Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He is best known for the first Tom Sawyer book and its sequel, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
He was also a successful journalist, a witty humorist, and quite an unsuccessful entrepreneur, having failed at various business ventures, at one time even forced to declare bankruptcy. Twain was very interested in inventions and modern technology. A venture capitalist of sorts, he invested a great deal of money in the Paige typesetting machine, which was made obsolete by the Linotype, causing Twain to lose most of his investment.
Besides his literary and other achievements, Mark Twain is also known for the fact that he was born during a visit by Halley's Comet. He predicted that he would die when the comet returns, and he indeed died one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth in 1910.