Gilbert Keith Chesterton

He was better known as G.K. Chesterton, was an English writer, lay theologian, poet, dramatist, journalist, orator, literary and art critic, biographer, and Christian apologist. Chesterton is often referred to as the “prince of paradox.”

Gautama Buddha

A spiritual teacher from ancient India who founded Buddhism.  In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha, “Buddha” meaning “awakened one” or “the enlightened one.” The time of his birth and death are uncertain: Some say, 563 BCE to 483 BCE, others say, 486 and 483 BCE according to some, 411 and 400 BCE.

Albert Schweitzer

 

(14 January 1875 - 4 September 1965) (aged 90)
A Franco-German (Alsatian) theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at his time in certain academic circles, as well as the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus Christ who expected and predicted the imminent end of the world. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life”

Amanda Tapping

Amanda Tapping, who plays Helen Magnus on this great show, as well as  Samantha Carter in the Stargate series.

Albert Camus

(7 November 1913 - 4 January 1960 (age 46) A French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling, and the first African-born writer to receive the award…S

Baltasar Gracián y Morales

 (January 8th, 1601 - December 6, 1658) A Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer. The son of a doctor, in his childhood Gracián lived with his uncle, who was a priest. He studied at a Jesuit school in 1621 and 1623 and theology in Zaragoza. He was ordained in 1627 and took his final vows in 1635.

Eleanor Hibbert

 (1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English author who wrote under various pen names. Her best-known pseudonyms were Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt, and Philippa Carr; she also wrote under the namesEleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anna Percival, and Ellalice Tate. By the time of her death, she had sold more than 100 million books.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

 

(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910) (aged 74) Well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called “the Great American Novel”, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Nelson Mandela,

He died December 5, 2013 at age 95, was imprisoned for 27 years for opposing apartheid. He served from 1994 to 1999 as the first Black President of South Africa.

Henry David Thoreau

 (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) (aged 44) An American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state…Source | More

 

Aldous Leonard Huxley

 (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer, humanist, pacifist, and satirist. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays. Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts…source

Benjamin Franklin

(January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is the title character of a series of children’s books written by P. L. Travers. The books center on a magical English nanny. Mary Poppins is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London, and into the Banks’ household to care for their children. The books were adapted in 1964 into a musical film titled Mary Poppins from Walt Disney studios starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.

Nikoli Tesla

He was a Serbian-American inventor,  electrical engineer,  mechanical engineer and physicist.  Being born on July 10, 1856 to a priest he worked with Thomas Edison a short while.

Tesla then got his own laboratories. He developed a range of electrical devices. George Westinghouse helped him patent his inventions and hired him as a consultant. He is also known for his high voltage, high frequency power experiments.

He died penniless. However in 2005 he was listed amongst the hundred top on the Discovery Channel.  In 1960s the General Conference of Weight and Measures honered him in the use of "tesla," as a term of measures.

Muhammad Ali

(born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., January 17, 1942) is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist. Considered a cultural icon, Ali has both been idolized and vilified…source

 

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein

 (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language…more

 

Carl Edward Sagan

(November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences.

William Sanford “Bill” Nye

Born:  November 27, 1955

popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American science educator, comedian, television host, actor, and writer, who began his career as a mechanical engineer at Boeing.

George Orson Welles

 (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theater, radio and film. He is best remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941)…w