Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Resistance & Human Rights

37

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Marcus Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.

Jamaica

17 August 1887 – 10 June 1940 (52 years old)

Charismatic Jamaican political activist and publisher who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), pioneering mass Pan-African pride, Black economic sovereignty, and global anti-colonial self-reliance.

West Kensington, London, Great Britain

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Literature & Poetry

3

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Verner von Heidenstam

Carl Gustaf Verner von Heidenstam

Sweden

1859-07-06 – 1940-05-20 (80 years old)

Leader of the 1890s Swedish neo-romantic literary renaissance awarded the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature, celebrated for his historical epic 'The Charles Men' (Karolinerna).

Motala, Sweden

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Resistance & Human Rights

13

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Sulayman al-Baruni

سليمان الباروني

Libya

1872 – May 1, 1940 (68 years old)

Eminent Amazigh scholar, Ottoman parliamentary deputy, and revolutionary commander who mobilized the Nafusa Mountains against Italian colonialism and served as an executive of the Tripolitanian Republic.

Muscat, Oman

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Resistance & Human Rights

28

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Suleiman al-Barouni

سليمان الباروني

Libya

c. 1872 – 1940 (68 years old)

Prominent Amazigh Ibadi scholar, poet, and statesman from the Nafusa Mountains who led Libyan resistance against Italian colonialism and served as President of the Tripolitanian Republic.

Muscat, Oman

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Religious Figures & Theologians

21

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Abdelhamid Ben Badis

عبد الحميد بن باديس

Algeria

1889 – 1940 (50 years old)

Foremost leader of the Islamic revival and cultural renaissance in colonial Algeria, Ben Badis founded the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema and led a peaceful revolution of education and national identity.

Constantine, Algeria

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Humanitarian & Peace

30

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Charles Freer Andrews

C. F. Andrews

Great Britain

1871 – 1940 (69 years old)

Prêtre anglican et réformateur britannique surnommé Deenabandhu (« l'Ami des pauvres »), compagnon intime de Gandhi et de Rabindranath Tagore.

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

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Statesmanship & Statesmen

28

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Michael Joseph Savage

Michael Joseph Savage

Australia

1872 – 1940 (68 years old)

First Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand (1935–1940), universally revered as the 'Father of the Modern Welfare State' whose 1938 Social Security Act introduced the world's first universal, free healthcare and cradle-to-grave social security system.

Auckland, New Zealand

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Sports & Athletics

40

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Spyridon Louis

Σπυρίδων Λούης

Greece

1873 – 1940 (67 years old)

Greek water carrier who became an eternal national hero by winning the first modern Olympic Marathon at the 1896 Athens Games, reviving the ancient spirit of Greek athletics.

Marousi (Athens), Greece

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Sports & Athletics

41

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Spiridon Louis

Σπυρίδων Λούης

Greece

12 January 1873 – 26 March 1940 (67 years old)

Spiridon Louis was an impoverished Greek water carrier who became an eternal national hero by winning the inaugural modern Olympic marathon at the 1896 Athens Olympic Games. Tracing the legendary 40-kilometer route of Pheidippides from the battlefield of Marathon into the Panathenaic Stadium, his victory ignited national euphoria and cemented the marathon as the ultimate crown jewel of the Olympic Games.

Marousi, Athens, Greece

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Politics

0

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Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir

Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir

Iceland

1856-06-27 – 1940-03-16 (83 years old)

Iceland's foremost pioneering suffragist who founded the Icelandic Women's Rights Association (Kvenréttindafélag Íslands) in 1907, edited Kvennablaðið, and secured the vote for Icelandic women in 1915.

Reykjavík, Iceland

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Literature & Poetry

31

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Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf

Sweden

1858 – 1940 (81 years old)

First woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1909) and first female member of the Swedish Academy, famous for Gösta Berling's Saga and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.

Sunne (Värmland), Sweden

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Literature & Poetry

31

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Mikhail Bulgakov

Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков

Russia

1891 – 1940 (48 years old)

Master Soviet novelist and playwright whose satirical masterpiece The Master and Margarita brought Satan and a talking cat to 1930s Moscow.

Moscow, Russia

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Arts & Music

39

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Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens

Germany

1868 – 1940 (71 years old)

German architect and pioneer of corporate identity who designed the monumental AEG Turbine Factory and mentored Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.

Berlin, Germany

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Politics

0

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Lord Tweedsmuir

John Buchan

Great Britain

26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940 (64 years old)

Scottish novelist and Governor General of Canada who established the Governor General's Literary Awards and affirmed Canada's distinct North American identity.

Elsfield, United Kingdom

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Politics

0

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Abdullah Abdurahman

Abdullah Abdurahman

South Africa

1872-12-12 – 1940-02-02 (67 years old)

Distinguished South African physician and political pioneer who led the African Political Organisation (APO) for thirty-five years, fighting against the colour bar in the 1910 Union of South Africa.

Cape Town, South Africa

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Humanitarian & Peace

28

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Edward Stephen Harkness

Edward Harkness

United States

1874 – 1940 (66 years old)

Philanthrope américain d'une discrétion légendaire, donateur de plus de 130 millions de dollars, fondateur du Commonwealth Fund et du Pilgrim Trust.

Bronx, New York, United States

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Literature & Poetry

33

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Isaac Babel

Исаак Эммануилович Бабель

Russia

1894 – 1940 (45 years old)

Peerless Russian-Jewish master of the short story whose Red Cavalry and Odessa Tales brought vivid brutality and poetic lyricism to world literature.

Moscow, Russia

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Art

0

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Bruno Liljefors

Bruno Andreas Liljefors

Sweden

1860-05-14 – 1939-12-18 (79 years old)

Foremost wildlife painter of Scandinavia whose dramatic canvases of foxes, sea eagles, and capercaillies pioneered ecological realism, portraying animals unsentimentally in their primal habitats.

Uppsala, Sweden

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