Born on May 15

Italian composer born in Cremona in 1567 and died in Venice in 1643. A pioneer of opera with L'Orfeo (1607), he marks the transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque. Maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, he revolutionized vocal and instrumental music.

Esprit Blanche (1796-1852) was a French alienist physician, a pioneer of humane psychiatry. In Montmartre and later in Passy, he founded a nursing home renowned for the treatment of mental illness, where he welcomed many artists and writers.

Scottish-American astronomer, she joined the Harvard Observatory as a "Harvard Computer." She developed a system for classifying stellar spectra and discovered the Horsehead Nebula in 1888.

French physicist (1859–1906), he discovered piezoelectricity with his brother Jacques in 1880, then conducted groundbreaking research on radioactivity alongside Marie Curie. A Nobel Prize laureate in Physics in 1903, he is one of the founding fathers of modern physics.

A Soviet writer and playwright of Ukrainian origin, originally trained as a doctor. Censored under Stalin, he is famous for his satirical and fantastical novel *The Master and Margarita*, published only after his death.

French actress and singer (1898–1992), an icon of French cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. Discovered by Marcel Carné, she is best remembered for her roles in *Children of Paradise* and *Hôtel du Nord*.

Albert Dubout (1905-1976) was a French cartoonist, illustrator, and poster artist, famous for his teeming crowds, his cats, and his scenes of southern France. He left his mark on book illustration and film posters in the 20th century.

American economist, a major figure of the 20th century. The first American to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1970, he helped found modern economics by introducing mathematical formalization into it, and was the author of a world-renowned economics textbook.

Jasper Johns is an American painter, draftsman, and printmaker born in 1930. A pioneer of Neo-Dada, he paved the way for Pop Art by depicting familiar objects such as flags, targets, and numbers.

African-American civil rights activist, Diane Nash organized the Nashville sit-ins in 1960 and co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). A major figure of nonviolence, she contributed to the abolition of segregation in the American South.

Brian Eno is a British musician, producer, and theorist born in 1948, regarded as the pioneer of ambient music. Originally a member of Roxy Music, he revolutionized music production by collaborating with David Bowie, U2, and Talking Heads.

Christina Lamb is a British journalist and writer, born in 1965, specializing in war reporting. A renowned foreign correspondent, she has covered Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other conflicts, and co-wrote the memoir 'I Am Malala' with Malala Yousafzai.