People

Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician who formulated three laws of planetary motion and contributed to optics, geometry, and astronomical calculation.

John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist who co-founded Standard Oil and established major institutions supporting education, medical research, and public health.

English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist who developed a quantitative atomic theory and the law of partial pressures.

35th President of the United States (1961–1963), known for the New Frontier agenda, the Cold War crises over Berlin and Cuba, and the goal of landing on the Moon; assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

American mathematician (1928–2015) whose work founded modern non-cooperative game theory, advanced Riemannian geometry and PDEs, and earned the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and the 2015 Abel Prize.

John Lee Ka-chiu is a Hong Kong politician and former police officer who became chief executive of Hong Kong on 1 July 2022.

English singer-songwriter, Beatles co-founder, solo recording artist, writer, and peace campaigner.

English philosopher whose writings on knowledge, government, religious toleration, and education shaped modern thought.

British economist whose theories of employment, demand, and money helped establish modern macroeconomics and shaped the postwar international monetary order.

John McCarthy was an American computer scientist who helped establish artificial intelligence, created Lisp, and pioneered logical approaches to machine reasoning.

American novelist and Nobel laureate whose fiction and nonfiction explore labor, community, landscape, and moral responsibility.

John von Neumann was a Hungarian-born American mathematician whose work shaped quantum theory, game theory, and electronic computing.

American Democratic politician and former documentary executive serving as a U.S. senator from Georgia since 2021.

Argentine writer whose stories, poems, and essays explore infinity, identity, time, and the relationship between literature and reality.

Joseph Schumpeter was an Austrian-born economist known for explaining capitalist development through entrepreneurship, innovation, and creative destruction.

Soviet leader who led the Soviet Union from the 1920s until his death in 1953, directing industrialization, collectivization, repression and the victory in World War II.

Roman general, statesman, and author whose conquests and dictatorship helped bring about the end of the Roman Republic.

Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur, founder of TRON, and former Grenadian representative to the World Trade Organization.

Qing emperor who ruled from 1661 to 1722, consolidating imperial government, extending its reach, and sponsoring scholarship, science, and the arts.

American neuroscientist and psychiatrist known for developing optogenetics and hydrogel-based methods for studying intact tissues.

Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher, economist, and political theorist who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto with Engels, wrote Capital, and developed historical materialism.

Karl Popper was an Austrian-born British philosopher known for falsifiability, critical rationalism, and his defense of the open society.

Karl Weierstrass was a German mathematician whose work on rigorous foundations, complex functions, and approximation helped shape modern mathematical analysis.

Karoline Leavitt is an American political spokesperson who served as White House press secretary from January 2025 to August 2026, becoming the youngest person to hold the position.

Ke Jie (born 1997) is a Chinese professional Go player, an eight-time world champion and former top-ranked player in the world.

Japanese novelist known for detective fiction combining intricate puzzles, psychological motives, and family relationships.

British politician who became Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition in November 2024.

Kenneth Arrow was an American economist whose work on social choice, general equilibrium, uncertainty, and learning helped shape modern economic theory.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is an American former prosecutor, television presenter, political fundraiser, and diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Greece from 2025 to 2026.

American actor, producer, and author known for intense screen performances, independent filmmaking, and helping weaken the Hollywood blacklist.

Kublai Khan (1215–1294) was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and founder of China's Yuan dynasty, the first non-Han ruler to govern all of China.

Austrian-born American logician whose completeness, incompleteness, and set-theoretic results transformed the foundations of mathematics.

Taiwanese physician and politician who became president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in May 2024.

American basketball player whose career spans NBA championships, scoring records, Olympic titles, and ventures in media and education.

Lee Shu-chuan is a Taiwanese politician and former senior municipal administrator who became the Kuomintang’s candidate for New Taipei mayor in 2026.

Taiwanese agricultural economist and Republic of China president, 1988–2000, during Taiwan’s transition to direct presidential elections.

Norse explorer associated with voyages to North America around 1000, known chiefly through Icelandic sagas and the wider archaeological evidence for Norse exploration.

Russian novelist, moral philosopher and social critic (1828–1910), author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Italian Renaissance painter, engineer, anatomist and inventor, known for the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Swiss mathematician and physicist whose discoveries and writings transformed analysis, number theory, geometry, and mechanics.

Leslie Cheung was a Hong Kong singer and actor whose recordings, films, and stage performances shaped Chinese-language popular culture.

Li Bai (701–762) was a Tang dynasty poet, ranked with Du Fu as China's greatest, known as the "Poet Immortal" for his bold imagination, Daoist imagery, and celebration of wine and freedom.

Li Keqiang (1955–2023) was a Chinese politician who served as premier of the State Council from 2013 to 2023.

Chinese entrepreneur who co-founded the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer and founded and leads the AI company DeepSeek.

Chinese military commander and political leader who became Mao Zedong’s designated successor before dying in a plane crash in 1971.

Qing scholar-official whose suppression of the opium trade in 1839 became a central episode in the origins of the First Opium War.

Linus Pauling was an American chemist and peace activist whose research explained chemical bonding and protein structure and earned him two unshared Nobel Prizes.

Argentine footballer whose career includes record-setting achievements with Barcelona, eight Ballon d’Or awards, and Argentina’s 2022 World Cup victory.

Taiwan-born American electrical engineer and business executive who became AMD’s chief executive in 2014 and chair in 2022.

Founder of the Han dynasty (r. 202–195 BCE), who rose from a minor local post to defeat Xiang Yu and unify China under Han rule.

Chinese literary critic, writer, and human rights advocate awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Lizzie Borden was an American woman acquitted in 1893 of murdering her father and stepmother, whose unsolved deaths became an enduring subject of popular culture.

Chinese philosopher and scholar of Chinese philosophy, Buddhism and religious studies at Peking University (1934–2026).

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist whose research transformed understanding of fermentation, infectious disease, and vaccination.

King of France from 1643 to 1715, whose long personal rule became the emblem of centralized absolute monarchy, the Palace of Versailles, and French power in Europe.

Chinese writer, essayist, translator, and scholar whose fiction and cultural criticism helped shape modern Chinese literature.

German composer whose symphonies, piano sonatas and late quartets bridged the Classical and Romantic eras despite progressive deafness.

Austrian-born British philosopher whose early and later writings transformed twentieth-century thinking about language, logic, meaning, and philosophical method.

Ma Ying-jeou is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as president of the Republic of China from 2008 to 2016.

Indian lawyer and political leader who led the nonviolent campaign against British rule in India and whose methods influenced global movements for rights and independence (1869–1948).