Jackie Kennedy was a literature editor, photographer, and socialite who was once married to the former American President John F. Kennedy. She became the First Lady of the United States when her husband became the president. She was known for her iconic fashion style. She is considered one of the most popular and recognizable First Ladies in American history.
The queen of England from 1533 to 1536, Anne Boleyn played an important role in the political and religious upheaval that led to the beginning of the English Reformation. She is widely regarded as the most important and influential queen consort of England. She was charged with adultery, incest, and treason and was executed by beheading in 1536.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer, known for dark romanticism and moral-themed novels and short stories. A descendant of judge John Hathorne of the Salem witch trials infamy, the writer was a friend of late American president Franklin Pierce. His well-known books include Twice-Told Tales, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel was married to painter Sophia Peabody.
Son of Spanish immigrants, Jose Marti spent his childhood in a strife-torn Cuba and attended high school on financial aid. Marti’s poems, essays, and articles were laced with his patriotic vigor to free Cuba from the Spanish rule. He died battling on the field at Dos Ríos.
William Ewart Gladstone was a British politician and statesman. During a career that spanned six decades, Gladstone served as prime minister of the UK for 12 years, which included four different terms. Often counted among Britain's greatest leaders, Gladstone has been portrayed in several films and television series, such as Parnell, The Prime Minister, Edward the Seventh, and Number 10.
While his asthma attacks in childhood made him addicted to radio, it also made Alan Young host his own radio show by 17. He soared to fame with his Emmy-winning radio/TV comedy show The Alan Young Show. The Disney star later became popular as the voice of Scrooge McDuck.
Mariam-uz-Zamani, or Jodha Bai, was the wife of Mughal emperor Akbar. She was a Hindu Rajput princess and the daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber. Mariam’s marriage to Akbar signified her father’s submission to the Mughal emperor. She was symbolic of the gradual rise of multiculturalism in the Mughal era.
Morley Safer was a Canadian-American journalist and correspondent for CBS News. He is best remembered for his tenure on the popular television news broadcast 60 Minutes. Safer is credited with contributing to the success of 60 Minutes, which is the most profitable and most-watched program in television history. During his 60-year career, Morley Safer received several awards including 12 Emmys.
Stanislav Petrov was a Russian military officer who played an important role in the Soviet nuclear false alarm incident of 1983. His actions during the Cold War in 1983 are said to have prevented a full-scale nuclear war that could have been disastrous for Soviet Union, the USA and its NATO allies.
Jack Brabham was an Australian professional racing driver best remembered for winning the Formula One World Championship thrice during his illustrious career that lasted 15 years. He is credited with founding the eponymous Formula One racing team and racing car manufacturer. Early in his career, Brabham contributed immensely to the design of racing cars introduced by the Cooper Car Company.
Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria was the younger brother of both Maximilian I of Mexico and Franz Joseph I of Austria. Ludwig is remembered as the father of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria whose assassination in Sarajevo is widely regarded as the most immediate cause of the First World War. Ludwig's grandson Charles I was the last emperor of Austria.
Best known for his biography of his friend Samuel Johnson, 18th-century biographer and diarist James Boswell was also a qualified lawyer. Know for his reckless lifestyle and his trysts with prostitutes, he had contracted gonorrhea and had also fathered many children, including two illegitimate ones.
French philosopher, Christian anarchist, and social scientist Jacques Ellul initially wished to be a naval officer but was pushed to study law. He is best remembered for his iconic volume La Technique, or The Technological Society. He taught social history and the history of law at various universities.
Gabriele Munter was a German expressionist painter who led the Munich avant-garde movement in the early 20th century. She began to draw as a child and was supported in her ambitions by her parents. She went on to have a successful career and became a founding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. She lived with painter Wassily Kandinsky.
Orphaned at age 9, Bolesław Prus had a tough childhood. He later participated in the January Insurrection and then became a successful journalist. A talented author of short stories, such as The Waistcoat, and novels, such as The Doll, he was part of the Polish positivist literary movement.
Son of a brewer from Moriyama, Sōsuke Uno was a martial arts champion in school. He later served the Japanese army in World War II, before stepping into politics and eventually becoming the prime minister of Japan. He resigned in the wake of a scandal involving a geisha.
Son of a brewer from Moriyama, Sōsuke Uno was a martial arts champion in school. He later served the Japanese army in World War II, before stepping into politics and eventually becoming the prime minister of Japan. He resigned in the wake of a scandal involving a geisha.
The author of the New York Times bestsellers The Prodigal God and The Reason for God, Timothy J. Keller also chairs Redeemer City to City, which establishes new churches and trains pastors. He is also the founder of the Manhattan-based Redeemer Presbyterian Church. In 2020, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Billy Sing was an Australian soldier who served during the First World War in the Australian Imperial Force. He is best remembered for his role in the Gallipoli Campaign where he was a sniper. Billy Sing is credited with pulling off at least 150 confirmed kills while contemporary evidence suggests that he may have had close to 300 kills overall.
Apart from founding Pretoria, Marthinus Wessel Pretorius had also been the president of the South African Republic and of the Orange Free State. The son of the Great Trek leader Andries Pretorius, Marthinus attempted to unite the Boer factions but failed to do so and eventually retired.
Titanic Thompson was an American golfer, gambler, and hustler. He is best remembered for his involvement in the death of crime boss Arnold Rothstein, which was dubbed the crime of the century. Writer Damon Runyon is said to have based his character Sky Masterson, who appears in The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown, on Thompson.
Apart from his 28 full-length plays, renowned dramatist Vijay Tendulkar had also penned many short stories and a novel. Apart from winning the Padma Bhushan and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, he also won a National Award for penning the screenplay of the Shyām Benegal film Manthan.
Remembered as the founder of the Ki Society and Ki-Aikido, Koichi Tohei had developed his own brand of training the mind, while recovering from pleurisy in his younger days. He thus merged the elements of the mind with martial arts and its physicality to form his own signature style of combat.
Polish chronicler, soldier, and priest Jan Długosz is remembered for writing the first-known comprehensive history of Poland. His 12-volume Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland, a patriotic documentation of Poland’s history, written in Latin, earned him the tag of Poland’s first historian.