With his splayed walk, bowler hat and madcap moustache, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was one of the most memorable entertainers of the 20^th century. Born in poverty in London, he performed eccentric characters such as the drunken tramp or the great dictator with pathos and comedy. As Hollywood’s silent cinema moved into ‘talkies’, he continued work as a writer, composer and director.

The first European to set foot in South America; Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer from Genoa. His four Renaissance voyages across the Atlantic changed the course of global history. Funded by Spanish royalty, he sailed west with wooden ships, finding the ‘New World’ instead of China. He lived in Portugal and is buried in Spain.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (born 1985) is recognised as one of the best - and most charitable - footballers of his era. The Real Madrid striker is a five-time Fifa Ballon d'Or winner, with major trophies from the English Premier League with Manchester United - the club he joined when he was 17 years old - and the Champions League, of which he is an all-time top scorer.

Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia (1965-2017) was a Maltese investigative journalist who was assassinated for her work uncovering corruption. She garnered international attention when she published links to offshore tax evasion in her tiny island nation. A prominent columnist and editor in the Maltese media, she set up her blog Running Commentary in 2008.

Born in Crete (Candia) under Venetian rule, the Greek artist El Greco (1541-1614) – real name Domenikos Theotokopoulos – was an iconographer trained in the Byzantine tradition. He lived in Venice, Rome, and Toledo, where he set up a studio and produced devotional paintings. The Old Master’s modern work was infused with sorrow and spirituality.

The eighth President of the Fifth Republic of France, Emmanuel Macron led the newly established political movement, ‘En Marche!’ to victory in the 2017 presidential elections. A former student of philosophy, passionate about literature and culture, graduated from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 2004. Macron has made the creation of a ‘clear, ambitious’ roadmap for the future of Europe a cornerstone of his presidency. He received the Charlemagne Prize in recognition of his vision of a new Europe in May 2018.  

They smashed windows and went on hunger strikes, all in the tireless campaign to bring the right to vote to women in Britain. Leader of the Suffragettes Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928), incarcerated multiple times, died a month before her dream was realised. Her encouragement of women in the war effort went a long way in convincing the government of their cause.

The founder of modern nursing, Britain’s Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) rebelled against the expected role of a woman of her status in Victorian Britain, training in Germany and visiting hospitals in Paris and Rome. The support of her humanitarian efforts in the Crimean War enabled ‘the Lady with the Lamp’ to push for healthcare reform in Europe.

Influenced by Bach and Mozart, the 19th century Romantic composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810-49) was a virtuoso pianist - emotive, delicate and technically complex in his reinvention of traditional folk music in the mazurkas, and in his piano miniatures in the Nocturnes. His music reflected his patriotism for occupied Poland, particularly in his famous ‘Revolutionary Étude’.

With his own fashioned spyglass, the ‘father of modern science’ Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons, spots on the sun, and mountains on the moon. For his promotion of the Copernican model of heliocentrism, the Italian polymath, who lived in Pisa and Padua, was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition for heresy.

The name ‘George Orwell’ (1903-50) has become synonymous with politically oppressive or dystopian events, largely as a result of his novels 1984 and Animal Farm. Writing under a pseudonym, Eric Arthur Blair also wrote memoirs of his travels around Europe. Born in British India, he lived in Paris, fought in the Spanish civil war, and was pro-’European unity’.

Chancellor between 1982 and 1998, Helmut Kohl’s (1930-2017) main legacy is the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which replaced the European Economic Community with the EU, and the euro. During his time as Chancellor, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended, making him a key figure of German reunification. Helmut Kohl was bestowed Honorary Citizenship of Europe and was well known for his continuous efforts to propose ever better ways on how to take Europe forward.