Born on November 2

Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) was an 18th-century French painter, a master of still life and genre scenes. Going against the rococo painting of his time, he celebrated domestic life and everyday objects with a subtle touch and a rare sense of light.

Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was an American pioneer, trapper, and explorer, an iconic figure of the conquest of the West. In 1775 he blazed the Wilderness Road through the Appalachians and founded Boonesborough, in present-day Kentucky.

Queen consort of France from 1774 to 1792, wife of Louis XVI. A symbol of the Ancien Régime and its excesses, she became deeply unpopular with the French people and came to embody the frivolity of the Versailles court. Accused of treason during the French Revolution, she was executed by guillotine in 1793.

19th-century British mathematician and logician, founder of Boolean algebra. He revolutionized logic by translating it into a mathematical system, laying the foundations of modern computing.

Italian filmmaker and stage director, a count by birth and a Marxist by conviction. A pioneer of neorealism before crafting grand historical frescoes with sumptuous aesthetics, he was also a major director of theatre and opera.

Romana Guarnieri (1913-2004) was an Italian historian and medievalist, a specialist in the religious spirituality of the Middle Ages. She is famous for having identified, in 1946, the author of the Mirror of Simple Souls: the mystic Marguerite Porete, burned at the stake in 1310.

Dambisa Moyo is a Zambian economist specializing in macroeconomics and development. She is famous worldwide for her radical critique of international aid to Africa, which she considers counterproductive.