Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, cemented his place in history as a legendary ruler who led his kingdom to victory in wars that seemed hopeless. He is known for his brilliant strategies and defensive measures. He prevented England from falling to the Danes during his rule from circa 871 to 886. He’s also credited with promoting learning and literacy and curbing corruption.
Molly Brown was an American philanthropist and socialite. She is often referred to as the Unsinkable Molly Brown for surviving the 1912 sinking of Titanic and for unsuccessfully encouraging the crew members of Lifeboat No. 6 to look for survivors by returning to the debris field. Her life and work inspired the 1960 musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Hattie McDaniel was an American actress, comedian, and singer-songwriter. She became the first African-American to be honored with an Academy Award when her portrayal of Mammy earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Also a radio performer, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American woman to express her skills as a singer on the radio in the US.
John Graves Simcoe was a British Army general best remembered for founding York (present-day Toronto, Canada). Simcoe, who served as the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, was responsible for introducing institutions like trial by jury, courts of law, freehold land tenure, and English common law. John Graves Simcoe also played a key role in abolishing slavery in Canada.
Igor Sikorsky was a Russian-American aviator known for his pioneering contributions to the development of both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Born in Russia, he immigrated to US as a young man and founded the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in 1923. He is also credited for developing the first of Pan American Airways' ocean-crossing flying boats.
Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer whose works earned him nine nominations for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. Regarded as a giant of modern Greek literature, Kazantzakis achieved international fame when his works, such as The Life And Times Of Alexis Zorba and The Last Temptation of Christ, were adapted into feature films.
Carlo Collodi was an Italian journalist, author, and humorist. He is best remembered for his popular children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. The novel and its title character Pinocchio achieved international recognition when Disney adapted it into an animated musical fantasy film titled Pinocchio; the film went on to become one of the greatest films ever produced by Disney.
Legendary Canadian-American comedian and satirist Mort Sahl was the first comedian to have a cover story in Time magazine. Known for performing in casual clothes and throwing his satire at everyone from Eisenhower to JFK, he also had a signature style of entering the stage with a newspaper.
One of the most significant figures behind the modernization of Japan, Itō Hirobumi had led his country as its first prime minister and was also a genrō. Born to an adopted son of a samurai family, he contributed to the Meiji Restoration and the formation of the Japanese constitution.
Angelina Grimke was an American political activist, abolitionist, women's rights advocate, and promoter of the women's suffrage movement. She is best remembered for the anti-slavery speech which she gave outside Pennsylvania Hall in May 1838. One of her letters regarding anti-slavery was published by William Lloyd Garrison in his newspaper The Liberator in 1835.
Austro-Hungarian-American biochemist Gerty Cori is best-known for discovering the course of catalytic conversion of glycogen with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori for which they jointly won the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. With this Gerty became the third woman to win a Nobel in science and the first to win it in this category.
An American League co-founder Charles Comiskey, better known by his nickname Commy, was one of the early members of the St. Louis Brown Stockings. Though part of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Chicago White Sox owner was dragged into a controversy when his team was involved in the Black Sox Scandal.
Marcelo Caetano was a Portuguese scholar and politician. Best remembered as the second leader of the Estado Novo, an authoritarian regime in Portugal, Caetano served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1968 until 1974 when the Estado Novo was overthrown during the Carnation Revolution.
Though German-born American mathematician and engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz suffered from a deformed back since childhood, he excelled in math, physics, and classical literature. His ideas on alternating current (AC) systems initiated the electrical era in the US. By the time he died, he had over 200 patents under his name.
Polish mathematician Alfred Tarski initially taught at Warsaw and later moved to the US, where he joined the University of California, Berkeley. Known for his research on topics such as algebra, logic, and set theory, he has also been the doctoral supervisor of mathematicians such as Julia Robinson and Bjarni Jónsson.
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and doctor Arthur Kornberg is best remembered for his research on DNA synthesis. Born to Jewish immigrants in New York, Kornberg assisted his father at his hardware shop as a child. He had also been a ship doctor for the U.S. Coast Guard.
D. R. Bendre was an Indian poet and writer. Regarded as the 20th century's greatest Kannada lyric poet, Bendre is also considered one of the greatest Kannada-language poets of all time. Bendre was honored with India's highest literary award, the Jnanpith Award, in 1973. He was also honored with the Sahitya Akademi and Padma Shri for his contribution to literature.
Park Chung-hee served as the president of South Korea from 1962 to 1979. He had also chaired the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction. As the leader of the South Korean army, he had launched the 1961 coup and established a dictatorship. He was assassinated by his close aide Kim Jae-gyu.
The 12th prime minister of Yugoslavia, Milan Stojadinović was also a seasoned economist and had served as his country’s finance minister for 3 terms. He had also taught economics at the University of Belgrade. When regent prince Paul asked him to resign, he moved to Argentina, where he focused on an economics magazine.
Hungarian-British archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein is best remembered for his research in Central Asia. He was also associated with institutes in British India, such as Oriental College, Lahore, and later translated Kalhana’s Rajatarangini from Sanskrit to English. He was a dog lover and remained single for life.
Zulu poet and novelist Benedict Wallet Vilakazi went down in history as the first Black from South Africa to earn a PhD. Initially a teacher, he assisted in compiling a Zulu-English dictionary and also spent most of his life in developing the Zulu language and research and teaching associated with it.
Saul Krugman was an American physician and pediatrician. He is best remembered for his studies of rubella, hepatitis, and measles; his studies resulted in the invention of vaccinations for these diseases. However, the results of his studies were acquired through unethical medical practices, which involved experimentation on disabled children.
Rong Yiren was a Chinese politician who played a major role in convincing western investors to invest in China. In 1978, he established the China International Trust and Investment Corp., which paved the way for initial Western investment in China. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the Vice President of the People's Republic of China.
Abdelhamid Benhedouga was an Algerian writer who wrote over 15 novels in Arabic. He also wrote many plays and short stories and many of his works were translated to French. Widely regarded as one of the most prominent Algerian writers of his generation, Abdelhamid Benhedouga also made immense contributions to a number of radio stations in Algeria, Paris, and Tunisia.
Samuel von Pufendorf was a German jurist, economist, political philosopher, and historian. Among Pufendorf's major achievements are his revisions and commentaries of the natural law theories of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. In Germany, Samuel von Pufendorf is best remembered as a precursor of an intellectual and philosophical movement called the Age of Enlightenment.