Born on November 29

A Florentine painter and art dealer active in Rome at the end of the 16th century, Pierantonio Stiattesi is best known as a close collaborator and agent of Caravaggio. He played the role of intermediary in the sale of paintings and left behind valuable correspondence shedding light on Rome's artistic world.

Italian composer (1797-1848), a leading figure of bel canto alongside Bellini and Rossini. He composed more than 70 operas, including Lucia di Lammermoor (1835) and L'Elisir d'amore (1832).

Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist, regarded as one of the founders of modern neurology. He practiced at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, where he trained many physicians, including Sigmund Freud.

Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, dominated the politics of the Qing dynasty for nearly fifty years. A shrewd and authoritarian regent, she governed an empire facing Western colonial pressures and internal rebellions, leaving an ambivalent legacy on China's modernization.

French writer (1890–1980), Maurice Genevoix is the author of *Ceux de 14* ("Those of '14"), a landmark eyewitness account of the First World War. A member of the Académie française and its perpetual secretary, he was inducted into the Panthéon in 2020.

French statesman, President of the Republic from 1995 to 2007. A major figure of the Gaullist right, he was also Prime Minister and Mayor of Paris over a long political career.