- Leo Baekeland
Leo Hendrik Baekeland (Ghent, November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944) was a Belgian-American chemist who invented Velox photographic paper (1893) and Bakelite (1907), an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic. Born in Ghent, Belgium, Baekeland was the son of a cobbler and a maid. Upon completing his doctorate at the University of Ghent, he emigrated to America in 1889. Baekeland sold his patent for Velox photographic paper to the president of Kodak, … - George Washington
George Constant Louis Washington (May 1871 - March 29, 1946) was an American inventor and businessman of Anglo-Belgian origin. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it, the "G. Washington Coffee Company". - Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 - April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. He was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents. As sole owner of the Ford Company he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. - Albert Claude
Albert Claude was a Belgian biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974. He studied medicine at the University of Liege (Belgium). During the winter of 1928-29 he worked in Berlin, first at the Institute für Krebsforschung, and then at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Dahlem. In the summer of 1929 he joined the Rockefeller Institute. While working at Rockefeller University in the 1930s and 1940s, … - May Sarton
May Sarton (May 3, 1912-July 16, 1995) was an American poet, novelist, and memoirist born in Wondelgem, Belgium. Many of her novels and poems are pellucid reflections of the lesbian experience. - Marguerite Yourcenar
Marguerite Yourcenar was the pseudonym of French novelist Marguerite Cleenewerck de Crayencour (June 8, 1903 - December 17, 1987). She was the daughter of Michel de Crayencour and Ferdinande (Fernande) de Cartier de Marchienne. Marguerite Yourcenar was the first woman to be elected to the Académie Française, in 1980. - George Sarton
George Alfred Leon Sarton (1884-1956) was a Belgian-American polymath, historian of science, and father of the writer, May Sarton. He wrote the seminal classic works, "History of Science", "The Study of the History of Science", and a two volume (of a projected nine volume) "Introduction to the History of Science". Sarton is regarded as the "father of the history of science". - Toots Thielemans
Baron Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor "Toots" Thielemans is a Belgian jazz artist well known for his guitar, harmonica playing, and also for his highly accomplished professional whistling. He is often credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics as being among the greatest jazz hamonica players of the century. - Robert Triffin
Robert Triffin (October 5, 1911; Flobecq, Belgium - February 23, 1993; Ostend, Belgium) was a Belgian economist best known for his critique of the Bretton Woods system, later known as Triffin's dilemma. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1938 and taught there from 1939 until 1942. He held positions in the U.S. Federal Reserve System (1942-1946), the International Monetary Fund (1946-1948), and the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (1948-1951), … - Kevin de Cock
Kevin De Cock , M.D., director of HIV/AIDS, World Health Organization Video | Transcript | Podcast The World Health Organization's Dr. Kevin De Cock talks about the global efforts to stem the spread of HIV and improve access to antiretroviral therapy. Kevin De Cock Biography - Maurice Tempelsman
Maurice Tempelsman (born August 26 1929, Antwerp, Belgium) is a Belgian-American diamond merchant and industrialist. He moved to the United States as a child and attended New York public schools and New York University. He is fluent in several languages and has interests in the fields of history, archaeology and sailing. - George Koltanowski
George Koltanowski was a Belgian-born American chess player and promoter. Koltanowski set the world's blindfold record on September 20, 1937, in Edinburgh, by playing 34 chess games simultaneously while blindfolded, making headline news around the world. His record still stands in the "Guinness Book of Records". Later, both Miguel Najdorf and János Flesch claimed to have broken that record, … - Louis Hennepin
Father Louis Hennepin, baptized Antoine was a Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect order (French: "Récollets") and an explorer of the interior of North America. Hennepin was born in Ath, province of Hainaut, Belgium, but became French in 1659, when Béthune, the town where he lived, was captured by the army of Louis XIV of France. At the request of Louis XIV the Récollets sent four missionaries to New France in May 1675, … - Charles Nerinckx
Rev. Charles Nerinckx was a missionary priest in Kentucky, and the founder of the Sisters of Loretto religious order. Nerinckx was born in Herffelingen, Belgium on October 2, 1761 and died at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri on August 12, 1824. Nerinckx was educated at the Catholic University of Leuven and upon completion of his theological training at the Theoological seminary of Mechelen was ordained a priest in 1785. He became vicar at the cathedral of Mechelen, … - Father Damien
Father Damien, also Blessed Damien of Molokai and born Joseph de Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious order. Damien is most noted for his extreme devotion to caring and ministering to people with what was then widely known as leprosy, forced by government-sanctioned medical segregation, … - Louis C. Rabaut
Louis Charles Rabaut (December 5, 1886-November 12, 1961) was politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. He was a Democratic congressman representing Michigan's 14th congressional district from 1935 to 1947, and from 1949 to 1961. He is best known for introducing legislation that added the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. - George van Biesbroeck
George A. Van Biesbroeck (or Georges-Achille Van Biesbroeck was a Belgian-American astronomer. He discovered the periodic comet 53P/Van Biesbroeck, as well as two non-periodic comets: C/1925 W1 (Van Biesbroeck 1) and C/1935 Q1 (Van Biesbroeck 2). He also discovered a number of asteroids. He was born in Ghent, Belgium and became a civil engineer. - David Paymer
David Paymer (born August 30 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated American character actor, seen in such films as "City Slickers", "The In-Laws", "Crazy People", "State and Main", "Payback", "Get Shorty", "The American President", "Amistad", "Carpool", "City Hall", and "Into the West". Paymer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1992 for "Mr. - Edgard Colle
Edgard Colle (Ghent, May 18 1897 - Ghent, April 20 1932) was a Belgian chess master, who pioneered the chess opening termed the Colle System. The Colle System, 1. d4 d5, 2. Nf3 Nf6, 3. e3, a form of reversed Semi-Slav opening, achieved the greatest use during the era from the late 1920s and 1930s. Colle himself played the opening beginning in 1925 and continuing until his death, scoring excellent results in major international tournaments (first in Amsterdam in 1926, … - Jan Yoors
Jan Yoors (April 12, 1922 - November 27, 1977) was a Flemish-American artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, tapestry creator, and earlier in life a gypsy. Yoors was born in Antwerp, Belgium. At the age of 12, he ran away with a group of Rom, or Gypsies, travelling with them for several months. When he finally returned home, rather than scold him, his liberal-minded parents gave him permission to spend part of each year with the Rom, which he did until age 18. - Désiré Defauw
Désiré Defauw was a Belgian conductor and violinist. He was professor of conducting at the Brussels Conservatory and was the first conductor of the Orchestre National de Belgique from 1937. He left Belgium for North America in 1940 and was music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 1941 to 1952. He was also music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1943 to 1947. He was also a composer. - John M. Deutch
John Mark Deutch (born July 27, 1938) was United States Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1995 and Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from May 10, 1995 until December 14, 1996. He is presently an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves on the Board of Directors of Citigroup, Cummins, Raytheon, and Schlumberger Ltd. Deutch was born in Brussels, Belgium, to a Russian Jewish father. - Taylor Dooley
Taylor Marie Dooley (born February 26, 1993) is an American child actress. - Marc Rich
Marc Rich (born Marc David Reich on December 18, 1934) is an international commodities trader. He fled the United States in 1983 to live in Switzerland while being prosecuted on charges of tax evasion and illegally making oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis. He received a presidential pardon from United States President Bill Clinton in 2001. - George Washington Goethals
George Washington Goethals [Go-tuhles] (29 June, 1858 - 21 January, 1928) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer, best known for his supervision of construction and the opening of the Panama Canal. The Goethals Bridge between Staten Island, New York City and Elizabeth, New Jersey is named in his honor, as is the Goethals Medal. - Curly Lambeau
Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau (April 9, 1898 - June 1, 1965) was the founder, a player, and the first coach of the Green Bay Packers professional football team. Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun formed the Packers in 1919 while Lambeau was working as a shipping clerk at the Indian Packing Company. The success of the team quickly led to it joining the National Football League in 1921. Lambeau coached the Packers as an NFL team from 1921 to 1949. - James Oliver van de Velde
James Oliver Van de Velde (1795 - 1855) was a U.S. (Belgian-born) Catholic bishop. He served as the second Roman Catholic Bishop of Chicago between 1849 and 1853. in 1853, he was transferred to Natchez, Mississippi and became bishop of the Diocese of Natchez, where he served until his death. - Vivica Genaux
Vivica Genaux is an American mezzo-soprano. Her father, an American of Belgian-Welsh descent, was a biochemistry professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and her mother, of Swiss-German extraction, was a language teacher. She has sung in major operas such as The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera, L'italiana in Algeri at Opéra National de Paris, and La Cenerentola with Dallas Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper. Ms. - Charles Schepens
Charles L. Schepens (March 13, 1912 - March 28, 2006) was an influential American ophthalmologist, regarded by many in the profession as "the father of modern retinal surgery", and member of the French Resistance. - Charles Joseph van Depoele
Charles Joseph Van Depoele (27 April 1846 - 18 March 1892) was an electrical engineer, inventor, and pioneer in electric railway technology. Van Depoele was born in Lichtervelde, Belgium. At a tender age he dabbled in electricity, and became so thoroughly infatuated with the subject that he entered upon a course of study and experiment at Poperinghe. In 1861, while at college, he produced his first light with a battery of forty Bunsen cells. - Albert Cavens
Albert Cavens (1 October 1906, Brussels - 17 December 1985, Los Angeles) was a Belgian-American silent film actor. Cavens moved to the United States soon after birth and began his career as a child actor only aged 8 in a number of films in 1914 including The Town of Nazareth also starring Charlotte Burton. However after 1914, young Albert took a break from acting but returned over thirty years later in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1950. - Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Furstenberg (born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin on December 31, 1946 in Brussels, Belgium) is an American fashion designer best known for her hallmark wrap dress. - Charles John Seghers
Charles John Seghers (sometimes written as "Charles Jean Seghers") (December 26, 1839, Ghent, Belgium - November 28, 1886, Bishop's Rock, Canada) was a Belgian clergyman and missionary bishop. He is considered to be the founder of the Alaska Mission. - Roger de Coster
Roger De Coster (b. Uccle, Belgium on August 28, 1944) is a legendary Belgian motocross racer. His name is almost synonymous with the sport of motocross. He won five 500cc Motocross World Championships and tallied a record 36 500cc Grand Prix victories. He was known for his smooth, controlled riding style and a commitment to physical training. - Charles Benedict Calvert
Charles Benedict Calvert (August 24, 1808 - May 12, 1864) was a U.S. Congressman from the sixth district of Maryland, serving one term from 1861-1863. Born in Riverdale, Maryland, Calvert completed preparatory studies at Bladensburg Academy of Maryland. His mother, Rosalie Eugenia Stier, was the daughter of a wealthy Belgian aristocrat, Baron Henri Joseph Stier (1743-1821) and his wife Marie Louise Peeters. - Jean-Charles Houzeau
Jean-Charles Houzeau de Lehaie (1820-1888) was a Belgian astronomer and journalist. He was born in Havre, Belgium (a small city near Mons). From 1842, he worked as a voluntary assistant at the Brussels observatory and began writing papers. He travelled a lot during his career (to Paris, the United Kingdom, United States, and Jamaica). Published works include "Des Turbines, de leur Construction, … - Maurice Goldenhar
Maurice Goldenhar (January 15, 1924 - September 11, 2001) was a Belgian-American ophthalmologist and general practitioner. He first diagnosed what became known as Goldenhar Syndrome in 1952. - Dave Debusschere
David Albert DeBusschere (October 16, 1940 - May 14, 2003) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the NBA. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons out of the University of Detroit in 1962 and won two championships with the New York Knicks. He was the youngest coach in league history. - Chris Richardson
Christopher Michael Richardson (born February 19, 1984) is an American singer who finished in the top six on the sixth season of "American Idol". He was eliminated on May 2, 2007. - Julius Nieuwland
Reverend Julius Arthur Nieuwland, CSC, Ph.D., (February 14, 1878-June 11, 1976) was a Belgian-born Holy Cross priest and professor of chemistry and botany at the University of Notre Dame. He is known for his contributions to acetylene research and its use as the basis for one type of synthetic rubber, which eventually led to the invention of Neoprene by DuPont. Father Nieuwland's parents immigrated from Hansbeke, Belgium in 1880 to South Bend, Indiana.
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