Hernan Cortes – Spanish conquistador

Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador, who conquered the great Aztec Empire in 1521. Thanks to him, in the 1520s people in Europe began to use vanilla and chocolate.
Fernando Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano was born in 1485 in Medellin, Spain. For two years he studied at the University of Salamanca, but chose a military career. At age 19 he sailed for the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies.
In 1510-1514 he participated in an expedition under the command of Diego de Velazquez to conquer Cuba. Cortes became mayor of Santiago, the capital.
On November 8, 1519, Cortes marched into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). The Aztec emperor Montezuma II welcomed Cortes because he thought he was a god of Aztec legend. Cortes quickly seized power. In 1522-1526 he was a captain-general of the newly formed colony, but because of the fierce struggle for power he returned to Europe in 1528.
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Paul Revere – hero of American Revolution

Paul Revere was an American artisan, silversmith in the second generation. He was one of the most famous heroes of the American Revolution.
Paul Revere was born in Boston on December 21, 1734 according to the Julian calendar (January 1, 1735, new style). He was a descendant of French Huguenots who fled from the violence and oppression of Louis XIV. His father Apollos Rivoire (1702-1754) arrived in Boston at the age of 13 and later became the owner of the silversmith shop and married a descendant of the wealthy local family Deborah Hitchborn. Paul was the third of 12 children in the family. In spite of the French origin he did not speak French and became a member of Anglican Church. However, in the end, Paul returned to Calvinist church. Apollos Rivoire died when Paul was 19 years old.
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Cesar Chavez – labor leader

Cesar Chavez is a well-known American human rights activist, a fighter for social rights of workers, the national hero of the United States, a supporter of veganism.
Cesar Estrada Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 near Yuma (Arizona, USA) in a family of Mexicans whose ancestors lived in Arizona before it joined the United States. During the Great Depression Cesar’s parents lost their own business and the boy had to begin his working career at the age of ten. Due to various social and financial difficulties he had changed more than thirty schools and quit his studies after eight years because of the need to earn a livelihood. By age 15 Cesar was working full-time in the fields.
He serviced in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After demobilization he settled in central California. There Cesar met Helen Fabela, and soon they got married.
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Lucretia Mott – American Quaker

Lucretia Mott was an American Quaker, a pioneer feminist leader and radical abolitionist.
Lucretia Coffin Mott was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. At the age of 13, she was sent to a Quaker school in Poughkeepsie, New York. Later she worked there as a teacher. Her interest in women’s rights arose when she learned that the male teachers at her school had a salary three times higher than female teachers.
Lucretia married James Mott who worked as a teacher in the same school. The wedding took place on April 10, 1811. They had 6 children. The second child died at the age of two.
Like many Quakers, Mott opposed slavery. She refused to use products produced by slaves: sugar cane, cotton clothes and so on. In 1821, Mott became a Quaker minister. With the support of her husband she traveled a lot around the country.
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Jiang Qing – girl from the village

American writer Agnes Smedley was a witness of the meeting of Mao and the young actress Lang Ping (her real name was Jiang Qing). In 1937 she attended a “special area” controlled by the army of 44-year-old Mao Zedong, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China.
Lang Ping was a pretty girl, who recently arrived from Shanghai. She came there when her second husband, a popular actor, attempted to commit suicide. The actress left Tang because she had an affair with the director. Shanghai newspapers showed actor and director as victims of a cunning peasant woman.
Lang Ping was born in Shandong Province in a family of small entrepreneur. Her mother was the sixth wife of Lee and, according to Chinese tradition, the most powerless. Soon, unable to withstand the abuse, she left the family. Lang Ping was raised by her grandparents.
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John Glenn – American astronaut and senator

John Glenn was the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth, test pilot, Marine Corps pilot during World War II and the Korean War, Senator from Ohio.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio. His parents had two other children who died in infancy, and they later adopted his sister Jean.
He graduated from primary and secondary schools in New Concord, then attended Muskingum University.
In 1943 he joined Marine Corps. During World War II John made 59 sorties, flew the F4U Corsair over the Marshall Islands.
When peace came, Glenn remained in the corps, serving as a fighter pilot and then as a flight instructor. In 1952, Major Glenn was sent to Korea. He participated in the Korean War and then graduated from the Test Pilot School.
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Ernesto Che Guevara – Great Comandante

Ernesto Che Guevara was a Latin American revolutionary and the trusted adviser of Cuban premier Fidel Castro. He used nickname Che to emphasize his Argentine origin. He became one of the main persons of the Cuban revolution, and remains a symbol of commitment to ideals.
Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna was born on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina. He had two brothers and two sisters. Ernesto was keen on chess. At the age of 11 he became interested in Cuba, when Cuban chess player Capablanca came to Buenos Aires.
At 19 Guevara entered the medical school of the University of Buenos Aires.
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