Who are these people?

[MikeL]

 

Famous man

 

And quite handsome in his early years.  Not the fright he was later.

[podga]

How famous can he be if this Greek doesn't know him?  

[MikeL]

How famous can he be if this Greek doesn't know him?  

 

How is your knowledge of U S history, Podga?

[podga]

The basics: Columbus, American Revolution, Civil War, Stonewall Riots

 

Seriously though, I tend to concentrate most of my reading on early 1900s and beyond.

[MikeL]

Early 1900s would be a bit late.  Contrary to widespread belief, US history goes back earlier than that.

[paya]

That's why I don't post challenges - I don't know enough about US history and I have no illusions the US Americans know about European...

[Zombie]

That's why I don't post challenges - I don't know enough about US history and I have no illusions the US Americans know about European...

 

 Don't be a meanie - we've had obscure Europeans correctly guessed by our transatlantic cousins and vice versa

Just because W_L's posted a pic that nobody knows ...

[Red_A]

That's why I don't post challenges - I don't know enough about US history and I have no illusions the US Americans know about European...

Who recognise billy the kid?

[MikeL]

European participants should stop grousing about the occasional American pictured in this thread.  We have posted more pictures of Europeans than Americans here and GA members from both sides of the Atlantic have displayed an extensive knowledge of each others' history.

 

WL's challenge is a picture of one of the most prominent Americans of 19th century.  Let's have some guesses.

 

Sorry, Red.  Billy the Kid is not correct.

Edited April 12, 2013 by MikeL

[paya]

Well I wasn't grousing, I was merely observing a fact - I know the most famous American presidents and that is basically it. I would know the names of some engineers, more so if they figured in computer games like Railroad Tycoon, but I don't remember their pictures. Or better said, I have normally troubles to link the face to the name, I know I have seen them before but where or who, that I can't remember. In fact, my motivation for following this thread is that I get to learn more about "famous" people that I have never heard of. I could post here pictures of people notoriously famous in my country and I would not expect anyone to reecognize them. Even if they did appear in the US during their lifetime and we think they were well known there. That's all. :-)

 

As for the guy, I googled the image and I have never heard of him before. Even if he apparently was very prominent in his era.

[MikeL]

I apologize, Paya.  Grousing was a poor choice of words...certainly no humor in it.

 

I think we have had a pretty good balance of American and European personages in our challenges and we have demonstrated a better knowledge of each others' history than I would have expected.  We have even had one of your countrymen here, admittedly better know in our own time than the current challenge, especially the youthful picture WL selected.

 

You are quite right about the educational value in this exercise.  If you identified the person and went on to read about him, then you have learned a bit of American history.  I have certainly learned something; even Wikipedia alone is pretty good.

 

Don't hesitate to post a challenge, Paya.  We can all learn from it.

[Celethiel]

I am American and I don't really know him... however I would say as a guess Andrew Jackson?

[W_L]

I am American and I don't really know him... however I would say as a guess Andrew Jackson?

 

 

Nope, but same era. One of his famous ideas is used in modern political thought, "the concurrent majority", it's still a visible and sadly crude concept in modern governments, both US based and Parliamentary, because of its inherent divisive nature and the failure of "common good" in a world based on individualism.

 

As for the distress over his picture, sorry, I thought it'd be simpler.

 

It took me an hour to figure out the ancestor of Churchill, but I had Winston Churchill's biography of his ancestor in my book case and I do read up a lot on European and British histories (Not to mention I have my old Latin paperback of De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar), so yes I do have an advantage when it comes to notable Europeans in the areas of diplomacy, war, science, and mathematics compared to my American counterparts, you have to love a classical education

Edited April 13, 2013 by W_L

[pep]

The Belgian kings still use their name of Saksen Koburg

Very good, Podga!

 

The nine European Monarchs were gathered at Windsor Castle on May 20, 1910 for the funeral of King Edward VII of the UK.

 

 

 

Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire, King George I of The Hellenes (Greece) and King Albert I of the Belgians (Belgium). Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King-Emperor George V of Great Britain and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

 

 

Numerous other dignitaries participated in the funeral procession, including princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses, and prominent commoners such as former President Theodore Roosevelt of the US.

 

The picture is historically significant because it is the last such gathering that ever occurred.  By 1918, many of the crown heads had lost their kingdoms as a result of the Great War (World War I).  By 1945 and the end of World War II, the few remaining monarchs found themselves in purely ceremonial offices.  All of the kings pictured were related to King Edward VII by blood or by marriage or by both.

 

While the UK still has its Monarch, the outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought a break for the Royal Family from its German heritage.  They changed their name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.  The horses which pulled the funeral hearse, a gift to Edward VII from his nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II, were destroyed on account of their Germanic bloodlines.

 

Being king is not what it once was.

[W_L]

Okay, I will give up the ghost,

 

It is John C. Calhoun, Vice President of the US under Andrew Jackson, Senator, and famous American thinker, who contributed to the formation of the 2nd political party system in the US and developed the concept of "nullification" and "state sovereignty". For his most famous creation, "concurrent majority", he developed an idealized concept that minority could veto a numerical majority decision despite popular support due to minority interests. This concept is practiced in Parliamentary governments today as well, when a minority faction can gather enough influence among other interests to veto a majority decision or act.

 

I thought a younger picture might make the guessing more fun and I did offer clues.

 

Okay, so I guess I must do another one:

 

Here's an obvious clue, he's a main character in a long running Turn Based Strategy Game, one which allows you to choose the destiny of the world and is an example of 4X: "Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate":

 

Edited April 13, 2013 by W_L

[Ieshwar]

Genghis Khan?

 

And the game is Age of Empires?

 

[W_L]

Correct in the name of the man, but not the game, which luckily doesn't count

 

Civilization V, Age of Empires is RTS not turned based

 

You guessed it right and was quick.

 

Genghis Khan is the name most people ascribe to him, but his real name is Temujin. The greatest conqueror in the World, who surpassed Alexander the Great in land area conquered. While many early western and middle eastern historians consider him a barbarian conqueror, later historians believe he was a far sighted leader, who attempted to create a civilization from his nomadic people. Without him, Russia would never have been united, nor the age of exploration begin due to desire for eastern goods brought by the trade routes he opened. He was brutal, but he was noble as well.

 

Anyway, your turn....

[Ieshwar]

Lol, I missed the turn-based part. So which game was it?

 

Anyway, here's a fairly easy one.

 

 

We are remaining on the eastern side of the globe with "noble" persons. After all, this one won a Nobel Prize.

 

Cheers

Ieshwar

[W_L]

A really good one, he was too bearded to be the notable Nobel peace winners nor scientific one from my memory, so I had to do a search and basically exclude myself from this contest.

 

I hope someone can guess this by share recognition, maybe someone from a particular region will get it.

[podga]

Rabindranath Tagore!  

 

He contributed to a C in one of my High School Literature classes because I mistakenly identified one of his poems as being from the Book of Psalms.   (In my defense, everything was being taught in Greek translation, so it was a pretty good guess, if you hadn't been studying or paying much attention in class...) 

[MikeL]

See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

 

This is a great example of how we can learn about unfamiliar people and cultures from this little exercise.

 

Congratulations, Podga!  Now it's your turn to lay one on us.

[Ieshwar]

Yes, well-done, Podga. It is indeed Rabindranath Tagore. Quoting Wikipedia, he was "the first non-European to win Nobel Prize in Literature". Pretty cool, huh. 

 

Your turn now.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Ieshwar

[podga]

Yay! Unfortunately I can't post anything at the moment, so the first person to see this, take a turn!!  

[Red_A]

 

You will get the originator instantly or not at all

[W_L]

The creator of the slogan was Josiah Wedgwood, who was a well known 18th century British potter (a maker of vases, not the magical kind ) and anti-slavery advocate. I remember the last name then went backwards, because one of his grand-daughters would marry a Mr. Charles Darwin

 

I don't know who the model is though, anyone know?

Edited April 14, 2013 by W_L