Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries
Filterable archive covering centuries of intellectual, artistic, and moral contributions to the human story.
Mostafa El-Nahas Pasha
(ู
ุตุทูู ุงููุญุงุณ ุจุงุดุง)
Five-term Prime Minister of Egypt and leader of the Wafd Party who co-founded the Arab League, signed the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, and unilaterally abrogated it in 1951.
Junichiro Tanizaki
(่ฐทๅด ๆฝคไธ้)
Japanese novelist celebrated for The Makioka Sisters, Some Prefer Nettles, and In Praise of Shadows, master of traditional Japanese aesthetics and subtle erotic obsessions.
Syngman Rhee
(์ด์น๋ง / ๆๆฟๆ)
First President of South Korea who led the Republic of Korea through the Korean War and secured the US-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty.
Adlai Stevenson II
(Adlai Ewing Stevenson II)
Governor of Illinois, two-time Democratic presidential nominee, and US Ambassador to the UN who dramatically confronted the Soviets with U-2 spy photos during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Ludwik Witold Rajchman
(Ludwik Witold Rajchman)
Mรฉdecin et bactรฉriologiste polonais, directeur de la santรฉ ร la Sociรฉtรฉ des Nations et premier inspirateur et fondateur de l'UNICEF en 1946.
Bernard Mannes Baruch
(Bernard Baruch)
Financier amรฉricain et conseiller de sept prรฉsidents, auteur du Plan Baruch en 1946 proposant le contrรดle international complet et l'interdiction de l'arme atomique.
Martin Buber
(ืืจืืแ ืืืืจ)
Jewish-Austrian philosopher whose 1923 existential masterpiece I and Thou founded dialogical personalism, contrasting authentic human communion (I-Thou) with utilitarian objectification (I-It).
Mary Breckinridge
(Mary Breckinridge)
Visionary founder of the Frontier Nursing Service who brought modern nurse-midwifery on horseback to remote Appalachian communities, drastically reducing infant mortality.
Frances Perkins (nรฉe Fannie Coralie Perkins)
(Frances Perkins)
Premiรจre femme ministre aux รtats-Unis (secrรฉtaire au Travail de FDR), architecte sociale du New Deal, crรฉatrice de la Sรฉcuritรฉ sociale et du salaire minimum.
Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena
(Guillermo Gonzรกlez Camarena)
Mexican electrical engineer who invented the chromoscopic adapter for television equipment in 1940, creating an early color television transmission system later adopted by NASA on Voyager missions.
Malcolm X
(Malcolm Little (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz))
Electrifying African American Muslim minister and human rights activist who championed Black empowerment, international anti-imperialist solidarity, and the fundamental right to self-defense.
Winston Churchill
(Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill)
Rallied the British Empire and the free world when standing alone against Nazi hegemony, cementing Allied victory and warning of the Soviet 'Iron Curtain'.
Maurice Pate
(Maurice Pate)
Premier directeur exรฉcutif de l'UNICEF (1947-1965), qui exigea que l'agence nourrisse les enfants de tous les pays sans discrimination politique, y compris ceux des anciens pays ennemis.
Thomas Stearns Eliot
(T.S. Eliot)
Titan of 20th-century poetry and 1948 Nobel laureate whose landmark epic The Waste Land ('April is the cruellest month') and spiritual Four Quartets articulated the disillusionment, fragmentation, and redemption of the modern post-war world.
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
(ุจุฏุฑ ุดุงูุฑ ุงูุณูุงุจ)
Iraqi poet celebrated as the father of modern Arabic free verse (shi'r hurr), whose revolutionary 1960 collection Rain Song transformed twentieth-century Arabic poetic meter and mythology.
Sam Cooke
(Samuel Cook)
'King of Soul' whose golden voice, songwriting brilliance, and civil rights anthem 'A Change Is Gonna Come' shaped Black music.
J. B. S. Haldane
(John Burdon Sanderson Haldane)
Brilliant British-Indian polymath who co-founded population genetics, formulated 'Haldane's Rule' on hybrid sterility, co-conceived the Primordial Soup theory for the origin of life, and famously quipped that God possessed 'an inordinate fondness for beetles'.
Anita Malfatti
(Anita Catarina Malfatti)
Brazilian painter who introduced European expressionism and non-academic modern art to Brazil in her controversial 1917 Sao Paulo solo exhibition.