Born on September 17

Antoninus Pius was Roman emperor from 138 to 161, the third of the “good emperors” of the Antonine dynasty. His exceptionally long and peaceful reign remained a symbol of stability and prosperity for the Empire.

Seventh Abbasid caliph (reigned 813-833), son of Harun al-Rashid. A patron of scholars, he expanded the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) in Baghdad, a center of translation and scientific research.

Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was Queen of England and Ireland for 45 years. The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she consolidated Protestantism in England and led her kingdom to exceptional prominence in Europe. Her reign, known as the "Elizabethan era," was marked by the defeat of the Spanish Armada and a flourishing of arts and literature.

A 19th-century German mathematician, Riemann revolutionized geometry by developing Riemannian geometry, the mathematical foundation of Einstein's general relativity. His work on complex functions and the Riemann hypothesis remains among the most influential in modern mathematics.

British aviator and sailor (1901-1972), a pioneer of solo navigation. In 1966-1967 he completed a solo round-the-world voyage under sail with just one stopover, aboard the Gipsy Moth IV.

An American NASA astronaut, Edgar Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission in February 1971. Holding a doctorate in aeronautics from MIT, he devoted his life after the space conquest to the study of human consciousness.

Italian mountaineer born in 1944, Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres. He was also the first to summit Everest solo and without supplemental oxygen.