Pierce Egan
Pierce Egan (1772–1849) was a British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture. His popular book '' Life in London'', published in 1821, was adapted into the stage play '' Tom and Jerry, or Life in London'' later that year, which became the first play to have a continuous run of 100 performances in London while at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End. Coining the term "the Sweet Science" as an epithet for prizefighting — which he dubbed "the Sweet Science of Bruising" as a description of England’s bare-knuckle fight scene, the first volume of his prizefighting articles, '' Boxiana; or Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism'', was published in 1813. Life Egan's parents were Irish but he may have been born in the London area. He went into the printing trade, and was a compositor for George Smeeton in 1812. He established himself as the country's leading reporter of sporting events, which at the time meant mainly prize-fights and horse-races. He died o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sportswriter
Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into the 1900s transitioned into an integral part of the news business with newspapers having dedicated sports sections. The increased popularity of sports amongst the middle and lower class led to the more coverage of sports content in publications. The appetite for sports resulted in sports-only media such as ''Sports Illustrated'' and ESPN. There are many different forms of sports journalism, ranging from play-by-play and game recaps to analysis and investigative journalism on important developments in the sport. Technology and the internet age has massively changed the sports journalism space as it is struggling with the same problems that the broader category of print journalism is struggling with, mainly not being able to cover costs due to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Thurtell
John Thurtell (21 December 1793 – 9 January 1824) was an English sports promoter, amateur boxer, Royal Marine officer and convicted murderer. Early life Thurtell was born In Bradwell, Suffolk, England, on 21 December 1793. He was the second surviving son of Thomas Thurtell (1765–1846), who later served as Mayor of Norwich from 1828 to 1829. His father wanted him to work in the family business, but John left to join the Royal Marines, serving in the Napoleonic Wars on HMS ''Bellona'' from 1812 to 1814. He then set up a business in Norwich manufacturing bombazine, but this failed, and Thurtell moved to London, setting up a tavern in Long Acre in 1822. Boxing Thurtell achieved fame as a boxing promoter. He organised the fight between Ned Painter and Tom Oliver in 1814. George Borrow describes how when he was 14 (in c.1817) he saw Thurtell: The terrible Thurtell was present, lord of the concourse; for wherever he moved he was master, and whenever he spoke, even when in chains ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1849 Deaths
Events January–March * January 1 – France begins issue of the Ceres series, the nation's first postage stamps. * January 5 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Austrian army, led by Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz, enters in the Hungarian capitals, Buda and Pest. The Hungarian government and parliament flee to Debrecen. * January 8 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Romanian armed groups massacre 600 unarmed Hungarian civilians, at Nagyenyed.Hungarian HistoryJanuary 8, 1849 And the Genocide of the Hungarians of Nagyenyed/ref> * January 13 ** Second Anglo-Sikh War – Battle of Tooele: British forces retreat from the Sikhs. ** The Colony of Vancouver Island is established. * January 21 ** General elections are held in the Papal States. ** Hungarian Revolution of 1848: At Nagyszeben (now Sibiu in Romania)– The Hungarian army in Transylvania, led by Josef Bem, is defeated by the Austrians, led by Anton Puchner. * January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1772 Births
Events January–March * January 10 – Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor of India, makes a triumphant return to Delhi 15 years after having been forced to flee. * January 17 – Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark. * February 12 ** Breton-French explorer Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec discovers the uninhabited Kerguelen Islands in the Southern Indian Ocean. ** The Virginia Assembly amends an act to describe the punishments for the practice of gouging. * February 17 – The First Partition of Poland is agreed to by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria. * March 8 – Biela's Comet is first discovered by French astronomer Jacques Leibax Montaigne, but not proven to be a periodic comet until 1826, when Wilhelm von Biela correctly identifies its return. * March 20 – Pedro Fages, the Spanish Governor of Alta California, and Juan Crespí, a Cath ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tom Molineaux
Thomas Molineaux (March 23, 1784 – August 4, 1818), sometimes spelled Molyneaux or Molyneux, was an American bare-knuckle boxer and possibly a former slave. He spent much of his career in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, where he had notable successes. He arrived in England in 1809 and started his fighting career there in 1810. His two fights against Tom Cribb in 1810 and 1811 widely viewed as the Champion of England, brought Molineaux fame even though he lost both contests. The result of the first encounter was hotly contested, with accusations of a fix. The second match with Cribb, however, was an undisputed loss. His prizefighting career ended in 1815. After a tour that took him to Scotland and Ireland, he died in Galway, Ireland, in 1818 at age 34. Early life According to some of the chroniclers of 19th-century boxing, Molineaux was born into slavery in the State of Virginia, USA in 1784. The most detailed account claims that he was born on a plantati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Ajax
''Black Ajax'' is a historical novel by George MacDonald Fraser based on the career of Tom Molineaux. It is set during the Regency era. The father of Harry Flashman appears as a major character although the book is not part of the official ''Flashman'' series. As in those novels, several real life characters are depicted including: * Tom Molineaux * Bill Richmond * Tom Cribb *George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, h ... * Beau Brummel * Pierce Egan * Harriette Wilson * Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort References {{Flashman novels Novels by George MacDonald Fraser 1997 British novels HarperCollins books British historical novels Novels set in the 1810s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George MacDonald Fraser
George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Harry Paget Flashman, Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven novels and one short-story collection in the The Flashman Papers, Flashman series of novels, as well as non-fiction, short stories, novels and screenplays—including those for the James Bond film ''Octopussy'', ''The Three Musketeers (1973 live-action film), The Three Musketeers'' (along with The Four Musketeers (1974 film), both its The Return of the Musketeers, sequels) and Royal Flash (film), an adaptation of his own novel ''Royal Flash''. Biography Fraser was born in Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, England, on 2 April 1925, son of medical doctor William Fraser and nurse Annie Struth, née Donaldson. Both his parents were Scottish. It was his father who passed on to Fraser his love of reading, and a passion for his Scottish heritage. Fras ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Good Life (1975 TV Series)
''The Good Life'' (known as ''Good Neighbors'' in the United States) is a British sitcom, produced by BBC television. It ran from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978 on BBC1 and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. Opening with the midlife crisis of Tom Good, a 40-year-old plastics designer, it relates the joys and setbacks he and his wife Barbara experience when they attempt to escape a modern "rat race" lifestyle by "becoming totally self-sufficient" in their suburban house in Surbiton. In 2004, it came ninth in ''Britain's Best Sitcom''. The lead roles are taken by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal. Background John Esmonde and Bob Larbey wrote ''The Good Life'' for Richard Briers, the only cast member who was well known before the series was broadcast. Larbey and Esmonde were inspired by Larbey's 40th birthday, which seemed to them a milestone in most people's lives. Their story has the Goods' decision to pursue self-sufficiency conflicting sharply with the habits of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tom And Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the enmity between the titular characters of a cat named Tom Cat, Tom and a mouse named Jerry Mouse, Jerry. Many shorts also feature several List of Tom and Jerry characters#Recurring characters, recurring characters. In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts for MGM from 1940 to 1958. During this time, they won seven Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's ''Silly Symphonies'' with the most awards in the category. After the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts for Rembrandt Films i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Camden Hotten
John Camden Hotten (12 September 1832, Clerkenwell – 14 June 1873, Hampstead) was an English bibliophile and publisher. He is best known for his clandestine publishing of numerous erotic and pornographic titles. Life Hotten was born John William Hotten in Clerkenwell, London to a family of Cornish origins. His father was William Hotten of Probus, Cornwall, a master carpenter and undertaker; his mother was Maria Cowling of Roche, Cornwall. At the age of fourteen Hotten was apprenticed to the London bookseller John Petheram, where he acquired a taste for rare and unusual books. He spent the period from 1848 to about 1853 in America but by mid-1855 had opened a small bookshop in London at 151a Piccadilly and went on to found the publishing business under his own name which after his death became Chatto & Windus. Hotten was a member of the Ethnological Society of London, which he joined in 1867. His literary knowledge and intelligence brought him a large circle of acquaintances ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francis Grose
Francis Grose (before 11June 173112May 1791) was an England, English antiquary, drawing, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' (1785) and ''A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Proverbs, and Popular Superstitions'' (1787). Early life Grose was born at his father's house in Broad Street, St Peter le Poer, St-Peter-le-Poer, London. His parents were Switzerland, Swiss immigrant and jeweller Francis Jacob Grose (d. 1769), and his wife, Anne (d. 1773), daughter of Thomas Bennett of Greenford in Middlesex. Grose was baptised on 11 June 1731 in the parish of St Peter-le-Poer. The eldest of seven children, Grose probably received a classical education but first aimed at a career in the British Army, Army. In 1747, he was in Flanders, apparently as a volunteer in Green Howards, Howard's (later 19th) regiment of foot: later he received a commission as cornet in 10th Royal Hussars, Cobham's (later 10th) regiment of drago ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pierce Egan The Younger
Pierce Egan the Younger (1814 – 6 July 1880) was an English journalist and novelist. The son of Pierce Egan, the author of ''Life in London (novel), Life in London'', associated with his father in several of his works. Early life He was born in London, and his mother died when he was eleven years old. Early on he showed a taste for drawing. He was educated to follow art professionally, frequented theatres, and made sketches during the performances. He etched these designs, which were published as frontispieces to the plays in George Bolwell Davidge's ''Acting Drama''. His most ambitious work as an artist was a series of etchings to illustrate his father's serial, ''The Pilgrims of the Thames in Search of the National'' (1837). Journalist and serial writer He contributed to the early volumes of the ''Illustrated London News'', started in 1842, and from 7 July 1849 to the end of 1851 edited the ''Home Circle''. In Nos. 53–119, vols, iii–v. of this work, ending 11 October 1 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |