People

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, draughtsman and etcher whose portraits, biblical scenes and self-portraits defined 17th-century use of light and shadow.

Chinese engineer and entrepreneur who founded Huawei and became its chief executive.

Chinese property executive and public commentator sentenced in 2020 to eighteen years in prison for corruption-related offenses.

René Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientific thinker whose work shaped modern philosophy and analytic geometry.

Richard Bellman was an American applied mathematician who developed dynamic programming and advanced the mathematical study of sequential decisions and control.

American theoretical physicist whose work transformed quantum electrodynamics, particle physics, and physics education.

Richard Wagner was a German composer, dramatist, and conductor whose operas transformed musical theatre and whose writings and political legacy remain subjects of study.

Chinese technology executive (born 1969) who leads Huawei's consumer and terminal businesses and has been a senior figure in its smartphone and automotive ventures.

Robert Hooke was an English experimental scientist and architect known for Micrographia, his law of elasticity, and his work for the Royal Society.

British statistician and geneticist who developed foundational methods of statistical inference, experimental design, and population genetics.

40th president of the United States (1981–1989), former actor and California governor known for tax cuts, Cold War confrontation, and arms-control diplomacy.

German-born American philosopher who developed logical empiricism, formal semantics, and probabilistic accounts of scientific confirmation.

Australian-born American media proprietor who built an international business spanning newspapers, publishing, film, and television.

Saladin (1137–1193) was a Kurdish Sunni ruler who founded the Ayyubid dynasty, became the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, and retook Jerusalem in 1187.

Spanish artist whose precise dream imagery, experimental methods, and public persona helped define Surrealism.

American entrepreneur and investor, co-founder of OpenAI and former president of Y Combinator.

Shang Yang was a fourth-century BCE statesman whose reforms strengthened Qin and shaped Chinese traditions of centralized government.

Chinese-born Cambodian businessman, arrested in Thailand in 2022 and extradited to China in 2025; he faces allegations of illegal gambling and fraud operations.

Han dynasty court astrologer and historian (c. 145–86 BCE) who wrote the Records of the Grand Historian, the first general history of China.

Simon Kuznets was an American economist who pioneered national income measurement and empirical research on economic growth and inequality.

Sisyphus is a cunning king in Greek mythology, condemned to push a boulder uphill forever, whose story became an influential image of futile labor and human defiance.

Socrates was an Athenian philosopher whose questioning of moral beliefs, trial, and execution profoundly influenced Western philosophy.

Chinese political figure, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, and advocate for Nationalist China in international diplomacy and social welfare.

Marvel superhero whose adventures combine extraordinary powers with the everyday responsibilities of Peter Parker and other bearers of the identity.

American entrepreneur who co-founded Apple, founded NeXT, and helped build Pixar into a major animation studio.

American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1946), co-founder of Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures, and a central figure in modern blockbuster and historical cinema.

Su Chiao-hui is a Taiwanese lawyer and Democratic Progressive Party politician who has represented New Taipei City’s fifth constituency in the Legislative Yuan since 2016.

Su Shi (1037–1101), also called Su Dongpo, was a Northern Song poet, prose writer, calligrapher, painter and statesman whose work shaped Chinese literati culture.

Su Tseng-chang is a Taiwanese politician who served twice as premier and twice as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925) was a Chinese revolutionary and physician who led the 1911 revolution, founded the Republic of China, and co-founded the Kuomintang.

Chinese table tennis player, Olympic gold medallist and multiple World Championship winner in women's singles, doubles and team events.

Suthida is the queen consort of Thailand, married to King Vajiralongkorn since 1 May 2019, and a former flight attendant and royal guard officer.

American mathematician and domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber, responsible for a bombing campaign from 1978 to 1995.

Australian-American mathematician whose research spans harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatorics, and number theory.

American inventor and industrialist whose laboratories helped develop electric lighting, sound recording, motion pictures, and organized industrial research.

English philosopher whose accounts of human nature, social covenant, and sovereign authority helped shape modern political thought.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the principal drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, and his legacy remains contested.

Thomas Mann was a German novelist and essayist, awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature, whose fiction explored artistic identity, bourgeois society, and European cultural crises.

American business executive who led Apple as CEO from 2011 to 2026 and subsequently became its executive chairman.

Japanese military ruler who founded the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 and established its hereditary succession.

Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024, its first woman president.

Chinese-born American theoretical physicist who shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for investigating parity violation in weak interactions.

Hong Kong businessman and politician who served as the territory’s first chief executive from 1997 to 2005.

Tutankhamun was an 18th Dynasty pharaoh who reigned c. 1332–1323 BCE. His nearly intact tomb, KV62, was found in 1922 and made him the most famous Egyptian king.

Vajiralongkorn, known as Rama X, is the tenth monarch of Thailand’s Chakri dynasty, reigning since 2016.

French Romantic poet, novelist, dramatist, and political figure whose literary innovations and public commitments shaped nineteenth-century culture.

Dutch painter (1853–1890) whose expressive, intensely colored works, made mostly in the last decade of his life, shaped modern art and remain among the most recognized in Western painting.

Classical Roman poet of the Augustan age, author of the Eclogues, Georgics, and the national epic Aeneid.

Virginia Woolf was an English modernist novelist, essayist, critic, and publisher whose experiments with consciousness and time helped reshape fiction and feminist literary thought.

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) was a Russian revolutionary and theorist who led the Bolshevik Party to power in 1917 and founded the Soviet state.

American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur who helped transform animation, television entertainment, and theme parks.

Walter Pitts was an American logician whose work with Warren McCulloch established foundational mathematical models of neural computation.

Song-dynasty chancellor and writer whose New Policies (1069–1076) reshaped Chinese finance and set off decades of factional conflict.

Retired Chinese table tennis player (born 1983), 2009 world men's singles champion, three-time Olympic silver medallist and later national team head coach.

Wang Jingwei (1883–1944) was a senior Kuomintang leader and Sun Yat-sen's close associate. He later headed the Japanese-backed Nanjing collaborationist government. He is a deeply controversial figure in modern Chinese history.

Wang Mang was a Chinese statesman who founded the Xin dynasty and ruled as emperor from 9 to 23 CE.

Wang Xingxing is a Chinese robotics engineer and entrepreneur who founded Unitree Robotics, a developer of quadruped and humanoid robots.

Wang Xizhi (303–361) was a Chinese official and calligrapher of the Eastern Jin dynasty, traditionally revered as the Sage of Calligraphy.

Wang Yangming was a Ming-dynasty philosopher and statesman whose teachings centered on innate moral knowing and the unity of knowledge and action.

Warren McCulloch was an American neurophysiologist whose work connected neural activity, mathematical logic, and cybernetics.