George Washington commanded the Continental Army through the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention. He served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797, setting enduring precedents for the office.

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher whose masterwork The World as Will and Representation presented the world as driven by a blind, striving will. His pessimistic philosophy deeply influenced Nietzsche, Freud, and Wagner.

British general Robert Baden-Powell became famous for his defence of Mafeking during the Boer War and later founded the worldwide Boy Scout movement in 1908, which today numbers tens of millions of members globally.

Heinrich Hertz was the first person to conclusively prove the existence of electromagnetic waves, predicted by Maxwell. The unit of frequency — the hertz — bears his name in recognition of his foundational contribution to physics.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyric poet celebrated for her sonnet sequences and her unconventional personal life. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1923.

Spanish-Mexican filmmaker Luis Buñuel co-created the surrealist movement in cinema with Un Chien Andalou (1929) and went on to a career of biting satire targeting bourgeois society, religion, and conformity. He won the Palme d'Or and Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Drew Barrymore became a child star in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and overcame a turbulent adolescence to build a career as one of Hollywood's most successful actresses and producers.