When I Was Your Age: Who Did What When

Okay, what have you done lately?

It's never too late (or too early) to do something grand, something noteworthy...or something really stupid.

At age 8,
Tiger Woods won his first international golf tournament...

At age 10,
Ethelred the Unready became king of England...

At age 26,
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln...

At age 83,
Thomas Edison received his 1093rd—and last—patent...

So go ahead! Become the artist you always wanted to be! Lead a great army to disaster! Or just read about deeds guaranteed to amuse, shock, inspire and entertain.

Okay, what have you done lately?

It's never too late (or too early) to do something grand, something noteworthy...or something really stupid.

At age 8,
Tiger Woods won his first international golf tournament...

At age 10,
Ethelred the Unready became king of England...

At age 26,
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln...

At age 83,
Thomas Edison received his 1093rd--and last--patent...

So go ahead! Become the artist you always wanted to be! Lead a great army to disaster! Or just read about deeds guaranteed to amuse, shock, inspire and entertain.

When he was Mark Washburn's age, the Earl of Cardigan led the Light Brigade to disaster at Balaclava. Mr. Washburn has never been responsible for any military catastrophes that he is aware of, but he has authored a number of fiction and non-fiction books whose publishers may have regarded them as disasters.

A native of Ohio, Mr. Washburn studied history at Princeton, where he received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Creative Writing, and at Duke University. A sometime teacher and editor, he is best known for his non-fiction science writing, including books about the Viking mission to Mars and the Voyager mission to the outer solar system. He is also the author of several novels. He currently resides in Philadelphia.