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.
Often referred to as ‘the man who invented the 20th century’, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a European engineer and physicist, revolutionised the form in which electricity is delivered to consumers. His invention resulted in the rapid development of industry and laid the groundwork for the modernisation of power systems. Tesla even experimented with wireless technologies, building one of the first wirelessly-controlled boats.
A Catholic nun with Albanian roots, Mother Teresa (1910-97, born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu) founded one of the biggest female congregations in the world, with 4,500 sisters doing charity work in 133 countries. Supporting the sick and poor, she claimed that ‘by her calling’ she ‘belongs to the world’. For her charity work she was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher, Voltaire (1694-1778) advocated not only the freedom of religion and speech, but also the separation of church and state. The author of Treatise on Tolerance and supporter of civil liberties, he criticised religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. His heritage is still part of the European intellectual richness and cultural diversity.
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’.
‘In the beginning was the word…’ Little is known of German inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), who ushered in a revolution with his movable printing press. By cutting letters into wood, and printing them onto molten metal squares, the businessman paved the way for mass book production. His Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1456; just 49 copies survive today.
Dubbed “The travelling pope” Karol Józef Wojtyła (1920-2005) was the first non-Italian head of the Catholic Church in 455 years. As a Pope John Paul II, he undertook more pastoral trips than all of his predecessors combined. His revolutionary teachings about human dignity encouraged nations to rebel against autocratic regimes, such as in his homeland of Poland. He saw Europe as a “union of nations” built on spiritual and economic grounds.
Jacques Delors (born 1925) is the father of the modern day EU as we know it. As president of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995, he was an architect of the euro. An internationalist and former socialist finance minister of France, he argued for a ‘social Europe’, and for the common values of fairness and decency.
Famous for his love for art and literature, Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was a politician, an army officer, and a writer. He was one of the most active pre-war anti-Nazi campaigners, becoming British Prime minister in 1940 and again in 1951. Considered one of the most iconic figures of the 20th Century, Churchill dreamt of building the ‘United States of Europe’. In 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his ‘brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values’.
It sounded like a fairy tale and travellers worldwide convened in Bucharest to find the secret to eternal youth. Crucial to the development of gerontology, Ana Aslan (1897-1988) was hunted out by the likes of de Gaulle, Salvador Dali and Charlie Chaplin for her anti-ageing wonder drug. The visionary Romanian biologist and physician founded the world's first Institute of Geriatrics - and lived to age 91.
