Hungary

Rubik Ernő

Ernő Rubik born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor, architect and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.

While Rubik became famous for Rubik's Cube and his other puzzles, much of his recent work involves the promotion of science in education. Rubik is involved with several organizations such as Beyond Rubik's Cube, the Rubik Learning Initiative and the Judit Polgar Foundation all of whose aim is to engage students in science, mathematics, and problem solving at a young age.

Rubik licensed the Magic Cube to Ideal Toys, a New York based company, who in 1979 rebranded The Magic Cube to the Rubik's Cube before its introduction to an international audience in 1980. The process from early prototype to significant mass production of the Cube had taken over six years. The Rubik's Cube would go on to become an instant success worldwide, winning several Toy of the Year awards, and becoming a staple of 1980's popular culture. To date, the Rubik's Cube has sold over 350 million units, making it the best selling toy of all time.

Egerszegi Krisztina

Krisztina Egerszegi born 16 August 1974 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Hungarian former world record holding swimmer and one of the greatest Hungarian Olympic champions of the modern era. She is a three-time Olympian (1988, 1992 and 1996) and five time Olympic champion; and one of three individuals (Dawn Fraser and Michael Phelps being other two) to have ever won the same swimming event at three Summer Olympics. She is the most successful and greatest female swimmer of all-time with 5 individual Olympic gold medals and she is the first and only female swimmer who won 5 individual Olympic gold medals.

She held the world record in the long course 200 m backstroke for almost 17 years (August 1991 – February 2008), after setting it at the 1991 European Championships (2:06.62). As of June 2009, that time remains the European and Hungarian records. It is the oldest record on the European list, and the second-oldest on the Hungarian list — Egerszegi's former world record in the 100 m backstroke (1:00.31), set 3 days prior to the 200 m backstroke, is the oldest. She is considered by many to be the greatest female backstroker of all-time.

Kertész Imre

Imre Kertész (born 9 November 1929) is a Hungarian author, Holocaust concentration camp survivor, and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". Born in Budapest, Hungary, he resides in Berlin with his wife.

During World War II, Kertész was deported at the age of 14 with other Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was later sent to Buchenwald. His best-known work, Fatelessness (Sorstalanság), describes the experience of 15-year-old György (George) Köves in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Zeitz. Some have interpreted the book as quasi-autobiographical, but the author disavows a strong biographical connection. In 2005, a film based on the novel, for which he wrote the script, was made in Hungary. Although sharing the same title, the film is more autobiographical than the book: it was released internationally at various dates in 2005 and 2006.

Kodály Zoltán

Zoltán Kodály 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.

Throughout his adult life, Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods as well as composing plenty of music intended for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague Jenö Ádám (14 years his junior), he embarked on a long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books.

The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for what is called the "Kodály Method". While Kodály himself did not write a comprehensive method, he did establish a set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely taken up by pedagogues (above all in Hungary, but also in many other countries) after World War II.

Italy

Galileo Galilei (1564- 1642)was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance.

 Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 

(1745-1827) was the first Italian physicist. He invented the first electrical battery, the Voltaic pile, in 1799.

Michelangelo Buonarroti 

(1475-1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance. Michelangelo created the most influential works in fresco in the history of Western art: the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Guglielmo Marconi 

(18741937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system.

Turkey

Nasreddin

He is a medieval legendary satirical Sufi figure. Nasreddin was a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. Much of Nasreddin's actions can be described as illogical yet logical, rational yet irrational, bizarre yet normal, foolish yet sharp, and simple yet profound. What adds even further to his uniqueness is the way he gets across his messages in unconventional yet very effective methods in a profound simplicity

                                 

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Hacivat and Karagöz

Traditional Turkish Puppets Shadow Play was developed from religious, moral and educational urge to imitate human actions.

                                             

 

Yunus Emre

He is one of the most important Turkish poets. He was a Sufi Muslim ascetic of Anatolia. He probably lived in the Karaman area. His poetry expresses a deep personal mysticism and humanism and love for God.

Köroğlu

He is  the hero "son of the blind man", defending his clan against threats from outside. Köroğlu earns his name from the wrongful blinding of his father, an act for which the son takes his revenge and which initiates his series of adventures. He is portrayed as a bandit and a poet.A number of songs and melodies attributed to Köroğlu survives in the folk tradition.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

He was born in 1881 in the former Ottoman Empire. As a young man he was involved with the Young Turks, a revolutionary group that deposed the sultan in 1909. Ataturk led the Turkish War of Independence and signed the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which made Turkey a republic. He was elected its first president and ushered in reforms that modernized Turkey. He died in 1938.

Bulgaria

Boris Christoff 

World famous Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff was a phenomenon in opera. Emblematic artist of the Russian opera classics, he was unbeaten in the role of Boris Godunov of the eponymous opera by Mussorgsky. Philip II in Don Carlos by Verdi is another memorable role of the Bulgarian royal bass. Performances were inimitable and his church Slavonic Chants - hardly a Bulgarian who does not know his "Mnogaya leta ”(To many years to come). In 1986 the Bulgarian Academy of Arts and Culture was opened in Rome - the great Bulgarian donated his home to the Bulgarian state to care for the development of young opera singers. And donated his home in Sofia, also in favor of art. The bass genius was born in 1914 in l Bulgaria and died in 1993 in Rome.

Dimitar Berbatov 

Dimitar Berbatov is a Bulgarian footballer who played for Pirin (Blagoevgrad), CSKA (Sofia), Bayer Leverkusen. With the German team he signed a contract for 4.5 years and the amount of transfer was 4.5 million DEM. In May 2006, passed in the English team Tottenham Hotspur for 16 million euros. His father and his grandfather are former players,his younger brother named Assen, is also a footballer, currently playing in Pirin( Blagoevgrad).On July 29, 2006 Dimitar Berbatov has 31 goals in 49 appearances for the Bulgarian national football team, which ranks him third place in the ranking of the best scorers in the national team of all time. Before him are only Hristo Bonev (47 goals) and Hristo Stoichkov (35 goals). He was declared a footballer № 1 in Bulgaria for 2002, 2004 and 2005.At the moment Berbatov is playing for one of the most famous and powerful teams in the world-Manchester United. 

Albena Denkova and Maxim Stavisky 

Bulgarian “ lady of ice” and her partner Maxim Stavisky combine two important qualities – strong-mindedness and unusual talent .They overcame all difficulties on the road to the world-wide fame .In 2006 in Calgari Albena and Maxim won the gold medal and became world champions .This was the first gold medal for Bulgaria in figure skating. Bulgarian figure skaters grabbed the gold medal for the second time in their career in Tokyo , Japan in 2007.Bulgaria's sweethearts have been planning to get married someday but they said there was never enough time off from skating and practice to do that. World Ice Skating Champions 2006 Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski got finally married in end of December 2006 in a small Bulgarian mountain village.

John Atanasov 

The father of the computer was proud of his Bulgarian origin. The genius inventor was born on October 4, 1903 in Hamilton. His father, Ivan Atanasoff, left an orphan after the April uprising, emigrated to the United States. There he became an electrical engineer and married Iva Lucena, mother of John, a mathematics teacher. His idea to create the perfect computing machine led to the discovery of the computer. John Atanasov was awarded the highest prize of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for Pioneer Research, discovery and construction of the first digital computer ...", which is the basis of all modern computers. 

Poland

Wlodzimierz Lubanski 

Born in Gliwice in 1947. With national team he won a gold medal in Olympic games in 1972 as a captain of a team.  After he ended his career he went to Belgium and he has been living there till today. Football player, multiple representative of Poland, Olympic champion. In Polish colors he played 75 official international matches, shooting 48 goals.

Jerzy Kukuczka

(24 March 1948 in Katowice – 24 October 1989 Lhotse) - was a Polish alpinist and high-altitude climber. Born in Katowice, his family origin is Goral. On 18 September 1987, he became the second man, after Reinhold Messner, to climb all fourteen eight-thousenders in the world. He is the first man who made the first winter ascents of three eight-thousanders:  Dhaulagiri with Andrzej Czok in 1985, Kanchenjunga with Krzysztof Wielicki in 1986 and Annapurna I with Artur Hajzer in 1987. He is the only climber to have ascended four of the eight-thousanders during winter.  Along with Tadeusz Piotrowski, Kukuczka established a new route on K2 (the so-called "Polish Line"), which no one has ever repeated.

Jak Kiepura

(May 16, 1902 – August 15, 1966) was an acclaimed Polish singer (tenor) and actor. Jan Kiepura was born in Sosnowiec, Poland, the son of Miriam (née Neuman), a former professional singer, and Franciszek Kiepura, a baker and grocery owner. His mother was Jewish. He had a brother, Władysław later known as a Ladis Kiepura. He was probably the most famous Polish musician between first and second world war.

Lech Wałęsa 

Born 29 September 1943 is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, philanthropist and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet Block’s first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

Greece

Socrates 

Socrates  (469-399 B.C.) was a classical Greek philosopher. He is known for creating Socratic irony and the Socratic method (elenchus). He is best recognized for inventing the teaching practice of pedagogy, wherein a teacher questions a student in a manner that draws out the correct response. He has had a profound influence on Western philosophy, along with his students Plato and Aristole. Though much of Socrates' contribution is to the field of ethics, his input to the field of epistemology and logic is also noteworthy.

Plato 

Plato ( Greek: Πλάτων ) was a philosopher, as well as mathematician, in Classical Greece. He is considered an essential figure in the development of philosophy, especially the Western tradition, and he founded the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with Socrates and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Alfred North Whitehead once noted: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, includingphilosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. His lasting themes include Platonic love, the theory of forms, the five regimes, innate knowledge, among others. His theory of forms launched a unique perspective on abstract objects, and led to a school of thought called Platonism. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.

Alexander  the Great

Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great  from the Greek:  was a King of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II, to the throne at the age of twenty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, until by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into northwest India. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful military commanders.

Odysseas Elytis 

Odysseas Elytis (Greek: Οδυσσέας Ελύτης, born at November 2, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was regarded as a major exponent of romantic modernism in Greece and the world. In 1979 the Nobel Prize in Literature was bestowed on him.

Descendant of the Alepoudellis, an old industrial family from Lesbos, Elytis was born in Heraklion on the island of Crete, on November 2, 1911. His family later moved to Athens, where the poet graduated from high school and later attended courses as an auditor at the Law School at University of Athens.

In 1935 Elytis published his first poem in the journal New Letters at the prompting of such friends as George Seferis. His entry with a distinctively earthy and original form assisted to inaugurate a new era in Greek poetry and its subsequent reform after the Second World War.

From 1969–1972, under the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, Elytis exiled himself to Paris. Elytis was intensely private and vehemently solitary in pursuing his ideals of poetic truth and experience.

Spain

Santiago Ramón y Cajal
In 1906, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Santiago Ramón y Cajal in recognition of his pioneering work in the study of the nervous system. In 1959, another researcher, Severo Ochoa, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881–1973), painter and sculptor, co-founder of cubism . Born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881, Pablo Picasso, became one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism. A Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer, Picasso was considered radical in his work. After a long prolific career, he died on April 8, 1973, in Mougins, France.

Miguel de Cervantes

  Miguel de Cervantes. One of Spain's most famous writers, Miguel de Cervantes created one of the world's greatest literary masterpieces, Don Quixote, in the early 1600s.

                                                   

Rafael Nadal

       Rafael nadal: tennis player. Spanish-born Rafael Nadal is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional tennis players of all time, completing the career Grand Slam by age 24—becoming the youngest in history to achieve the feat.