World Biographical Encyclopedia

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist. He is known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism.

Thomas More

Thomas More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist.

Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy, was an English musician and singer-songwriter who founded and fronted the rock band Motörhead. His music was one of the foundations of the heavy metal genre.

Johann Pestalozzi

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer.

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.

Giovanni da Palestrina

Palestrina was a 16th-century Italian music composer. He is most famous for composing music for Roman Catholic Churches during the renaissance period. He is prominently known for his composition of 105 masses, 250 motets, and his madrigals. His work in music covers 104 masses, 375 motets, 65 hymns, and 68 offertories, 4 settings of Lamentations of Jeremiah and 35 setting of Magnificat. Other than...

Ruth Handler

Ruth Handler was an American businesswoman and inventor. Handler was the co-founder of Mattel, a company that manufactures a variety of popular toys. Ruth Handler was the mastermind behind the creation, marketing, and sales of the Barbie doll, first sold in 1959. She was also a breast cancer survivor - an experience she used to start another company, Nearly Me, which manufactured realistic-lookin...

Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great (Yekaterina Alekseyevna, Catherine II of Russia) was the Russian empress during the second part of the 18th century (1762-1796). Although she was born in Prussia, she married into Russian Royal family and claimed the throne after the abdication of her husband Peter III. She is the longest ruling and most reputable female leader of Russia, known for turning the country into one...

Dalida (Iolanda Gigliotti)

Dalida was a famous French singer, actress, and model. Her success was huge and Dalida had a 31-year singing career, selling 170 million albums and singles worldwide.

Thornton Chase

Thornton Chase was an American officer of the United States Colored Troops during the American Civil War. He is commonly recognized as the first believer in the Bahá'í Faith of Occidental background.

Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat was a French journalist and political leader during the French Revolution.

Vijay Sharma

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder of mobile payments company Paytm.

Dorothy Dunaway

Faye Dunaway is an American actress.

Bill Tilden

Bill Tilden was an American tennis player who dominated the game for more than a decade, winning seven United States championships (now the United States Open), three Wimbledon Championships, and two professional titles. His overpowering play and temperamental personality made him one of the most colorful sports figures of the 1920s.

Frank Joseph

Frank Joseph Perry, Jr. was an American stage director and filmmaker. The 1962 independent film David and Lisa was nominated for two Academy Awards for best director (Frank Perry) and best screenplay (written by his then-wife, Eleanor Perry). The couple would go on to collaborate on five more films including the cult classic The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster, Diary of a Mad Housewife starring C...

Jennifer Tilly

Jennifer Tilly is an American Academy Award-nominated actress and a world-level poker player. She made her film debut with the 1984 film No Small Affair, and since then, she has been unstoppable, often appearing in multiple projects a year. She got her long-awaited breakthrough in Woody Allen’s Bullets over Broadway, which earned her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.