2699, 3391 UNITED KINGDOM - Elizabeth II

2699 Queen Elizabeth II addresses politicians and
members of the House of Lords during the
State Opening of Parliament in Westminster.

Posted on 21.08.2016, 25.01.2020
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is, and has been since her accession in 1952, Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth. She is also Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

3391 Queen Elizabeth II travelling in Queen Victoria's 1842 ivory-mounted
phaeton drawn by two Windsor Grey horses. The driver is dressed in full state
postillion livery.

Elizabeth was born in London to the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and was the elder of their two daughters. She was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936. She began to undertake public duties during the WWII, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she has four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.

3379 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - Queen Liliuokalani

 

 

If Kamehameha The Great (c. 1758? - 1819) was the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Liliuokalani was the last one, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893. Born Lydia Liliu Loloku Walania Kamakaeha on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu, in a high-ranking family, she received a thoroughly modern education, which was augmented by a tour of the Western world.

1411, 3357 ROMANIA (Botoşani) - Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889)

1411 Mihai Eminescu at 19 year, in Prague, in 1869

Posted on 17.01.2015, 15.01.2020
On 15 January 1850 was born in the village of Ipoteşti, near of Botoşani (then located in the Principality of Moldavia), Mihail Eminovici, the seventh of eleven children of George and Raluca Eminovici. He spent his childhood in Botoşani and Ipoteşti, then he attended school in Cernăuţi, in Bucovina (then in  Austria-Hungary). The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is from 1866, when he published the poem La mormântul lui Aron Pumnul (At the Grave of Aron Pumnul) in a booklet issued by the students on the occasion of the death of their teacher.

3357 The cover of the only volume
printed during Eminescu's life (1883)

Another poem was published in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine Familia in Pest, and this began a steady series of published poems. Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic suffix "-ici" of the poet's last name, chose for him the more Romanian "nom de plume" Mihai Eminescu. Since 1867 he joined to some theatrical troupes as a clerk and prompter, and at long last he settled in  Bucharest, where became a clerk and copyist for the National Theater. He continued to write and publish poems, and began his novel Geniu pustiu (Wasted Genius), published posthumously in 1904.

3187, 3344 ROMANIA - Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476/77)

Ambras Castle portrait of Vlad III (c. 1560),
reputedly a copy of an original
made during his lifetime

Posted on 02.11.2017, 10.01.2020
Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș), was voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. Even if he didn't reign more then 7 years, he remained in the collective memory of the Romanians as a national hero, because on the one hand he constantly fought with the Ottoman Empire, regardless of the consequences, trying to preserve the country's independence, and on the other he strengthened the voivode's position and the rule of law.

3344 The family tree of Vlad the Impaler (House of Basarab)

He took drastic measures against the theft, promoted work and punished the laziness, eliminated the begging, supported fair trade, and encouraged honesty, punishing the traitors harshly. For the Romanians, Vlad Ţepeş remained the voivode during which any passerby could drink water from the fountain of Târgovişte Fortress with a large solid gold goblet, without anyone stealing it (fact confirmed by historical sources). Even nowadays the Romanians invoke them when it comes to the generalized theft and corruption, with a verse by Mihai Eminescu: "Rise once more, o Ţepeş, lord!"

3326 UNITED STATES (Hawaii) - King Kamehameha The Great

Born in Kohala, Hawaii Island, Kamehameha I (c. 1758? - 1819), also known as Kamehameha the Great, was the conqueror who united the Hawaiian Islands, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the founder of the Kamehameha Dynasty. In his youth, he accompanied his uncle, King Kalani'opu'u, the ruler of the island of Hawaii, to meet famed English explorer James Cook on his ship the Discovery and fought with him in the 1779 battle during which Cook was killed.

3244, 3304 IRELAND - Irish writers

3244

3304

Posted on 12.01.2018, 24.12.2019
For a comparatively small place, the island of Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to world literature in all its branches, in both the Irish and English languages. The island's most widely known literary works are undoubtedly in English. Three of the four Nobel prize Irish winners (William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney) were born in Dublin, making it the birthplace of more Nobel literary laureates than any other city in the world.

3286 INDONESIA - Gibran Rakabuming Raka and Selvi Ananda at their wedding

Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, and the Governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014, Joko Widodo (born Mulyono, 21 June 1961) became in July 2014 the first president of Indonesia not to come from an elite political or military background. He has 3 children, the eldest being Gibran Rakabuming Raka (born in Surakarta at 1 October 1987), a successful businessman and politician. Gibran married Selvi Ananda on 11 June 2015, and the couple had their first child, Jan Ethes Srinarendra, on 10 March 2016.

1172, 1365, 3264 SWEDEN - Swedish Royal Family

1172 Swedish Royal Family on Sweden's National Day.
From left to right: Prince Daniel, Crown Princess Victoria,
Prince Carl Philip, Queen Silvia of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf,
Princess Madeleine, Christopher Paul O'Neill.

Posted on 31.07.2014, 20.12.2014, 24.11.2019
The current royal house of Sweden is the House of Bernadotte, which has reigned since 1818, and between 1818 and 1905 was also the royal house of Norway. Its founder, Charles XIV John of Sweden (r. 1818-1844), was adopted by Charles XIII of Sweden (r. 1809-818), the last member of the House of Holstein-Gottorp. In the postcard 1172 are several members of the Swedish royal family. In the middle are King Carl XVI Gustaf (full name: Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, born 30 April 1946), and his spouse, Queen Silvia of Sweden (née Silvia Renate Sommerlath; born 23 December 1943).

3264 Swedish Royal Family after the Nobel awards ceremony, 2015.
From left to right: Christopher Paul O'Neill, Princess Madeleine, Prince Daniel,
Queen Silvia of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf, Crown Princess Victoria,
Prince Carl Philip, Princess Sofia.

On 15 September 1973, Carl Gustaf succeeded his grandfather Gustaf VI Adolf. He is the only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 2011, Silvia (the daughter of Walther Sommerlath and his Brazilian wife Alice, née Soares de Toledo) became the longest serving queen consort of Sweden, a record previously held by Sophia of Nassau. In the left of the royal couple is Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland (Carl Philip Edmund Bertil; born 13 May 1979), the only son of the King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia.

1365 King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in a carriage.

On 13 June 2015 Carl Philip and former glamour model Sofia Hellqvist married in Stockholm's Royal Palace chapel. On 19 April 2016, Princess Sofia gave birth to a son, Prince Alexander, Duke of Södermanland (Alexander Erik Hubertus Bertil). Their second child, also a son, was born on 31 August 2017, titled Prince Gabriel, Duke of Dalarna (Gabriel Carl Walther).

2401, 3243, 3254 UNITED STATES - John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) and Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-1994)

3243 JFK at Cape Cod.

Posted on 24.03.2016, 11.01.2018, 01.02.2018
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, commonly known as JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, and certainly one of the most important and loved. The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the establishment of the Peace Corps, developments in the Space Race, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Civil Rights Movement, and abolition of the federal death penalty in the District of Columbia all took place during his presidency. He also avoided any significant increase in the American presence in Vietnam.

2401 JFK and Jackie... summer of '60
Hyannisport, Massachusetts

JFK was born in Brookline (Massachusetts) on May 29, 1917, as one of the nine children of businessman/politician Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. and philanthropist/socialite Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald-Kennedy. Both the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys were wealthy and prominent Irish Catholic Boston families. John F. Kennedy, nicknamed "Jack," was the second oldest of a group of nine extraordinary siblings, who remained close-knit and supportive of each other throughout their entire lives.
 

3254 Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, New York City, 1960

At school, although he was obviously brilliant - evidenced by the extraordinary thoughtfulness and nuance of his work on the rare occasions when he applied himself - Kennedy remained at best a mediocre student, preferring sports, girls and practical jokes to coursework. He was also chronically ill during his childhood and adolescence; he suffered from severe colds, the flu, scarlet fever and even more severe, undiagnosed diseases that forced him to miss months of school at a time and occasionally brought him to the brink of death.

3229 ROMANIA - George I Rákóczi (1593-1648)

George I Rákóczi (8 June 1593, Szerencs - 11 October 1648) was Prince of Transylvania from 1630 until his death in 1648. He was the eldest son of Baron Sigismund Rákóczi and his second wife, Anna Gerendi. Sigismund, who was a successful military commander in Royal Hungary, was the first member of the Rákóczi family to rise to prominence. During the reign of George I Rákóczi, as during the reign of the princes Gabriel Bethlen or George II Rákóczi, the Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman suzerainty, experienced an epoch of economic blossoming and political and cultural affirmation, reinforcing the central power.

3224 BELGIUM - Belgian Royal Family

3224 From the left to the right: Grand Duchess Joséphine Charlotte
of Luxembourg; Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg; Queen Fabiola
of Belgium; King Baudouin of Belgium; Princess Paola and
Prince Albert dancing polonaise (cca 1984)

When Belgium became independent in 1830 the National Congress chose a constitutional monarchy as the form of government, and on 21 July 1831 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was designated as King of the Belgians under the name Leopold I (r. 1831-1865). Next followed Leopold II (r. 1865-1909), Albert I (r. 1909-1934), Leopold III (r. 1934-1951), Baudouin I (r. 1951-1993), and Albert II (r. 1993-2013),  since 2013 being king Philippe I. Now (2017), the heir apparent to the Belgian throne is Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (born 25 October 2001), the eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde.

3202 UNITED STATES - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using the tactics of nonviolence and civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs and inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. King has also become a national icon in the history of American liberalism and American progressivism.

3101 UNITED KINGDOM - Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He led Britain to victory over Nazi Germany during WWII. Churchill was also a non-academic historian and a writer, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. Named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll, Churchill is among the most influential people in British history.

3088 ROMANIA - Michael the Brave (1558-1601)

Michael the Brave (1558, Târgul de Floci - August 9, 1601, Câmpia Turzii) was the Prince of Wallachia (1593-1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ruler of Transylvania (1599-1600). He is one of Romania's greatest national heroes, being considered the first author of Romanian unity. Michael was born under the family name of Pătraşcu. He is argued by most historians to have been the illegitimate son of Pătraşcu the Good of the Drăculeşti branch of the House of Basarab. His mother was Theodora Kantakouzene, a member of the Kantakouzenoi, a noble family allegedly descended from the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos.

3076 ROMANIA - Stephen the Great (1438/1439-1504)

 

 

Stephen III (1438-1439, Borzeşti - July 2, 1504, Suceava), known as Stephen the Great, was the voivode (or prince) of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504, for 47 years, the longest reign of the Medieval period in the Romanian Lands. During his reign, Moldavia reached the peak of its state development, knowing a long period of internal stability, economic prosperity and social peace. He wore over 40 battles (of which only in two was defeated), and it is said that after each victory he raised a church.

3041 NORWAY - Norwegian Royal House

3041 King Harald V, Queen Sonja,
Crown Prince Haakon, and Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Norway is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. In this country there is a distinction between the Royal House and the Royal Family, i.e. the Royal House includes only the monarch and his or her spouse, the heir apparent and his or her spouse, and the heir apparent's eldest child. Therefor, in nowadays members of the Royal House are King Harald V, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and Princess Ingrid Alexandra.

1607, 3027 UNITED KINGDOM / AUSTRALIA - The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and their son, Prince George

1607 The Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge
with their newborn son
a day after his birth on 22 July 2013

Duke of Cambridge is a title which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family several times. It was first used as a designation for Charles Stuart (1660-1661), the eldest son of James, Duke of York (later James II), though he was never formally created Duke of Cambridge, because he had died at the age of six months. The title became extinct several times, before being revived after a hiatus of over a hundred years in 2011, when it was bestowed upon Prince William on 29 April 2011 upon his marriage on the same day to Catherine (née Middleton; born 9 January 1982), who become Duchess of Cambridge.

3027 The Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge
with Prince George at his Christening,
on 23rd of October 2013

Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the elder son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and  Diana, Princess of Wales. Following his father, William is second in line to succeed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, as monarch of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth realms (including Australia). He was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize, and some parts of Africa.