Benoît-Constant Coquelin (French pronunciation: [bənwa kɔ̃stɑ̃ kɔklɛ̃]; 23 January 1841 – 27 January 1909), known as Coquelin aîné ("Coquelin the Elder"), was a French actor, "one of the greatest theatrical figures of the age."
Jean Baptiste Prosper Bressant (24 October 1815 – 23 January 1886) was a French actor born in Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, in 1815. In 1838, he went to the French theatre at St. Petersburg, where for eight years he played important parts with ever-increasing reputation. His success was confirmed at the Gymnase when he returned to Paris in 1846, and he made his debut at the Comédie Française as a full-fledged sociétaire in 1854.From playing the ardent young lover, he turned to leading roles both in modern plays and in the classical repertoire. His Richelieu in Mlle de Belle-Isle, his Octave in Alfred de Musset's Les Caprices de Marianne, and his appearance in de Musset's Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée and Un caprice were followed by Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope and Don Juan. Bressant retired in 1875, and died on 23 January 1886. During his professorship at the Conservatoire, Jean Mounet-Sully was one of his pupils.He introduced a new hairstyle; a magazine of the period described it as follows: "The Bressant hairstyle is this: the hair is left long on both sides and raised, a little bouffant, above the ears; on the top of the head it is cut short, no part, neither to right, nor to the left."
Marshal Rémy Joseph Isidore Exelmans, 1st Comte Exelmans (French pronunciation: [ʁemi ʒozɛf izidɔʁ ɛɡzɛlmɑ̃], 13 November 1775 – 22 June 1852) was a distinguished French soldier of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as a political figure of the following period.
His name is inscribed on the southern pillar of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Albert Schwegler (10 February 1819 – 5 January 1857) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian.
Eugène-Melchior Péligot (24 March 1811 – 15 April 1890), also known as Eugène Péligot, was a French chemist who isolated the first sample of uranium metal in 1841.Péligot proved that the black powder of Martin Heinrich Klaproth was not a pure metal (it was an oxide of uranium, known in chemistry as UO2). He then succeeded in producing pure uranium metal by reducing uranium tetrachloride (UCl4) with potassium metal. Today better methods have been found.
Péligot was a professor of analytical chemistry at the Institut National Agronomique. He collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Dumas, and together they discovered the methyl radical during experiments on wood spirit (methanol). The terminology "methyl alcohol" was created by both chemists from "wood wine". They also prepared the gaseous dimethyl ether, and many esters. In 1838, they successfully transformed camphor into p-cymene using phosphorus pentoxide.
In 1844 he synthesized chromium(II) acetate, which was much later recognized (by F. Albert Cotton in 1964) to be the first chemical compound which contains a quadruple bond.
Manuel Tamayo y Baus (15 September 1829 – 20 June 1898) was a Spanish dramatist.
Michel Poniatowski (16 May 1922 – 15 January 2002) was a French politician, member of a legitimized line of Poland's princely Poniatowski family. He was a founder of the Independent Republicans and a part of the administration for President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Poniatowski served as Minister of Health from 1973 to 1974 and Minister of the Interior in the Giscard d'Estaing government from 1974 to 1977. He was a founder and honorary president of the Union for French Democracy (Union pour la Démocratie Française, UDF).
Emilia Pardo Bazán y de la Rúa-Figueroa (16 September 1851 – 12 May 1921), countess of Pardo Bazán, was a Spanish novelist, journalist, literary critic, poet, playwright, translator, editor and professor. She is known for introducing naturalism into Spanish literature, for her detailed descriptions of reality, and for her ground-breaking introduction of feminist ideas into the literature of her era. Her ideas about women's rights for education also made her a prominent feminist figure.
Jean-Victor Poncelet (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ viktɔʁ pɔ̃slɛ]; 1 July 1788 – 22 December 1867) was a French engineer and mathematician who served most notably as the Commanding General of the École Polytechnique. He is considered a reviver of projective geometry, and his work Traité des propriétés projectives des figures is considered the first definitive text on the subject since Gérard Desargues' work on it in the 17th century. He later wrote an introduction to it: Applications d'analyse et de géométrie.As a mathematician, his most notable work was in projective geometry, although an early collaboration with Charles Julien Brianchon provided a significant contribution to Feuerbach's theorem. He also made discoveries about projective harmonic conjugates; relating these to the poles and polar lines associated with conic sections. He developed the concept of parallel lines meeting at a point at infinity and defined the circular points at infinity that are on every circle of the plane. These discoveries led to the principle of duality, and the principle of continuity and also aided in the development of complex numbers.As a military engineer, he served in Napoleon's campaign against the Russian Empire in 1812, in which he was captured and held prisoner until 1814. Later, he served as a professor of mechanics at the École d'application in his home town of Metz, during which time he published Introduction à la mécanique industrielle, a work he is famous for, and improved the design of turbines and water wheels. In 1837, a tenured 'Chaire de mécanique physique et expérimentale' was specially created for him at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris). In 1848, he became the commanding general of his alma mater, the École Polytechnique. He is honoured by having his name listed among notable French engineers and scientists displayed around the first stage of the Eiffel tower.
Charles Auguste Frossard (26 April 1807 – 25 August 1875) was a French general.
He entered the army from the École polytechnique in 1827, being posted to the engineers. He took part in the siege of Rome in 1849 and in that of Sevastopol in 1855, after which he was promoted general of brigade. Four years later as general of division, and chief of engineers in the Italian campaign, he attracted the particular notice of the emperor Napoleon III, who made him in 1867 chief of his military household and governor to the prince imperial.He was one of the superior military authorities who in this period 1866-1870 foresaw and endeavoured to prepare for the inevitable war with Germany, and at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he was given by Napoleon the choice between a corps command and the post of chief engineer at headquarters. He chose the command of the II corps. On 6 August 1870 he held the position of Spicheren against the Germans until the arrival of reinforcements for the latter and the non-appearance of the other French corps compelled him to retire. After this he took part in the battles around Metz, where he distinguished himself at Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. He then participated with his corps in the Siege of Metz and was involved in the surrender of Bazaine's army. General Frossard published in 1872 a Rapport sur les operations du 2 corps. He died at Cháteau-Villain (Haute-Marne).