People

Ivan Pavlov

A Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning. He developed the notion of the 'conditioned reflex,' through his experiments with dogs and bells. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for his work ont he digestive system.

Anna Pavlova

A Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She is most recognized for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and, with her own company, became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.

Nidal Malik Hasan

A former United States Army psychiatrist and Medical Corps officer (Major) who fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others in the Fort Hood mass shooting on November 5, 2009. At his court-martial in 2013, he admitted to the shootings, and was unanimously recommended for the death sentence. He worked as an intern and resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, colleagues and superiors were deeply concerned about his behavior and comments. Two days before the shooting, which occurred less than a month before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan, he gave away many of his belongings to a neighbor. Prior to the shooting, he had expressed critical views described by colleagues as "anti-American". An investigation conducted by the FBI concluded that his emails with the late Imam Anwar al-Awlaki were related to his authorized professional research and that he was not a threat. The DoD classified the events as "workplace violence". The decision by the Army not to charge him with terrorism was controversial. His parents emigrated from the West Bank. He joined the United States Army immediately after high school in 1988 and served eight years as an enlisted soldier while attending college. He graduated from Virginia Tech in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. He gained admission through a selective process for medical school at USUHS. After earning his medical degree in 2003, he completed his internship and residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He studied for a Master's in Public Health at USUHS with a two-year fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry at the Center for Traumatic Stress at USUHS, which he completed in 2009. During his time in service he listened to many egregious tales from overseas and asked his supervisors and Army legal advisers how to handle reports of soldier's deeds in Afghanistan and Iraq that disturbed him just days before the shooting. He also was the victim of discrimination and even $1,000 in damage to his vehicle on account of his faith and ethnicity.

Ben Bernanke

An American economist at the Brookings Institution who served two terms as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States from 2006 to 2014 (appointed by Bush 43). During his tenure as chairman, he oversaw the Federal Reserve's response to the late-2000s financial crisis. After an unexpected market collapse in 2008 he stabilized markets and restored a large measure of investor and public confidence. In his effort to stabilize the economy, he took the central bank into unprecedented territory. At the beginning of his term he followed the advice of Paul Krugman to promote a housing bubble to offset the dot-com crash. As Fed transcripts show, he was the board's intellectual leader in its decision to cut the fed-funds rate to 1% in June 2003 and keep it there for a year. This was despite a rapidly accelerating economy (3.8% growth in 2004) and soaring commodity and real-estate prices. The Fed's multiyear policy of negative real interest rates produced a credit mania that led to the housing bubble and bust. From the safe distance of hindsight, it's easy to forget how rapid and widespread the financial panic was. The Fed had to offset the collapse in the velocity of money with an increase in its supply, and it did so with force and dispatch. One can disagree with the Fed's special guarantee programs, but we weren't sitting in the financial polar vortex at the time. Which brings us to the Fed's performance since the panic ended and "recovery" began in mid-2009. These include his unprecedented bond-buying, the huge expansion in the Fed's balance sheet, and the near-zero interest rate policy now into its 62nd month. All of this flowed from his belief, as a student of the Great depression, that the Fed's foremost goal was avoiding any premature tightening after a financial meltdown. His defenders say he has done so without the inflation that some of his critics predicted.

Martin Luther King Jr.

An American pastor, activist, humanitarian, and leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. A Baptist minister, he became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, serving as its first president. With the SCLC, he led an unsuccessful struggle against segregation in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, and organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama, that attracted national attention following television news coverage of the brutal police response. He also helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. There, he established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. J. Edgar Hoover considered him a radical and made him an object of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO for the rest of his life. On October 14, 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. In 1965, he and the SCLC helped to organize the Selma to Montgomery marches and the following year, he took the movement north to Chicago to work on segregated housing. In the final years of his life, he expanded his focus to include poverty and the Vietnam War, alienating many of his liberal allies with a 1967 speech titled "Beyond Vietnam". In 1968, he was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by riots in many U.S. cities. Allegations that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of killing him, had been framed or acted in concert with government agents persisted for decades after the shooting. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. _________ Day was established as a holiday in numerous cities and states beginning in 1971, and as a U.S. federal holiday in 1986. (3rd Monday of January each year - around his birthday) "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

Hippocrates

An ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles (460-370 BC). He is referred to as the father of western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field as the founder of the _________ic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other fields that it had traditionally been associated with (notably theurgy and philosophy), thus establishing medicine as a profession. Very little is known for sure, but he is credited with coining the ___________ic Oath, still relevant and in use today. He is also credited with greatly advancing the systematic study of clinical medicine, summing up the medical knowledge of previous schools, and prescribing practices for physicians through the __________ic Corpus and other works.

Richard Burbage

He was the star of William Shakespeare's theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men which became the King's Men on the ascension of James I in 1603. He played the title role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, and King Lear. But he was in great demand and also appeared in the plays of many of the great contemporary writers

Peter I (Peter the Great)

Ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1682 until his death in 1725. In numerous successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a huge empire that became a major European power. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political system with one that was modern, scientific, Europe-oriented, and based on The Enlightenment.

Rudyard Kipling

an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He wrote tales and poems of British soldiers in India and stories for children. He was born in Bombay and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. His works of fiction include The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), the Just So Stories (1902), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888);[3] and his poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), and "The White Man's Burden" (1899), He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story. He was one of the most popular writers in England, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined. George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". He was an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. "If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be TIRED by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!" ― Rudyard Kipling, If: A Father's Advice to His Son

Francis Bacon

(1561-1626) An English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. He has been called the father of empiricism. His works established and popularized inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the scientific method. He was knighted in 1603 (being the first scientist to receive a knighthood). He famously died by contracting pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat.

Carl Linnaeus

(1707-1778) A Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.

William Blake

(1757-1827) An English painter and poet. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, he is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Although he lived in London almost his entire life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich oeuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God or human existence itself. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England he was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine. His epic poem 'Milton' features John Milton, who returns from Heaven and unites with Blake to explore the relationship between living writers and their predecessors, and to undergo a mystical journey to correct his own spiritual errors. Excerpt from his poem 'The Tyger' When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? For the casual reader, the poem is about the question that most of us asked when we first heard about God as the benevolent creator of nature. "Why is there bloodshed and pain and horror?" "The Tyger", which actually finishes without an answer, is about your own experience of not getting a completely satisfactory answer to this essential question of faith. Excerpt from 'Jerusalem' -short poem in the preface to Milton And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On England's pleasan pastures seen!

William M. Tweed (Boss Tweed)

(1823-1878) An American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th century New York City and State. At the height of his influence, he was the third-largest landowner in New York City, a director of the Erie Railroad, the Tenth National Bank, and the New-York Printing Company, as well as proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1852 and the New York County Board of Supervisors in 1858, the year he became the head of the Tammany Hall political machine. He was also elected to the New York State Senate in 1867, but his greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects. His ring at its height was an 'engineering marvel', strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization. He convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from New York City taxpayers through political corruption, although later estimates ranged as high as $200 million. Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once, but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail.

Lord Louis Mountbatten

(1900-1979) A British statesman and naval officer, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed to Elizabeth II. During World War II, he was Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command (1943-46). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of the independent Dominion of India (1947-48), from which the modern Republic of India was to emerge in 1950. From 1954 until 1959 he was First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 1965, making him the longest serving professional head of the British Armed Forces to date. During this period Mountbatten also served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee for a year. Assigned to oversee India's transition to independence, his record is seen as very mixed; one common view is that he hastened the independence process unduly and recklessly, foreseeing vast disruption and loss of life and not wanting this to occur on the British watch, but thereby actually helping it to occur, especially in Punjab and Bengal. In 1979 Mountbatten, along with three other people, including a grandson Nicholas, was murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his fishing boat.

Aristotle

(384-322 BC) a Greek philosopher and scientist, his writings cover many subjects - including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government - and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. Shortly after his mentor Plato died, he left Athens and, at the request of Philip of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great between 356 and 323 BCE. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, he "was the first genuine scientist in history" Teaching Alexander the Great gave him many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books. The fact that he was a pupil of Plato contributed to his former views of Platonism, but, following Plato's death, he immersed himself in empirical studies and shifted from Platonism to empiricism. He believed all peoples' concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. Though he wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues - Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold" - it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived.

Thucydides

(460-395 BC) An Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. He has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work. He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right. His text is still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide, and the Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory. (The dialogue is a debate between Athenians and the island of Melos, on whether or not Melos has the right to remain neutral with Athens arguing basically that might is right). More generally, he showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.

Euripedes

(480-406 BC) One of the three great tragedians of classical Athens. According to the Suda he wrote 92 plays. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete. He is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. He also became "the most tragic of poets", focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown. He was also unique among the writers of ancient Athens for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society, including women. His conservative male audiences were frequently shocked by the 'heresies' he put into the mouths of characters, such as these words of his heroine Medea: Sooner would I stand Three times to face their battles, shield in hand, Than bear one child! His contemporaries associated him with Socrates as a leader of a decadent intellectualism, both of them being frequently lampooned by comic poets such as Aristophanes. Whereas Socrates was eventually put on trial and executed as a corrupting influence, he chose a voluntary exile in old age, dying in Macedonia.

Sophocles

(497-406 BC) One of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. According to the Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia, he wrote 123 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost 50 years, he was the most-fêted playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in around 30 competitions, won perhaps 24, and was never judged lower than second place. He influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Pythagoras

(570-495 BC) An Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called _________eanism. Little is known for sure about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have traveled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, and there set up a religious sect. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton but this eventually led to their downfall. Their meeting-places were burned and he was forced to flee the city. He made influential contributions to philosophy and religion in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic, and scientist and is best known for the _______ean theorem which bears his name.

Aesop

(620-564 BC) An Ancient Greek fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as _____'s Fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and (if they ever existed) no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales are characterized by animals and inanimate objects that speak, solve problems, and generally have human characteristics. Fables include The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Lion's Share, The Tortoise and the Hare, and many others.

Draco

(650-600 BC) Tthe first legislator of Athens in Ancient Greece. He replaced the prevailing system of oral law and blood feud by a written code to be enforced only by a court. His written law became known for its harshness, with the adjective _____nian referring to similarly unforgiving rules or laws. Under the law the death penalty was the punishment for even minor offences, such as "stealing a cabbage". Concerning the liberal use of the death penalty, Plutarch states: "It was a lot for himself, when asked why he had fixed the punishment of death for most offences, answered that he considered these lesser crimes to deserve it, and he had no greater punishment for more important ones."

Abd Al-Malik

(685-705) The 5th Umayyad Caliph. In his reign, all important records were translated into Arabic, and for the first time a special currency for the Muslim world was minted, which led to war with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II. He also built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

Ibn Khaldun

1332-1406. An Arab Muslim historiographer and historian, regarded to be among the founding fathers of modern sociology, historiography, and economics. He is best known for his book The Muqaddimah (known as Prolegomena in Greek). The book influenced 17th-century Ottoman historians to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. 19th-century European scholars also acknowledged the significance of the book and considered him as one of the greatest philosophers to come out of the Muslim world. Definition of government in the Muqaddimah: "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself" The concept of "'asabiyyah" (Arabic: 'tribalism', 'clanism', 'communitarism' or in a modern context 'nationalism') is one of the most well-known aspects of the Muqaddimah. It describes the bond of cohesion among humans in a group forming community. The bond, Asabiyyah, exists at any level of civilization, from nomadic society to states and empires. It is most strong in the nomadic phase, and decreases as civilization advances. As this Asabiyyah declines, another more compelling Asabiyyah may take its place; thus, civilizations rise and fall, and history describes these cycles of Asabiyyah as they play out.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

A 19th century Russian composer (1840-1893). The formal Western-oriented teaching he received at the St. Petersburg Conservatory set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of The Five. His training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal but unmistakably Russian style—a task that did not prove easy. The principles that governed melody, harmony and other fundamentals of Russian music ran completely counter to those that governed Western European music His homosexuality, which he kept private, has traditionally been considered a factor in why his life was punctuated by depression. His most famous works are his Symphony No 6, Swan Lake, Violin Concerto in D major, Piano Concerto No 1, and his 1812 Overture. The most recognizable works of his would probably be Dance Of The Sugarplum Fairy from the Nutcracker Suite or one of the many tunes from Swan Lake and the last 3 minutes of 1812 Overture.

Benjamin Disraeli

A British Conservative politician, writer and aristocrat who twice served as Prime Minister. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party. He is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is as of 2014 the only British Prime Minister of Jewish birth. His father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue; young Benjamin became an Anglican at age 12. He led the party to a majority in the 1874 election. He maintained a close friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 created him Earl of Beaconsfield. His second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire and the desire of other countries, such as Russia, to gain at its expense. In 1878, faced with Russian victories against the Ottomans, he worked at the Congress of Berlin to maintain peace in the Balkans and made terms favourable to Britain which weakened Russia. This diplomatic victory over Russia established him as one of Europe's leading statesmen. As successful invasions of India generally came through Afghanistan, the British had observed and sometimes intervened there since the 1830s, hoping to keep the Russians out. In 1878 the Russians sent a mission to Kabul; it was not rejected by the Afghans, as the British had hoped. The British then proposed to send their own mission, insisting that the Russians be sent away. The Viceroy, Lord Lytton, concealed his plans to issue this ultimatum from the Prime Minister but went ahead anyway. When the Afghans made no answer, the British advanced against them in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, and under Lord Roberts easily defeated them. The British installed a new ruler, and left a mission and garrison in Kabul "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."

Captain James Cook

A British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. His achievements radically changed western perceptions of world geography. As one of the very few men in the 18th century navy to rise through the ranks, Cook was particularly sympathetic to the needs of ordinary sailors. He was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.

Baruch Spinoza

A Dutch philosopher who was one of the great rationalists of the 17th century. In his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes's mind-body dualism, he wrote the last indisputable Latin masterpiece, and one in which the refined conceptions of medieval philosophy are finally turned against themselves and destroyed entirely. Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. The Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23. His books were also later put on the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books. Spinoza lived an outwardly simple life as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honors throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions. The family inheritance he gave to his sister. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him "the 'prince' of philosophers." Spinoza died at the age of 44 allegedly of a lung illness, perhaps tuberculosis or silicosis exacerbated by fine glass dust inhaled while grinding optical lenses. He is buried in the churchyard of the Christian Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.

Charles Martel

A Frankish statesman and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks was de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death in 741. Continuing and building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. In foreign wars, he subjugated Bavaria, Alemannia, and Frisia, vanquished the pagan Saxons, and halted the Islamic advance into Western Europe at the Battle of Tours. He is considered to be the founding figure of the European Middle Ages. Skilled as an administrator and warrior, he is often credited with a seminal role in the development of feudalism and knighthood. He was a great patron of Saint Boniface and made the first attempt at reconciliation between the Papacy and the Franks. Although he never assumed the title of king, he divided Francia, like a king, between his sons Carloman and Pippin. The latter became the first of the Carolingians. His grandson, Charlemagne, extended the Frankish realms to include much of the West, and became the first Emperor since the fall of Rome. Therefore, on the basis of his achievements, he is seen as laying the groundwork for the Carolingian Empire. Guerard describes him as being the "champion of the Cross against the Crescent."

Voltaire

A French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day. His magnum opus 'Candide' begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.

Marcel Proust

A French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time (earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past) published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. Although parts of the novel could be read as an exploration of snobbism, deceit, jealousy and suffering and although it contains a multitude of realistic details, the focus is not on the development of a tight plot or of a coherent evolution but on a multiplicity of perspectives and on the formation of experience. This focus on the relationship between experience, memory and writing and the radical de-emphasizing of the outward plot, have become staples of the modern novel but were almost unheard of in 1913. Many consider In Search of Lost Time the definitive modern novel. "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." "If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time."

Jean-Paul-Sartre

A French philosopher, playwright, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology, and one of the leading figures in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution". His works include No Exit and The Age of Reason and he primarily focused on the idea that humans are condemned to be free.

Marcel Duchamp

A French-American painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Dadaism and conceptual art, although not directly associated with Dada groups. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. By World War I, he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists (like Henri Matisse) as "retinal" art, intended only to please the eye.

Johannes Kepler

A German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. A key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution, he is best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. These works also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Additionally, he did fundamental work in the field of optics, invented an improved version of the refracting telescope, and mentioned the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei. He lived in an era when there was no clear distinction between astronomy and astrology, but there was a strong division between astronomy (a branch of mathematics within the liberal arts) and physics (a branch of natural philosophy). He also incorporated religious arguments and reasoning into his work, motivated by the religious conviction and belief that God had created the world according to an intelligible plan that is accessible through the natural light of reason. He described his new astronomy as "celestial physics", as "an excursion into Aristotle's Metaphysics", and as "a supplement to Aristotle's On the Heavens", transforming the ancient tradition of physical cosmology by treating astronomy as part of a universal mathematical physics.

Martin Luther

A German monk, Catholic priest, professor of theology and seminal figure of the 16th-century movement in Christianity known later as the Protestant Reformation. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar, with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor. He taught that salvation and subsequently eternity in heaven is not earned by good deeds but is received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from God. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, which had a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry. In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic views toward Jews, writing that Jewish synagogues and homes should be destroyed, their money confiscated, and liberty curtailed. These statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial status.

Herodotus

A Greek historian (484-425 BC). Widely referred to as "The Father of History" (first conferred by Cicero), he was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically and critically, and then to arrange them into a historiographic narrative. The Histories—his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced—is a record of his "inquiry" being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. Although some of his stories were fanciful and others possibly inaccurate, he claimed he was reporting only what had been told to him.

Sappho

A Greek lyric poet, born on the island of Lesbos. The Alexandrians included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost; however, her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments. Her poetry centers on passion and love for various people and both sexes. The word lesbian derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos, while her name is also the origin of the word sapphic; neither word was applied to female homosexuality until the 19th century

Euclid

A Greek mathematician, often referred to as the "Father of Geometry". He was active in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy I (323-283 BC). His Elements is one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics, serving as the main textbook for teaching mathematics (especially geometry) from the time of its publication until the late 19th or early 20th century. In the Elements, he deduced the principles of what is now called _____ean geometry from a small set of axioms. Euclid also wrote works on perspective, conic sections, spherical geometry, number theory and rigor.

Harry Houdini

A Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. His repertoire included chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to hold his breath inside a sealed milk can. His most famous act was the Chinese Water Torture Cell in which he was submerged upside down in a tank under water In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown.

Gustav III

A King of Sweden from 1771 until his death in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrika, who was a sister of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. He was a vocal opponent of what he saw as abuses by the nobility of a permissiveness established by parliamentarian reforms that had been worked out since the death of Charles XII. He seized power from the government in a coup d'état in 1772, ending the Age of Liberty and venturing into a campaign to restore royal autocracy. This was completed by the Union and Security Act in 1789, sweeping away most of the last pretences of Riksdag rule. As a bulwark of enlightened despotism, he spent considerable public funds on cultural ventures: this contributed among his critics to controversy about his reign. Attempts to seize Norway with Russian assistance, and then to recapture the Baltic provinces by a war against Russia, were unsuccessful, although much of Sweden's former military might was restored. An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalized Catholic and Jewish presence in the realm and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the abolition, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment. Following the French Revolution, he pursued an alliance of monarchs aimed at crushing the insurrection and reinstating his French counterpart, Louis XVI, offering Swedish assistance to the royal cause in France under his leadership. Gustav's immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother, Duke Carl until his son Gustav IV Adolf assumed the throne in 1796. The Gustavian autocracy hence survived until 1809, when it perished in another coup. A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded several academies, among them the Swedish Academy, created a national costume and had the Royal Swedish Opera built.

Tariq ibn Ziyad

A Muslim general who led the Islamic conquest of Visigothic Hispania in 711-718 A.D. Under the orders of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I he led a large army from the north coast of Morocco, consolidating his troops at a large hill now known as Gibraltar. The name "Gibraltar" is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq (جبل طارق), meaning "mountain of Tariq" which is named after him.

Marie Curie

A Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris. Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the ____ Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw, which remain major centres of medical research today. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centres. She named the first chemical element that she discovered - polonium, which she first isolated in 1898 - after her native country. She died in 1934 due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation - mainly, it seems, during her World War I service in mobile X-ray units created by her.

Cicero

A Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul and constitutionalist (106-43 BC). He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. His influence on the Latin language was so immense that the subsequent history of prose in not only Latin but European languages up to the 19th century was said to be either a reaction against or a return to his style. Petrarch's rediscovery of his letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, and classical Roman culture. Though he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, he believed his political career was his most important achievement. It was during his consulship that the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy attempted to overthrow the government through an attack on the city by outside forces, and he suppressed the revolt by executing five conspirators without due process. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars and the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, he championed a return to the traditional republican government. Following Julius Caesar's death he became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. He was proscribed as an enemy of the state by the Second Triumvirate and consequently killed in 43 BC.

Igor Stravinsky

A Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor (1882-1971). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. His career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for his enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design.

Alexei Rykov

A Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician most prominent as Premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924-29 and 1924-30 respectively. He played an active part in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Months prior to the October Revolution of 1917, he became a member of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets, and was elected to the Bolshevik Party Central Committee. As a moderate, he often came into political conflict with Lenin and more radical Bolsheviks, but nonetheless proved influential when the October Revolution finally did overthrow the Russian Provisional Government, and as such served many roles in the new government, starting as People's Commissar for Internal Affairs on the first roster of the Council of People's Commissars, which was chaired by Lenin. Lenin died from a fourth stroke on 21 January 1924 and on 2 February he was chosen by the Council of People's Commissars as Premier of both the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and of the Soviet Union, which he served as until 18 May 1929 and 19 December 1930, respectively. On 21 December 1930 he was removed from the Politburo. From 1931-37 he served as People's Commissar of Communications on the Council he formerly chaired. On 17 February 1937—at a meeting of the Central Committee—he was arrested with Nikolai Bukharin. In March 1938 both were found guilty of treason and executed as part of Stalin's 'Great Purge.'

Leon Trotsky

A Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army. He joined the Bolsheviks immediately prior to the 1917 October Revolution. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. He was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918-23). After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s he was successively removed from power in 1927, expelled from the Communist Party, and finally deported from the Soviet Union in 1929. As the head of the Fourth International, he continued in exile in Mexico to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism in the late 1930s, he opposed Stalin's non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler. He was assassinated on Stalin's orders in Mexico in 1940.

Vladimir Lenin

A Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as the leader of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917, and then concurrently as Premier of the Soviet Union from 1922, until his death in 1924. Under his administration, the Russian Empire disintegrated and was replaced by the Soviet Union, a single-party constitutionally socialist state; all wealth including land, industry and business were nationalized. Germany allowed him to return to Russia in 1917 and financially supported him, hoping the unrest he would cause would hurt the Russian's war efforts in WW1. He was the founder and leader of the Bolshevik party, splitting from the Mensheviks, and ultimately he led the October or Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A Russian novelist and philosopher of the realism movement in literature. Active from 1846-1881 his major works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature. His novella Notes From Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature. Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. Raskolnikov justifies his actions by comparing himself with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. The novel demonstrates the dangers of utilitarianism and rationalism.

Grigori Rasputin

A Russian peasant, mystic, faith healer and private adviser to the Romanovs. He became an influential figure in Saint Petersburg after August 1915 when Tsar Nicolas II took command of the army at the front. There is much uncertainty over his life and the degree of influence he exerted over the Tsar and his government. While his influence and role may have been exaggerated, historians agree that his presence played a significant part in the increasing unpopularity of the Tsar and Alexandra Feodorovna his wife, and the downfall of the Russian Monarchy. He was killed in 1916 as he was seen by both the left and right to be the root cause of Russia's despair during World War I

Anton Chekhov

A Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. He practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." He renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action he offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text." His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Boris Yeltsin

A Russian politician and the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, he emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Upon the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the final dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991, he remained in office as the President of the Russian Federation, the USSR's successor state. He was reelected in the 1996 election. He vowed to transform Russia's socialist command economy into a free market economy and implemented economic shock therapy, price liberalization and privatization programs. Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a small group of oligarchs. Much of the era was marked by widespread corruption, inflation, economic collapse and enormous political and social problems that affected Russia and the other former states of the USSR. Ongoing confrontations with the Supreme Soviet climaxed in the October 1993 Russian constitutional crisis in which he illegally ordered the dissolution of the parliament, which then attempted to remove him from office. The military eventually sided with him and besieged and shelled the Russian White House, resulting in the deaths of 187 people. He then scrapped the existing constitution, temporarily banned political opposition and deepened his economic experimentation. He introduced a new constitution with stronger presidential power and it was approved by referendum on 12 December 1993 with 58.5% of voters in favour. On 31 December 1999, he made a surprise announcement of his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of his chosen successor, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He left office widely unpopular with the Russian population. By some estimates, his approval ratings when leaving office were as low as 2%.

Nikita Krushchev

A Russian politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. He was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. His party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. He supported Joseph Stalin's purges, and approved thousands of arrests. In 1939, Stalin sent him to govern Ukraine, and he continued the purges there. After the war, he was recalled to Moscow as one of Stalin's close advisers. In the power struggle triggered by Stalin's death in 1953, he, after several years, emerged victorious. On February 25, 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the "Secret Speech," denouncing Stalin's purges and ushering in a less repressive era in the Soviet Union. His domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in the area of agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for national defense, he ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite the cuts, Khrushchev's rule saw the tensest years of the Cold War, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union sought to install medium range nuclear missiles in Cuba, about 90 miles from the U.S. coast. Two days later, he agreed to withdraw the missiles in exchange for a U.S. promise not to invade Cuba and a promise that the U.S. would withdraw missiles from Turkey, near the Soviet heartland. As the last term was not publicly announced at the request of the U.S., and was not known until just before Khrushchev's death in 1971, the resolution was seen as a great defeat for the Soviets, and contributed to Khrushchev's fall less than two years later.

Leo Tolstoy

A Russian writer, philosopher and political thinker who primarily wrote novels and short stories. He was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the world's greatest novelists. He is best known for two long novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Bevel. War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events surrounding the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Anna Karenina is commonly thought to explore the themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city. She also says one of the novel's key messages is that "no one may build their happiness on another's pain."

Nikola Tesla

A Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. He gained experience in telephony and electrical engineering before immigrating to the United States in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison in New York City. His work in the formative years of electric power development was also involved in the corporate struggle between making alternating current or direct current the power transmission standard, referred to as the war of currents. He went on to pursue his ideas of wireless lighting and electricity distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs and made early pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. He was renowned for his achievements and showmanship, eventually earning him a reputation in popular culture as an archetypal "mad scientist." His work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic field strength the ____ in his honor.

Vyacheslav Molotov

A Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik, and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin. He served as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (Premier) from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956. He served as First Deputy Premier from 1942 to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. He retired in 1961 after several years of obscurity. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939, whose most important provisions were added in the form of a secret protocol that stipulated an invasion of Poland and partition of its territory between Germany and the Soviet Union. This effectively sealed the beginning of World War II and made the Soviet Union an unofficial ally of Nazi Germany in the period from 1939 until the German invasion in 1941. Following the end of World War II, Molotov was involved in negotiations with the Western Allies, where he became noted for his diplomatic skills. He kept his place as a leading Soviet diplomat and politician until 1949. In March 1949, after losing Stalin's favour, he lost the foreign affairs ministry leadership. However, after Stalin's death in 1953, he defended the policies and legacy of Stalin until his death in 1986, and harshly criticised Stalin's successors, especially Nikita Khrushchev. The name "________ cocktail" was coined by the Finns during the Winter War. The name is an insulting reference to him for being responsible for the setting of "spheres of interest" in Eastern Europe under the Non-Aggression Pact in August 1939. The pact with the Nazis bearing his name, which secretly stated the Soviet intention to invade Finland in November 1939, was widely mocked by the Finns, as well as much of the propaganda he produced to accompany it, including his declaration on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbours. The Finns, far from starving and engaged in a bitter war for national survival with the Soviet forces, sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs "______ bread baskets" in reference to his propaganda broadcasts. When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the "______ cocktail", as "a drink to go with the food".

Konstantin Chernenko

A Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984 until his death thirteen months later. He was also Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 11 April 1984 until his death. He represented a return to the policies of the late Brezhnev era. Nevertheless, he supported a greater role for the labour unions, and reform in education and propaganda. In foreign policy, he negotiated a trade pact with the People's Republic of China. Despite calls for renewed détente, he did little to prevent the escalation of the Cold War with the United States. In 1980, the U.S. had boycotted the Summer Olympics held in Moscow in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The following 1984 Summer Olympics were due to be held in Los Angeles, California. On 8 May 1984, under his leadership, the USSR announced its intention not to participate. The boycott was joined by 14 Eastern Bloc countries and allies, including Cuba (but not Romania). The action was widely seen as revenge for the US boycott of the Moscow Games. The boycotting countries organized their own 'Friendship Games' in the summer of 1984.

Aristophanes

A comic playwright of ancient Athens (446-386 BC). Eleven of his thirty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, he has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out his play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher. His second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by the demagogue Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court but details of the trial are not recorded and he caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. Works: The Birds, Lysistrata, Wealth

Umar

A companion of Muhammad, he succeeded Abu Bakr to become the 2nd Rashid of the Rashidun Caliphate in 634. He was an expert Islamic jurist and is best known for his pious and just nature He is sometimes referred to as ____ I by historians of Islam, since a later ___yyad caliph, _____ II, also bore that name. In 610 Muhammad started preaching the message of Islam. He resolved to defend the traditional, polytheistic religion of Arabia. He was adamant and cruel in opposing Muhammad and very prominent in persecuting the Muslims. He later decided to assassinate Muhammad and was en route to complete that task in 616 when he converted to Islam. He fought in Muhammad's war and was a disciple, and became a chief adviser to Abu Bakr who appointed him as Caliph upon his death. Under him, the Rashidun Caliphate expanded at an unprecedented rate, ruling the whole Sasanian Empire and more than two thirds of the Byzantine Empire. His attacks against the Sassanid Persian Empire resulted in the conquest of Persia in fewer than two years. According to Jewish tradition, he set aside the Christian ban on Jews and allowed them into Jerusalem and to worship. In 644, at zenith of his power, he was assassinated by Persians in response to the Muslim conquest of Persia

Uthman

A companion of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Born into a prominent Meccan clan of the Quraysh tribe, he was a friend of Abu Bakr and one of the earliest converts to Islam. On Umar's deathbed he appointed a council of 6 (including Ali) to elect among themselves the next Caliph and ___ was chosen to become the 3rd Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. Under his leadership, the empire expanded into Fars in 650 (present-day Iran), some areas of Khorasan (present-day Afghanistan) in 651 and the conquest of Armenia was begun in the 640s. It became obvious the the different dialects of Arabic were changing in copies of the Quran, so he formed the committee which produced multiple copies of the text of the Qur'an as it exists today. He based the copies on a Quran from Hafsah (wife of Muhammad) who was entrusted with it by Abu Bakr, the original compiler of the Quran. He was assassinated in 656.

Fatimah

A daughter of Muhammad and Khadijah, wife of Ali and mother of Hasan and Hussein, and one of the five members of Ahl al-Bayt. She is the only member of Muhammad's family that gave him descendants, numerously spread through the Islamic world and known as Fatimid. She died a few months after her father's death. Many Twelver Shia Muslims believe that she died as a result of her injury caused by Umar, incurred while defending Ali against Abu Bakr. Sunni Muslims, who regard Abu Bakr and Umar as revered figures, and the Zaidiyyah Shia reject this version of events. Many of Muhammad's companions asked for her hand in marriage, including Abu Bakr and Umar. Muhammad turned them all down, saying that he was awaiting a sign of her destiny. Although polygamy is permitted by Islam, Ali did not marry another woman while she was alive.

Tonto

A fictional character, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger, a popular American Western character created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker. He has appeared in radio and television series and other presentations of the characters' adventures righting wrongs in 19th century western America.

Philip II of Macedon

A king Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was the father of Alexander the Great and Philip III. To him is attributed the phrase divide et impera (divide and conquer). With key Greek city-states in submission, he sent a message to Sparta: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." According to many accounts the Spartans' laconic reply was one word: "If". He and Alexander both chose to leave Sparta alone. He created and led the League of Corinth in 337 BC. Members of the League agreed never to wage war against each other, unless it was to suppress revolution. He was elected as leader (hegemon) of the army of invasion against the Persian Empire. In 336 BC, when the invasion of Persia was in its very early stage, he was assassinated, and was succeeded on the throne of Macedon by his son Alexander III.

Alexander III of Macedon (Alexander the Great)

A king of the Greek kingdom of Macedon (356-323 BC). Succeeded his father, Philip II, to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, until by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into present-day Pakistan. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders. During his youth, he was tutored by the philosopher Aristotle until the age of 16. When he succeeded his father to the throne in 336 BC, after Philip was assassinated, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. Seeking to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea", he invaded India in 326 BC, but was eventually forced to turn back at the demand of his troops. He died in Babylon in 323 BC, the city he planned to establish as his capital, without executing a series of planned campaigns that would have begun with an invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars tore his empire apart, resulting in several states ruled by the Diadochi, Alexander's surviving generals and heirs. His legacy includes the cultural diffusion his conquests engendered. He founded some twenty cities that bore his name.

Muhammad

A man from Mecca who unified Arabia into a single religious polity under Islam. Believed by Muslims and Bahá'ís to be a messenger and prophet of God, he is almost universally considered by Muslims as the last prophet sent by God to mankind. While non-Muslims regard him as the founder of Islam, Muslims consider him to have restored the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. Born in about 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age; he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. After his childhood he primarily worked as a merchant. At age 40, he reported that he was visited by Gabriel and received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event he started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him is the only way acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets. He gained few followers early on, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, he and his followers in Mecca migrated to Medina in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, he united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, he gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and he took over the city with little bloodshed. He destroyed the pagan idols in the city and sent his followers out to destroy all remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia. In 632, he fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity. The revelations which he reported receiving until his death form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, his teachings and practices (sunnah), found in the Hadith and sira literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as sources of Islamic law.

Cleisthenes

A noble Athenian, he is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing in 508/7 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy." He also may have introduced ostracism (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote from more than 6,000 of the citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years. The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy (e.g., by having ambitions to set himself up as tyrant). However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile. He called these reforms isonomia ("equality vis à vis law", iso=equality; nomos=law), instead of demokratia.

Plato

A philosopher, as well as mathematician, in Classical Greece (Athens) and an influential figure in philosophy, central in Western philosophy. He was Socrates' student, Aristotle's teacher, and founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is noted for his use of dialectic which is the process of eliciting the truth by means of questions aimed at opening out what is already implicitly known, or at exposing the contradictions and muddles of an opponent's position. He wrote many 'dialogues,' one of which was 'The Republic,' which written around 380 BC, concerns the definition of justice, the order and character of the just city-state and the just man. It includes the theory of forms, allegory of the cave, analogy of the divided line, myth of Er, ring of gyges, and idea of the philosopher king.

Demosthenes

A prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens (384-322 BC). He devoted his most productive years to opposing Macedon's expansion. He idealized his city and strove throughout his life to restore Athens's supremacy and motivate his compatriots against Philip II of Macedon. He sought to preserve his city's freedom and to establish an alliance against Macedon, in an unsuccessful attempt to impede Philip's plans to expand his influence southward by conquering all the other Greek states. After Philip's death, Demosthenes played a leading part in his city's uprising against the new King of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. However, his efforts failed and the revolt was met with a harsh Macedonian reaction. To prevent a similar revolt against his own rule, Alexander's successor in this region, Antipater, sent his men to track him down. Demosthenes took his own life, in order to avoid being arrested. In modern history, orators such as Henry Clay would mimic his technique. His ideas and principles survived, influencing prominent politicians and movements of our times. Hence, he constituted a source of inspiration for the authors of the Federalist Papers and for the major orators of the French Revolution. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau was among those who idealized and wrote a book about him. For his part, Friedrich Nietzsche often composed his sentences according to the paradigms of Demosthenes, whose style he admired. "Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." "Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master."

Alexander Kerensky

A prominent leader of the February Revolution, he was the Prime Minister of Russia (of the Provisional Government) before the October Revolution leading to Lenin's assumption of power (1917).

Abu Bakr

A senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was the 1st Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE following Muhammad's death. As Caliph, he succeeded to the political and administrative functions previously exercised by Muhammad. As a young man, he became a merchant and he travelled extensively in Arabia and neighboring lands in the Middle East, through which he gained both wealth and experience. He was the first person outside the family of Muhammad to openly become a Muslim. He was instrumental in the conversion of many people to the Islamic faith and early in 623, his daughter Aisha was married to Muhammad, strengthening the ties between the two men. His Caliphate lasted for a little over two years ending with his death after an illness. Though the period of his caliphate was not long, it included successful invasions of the two most powerful empires of the time (Sassanid Persian Empire & Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire). He set in motion a historical trajectory that in few decades would lead to one of the largest empires in history. The Twelver Shia and the Ismaili Shia believe that Ali should have been the first Caliph.

Leonidas I

A warrior king of the Greek city-state of Sparta (540-480 BC). He led the Spartan forces during the Second Persian War and is remembered for his heroic death at the Battle of Thermopylae. He was the third son of Anaxandridas II of Sparta, and thus belonged to the Agiad dynasty, who claimed descent from the demigod Heracles.

Fidel Castro

After serving a leading role in the Cuban Revolution in 1959 which ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista, he became Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008. Politically he was a Marxist-Leninist and under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and businesses were nationalized, and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, he was the Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and from 2006 to 2008. His regime survived the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

Edward R. Murrow

An American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States. He was widely respected for his integrity and honesty in delivering the news. Following success with radio program 'Hear It Now,' he was the host of the news and documentary broadcast series 'See It Now,' from 1951 to 1958. He produced a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. After leaving CBS he was appointed under Kennedy as the head of the United States Information Agency which provided the official views of the government to the public in other nations. Despite being a chain smoker, he revealed the link between smoking and cancer for the first time on television. He died from lung cancer in 1965.

Alan Greenspan

An American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He was first appointed Federal Reserve chairman by President Ronald Reagan. Democratic leaders of Congress criticized him for politicizing his office because of his support for Social Security privatization and tax cuts that they felt would increase the deficit. The easy-money policies of the Fed during his tenure has been suggested to be a leading cause of the subprime mortgage crisis, which occurred within months of his departure from the Fed, and has, said The Wall Street Journal, "tarnished his reputation".

Thornton Wilder

An American playwright and novelist active 1930s-60s. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. Set in the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners, Our Town tells the story of an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives. The play is performed without a set and the actors mime their actions without the use of props. Throughout it uses metatheatrical devices, such as narration by a stage manager. "Does anyone ever realize life while they live it?" -Our Town (Emily)

Arthur Miller

An American playwright, essayist and prominent figure in twentieth-century American theatre. Among his plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953) and A View from the Bridge (1955, revised 1956). He also wrote the screenplay for the film The Misfits (1961). He was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama; testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee; and was married to Marilyn Monroe.

William Seward

An American politician who served as Governor of New York and United States Senator before becoming United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was a dominant figure in the Republican Party in its formative years. Although regarded as the leading contender for the party's presidential nomination in 1860, he was defeated by Abraham Lincoln. Despite pain at his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who was elected, and who appointed him Secretary of State. Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding; once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. He was successful in preventing Britain and France from intervening in the conflict, that might have led to the independence of the Confederate States. He was a target of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln, and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained loyally at his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, and was responsible for the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire which his opponents at the time called "______'s Folly."

Paul Revere

An American silversmith and early industrialist, he is most famous for alerting the Colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "________'s Ride." He was a prominent Boston silversmith and helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military. He served as an Officer in the Massachusetts Militia and returned to his business after the war. He was the first American to roll copper into sheets for use as sheathing on naval vessels.

Dean Martin

An American singer, actor, comedian, and film producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century (50s & 60s), he was nicknamed the "King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assuredness. He was a member of the "Rat Pack," with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. He was the host of the television variety program The ___ ____ Show and The ___ ____ Celebrity Roast. His relaxed, warbling crooning voice earned him dozens of hit singles including his signature songs "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare", and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?".

Jack Norworth

An American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer. He wrote the lyrics to 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game; in 1908 even though it was 1940 before he witnessed his first Major League Baseball game. He also wrote the early 20th century classic 'Shine on Harvest Moon.'

Archimedes

An Ancient Greek (Syracuse) mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer (287-212 BC). Generally considered the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time, he anticipated modern calculus and analysis by applying concepts of infinitesimals and the method of exhaustion to derive and rigorously prove a range of geometrical theorems, including the area of a circle, the surface area and volume of a sphere, and the area under a parabola. Other mathematical achievements include deriving an accurate approximation of pi, defining and investigating the spiral bearing his name, and creating a system using exponentiation for expressing very large numbers. He was also one of the first to apply mathematics to physical phenomena, founding hydrostatics and statics, including an explanation of the principle of the lever. He is credited with designing innovative machines, such as his screw pump, compound pulleys, and defensive war machines to protect his native Syracuse from invasion. He died during the Siege of Syracuse when he was killed by a Roman soldier despite orders that he should not be harmed.

Solon

An Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic, and moral decline in archaic Athens, and for repealing the laws of Draco. His reforms failed in the short term, yet he is often credited with having laid the foundations for Athenian democracy.

Virginia Woolf

An English writer, and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, she was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its famous dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life, thought to have been the result of what is now termed bipolar disorder, and committed suicide by drowning in 1941.

Eugene O'Neill

An Irish American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. Some of his works include The Iceman Cometh (1939) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1939-41). He won the Nobel in 1936, the first American playwright to receive the honor.

James Joyce

An Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. He is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he perfected and was famous for. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, Joyce's fictional universe does not extend far beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city. Shortly after the publication of Ulysses he elucidated this preoccupation somewhat, saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal." "His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before." ― James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Galileo Galilei

An Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. He has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy" the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science". His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the ____ moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. He also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments. His championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, a time when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was false and contrary to scripture, placing works advocating the Copernican system on the index of banned books and forbidding him from advocating heliocentrism. Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating not only the Pope but also the Jesuits, both of whom had supported Galileo up until this point. He was tried by the Holy Office, then found "vehemently suspect of heresy", was forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, in which he summarized the work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials.

Petrarch

An Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. His rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance. He is often called the "Father of Humanism". His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the "Dark Ages".

Aristarchus of Samos

An ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician who presented the first known model for heliocentrism (310-230 BC). As Anaxagoras before him, he also suspected that the stars were just other bodies like the sun. His astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy. Copernicus later revived heliocentrism almost 2,000 years later in the 16th century spawning the Copernican and Scientific Revolution.

Pericles

Arguably the most prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age— specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of ____", though the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century. He promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis (including the Parthenon). He also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist.

Che Guevara

As an Argentine Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous counter-cultural symbol of rebellion. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.

Marie Antoinette

Born an Archduchess of Austria, she was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She was largely disliked by the people for her frivolousness and superficiality. Some believe the start of the French Revolution can be attributed to her. She and her husband Louis XVI were executed by guillotine as part of the French Revolution in 1792. The legend says that when told of the people's bread shortage she responded 'let them eat cake,' demonstrating her obliviousness to the plight of the poor since cake is made of bread, butter and eggs. There is no evidence she ever said this.

Irving Berlin

Born in Russia of Jewish origin, his family moved to New York and he became one of the greatest and most prolific American songwriters of all time. Active from 1907-1966 his works include God Bless America, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Puttin on the Ritz, I've Got My Love to Keep me Warm, White Christmas, & many others. He also wrote There's No Business Like Show Business as part of the score to Annie Get Your Gun as well as the scores to many other musicals.

Alexander I

Emperor of Russia from 1801 to 1825. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1805, he joined Britain in the War of the Third Coalition against Napoleon, but after the massive defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz he switched and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon's Continental System. He fought a small-scale naval war against Britain, 1807-12. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810. The tsar's greatest triumph came in 1812 as Napoleon's invasion proved a total disaster for the French. As part of the winning coalition against Napoleon he gained some spoils in Finland and Poland. Alexander died without issue and after great confusion that included the failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers he was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I.

Alexander III

Emperor of Russia from 1881 until his death in 1894. He was highly conservative and reversed some of the liberal measures of his father, Alexander II. During his reign Russia fought no major wars, for which he was styled "The Peacemaker" Upon his death he was succeeded by his son Nicholas II.

Muawiyah I

He established the Umayyad Dynasty. He was politically adept in dealing with the Eastern Roman Empire and was therefore made into a secretary by Muhammad. During the first and second caliphates, he fought with the Muslims against the Byzantines in Syria. He fought (with many others including Aisha) against Ali in the First Fitna, 656-661, gaining the Caliphate upon Ali's death and an agreement with Hasan. The agreement promised to return the Caliphate to either Hasan or Hussein upon his death along with many other tenets which he didn't follow, in exchange for Hasan ceding the Caliphate to him. In his death in 680 he appointed his son Yazid as successor. In many ways he was a great and just ruler. He expanded the empire further by fighting the Roman Empire. He greatly beautified Damascus, stimulated development in numerous fields and was generally very just and compassionate in his policies.

Vladimir Putin

He has been the President of Russia since May 2012. He previously served as President from 2000 to 2008, and as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. For 16 years Putin served as an officer in the KGB, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before he retired to enter politics in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsin's administration where he rose quickly, becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999 when Yeltsin resigned unexpectedly. He won the subsequent 2000 presidential election and was re-elected in 2004. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, he was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008. Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election and appointed Putin as Prime Minister, beginning a period of so-called "tandemocracy". In September 2011, following a change in the law extending the presidential term from four years to six, he announced that he would seek a third, non-consecutive term as President in the 2012 presidential election, an announcement which led to large-scale protests in many Russian cities. During his first premiership and presidency (1999-2008), real incomes increased by a factor of 2.5, real wages more than tripled; unemployment and poverty more than halved, and the Russians' self-assessed life satisfaction rose significantly. In 2014 Russia was excluded from the G8 group as a result of its annexation of Crimea.

Mikhail Gorbachev

He was the seventh and last leader of the Soviet Union, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the country's head of state from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. He was the only general secretary in the history of the Soviet Union to have been born after the October Revolution. His policies of glasnost ("openness") and perestroika ("restructuring") as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War, removed the constitutional role of the Communist Party in governing the state, and inadvertently led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. An attempted coup after the collapse of the USSR effectively ended his power and he resigned. He remains vocal and active in politics today.

Rodney King

In 1991 he was pulled over by the LAPD after a high speed pursuit. The officers unnecessarily beat him following the pursuit and this was caught on video, thrusting him into the national limelight. His case highlighted race tensions and after the officers were acquitted of charges in 1992 huge riots broke out in LA. 53 people were killed and over 2,000 injured as a result of the riots, and the riots ended only after the California Army National Guard, 7th Infantry Division, and 1st Marine Division were called in to help.

Aisha

One of Muhammad's wives. The majority of traditional hadith sources state that she was married to Muhammad at the age of six or seven, but she stayed in her parents' home until the age of nine, or ten when the marriage was consummated with Muhammad, then 53, in Medina. She had an important role in early Islamic history, both during Muhammad's life and after his death. In Sunni tradition, she is thought to be scholarly and inquisitive. She contributed to the spread of Muhammad's message and served the Muslim community for 44 years after his death. She is also known for narrating 2210 hadiths, not just on matters related to the Prophet's private life, but also on topics such as inheritance, pilgrimage, and eschatology. Her father, Abu Bakr, became the first caliph to succeed Muhammad. During the time of the third caliph Uthman, she had a leading part in the opposition that grew against him, though she did not agree either with those responsible for his assassination nor with the party of Ali. During the reign of Ali, she wanted to avenge Uthman's death, which she attempted to do in the Battle of the Camel. She participated in the battle by giving speeches and leading troops on the back of her camel. She ended up losing the battle, and afterwards, she lived quietly in Medina for more than twenty years, took no part in politics, and became reconciled to Ali.

Abd al-Rahman III

The Emir and Caliph of Córdoba (912-961) of the Ummayad dynasty in al-Andalus. He ascended the throne in his early 20s, and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of Iberia. Although people of all creeds enjoyed tolerance and freedom of religion under his rule, he repelled the Fatimids, partly by supporting their Maghrawa enemies in North-Africa, and partly by claiming the title Caliph (ruler of the Islamic world) for himself. (1st Caliph of Cordoba) He was extremely tolerant of non-Muslims and Jews and Christians both were treated fairly. European nations sent emissaries such as from Otto I of Germany, and the Byzantine emperor. He spent a third of the caliphate's wealth on buildings, expanded the library, and helped Cordoba to become the intellectual center of Western Europe.

Alexander II

The Emperor of Russia from 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was the most successful Russian reformer since Peter the Great. His most important achievement was the emancipation of serfs in 1861, for which he became known as ______ the Liberator The tsar was responsible for numerous other reforms including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing capital punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoting the universities. Despite these reforms, during his reign, his brutal secret police, known as the Third Section, sent thousands of dissidents into exile in Siberia. In foreign policy, he sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there was another war. He sought peace, moved away from bellicose France when Napoleon III fell in 1871, and in 1872 joined with Germany and Austria in the League of the Three Emperors that stabilized the European situation. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate Constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia.

Leonid Brezhnev

The General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in duration. During his rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader has been criticized for marking the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation that eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. He pushed for détente between the Eastern and Western countries. At the same time he presided over the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to stop the Prague Spring, and his last major decision in power was to send the Soviet military to Afghanistan in an attempt to save the fragile regime, which was fighting a war against the mujahideen. After suffering from various illnesses for several years, he died on 10 November 1982 and was quickly succeeded in his post as General Secretary by Yuri Andropov. He had fostered a cult of personality, although not nearly to the same degree as Stalin. Mikhail Gorbachev denounced his legacy and drove the process of liberalization. In spite of this, opinion polls in Russia show Brezhnev to be the most popular Russian leader of the 20th century.

Xi Jinping

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the President of the People's Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. As Party General Secretary, he is also an ex officio member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee, China's de facto top decision-making body. He was transferred to Shanghai as the party secretary for a brief period in 2007. He was promoted to the Politburo Standing Committee and Central Secretariat in October 2007 and was groomed to become Hu Jintao's successor. He is now the leader of the People's Republic's fifth generation of leadership. He has called for a renewed campaign against corruption, continued market economic reforms, an open approach to governance, and a comprehensive national renewal under the neologism "Chinese Dream". He and his wife Peng have a daughter named Xi Mingze, who enrolled as a freshman at Harvard University in the autumn of 2010 under a pseudonym.

Gustavus Adolphus

The King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632 he is credited as the founder of Sweden as a Great Power. He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms. His most notable military victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld. With a superb military machine with good weapons, excellent training, and effective field artillery, backed by an efficient government which could provide necessary funds, he was poised to make himself a major European leader, but he was killed at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. He was ably assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, who also acted as regent after his death. In an era characterized by almost endless warfare, he led his armies as king from 1611 until his death in battle in 1632 while leading a charge—as Sweden rose from the status of a mere regional power and run-of-the-mill kingdom to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Within only a few years of his accession, Sweden had become the largest nation in Europe after Russia and Spain. Some have called him the "father of modern warfare", or the first great modern general. Under his tutelage, Sweden and the Protestant cause developed a number of excellent commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to defeat Sweden's enemies and expand the boundaries and the power of the empire long after Gustavus Adolphus' death in battle. He was known by the epithets "The Golden King" and "The Lion of the North" by neighboring sovereigns. He is commemorated today with city squares in major Swedish cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsingborg.

Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible)

The Tsar of All the Russias from 1547 until his death in 1584. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one thousand million acres. He managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russians. His mental illness increased in severity with his age, and the second period of his reign saw the deterioration of his mental state and consequently, his rule. In one such outburst, he killed his groomed and chosen heir. His legacy is complex: he was an able diplomat, a patron of arts and trade, founder of Russia's first Print Yard, a leader highly popular among the common people of Russia, but he is also remembered for his paranoia and arguably harsh treatment of the nobility.

Ali

The cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. A son of Abu Talib, he was also the first male who accepted Islam (at the age of 12). Sunnis consider him the fourth and final of the Rashidun (rightly guided caliphs) ruling from 656 to 661. Shias regard him as the first Imam after Muḥammad, and consider him and his descendants the rightful successors to Muhammad, all of whom are members of the Ahl al-Bayt, the household of Muhammad. This disagreement split the Ummah (Muslim community) into the Sunni and Shi`i branches. He was raised in the household of Muhammad, who himself was raised by Abu Talib, Muhammad's uncle. He migrated to Medina shortly after Muhammad did. Once there Muhammad told him that Allah had ordered Muhammad to give his daughter, Fatimah, to him in marriage. He was appointed Caliph by the Companions of Muhammad (the Sahaba) in Medina after the assassination of Uthman. He encountered defiance and civil war during his reign. In 661, he was attacked one morning while praying in the Great Masjid of Al-Kufah, and died two days later. The First Fitna, 656-661, followed the assassination of Uthman, was ended by Muawiyah's assumption of the caliphate. This civil war (often called the Fitna) is regretted as the end of the early unity of the Islamic ummah (nation) He holds a high position in almost all Sufi orders which trace their lineage through him to Muhammad.

Crispus Attucks

The first casualty of the Boston Massacre (March 5 1770), he is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War. Historians disagree on whether he was a free man or an escaped slave; but agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent. While the extent of his participation in events leading to the massacre is unclear, in the 18th century he became an icon of the anti-slavery movement. He was held up as the first martyr of the American Revolution. In the early 19th century, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded him as a black American who played a heroic role in the history of the United States. Because Attucks had Wampanoag ancestors, his story also holds special significance for many Native Americans.

Aeschylus

The first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed. He is often described as the father of tragedy. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in plays to allow for conflict amongst them, whereas previously characters had interacted only with the chorus. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times, and there is a longstanding debate about his authorship of one of these plays, Prometheus Bound. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, & The Eumenides) is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his works was influenced by the Persian invasion of Greece, which took place during his lifetime. This play, The Persians, is the only extant classical Greek tragedy concerned with recent history and it is a useful source of information about that period. So important was the war to him and the Greeks that, upon his death, around 456 BC, his epitaph commemorated his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon rather than his success as a playwright.

Abd al-Rahman I

The founder of a Muslim dynasty (1st Emir of Cordoba) that ruled the greater part of Iberia (Al-Andalus) for nearly three centuries (including the succeeding Caliphate of Córdoba). His establishment of a government in al-Andalus represented a branching from the rest of the Islamic Empire, which had been brought under the Abbasid following the overthrow of the Umayyads from Damascus in 750. He was 20 when his family was overthrown from the Caliphate by the Abassids in 750. Most of his family was killed, but he escaped in a wild journey with numerous close calls and eventually landing in al-Andalus Upon landing news of his arrival spread quickly among Muslims, and he was able to use thr growing support to steadily forge a new dynasty. His rule stood against Charlemagne, the Abassids, the Berbers, and other Muslim Spaniards. There is some dispute as to what exactly it was that he created: an extension of the Umayyad Dynasty or the new Caliphate of Cordoba. He ruled from 756-788. The collapse of the Visigoths in Iberia was already begun by other Muslims in the early 8th century, namely Tariq ibn Ziyad. However, this young Umayyad was able to unify the various Muslim elements and establish a stable dynasty.

Nicholas II

The last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. Like other Russian Emperors he is commonly known by the monarchical title Tsar (though Russia formally ended the Tsardom in 1721). He ruled from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Enemies nicknamed him _____ the Bloody because of the Khodynka Tragedy, the anti-Semitic pogroms, Bloody Sunday, his violent suppression of the 1905 Revolution, his execution of political opponents, and his pursuit of military campaigns on an unprecedented scale. Under his rule, Russia was humiliatingly defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, which saw the almost total annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima. As head of state, he approved the Russian mobilization of August 1914, which marked the beginning of Russia's involvement in the First World War, a war in which 3.3 million Russians were killed. The Imperial Army's severe losses and the High Command's incompetent handling of the war, along with other policies are often cited as the leading causes of the fall of the Romanov dynasty. He abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917 during which he and his family were imprisoned. In the spring of 1918, he was handed over to the local Ural soviet by commissar. His wife, Alexandra Feodorovna; his son, Alexei Nikolaevich; his four daughters, Olga Nikolaevna, Tatiana Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna and Anastasia Nikolaevna, his personal staff and he were executed in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 1918. This led to the canonization of him and his wife by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Joseph Stalin

The leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was appointed general secretary of the party's Central Committee in 1922. He subsequently managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin through suppressing Lenin's criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. By the late 1920s, he was the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. Under his rule, the concept of "socialism in one country" became a central tenet of Soviet society. He replaced the New Economic Policy introduced by Lenin in the early 1920s with a highly centralised command economy, launching a period of industrialization and collectivization that resulted in the rapid transformation of the USSR from an agrarian society into an industrial power. In a period that lasted from 1936 to 1939, he instituted the Great Purge, in which hundreds of thousands of political opponents were executed. Major figures in the Communist Party, such as the old Bolsheviks, Leon Trotsky, and most of the Red Army generals, were killed after being convicted of plotting to overthrow the government. He imprisoned 14 million over 20 years in the 'Gulag' prisons/forced labor camps. In August 1939, he entered into a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that divided their influence and territory within Eastern Europe, resulting in their invasion of Poland in September of that year, but Germany later violated the agreement and launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. After defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Yalta and Potsdam conferences established communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union in the Eastern Bloc countries as buffer states. He also fostered close relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. He led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War.

Catherine II (Catherine the Great)

The most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796. Her reign was called Russia's golden age. She came to power following a coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, at the end of the Seven Years' War. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe. In the east, Russia started to colonize Alaska, establishing Russian America. An admirer of Peter the Great, she continued to modernize Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of reliance on serfs. This was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachev's Rebellion of cossacks and peasants. A notable example of enlightened despot, a correspondent of Voltaire and an amateur opera librettist, she presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

Hussein ibn Ali

The son of Ali and Fatimah, younger brother of Hasan, & the third Shia Imam. He refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph because he considered the rule of the Umayyads unjust. As a consequence, he left Medina, his home town, and traveled to Mecca. There, the people of Kufa sent letters to him, asking his help and pledging their allegiance to him. So he traveled toward Kufa. At Karbala his caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army. He was killed and beheaded in the Battle of Karbala in 680 along with most of his family and companions. The annual memorial for him, his family, his children and his As'haab (companions) is called Ashura (tenth day of Muharram) and is a day of mourning for Shia Muslims. In the long term, the cruel killings at Karbala became an example of the brutality of the Umayyads and fueled the later Shiite movements. Anger at his death was turned into a rallying cry that helped undermine and ultimately overthrow the Umayyad Caliphate.

Hasan ibn Ali

The son of Ali and Fatimah. After his father's death, he briefly succeeded him as the righteous Caliph (head of state), before retiring to Medina and entering into an agreement with the first Umayyad ruler, Muawiyah, who assumed the Caliphate. Both Sunni and Shia Muslims regard him as a martyr. He is the 2nd Imam of Shia Islam. He had an army of 40,000 compared to Muawiyah's 60,000 and didn't want to cause a large amount of Muslim deaths. So he agreed to give Muawiyah the Caliphate if the Caliphate was passed to him when Muawiyah died (if he was still alive, his younger brother Hussein if not). There were numerous other stipulations as well. Muawiyah did not keep most of them. He died in 670, perhaps poisoned by one of his wives put up to it by Muawiyah, and the Caliphate was not passed to Hussein when Muawiyah died.

Dmitry Medvedev

The tenth and current Prime Minister of Russia. He previously served as the third President of Russia, from 2008 to 2012. When he took office at the age of 42, he was the youngest of the three Russian Presidents who have served. In November 1999, he was hired in the Russian presidential administration, where he worked as deputy chief of staff. In the 2000 Presidential elections, he was Putin's campaign manager. On 10 December 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by four political parties. His candidacy was backed by the popular outgoing President Vladimir Putin, giving a significant boost to his popularity. Although he did not run for a second term as President, he was appointed Prime Minister by Putin, who won the 2012 presidential election. Widely regarded as more liberal than his predecessor, his top agenda as President was a wide-ranging modernisation programme, aiming at modernising Russia's economy and society, and lessening the country's reliance on oil and gas. During his tenure, Russia emerged victorious in the Russo-Georgian War and recovered from the Great Recession. Recognising corruption as one of Russia's most severe problems, he has launched an anti-corruption campaign and initiated a substantial law enforcement reform. In foreign policy, his main achievements include the signing of the New START treaty, a "reset" of Russia-United States relations, which were severely strained following Russia's war with Georgia, as well as increasing Russia's cooperation with the BRICS-countries, and gaining Russia's admission into the WTO in 2011.

Anastasia Nikolaevna

The youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. Anastasia was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Grand Duchess Maria, and was an elder sister of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. She was executed with her family in an extrajudicial killing by members of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police, on July 17, 1918. Persistent rumors of her possible escape circulated after her death, fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was unknown during the decades of Communist rule. The mass grave near Yekaterinburg which held the remains of the Tsar, his wife, and three of their daughters was revealed in 1991, and the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and the remaining daughter—either ____ or her older sister Maria—were discovered in 2007. Her possible survival has been conclusively disproved. Forensic analysis and DNA testing confirmed that the remains are those of the imperial family, showing that all four grand duchesses were killed in 1918. Several women have falsely claimed to have been ____; the best known impostor is Anna Anderson. Anderson's body was cremated upon her death in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994 on available pieces of Anderson's tissue and hair showed no relation to the DNA of the imperial family. During her life she and her siblings had a controversial relationship with Grigori Rasputin. She and her siblings were taught to view Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to share confidences with him. She wrote to him, "My dear, precious, only friend, how much I should like to see you again. You appeared to me today in a dream. I am always asking Mama when you will come ... I think of you always, my dear, because you are so good to me." This and other letters circulated throughout society fueling rumors of a sexual relationship.

David Lloyd George

a British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer (1908-1915), he was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government (1916-22), during and immediately after the First World War. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of Germany in the Great War. He arguably made a greater impact on British public life than any other 20th-century leader, thanks to his pre-war introduction of Britain's social welfare system, his leadership in winning the war, his post-war role in reshaping Europe and his partitioning Ireland (between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland which remained part of the UK).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

a German writer and statesman. He was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement. In 1788 his first major scientific work, the Metamorphosis of Plants, was published. His poems were set to music throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by a number of composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Charles Gounod, Richard Wagner, Hugo Wolf, and Gustav Mahler. Perhaps his most famous work is his drama/play adaptation of Faust. Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, so he makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

Elon Musk

a South African-born, Canadian-American business magnate, inventor, and investor.He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX and CEO and chief product architect of Tesla Motors. He has also envisioned a conceptual high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop.

Yuri Andropov

a Soviet politician he was the longest serving chairman of the KGB and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later. During the Prague Spring events in Czechoslovakia, he was the main proponent of the "extreme measures". He ordered the fabrication of false intelligence not only for public consumption, but also for the Soviet Politburo. "The KGB whipped up the fear that Czechoslovakia could fall victim to NATO aggression or to a coup". He played the dominant role in the decision to invade Afghanistan on 24 December 1979.

Socrates

a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy (469-399 BC). He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, he has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. Plato's Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the field of epistemology.

Homer

is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature. Whether and when he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that he lived 400 years before his own time, which would place him at around 850 BC while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC. Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC.