Garry Kasparov (born April 13, 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11). In 1997, he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match. Kasparov devoted his time to politics and writing following his retirement. He formed the United Civil Front movement, and joined as a member of The Other Russia, a coalition opposing the administration and policies of Vladimir Putin.
Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster, the 11th World Chess Champion. Many consider him the greatest chess player of all time. At age 20, Fischer won the 1963-64 U.S. Championship with 11/11, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Fischer’s book My 60 Memorable Games (1969) remains one of the most acclaimed works in chess literature. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from Boris Spassky of the USSR in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland; it was publicized as a Cold War confrontation and attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. After losing his title as World Chess Champion in 1975, Fischer became reclusive and sometimes erratic, disappearing from both competitive chess and the public eye. After 1992, he lived his life as an émigré.
Josip Broz Tito was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was seen by most as a benevolent dictator due to his economic and diplomatic policies. He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, Tito’s internal policies maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. From 1943 until his death, he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). Tito was the chief architect of the second Yugoslavia, a socialist federation that lasted from 1943 to 1991-92. Despite being one of the founders of Cominform, soon he became the first Cominform member to defy Soviet hegemony and the only one to manage to leave Cominform and begin with its own socialist program. Tito was born on May 7, 1892 and died on May 4, 1980.
One detail from Tito’s life that particularly fascinates me is his top-secret underground nuclear bunker in present-day Bosnia. I am a sucker for subterranean lairs, bomb shelters and the like. And this guy was way into them. According to The Telegraph: “In the early 1950s, Josip Broz Tito, the late leader of the former Yugoslavia, ordered the building of a secret bunker that would safeguard the country’s ruling class in case of a nuclear attack. Located 900 feet (270 m) underground, near the Bosnian town of Konjic, the 26-year project was only completed in 1979, the year before Tito died, and it was built at a cost equivalent to just under £3 billion ($4.6 billion). According to AP, if restocked with supplies it would still serve its purpose – allowing 350 people to live and work for six months without ever coming outside.”
Gerald Ford (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) was the 38th President of the United States (1974-1977). Prior to this, was the 40th Vice President of the United States (1973-1974). Ford was the first person appointed to the Vice Presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, after Spiro Agnew resigned. When he became president when Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, he became the first and only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected by the Electoral College. As President, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, marking a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam essentially ended. In 1976, Ford defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Ford died on this day in 2006 at the age of 93.
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953). As a senator in the early 1940s, he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, which exposed waste, fraud and corruption in wartime contracts. Truman was the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II through the controversial use of atomic bombs against Japan (at Hiroshima and Nagasaki). In the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War. Truman was born on this day in 1884.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States. John F. Kennedy asked him to be his running mate for the 1960 presidential election. Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of JFK in 1963 and was elected President in 1964. He was responsible for Great Society social reforms designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Johnson also escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which stimulated a large antiwar movement.
The 37th President of the United States and the only president to resign the office, due to the Watergate scandal. Although Nixon initially escalated the war in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, he subsequently ended U.S. involvement in 1973. He was responsible for the deaths of 70,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians during the Vietnam War. He died on April 22, 1994.
A former Soviet statesman, having served as head of state of the Soviet Union from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991. Gorbachev also led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. His attempts at Soviet reform and collaboration with U.S. President Ronald Reagan contributed to the end of the Cold War. Gorbachev was born into a peasant Ukrainian-Russian family on this day in 1931.
I once had a sarasa comet goldfish that was all white with a red splotch on the top of his head. I named him Gorbachev. He reformed the corrupt political climate of the 10-gallon aquarium.
The first President of the Russian Federation (the USSR’s successor state), serving from 1991 to 1999. Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev’s most powerful political opponents. Yeltsin resigned in 1999, leaving the presidency to then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He was born on this day in 1931.
A Romanian Communist politician who ruled Romania from 1965 to 1989. Born on this day in 1918, Ceausescu was the country’s second and last Communist leader. His rule became increasingly brutal and his repressive regime was among the most rigid in the Soviet bloc. His government was overthrown in the December 1989 revolution, and he and his wife were executed on Christmas Day.
A British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States. He died on this day in 1965.
The 32nd President of the United States (1933-1945) and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the U.S. during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. FDR was the only American president elected to more than two terms. Despite being bound to a wheelchair, the extent of his paralytic illness was kept from public view.
A former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who served from 1979 to 1990. Her political philosophy emphasized deregulation. Thatcher survived an assassination attempt in 1984, and her hard line against trade unions and tough rhetoric in opposition to the Soviet Union earned her the “Iron Lady” nickname. She was born on this day in 1925.
A Cuban revolutionary and politician born on this day in 1926. He played a key role in the Cuban Revolution, leading a successful guerrilla war against Batista’s forces with the aid of his brother Raúl Castro and friend Che Guevara. Castro became prime minister and president and converted Cuba to a one-party socialist state. In 2006, he delegated his presidential duties to Raúl Castro due to illness. On April 19, 2011, Fidel Castro resigned from the Communist Party central committee, thus stepping down as party leader.
Josip Broz Tito – No. 869
Josip Broz Tito was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was seen by most as a benevolent dictator due to his economic and diplomatic policies. He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, Tito’s internal policies maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation. From 1943 until his death, he held the rank of Marshal of Yugoslavia, serving as the supreme commander of the Yugoslav military, the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA). Tito was the chief architect of the second Yugoslavia, a socialist federation that lasted from 1943 to 1991-92. Despite being one of the founders of Cominform, soon he became the first Cominform member to defy Soviet hegemony and the only one to manage to leave Cominform and begin with its own socialist program. Tito was born on May 7, 1892 and died on May 4, 1980.
One detail from Tito’s life that particularly fascinates me is his top-secret underground nuclear bunker in present-day Bosnia. I am a sucker for subterranean lairs, bomb shelters and the like. And this guy was way into them. According to The Telegraph: “In the early 1950s, Josip Broz Tito, the late leader of the former Yugoslavia, ordered the building of a secret bunker that would safeguard the country’s ruling class in case of a nuclear attack. Located 900 feet (270 m) underground, near the Bosnian town of Konjic, the 26-year project was only completed in 1979, the year before Tito died, and it was built at a cost equivalent to just under £3 billion ($4.6 billion). According to AP, if restocked with supplies it would still serve its purpose – allowing 350 people to live and work for six months without ever coming outside.”