Isaac Newton
Newton was an English mathematician and physicist. In 1687 he published the Principia, which explained gravity and the laws of motion. He also showed that white light is made of all the colours of the rainbow.
People
Inventors, writers, leaders, heroes and artists the test may ask about.
Inventors and scientists
Ideas from these people changed how the whole world travels, heals and communicates.
1643-1727 1736-1819 James Watt
Watt was a Scottish engineer. He made the steam engine far more efficient by adding a separate condenser. His engines powered factories and mines during the Industrial Revolution, and the unit of power, the watt, is named after him.
1781-1848 George Stephenson
Stephenson built some of the first steam railway locomotives. He was engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (1825) and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830). He is often called the father of the railways.
1881-1955 Alexander Fleming
Fleming was a Scottish doctor and scientist. In 1928 he noticed that a mould killed bacteria in his laboratory, and so discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic. He shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945.
1888-1946 John Logie Baird
Baird was a Scottish engineer. In 1926 he gave the first public demonstration of a working television system in London. The BBC later used his system for its first television broadcasts.
Born 1955 Tim Berners-Lee
Berners-Lee is an English computer scientist. While working at CERN in 1989 he proposed the World Wide Web, and by 1990 he had built the first web browser and web server. He chose not to patent it, so anyone could use it.
Writers and poets
Their books, plays and poems are read all over the world and are part of everyday language.
1564-1616 William Shakespeare
Shakespeare was a playwright and poet from Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote about 37 plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth, and many sonnets. Many phrases we still use, such as “a heart of gold”, come from his work.
1759-1796 Robert Burns
Burns is the national poet of Scotland and wrote in the Scots language as well as English. His song Auld Lang Syne is sung around the world at New Year. Scots celebrate Burns Night on his birthday, 25 January.
1775-1817 Jane Austen
Austen was an English novelist. Her books, such as Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma, describe family life and marriage with gentle humour. They are still read widely and often made into films.
1812-1870 Charles Dickens
Dickens was the most popular novelist of the Victorian age. Books such as Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol showed the hard lives of poor people in industrial cities. His stories helped to push for social reform.
1914-1953 Dylan Thomas
Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer. His best-known works are the poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night and the radio play Under Milk Wood, set in a small Welsh fishing town.
Leaders and politicians
Monarchs and Prime Ministers who led the country at important moments.
Reigned 1558-1603 Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII. During her reign England defeated the Spanish Armada and the arts flourished, with writers such as Shakespeare. She never married, and her time is often called the Elizabethan age.
Prime Minister 1721-1742 Robert Walpole
Walpole is seen as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. He led the government for over 20 years, longer than anyone since. Number 10 Downing Street was first given to him.
Reigned 1837-1901 Queen Victoria
Victoria reigned for almost 64 years. In her time Britain built railways and factories and became the centre of a large empire. The period is called the Victorian age.
1874-1965 Winston Churchill
Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, when Britain stood almost alone against Nazi Germany. His speeches gave people courage during the Second World War. He served as Prime Minister again from 1951 to 1955 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1925-2013 Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher was the first woman to be Prime Minister of the UK, from 1979 to 1990. Her government sold many state-owned industries and reduced the power of trade unions. Her policies are still debated today.
Heroes and campaigners
People who showed courage in war, or who fought for others to be treated fairly.
1758-1805 Horatio Nelson
Nelson was an admiral of the Royal Navy. In 1805 he defeated the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar but was killed during the battle. His statue stands on top of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London.
1759-1833 William Wilberforce
Wilberforce was a Member of Parliament who campaigned for years against the slave trade. Parliament abolished the trade in 1807. Slavery itself was abolished across most of the British Empire by a law passed just before his death in 1833.
1820-1910 Florence Nightingale
Nightingale nursed wounded soldiers in the Crimean War and improved hygiene in army hospitals. In 1860 she set up a nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. She is seen as the founder of modern nursing.
1858-1928 Emmeline Pankhurst
Pankhurst led the suffragettes, who campaigned for women’s right to vote. In 1903 she founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. Women won the vote on equal terms with men in 1928, the year she died.
Artists and musicians
Painters, composers and bands whose work is known far beyond the UK.
1659-1695 Henry Purcell
Purcell was one of the greatest English composers. He wrote church music and music for the theatre, and his Dido and Aeneas is one of the earliest English operas.
1775-1851 J. M. W. Turner
Turner was a painter famous for landscapes and seas full of light and weather. His painting The Fighting Temeraire is one of the best-loved pictures in Britain. His face appears on the £20 note.
1857-1934 Edward Elgar
Elgar was an English composer. His Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 is played at the Last Night of the Proms, sung with the words Land of Hope and Glory. He also wrote the Enigma Variations.
Formed 1960 The Beatles
The Beatles were a band from Liverpool: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. In the 1960s they became one of the most successful bands in history, and they changed popular music around the world.