bios <- c(
c("Pascal", 1, 1623, 1662),
c("Fermat", 2, 1601, 1665),
c("Huygens", 3, 1629, 1695),
c("Bernoulli", 4, 1654, 1705),
c("de Moivre", 5, 1667, 1754),
c("Bayes", 6, 1702, 1761),
c("Laplace", 8, 1749, 1827),
c("Poisson", 7, 1781, 1840),
c("Boltzmann", 9, 1844, 1906),
c("Markov", 10, 1856, 1922)
)
p <- function(n) {
  birth<-bios[4*n-1]
  death<-bios[4*n]
  name<-bios[4*n-3]
  chapter<-bios[4*n-2]
  points(c(birth,death),c(chapter,chapter),type="l")
}
plot(1:10, 1:10, xlim=c(1600,1922), ylim=c(1,10.5),
     xlab="year", ylab="chapter")
sapply(1:10,p)
text(1623, 1.1, "Pascal", c(0,0))
text(1601, 2.1, "Fermat", c(0,0))
text(1629, 3.1, "Huygens", c(0,0))
text(1654, 4.1, "Bernoulli", c(0,0))
text(1667, 5.1, "de Moivre", c(0,0))
text(1702, 6.1, "Bayes", c(0,0))
text(1749, 8.1, "Laplace", c(0,0))
text(1781, 7.1, "Poisson", c(0,0))
text(1844, 9.1, "Boltzmann", c(0,0))
text(1856, 10.1, "Markov", c(0,0))