I Think We Need a Bigger Sampler

To celebrate my 400th Follower I showed a picture of my Millennium Sampler personalised with people I felt needed to be remembered for their contribution to life in the previous Millennium.  I decided to ask everyone who they would have included on their own version.  I was bowled over from the choices!  No-one had the top answer - me, but I guess my contribution to global happiness (ie this blog) only started in the 21st Century so was not eligible hahaha.

As promised, here is the full list of nominees plus links for those of you who'd like to learn more about them. There are certainly a few I had not heard of.  The English education system is quite neglectful of famous American civil rights activists.  Frankly we're not taught much beyond "You broke away from us and went downhill from there".

King Richard III - much maligned and misunderstood King of England
Diana, Princess of Wales - First wife of Prince Charles, keen charity promoter, Memorial Fund - now closed
Queen Alexandra - married to Edward VII, keen charity promoter, Alexandra Rose Day

Queen Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen, reigned for 45 years, brought peace to England
Queen Elizabeth II - our current Queen, has reigned for over 60 years.

Harriet Tubman - African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War
Rosa Parks - African-American civil rights activist

Martin Luther King Jr - African-American civil rights activist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - American social activist, abolitionist, and women's rights movement

Caroline Chisholm - helped young women in colonial times with housing and jobs, thus saving them from destitution

Helen Keller -  American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree 

Sir Keith Park -  New Zealand soldier, First World War flying ace and Second World War Royal Air Force commander. 
Nancy Wake - "The Grey Mouse" - an New Zealand woman who bravely worked with the French resistance during WWII
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Lutheran theologian who died fighting the Nazi regime

Albert Einstein - German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity
Ada Lovelace - English mathematician - see her day - Ada Lovelace Day

Nikola Tesla - Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu - English Aristocrat and campaigner for inoculation against smallpox
Lord Ernest Rutherford - Zealand-born physicist and chemist, known as the father of nuclear physics
Isaac Newton - English physicist and mathematician 
Jane Goodall - British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace
Alexander Graham Bell - Scottish scientist, inventor, engineer, credited with inventing the first practical telephone
John Logie Baird - Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system

Florence Nightingale - English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Fred Hollows - eye doctor who volunteered in 3rd world countries to save people's eyesight
Victor Chang  - pioneer heart surgeon who was tragically murdered in 1991

Frederick Banting - a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin

JRR Tolkien -  English writer and poet, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Barbara Walters - American broadcaster and journalist

Deanna Durbin - Canadian Singer and Actor
Margot Fonteyn - English Ballerina
Charles Dickens - Victorian English writer and social critic
Elvis Presley - American Singer and Actor
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa-  New Zealand/Māori soprano, her charitible foundation

Leonardo da Vinci -  Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. (etc etc etc)

Maria Callas - American-born Greek soprano

The Beatles - English rock band formed in Liverpool, in 1960
Edith Hamilton - German-American educator and author 
Leo Tolstoy - Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories.
Frédéric Chopin - Polish composer and virtuoso pianist
Jane Austen - English Novelist 
Coco Chanel - French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand
Paulo Coelho - Brazilian lyricist and novelist
Mark Rothko - American painter of Latvian Jewish descent.

Captain Cook - British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy
Sir Edmund Hillary - New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist
Neil Armstrong - American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

George Washington -  First President of the United States
Thomas Jefferson - Third President of the United States
Dame Enid Lyons - the first Australian woman to sit in Parliament
John and Elizabeth Macarthur - early squatters who began the merino wool industry in Australia which helped create the nation's wealth in the 19th century
Betsy Ross - creator of the first American flag

Gary Hall, Jr.- swimmer and diabetic
Kris Freeman - cross-country skier and diabetic, see this story

Martin Luther - 16th Century German monk
Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, the 14th Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso
Mother Teresa - Roman Catholic Nun and Nobel Peace Prize winner

And finally, two men who would not have made the short list at the turn of the century, most of us would not have heard of them back then, but without them it is highly unlikely you would be reading this today.  Shows how much the world can change in a decade: 

Steve Jobs -  American entrepreneur and inventor, best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc
Tim Berners-Lee - British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web.


Phew!!  I don't know about you but I'm exhausted and I did that list in two shifts!


So Finally, the part you've been waiting for; the winner of the 400 Followers Giveaway.  Drum Roll.

The winner is - 

Sir Frederick Banting

Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRS, FRSC was a Canadian medical scientist, doctor, painter and Nobel laureate noted as the primary discoverer of insulin. In 1923 Banting and John James Rickard Macleod received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Unfortunately Sir Frederick could not be with us this evening so I'd like to ask Shebafudge to step forward and receive the prize on his behalf.  Sharon had a personal reason for choosing Sir Frederick, without his discovery of insulin her daughter would not be with us today.  Congratulations to Sharon, a little something will be in the mail to you some time this year!

Finally, finally, a huge Thank You to everyone who left a comment and nominated a person/persons for inclusion on our sampler.  I had a great time finding out all about the different people and I hope you did too.  Next week, there will be a short exam on what you have learned this week.