Famous People Born In 1796

Nicholas I of Russia reigned as Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and King of Poland from 1825 to 1855. Nicholas I is remembered for his controversial reign, under which the Russian Empire achieved great geographical expansion. He also played a key role in creating an independent Greek state and was successful in ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829.

French painter Camille Corot is remembered for his landscape paintings that paved the path for the Impressionist movement. Born into a milliner’s family, Corot was a poor student and shunned his family business to learn painting at 25. His works, however, were easy to replicate and led to many forgeries.

Son of French Revolutionary leader and mathematician Lazare Carnot, Sadi Carnot was an engineer in the French army. He later laid down the Carnot cycle of heat engines. Much of his works were buried with him when he died of cholera at 36, due to the contagiousness of the disease.

Belgian mathematician and astronomer Adolphe Quetelet was the first to introduce the use of statistics and probability theory in social sciences. He also pioneered anthropometry and introduced the BMI scale. He also conducted research on the measurement of the traits found in the average man.

German physician and botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold was considered a pioneer of Western medicine in Japan. His works include the iconic book Flora Japonica. He fathered a daughter with a Japanese courtesan, who grew up to be Kusumoto Ine, Japan’s first female doctor with knowledge in Western medicine.

The eldest son of Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge grew up spending most of his time reading and was closely associated with poets Robert Southey and William Wordworth. Though he gained a fellowship at Oriel, he later lost it due to his alcoholism and his inconsistency.

A major force behind setting up the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand Edward, English economist Gibbon Wakefield lent his name to the colonizing plan called the Wakefield scheme. He formulated the Canadian colonial policy Durham Report. Interestingly, he had been convicted of abducting and marrying a 15-year-old girl.

Swedish professor of anatomy Anders Retzius is best remembered for his ground-breaking research on craniometry, or the human skull. He was associated with the Karolinska Medic-Kirurgiska Institutet in Stockholm. A Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences member, he was also the father of renowned Swedish physican Gustaf Retzius.

German-Russian chemist Karl Ernst Claus of Baltic-German ancestry is best remembered as the discoverer of the chemical element ruthenium. He discovered it while serving as a professor at Kazan State University and named it ruthenium in honour of his homeland Russia. Claus is also counted among the first scientists who applied quantitative methods in botany.

Biedermeier period Austrian painter Peter Fendi had sustained spine injuries as a baby after falling from a table. However, that didn’t deter his artistic zeal, and he grew up to master oil and watercolor painting and even experimented with wood carving and etching. The mother-and-child theme is predominant in his works.

Ang Duong served as the King of Cambodia between 1840 and 1860. He is credited with establishing the basis for the united state of Cambodia as he made an attempt to form an alliance with colonial France, which also led to the French protectorate of Cambodia. He is credited with founding the two main houses of Cambodia, Sisowath and Norodom.