Born on November 3

Vincenzo Bellini was an Italian opera composer of the Romantic period, a major figure of bel canto alongside Rossini and Donizetti. His brief but brilliant career established him as a master of the long, expressive melody, before his untimely death at 33.

French novelist, Resistance fighter, and statesman (1901–1976). Author of La Condition humaine, he served as Minister of Cultural Affairs under General de Gaulle from 1959 to 1969 and was a theorist of art.

Amartya Sen is an Indian economist and philosopher born in 1933. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998, he reshaped the analysis of well-being, poverty and famines, and founded the “capability” approach.