World Biographical Encyclopedia

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in French history. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-winger to be elected President of France under the Fifth Republic.

Johannes Hevelius

Johannes Hevelius was a Polish astronomer who compiled an atlas of the Moon containing one of the earliest detailed maps of its surface as well as names for many of its features. Hevelius also made a catalog of 1,564 stars, the most comprehensive of its time, and a celestial atlas in which several constellations, now accepted, were shown for the first time.

Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. he is one of the most influential songwriters in rock 'n' roll history, best known as the frontman for the Beach Boys.

John Barrowman

John Barrowman best known as TV actor and presenter and is also a singer and a writer. He is well known for his self-produced program in the CBBC Tonight’s the Night and his role as Captain Jack Harkness in the science fiction series Dr. Who and Torchwood.

Nahman of Bratslav

Nahman of Bratslav was a Hasidic rabbi, founder of the Bratslav sect. He was the great-grandson of the founder of Hasidism, the Baal Shem Tov.

Sally Herbert Frankel

Sally Herbert Frankel was professor of economics. He did research in maize marketing and government railway policy in South Africa, compiled calculations of the national income for the South African treasury. Frankel investigated the mining industry for the Rhodesian government. He was professor of the Economics of Underdeveloped Countries at Oxford University.

Willie Mays

Willie Mays is an American former professional baseball player generally regarded as one of the most exciting athletes of the twentieth century and one of the best all-around players in baseball history.

Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti is an Italian-born American former racing driver. Driving stock cars, U.S. championship cars, and Formula One cars, he is one of three drivers to have become champion in Formula One (the only American to date), IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR Cup Series. He also triumphed at the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500.

Vera Lynn

Dame Vera Margaret Lynn is a British singer and actress. She was popular during the Second World War when she hosted the BBC concert radio program "Sincerely Yours", addressed to British troops abroad. Broadcasts of her songs of love and longing were particularly resonant with members of the military fighting abroad, which led to her nickname, "the Forces’ Sweetheart."

Frances Willard

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was an American educator, temperance reformer and women's suffragist.

Yehuda Jean-Bernard Moraly

Yehuda Jean-Bernard Moraly, Algerian, French theater studies researcher, playwright, director. Grantee France Culture, 1990, Memorial Foundation New York, 1994, Jerusalem Foundation, 1995. Member Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques, Israeli Theater Archive Committee.

Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin is an American actor of great versatility who was especially known for his portrayal of roguish characters. Baldwin has appeared in the films Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, and The Departed, and starred as Jack Donaghy on the TV sitcom 30 Rock.

Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII must be a standout amongst the most insulted pontiffs the Catholic Church has had, and quite often unjustifiably so. His notoriety endures, not just from his own behavior, but rather from the season of his rule, toward the end of the celebrated Italian Renaissance. The offenses (generally overstated) of a portion of the pontiffs of this time have brought about numerous individual...