Biographies of people who made a difference and shaped our world. Short profiles for children on men and women who changed our world with path breaking ideas and actions. Personalities include statesmen, leaders, political thinkers, inventors, scientists, artists, writers, actors, sports persons and achievers.
63 items in this section. Displaying page 3 of 7
Bhagat Singh
March 23 is the death anniversary of one of the most heroic figures of the Indian freedom movement. Few people remembered it, though. Forget the rest of India, even the children of the village where he was born, do not know anything about him. And to think that the young man in question, Bhagat Singh, gave up his life for the ideal of a free and better India! Today, over 50 years after Independence, the people of his village still do not have access to drinking water and a tap, writes The Indian Express newspaper....
Karl Marx
German economist, philosopher, and revolutionist, Karl Marx’s writings form the basis of the body of ideas known as Marxism. As one of the most original and influential thinkers of modern times, Karl Marx produced, with the aid of Friedrich Engels, much of the theory of modern socialism and communism. Born on May 5, 1818, Marx lived in a period of unrestrained capitalism when exploitation and misery were the lot of the industrial working classes, and it was his and Engels’ humanitarianism and concern for social justice that inspired his work....
Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan
Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of India’s mathematical geniuses. He made wonderful contributions to the field of advanced mathematics. Even today, his fascinating results and mathematical theories, and a number of unpublished notebooks filled with theorems, continue to baffle and enthrall mathematicians. Ramanujan was born in his grandmother’s house in Erode, a small village near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. While he was still a baby, his mother took him to Kumbakonam, near Chennai, where his father worked as a clerk in a cloth merchant’s shop....
Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
Thinker, statesman and nationalist leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi not only led his own country to independence but also influenced political activists of many persuasions throughout the world with his methods and philosophy of nonviolent confrontation, or civil disobedience. Born in Porbandar in Gujarat on October 2, 1869, his actions inspired the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore to call him “Mahatma” (“great soul”). For him, the universe was regulated by a Supreme Intelligence or Principle, which he preferred to call satya (Truth) and, as a concession to convention, God....
Rabindranath Tagore
Mystic, painter and Nobel laureate for literature, Rabindranath Tagore was a prolific writer (3,000 poems, 2,000 songs, 8 novels, 40 volumes of essays and short stories, 50 plays), who drew inspiration both from his native Bengal and from English literary tradition. His major theme was humanity’s search for God and truth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his collection of well-known poems Gitanjali (Song Offerings). Born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861, Rabindranath was the youngest of fourteen children....
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. goes down in history as one of the principal leader of the civil rights movement in the United States and a prominent advocate of nonviolent protest. King’s challenges to segregation and racial discrimination helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of civil rights in the United States. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and was ordained as a Baptist minister at age 18. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951....
Albert Einstein
German-American physicist Albert Einstein contributed more than any other scientist to the 20th-century vision of physical reality. In the wake of World War I, Einstein’s theories, especially his theory of relativity, seemed to many people to point to a pure quality of human thought, one far removed from the war and its aftermath. Seldom has a scientist received such public attention for having cultivated the fruit of pure learning. Born in Ulm in Germany on March 14, 1879, Einstein’s parents were nonobservant Jews who moved from Ulm to Munich when Einstein was an infant....
Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Born on September 5, 1888 in Tirutlani (now in Andhra Pradesh), Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan rose to become one of modern India’s most respected scholars and statesmen. He was born to teach as a major part of his life was spent as an academic. He taught philosophy at the universities of Andhra, Mysore and Calcutta. He also held a professorship in eastern religion and ethics at Oxford. His distinguished academic career included the Chancellorship of Delhi University and vice–chancellorship of Benares Hindu University....
Charlie Chaplin
All of us are very familiar with the mustachioed Little Tramp with the bowler hat and cane _ Charlie Chaplin. But behind this little fellow lurked an extremely creative film maker who scripted, directed and starred in some of the best films of the century. Charlie Chaplin was born Charles Spencer Chaplin in London, England on 16 April 1889. His parents Charles Chaplin Sr and Hannah Hill were Music Hall entertainers but separated shortly after Charlie was born, leaving Hannah to provide for her children....
Bruce Lee
The Chinese American actor Bruce Lee, was born in San Francisco on November 27, 1940. Born a sickly child, he was named Li Jun Fan a female name by his mother to ward off evil spirits. His dad an Hong Kong opera singer returned back to Hong Kong along with his family in 1941. As a kid martial arts and bodybuilding were his only preoccupation, studies didn’t interest him. In 1946 he appeared in first of many films as a child actor....