Tsar Alexander II is generally remembered as a liberalizing monarch who effected widespread social, economic, and political upheaval during his reign. He is most often remembered for his 1861 Emancipation of the Serfs Act. Prior to Alexander’s interference, the Russian economy had functioned much like a European medieval feudal system with the serf-peasantry comprable to slaves.

The Committee of Public Safety was the de facto government of Paris, and France, at the height of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. In December of 1793, the Committee conferred formal executive power to itself and Robespierre became something of a totalitarian dictator, summarily executing any and all suspected opposition. Sadly for Robespierre, the abuses of his reign were too much for the exhausted people of Paris to endure, and he was himself deposed and executed the following year, thus ending the Reign of Terror and the Committee’s power over France.

Haile Selassie was the ruler of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1974; he first ruled as regent, then as emperor. Selassie is widely credited with preserving Ethiopia’s independence. He was also an internationally-minded leader who contributed heavily to the founding of the United Nations and ensured Ethiopia’s status as a charter member.

The Congress of Vienna was held in 1815, immediately following the climax of the Napoleonic Wars. The Wars had ended with the defeat of Napoleon and the French Empire, and the victorious European powers sought to ensure a lasting peace in Europe as well as maintenance of the traditional forms of power (monarchy, aristocracy, and suppression of individual freedoms). The Congress was attended by the four major European powers at the time: Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. The French were also invited to attend so long as they abandoned their recent republican tendencies. Russia was represented by Tsar Alexander I, Prussia by Prince Karl von Hardenberg, Austria by Foreign Minister Metternich, Britain by Foreign Secretary Castlereagh, and France by Foreign Minister Talleyrand, who was there representing newly instated King Louis XVIII.

Zheng He was a Chinese naval commander in the fourteenth century who famously explored much of South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. He was for a long time forgotten in his own country, but rose to prominence in the twentieth century as is now seen as a Columbus-like figure; indeed, many historians believe it is possible that Zheng He may have arrived in the New World a full century before Europeans did, although this is primarily conjecture.

Thomas Malthus was a writer and philosopher who lived in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He is most widely remembered for his essay titled An Essay on the Principle of Population. In this essay, he states that sooner or later the population of the earth would exceed the supply of resources needed to keep the population alive. In what is known as a "Malthusian catastrophe," he predicted that the continuing rise in population would precede a period of intense warfare and famine, which would then bring the population back to more manageable levels. His views were influential and affected the economic and sociopolitical thinking of his time.

Following his return to Russia from exile in the spring of 1917, Lenin published his famous April Theses, in which he promised the Russian people “Peace! Land! Bread!” During World War One, the Russian people suffered horribly in unprecedented numbers; when Lenin returned to Russia, a large portion of the Russian population was ready for an end to the war with the Central Powers ("Peace!"); an end to the abhorrent policies of land distribution that saw the majority of the population unable to own property ("Land!"); and an end to the widespread famine that had gripped Russia in the previous two years ("Bread!").

Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was a freed former slave who incited the Haitian slave community to rebellion against the French authorities. He was eventually captured and taken to France, where he died shortly after, but his legacy lived on and France was unable to suppress the rebellion, primarily due to massive losses sustained from Yellow Fever. Haiti has been an independent nation ever since.

David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley were two British explorers and missionaries who explored vast swathes of Central Africa and, amongst other things, established that Lake Tanganyika was not the source of the Nile River. (The source of the Nile River was a topic of much interest in the late-nineteenth century Europe.)

The Medici family was an aristocratic family and banking dynasty that rose to prominence in fourteenth-century Florence under the leadership of Cosimo de Medici. The Medici family would go on to produce several popes, two queens of France, and the dynasty that ruled over Grand Duchy of Tuscany for two hundred years.