Vladimir Ilyich Lenin — Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin (22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917, and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death. Under his administration, the Russian Empire was replaced by the Soviet Union; …

Victoria Azarenka, was born on July 31, 1989 in Minsk, Belarus. She is a professional tennis player. Azarenka is an aggressive baseliner. She is known for her well timed and powerful ground strokes. Her best shot is her backhand which is regarded as one of the strongest currently in the women’s game. She can be effective at net, as her drive …

Thomas Mann, the foremost German novelist of the 20th century, was born of a patrician family in the north German city of Lubeck on June 6, 1875. The setting of his youth was one of gradual decline, especially after the death, in 1891, of his father, a respected businessman and city senator. His mother, who was of Brazilian origin, then …

Sunita Williams, was on born September 19, 1965. She is a United States Naval officer and a NASA astronaut. She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15. She holds the record of the longest spaceflight (195 days) for female space travelers. She was selected to appear on the Colbert Report …

Steve Nash — Stephen John Nash, OC, OBC was born on 7 February 1974. He is a Canadian professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nash, who was born in South Africa to British parents but grew up in Canada, enjoyed a successful high-school basketball career, and he was eventually …

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein, was born in Riga, Latvia on January 23, 1898 but his family moved frequently in his early years, as Eisenstein continued to do throughout his life. Eisenstein’s father Mikhail Osipovich Eisenstein was of German-Jewish and Swedish descent and his mother, Julia Ivanovna Konetskaya, was from a Russian Orthodox family. He was born into a middle-class family. His father …

Sania Mirza (born November 15, 1986, Mumbai, India resides in Hyderabad, India) is a professional female tennis player from India. Coached by her father, Imran Mirza, Sania began playing tennis at age six. She turned professional in 2003. She became the first and only Indian woman to reach the 4th round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 US Open. …

Paula Radcliffe — Paula Jane Radcliffe (December 17, 1973) is an English long-distance runner and is currently the World Record holder for the marathon, which she set during the 2003 London Marathon, with a time of 2:15.25. Radcliffe was born in Davenham, Cheshire, and studied modern languages at Loughborough University. Radcliffe is not known for her sprint finish, and so …

Alfred, Lord Tennyson immortalized these six hundred British soldiers in his famous poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. This commemorated the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War (1864-66), in which Russia, Turkey, Britain and France were involved. The Light Brigade (the six hundred) was told, in a confusion of orders, to charge strong Russian batteries. They suffered heavy …

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovski was born in Russia in 1857. He spent his life teaching in school and doing practical and theoretical research work in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. In 1883, long before the first aeroplane had been built, he began to consider the many different factors involved if man were to journey into space. In so doing, he …