Gauguin's art has all the appearance of a flight from civilisation, of a search for new ways of life, more primitive, more real and more sincere. His break away from a solid middle-class world, abandoning family, children and job, his refus...

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel was one of the best known German Field Marshals and commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in World War II. He is also known by his nickname The Desert Fox (Wüstenfuchs). In a classic blitzkrieg, Allied force...

Sergei Prokofiev was one of the most prolific and celebrated Russian composers of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev is perhaps most famous for music he composed for the children's story Peter and the Wolf. He proved his talent as a pianist...

Sir James Chadwick was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron. In 1932, Chadwick discovered a previously unknown particle in the atomic nucleus. This particle became known as the neutron because of...

Karl Dönitz was a German naval Commander who served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I, commanded the German submarine fleet during World War II, and eventually was given control of the entire German Navy (Kriegsmarine). In the...

Louis Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie, duc de Broglie was a French physicist who made groundbreaking contributions to quantum theory. In his 1924 PhD thesis, he postulated the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave...

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a very successful fighter pilot, military leader and flying ace who won 80 air combats during World War I. Richthofen was k...

Bessie Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first woman of African American descent, and the first of Native American descent, to hold a pilot license. She achieved her international pilot license in 1921. Born to a family of...

Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players ever. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already among the strongest chess...

Maj. Gen. Stanislaw Franciszek Sosabowski was a Polish general in World War II. He fought in the Battle of Arnhem (Netherlands) in 1944 as commander of the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. Following the Polish surrender, Sosabow...

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor who is best known as the author of the classic high-fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. He served as the Rawl...

Generalísimo Francisco Franco, was head of state of Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975. Known as "El Caudillo de España" ("the leader"), he presided over the fascist authoritarian government of the Spanish State following victory in th...

Haile Selassie (Power of Trinity) was the last Emperor (1930–1936; 1941–1974) of Ethiopia, and is a religious symbol in the Rastafarian movement. He was born in the town-village of Ejersa Goro, Ethiopia, as Tafari Makonnen His father was Ra...

Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen,...

Josip Broz Tito was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occu...