O'Brian, Patrick

1914 – He was born as Richard Patrick Russ on the 12th day of December this year. He was, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.
   
1935 – He published several novels and stories under his original name, Richard Patrick Russ, notably, Caesar and Hussein: an Entertainment, which were both published before he was 21.
   
1945 – He legally changed his name to Patrick O'Brian.
   
1950 – He wrote two books aimed at a younger age-group, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore, which were based on events of the Anson circumnavigation of 1740–1743.
   
1998 – The widely held belief that O'Brian was born in Ireland began to unravel this year, when British journalists uncovered that he was in fact born in Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire and that he was the son of a physician of German descent and an English mother.
    
2000 - He died on the 2nd day of January this year.