Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries
Filterable archive covering centuries of intellectual, artistic, and moral contributions to the human story.
Lรกszlรณ Moholy-Nagy
(Lรกszlรณ Weisz)
Hungarian painter, photographer, typographer, and Bauhaus master who revolutionized kinetic light art, photograms, and founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago.
H.G. Wells
(Herbert George Wells)
Visionary English author and social prophet revered as the 'Father of Science Fiction' for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man.
Jack Johnson
(John Arthur Johnson)
John Arthur 'Jack' Johnson was a historic boxing pioneer who broke the color barrier in 1908 to become the first African-American World Heavyweight Champion in history. Defying the racism of the Jim Crow era with supreme defensive counter-punching and an unapologetic, flamboyant lifestyle, he defended his title against James J. Jeffries in the 1910 'Fight of the Century', sparking nationwide social upheaval.
Alexander Alekhine
(ะะปะตะบัะฐะฝะดั ะะปะตะบัะฐะฝะดัะพะฒะธั ะะปะตั
ะธะฝ)
Fourth World Chess Champion famed for his ferocious attacking combinations and the only world champion to die while holding the world title.
Gilbert N. Lewis
(Gilbert Newton Lewis)
Colossal physical chemist who discovered the covalent bond, created Lewis dot structures, and generalized acid-base theory.
Mabel Thorp Boardman
(Mabel Thorp Boardman)
Mabel Thorp Boardman was an American philanthropist and civic organizer who led the total administrative reorganization of the American Red Cross under a federal congressional charter in 1905. Serving as the organization's de facto executive leader for over four decades, she transformed the Red Cross from a small volunteer group into a massive, professionally funded national disaster relief agency.
John Langalibalele Dube
(John Langalibalele Dube)
Educator, editor, and the founding first president of the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC) in 1912.
Harry Lloyd Hopkins
(Harry Hopkins)
Travailleur social amรฉricain devenu le bras droit de Franklin D. Roosevelt, directeur de la WPA procurant un emploi et la dignitรฉ ร plus de 8 millions de chรดmeurs dรฉmunis.
Thomas Hunt Morgan
(Thomas Hunt Morgan)
American geneticist whose 'Fly Room' experiments proved that chromosomes carry the physical units of heredity, winning the 1933 Nobel Prize.
Plutarco Elias Calles
(Plutarco Elรญas Calles)
President of Mexico who founded the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled Mexico for seven decades, and whose fierce enforcement of anti-clerical laws provoked the Cristero War.
Bรฉla Viktor Jรกnos Bartรณk
(Bartรณk Bรฉla)
Visionary Hungarian composer and ethnomusicology pioneer who recorded thousands of genuine Eastern European and Turkish folk melodies, integrating their asymmetrical meters and modal scales into revolutionary works like the Concerto for Orchestra.
Stefan Banach
(Stefan Banach)
Polish mathematician widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential figures, who founded modern functional analysis and introduced complete normed vector spaces (Banach spaces).
Subhas Chandra Bose
(เฆธเงเฆญเฆพเฆทเฆเฆจเงเฆฆเงเฆฐ เฆฌเฆธเง (เฆจเงเฆคเฆพเฆเฆฟ))
Revolutionary Indian nationalist leader revered as 'Netaji' (Respected Leader), who established the Indian National Army (INA) and proclaimed the Azad Hind Provisional Government with the battle cry 'Jai Hind!'.
Robert H. Goddard
(Robert Hutchings Goddard)
Father of modern rocketry who designed, constructed, and successfully launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.
John Curtin
(John Joseph Curtin)
Fourteenth Prime Minister of Australia (1941โ1945) who successfully led Australia through the darkest perils of World War II, defied Winston Churchill to recall Australian troops to defend the homeland, and forged the historic alliance with the United States.
Hannie Schaft
(Jannetje Johanna Schaft)
Dutch resistance fighter celebrated as 'The Girl with the Red Hair' who carried out targeted assassinations of Nazi officials and collaborators.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
Redefined American liberalism, built the modern social safety net, organized the Arsenal of Democracy to defeat fascism, and laid the foundations for the United Nations.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Heroic German Lutheran pastor and theologian who resisted the Nazi regime, led the underground seminary of the Confessing Church, authored The Cost of Discipleship, and was executed by hanging weeks before WWII ended.