English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author.
Director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge.
Born in Oxford into a family of physicians.
From 1979 to 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.
This position is widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.
At age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with an early-onset, slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease.
The disease gradually paralysed him over decades.
After losing his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device:
Initially, he used a handheld switch.
Eventually, he used a single cheek muscle.
Over his career, Hawking reshaped scientific thinking about the universe, especially black holes.
Tim Berners-Lee
Born in London.
English computer scientist.
Best known as the inventor of:
The World Wide Web
The HTML markup language
The URL system
HTTP
In 2004, Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work.
He was named in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray is a British former professional tennis player and coach.
Ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks.
Won 46 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including three majors:
2012 US Open
2013 Wimbledon Championships
2016 Wimbledon Championships
Won two gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics and a silver medal in 2012.
Became the only player, male or female, to win two Olympic gold medals in singles.
Emma Watson
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress.
Known for her roles in the Harry Potter series, the live-action musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast, Little Women, and many more.
She was diagnosed with ADHD when she was 9 years old.
From 2011 to 2014, Watson split her time between working on films and continuing her education.
She graduated from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in English literature.
Watson is an outspoken feminist.
She made a speech that made worldwide headlines about urging men to advocate for gender equality.
In her speech, she said that people need to stop translating feminism as hatred towards men.
Daniel Craig
English actor.
Gained international fame by playing James Bond in five installments of the film series:
Casino Royale (2006)
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Skyfall (2012)
Spectre (2015)
No Time to Die (2021)
Made his Broadway debut in the play A Steady Rain (2009).
Returned to Broadway in revivals of:
Harold Pinter's Betrayal (2011)
William Shakespeare's Macbeth (2022)
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician.
Served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.
Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990.
She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century.
She was the first woman to hold the position.
As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism.
A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing.
Wayne Rooney
English professional football manager and former player.
Widely considered one of the best players of his generation and one of the greatest British players of all time.
Rooney is the record goalscorer for Manchester United.
He was the record goalscorer for the England national team from 2015 to 2023.
He has also made more appearances for England than any other outfield player.
Rooney joined the Everton youth team at the age of nine.
He made his professional debut for the club in 2002 at the age of 16.
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (during the Second World War) and again from 1951 to 1955.
Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism.
For most of his career, he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955.
He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Out of government during his so-called "wilderness years" in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for rearmament to counter the threat of militarism in Nazi Germany.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Born in Manchester to politically active parents.
Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 16 to the women's suffrage movement.
She was a British political activist who organised the British suffragette movement.
She helped women to win in 1918 the right to vote in Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1999, Time named her as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
Time stated that "she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back".
She was widely criticised for her militant tactics.
Historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognised as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in the United Kingdom.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist.
Widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology.
His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor is now generally accepted.
It is considered a fundamental scientific concept.
He introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection.
In natural selection, the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.
Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history.
He was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale was an English social reformer, statistician, and the founder of modern nursing.
Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War.
She organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople.
She significantly reduced death rates by improving hygiene and living standards.
Nightingale gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
David Bowie
David Robert Jones, was an English singer, songwriter, musician and actor.
One of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
His 50-year career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation.
His music and stagecraft have had a great impact on popular music.
Bowie developed an interest in music from an early age.
He studied art, music and design before his professional career as a musician in 1963.
He achieved his first top-five entry on the UK singles chart with "Space Oddity" (1969).
After a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with alter ego Ziggy Stardust.
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022.
Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.
Born in Mayfair, London.
She was educated privately at home and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War.
She married Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark.
Their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in 2021.
They had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward.
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution.
Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians as a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement.
His chosen rail gauge, sometimes called "Stephenson gauge", was the basis for the 1.435 m standard gauge used by most of the world's railways.
Rail transport was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and a key component of the Industrial Revolution.
James Cook
Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, cartographer, and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 to the Pacific and Southern Oceans.
He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand.
He was the first known European to visit the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands.
He made contact with numerous indigenous peoples and claimed various territories for Britain.
He displayed a combination of seamanship, superior surveying and cartographic skills, physical courage, and an ability to lead men in adverse conditions.
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.
Her use of social commentary, realism and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars.
The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816) were modest successes, but they brought her little fame in her lifetime.
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and political activist.
He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles.
Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.
Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement.
Some of his famous songs: "Happy Xmas (war is over)", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Beautiful boy", "Lucy in the sky with diamonds".