O'Henry was born in Greensboro, a little town in North Carolina in 1862. His real name was William Sydney Porter The works of this writer reflect a specific period in American literature - the turn of the century.

Popular American writer John Galsworthy was born in 1853. He attended a big school because his father wanted John to be a lawyer. So John went to the Oxford University.

Mark Twain was born in the state of Missouri in the United States in 1835. His father was an unsuccessful lawyer. The family seldom lived more than a year or two in the same town.

Jack London was born in 1876 in San Francisco. His real name was John Griffit. His father was a farmer. The family was extremely poor and the boy had to earn his living after school.

Many years ago a young doctor began to write stories about a man who was a detective. Readers liked his stories because they were very interesting and the doctor decided to become a writer.

James Aldridge was born in 1918, in the town of Swanhill, in Australia. His father was a journalist and writer. His parents came to Australia from England only a few years before James was born.

Jules Verne was born in 1828 in Prance. Young Jules was interested in machinery, sailing and writing. Together with his brother Paul, he explored the river near their home in an old sailboat.

It would be a platitude to say that A. S. Pushkin is the greatest Russian poet. But I hope no-one is challenging the view that he occupies an outstanding place in Russian literature and culture. Every summer in June, thousands of people visit the Pskov land.

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853. Before becoming a painter he was a teacher. He started painting when he was twenty-seven.

Wolfgang Mozart is a famous Austrian composer. Mozart was born in X 756 in Salchburg, Austria. His father, a violinist and a composer, noticed wonderful talent of his son and taught him how to play musical instruments and to compose.

Mikhail Lomonosov was born in 1711 in Archangelsk province. His fatherwas a fisher and young Mikhail liked to help him. He always strove for knowledge and liked reading books. As he was 19 years old, he decided to study in Moscow.

Newton, one of the greatest scientists of all times was born in 1642 in the little village in Lincolnshire, England. His father was a farmer and died before Newton was born. His mother was a clever woman whom he always loved.

Michael Faraday is one of the great scientists in the history of man's work in electricity. He was born in a small village near London on September 11, 1791, in a poor family. His family lived from hand to mouth.

Thomas Edison was born in 1847. He first went to school at the age of eight and a half. But after only three months his teacher called him "stupid" and he came home crying. From that time his mother taught him at home and he read science books by himself. He got a job sending telegraph messages.

Benjamin Franklin was self-educated, which means that he was too poor to go to school and therefore got a good education. As a boy he helped his father to make candles, which were thought to look more romantic that electric lights. When he was twelve Benjamin was so interested in reading that he gave up eating in order to buy books.

Academician S. P. Korolyov is a famous scientist and founder of practical cosmonautics. He was the chief constructor of the first Earth sputniks and spaceships. S. P. Korolyov was born in 1906 in the small Ukrainian town of Zhitomir into a family of teachers.

April 12, 1961 will never be forgotten. On that day Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was launched into space. He circled the globe in the spaceship "Vostok" for 108 minutes. Gagarin was taking an enormous risk, because at that time nobody knew how a human being would stand up to space flight.