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Doyle is Born
Doyle is born in Edinburgh -
First Appearance of Holmes
Doyle’s first major piece, A Study in Scarlet, was taken by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, who gave Doyle only £25 for all rights to the story. The story featured the characters of Watson and Sherlock Holmes for the first time. -
Doyle kills off Holmes
In December 1893, in order to dedicate more of his time to what he considered his more important historical works, Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty both plunge to their deaths down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". The public was furious, and he brought back Holmes in 1901. -
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Doyle's first case
Doyle also advocated justice in his own life, and personally investigated two closed cases, both of which led to two men being exonerated of the crimes of which they were accused. The first case, in 1906, involved a lawyer named George Edalji who had allegedly wrote threatening letters and mutilated animals in Great Wyrley. -
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Spiritualism
Following the death of his wife Louisa in 1906, the death of his son Kingsley just before the end of World War I, and the deaths of many more family members, Doyle sank into depression. He turned to spiritualism for support during this time. -
Doyle's Second Marraige
Doyle married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, whom he had first met and fallen in love with in 1897 while his first wife was terminally ill with tuberculosis. -
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Houdini & Spiritualism
Doyle was good friends with Harry Houdini, who was a prominent opponent of the Spiritualist movement in the 1920s and was always exposing mediums as frauds. Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers. Houdini was apparently unable to convince Doyle that his feats were simply illusions, leading to a bitter public falling out between the two. -
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Doyle's second criminal Case
The second case involved Oscar Slater, a German Jew convicted of bludgeoning an 82-year-old woman in Glasgow in 1908. -
Doyle Dies
He died of a heart attack on the 7 July 1930 at the age of 71 in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in Crowborough, East Sussex.