The most famous people in the world. Outstanding citizens of Russia: list, biographies, interesting facts and achievements The name of the person who changed the world

Who do you consider the most worthy example and inspiration for yourself personally? Martin Luther King Jr., Yuri Gagarin or maybe your grandfather? Our world took several millennia to form, and many historical figures took part in this difficult process, who made their invaluable contribution to science, culture and many other spheres of life, both in their countries and in all of humanity. It is very difficult and almost impossible to select those whose influence was most significant. However, the authors of this list still decided to try and collect in one publication the most inspiring personalities in the history of world civilizations. Some of them are known to everyone, others are not known to everyone, but they all have one thing in common - these people changed our world for the better. From the Dalai Lama to Charles Darwin, here are 25 of the most outstanding figures in history!

25. Charles Darwin

A famous British traveler, naturalist, geologist and biologist, Charles Darwin is most famous for his theory, which changed the understanding of human nature and the development of the world in all its diversity. Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection suggests that all species, including humans, are descended from common ancestors, a concept that shocked the scientific community at the time. Darwin published The Theory of Evolution with some examples and evidence in his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species in 1859, and since then our world and the way we understand it have changed greatly.

24. Tim Berners-Lee


Photo: Paul Clarke

Tim Berners-Lee is a British engineer, inventor and computer scientist best known as the creator of the World Wide Web. Sometimes called the "Father of the Internet", Berners-Lee developed the first hypertext web browser, web server and web editor. The technologies of this outstanding scientist spread worldwide and forever changed the way information is generated and processed.

23. Nicholas Winton


Photo: cs:User:Li-sung

Nicholas Winton was a British philanthropist, and since the late 1980s he has become best known for smuggling 669 Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia just before World War II. Winton transported all these children to British orphanages, and some of them even managed to be placed in families, which definitely saved them all from inevitable death in concentration camps or during the bombings. The philanthropist organized as many as 8 trains from Prague and also took children out of Vienna, but using other modes of transport. The Englishman never sought fame, and for 49 years he kept his heroic deed a secret. In 1988, Winton’s wife discovered a notebook with notes from 1939 and the addresses of the families who took in young Salvationists. Since then, recognition, orders and awards have fallen upon him. Nicholas Winton died at the age of 106 in 2015.

22. Buddha Shakyamuni (Gautama Buddha)


Photo: Max Pixel

Also known as Siddhartha Gautama (from birth), Tathagata (the comer) or Bhagavan (the blessed one), Shakyamuni Buddha (the awakened sage of the Shakya lineage) was the spiritual leader and founder of Buddhism, one of the world's three leading religions. Buddha was born in the 6th century BC into a royal family and lived in absolute isolation and luxury. As the prince grew older, he left his family and all his property to plunge into self-discovery and seek to rid humanity of suffering. After several years of meditation and contemplation, Gautama achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha. Through his teachings, Shakyamuni Buddha influenced the lives of millions of people around the world.

21. Rosa Parks

Photo: wikimedia commons

Also known as the "First Lady of Civil Rights" and the "Mother of the Freedom Movement," Rosa Parks was a true pioneer and founder of the black civil rights movement in 1950s Alabama, which was still heavily segregated by race. In 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, a courageous African-American woman and passionate civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, disobeying the driver's orders. Her rebellious act provoked other blacks into what was later called the legendary "Montgomery Bus Boycott." This boycott lasted 381 days and became one of the key events in the history of the black civil rights movement in the United States.

20. Henry Dunant

Photo: ICRC

A successful Swiss entrepreneur and active public figure, Henri Dunant became the first person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. During a business trip in 1859, Dunant encountered the terrible consequences of the Battle of Solferino (Italy), where the troops of Napoleon, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Empire under the leadership of Franz Joseph I clashed, and the troops were left to die on the battlefield. almost 9 thousand wounded. In 1863, in response to the horrors of war and the brutality of the battle he saw, the entrepreneur founded the well-known International Committee of the Red Cross. The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded, adopted in 1864, was also based on ideas expressed by Henri Dunant.

19. Simon Bolivar

Photo: wikimedia commons

Also known as the Libertador, Simon Bolivar was a prominent Venezuelan military and political leader who played a key role in the liberation of six countries in South and Central America - Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama - from Spanish rule. Bolivar was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, but he devoted most of his life to military campaigns and the fight for the independence of the Spanish colonies in America. The country of Bolivia, by the way, was named in honor of this hero and liberator.

18. Albert Einstein

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Albert Einstein is one of the most respected and influential scientists of all time. This outstanding theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate and public figure-humanist gave the world over 300 scientific works on physics and about 150 books and articles on history, philosophy and other humanitarian areas. His whole life was full of interesting research, revolutionary ideas and theories, which later became fundamental for modern science. Einstein was most famous for his Theory of Relativity, and thanks to this work he became one of the greatest personalities in human history. Even after almost a century, this Theory continues to influence the thinking of the modern scientific community working to create a Theory of Everything (or Unified Field Theory).

17. Leonardo da Vinci


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It is difficult to describe and list all the areas in which Leonardo da Vinci, a man who changed the whole world with his mere existence, succeeded. Over the course of his entire life, this Italian genius of the Renaissance managed to achieve unprecedented heights in painting, architecture, music, mathematics, anatomy, engineering, and many other areas. Da Vinci is recognized as one of the most versatile and talented people to ever live on our planet, and he is the author of such revolutionary inventions as the parachute, helicopter, tank and scissors.

16. Christopher Columbus

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The famous Italian explorer, traveler and colonizer, Christopher Columbus was not the first European to sail to America (after all, the Vikings had been here before him). However, his voyages gave rise to an entire era of the most outstanding discoveries, conquests and colonizations, which continued for several centuries after his death. Columbus's travels to the New World greatly influenced the development of geography of those times, because at the beginning of the 15th century people still believed that the Earth was flat and that there were no more lands beyond the Atlantic.

15. Martin Luther King Jr.


Photo: wikimedia commons

This is one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century. Martin Luther King Jr. is best known for his peaceful movement against discrimination, racial segregation and for the civil rights of black Americans, for which he even received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Martin Luther King was a Baptist preacher and powerful speaker who inspired millions of people around the world to fight for democratic freedoms and their rights. He played a key role in promoting civil rights through peaceful protests based on Christian faith and the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi.

14. Bill Gates

Photo: DFID – UK Department for International Development

The founder of the legendary multinational company Microsoft, Bill Gates was considered the richest person in the world for almost 20 years. Recently, however, Gates has become known primarily as a generous philanthropist rather than for his success in business and in the information technology market. At one time, Bill Gates stimulated the development of the personal computer market, making computers accessible to the simplest users, which is exactly what he wanted. Now he is passionate about the idea of ​​​​providing Internet access to the whole world. Gates is also working on projects dedicated to combating global warming and combating gender discrimination.

William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers and playwrights in the English language, and he has had a profound influence on a galaxy of literary figures, as well as millions of readers around the world. In addition, Shakespeare introduced about 2,000 new words, most of which are still in use in modern English. With his works, the national poet of England has inspired a great many composers, artists and film directors from all over the world.

12. Sigmund Freud

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Austrian neurologist and founder of the science of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud is famous precisely for his unique research into the mysterious world of the human subconscious. With them, he forever changed the way we evaluate ourselves and the people around us. Freud's work influenced 20th-century psychology, sociology, medicine, art, and anthropology, and his therapeutic techniques and theories in psychoanalysis are still studied and practiced today.

11. Oskar Schindler

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Oskar Schindler was a German entrepreneur, Nazi Party member, spy, womanizer and drinker. None of this sounds very appealing and certainly doesn't sound like the characteristics of a real hero. However, despite all of the above, Schindler deservedly made it onto this list, because during the Holocaust and World War II, this man saved about 1,200 Jews, rescuing them from death camps to work in his factories. The heroic story of Oskar Schindler has been told in many books and films, but the most famous adaptation was Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List.

10. Mother Teresa

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A Catholic nun and missionary, Mother Teresa devoted almost her entire life to serving the poor, sick, disabled and orphans. She founded the charitable movement and women's monastic congregation “Missionary Sisters of Love” (Congregatio Sororum Missionarium Caritatis), which exists in almost all countries of the world (in 133 countries as of 2012). In 1979, Mother Teresa became a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and 19 years after her death (in 2016) she was canonized by Pope Francis himself.

9. Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and one of the most influential figures in American history. Coming from a poor farming family, Lincoln fought for the reunification of the country during the Civil War between the North and the South, strengthened the federal government, modernized the American economy, but he earned his reputation as an outstanding historical figure primarily for his contribution to the development of a democratic society and the fight against slavery and oppression black population of the USA. Abraham Lincoln's legacy continues to shape the American people today.

8. Stephen Hawking


Photo: Lwp Kommunikáció / flickr

Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and respected scientists in the world, and he has made invaluable contributions to the development of science (especially cosmology and theoretical physics). The work of this British researcher and ardent popularizer of science is also impressive because Hawking made almost all of his discoveries in spite of a rare and slowly progressing degenerative disease. The first signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis appeared in his student years, and now the great scientist is completely paralyzed. However, severe illness and paralysis did not prevent Hawking from marrying twice, becoming the father of two sons, flying in zero gravity, writing many books, becoming one of the founders of quantum cosmology and the winner of a whole collection of prestigious awards, medals and orders.

7. Unknown rebel


Photo: HiMY SYeD / flickr

This is the conventional name given to an unknown man who independently held back a column of tanks for half an hour during the protests in Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen, China) in 1989. In those days, hundreds of protesters, most of whom were ordinary students, died in clashes with the military. The identity and fate of the unknown rebel remains unknown, but the photograph has become an international symbol of courage and peaceful resistance.

6. Muhammad

Photo: wikimedia commons

Muhammad was born in 570 AD in the city of Mecca (Mecca, modern Saudi Arabia). He is considered a Muslim prophet and the founder of the Islamic religion. Being not only a preacher, but also a politician, Muhammad united all the Arab peoples of those times into a single Muslim empire, which conquered most of the Arabian Peninsula. The author of the Qur'an started out with a few followers, but eventually his teachings and practices formed the basis of the Islamic religion, which is now the second most popular religion in the world, with some 1.8 billion believers.

5. The 14th Dalai Lama


Photo: wikimedia commons

The 14th Dalai Lama, or by birth Lhamo Thondup, is a 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a renowned preacher of Buddhist philosophy of peace, professing respect for all life on Earth and calling for the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. The former spiritual and political leader of Tibet in exile, the 14th Dalai Lama always tried to find a compromise and sought reconciliation with the Chinese authorities who invaded Tibet with territorial claims. In addition, Lhamo Dhondrub is a passionate supporter of the women's rights movement, interfaith dialogues and advocates for solving global environmental problems.

4. Princess Diana


Photo: Auguel

Also known as “Lady Di” and “the people’s princess,” Princess Diana captured the hearts of millions around the world with her philanthropy, hard work and sincerity. She devoted most of her short life to helping those in need in third world countries. The Queen of Hearts, as she was also known, founded the movement to end the production and use of anti-personnel mines, and was actively involved in several dozen humanitarian campaigns and non-profit organizations, including the Red Cross, London's Great Ormond Street Hospital and AIDS research. Lady Di died at the age of 36 from injuries received in a car accident.

3. Nelson Mandela


Photo: Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science

Nelson Mandela was a South African politician, philanthropist, revolutionary, reformer, passionate advocate for human rights during apartheid (policy of racial segregation) and President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He had a profound influence on the history of South Africa and the world. Mandela spent almost 27 years in prison for his beliefs, but he did not lose faith in the liberation of his people from the oppression of the authorities, and after leaving prison he achieved democratic elections, as a result of which he became the first black president of South Africa. His tireless work to peacefully end the apartheid regime and establish democracy inspired millions of people around the world. In 1993, Nelson Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize.

2. Jeanne d'Arc

Photo: wikimedia commons

Also known as the Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc is the greatest heroine in French history and one of the most famous women in world history. She was born into a poor farming family in 1412 and believed that she was chosen by God to lead France to victory in the Hundred Years' War with England. The girl died before the end of the war, but her courage, passion and devotion to her goal (especially during the siege of Orleans) caused a long-awaited moral upsurge and inspired the entire French army to the final victory in the protracted and seemingly hopeless confrontation with the British. Unfortunately, in battle, the Maid of Orleans was captured by her enemies, condemned by the Inquisition and burned at the stake at the age of 19.

1. Jesus Christ

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Jesus Christ is the central figure of the Christian religion, and He has had such a profound impact on our world that He is often called the most influential and inspiring person in human history. Compassion, love for others, sacrifice, humility, repentance and forgiveness, which Jesus called for in His sermons and personal example, were concepts completely opposite to the values ​​of ancient civilizations during His life on Earth. Yet today there are approximately 2.4 billion followers of His teachings and Christian faith in the world.

There are people whose contribution to the development of humanity is felt only some time later, often after their death, and there are people who change the way we think during their lifetime. Meet these 12 famous people.

Steve Jobs

Who would have thought that a boy who was abandoned by his parents and expelled from university after his first semester would be able to found a company like Apple Computer? According to the results of 2011, Apple Computer became the most valuable company in the world. In addition, Steve Jobs was one of the founders of the animation studio Pixar (creator of such animated masterpieces as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.). Steve Jobs led the development of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad, and was involved in the development of the Apple Store, iTunes Store and App Store. He battled pancreatic cancer for eight years, from which he died in 2011.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley received his first camera at the age of 13. The first money he earned was spent making a short film about boxer Walter Cartier, and at the age of 24, Stanley Kubrick received an award for best director. His film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) became one of the best films in cinematic history and earned Kubrick an Oscar for special effects.

Martin Cooper

Some considered him crazy, others a visionary, but now millions of people around the world would rather give up many other benefits of the modern world than a small device that fits in the palm of their hand - a mobile phone. Martin Cooper is the name of the man who invented the mobile phone. He was born in Chicago, USA, in a family of Jewish emigrants from Ukraine, graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering, and worked at Western Electric, where he participated in the creation of the teletype. In 1954, Martin Cooper went to work for Motorola. It was there that Cooper began improving the car radiotelephone network. And on April 3, 1973, Martin made the first call from a cell phone, thereby opening a new era in telecommunications.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau

This man was truly multifaceted in his talents - in 1943, together with Emile Gagnan, he invented scuba gear, he explored the depths of the World Ocean, wrote many books, was an outstanding documentarian, was a member of the French Academy and was a commander of the Legion of Honor. But the main thing is that with the help of all this he was able to instill a love of nature in many people on planet Earth.

Guy Laliberte

Even those who don't like circuses have heard of the famous Cirque Du Soleil. I dare to say that Cirque Du Soleil is more than just a circus, it is an enchanting fairy tale, an incredible, all-consuming miracle that became possible thanks to its creator, Guy Laliberte. Guy Laliberte began as a simple circus performer - he walked on stilts, played the accordion, swallowed fire, but thanks to his perseverance and love for circus art, he was able to create a circus that united a variety of circus styles from all over the world. In 2004, Guy Laliberte received the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honor. At the same time, Time Magazine included him among the 100 most influential people in the world. And Guy Laliberte became the eighth space tourist.

Diego Maradona

From the age of seven, Diego Maradona's main life companion was a football match. Football has always been his main passion in life. Diego Maradona is the author of the goal of the century and holder of the title of the best football player of the 20th century. He played for the clubs Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, ​​Napoli, Sevilla, Newell's Old Boys. He played 91 matches for the Argentina national football team, scoring 34 goals. From 2008 to 2010, Maradona was the head coach of the Argentina national team.

Nikola Tesla

It was not for nothing that the contemporaries of this outstanding electrical engineer considered him “the man who invented the 20th century,” because it was he who patented the radio transmitter in 1893, which laid the foundation for the principles of cellular communications and radio. Nikola Tesla was born and raised in Austria-Hungary, worked in France and the USA. In 1891 he received American citizenship. The SI unit of magnetic induction was named after Tesla.

Ernest Hemingway

The outstanding writer and Nobel Prize winner in literature did not want to become a doctor, as his father wanted, for which we are immensely grateful to him! Many people know Hemingway's most famous books (some have even read them) or that his favorite cocktails were mojitos and daiquiris. But there are also a couple of little-known and interesting facts related to the life of this outstanding person. For example, the tenacity with which a certain Victor Hill pursued the writer, extorting his autograph, led to the fact that the writer was forced to give up and gave Victor such an original autograph on his book: “To Victor Hill, a real son of a bitch who cannot understand No answer"". In addition, Hemingway had a six-toed cat, Snowball, whose descendants inherited six-toed cats and are now one of the attractions of the writer’s house-museum.

Mark Zuckerberg

If you watched the movie “Social Networks,” then you know that it was Mark Zuckerberg who was one of the creators of Facebook, which once and for all changed the existing world. In addition, Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest billionaire in history (owning 24% of Facebook). In 2011, in Forbes magazine's ranking of the 400 richest people in the United States, Zuckerberg was ranked 14th with a fortune of $17.5 billion.

Ray Charles

Ray Charles is one of the most famous performers of soul, jazz and rhythm and blues music in the world. During his musical career, this outstanding blind musician recorded 70 albums and received 17 Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll, Jazz, Country, Blues and Georgia Halls of Fame. Ray Charles' recordings are included in the Library of Congress, and Frank Sinatra called Ray Charles "the only true genius in show business."

Coco Chanel

At the age of 18, Coco Chanel began working in a clothing store and quickly realized that the fashion world was her world. In 1913, Coco Chanel opened her first atelier. Currently, the Chanel brand is known throughout the world and is a premium brand. We will be forever grateful to Chanel for the little black dress, which has become an indispensable part of any fashionista's wardrobe, and the fitted jacket. And the Chanel suit (with a narrow skirt, collarless jacket and patch pockets) became a status symbol of an entire era.

Henry Ford

Born into a family of immigrants and running away from home at age 16, Henry Ford designed his first car in 1893. In 1903, the Ford Motor Company plant was founded with the first use of an industrial assembly line. Henry Ford is the author of 161 US patents. Henry Ford's slogan is “a car for everyone,” because his plant produced the cheapest cars at the dawn of the automobile manufacturing era.

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Simple and amazing stories of real heroes. Everyone should know their names.

History knows a huge number of people who performed outstanding deeds and discoveries, but at the same time went unnoticed.

website believes that many of them deserve fame and wide recognition. This article collects the stories of seven such heroes - they are all different, but each of them made life on planet Earth a little - or even a lot - better and happier.

Story from Konstantin Paustovsky

“It was the spring of 1912, before the exams, a meeting was organized in the garden. All the high school students in our class were called to it, except the Jews. The Jews were not supposed to know anything about this meeting.

At the meeting, it was decided that the best students from Russians and Poles should get a B in the exams in at least one subject, so as not to receive a gold medal. We decided to give all the gold medals to the Jews. Without these medals they were not accepted into the university.

We swore to keep this decision secret. To the credit of our class, we did not let it slip either then or later, when we were already university students. Now I am breaking this oath, because almost none of my comrades from the gymnasium are alive. Most of them died during the great wars my generation experienced. Only a few people survived."

A world without nuclear war

September 26, 1983 Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov was on duty at Serpukhov-15, a secret bunker near Moscow, and was busy monitoring the Soviet Union's satellite system. Shortly after midnight, one of the satellites signaled to Moscow that the United States was launching 5 ballistic missiles at Russia. All responsibility at this moment fell on the forty-four-year-old lieutenant colonel: he needed to make a decision on how to respond to this signal.

The alarm came at a difficult time, relations between the USSR and America were strained, but Petrov decided that it was false and refused to take any retaliatory measures. Thus, he prevented a possible nuclear disaster - the signal actually turned out to be false.

Vasily Arkhipov, an officer in the Russian Navy, also once made a decision that saved the world. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he prevented the launch of a nuclear torpedo. The Soviet submarine B-59 was surrounded near Cuba by eleven American destroyers and the aircraft carrier Randolph. Despite the fact that this took place in international waters, the Americans used depth charges against the boat to force it to rise to the surface.

The submarine commander, Valentin Savitsky, prepared to launch a retaliatory atomic torpedo. However, the senior officer on board Arkhipov showed restraint, paid attention to the signals from the American ships and stopped Savitsky. The signal “Stop the provocation” was sent from the boat, after which the American military forces were withdrawn and the situation was somewhat defused.

The Man with the Golden Arm

At thirteen, Australian James Harrison underwent major breast surgery and urgently needed about 13 liters of donor blood. After the operation, he was in the hospital for three months. Realizing that donated blood saved his life, he made a promise to start donating blood as soon as he turned 18 years old.

As soon as Harrison reached the age required to donate blood, he immediately went to the Red Cross blood donation center. It was there that it turned out that his blood was unique in its own way, since its plasma contained special antibodies, thanks to which it was possible to prevent Rh conflict between a pregnant mother and her fetus. Without these antibodies, Rh conflict leads to a minimum of anemia and jaundice of the child, and a maximum of stillbirth.

When James was told what exactly was found in his blood, he asked only one question. He asked how often you can donate blood.
Since then, every three weeks, James Harrison comes to a medical center near his home and donates exactly 400 milliliters of blood. To date, he has already donated approximately 377 liters of blood.
Over the 56 years since his first donation, he has donated blood and its components almost 1,000 times and saved about 2,000,000 children and their young mothers.

Polish Schindler

Eugene Lazowski was a Polish doctor who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Thanks to the discovery of his friend, Dr. Stanislav Matulewicz, Lazowski simulated an outbreak of typhus, a dangerous infectious disease. Matulevich discovered that a healthy person could be inoculated with certain bacteria, and then the test results for typhus would be positive, and the person himself would not experience any manifestations of the disease.

The Germans were afraid of typhus because it was highly contagious. At a time when Jews infected with typhus were routinely executed, Lazowski vaccinated the non-Jewish population in the neighborhoods surrounding the ghetto, near the town of Rozwadov. He knew that the Germans would be forced to refuse to approach the Jewish settlements, and they ended up simply quarantining the area. This saved approximately 8,000 Polish Jews from certain death in concentration camps.

The scientist who saved millions of lives

American biologist Maurice Ralph Hilleman created 36 vaccines during his life - more than any other scientist in the world. Of the fourteen vaccines that are now used everywhere, he invented 8, including measles, meningitis, chickenpox, hepatitis A and B.

In addition, Hilleman was the first person to determine how the influenza virus mutates. Almost single-handedly, he worked to create a vaccine that prevented the 1957 Asian flu outbreak from becoming a repeat of the 1918 Spanish pandemic, which killed 20 million people worldwide.

Immortal Cell Donor

African American Henrietta Lacks died of cancer in 1951 at the age of thirty-one. However, she became the donor of cellular material that allowed Dr. George Otto Gay to create history's first immortal line of human cells, known as the HeLa line. “Immortality” meant that these cells did not die after several divisions, which means they could be used for many medical experiments and research.

In 1954, a strain of HeLa cells was used by Jonas Sock to develop a vaccine against polio. In 1955, HeLa became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. The demand for these cells grew rapidly. They were put into mass production and sent to scientists around the world to study cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and other diseases. Scientists are now growing about 20 tons of Henrietta cells, and there are almost 11,000 patents related to them.

Inventor of the seat belt

July 10, 1962 Volvo Corporation employee Nils Bohlin Patented his invention - a three-point seat belt. It was the same system that is still used in cars today: it took Bohlin just under a year to create it, and it was first introduced on Volvo cars in 1959.

The corporation made the seat belt design free to other automakers, and it soon became a worldwide standard. According to recent studies, Bolin's invention saved about a million lives during its existence.

There are a great many people who changed the world. These are famous doctors who invented cures for diseases and learned how to perform complex operations; politicians who started wars and conquered countries; astronauts who first orbited the Earth and set foot on the Moon, and so on. There are thousands of them, and it is impossible to tell about them all. This article lists only a small part of these geniuses, thanks to whom scientific discoveries, new reforms and trends in art appeared. They are individuals who changed the course of history.

Alexander Suvorov

The great commander who lived in the 18th century became a cult person. He is a person who influenced the course of history with his mastery of strategy and skillful planning of war tactics. His name is written in golden letters in the annals of Russian history; he is remembered as a tireless, brilliant military commander.

Alexander Suvorov devoted his entire life to battles and battles. He is a participant in seven wars, led 60 battles without knowing defeat. His literary talent manifested itself in a book in which he teaches the younger generation the art of warfare, shares his experience and knowledge. In this area, Suvorov was many years ahead of his era.

His merit lies primarily in the fact that he improved the tendencies of warfare and developed new methods of offensives and attacks. His entire science was based on three pillars: pressure, speed and eye. This principle developed the soldiers' sense of purpose, development of initiative and a sense of mutual assistance in relation to their colleagues. In battles, he always walked ahead of ordinary military men, showing them an example of courage and heroism.

Catherine II

This woman is a phenomenon. Like all other personalities who influenced the course of history, she was charismatic, strong and intelligent. She was born in Germany, but in 1744 she came to Russia as a bride for the Empress’s nephew, Grand Duke Peter the Third. Her husband was uninteresting and apathetic, they hardly communicated. Catherine spent all her free time reading legal and economic works; she was captivated by the idea of ​​the Enlightenment. Having found like-minded people at court, she easily overthrew her husband from the throne and became the rightful mistress of Rus'.

The period of her reign is called “golden” for the nobility. The ruler reformed the Senate, took church lands into the state treasury, which enriched the state and made life easier for ordinary peasants. In this case, the influence of an individual on the course of history implies the adoption of a mass of new legislative acts. On Catherine’s account: provincial reform, expansion of the rights and freedoms of the nobility, the creation of estates following the example of Western European society and the restoration of Russia’s authority throughout the world.

Peter the First

Another ruler of Russia, who lived a hundred years earlier than Catherine, also played a huge role in the development of the state. He is not just a person who influenced the course of history. Peter 1 became a national genius. He was hailed as an educator, a “beacon of the era,” the savior of Russia, a man who opened the eyes of the common people to the European style of life and government. Remember the phrase “window to Europe”? So, it was Peter the Great who “cut through” it in spite of all the envious people.

Tsar Peter became a great reformer; his changes in state foundations at first frightened the nobility, and then aroused admiration. This is a person who influenced the course of history in that, thanks to him, progressive discoveries and achievements of Western countries were introduced into “hungry and unwashed” Russia. Peter the Great managed to expand the economic and cultural borders of his empire and conquered new lands. Russia was recognized as a great power and its role in the international arena was appreciated.

Alexander II

After Peter the Great, this was the only tsar who began to carry out such large-scale reforms. His innovations completely renewed the appearance of Russia. Like other famous personalities who changed the course of history, this ruler deserved respect and recognition. The period of his reign falls on the 19th century.

The tsar's main achievement was in Russia, which hampered the economic and cultural development of the country. Of course, Alexander the Second’s predecessors, Catherine the Great and Nicholas the First, also thought about eliminating a system very similar to slavery. But none of them decided to turn the foundations of the state upside down.

Such drastic changes occurred quite late, since a rebellion of dissatisfied people was already brewing in the country. In addition, reforms stalled in the 1880s, which angered revolutionary youth. The reformer Tsar became the target of their terror, which led to the end of the reforms and completely influenced the development of Russia in the future.

Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich, a famous revolutionary, a personality who influenced the course of history. Lenin led a revolt in Russia against the autocracy. He led the revolutionaries to the barricades, as a result of which Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and the communists came to power, whose rule spanned a century and led to significant, dramatic changes in the lives of ordinary people.

Studying the works of Engels and Marx, Lenin advocated equality and strongly condemned capitalism. The theory is good, but in reality it was difficult to implement, since the representatives of the elite still lived in luxury, while ordinary workers and peasants worked hard around the clock. But that was later, during Lenin’s time, at first glance, everything turned out the way he wanted it.

The period of Lenin's reign included such important events as the First World War, the Civil War in Russia, the cruel and absurd execution of the entire royal family, the transfer of the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow, the founding of the Red Army, the complete establishment of Soviet power and the adoption of its first Constitution.

Stalin

People who changed the course of history... On their list, the name of Joseph Vissarionovich glows in bright scarlet letters. He became the "terrorist" of his time. The establishment of a network of camps, the exile of millions of innocent people there, the execution of entire families for dissent, artificial famine - all this radically changed people's lives. Some considered Stalin to be the devil, others to be God, since it was he who at that time decided the fate of every citizen of the Soviet Union. He was neither one nor the other, of course. The intimidated people themselves put him on a pedestal. The cult of personality was created on the basis of universal fear and the blood of the innocent victims of the era.

The personality who influenced the course of history, Stalin, distinguished himself not only by mass terror. Of course, his contribution to Russian history also has a positive side. It was during his reign that the state made a powerful economic breakthrough, scientific institutions and culture began to develop. It was he who stood at the head of the army that defeated Hitler and saved all of Europe from fascism.

Nikita Khrushchev

This is a very controversial personality who influenced the course of history. His versatile nature is well demonstrated by the tombstone erected for him, which was simultaneously made of white and black stone. Khrushchev, on the one hand, was Stalin’s man, and on the other, a leader who tried to trample on the cult of personality. He began radical reforms that were supposed to completely change the bloody system, released millions of innocent prisoners from the camps, and pardoned hundreds of thousands of those sentenced to death. This period was even called the “thaw”, as persecution and terror ceased.

But Khrushchev did not know how to bring big things to the end, so his reforms can be called half-hearted. His lack of education made him a narrow-minded person, but his excellent intuition, natural common sense and political instincts helped him stay in the highest echelons of power for so long and find a way out in critical situations. It was thanks to Khrushchev that it was possible to avoid a nuclear war during and also turn the bloodiest page in the history of Russia.

Dmitriy Mendeleev

Russia gave birth to many great generalists who improved various areas of science. But Mendeleev is worth highlighting, since his contribution to its development is invaluable. Chemistry, physics, geology, economics, sociology - Mendeleev managed to study all this and open new horizons in these fields. He was also a famous shipbuilder, aeronaut and encyclopedist.

The person who influenced the course of history, Mendeleev, discovered a way to predict the appearance of new chemical elements, the discovery of which continues to this day. His table is the basis of chemistry lessons at school and university. Among his achievements is also a complete study of gas dynamics, experiments that helped to derive the equation of state of gas.

In addition, the scientist actively studied the properties of oil, developed a policy for injecting investment into the economy and proposed optimizing the customs service. Many ministers of the tsarist government used his invaluable advice.

Ivan Pavlov

Like all individuals who influenced the course of history, he was a very smart person, had a broad outlook and inner intuition. Ivan Pavlov actively used animals in his experiments, trying to identify common features of the life activity of complex organisms, including humans.

Pavlov was able to prove the diverse activity of nerve endings in the cardiovascular system. He showed how he could regulate blood pressure. He also became the discoverer of the trophic nervous function, which consists in the influence of nerves on the process of regeneration and tissue formation.

He later became involved in the physiology of the digestive tract, as a result of which he received the Nobel Prize in 1904. His main achievement is considered to be the study of the functioning of the brain, higher nervous activity, conditioned reflexes and the so-called human signaling system. His works became the basis of many theories in medicine.

Mikhail Lomonosov

He lived and worked during the reign of Peter the Great. Then the emphasis was placed on the development of education and enlightenment, and the first Academy of Sciences was created in Russia, in which Lomonosov spent many of his days. He, a simple peasant, was able to rise to incredible heights, run up the social ladder and turn into a scientist, whose trail of fame stretches to this day.

He was interested in everything related to physics and chemistry. He dreamed of freeing the latter from the influence of medicine and pharmaceuticals. It was thanks to him that modern physical chemistry was born as a science and began to actively develop. In addition, he was a famous encyclopedist, studied history and wrote chronicles. He considered Peter the Great an ideal ruler, a key figure in the formation of the state. In his scientific works, he described him as an example of a mind that changed history and turned the idea of ​​the management system upside down. Through the efforts of Lomonosov, the first university in Russia was founded - Moscow. Since that time, higher education began to develop.

Yuri Gagarin

People who influenced the course of history... It is difficult to imagine their list without the name of Yuri Gagarin, the man who conquered space. Star space has attracted people for many centuries, but only in the last century did humanity begin to explore it. At that time, the technical base for such flights was already well developed.

The space age was marked by competition between the Soviet Union and the United States. The leaders of giant countries tried to show their power and superiority, and space was one of the best options to demonstrate this. In the middle of the 20th century, competition began over who could send a person into orbit the fastest. The USSR won this race. We all know the landmark date from school: April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut flew into orbit, where he spent 108 minutes. This hero's name was Yuri Gagarin. The day after his journey into space, he woke up famous throughout the world. Although, paradoxically, I never considered myself great. Gagarin often said that in those hour and a half he did not even have time to understand what was happening to him and what his feelings were.

Alexander Pushkin

He is called "the sun of Russian poetry." He has long become a national symbol of Russia, his poems, poems and prose are highly valued and revered. And not only in the countries of the former Soviet Union, but throughout the world. Almost every city in Russia has a street, square or square named after Alexander Pushkin. Children study his work at school, devoting him not only during school hours, but also outside of school hours in the form of themed literary evenings.

This man created such harmonious poetry that it has no equal in the whole world. It was with his work that the development of new literature and all its genres began - from poetry to theatrical plays. Pushkin is read in one breath. It is characterized by accuracy and rhythm of lines, they are quickly remembered and easily recited. If we also take into account the enlightenment of this person, his strength of character and deep inner core, then we can say that he really is a person who influenced the course of history. He taught the people to speak Russian in its modern interpretation.

Other historical figures

There are so many of them that it would be impossible to list them all in one article. Here are examples of a small part of Russian figures who changed history. How many others are there? This is Gogol, and Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. If we analyze foreign personalities, we cannot help but note the ancient philosophers: Aristotle and Plato; artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Monet; geographers and discoverers of lands: Magellan, Cook and Columbus; scientists: Galileo and Newton; politicians: Thatcher, Kennedy and Hitler; inventors: Bell and Edison.

All these people were able to completely turn the world upside down, create their own laws and scientific discoveries. Some of them made the world a better place, while others almost destroyed it. In any case, every person on planet Earth knows their names and understands that without these individuals our life would be completely different. Reading the biographies of famous people, we often find idols for ourselves, from whom we want to take an example and be equal in all our deeds and actions.

There have been many smart people in Russian history. Brilliant mathematicians, chemists, physicists, geologists, philosophers - they made a contribution to both Russian and world science.

1 Mikhail Lomonosov

The first Russian natural scientist of world significance, encyclopedist, chemist, physicist, astronomer, instrument maker, geographer, metallurgist, geologist, poet, artist, historian. A man under two meters, possessing enormous strength, not shy about using it, and ready to punch him in the eye - if justice demanded it. Mikhail Lomonosov is practically a superman.

2 Dmitry Mendeleev

Russian Da Vinci, the brilliant father of the periodic table of elements, Mendeleev was a versatile scientist and public figure. Thus, he made a significant and invaluable contribution to oil activities.

Mendeleev said: “Oil is not fuel! You can also drown with banknotes!” At his instigation, the barbaric four-year buyout of oil fields was abolished. Then Mendeleev proposed transporting oil through pipes and developed oils based on oil refining waste, which were several times cheaper than kerosene. Thus, Russia was able not only to refuse to export kerosene from America, but also to import petroleum products to Europe.

Mendeleev was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times, but he never received it. Which is not surprising.

3 Nikolai Lobachevsky

A six-time rector of Kazan University, a professor, the first textbooks he published were condemned for using and promoting the metric system of measures. Lobachevsky refuted Euclid's fifth postulate, calling the axiom of parallelism an “arbitrary restriction.”

Lobachevsky developed completely new trigonometry of non-Euclidean space and differential geometry with the calculation of lengths, volumes, and areas.

Recognition came to the scientist after his death; his ideas were continued in the works of such mathematicians as Klein, Beltrami and Poincaré. The realization that Lobachevsky's geometry is not an antagonism, but an alternative to Euclid's geometry gave impetus to new powerful discoveries and research in mathematics and physics.

4 Sofya Kovalevskaya

“Professor Sonya” is the first woman professor in the world and the first woman in Russia to be a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Kovalevskaya was not only a brilliant mathematician and mechanic, but also distinguished herself in the literary field. Kovalevskaya’s path in science was not easy, which was associated, first of all, with gender prejudices.

5 Vladimir Vernadsky

Famous mineralogist, researcher of the earth's crust, “father” of the Soviet nuclear program. Vernadsky was one of the first people who paid attention to eugenics; he studied geology, biochemistry, geochemistry, and meteorology. and many others. But, perhaps, his main contribution is the description of the laws of the Earth's biosphere and the noosphere as its integral part. Here the scientific insight of the Russian scientist is simply unique.

6 Zhores Alferov

Today, everyone benefits from the discoveries of Zhores Alferov, the Russian Nobel Prize laureate in 2000. All mobile phones contain heterostructure semiconductors created by Alferov. All fiber optic communications operate on its semiconductors and the Alferov laser.

Without the Alferov laser, CD players and disk drives of modern computers would not be possible. Zhores Ivanovich's discoveries are used in car headlights, traffic lights, and supermarket equipment - product label decoders. At the same time, Alferov made the scientist’s insights, which led to qualitative changes in the development of all electronic technology, back in 1962-1974.

7 Kirik Novgorodets

Kirik Novgorodian - mathematician, writer, chronicler and musician of the 12th century; author of the first Russian mathematical and astronomical treatise “The Doctrine of Numbers”; calculated the smallest perceptible period of time. Kirik was a deacon and domestic of the Anthony Monastery in Novgorod. He is also considered the alleged author of “Kirikov’s Questioning”.

8 Kliment Smolyatich

Kliment Smolyatich was one of the most prominent Russian medieval thinkers. Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus' (1147-1155), church writer, first Russian theologian, second metropolitan of Russian origin.
Smolyatich was considered the most highly educated person of his time. In the chronicle he is mentioned as such a “scribe and philosopher, the likes of which have never happened in the Russian land.”

9 Lev Landau

Lev Landau is a completely unique phenomenon. He was a child prodigy who did not lose his talent in adulthood. At the age of 13 he graduated from 10 classes, and at 14 he entered two faculties at once: chemistry and physics and mathematics.

For special merits, Landau was transferred from Baku University to Leningrad University. Landau received 3 State Prizes of the USSR, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA.

In 1962, the Royal Swedish Academy awarded Landau the Nobel Prize "for his fundamental theories of condensed matter, especially liquid helium."
For the first time in history, the award took place in a Moscow hospital, since shortly before the presentation, Landau was involved in a car accident.

10 Ivan Pavlov

A brilliant Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov received his well-deserved Nobel Prize in 1904 “for his work on the physiology of digestion.” Pavlov is a unique scientist on a global scale, who managed to form his own school in the difficult conditions of a state under construction, to which the scientist made considerable claims. In addition, Pavlov collected paintings, plants, butterflies, stamps, and books. Scientific research led him to abandon meat food.

11 Andrey Kolmogorov

Andrei Kolmogorov was one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, the founder of a large scientific school. Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes, member of many scientific academies around the world, honorary doctor of universities from Paris to Calcutta. Kolmogorov - author of the axioms of probability theory and many theorems, author of the equation, inequality, mean, space and complexity of Kolmogorov

12 Nikolai Danilevsky

A global thinker who laid the foundations for a civilizational approach to history. Without his works there would have been neither Spengler nor Toynbee. Nikolai Danilevsky saw “Europeanism,” looking at the world through “European glasses,” as one of the main diseases of Russia.

He believed that Russia had a special path, which should be rooted in Orthodox culture and monarchy, dreamed of creating an All-Slavic Union and was sure that Russia should under no circumstances follow the path of America.

13 Georgy Gamov

The father of the “hot Universe” theory, at the age of 24 Gamow performed Nobel-level work, developing the theory of alpha decay, and at 28 he became the youngest corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in the entire history of its existence. He was also a half-speaker - he spoke six languages ​​fluently.

Gamow became one of the brightest stars in astrophysics and cosmology. He was the first to calculate models of stars with thermonuclear reactions, proposed a model of the shell of a red giant, and studied the role of neutrinos in outbursts of novae and supernovae.

In 1954, Gamow was the first to pose the problem of the genetic code. After Gamow's death, the Americans received the Nobel for deciphering it.

14 Sergey Averintsev

Sergei Averintsev, a student of Alexei Losev, was one of the most prominent philologists, cultural scholars, biblical scholars and translators of the twentieth century. He explored various layers of European, including Christian, culture - from antiquity to modernity.
Literary critic, philosopher and cultural critic Nikita Struve wrote about Averintsev: “A great scientist, biblical scholar, patrolologist, subtle literary critic, poet who revived the tradition of spiritual poetry, Averintsev stands before my eyes no less than a humble disciple and a bright witness of Christ. The rays of faith illuminated all his work.”

15 Mikhail Bakhtin

One of the few Russian thinkers and literary scholars canonized in the West. His books about the works of Dostoevsky and Rabelais “blew up” the literary establishment, his work “Towards a Philosophy of Action” became a reference book for intellectuals around the world.

Bakhtin was brought from exile in Kazakhstan to Moscow in 1969 by Andropov. He also provided the “great lame man” with protection. Bakhtin was published and translated en masse. In England, at the University of Sheffield, there is a Bakhtin Center that conducts scientific and educational work. Bakhtin's work gained particular popularity in France and Japan, where the world's first collection of his works was published, as well as a large number of monographs and works about him.

16 Vladimir Bekhterev

The great Russian psychiatrist and neuropathologist, Vladimir Bekhterev, was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, treated drunkards en masse with hypnosis, studied parapsychology and crowd psychology, child psychology and telepathy. Bekhterev paved the way for the creation of so-called “brain atlases”. One of the creators of such atlases, the German professor Kopsch, said: “Only two people know perfectly the structure of the brain - God and Bekhterev.”

17 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Tsiolkovsky was a genius. He made many of his discoveries intuitively. A theorist of cosmism, he worked a lot and fruitfully on applied things, on the creation of the theory of flight of jet aircraft, and invented his own gas turbine engine design. Tsiolkovsky’s merits were highly appreciated not only by domestic scientists, but also by the creator of the first rockets, Wernher Von Braun.
Tsiolkovsky was quirky. Thus, he defended eugenics, believed in the catastrophic structure of society and believed that criminals should be split into atoms.

Lev Vygotsky is an outstanding Russian psychologist, creator of cultural-historical theory. Vygotsky made a real revolution in defectology and gave hope for a full life to people with disabilities. When Western society got tired of “life according to Freud,” it switched to “life according to Vygodsky.”

After the translation of Vygotsky’s work “Thinking and Speech” into English and Japanese, the Russian psychologist became a truly iconic figure. Stephen Toulmin of the University of Chicago even titled his article on Vygotsky, published in the New York Review, “Mozart in Psychology.”

20 Peter Kropotkin

The “Father of Anarchism” and eternal rebel Peter Kropotkin, who on his deathbed refused the special rations and special treatment conditions offered by Lenin, was one of the most enlightened people of his time.

Kropotkin considered his main contribution to science to be his work on the study of Asian mountain ranges. For them he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Geographical Society. Kropotkin also contributed a great treasure to the study of the Ice Age.