Who is Who

[gracemini]

Dickinson, Emily (183-’86): American poet, Published almost nothing in her lifetime.

Diesel, Rudolf (1858-1913): German engineer, inventor of an internal combustion engine which he patented in 1983.

Dietrich, Marlene (1901-’93): Actress and singer, native Berlin who flourished in the USA. Blue angel.

Dior, Christian (1905-’57): French fashion designer.

Disney, Walter Elias (‘Walt’) (1901-’66): American film cartoonist famous for animated cartoons. Creator of characters Mickey Mouse (192 and Donald Duck (1936).

Disraeli, Benjamin (1804-’81): British statesman and novelist. Prime minister, 1868 and 1874-’80.

Dix, Otto (1891-1969): German painter and engraver. Jailed in 1939 for an alleged plot to kill Hitler. Post-war themes included religion.

Donahue, Phil (b.1936: The man who virtually invented the single topic TV talk.

Donatello (1386-1466): Florentine Sculptor, a pioneer of the Renaissance style, born Donato di Betto Bardi. Famous for the marble sculptures of St. Mark and St. George.

Donne, John (1572-1631): One of the great Metaphysical poets. He was chaplain to king James of England, and later Dean of St Paul’s.

[gracemini]

Dostoevsky, Feodor Mukhailovich (1821-’81): Russian novelist. Sent to hard labour in Siberia for revolutionary activity. Crime and punishment, The Idiot, The Possessed.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan (1859-1930): British writer of detective stories. Creator of detective Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.

Drake, Sir Francis (c.1540-;96: English seaman; in 1577-’80 he sailed round the world in the ‘Golden Hind”.

Drucker, Peter F. (1909-2005): Management expert and author of international fame.

Dryden, John (1631-1700): Poet laureate and dramatist. The Indian emperor, heroic stanzas, all for love.

Du Pont, Eleuth-Ere Irenee (17772-1834): American chemicals manufacturer, b.France.

Dulles, John Foster (1888-1959): US secretary of stare 1953-9, opposed negotiation with Russia.

Dumas, Alexandre (1802-’70): French romantic novelist. The Three Musketers.

Dunant, Jean Henri (1828-1910): Swiss philanthropist. Promoted the establishment of the international Red Cross (1863). Shares the first Nobel Prize(1901)

Duncan Isadora (1877-1927): American expressive dancer who united free movement with serious music; one of the founders of modern dance.

[minisoji]

Dunlop, John Boyd (1840-1921): Scottish veterinary surgeon. Patented (188 Dunlop version of pneumatic tyre.

Dupleix, Joseph Francois (1697-1763): French governor in India.

Durant Will (1885-1981): American historian. The Story of Civilization The story if philosophy.

Dutt, Nargis (1929-’81): The greatest film actress of her time. Paired in several immortal film with Raj Kapoor, Married actor Sunil Dutt, who later became a union minister until death in 2005. Best actress award. Padmashri. Nominated to Rajya Sabha. Son Sanjay Dutt, A leading Hindi film actor.

Duvalier, Francois (‘Papa Doc’) (1907-’71): Dictator of Haiti (1957-’71. Used personal police force (Tonton Macoutes).

Dylan, Bob (1941-): US singer and composer, born Robert Allen Zimmerman. Blood in the tracks.

Eastman, George (1854-1932): American inventor; manufacturer of photographic equipment.

Eckermann, Johnn Peter (1792-1854): German writer who was an assistant to Goethe. Conversations with Goethe.

Eckert, John Presper (1919-’95): Co-inventor of the computer. Developed world’s first electronic digital computer with John W.Mauchly.

Eco, Umberto (b.1932): Italian novelist who authored the historical thriller The Name of the Rose, and the novel Foucault’s Pendulum. Also wrote a Theory of Semiotics.

[gracemini]

Edison, Thomas Alva (1847-1931): American inventor who held more than 1300 U.S and foreign patents for his inventions: the photograph, the incandescent lamp, etc.

Ehrenburg, Liya Grigoryevich (1891-1967): Russian writer whose novel The Thaw gave the name to post Stalin relaxation.

Ehrlich, Paul (1854-1915): German scientist, one of the pioneers of bacteriology.

Eiffel, Alexandro Gustave (1832-1923: French engineer, remembered for Eiffel tower, Paris and Panama Canal locks.

Einstein, Albert (1879-1955): Mathematical Physicist whose theory of relatively superseded Newton’s theory of gravitation. His work led on to the making of the nuclear bomb. Nobel prize, 1921.

Einthoven, Willem (1860-1927): Dutch physiologist, invented the electrocardiogram. Nobel prize.

Eisenhower, Gen. Dwight (1890-1969): American general and statesman. He was C-in-C, Allied forces, N.Africa 1942-3, and in the European theatre of operations, 1943-5; Republican president, 1953-61.

Eliot, George (1819-’80): Pen-name of English woman novelist Mary Anne) later Marion) Evans. Middlemarch.

Eliot, Thomas Sterns(1888-1965): English poet and critic, born in U.S. The Waste Land, murder in the cathedral Nobel prize.

Elizabeth II(b.1926): Queen of Gt. Britain and N.Ireland; ascended the throne, 1952.

[gracemini]

Ellington, Edward Kennedy (‘Duke’) (1899-1974): American pianist, composer.

Ellis, Havelock (1859-1939): English psychologist and writer. Studies in the Psychology of sex (7 cols; 1898-1928).

Ellsworth, Lincoln (1880-1951): American engineer , the first to fly over Antarctica (1935)

Emeneau, Prof. Murray Branson (194-2005): Western indologist.

Empedocles (c.490-430 B.C): Greek philosopher who held that all matter was composed of four ingredients – fire, air, water and earth. Only 500 lines from two of his poems remain of his writing.

Engels, Friedrich (1820-’95): German socialist, lifelong friend of Karl Marx, with whom he wrote the Communist Manifesto.

Erasmus, Desiderius (1466-1536): The greatest humanist and scholar of Dutch Renaissance. Praise of Folly.

Euripides (480-406): The greatest of the Greek dramatists, who wrote about 80 plays. Trojan, Alcestis, Medea.

Evert, Chris(b.1954): of USA. One of the all-time greats in tennis. Won 20 championships from 1974 to 1986, and 157 tournament titles.

[gracemini]

Fahrenheit, Gabriel Daniel (1686-1736): German physicist who introduced the mercury thermometer and fixed thermometric standards.

Falk, Lee (1912-’99): Creator o the popular cartoon characters Mandrake the Magician and Phantom.

Fallopio, Gabriele (1523-’62): Italian anatomist, discovered Fallopian tubes, leading from ovaries to the uterus, in which fertilisation takes place.

Faraday, Michael (1791-1867): English physicist who founded the science of electro-magnetism.

Farah, Nuruddin (b.1945): Somali novelist, and a major writer of Africa.

Faulkner, William (1987-1962): American novelist, whose series of novels (The Sound and the Fury, etc.) depict the American South. Nobel prize, 1949.

Fawkes, Guy (1570-1606): English conspirator. Served with Spanish armies in Netherlands. Involved in Gunpowder Plot (Nov.5, 11605) to blow up houses of parl. Executed.

Fazal, Abul (1561-1602): Prime minister of Akbar the reat. Scholar, wrote Ain-i-Akbari and Akbarnama.

Federer, Roger (b.1832): Switzerland, Tennis champion at 24. Won fourth successive wimbeldon in 2006. 12 Grand slam single titles, 55 career titles.

Fellini, Federico (1920-’93): Great Italian film maker. Five-time academy award winner. La Strada(1954), La Dolce Vita (1959), 81/2 (1963).

[gracemini]

Fermi, Enrico (1901-’54)): Pionieering scientist who discovered over 400 radio isotopes. Element number 100 is named fermium after him.

Fielding, Henry (1707-’54): English author known for Tom Jones (1749).

Fischer, Bobby (b.1943): World Chess champion, 1972-75.

Fitzgerals, Edward (1809-’83): English poet and translator. Translated The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859).

Flaubert, Gustave (1821-80): French novelist, leading exponent of French realism. Madame Bavar.

Fleming, Sir Alexander (1881-1955): British bacteriologist and discovered of penicillin (192. Nobel prize (1945).

Flinders, Mathew (1774-1814): English explorer who charted large parts of the land he names Australia. Flinders river, Flinders Island named after him.

Fonda, Henry (1905-;82): US actor who became a Hollywood star. Won academy award in ’82 for on golden pond. Daughter Jane and son Peter joined films.

Ford, Gerald R (b.1913); American republican president, (1974-77)

Ford, Henry (1863-1947): Pioneer (American) motor car manufacturer and industrialist. Founder of Ford motor company and Ford foundation.

[gracemini]

Forster, Edward Morgan (1879-1970): Novelist, shortly writer and essayist. Author of a passage to India.

Forsyth, Fredrick (b.1939): British journalist and author of best-sellers like day of the Jackal, The Odessa file and The Dogs of War.

Fancis of Assisi, St. (1181/2-1226): Founder of the Franciscan order.

Frank, Anne (1929-c): Jewish girl who fled Germany with family to escape Nazi persecution, and author of The Diary of a Young Girl.

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-’90: American statesman, and scientist. Invented the lighting conductor.

Frederick II (the great) (1712-’86): King of Prussia for 46 years. Able ruler and great scholar.

Freud. Sigmund (1856-1939): Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis. The interpretation of dreams.

Frost, Robert (1874-1963): American poet well-known for his poem stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening.

Fry, Elizabeth (1780-1845): English prison reformer, philanthropist.

Gaddafi, Muammar al (b.1942): Libyan leader and military dictator; took power in a coup in 1969 and became president in 1977

[gracemini]

Gagarin, Yuri (1943-68: Soviet cosmonaut, the first man to orbit the earth in spacecraft Vostok l in 1961.

Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-88):British portrait and landscape painter. Viscount Kilmorey, Blue Boy, The Watering Place.

Gaitonde, V.S. (b.1924): India’s celebrated abstract painter.

Albraith, John Kenneth ( 1908- 2006): American economist, diplomat and writer. Ambassador to India, 1961-3. The Affluent Society.

Galileo Gallilei (1564-1642): Italian scientist and astronomer who laid the foundations of modern science. The first man to see the satellites of Jupiter.

Gallup, George Horrace (1901-‘84): Renowned American statistician who studies public opinion through questions put to a representative group-‘ Gallup poll’

Galsworthy, John (1867-1933): English novelist and dramatist. The Forsyte Saga. Nobel prize, 1932.

Gama, Vasco da (1460-1524): Portuguese navigator, discoverer of the sea route from western Europe to India.

Gamow, George (1904-68): Russian-born US nuclear physicist. With Ralph Alpher and Hans Bethe, he developed the Bog Bang theory. Gamow-Teller theory of beta decay is known after his and Edward Teller.

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) (1869-1948): Father of the Indian nation, and one of the greatest personalities of the 20th century. From 1893 to 1914 he lived in South Africa opposing discrimination against Indians. Un 1915, returned to India, dominated the Congress party. Without weapons or armies, he led India to independence. Lived an austere life, devoted to truth, non-violence and worked for Hindu Muslim experiments with truth.

[gracemini]

Gandhi, Rajiv (1944-’91): Grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru; a commercial pilot turned politician; Indian prime minister from 1984 to 1989. Assassinated. Bharat Ratna, 1991.

Gandhi, Sonia (b.1946): Italian by birth, naturalised in India. Wife of former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi, widowed on his assassination. Meteoric rise from primary membership to presidentship of congress party in just two years. Elected to Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004 and 2006. The party’s surprise victory in 2004 made her Leader of Congress – led united progressive alliance, but Ms Gandhi declined to become PM.

Ganesan, Sivaji (1927-2001): Legendary actor; over 3000 Tamil films in five decades. Dada Saheb Phalke award, 1996.

Garbo, Greta (1905-’90): Swedish film actress of poetical quality. Ninotchka.

Gargi, Balwant (1916-2003): Punjabi writer who wrote popular plays. Sahitya Akademi award for Rang Manch; Nangi was autobiographical.

Garibaldi, Giuseppe ( 1807-’82): Italian general and patriot, who, with Mazzini and Cavour, created a united Italy.

Gates, Bill (b.1956): World’s richest private individual until 2007. Co-founder of Microsoft Corp.; he revolutionized the computer industry. Philanthropist who has made record donations. In 2006 announced decision focus on charity work.

Gaugin, (Eugene Henri) Paul (1848-1903): French painter. Sought the simplicity primitive life in Tahiti. The Yellow Christ.

Gaulle, Charles de (1890-1970): French general and statesman; first president of the fifth republic, 1958-69.

Gautama, Siddhartha (Buddha, The Enlightened) (c.563-c. 483 B.C.): Founder of Buddhism. The Indian prince who renounced luxury and became an ascetic.