British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell assisted in constructing a large radio telescope and discovered pulsars, cosmic sources of peculiar radio pulses.
1943-
1567-1620
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer whose humane, spontaneous photographs helped establish photojournalism as an art form.
1908-2004
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet of the Romantic Movement, best known for his allegorical sea-faring poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
1772-1834
Alistair Cooke was a British-born journalist who worked in newspaper, radio and television. He hosted television's Masterpiece Theatre.
1908-2004
John Donne, leading English poet of the Metaphysical school, is often considered the greatest loved poet in the English language.
1572-1631
Francis Galton was an English explorer and anthropologist best known for his research in eugenics and human intelligence. He was the first to study the effects of human selective mating.
1822-1911
1950-
1930-
Stephen Hawking is known for his work regarding black holes and for authoring several popular science books. He suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
1942-
Arianna Huffington is a prolific author and international media mogul who started the award-winning news platform The Huffington Post.
1950-
1819-1875
Lord Snowdon was married to Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, from 1960 to 1978. He is also a world-renowned photographer and documentarian.
1930-
Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who was a revered pacifist and author, with works like Seven Storey Mountain and Thoughts in Solitude.
1915-1968
Prolific novelist Iris Murdoch won a Booker Prize for The Sea, the Sea. In 2001, she was portrayed by Kate Winslet and Judy Dench in the biographical film Iris.
1919-1999
J. Robert Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for leading the Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.
1904-1967
1872-1970
Zadie Smith is a novelist whose first book, White Teeth, was a sensation, instantly putting her on the literary map.
1975-
James D. Watson is a Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist and researcher credited with co-discovering the double-helix structure of DNA.
1928-
1964-
Lee Kuan Yew was the prime minster of Singapore from 1959 to 1990, making him the longest-serving PM in history. During his long rule, Singapore became the most prosperous nation in Southeast Asia.
1923-