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Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

  • Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Verdi was born on the 9th of October 1813 in a small village called Le Roncole. His parents Carlo and Luigia ran an inn there while he learned to…
  • Queen VictoriaAt 4:15 am on Monday, the 24th of May 1819, a baby named Alexandrina Victoria was born inside Kensington Palace. Her father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent…
  • David Lloyd GeorgeOn the 17th of January 1863, a boy named David George was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. His father William died of pneumonia just over a year…
  • Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, on the 14th of October 1890. His family moved to Abilene, Kansas, the following year and lived there for…
  • Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorIn 1784, a young Archduke named Francis left the sun-drenched streets of Florence for the cold stone halls of Vienna. He was only sixteen years old when his…
  • François MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was born on the 26th of October 1916 in Jarnac, Charente. His family was devoutly Catholic and conservative.
  • Józef PiłsudskiJózef Klemens Piłsudski was born on the 5th of December 1867 at the manor of Zulov, now known as Zalavas in Lithuania. His family had been part of the Grand…
  • Napoleon IIICharles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Paris on the night of 19 to the 20th of April 1808. His father Louis ruled Holland from 1806 until 1810.
  • Marc ChagallIn 1887, Moishe Shagal was born into a Jewish family in Liozna, near the city of Vitebsk. The town held about 66,000 people at that time.
  • Charles de GaulleCharles de Gaulle was born on the 22nd of November 1890 in the northern French city of Lille. He entered the military academy at Saint-Cyr in October 1910…
  • Maximilian I of MexicoOn the 6th of July 1832, Maximilian was born inside the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. He entered a world of rigid hierarchy where his father, Archduke Franz…
  • Alexander III of RussiaGrand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich entered the world on the 10th of March 1845 inside the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg.
  • Konrad AdenauerKonrad Adenauer was born on the 5th of January 1876 in Cologne, Rhenish Prussia. He grew up as the third of five children to Johann Konrad Adenauer and…
  • Alexander I of RussiaAt 10:45 on the 23rd of December 1777, a baby named Alexander Pavlovich drew his first breath inside the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.
  • MongkutIn 1824, Prince Mongkut entered the Buddhist order as a monk with the ordination name Vajirayan. He spent twenty-seven years in this state before ascending…
  • Louis PasteurLouis Pasteur was born on the 27th of December 1822 in Dole, Jura, France. He entered primary school in 1831 and struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia…
  • Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur was born on the 26th of January 1880 at Little Rock Barracks in Arkansas. His father Arthur MacArthur Jr. served as a U.S.
  • Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss was born on the 28th of November 1908 in Brussels. His parents were French Jews who had moved there for his father's work as a portrait…
  • Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on the 7th of October 1952 in Leningrad. He grew up as the youngest of three children during a time when his family…
  • Boris YeltsinBoris Yeltsin was born on the 1st of February 1931 in the village of Butka, Ural Oblast. His family had lived in this area of the Urals since at least the…
  • Jérôme BonaparteJérôme Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica on the 15th of November 1784. He was the eighth and last surviving child of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia…
  • Joseph BonaparteGiuseppe di Buonaparte entered the world on the 7th of January 1768 in Corte, the capital of the Corsican Republic. His parents were Carlo Buonaparte and…
  • Alexander II of RussiaOn the 13th of March 1881, a bomb exploded on the Catherine Canal in Saint Petersburg. The blast shattered the legs of Emperor Alexander II and tore open his…
  • Wojciech JaruzelskiIn June 1941, a young boy named Wojciech Jaruzelski stood on a railway platform in Poland. He watched his family stripped of their possessions before being…
  • Charles XIV JohnJean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was born on the 26th of January 1763 in Pau, the capital of Béarn. He entered the army as a private soldier on the 3rd of…
  • Napoleon IINapoleon II entered the world on the 20th of March 1811 inside the Tuileries Palace in Paris. His father was Emperor Napoleon I and his mother was Empress…
  • Otto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg was born at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax, Austria-Hungary on the 20th of November 1912. His full baptismal name included Franz…
  • Louis Philippe ILouis Philippe was born in the Palais-Royal on the 6th of October 1773. He grew up as a Prince of the Blood within the House of Bourbon.
  • Archduke Charles, Duke of TeschenFlorence, Tuscany, the 5th of September 1771 marked the birth of Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Lawrence. His father held the title Grand Duke of Tuscany…
  • Victor DuruyJean Victor Duruy entered the world on the 10th of September 1811 in Paris. His father worked as a factory worker and expected his son to follow that trade.
  • Alexandre Colonna-WalewskiOn the 4th of May 1810, a boy named Alexandre Florian Joseph Colonna Walewski drew his first breath at Walewice near Warsaw.
  • Michel NeyMichel Ney was born in the town of Sarrelouis on the 10th of January 1769. He grew up as the second son of Pierre Ney, a master cooper who had served in the…
  • Louis de BroglieLouis Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie, entered the world on the 15th of August 1892 in Dieppe, France. He belonged to a noble family that had held…
  • Michael Andreas Barclay de TollyMichael Andreas Barclay de Tolly entered the world in 1761 within the Polish, Lithuanian Commonwealth. His family belonged to a Baltic German lineage that…