Background: Vasco da Gama was born in 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas. Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, occupied chiefly by fisherfolk. Vasco da Gama's father was Estevao da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu. He rose in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago.
Context: From the earlier part of the 15th century, Portuguese expeditions organized by Prince Henry the Navigator had been reaching down the African coastline, principally in search of west African riches (notably, gold). They had greatly extended Portuguese maritime knowledge, but had little profit to show for the effort. After Henry's death in 1460, the Portuguese Crown showed little interest in continuing this effort and, in 1469, sold off the neglected African enterprise to a private Lisbon merchant consortium led by Fernao Gomes. Within a few years, Gomes' captains expanded Portuguese knowledge across the Gulf of Guinea, doing business in gold dust, Melegueta pepper, ivory and sub-Saharan slaves. When Gomes' charter came up for renewal in 1474, Prince John (future John II), asked his father Afonso V of Portugal to pass the African charter to him.  Upon becoming king in 1481, John II of Portugal set out on many long reforms. To break the monarch's dependence on the feudal nobility, John II needed to build up the royal treasury; he considered royal commerce to be the key to achieving that. Under John II's watch, the gold and slave trade in west Africa was greatly expanded. He was eager to break into the highly profitable spice trade between Europe and Asia, which was conducted chiefly by land. At the time, this was virtually monopolized by the Republic of Venice, who operated overland routes via Levantine and Egyptian ports, through the Red Sea across to the spice markets of India. John II set a new objective for his captains: to find a sea route to Asia by sailing around the African continent.  By the time Vasco da Gama was in his 20s, the king's plans were coming to fruition. In 1487, John II dispatched two spies, Pero da Covilha and Afonso de Paiva, overland via Egypt to East Africa and India, to scout the details of the spice markets and trade routes. The breakthrough came soon after, when John II's captain Bartolomeu Dias returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, having explored as far as the Fish River (Rio do Infante) in modern-day South Africa and having verified that the unknown coast stretched away to the northeast.  An explorer was needed who could prove the link between the findings of Dias and those of da Covilha and de Paiva, and connect these separate segments into a potentially lucrative trade route across the Indian Ocean.
Question: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
Answer: Under John II's watch, the gold and slave trade in west Africa was greatly expanded. He was eager to break into the highly profitable spice trade between Europe and Asia,

Background: Steranko was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. According to Steranko's authorized biography, his grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to settle in the anthracite coal-mining region of eastern Pennsylvania. Steranko's father, one of nine siblings, began working in the mines at age 10, and as an adult became a tinsmith. Steranko later said his father and uncles "would bootleg coal - they would go up into a mountain and open up a shaft.
Context: By his account, Steranko learned stage magic using paraphernalia from his father's stage magician act, and in his teens spent several summers working with circuses and carnivals, working his way up to sideshow performer as a fire-eater and in acts involving a bed of nails and sleight-of-hand. At school, he competed on the gymnastics team, on the rings and parallel bars, and later took up boxing and, under swordmaster Dan Phillips in New York City, fencing. At 17, Steranko and another teenage boy were arrested for a string of burglaries and car thefts in Pennsylvania.  Up through his early 20s, Steranko performed as an illusionist, escape artist, close-up magician in nightclubs, and musician, having played in drum and bugle corps in his teens before forming his own bands during the early days of rock and roll. Steranko, whose first band, in 1956, was called The Lancers, did not perform under his own name, claiming he used pseudonyms to help protect himself from enemies. He also claims to have put the first go-go girls onstage. The seminal rock and roll group Bill Haley and his Comets was based in nearby Philadelphia and Steranko, who played a Jazzmaster guitar, often performed in the same local venues, sometimes on the same bill, and became friendly with Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence. By the late 1960s, Steranko was a member of a New York City magicians' group, the Witchdoctor's Club.  Comics historian Mark Evanier notes that the influential comic-book creator Jack Kirby, who "based some of his characters ... on people in his life or in the news", was "inspired" to create the escape artist character Mister Miracle "by an earlier career of writer-artist Jim Steranko".
Question: who was he influenced by?
Answer: Haley guitarist Frank Beecher, who became a musical influence.

Background: John Anthony Frusciante ( ( listen); born March 5, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, from 1988 until 1992, and again from 1998 until 2009. He recorded five studio albums with them. Frusciante has an active solo career, having released eleven solo albums and five EPs; his recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to new wave and electronica.
Context: Frusciante was born in Queens, New York, on March 5, 1970. His father, John Sr., is a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his mother Gail was a promising vocalist who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mother. Frusciante's family moved to Tucson, Arizona, and then Florida, where his father served as a Broward County judge until October 2010. His parents separated, and he and his mother moved to Santa Monica, California. Frusciante is of Italian descent; his paternal great-grandfather Generoso Frusciante emigrated from Benevento.  A year later, Frusciante and his mother moved to Mar Vista, Los Angeles with his new stepfather who, he says, "really supported me and made me feel good about being an artist." Like many young people in the area, he became intimately involved in the L.A. punk rock scene. At nine he was infatuated with the Germs, wearing out several copies of their record (GI). By ten, he had taught himself how to play most of (GI)'s songs. He has stated that he did not really know what he was doing, and that he would play every chord with a single-finger barre.  Frusciante began studying guitarists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix at eleven. He discovered Frank Zappa, whose work he would study for hours. Frusciante first heard of the Red Hot Chili Peppers around 1984 when his guitar instructor was auditioning as a guitarist for that band. He dropped out of high school at sixteen with the permission of his parents and completion of a proficiency test. With their support, he moved to Los Angeles to develop his musicianship. He began taking classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology, but turned to punching in without actually attending and left shortly thereafter.
Question: What band was he a member of first?
Answer:
Frusciante began studying guitarists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix at eleven.