P T Usha   India : Flying Queen Birth :1964 Pilavulakandi Thekkeparambil Usha has emerged as the most outstanding Indian woman athlete of the 1980s. In the recent years she has brought much glory and honour to her country in the field of sports, and in fame she has outdone many other Indian women athletes till date. Usha, in fact, at present is the best runner of Aisa. In the 10th...

Milkha Singh   India : Flying Sikh Birth :1935 Milkha Singh is one of the most outstanding athletes of India. He has earned the nickname of ‘Flying Sikh’ because of his marvellous running speed on the tracks. He dominated the Indian athletic scene in 1950s and 60s and enhanced the prestige of his country by his achievements. Milkha Singh in fact, measured his successes in distance. In 1957, he established a...

Thomas Alva Edison U.S.A.: Greatest Inventor Birth: 1847         Death: 1931 Thomas Alva Edison is generally considered the greatest inventor of all times. He was also a scientist of a very high calibre and is called the king among the scientists of the world. The most noteworthy inventions of Edison which have proved of lasting service to mankind are the gramophone or phonograph (1876) that filled the world’s atmosphere with music, the...

Sunil Gavaskar   India : Greatest Batsman Birth :1949   Sunil Manohar Gavaskar is the pride of the cricket world. He is widely held as the world’s top batsman in view of his many brilliant records on the cricket ground. He has hit 34 centuries and thereby broken the previous record of Don Bradman’s 29 centuries, he has also scored more than 10,000 runs, highest by any batsman. Sunil Gavaskar is...

Sir Winston Churchill Britain : Statesman and War Leader Birth :1874        Death : 1965 Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is sure to be remembered as one of the most famous personalities of the 20th century. His fame rests mainly on the heroic and successful leadership of the Allied Countries during the Second World War. Churchill assumed the Prime Ministership of Britain at a very critical point when not only Britain...

Dhyan Chand   India : ‘Hockey Wizard’ Birth :1905        Death : 1979 Enhancing the prestige of Indian hockey in the eyes of the world. By his superior play, Dhyan Chand was held in high esteem both within the country as well as abroad. Dhyan Chand helped his country in winning gold medals in hockey in three successive Olympic Games. He was also the captain of the gold medal winner Indian...

Lech Walesa   Poland : Winner of 1983 Nobel Peace Prize Birth :1943 The 45 year old Polish trade union leader Lech Walesa is carrying on a relentless fight for securing economic and other rights for the workers of his country. Lech Walesa is the President of the independent trade union ‘Solidarity’. Walesa came into headlines when he inspired waves of industrial strikes throughout Poland in 1980. The Polish government retaliated...

Leonardo da Vinci   Italy : Artistic and Scientific Genius Birth : 1452 Death : 1519 Leonardo da Vinci was an astonishingly gifted person. The world knows him mainly as the painter of ‘Mona Lisa’, the most famous painting in history. He also distinguished himself as an inventor, mathematician, engineer, naturalist and anatomist. Few people in the history have been so highly gifted as Vinci. He was, in fact, a towering...