Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries
Filterable archive covering centuries of intellectual, artistic, and moral contributions to the human story.
Victor George Heiser
(Victor G. Heiser)
Mรฉdecin de santรฉ publique amรฉricain, directeur de la Fondation Rockefeller, qui vaccina des millions d'รชtres humains contre la variole et la peste en Asie.
Paul Grรผninger
(Paul Grรผninger)
Paul Grรผninger was a Swiss police commander in the Canton of St. Gallen who saved approximately 3,600 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and Austria following the 1938 Anschluss. Defying strict Swiss federal orders to close the border, Grรผninger falsified entry dates and documents to grant refugees legal status, sacrificing his career, pension, and reputation in poverty before posthumous rehabilitation.
Vikram Sarabhai
(Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai)
Visionary Indian physicist and industrialist recognized as the 'Father of the Indian Space Programme', who founded the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and launched satellite television education for rural villages.
Robert Tyre Jones Jr.
(Robert Tyre Jones Jr.)
American golfer, the most successful amateur in golf history, won the Grand Slam in 1930 and co-founded the Augusta National Golf Club and Masters Tournament.
Ralph Johnson Bunche
(Ralph Bunche)
Diplomate amรฉricain, mรฉdiateur de l'ONU au Proche-Orient et premier Afro-Amรฉricain ร recevoir le prix Nobel de la paix en 1950.
Shunryu Suzuki
(้ดๆจไฟ้)
Soto Zen monk who moved to California in 1959, founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara, and authored the modern spiritual classic 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind'.
Jo Siffert
(Joseph Siffert)
Charismatic Swiss racing hero 'Seppi' who won two Formula One Grands Prix for Rob Walker Racing and BRM and led Porsche's iconic 917 sports car program to consecutive World Sportscar Championships.
Dean Gooderham Acheson
(Dean Gooderham Acheson)
Truman's Secretary of State and chief architect of the Cold War order, who created the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, NATO, and authored Present at the Creation.
Bernardo Houssay
(Bernardo Alberto Houssay)
Argentine physiologist who discovered the role of anterior pituitary hormones in regulating blood sugar metabolism, winning the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Pedro Rodriguez
(Pedro Rodriguez de la Vega)
Mexico's greatest racing driver, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two Formula One Grands Prix, and multiple World Sportscar Championships in the Gulf-Porsche 917, celebrated as the peerless rainmaster of his generation.
Louis Daniel Armstrong
(Louis Armstrong)
Founding father of jazz whose brilliant cornet/trumpet virtuosity, rhythmic swing, gravelly baritone vocals, and joyful charisma transformed jazz from collective folk improvisation into an individual soloist's art in West End Blues and What a Wonderful World.
William Lawrence Bragg
(William Lawrence Bragg)
Australian-born British physicist who formulated Bragg's Law of X-ray diffraction and remains the youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics, receiving the award at age twenty-five in 1915.
John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr
(John Boyd Orr)
Mรฉdecin et biologiste รฉcossais, premier directeur gรฉnรฉral de l'Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO), Nobel de la paix 1949.
Reinhold Niebuhr
(Reinhold Niebuhr)
American public theologian and ethicist whose 'Moral Man and Immoral Society', formulation of Christian Realism, and 'Serenity Prayer' influenced generations of statesmen.
Igor Tamm
(ะะณะพัั ะะฒะณะตะฝัะตะฒะธั ะขะฐะผะผ)
Soviet theoretical physicist who co-developed the electrodynamic theory of Cherenkov radiation and co-invented the Tokamak magnetic fusion confinement system with Andrei Sakharov.
Jilali Gharbaoui
(ุงูุฌููุงูู ุงูุบุฑุจุงูู)
Tragic genius celebrated as Morocco's first purely non-figurative abstract painter, whose electrifying gestural brushstrokes and violent search for light anticipated European Informel painting.
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky
(ะะณะพัั ะคัะดะพัะพะฒะธั ะกััะฐะฒะธะฝัะบะธะน)
Russian-born composer whose groundbreaking ballets for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets RussesโThe Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Springโexploded traditional rhythm and harmony, redefining 20th-century music.
Whitney Moore Young Jr.
(Whitney M. Young Jr.)
Dirigeant historique de la National Urban League (1961-1971), conseiller des prรฉsidents Kennedy et Johnson, artisan de l'intรฉgration รฉconomique et de la War on Poverty.