Those included come from all countries of the world, from the past and present and have excelled and/or influenced in one or more major fields such as leadership, the arts, science and technology, industry or culture. Each has had a significant influence on the creation of the world as we know it today.

A second section provides access to portals on people in specific areas of achievement such as astronauts, scientists, composers, inventors, mathematicians, Nobel Prize winners, artists, … .

A third and final section provides access to biographical collections of all kinds. These includes famous birthdays, ‘dead or alive’, celebrities, audio clips, even quotations.

Each listing is given in alphabetical order, using the following format - Surname, Title [if applicable], First Name[s]. A brief note of area[s] and achievement[s] is provided in most cases.

Famous World Figures

Alexander the Great	Macedonian King, conqueror
Amundsen, Roald	Polar explorer, first to South Pole
Archimedes	Mathematician, inventor
Aristotle	Greek Philosopher
Armstrong, Neil	Astronaut, first to walk on the Moon
Assisi, St Francis of	Soldier, saint, founder of a religious order
Babbage, Charles	Mathematician, philospher, inventor
Bach, Johann Sebastian	Composer, musician
Beethoven, Ludwig von	Composer, musician
Berners-Lee, Tim	World wide web inventor
Bolivar, Simon	Liberator, political leader
Bonaparte, Napoleon	General, emperor, conqueror
Braille, Louis	Developer of Braille writing for the blind
Buddha, Gautama	Philosopher
Caesar, Julius	Roman Emperor and general
Carnegie, Andrew	Magnate, philanthropist
Chaucer, Geoffrey	English writer and poet
Christ, Jesus	Pivotal figure of both Christian and Muslim religions
Churchill, Sir Winston	Politician, British leader in WW II
Confucius	Philosopher, political figure, educator
Columbus, Christopher	Explorer to the New World
Copernicus, Nicolaus	Astronomer, mathematician
Curie, Marie	Dual Nobel Laureate [Physics, Chemistry]
Daguerre, Louis	Artist, chemist, links with photography
Da Vinci, Leonardo	Artist, inventor, genius
Darwin, Charles	Scientist, Theory of Natural Selection
Einstein, Albert	Theoretical Physicist [Relativity], Nobel Laureate
Edison, Thomas Alva	Inventor
Elizabeth I	British Monarch
Freud, Sigmund	The Father of Psychoanalysis
Gagarin, Yuri	Russian Cosmonaut, first man in space
Galilei, Galileo	Mathematician, astronomer and philosopher
Gandhi, Mohandas	Lawyer, ‘non-violent’ philosopher, independence fighter
Genghis Khan	Founder of the Mongol Empire
Gutenberg, Johann	Goldsmith, printer. First to use movable type
Herodotus	Greek Historian
Hillary, Sir Edmund	Conqueror of MT Everest with Tenzing Norgay
Humboldt, Alexander von	Naturalist, explorer

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Joan of Arc	‘Maid of Heaven’
King, Martin Luther	Minister, campaigner, Nobel Laureate
Lincoln, Abraham	American President
Linnaeus, Carolus	Scientist, ‘The Father of Taxonomy’
Luther, Martin	Priest, Theologian, Reformer
Magellan, Ferdinand	Sailor, navigator, explorer
Mandela, Nelson	Activist, prisoner, President
Mao, Zedong	Communist Chinese leader
Marx, Karl	Philosopher, Communist Theory [with Engels]
Mendel, Gregor	Priest, geneticist
Michelangelo	Artist & sculptor
Min, Ho Chi	Vietnamese Communist freedom fighter
Mohammed	Prophet, Initiator of the Musim religion
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus	Musician, composer, child prodigy
Newton, Sir Isaac	Mathematician, scientist
Nightingale, Florence	Nurse, women’s rights proponent
Nobel, Alfred	Scientist, inventor, established Nobel Prizes
Nostradamus	Apothecary, seer, clairvoyant
Osman	Founder of the Ottoman Empire
Oppenheimer, J. Robert	Physicist, ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’
Pasteur, Louis	Chemist, inventor of vaccination
Petrarch	Scholar, poet, humanist
Picasso, Pablo	Painter
Polo, Marco	Traveller, merchant, explorer/td>
Rhodes, Cecil	Mining magnate, politician
Saladin	Sultan of Egypt and Syria
Scott, Robert Falcon	Antarctic explorer
Schweitzer, Albert	Doctor, Nobel Laureate
Shakespeare, William	Dramatist and poet
Socrates	Greek Philosopher
Turing, Alan	Mathematician, codebreaker, pioneer of computer science
Washington, George	First American President
Wilberforce, William	Politician, helped abolish the Slave Trade
William the Conqueror	Norman conqueror of England
Wright, Wilbur & Orville	Inventors, heavier-than-air flight

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Other Information

General Sites

• About Famous People
  Very Americanised site but with access to other areas.

Audio Links

• BBC Four - Audio Interviews
  Short audio interviews from the BBC. Covers famous people from a variety of walks of life, back to as far as the 1930s
• Vincent Voice Library
  US based. This has 50 000 people recorded over the last century or so.

• Biographical Dictionary
  Learn about some of the world’s best known people.
• Biography.com
  Search a database of more than 25 000 entries of famous people past and present.
• Biography of the Millennium
  Who were the most important 100 people of the last millennium.
• Celebrities Worldwide
  Connections to world celebrities, from show business to politics.
• Encyclopaedia of World Biography
  The front page looks fairly simple, but content is quite extensive. Emphasis is on the present and recent past. Each entry is expansive, most having links to further information, graphics and considerable detail.
• Famous Birthdays
  Find who among the glitterati and famous have the same birthday as you.
• Famous People
  Searchable database of famous people from around the world.
• Famous People.co.uk
  ‘Biographies of Famous People, Famous People Dead and Alive’.
• Historic Figures
  ‘Selected biographies of historic figures featured on’ BBC History. Alphabetical listing.
• Infoplease Biography
  22 categories of famous people, plus related information including a perpetual calendar, special people features, today’s birthday and more.
• OmniBiography
  ‘OmniBiography is the largest directory of biographies available on the Web containing information on more than 110 000 important people from antiquity to the present time. It includes biographies from the most important sites on the web in all languages’.
• Project Bartleby
  [Index to Biographical Entries, Columbia Encyclopaedia]
  Information on people through the ages and around the world.

Unusual Links

• Cemetery Junction Directory
  ‘Many of the cemeteries in this directory are linked to transcriptions entered by volunteers’. US, Canada, Australia, even obituaries.
• Dead or Alive ?
  Information on who is still alive and who isn’t. Done alphabetically, as well as a listing for the last six months.
• Dead People Server
  ‘More than 3 300 inclusions in the listings’.
• Good Quotations from Famous People
  ‘Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever’. Read what these people had to say.
• Who’s Alive & Who’s Dead ?
  A page that lists who is and who isn’t alive.

• Who2
  ‘The fastest way to find famous people online’. Basic information for each entry.
• World Biographical Index
  With over 2 million entries, this has to be one of the biggest sites for biographical detail.

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Specific Groups

Specific Groups of Famous People

• Astronaut Biographies
  ‘Providing biographical information on the members of the space flight crews and candidates for future missions in NASA’s space flight program. The links will direct you to biographical information on the astronauts’.
• Catholic Saints [& Angels]
  Alphabetical listing of Saints, Patron Saints, female and popular Saints and more. Links to information about Angels.
• Composer’s Biographies
  Want to know about famous composers ? This is the place for you.
• Eric Weisstein’s World of Science Biography
  Biographies by branch of science, gender/minority status, historical periods, nationality or prize winners.
• Famous Authors
  An extensive listing of authors with an emphasis on more recent years though there are some from the classical period and a number of authors considered amongs the major writers in from several cultural backgrounds. Each link leads to a bibliography and more.
• Famous Scientists
  ‘List and Biographies of Most Famous Scientists and Inventors in History’.

Inventors

• Inventors and Inventions Index
  The world’s greatest inventors and their inventions.
• Inventors Hall of Fame
  ‘Search the Hall of Fame inductee library, or browse information by inventor, invention, induction date, and by decade’.

• MacTutor Biographies of Mathematicians
  About 1 400 listed.
• Nobel Prize Winners
  ‘This site maintains information on all winners in all categories. Click on any Nobel category [Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Peace, Economics, Or Physiology & Medicine] to see an annotated, hyperlinked list of all Nobel laureates in that category’.
• Presidents of the United States
  Images and information about each of the Presidents. Also information about all First Ladies.
• The Immortals
  [Greek Mythology]
  Provides Greek name, Roman equivalent, a brief description and keywords, with a link to a greatly expanded level of information, even down to citation examples.
• Time 100
  ‘List of the 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example is transforming our world’. This is the 2011 list.
• Top People of the Millennium
  [Adapted from LIFE Online]
  Find who it is felt were the top 100 people of the last millennium. See if you agree. Brief annotations are provided with links to further information.

Women - Biographies

• 4 000 Years of Women in Science
  News, an introduction, biographies, references and photographs.
• Distinguished Women of Past and Present
  ‘This site has biographies of women who contributed to our culture in many different ways. There are writers, educators, scientists, heads of state, politicians, civil rights crusaders, artists, entertainers, and others. Some were alive hundreds of years ago and some are living today’.
• Female Nobel Prize Laureates
  ‘In 1903, only two years after the Nobel Foundation was established, a Nobel Prize was awarded to a woman, Marie Curie, for the first time. Women have been winning Nobel Prizes ever since’. A full listing.
• Pioneering Women in Technology
  From the Ada Project. Brief biographies, many with links to further information.
• Women Mathematician’s Biographies
  Yes, there are famous women Mathematicians and they are all included here.
• Women of the Past & Present
  The emphasis is usually on men so this is a good change. Links to other sites.

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