Biography of Alfred Nobel… José Luis Rodriguez - Puma… Cassius Clay - Muhammad Ali… Charles Lyell…

Biography of Alfred Nobel

(1833/10/21 - 1896/12/10)

Alfred Nobel
Swedish inventor and chemist

He was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm.
He learned from his father the engineering fundamentals and continued his studies in St. Petersburg, Russia, a city to which his family had moved in 1842. In 1850 he travelled to Paris and later to the United States, countries in which perfected its technological expertise. Back in Petersburgo, worked at the factory from his father until he came his break in 1859.
He returned to Sweden where he organized several plants explosives, mostly based on the manufacture of liquid nitroglycerin, detonating substance discovered by Ascanio Sobrero Italian in 1846. With his brothers Ludwig (1831-88) and Robert (1829-96), he perfected the distillation of petroleum and exploded the Baku Russian sites.
Heleneborg (Sweden), works in a factory trying to develop a safe method for handling nitroglycerin, when an explosion in 1864 died his brother and others. In 1867 reduced the volatility of nitroglycerine mixed with absorbent porous material (diatomite) getting a powder that could be struck and even burned in the air free while it exploded. The resulting mixture only exploited when electrical or chemical detonators were used. He was born to the dynamite. He later created the ballistite, one of the first smokeless gunpowder.
At the time of his death he was heading factories for the production of explosives in various parts of the world. I read, spoke and wrote fluently in five languages: Swedish, Russian, English, French and German.
Alfred Nobel died of a heart attack in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896.

Biography of José Luis Rodriguez - Puma

(1943/01/14 - Unknown)

José Luis Rodríguez González
The Puma
Venezuelan actor and singer

He was born on January 14, 1943 in Caracas, in a very humble family.
As a teenager he started as a vocalist in the group Los Zeppys, interpreting issues of The Platters. In 1962, it has his chance when he replaced Felipe Pirela as vocalist of the Billo's Caracas Boys. He stayed three years in the Orchestra, then continuing his solo career, reaching a huge fame in America.
Became famous in Spain mostly as a result of a full rate song: Peacock. It is recognized not only as a singer but also as the Venezuelan television actor of telenovelas . In 1995, he founded the first Venezuelan music video channel: Bravo TV, whose name would change to Puma TV, which gave promotion to artists, models, singers and everything having to do with the world of the spectacle.
In 1973 made public its abandonment of Catholicism and is baptized in the Protestant rite, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On May 10, 2004 adopts US citizenship, without renouncing to the Venezuelan. In September of 2014 revealed that he suffers from a pulmonary fibromatosis that has no cure.
Married since 1966 with the Venezuelan singer Lila Morillo which met in 1965. In 1996 he married Carolina Perez. He is father of Genesis Rodriguez, and Lilibeth Morillo and Liliana Morillo, singers and actresses.

Biography of Cassius Clay - Muhammad Ali

(17/01/1942 - Unknown)

Muhammad Ali

Cassius Marcellus Clay
American boxer

He was born on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Son of Cassius Marcellus Clay and Odessa O'Grady. He had a sister and four brothers. His father painted posters and signs, his mother was a housewife. Although his father was Methodist, accepted that his wife, Cassius and his brother minor, Rudolph, were Baptists. His paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne; his sister Eva stated that Sallie was natural of Madagascar and, though predominantly African American descent, also has Irish, English, and Italian descent.
He started boxing with a Louisville police officer; the also coach Joe E. Martin, who met him when she was furious because a thief stole his bicycle. Cassius told him that he was going to fight with the thief. The official recommended to learn before boxing. After winning a street fight he was convinced that it was the biggest pugilist who was born in the world.
During four years of amateur career he was trained by Chuck Bodak. Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national titles Golden Gloves, an Amateur Athletic Union National title, and the gold medal Amateur at the Olympics of 1960 in Rome. His amateur record was 100 victories with five defeats. He said in his 1975 autobiography shortly after his return from the Olympics threw their gold medal into the Ohio River once refused him and a friend use a restaurant service "only for whites", but later said that although he was denied service at a restaurant, the medal lost it a year after winning it. Later he would receive another replacement during an intermission of basketball at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
In his first professional bouts, he showed an incredible speed of hands and feet considering his height of 1.88 meters and a weight of 85 kg. After only 20 professional bouts he beat Sonny Liston became world champion in its category. Of the 25 February 1964 is still remembered as one of the most tense days lived in the Convention Hall in Miami Beach. The night in which the Boxer Cassius Clay world champion of the heavyweights, Sonny Liston snatched, in seven rounds, his belt then. "I am the greatest!, I am the greatest!" was the phrase with which the future Muhammad Ali formalize this triumph over the "ugly bear", as he was derisively called his opponent. And the phrase with which the black athlete, chosen as one of the greatest of the 20th century, entered definitely in the history of Western culture.
It became to Islam that same year and adopted the name of Muhammad Ali. In 1967 he refused to merge the army claiming to be Muslim and therefore a conscientious objector. Didn't Ali exposed to a punishment of five years in prison and 10 thousand dollars of fine for refusing to serve in the armed forces. Accused deserter, boxing authorities declared their vacant.
He returned to the ring in 1970 and won two fights, but he lost the bout title against Joe Frazier in March 1971. That same year the Supreme Court of the United States overturned his conviction. He reappeared in 1974, beat Frazier in January and returned to win the heavyweight title by knocking out the champion, George Foreman, in October in Kinshasa, Zaire.
Four years later, in February 1978, he lost the title to Leon Spinks in Las Vegas, Nevada. However in September of the same year, he managed to recover to beat Spinks in a bout of 15 rounds in New Orleans, Louisiana. Retired in 1979, he returned the following year to challenge Larry Holmes at the World Championship losing to his opponent. Ali last fought on December 11, 1981 in Nassau losing against Trevor Berbick.
With a reputation for aggressive fighter with a strong personality, his technique was defined as "fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee". Ali was on front pages in the media, challenging and provoking his opponents through interviews and confrontations agreed in advance. It became a sport figure recognized around the world and retired as one of the best champions of boxing.
The International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) rated it among the 10 best heavyweights in history.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1984, a neurological syndrome characterized by tremors, stiffness of muscles and slowness of speech and movements which is common in activities such as boxing.
In the Olympic Games in Atlanta (1996) lit the Olympic flame in the stadium. On July 27, 2012, he was titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Married four times and had two sons and seven daughters. He met his first wife, the waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before getting married, on 14 August 1964. The objections of Roi to Muslim mores contributed to the breakdown of the marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966. Ali on August 17, 1967, married Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she became to Islam and Sufism after changing its name to Bill Ali. They had four children: Maryum (born in 1968), the twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born in 1970), and Muhammad Ali, Jr. (born in 1972). In 1975, it relates with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. In the summer of 1977, he finished his second marriage and marries Veronica, which already had a daughter, Hana, and being pregnant with his second contract marriage. His second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. In 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced. Its Laila became a boxer in 1999, despite the comments of his father against women's boxing. On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Williams. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They had a son, Asaad Amin, whom he adopted when he was five months old. It has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital affairs.

Biography of Charles Lyell

(1797/11/14 - 1875/02/22)

Charles Lyell
Scottish geologist

He was born on November 14, 1797 in Kinnordy (currently, Angus).
He studied law at Oxford University. On the basis of the work of the Scottish geologist James Hutton18th century, developed the theory of uniformity, where it establishes that all natural processes that change the Earth in the present have done identically in the past. He said the theory with geological observations made during their long journeys across Europe and North America.
Opposed to catastrophism, uniformity theory was very popular among the scientists of the time. She says that only major disasters could change the basic formation of the Earth. Most scientists believed that the catastrophism was compatible with the biblical interpretation of the creation of the Earth.
Principles of geology, he wrote. His theories had influence on his friend Charles Darwin, who formulated the theory of evolution. He is also considered as one of the founders of the stratigraphy, the study of the layers of the Earth's surface. He was author of a method to classify the strata, through the study of ancient marine strata of Western Europe. He appreciated that the marine layers closer to the surface, contained many species of mollusc with shell that survive today in the sea. The deepest layers contained fewer fossils of living species. It divided the rocks of this period in three -Eocene, Miocene and Pliocene- times that are used still today.
Named sir in 1848 and baron in 1864.
Charles Lyell died in London on February 22, 1875.