Winston Churchill Is Born

Setting the scene

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace, his aristocratic family's ancestral seat in Oxfordshire. His father Lord Randolph Churchill was a rising Tory politician; his American mother Jennie Jerome moved in Gilded Age society.

What happened

Churchill attended Harrow and Sandhurst, served as a cavalry officer and war correspondent in Cuba, India, Sudan, and South Africa, and entered Parliament in 1900. He held offices from home secretary to first lord of the admiralty before the Gallipoli disaster and interwar wilderness years.

Why it still matters

As prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, his wartime speeches rallied Britain during the Blitz. Memorable detail: Churchill won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature for his historical writings and speeches, not for peace.

Background

His speeches rallied Britain during the Blitz.