Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in Stenographic Soundhand in 1837. He was also the vice-president of the Vegetarian Society. Pitman was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894.
Jacques René Chirac (French: [ʒak ʁəne ʃiʁak] ; UK: , US: ,; 29 November 1932 – 26 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.
After attending the École nationale d'administration, Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, entering politics shortly thereafter. Chirac occupied various senior positions, including minister of agriculture and minister of the interior. In 1981 and 1988, he unsuccessfully ran for president as the standard-bearer for the conservative Gaullist party Rally for the Republic (RPR). Chirac's internal policies initially included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism, and business privatisation. After pursuing these policies in his second term as prime minister, he changed his views. He argued for different economic policies and was elected president in 1995, with 52.6% of the vote in the second round, beating Socialist Lionel Jospin, after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). Chirac's economic policies, based on dirigisme, allowing for state-directed investment, stood in opposition to the laissez-faire policies of the United Kingdom under the ministries of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, which Chirac described as "Anglo-Saxon ultraliberalism".He was also known for his stand against the American-led invasion of Iraq, his recognition of the collaborationist French government's role in deporting Jews, and his reduction of the presidential term from seven years to five through a referendum in 2000. At the 2002 presidential election, he won 82.2% of the vote in the second round against the far-right candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and was the last president to be re-elected until 2022.
In 2011, the Paris court declared Chirac guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public confidence, giving him a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (French: [an lwiz ʒɛʁmɛn də stal ɔlstajn]; née Necker; 22 April 1766 – 14 July 1817), commonly known as Madame de Staël (French: [madam də stal]), was a prominent woman of letters and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles. She was the daughter of banker and French finance minister Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, a respected salonhostess. Throughout her life, she held a moderate stance during the tumultuous periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, persisting until the time of the French Restoration.Her presence at critical events such as the Estates General of 1789 and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen underscored her engagement in the political discourse of her time. However, Madame de Staël faced exile for extended periods: initially during the Reign of Terror and subsequently due to personal persecution by Napoleon. She claimed to have discerned the tyrannical nature and ambitions of his rule ahead of many others.During her exile, she fostered the Coppet group, a network that spanned across Europe, positioning herself at its heart. Her literary works, emphasizing individuality and passion, left an enduring imprint on European intellectual thought. De Staël's repeated championing of Romanticism contributed significantly to its widespread recognition.While her literary legacy has somewhat faded with time, her critical and historical contributions hold undeniable significance. Though her novels and plays may now be less remembered, the value of her analytical and historical writings remains steadfast. Within her work, de Staël not only advocates for the necessity of public expression but also sounds cautionary notes about its potential hazards.
Neil Roxburgh Balfour (born 12 August 1944) is a British merchant banker, financier and politician. He was the member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North from 1979 to 1983.
Joseph Brown (August 1, 1920 – April 3, 2009), known professionally as Victor Millan, was an American actor, academic and former dean of the theatre arts department at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California.
Richard John Dufallo (30 January 1933 in Whiting, Indiana – 16 June 2000 in Denton, Texas) was an American clarinetist, author, and conductor with a broad repertory. He is most known for his interpretations of contemporary music. During the 1970s, he directed contemporary music series at both Juilliard and the Aspen Music Festival, where he succeeded Darius Milhaud as artistic director of the Conference on Contemporary Music. He was influential at getting American works accepted in Europe, and gave the first European performances of works by Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Jacob Druckman, and Elliott Carter as well as younger composers like Robert Beaser. Dufallo, as conductor, also premiered numerous works by European composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Krzystof Penderecki. He was a former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and worked closely with Leonard Bernstein from 1965 to 1975. He also served as associate conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Tristram Chockley Coffin (August 13, 1909 – March 26, 1990) was a former film and television actor from the latter 1930s through the 1970s, usually in westerns or other B-movie action-adventure productions.
Lynne Carver (born Virginia Reid Sampson, September 13, 1916 – August 12, 1955) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1934 and 1953.
George Hill Hodel Jr. (October 10, 1907 – May 17, 1999) was an American physician and suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia. He was never formally charged with the crime, but is believed by many to have been the murderer, including by two of his children. He was also accused of raping his daughter, Tamar Hodel, but was acquitted of that crime. He lived overseas several times, primarily between 1950 and 1990 in the Philippines.
Dalhart Windberg (born 1933 in Goliad County, Texas) is an American painter known for his use of light, color, and shadow in still life and landscape paintings.
Windberg was named for a popular entertainer of the day, Vernon Dalhart. He was in the army and did a tour of duty in Europe. In 1967, he quit working in order to paint full-time.
A Texas native, Windberg began to attract national attention in the 1960s. He studied under the Texas painter Simon Michael. Windberg was determined to paint like the masters, so he developed a way to have a smooth surface by using diluted modeling paste to prepare his painting surface. By using this technique he could duplicate the look of the masters without spending as much time on each painting.He has executed romantic still lifes and figurative oil paintings depicting life in Texas, Mexico, Spain and Greece. There are hundreds of his original paintings and thousands of his reproduced prints and giclées in circulation dating back to the late 1960s. His art is very collectable and has adorned the walls of people not just in Texas but all over the world. Much of his art reflects his travels around Texas, Louisiana, the Rocky Mountains, many National Parks such as Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and Glacier National Park as well as Monument Valley. His Mediterranean paintings emulate his travels to parts of Italy and Greece. His art has encapsulated scenery including fields of bluebonnets, working cattlemen, mountain lakeside cabins, roaming buffalo and deer, streams in the mountains, snow-covered barns, night-lit farmlands, lonely windmills, coastal lighthouses, candlelit wine glasses, small fishing vessels, and other dreamlike spectacles.Two biographies have been written about the artist: in The Paths of the Masters, published in 1978, and Dalhart Windberg - Artist of Texas, published by the University of Texas Press in 1984. Its title was bestowed on the artist by the state legislature in 1979. He has also written a book describing his "smooth surface" technique of oil painting.
Along with his sons Michael and Richard Windberg, Dalhart Windberg works in Georgetown, Texas at the Windberg Art Center. Windberg and his son Michael teach art classes, in the same manner as Windberg learned from his instructor Simon Michael. Students travel from all over the country just to get a glimpse of how Windberg paints, many of whom return time and time again, learning something new each time. Windberg has also created a line of fine art products tailored to his style of fine brush and palette knife oil painting, all of which is based on his many years of experience.Windberg and his wife Evelyn live and work in Georgetown, Texas.