Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of

Corsica. Through his military exploits and his ruthless efficiency, Napoleon rose from obscurity to become
Napoleon I, Empereur des Francais (Emperor of the French). He is both a historical figure and a legend—
and it is sometimes difficult to separate the two. The events of his life fired the imaginations of great writers,
film makers, and playwrights whose works have done much to create the Napoleonic legend.

Charles Robert Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He
was the fifth child and second son of Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgwood. Darwin was the
British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Like several
scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of
years from a few common ancestors.

Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)
Amenhotep IV was the tenth or eleventh pharaoh of Dynasty XVIII. He married
Nefertiti and became a fanatic of an ancient Egyptian god named Aten, the god of
the sun disc. He renamed himself Aken-Aten ("he who is of service to Aten.") in
honor of the god. (also spelt Akenaten, Akhenaten, Ahkanaten, Ihknaten, etc).
During Akenaten's reign from 1379 BC, Aten (also spelt Aton) became the supreme
god of Egypt. He also changed the capital from Thebes to el-Amarna (halfway
between Memphis and Thebes), city of the cult of the Aten.

Alexander the Great (*356; r. 336-323): the Macedonian king who

defeated his Persian colleague Darius III Codomannus and conquered the Achaemenid
Empire. During his campaigns, Alexander visited a.o. Egypt, Babylonia, Persis, Media,
Bactria, the Punjab, and the valley of the Indus. In the second half of his reign, he had to
find a way to rule his newly conquered countries. Therefore, he made Babylon his capital
and introduced the oriental court ceremonial, which caused great tensions with his
Macedonian and Greek officers.