J.K. Rowling

imageBest known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, the British novelist Joanne “Jo” Rowling, OBE, (J. K. Rowling)was born 31 July 1965.The Harry Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies to become the best-selling book series in history and been the basis for a popular series of films, in which Rowling had overall approval on the scripts as well as maintaining creative control by serving as a producer on the final instalment. Rowling conceived the idea for the series on a train trip from Manchester to London in 1990.n 1995, Rowling finished her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on an old manual typewriter. Upon the enthusiastic response of Bryony Evens, a reader who had been asked to review the book’s first three chapters. Then In June 1997 Bloomsbury, a small Publishing house in London, published Philosopher’s Stone with an initial print run of 1,000 copies, 500 of which were distributed to libraries. In early 1998, an auction was held in the United States for the rights to publish the novel, and was won by Scholastic Inc for $1. Five months later, the book won its first award, a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In February, the novel won the prestigious British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year, and later, the Children’s Book Award.

imageIn October 1998, Scholastic published Philosopher’s Stone in the US under the title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: a change Rowling claims she now regrets and would have fought if she had been in a better position at the time. Its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was published in July 1998 and again Rowling won the Smarties Prize.In December 1999, the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, won the Smarties Prize, making Rowling the first person to win the award three times running. She later withdrew the fourth Harry Potter novel from contention to allow other books a fair chance. In January 2000, Prisoner of Azkaban won the inaugural Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year award, though it lost the Book of the Year prize to Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf.The fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released simultaneously in the UK and the U.S. on 8 July 2000, and broke sales records in both countries, almost equalling the number Prisoner of Azkaban sold during its first year and Rowling was named author of the year in the 2000 British Book Awards.the fifth Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released three years later and The sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was released on 16 July 2005. It too broke all sales records, selling nine million copies in its first 24 hours of release, and In 2006, Half-Blood Prince received the Book of the Year prize at the British Book Awards. The seventh and final Harry Potter book is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on 21 July 2007 and broke its predecessor’s record as the fastest-selling book of all time and sold 11 million copies in the first day of release in the United Kingdom and United States. J.K Rowling’s latest book Fabulous beasts and where to find Them has also been turned into a film starring Eddie Redmayme as Newt Scarmander and a script for the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is due for release soon.

imageThe last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages and have also gained recognition for sparking an interest in reading among the young at a time when children were thought to be abandoning books for computers and television, Time magazine also named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fans. In October 2010, J. K. Rowling was named ‘Most Influential Woman in Britain’ by leading magazine editors. She has become a notable philanthropist, supporting such charities as Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, and Lumos (formerly the Children’s High Level Group). In 2012, Rowling’s novel The Casual Vacancy was published and it was recently revealed that the novel The Cookoo’s Calling, written by Robert Galbraith and featuring the exciting adventures of Private Investigator Cormoron Strike, shared certain similarities with J.K Rowling novels leading to all kinds of speculation. The Cookoo’s Calling was followed by the novels The Silkworm and Career of Evil.

Vincent van Goch

Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent Willem van Gogh sadly passed away 29 July 1890 at the age of 37 years old in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Van Goch was born 30th March 1853, his work is notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted (although no gun was ever found).His work was then known to only a handful of people and appreciated by fewer still.



His work grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style that became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888. The extent to which his mental health affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. Despite a widespread tendency to romanticize his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of illness. According to art critic Robert Hughes, Van Gogh’s late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and “longing for concision and grace”.

Sir Clive Sinclair

CompEnglish entrepreneur and inventor Sir Clive Marles Sinclair was born 30 July 1940. He is most commonly known for. his work in consumer electronics in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sinclair’s micro Kit was formalised in an exercise book dated 19 June 1958 three weeks before his A-levels. Sinclair drew a radio circuit, Model Mark I, with a components list: cost per set 9/11 (49½p), plus coloured wire and solder, nuts and bolts, plus celluloid chassis (drilled) for nine shillings (45p). Also in the book are advertisement rates for Radio Constructor (9d (3¾p)/word, minimum 6/- (30p) & Practical Wireless (5/6 (27½p) per line or part line). Sinclair estimated producing 1,000 a month, placing orders with suppliers for 10,000 of each component to be delivered. Sinclair wrote a book for Bernard’s Publishing, Practical transistor receivers Book 1, which appeared in January 1959. His practical stereo handbook was published in June 1959 in total he produced 13 constructors’ books and the last book Sinclair wrote as an employee of Bernard’s was Modern Transistor Circuits for Beginners, in 1962.

After spending several years as assistant editor of Practical Wireless and Instrument Practice, Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics in 1961, His original choice, Sinclair Electronics, was taken; Sinclair Radio was available but did not sound right. Sinclair Radionics was formed on 25 July 1961.Sinclair made two attempts to raise startup capital to advertise his inventions and buy components. He designed PCB kits and licensed some technology. Then he took his design for a miniature transistor pocket radio and sought a backer for its production in kit form. Eventually he found someone who agreed to buy 55% of his company for £3,000 but the deal did not go through. Sinclair, unable to find capital, joined United Trade Press (UTP) as technical editor of Instrument Practice. Sinclair appeared in the publication as an assistant editor in March 1962. Sinclair described making silicon planar transistors, their properties and applications and hoped they might be available by the end of 1962. Sinclair’s obsession with miniaturisation became more obvious as his career progressed. Sinclair undertook a survey for Instrument Practice of semiconductor devices, which appeared in four sections between September 1962 and January 1963. His last appearance as assistant editor was in April 1969. Through UTP, Sinclair had access to thousands of devices from 36 manufacturers. He contacted Semiconductors Ltd (who at that time sold semiconductors made by Plessey) and ordered rejects to repair. He produced a design for a miniature radio powered by a couple of hearing aid cells and made a deal with Semiconductors to buy its micro-alloy transistors at 6d (2½p) each in boxes of 10,000. He then carried out his own quality control tests, and marketed his renamed MAT 100 and 120 at 7s 9d (38¾p) and 101 and 121 at 8s 6d (42½p). He also produced the first slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 (the Sinclair Executive).

In 1973 Sinclair moved into the production of home computers and formed another company, initially called Ablesdeal Ltd. This changed name several times, eventually becoming Science of Cambridge Ltd, and In 1978 they Launched a microcomputer kit, the MK14, based on the National SC/MP chip. By July 1978, a personal computer project was under way. When Sinclair learned the NewBrain could not be sold at below £100 as he envisaged, he turned to a simpler computer. In May 1979 Jim Westwood started the ZX80 project at Science of Cambridge; it was launched in February 1980 the UK’s first mass-market home computer for less than GB£100, at £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 ready-built. In November, Science of Cambridge was renamed Sinclair Computers Ltd.In March 1981, Sinclair Computers was renamed again as Sinclair Research Ltd and the Sinclair ZX81 was launched at £49.95 in kit form and £69.95 ready-built, by mail order, and it is widely recognised for its importance in the early days of the British home computer industry.In February 1982 Timex obtained a license to manufacture and market Sinclair’s computers in the United States under the name Timex Sinclair. In April the ZX Spectrum was launched at £125 for the 16 kB RAM version and £175 for the 48 kB version. In March 1982 the company made an £8.55 million profit on turnover of £27.17 million, including £383,000 government grants for the TV80 flat-screen portable television.In 1982 Sinclair converted the Barker & Wadsworth mineral water bottling factory into the company’s headquarters. (This was sold to Cambridgeshire County Council in December 1985 owing to Sinclair’s financial troubles.)

The following year, he received his knighthood and formed Sinclair Vehicles Ltd. to develop electric vehicles. This resulted in the 1985 Sinclair C5. In 1984, Sinclair launched the Sinclair QL computer, intended for professional users. Development of the ZX Spectrum continued with the enhanced ZX Spectrum 128 in 1985 . In April 1986, Sinclair Research sold the Sinclair trademark and computer business to Amstrad for £5 million. Sinclair Research Ltd. was reduced to an R&D business and holding company, with shareholdings in several spin-off companies, formed to exploit technologies developed by the company. These included Anamartic Ltd. (wafer-scale integration), Shaye Communications Ltd. (CT2 mobile telephony) and Cambridge Computer Ltd. (Z88 portable computer and satellite TV receivers). By 1990, Sinclair Research consisted of Sinclair and two other employees, and its activities have since concentrated on personal transport, the Zike electric bicycle, Zeta bicycle motor and the A-bike folding bicycle for commuters, which weighs 5.5 kilograms (12 lb) and folds down small enough to be carried on public transport.

Emily Bronte

WH-EBBest remembered for her classic novel, Wuthering Heights, the English novelist Emily Brontë was born 30th july 1818 in Thornton, near Bradford in Yorkshire She was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell, and was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children? After the death of their mother in 1821, when Emily was three years old, the older sisters Maria, Elizabeth and Charlotte were sent to the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge, where they encountered abuse and privations later described by Charlotte in Jane Eyre. Emily joined the school for a brief period. When a typhus epidemic swept the school, Maria and Elizabeth caught it. Maria, who may actually have had tuberculosis, was sent home, where she died. Emily was subsequently removed from the school along with Charlotte and Elizabeth. Sadly Elizabeth died soon after their return home.

From then on The three remaining sisters and their brother Patrick Branwell were educated at home by their father and aunt Elizabeth Branwell, their mother’s sister. In their leisure time the children created a number of fantasy worlds, which were featured in stories they wrote and enacted about the imaginary adventures of their toy soldiers along with the Duke of Wellington and his sons, Charles and Arthur Wellesley.When Emily was 13, she and Anne began a story about Gondal, a large island in the North Pacific. With the exception of Emily’sGondal poems and Anne’s lists of Gondal’s characters and place-names, their writings on Gondal were not preserved. Some “diary papers” of Emily’s have survived in which she describes current events in Gondal, some of which were written, others enacted with Anne. One dates from 1841, when Emily was twenty-three: another from 1845, when she was twenty-seven. At seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls’ school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but managed to stay only three months before being overcome by extreme homesickness. She returned home and Anne took her place. At this time, the girls’ objective was to obtain sufficient education to open a small school of their own.in September 1838 Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax, Unfortuntely when she was twenty. Her health broke under the stress of the 17-hour work day and she returned home in April 1839. Thereafter she became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of the cooking and cleaning and teaching Sunday school

In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to Brussels, Belgium, where they attended a girls’ academy run by Constantin Heger. They planned to perfect their French and German in anticipation of opening their school.In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly into two notebooks. One was labelled “Gondal Poems”; the other was unlabelled. Scholars such as Fannie Ratchford and Derek Roper have attempted to piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems. In the autumn of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be published. Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused, but relented when Anne brought out her own manuscripts and revealed she had been writing poems in secret as well.In 1846, the sisters’ poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. The Brontë sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication: Charlotte was Currer Bell, Emily was Ellis Bell and Anne was Acton Bell. Charlotte wrote in the “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” that their “ambiguous choice” was “dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked onwith prejudice.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsq8LLQRI6w

In 1847, Emily published her novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three-volume set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics at the time, and Although it is considered a classic of English literature today, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews and controversy when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative’s stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty and amoral passion,It takes place at a Yorkshire manor on the moors and centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.and the book subsequently became an English literary classic.


John Sykes (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake)

ThinlizzyJohn Sykes, English singer-songwrite and guitarist with the bands Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Blue Murder was born 29 July 1959. Thin Lizzy were formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott, met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of twelve studio albums. Thin Lizzy are best known for their songs “Whiskey in the Jar”, “Jailbreak” and “The Boys Are Back in Town”, all major international hits still played regularly on hard rock andclassic rock radio stations. After Lynott’s death in 1986, various incarnations of the band have emerged over the years based around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes, though Sykes left the band in 2009.

Phil Lynott, composed almost all of the band’s songs, and Thin Lizzy boasted some of the most critically acclaimed guitarists with Downey and Lynott as the rhythm section, on the drums and bass guitar. As well as being multiracial, the band drew their members not only from both sides of the Irish border but also from both the Catholic and Protestant communities during The Troubles. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock, and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or sometimes heavy metal. As the band’s creative force, Lynott was an insightful and intelligent writer who was influenced byBob Dylan, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, and virtually all of the Irish literary tradition.” Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix were also major influences during the early days of the band, and later influences included the pioneering twin lead guitars found in Wishbone Ash and American artists Little Feat andBob Seger. In 2012, Gorham and Downey decided against recording new material as Thin Lizzy so a new band, Black Star Riders, was formed to tour and produce new releases such as the All Hell Breaks Loose album. Thin Lizzy plan to reunite for occasional concerts.

WhitesnakeBritish rock band,Whitesnake were founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. Their early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but they slowly began moving for a more commercially accessible hard rock style. By the turn of the decade, the band’s commercial fortunes changed and they released a string of UK top 10 albums, Ready an’ Willing (1980), Come an’ Get It (1981), Saints & Sinners (1982) and Slide It In (1984).The band’s 1987 self-titled album was their most commercially successful worldwide, and contained the hits “Still of the Night”, “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love”. In 1988, Whitesnake was nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. The next album Slip of the Tongue (1989), was also a success, reaching the top 10 in the US and UK, and receiving a 2x platinum US certification. The band split up shortly after this release, but had a reunion in 1994, and released a one-off studio album,Restless Heart (1997). Whitesnake officially reformed in 2002 and have been touring together since, releasing two studio albums, Good to Be Bad (2008) and Forevermore (2011). In 2005, Whitesnake was named the 85th greatest hard rock band of all time by VH1

British rock band,Tygers of Pan Tang were formed in 1978 and originate from Whitley Bay, England. They are a notable band of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The band is named after the pets of the Wizards of Pan Tang – an elite group of chaos-worshipping warriors from Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné stories.Tygers of Pan Tang are a heavy metal band, formed in 1978 and originating from Whitley Bay, England. They are a notable band of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. The band is named after the pets of the Wizards of Pan Tang – an elite group of chaos-worshipping warriors from Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné stories.