Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (/mænˈdɛlə/;^[1] 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary,politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black chief executive, and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy ofapartheid through tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Politically an African nationalist and democratic socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.

His Excellency Nelson Mandela OMP RE OM AC CC OJ GCStJ QC GCIH BR
Mandela in Johannesburg, on 13 May 2008
1st President of South Africa
In office 10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
Deputy	Thabo Mbeki F. W. de Klerk
Preceded by	F. W. de Klerk as State President
Succeeded by	Thabo Mbeki
Personal details
Born	Rolihlahla Mandela 18 July 1918 Mvezo, Cape Province, Union of South Africa
Died	5 December 2013 (aged 95) Johannesburg, Gauteng,South Africa
Resting place	Mandela Graveyard Qunu, Eastern Cape 31°48′21.8″S 28°36′52.7″E
Nationality	South African
Political party	African National Congress
Other political affiliations	South African Communist Party
Spouse(s)	Evelyn Ntoko Mase (m. 1944;div. 1958) Winnie Madikizela (m. 1958;div. 1996) Graça Machel (m. 1998; his death 2013)
Children	Thembekile Mandela Makaziwe Mandela Makgatho Mandela Makaziwe Mandela Zenani Mandela Zindziswa Mandela
Alma mater	University of Fort Hare UoL External Programme University of South Africa University of the Witwatersrand
Occupation	Activist Politician Philanthropist Lawyer
Religion	Methodist
Known for	Anti-Apartheid Movement
Awards	Sakharov Prize (1988) Bharat Ratna (1990) Nobel Peace Prize (1993) Order of Lenin Presidential Medal of Freedom
Notable work(s)	Long Walk to Freedom
Signature
Website	www.nelsonmandela.org
Nickname(s)	Madiba Tata Dalibunga

A Xhosa born to the Thembu royal family, Mandela attended Fort Hare University and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law. Living in Johannesburg, he became involved in anti-colonial politics, joining the ANC and becoming a founding member of its Youth League. After the Afrikaner minority government of the National Party established apartheid – a system of racial segregation that privileged whites – in 1948, he rose to prominence in the ANC's 1952 anti-apartheid Defiance Campaign, was appointed superintendent of the organisation's Transvaal chapter and presided over the 1955 Congress of the People. Working as a lawyer, he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and, with the ANC leadership, was unsuccessfully prosecuted in theTreason Trial from 1956 to 1961. Influenced by Marxism, he secretly joined the South African Communist Party (SACP). Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, leading a sabotage campaign against the government. In 1962, he was arrested, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife. Mandela joined negotiations with President F. W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid and establish multiracial elections in 1994, in which he led the ANC to victory and became South Africa's first black president. He published his autobiography in 1995. Leading South Africa's Government of National Unity, which promulgated a new constitution, Mandela also created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate pasthuman rights abuses. While continuing with the former government's economic liberalism, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. Internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, oversaw military intervention in Lesotho, and served as Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998–99. Declining a second presidential term, he was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela became an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work in combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Mandela was a controversial figure for much of his life. Denounced as a communist terrorist by critics, he faced particular opposition from supporters of apartheid. Conversely, he gained international acclaim for his activism, having received more than 250 honours, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is often referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata ("Father"), and described as the "Father of the Nation".

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel ( Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel)

Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel ( 31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950) was an Indian barrister and statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of India. He was a social leader who played a leading role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation. In India and elsewhere, he was often addressed as Sardar,[1] which means Chief in Hindi, Urdu and Persian.

He was raised in the countryside of Gujarat.[2] Patel was employed in successful practice as a lawyer. He subsequently organised peasants from Kheda, Borsad, and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil disobedience against oppressive policies imposed by the British Raj; in this role, he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat. He rose to the leadership of the Indian National Congress, in which capacity he would organise the party for the elections held in 1934 and 1937, as well as continue to promote the Quit India Movement.

As the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India, Patel organised relief for refugees fleeing from Punjab and Delhi and led efforts to restore peace across the nation. Patel took charge of the task to forge a united India by integrating into the newly independent nation those British colonial provinces "allocated" to India. Besides those provinces under direct British rule, approximately 565 self-governing princely states had been released from British suzerainty by the Indian Independence Act 1947. Through both frank diplomacy as well an option to deploy military force, Patel would persuade almost every princely state to accede to India. Patel's commitment to national integration in the newly independent country was total and uncompromising, earning him the sobriquet "Iron Man of India"[citation needed]. He is also affectionately remembered as the "Patron saint of India's civil servants" for having established the modern all-India services system.

An annual commemoration of Patel, known as the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day), was introduced by the Government of India in 2014 and is to be held annually on his birthday, 31 October.

Early life[edit]

Sardar Vallabhai Patel painting as deputy prime minister in 1948 issue of Chandamama magazine.
The date of birth of Vallabhbhai Patel was never officially recorded – Patel entered 31 October as his date of birth on his matriculation examination papers. He was born in Leva Patel caste of Gujarat.[3]

Patel travelled to attend schools in Nadiad, Petlad and Borsad, living self-sufficiently with other boys. He reputedly cultivated a stoic character. A popular anecdote recounts how he lanced his own painful boil without hesitation, even as the barber supposed to do it trembled.[4] Patel passed his matriculation at the relatively late age of 22; at this point, he was generally regarded by his elders as an unambitious man destined for a commonplace job. Patel himself, though, harboured a plan to study to become a lawyer, work and save funds, travel to England and study to become a barrister.[5] Patel spent years away from his family, studying on his own with books borrowed from other lawyers, passing his examinations within two years. Fetching his wife Jhaverba from his parents' home, Patel set up his household in Godhra and was called to the bar. During the many years it took him to save money, Patel – now an advocate – earned a reputation as a fierce and skilled lawyer. The couple had a daughter, Maniben, in 1904, and a son, Dahyabhai, in 1906. Patel also cared for a friend suffering from Bubonic plague when it swept across Gujarat. When Patel himself came down with the disease, he immediately sent his family to safety, left his home and moved into an isolated house in Nadiad (by other accounts, Patel spent this time in a dilapidated temple); there, he recovered slowly.[6]

Vallabhbhai Patel
1st Deputy Prime Minister of India
In office 15 August 1947 – 15 December 1950
Prime Minister	Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Morarji Desai
Minister of Home Affairs
In office 15 August 1948 – 15 December 1950
Prime Minister	Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Chakravarti Rajagopalachari
Personal details
Born	Vallabhai Jhaverbhai Patel 31 October 1875 Nadiad, Gujarat, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died	15 December 1950 (aged 75) Bombay, Bombay State, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Jhaverba
Children	Maniben Patel, Dahyabhai Patel
Alma mater	Inns of Court
Profession	Lawyer Political activist
Religion	Hinduism
Awards	Bharat Ratna

Patel practised law in Godhra, Borsad and Anand while taking on the financial burdens of his homestead in Karamsad. Patel was the first chairman and founder of the E.M.H.S. "Edward Memorial High School" Borsad, presently known as Jhaverbhai Dajibhai Patel High School. When he had saved enough for England and applied for a pass and a ticket, they arrived in the name of "V. J. Patel," at his elder brother Vithalbhai's home, who bore the same initials. Having once nurtured a similar hope to study in England, Vithalbhai remonstrated to his younger brother that it would be disreputable for an older brother to follow his younger brother. In keeping with concerns for his family's honour, Patel allowed Vithalbhai to go in his place.[7]

In 1909, Patel's wife Jhaverba was hospitalised in Bombay (now Mumbai) to undergo a major surgical operation for cancer. Her health suddenly worsened and, despite successful emergency surgery, she died in the hospital. Patel was given a note informing him of his wife's demise as he was cross-examining a witness in court. According to witnesses in the court, Patel read the note, pocketed it and continued to intensely cross-examine the witness and won the case. He broke the news to others only after the proceedings had ended.[8] Patel decided against marrying again. He raised his children with the help of his family and sent them to English-medium schools in Mumbai. At the age of 36, he journeyed to England and enrolled at the Middle Temple Inn in London. Finishing a 36-month course in 30 months, Patel topped his class despite having no previous college background"[citation needed].

Returning to India, Patel settled in the city of Ahmedabad and became one of the city's most successful barristers. Wearing European-style clothes and urbane mannerisms, he became a skilled bridge player. Patel nurtured ambitions to expand his practice and accumulate great wealth and to provide his children with a modern education. He had made a pact with his brother Vithalbhai to support his entry into politics in the Bombay Presidency, while Patel remained in Ahmedabad to provide for the family.[9]

He was a vegetarian.[10]

MAHATMA GANDHI

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  Gujarati: Hindustani: ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")[3]—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,[4]—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father",[5] "papa"[5][6]) in India. In common parlance in India he is often called Gandhiji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.[7]

[8]Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.

Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi
Born	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2 October 1869 Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency,British India[1] (now in Gujarat, India)
Died	30 January 1948 (aged 78) New Delhi, Delhi, India
Cause of death	Assassination by shooting
Resting place	Ashes scattered in various Indian rivers
Other names	Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, Gandhiji
Ethnicity	Gujarati
Education	barrister-at-law
Alma mater	Alfred High School, Rajkot, Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, University College, London
Known for	Leadership of Indian independence movement, philosophy of Satyagraha,Ahimsa or nonviolence, pacifism
Movement	Indian National Congress
Religion	Hinduism, with Jain influences
Spouse(s)	Kasturba Gandhi
Children	Harilal Manilal Ramdas Devdas
Parents	Karamchand Gandhi (father) Putlibai Gandhi (mother)
Signature

[9] Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[9] was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.
[10] As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to promote religious harmony. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 at age 78, also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.
[11] Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating. Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.
[12] His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Nonviolence.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ( listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer ("leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of Nazi Germany, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was a central figure of the Holocaust.

Born into a German-speaking Austrian family and raised near Linz, Hitler moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. He joined the precursor of the NSDAP, the German Workers' Party, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy.



By 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Following fresh elections won by his coalition, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the effective abandonment of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories that were home to millions of ethnic Germans—actions which gave him significant popular support.

Adolf Hitler
Hitler in 1938
Führer of Germany
In office 2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
Deputy	Rudolf Hess (1933–41) Position vacant
Preceded by	Paul von Hindenburg (as President)
Succeeded by	Karl Dönitz (as President)
Reich Chancellor of Germany
In office 30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
President	Paul von Hindenburg (until 1934)
Deputy	Franz von Papen (1933–34) Position vacant
Preceded by	Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by	Joseph Goebbels
Leader of the Nazi Party
In office 29 June 1921 – 30 April 1945
Deputy	Rudolf Hess
Preceded by	Anton Drexler
Succeeded by	Martin Bormann
Personal details
Born	20 April 1889 Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary
Died	30 April 1945 (aged 56) Berlin, Germany
Nationality	Austrian citizen until 7 April 1925[1] German citizen after 25 February 1932
Political party	National Socialist German Workers' Party (1921–45)
Other political affiliations	German Workers' Party(1920–21)
Spouse(s)	Eva Braun (29–30 April 1945)
Parents	Alois Hitler (father) Klara Pölzl (mother)
Occupation	Politician
Religion	See: Religious views of Adolf Hitler
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Service/branch	Bavarian Army
Years of service	1914–20
Rank	Gefreiter Verbindungsmann
Unit	16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment Reichswehr intelligence
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class Wound Badge

Hitler sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the primary cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British and French declarations of war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, Eva Braun. On 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned.

Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("sub-humans") and socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, and constitutes the deadliest conflict in human history.

Happy Birthday To You Sigmund Freud Sir

Sigmund Freud (/ˈfrɔɪd/;German: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt]; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the father of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna.Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.Freud lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. In 1938 Freud left Austria to escape the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939.

Sigmund Freud
Freud by Max Halberstadt, 1921
Born	Sigismund Schlomo Freud 6 May 1856 Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia,Austrian Empire (now Příbor, Czech Republic)
Died	23 September 1939 (aged 83) Hampstead, London, UK
Nationality	Austrian
Fields	Neurology, psychology,psychotherapy, psychoanalysis
Institutions	University of Vienna
Alma mater	University of Vienna (MD, 1881)
Academic advisors	Franz Brentano Ernst Brücke Carl Claus
Notable awards	Goethe Prize (1930) Foreign Member of the Royal Society[1]
Spouse	Martha Bernays (m. 1886–1939, his death)
Signature

Psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. As such, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate with regard to its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause.Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. In the words of W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute, by the time of Freud's death, he had become "a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives."

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.

Born: March 14, 1879, Ulm, Germany

Died: April 18, 1955, Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Influenced by: Isaac Newton, Mahatma Gandhi, more

Children: Eduard Einstein, Lieserl Einstein, Hans Albert Einstein

Influenced: Ernst G. Straus, Nathan Rosen, Leo Szilard

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on general relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the large-scale structure of the universe

Sir Issac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution. 

Newton's Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which dominated scientists' view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. By deriving Kepler's laws of planetary motion from his mathematical description of gravity, and then using the same principles to account for the trajectories of comets, the tides, the precession of the equinoxes, and other phenomena, Newton removed the last doubts about the validity of the heliocentric model of the Solar System. This work also demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies could be described by the same principles. His prediction that Earth should be shaped as an oblate spheroid was later vindicated by the measurements of Maupertuis, La Condamine, and others, which helped convince most Continental European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over the earlier system of Descartes.

Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of colour based on the observation that a prism decomposes white light into the many colours of the visible spectrum. He formulated an empirical law of cooling, studied the speed of sound, and introduced the notion of a Newtonian fluid. In addition to his work on calculus, as a mathematician Newton contributed to the study of power series, generalised the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, and classified most of the cubic plane curves.

Born: January 4, 1643, Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, United Kingdom.

Died: March 31, 1727, Kensington, London, United Kingdom

Influenced: Albert Einstein, Edmond Halley, John Theophilus 

Desaguliers, Thomas Bayes, William Whiston

Influenced by: Johannes Kepler, Nicolaus Copernicus

Sir Isaac Newton
Portrait of Newton in 1689 by Godfrey Kneller
Born	25 December 1642 [NS: 4 January 1643][1] Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire,England
Died	20 March 1726/7 (aged 84) [OS: 20 March 1726  NS: 31 March 1727][1] Kensington, Middlesex, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Nationality	English
Fields	Physics Natural philosophy Mathematics Astronomy Alchemy Economics
Institutions	University of Cambridge Royal Society Royal Mint
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Academic advisors	Isaac Barrow[2] Benjamin Pulleyn[3][4]
Notable students	Roger Cotes William Whiston
Known for	Newtonian mechanics Universal gravitation Calculus Newton's laws of motion Optics Binomial series Principia Newton's method
Notable awards	FRS (1672)[5]
Signature

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Micheal Faraday

Michael Faraday FRS was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.

Born: September 22, 1791, Newington Butts, London, United Kingdom

Died: August 25, 1867, Hampton Court Palace, Molesey, United Kingdom

Influenced by: Humphry Davy, William Thomas Brande

Organization founded: Royal Institution

Fields: Physics, Chemistry

Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.[1][2] He similarly discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction and diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology.

As a chemist, Faraday discovered benzene, investigated the clathrate hydrate of chlorine, invented an early form of the Bunsen burner and the system of oxidation numbers, and popularised terminology such as "anode", "cathode", "electrode" and "ion". Faraday ultimately became the first and foremost Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, a lifetime position.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry and were limited to the simplest algebra. James Clerk Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others and summarized it in a set of equations which is accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses of lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday "to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods."The SI unit of capacitance is named in his honour: the farad.

Albert Einstein kept a picture of Faraday on his study wall, alongside pictures of Isaac Newton and James Clerk MaxwPhysicist Ernest Rutherford stated, "When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time.