John Bull is a national personification of Britain in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country dwelling, jolly, matter-of-fact man.

John Bull originated in the creation of Dr John Arbuthnot in 1712, and was popularised first by British print makers. Arbuthnot created Bull in his pamphlet Law is a Bottomless Pit (1712)." Originally derided, William Hogarth and other British writers made Bull "a heroic archetype of the freeborn Englishman." Later, the figure of Bull was disseminated overseas by illustrators and writers such as American cartoonist Thomas Nast and Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, author of John Bull's Other Island.

Starting in the 1760s, Bull was portrayed as an Anglo-Saxon country dweller. He is almost always depicted in a buff-coloured waistcoat and a simple frock coat (in the past Navy blue, but more recently with the Union Jack colours).Britannia, or a lion, is sometimes used as an alternative in some editorial cartoons.

Big Bear or Mistahi-maskwa (c.1825 – 17 January 1888) was a Cree leader notable for his involvement in the North-West Rebellion and his subsequent imprisonment.

Big Bear was born in the Canadian Northwest, probably near Fort Carlton. Although he may have been Saulteaux, he was raised among the Plains Cree bands who wintered along the North Saskatchewan River.

By 1863, according to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) records, Big Bear was leading a large number of Cree near Fort Carlton, but soon moved to the area near Fort Pitt where he lived with a much smaller group.

He participated in the 1870 Battle of the Belly River, and would later find conflict again in 1873, this time with Métis leader Gabriel Dumont. Canadian government records indicate that as of 1874, Big Bear led 65 lodges (approximately 520 people).

In the 1870s, the newly created Canadian government began to investigate signing treaties with the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, and sent gifts to encourage friendship. While some leaders accepted the gifts, Big Bear was not interested, declaring "when we set a fox-trap we scatter pieces of meat all round, but when the fox gets into the trap we knock him on the head; We want no bait; let your chiefs come like men and talk to us."

William Byrd (1540 or late 1539 – 4 July 1623) was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard (the so-called Virginalist school) and consort music.

Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely to the research of John Harley (Harley, 1997). Following the discovery of a document dated 2 October 1598 in which Byrd's age is given as "58 years or there abouts," it now appears that he was born in 1540. The older dating 1542–3 is derived from Byrd's will (endorsed on 22 November 1622) which describes him as 'in the 80th year of my age'. It now becomes clear that it must have been drafted about three years earlier than the date of endorsement. Byrd was born in London, the son of a Thomas Byrd (not Thomas Byrd of the Chapel Royal) about whom little is known. Byrd had two brothers, Symon'd and John, and four sisters. It is clear from a reference in the prefatory material in the Tallis/Byrd Cantiones of 1575 that Byrd was a pupil of Thomas Tallis, then the leading composing member of the Chapel Royal Choir. Byrd also worked in collaboration with two other Chapel Royal singing-men, John Sheppard and William Mundy, on one of his earliest compositions, a contribution to a joint setting of the alternatim psalm In exitu Israel composed for the procession to the font at the Paschal Vigil. As an item for the Sarum liturgy this was presumably composed near the end of the reign of Mary Tudor (1553–1558), whose Catholic beliefs impelled her to revive Sarum liturgical practices during her brief reign. In view of these contacts it is reasonable to speculate that Byrd was a Chapel Royal choirboy, though the surviving records do not name the choristers individually.

Bob van Asperen (born 8 October 1947, in Amsterdam) is a harpsichordist, organist, conductor, clavichordist and early music-specialist.

After completing a conventional music course at university, in 1967 he studied under the harpsichord master Gustav Leonhardt. In 1968 he joined the group Quadro Hotteterre, of which he was a member until 1984. He completed his studies in 1972 with distinction after finishing a course in organ at the Amsterdam Conservatory given by Albert de Klerk.

After finishing his studies, Bob van Asperen accepted a teaching post at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He held this post until he was invited to replace the departing Gustav Leonhardt at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, where he is now a professor of harpsichord and basso continuo. He teaches at summer academies in Europe and Canada where his masterclasses attract students from all over the world.

A recognized specialist in the realm of performance on period keyboard instruments, his extensive knowledge of keyboard repertoire from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is reflected in his wide-ranging concert programmes. In addition to concert engagements in Holland, foreign tours have included performances throughout Europe, the United States, Russia and Australia. His repertoire on harpsichord, organ, and clavichord is expansive and ranges from the music of John Bull and Byrd to that of Padre Antonio Soler, and to Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons. From time to time he also conducts baroque or modern orchestras.

Diane Joyce Bish, born on May 25, 1941, in Kansas, is an organist and composer as well as executive producer of the Joy of Music television series. As a concert organist, she performs frequently at recitals throughout North America and Europe.

Bish graduated from Wichita East High School, Kansas, in 1959. She had played on the 1925 Austin Organ installed in the school auditorium. In 1984, she returned there to play a benefit concert, which raised enough money for the organ to be restored.

Bish began studying organ as a student of Dorothy Addy, then of Mildred Andrews. Later, she was a recipient of Fulbright and French government grants for study in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and Marie-Claire Alain.

Beginning in the 1970s, Bish served for more than 20 years as organist at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she designed the 117 rank Ruffatti organ in the sanctuary. While at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, she began producing a weekly television program of organ music, The Joy of Music. A music writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper said in 1986 that Bish "combines masterful music and religion in a life filled with church work, concerts, and writing and producing her own TV show".