Antoni Gaudí was the leading figure of Catalan Modernism, whose organic, fantastical architectural vision produced masterpieces such as the Sagrada Família, Park Güell, and Casa Batlló in Barcelona. His deeply Catholic faith infused his work, and he was struck by a tram and died in 1926; his canonization process was opened by the Vatican.

George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, created two of the most influential political novels of the twentieth century: "Animal Farm" (1945) and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949). His clear, piercing prose and commitment to political truth-telling made him one of the most widely read English writers of all time.

Hermann Oberth was one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. His 1923 book "The Rocket into Interplanetary Space" laid the theoretical groundwork for space travel and inspired a generation of rocket engineers, including his student Wernher von Braun.

Walther Nernst formulated the third law of thermodynamics, known as the Nernst theorem or the Nernst heat theorem, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1920. He also invented the Nernst lamp, an early electric light source.

A Venetian noblewoman and scholar, Elena Cornaro Piscopia was fluent in seven languages and versed in mathematics, philosophy, and theology. In 1678 she became the first woman in history to earn a doctorate, awarded by the University of Padua after the local bishop refused to allow a woman to receive a theology degree.