Great Achievements by Teenagers

Teenagers throughout history have had many great achievements in the fields of art, culture, science and technology. This may be because they are able to think in new and innovative ways, or their thinking is not hidebound by discredited nostrums; it may be attributable to great teachers and great schooling - including homeschooling. It may simply be the emergence of God-given talent at an early age. Biologically the rate of brain development, and according to some studies IQ, reportedly peak in smart individuals just prior to their teenage years.

Achievements, listed by age at which they were made

• 7 - Yehudi Menuhin gives his first solo violin performance with the San Francisco Symphony in 1923.
• 8 - Pablo Picasso paints his "Picador".
• 8 - Frederic Chopin plays his first public piano performance, having already authored two polonaises (G minor and B flat major) at age 7.
• 10 - Michael Kearney, homeschooled, becomes the world's youngest university graduate. At age 17, began a teaching career at college.
• 12 - Blaise Pascal had secretly worked out the first twenty-three propositions of Euclid by himself.
• 12 - Jesus presents His wisdom in the temple in Jerusalem.
• 13 - John wrote the first draft of the Gospel of John, the greatest written work of all time.
• 13 - Joan of Arc was inspired and led France five years later to victory over the English in the Hundred Years War; was martyred at age 19.
• 13 - Anne Frank began writing her diary, later published as "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl."
• 13 - Bill Gates began programming computers.
• 14 - David slays Goliath.
• 14 - Bobby Fischer became an International Chess Grandmaster.
• 14 - Mozart wrote the opera, "Mitridate Rè di Ponto."
• 14 - Nadia Comaneci "achieved in her sport what no Olympian, male or female, ever had before: perfection."
• 15 - Louis Braille invented the Braille system.
• 15 - Christopher Paolini writes the first draft of his Eragon trilogy which is published when he is 19.
• 16 - Jean-François Champollion, can speak a dozen languages and delivers a paper on the Coptic language to the Grenoble Academy. By 20, he can speak another 13 languages and at 32 he deciphers the Rosetta Stone.
• 16 - Boy sailor Jack Cornwall, of HMS Chester, is awarded a posthumous VC for gallantry at the Battle of Jutland.
• 17* - Mary accepts God's will to conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and gives birth nine months later.
• 17 - Shawn Fanning develops the first large-scale peer-to-peer file sharing program, Napster
• 18 - Shawn Goldsmith from Long Island has earned all 121 merit badges offered by the Boy Scouts.
• 18 - Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein (The Modern Prometheus), later published when she was 21.
• 18 - Gary Kasparov, considered the greatest chess player ever, won the U.S.S.R. championship.
• 19 - Captain Albert Ball, VC, MC, DSO & 2 bars, commences his career as a fighter pilot. By the time he is killed, aged 20, in 1917, he has become one of the First World War's greatest air aces, accounting for at least 44 German aircraft.
• 19 - was the average age of front-line US service personnel fighting to defend democracy in Indochina during the Vietnam War.
• 19 - Evariste Galois develops group theory, and wrote it out completely on the eve of his death at age 20; it took old mathematicians a century to comprehend it.
• 19 - John D. Rockefeller starts a new company, turning an enormous profit in its first year, and became the most influential businessman in history.
• 19 - Mark Zuckerberg develops Facebook, the leading social networking system for young people on the internet.
• 20 - Carl Friedrich Gauss makes his first mathematical discoveries, which will lead to the completion of "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae", his magnum opus, at the age of 21.
• 20 - Willis Carrier invents air conditioning.

(add more, sorted by age and then alphabetically)

See also

• Gallery of American Heroes
• Gallery of British Heroes

External Links

• Top 10 Child Prodigies