forcing them to give up territory back to the French people—she also helped ensure Charles VII was crowned King in July of 1429.

Jeanne was captured in the spring of 1430 and brought to trial against seventy charges—most concerning heresy for being a witch and wearing men’s clothes. Charles did nothing to try and negotiate her release.

Under duress, she broke the following May and signed a confession but soon after was caught wearing men’s clothes again and was sentenced to death.

Jeanne was burned at the stake at the age of nineteen.

Twenty years after her death a new trial was ordered, and she was found not guilty on all charges.

In 1920 she was officially canonized a Saint by the Catholic Church.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Rejected Princess

Located In My Personal Library:

Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood

Heroines of God: Saints for Girls by Daniel A Lord

Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kirstin Downey

Joan of Arc by Tabatha Yeatts

Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured by Kathryn Harrison

Modowe Rewolucje (Fashion Revolutions) by Karolina Żebrowska

National Geographic History Magazine Article “Joan of Arc, Heretic, Warrior, Saint” (March/April 2017 Edition)

One Bloody Thing After Another: The World's Gruesome History by Jacob F Field

The Only Woman by Immy Humes

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Edited By Bonnie G Smith

Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

A Short History of the World in 50 Lies by Natasha Tidd

The Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser

The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones

Who Knew? Women in History: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman

Sources:

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/saint-joan-of-arc

https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/joan-of-arc

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22152/joan_of_arc

76) Andrew Breitbart

76) Andrew Breitbart

Conservative Publisher and creator of Breitbart News

Born: 1 February 1969, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Died: 1 March 2012, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Drudge Report Editor and Founder of Breitbart News; he was known for bringing a Conservative Viewpoint to Politics and News in the online sphere. He also helped launch The Huffington Post.

He passed away from a heart attack at the age of forty-three.

At the time of his death he was married with four children. Today, Breitbart News’s largest shareholder is his widow and mother of his children, Susie, who is extremely private and has given one interview (as of July 2019) in 2017.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/susie-bean-breitbart-is-secret-power-broker-behind-right-wing-media-1150457

https://www.conservapedia.com/Andrew_Breitbart

https://www.foxnews.com/us/conservative-commentator-andrew-breitbart-dead-at-43

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86040288/andrew-james-breitbart

76) The Ice Maiden of Pazyryk

This sketch shows the Ice Maiden in her tomb as well as the clothing left for her

76) The Ice Maiden of Pazyryk

Also known as the Ukok Princess or the Siberian Ice Maiden

She lived around the 5^th Century BC

Her mummy has led to numerous new insights into her people’s culture. The plateau where she was discovered also revealed two warriors buried nearby and is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

She and the warriors are covered in remarkable tattoos and she is believed to have died around the age of twenty-five.

The Ice Maiden was discovered in 1993; she was buried with six horses and other items making it likely she was a healer or spiritual person (and most likely not a Princess but Princess has a nice ring to it in the press).

Her people’s tattoos are some of the most intricate and beautiful of ancient tattoos—highly stylized and colored as well. It is thought her people applied tattoos as a way of identifying members of tribes and families in this world and the next.

She was buried in a Chinese Silk dress and felt boots. Her head was shaved, and she was buried with a horse hair wig and now iconic hat. The maiden’s cause of death remains unknown for certain because no outward damage to her skull is present and all her internal organs were removed before she was mummified.

Her mummy was the first of Russian origin to be subjected to an MRI scan and in 2014 the scientists conducting the tests said a possible cause of death was breast cancer, with a tumor being located in her right breast and lymph nodes. She may also have been injured from a fall, possibly from a horse.

The people of the Altai Region immediately objected to her being dug up and then taken away—and they claim a curse much like that of the Egyptian Pharaohs fell over the region once she was moved. It was finally agreed that her body would-be put-on display in a glass coffin at the Altai Museum.

The area where her body was found has now been declared a Zone of Peace and no more archaeological digs can take place there.

Click the video in this article to watch Episode 1: Civilisation, of Amanda Foreman’s Documentary Series Ascent of Woman, which features the Ice Maiden.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

Ascent of Woman, Documentary Series by Amanda Foreman

https://siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_Ice_Maiden

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/siberian-ice-princess-cancer-cannabis_n_5993052

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/200376439/ice_maiden-of_pazyryk

75) Khaemweset

The First Egyptologist

Born: c1281 BC, Memphis, Egypt

Died: c1225 BC

He was the best-known son of Ramesses II after Pharaoh Merneptah.

Khaemweset was the fourth son of the Pharaoh and his wife Isetnefret.

His life’s work was preserving and protecting monuments and temples that his people had built previously and saving the names of those who made them from obscurity. During his father’s reign he served as High Priest to Ptah at Memphis.

Khaemweset oversaw the construction of the Serapeum and presided over the burial of the Apis Bull. He and his older brothers died before their father, so the crown went to his brother Merneptah.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

The Great Book of Ancient Egypt: In the Realm of the Pharaohs by Zahi Hawass

National Geographic History Magazine Article "Children of Pharaoh: The Family of Ramses the Great" by Maite Mascort (January/February 2023 Edition)

The Pharaohs by Joyce Tyldesley

Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David

Secret Egypt by Zahi Hawass

Sources:

https://www.ancient.eu/Khaemweset/

https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/m06s_c4?categoryid=historical-figure

75) Hildegard von Bingen

75) Hildegard von Bingen,

Nun, Scientist, Composer, Author, and So Much More

Born: 1098, Present-day Germany

Died: 1179, Present-day Bingen, Germany

Feast Day: 17 September

She became a nun at the age of eighteen.

Hildegard had been receiving visions since the age of three and it took her ten years to write all of them down.

Hildegard was one of the first women to ever preach before a Catholic congregation (something that still isn’t allowed in 2019—she was special to say the least).

She was also a gifted composer and has also been named a Doctor of the Catholic Church; one of four women to have been given that title. Hildegard was also one of the first women to ever write on the female orgasm—something increasingly interesting seeing as she was a celibate Benedictine Nun.

She was canonized in 2012 as a Saint in the Catholic Church.

I have linked the episode of Amanda Foreman's Ascent of Woman Hildegard appears in. The entire documentary series is available on YouTube.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity to the Late Nineteenth Century by Margaret Alic

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History Edited By Bonnie G Smith

Powers & Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones

Sources:

Ascent of Woman, Documentary Series by Amanda Foreman

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-hildegard-of-bingen/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hildegard

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20988/hildegard-von_bingen

74) Ryan White

74) Ryan White

His Story is Exactly Why Kindness and an Educated Population Matter

Born: 6 December 1971, Kokomo, Indiana, United States of America

Died: 8 April 1990, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America

Ryan was infected with HIV through a bad blood transfusion and became a social outcast and activist because of it. He was one of the first children with hemophilia to be diagnosed with HIV.

He was first diagnosed at the age of thirteen in 1984. Ryan was originally told he had six months to live. He was even refused re-admittance to school after being diagnosed, but luckily national attention put pressure on the school, and he was allowed back.

Ryan and his mother fought hard to de-stigmatize HIV and AIDS. He surprised his doctors and actually lived five years after his diagnoses, passing away one month before his high school graduation. Soon after, the US Congress also passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. The Program has been reauthorized five times since, with the latest being in 2013, and is now called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

He passed away from AIDS related complications.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://hab.hrsa.gov/about-ryan-white-hivaids-program/who-was-ryan-white

https://ryanwhite.com/Ryans_Story.html

https://hab.hrsa.gov/about-ryan-white-hivaids-program/about-ryan-white-hivaids-program

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1612/ryan-wayne-white

74) Mary Magdalene

https://youtu.be/51VXjm5itcg?list=WL

74) Mary Magdalene

Jesus’s Disciple

Birth and Death Dates Unknown

Original Name: Mary of Magdala

It is extremely hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to any figures from the Bible and Holy Scriptures and many believe none of the figures written about in the Bible ever really existed at all, but there is some evidence the central characters are at least based on real people.

Mary’s image has shifted time and again from prostitute to mystic to nun to anything else you can imagine (including possibly being Jesus’s wife). According to Holy writings, Mary was ever present at Jesus’s side—staying with him throughout his crucifixion, being present at his tomb (and discovering his missing body), and he chose to appear to her first before anyone else after his resurrection.

Most historians and theologians today believe it is highly unlikely she was ever a prostitute and that that idea was made to mis-characterize her in the centuries after her death.

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that there are so many different Marys in the Holy Scriptures they tend to get mixed together and confused.

A document called the Gospel of Mary was uncovered in Egypt in 1896 and went so far as to claim Mary was actually Jesus’s wife. She is also featured prominently in the Gnostic Gospels discovered in 1945.

The Da Vinci Code book series and later films claim to be about the descendants of Mary and Jesus as though they had children (though remember, these are works of fiction based on legend). It should be noted that another papyrus scrap referred to as “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” has been downplayed and called a likely forgery by the woman who pushed it for many years and other historians.

Today Mary is celebrated as a Saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Badges Earned:

Located in My Personal Library:

Heroines of God: Saints for Girls by Daniel A Lord

Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly and Martin DuGard

Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan PhD

Powers & Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones

When God Had a Wife: The Fall and Rise of the Sacred Feminine in Judeo-Christian Tradition by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince

Life: Women of the Bible Magazine (2021 Edition)

Sources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-was-mary-magdalene-119565482/

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09761a.htm

73) Gunnery Sergeant R Lee Ermey

https://youtu.be/-ZYlXEUo-Lo

73) R Lee Ermey

Actor and Staff Sergeant in the US Marine Corps

Born: 24 March 1944, Emporia, Kansas, United States of America

Died: 15 April 2018, Santa Monica, California, United States of America

Original Name: Ronald Lee Ermey

His most Famous Role came in Full Metal Jacket. I've linked his now iconic scene in this article, but I warn you, here comes your foul language warning! Wear headphones if you watch it in public...or near small children...or older people...or church moms, you get what I mean.

R Lee enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1961. According to IMDb (none of the other sources I've checked said this), he enlisted after being given the choice—enlist or face a jail sentence for criminal mischief. From 1965 to 1967 he served as a Drill Instructor in San Diego. R Lee would then serve a fourteen-month tour in Okinawa, Japan and later Vietnam. In 1972, he was medically discharged from service due to injuries sustained.

In 1979, R Lee entered Hollywood with a bit part in Apocalypse Now. He next worked as Drill Instructor in The Boys in Company C. He worked as a technical advisor on Apocalypse Now and was originally going to only do technical work on Full Metal Jacket, however after director Stanley Kubrick reviewed a fifteen-minute audition tape that proved R Lee had what it took to act as a Drill Sergeant he got the role of Sergeant Hartman.

He would do over sixty films total, including voice acting as Sarge—the plastic army figuring in Toy Story. He also had a program on the History Channel called Mail Call, where he answered fan questions about the US Armed Forces.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Fun Fact, my father and brother met R Lee at a gun show when my brother was little. He doesn’t remember it, but Dad sure does!

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/bio

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/marine-vet-full-metal-jacket-actor-r-lee-ermey-is-buried-at-arlington-1.564982

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188847636/r_lee-ermey

73) Ivanka Trump Kushner

Business Woman and Advisor to her Father—Former President Donald J Trump

Born: 30 October 1981, Manhattan, New York, United States of America

Original Name: Ivana Marie Trump

Before her father's administration she worked in acquisitions and development at the Trump Organization.

Ivanka graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 2004. Her husband, Jared, is also an advisor to the President and they have three children together.

It’s interesting that before President Trump announced his run for office Ivanka was nearly always seen in a positive light and as a great role model but now she cannot do anything without being criticized for it, but hey, that’s just my observation.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

Women Who Work by Ivanka Trump

Sources:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/people/ivanka-trump/

72) Wallace Hartley

Band Leader and Violinist on the RMS Titanic

Born: 2 June 1878, Colne, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Died: 15 April 1912, The Atlantic Ocean

Wallace spent his life surrounded by music, playing in various orchestras before beginning to work for the Cunard Shipping Line in 1909—working on RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania.

In April of 1912 he was assigned as the bandmaster for the White Star Line’s newest ship RMS Titanic for her maiden voyage. One source claims he took the job reluctantly and was only assigned to her the day before the voyage.

He is remembered for keeping the band playing during the sinking and for trying to keep passengers calm. Though their actual last song was not recorded, various survivors claimed it was either “Nearer My God to Thee” or “Autumn”. I have included the scene from James Cameron's 1997 epic Titanic in this article if you would like to hear "Nearer My God to Thee".

None of the ship’s band members survived the sinking. At the time, Wallace was engaged to be married back home in England.

His violin survived; and in 2013 it was sold at auction for $1.6 Million (or £900,000).

Two weeks after Titanic went down, Wallace’s body was recovered and returned to England for burial. It is said some 20,000 people attended the funeral service.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located in My Personal Library:

The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down With the Titanic by Steve Turner

Centennial Presents The Titanic: The Shipwreck That Shocked the World, What Really Happened by Ben Harris and Sebastian Raatz

How It Happened: Titanic, The Epic Story From the People Who Were There by Geoff Tibballs (Mentioned on the Crew List Under the "Musicians" Listing)

LIFE Presents Titanic: The Tragedy That Shook the World by Kostya Kennedy

Titanic: True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy by Nicola Pierce

Sources:

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/wallace-hartley.html

https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-story-of-wallace-hartley-titanic-bandmaster/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7980/wallace-henry-hartley