Born on July 6

Nicholas I (1796-1855) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825. An autocratic and conservative sovereign, he crushed the Decembrist revolt upon his accession and embodied a reactionary monarchy founded on order, orthodoxy, and nationality.

French historian and co-founder of the Annales School with Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch revolutionized historical method by prioritizing social and economic structures over event-driven history. A resistance fighter from the very start, he was arrested by the Gestapo and shot in 1944.

Marc Chagall was a French painter and engraver of Belarusian Jewish origin, a major figure in 20th-century art. Close to the School of Paris, he developed a poetic, dreamlike world blending memories of his native village of Vitebsk, Jewish folklore and love.

Mexican painter (1907–1954), renowned for her expressionist self-portraits and works exploring physical pain and identity. An iconic figure of surrealism and feminism, she transformed her personal suffering into major artistic creation.

Bernhard Schlink (born in 1944) is a German jurist and writer, world-renowned for his novel The Reader (*Der Vorleser*, 1995), translated into more than 50 languages. His work explores guilt, memory, and the moral legacy of Nazism.