John Buchan is most famous for The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle, and his thrillers and short stories are all in print today. The list of his published books is well over a hundred in number, and only about 40 of these are fiction....

Edgar Rice Burroughs is best remembered as the creator of the world famous character of Tarzan, one of the indispensable icons of popular culture. Burroughs also published science fiction and crime novels. In 1912 Burroughs's breakthrough n...

Vallabhbhai Patel, popularly known as Sardar Patel, was the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. He was an Indian barrister and statesman, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and a founding father of the Republic of India who p...

Prof. Dr. Ing h.c. Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer. He is best known for creating the Volkswagen (Beetle) as well as the first of many Porsche automobiles, and for his contributions to advanced German tank designs: Tig...

Hiram Bingham III was an American academic, explorer and politician. He rediscovered the Inca settlement of Machu Picchu in 1911. Later, Bingham served as Governor of Connecticut and a member of the United States Senate. Machu Picchu ha...

Albert Schweitzer was a French-German theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at this ti...

Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" Zelle MacLeod, better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a member of the Frisian minority from the Netherlands, and was an exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy and executed by fir...

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, was head of the Catholic Church from 2 March 1939 to his death in 1958. Before his election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Eccle...

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman who led his nation from the ruins of World War II to one of the most prosperous nations in Europe. He brought Germany prosperity, democracy, stability and respect. He was the first chanc...

The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls was, together with Frederick Henry Royce, a co-founder of the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. Rolls started one of Britain's first car dealerships when he started importing and selling French made ve...

Godfrey Harold Hardy was a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. Non-mathematicians usually know him for A Mathematician's Apology, his essay from 1940 on the aesthetics of m...

Oswald Theodore Avery was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists and a pione...

John Arthur Johnson, better known as Jack Johnson and nicknamed the “Galveston Giant”, was an American boxer and arguably the best heavyweight of his generation. He was the first black Heavyweight Champion of the World (1908-1915), a feat w...

American poet, historian, and novelist Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, the second of seven children. Before discovering his true calling, Sandburg worked a variety of odd jobs including milkman, bricklayer, shoeshine boy, jan...

Chen Duxiu was a Chinese revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher, and author, who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (with Li Dazhao) in 1921, serving from 1921 to 1927 as its first General Secretary. Chen was a leading figure in...