Famous Personality ( Political and Military Leaders )

1. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India

Manmohan Singh, best known as ' father of Indian Reforms', has emerged as the Congress party's frontrunner, the 14th Prime Minister of India and also the first Sikh to reach the country's top legislative position. Hailed to be the cleanest man in Indian politics, he was Former Finance Minister and author of the post-1991 economic reforms.

He was born to Mr. Gurmukh Singh and Mrs. Amrit Kaur on September 26, 1932 in a small village Gah (West Punjab), now in Pakistan. A brilliant student, Manmohan Singh secured top marks in almost all the major examinations he wrote. After his Masters in Economics from Amritsar's Hindu College under Punjab University he won scholarships to Cambridge and Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis on the critical role of exports and free trade in India's economy. Manmohan Singh won the prestigious Adam Smith prize in 1956 from Cambridge University.

The following year, he returned to India as a university lecturer and for the next nine years remained at Punjab University before being posted for international duty with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). He then joined the Delhi School of Economics as a professor. Two years later, his academic career was cut short and he joined the government to serve in various capacities.

Singh held several positions throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. He served as Economic advisor to the finance ministry in the late 70s, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission and Chairman of University Grants Commission in 1980s and early 1990's and as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985 etc.

An academician, he was discovered by former Prime Minister Shri. P.V Narasimha Rao. Rao offered him the finance ministry in 1991 under the Congress Government, and the chance to rescue a sickly economy threatened by an acute balance of payments crisis. During his stint as the finance minister (1991-1996), the suave, soft-spoken Sikh guided India out of financial trouble and put the country on course to becoming an economic power by opening up the economy to foreign investment and slashing trade barriers.

Singh was always an unlikely politician, who was routed in a parliamentary election in 1999. In fact, he has never won an election and sits in the upper house. Politically, Manmohan Singh is the classic example of the stateless politician.

After the Indian National Congress won the 2009 general elections, Singh was reappointed as the Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2009, making him the first Indian Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term before this over 40 years ago.
He is married to Gursharan Kaur they have three daughters.

2. Barack Obama
The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and 44th President of the USA

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii, USA in 1961. His mother was Caucasian and American, and his father was from Kenya. At the age of 2, they divorced and his father returned to Kenya to continue working in the field of economics. He was a very intelligent man who had been schooled in Harvard. Anyways, Barack ended up moving to Indonesia and lived with his mom and new step dad while eventually coming back to Hawaii to finish high school in the states. Years later, he ended up graduating from Columbia University with a Political Science major specializing in international relations. After graduating from there, he continued his education at the prestigious Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude (basically at the head of his class, or with "honors"). This is where he becomes the first African American president of Harvard's Law Review group. When he finished school, he ended up working as a very amazing community organizer and civil rights lawyer in and around Chicago.

He taught at the University of Chicago's Law School, and during 1996 through 2004, he served in the Illinois State Senate representing Chicago's South Side. In 2004, he got elected to the United States Senate over the conservative republican black candidate Alan Keyes with over 70 percent of the votes. Barack Obama was the only serving black Senator, and only the fifth in the entire United States History. His great commitment to civil rights, idealistic thoughts, and charmingly good looks helped make his Senate Campaign. After his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in 2004, he became known as one of the most inspirational and freshest new leaders of the Democratic Party.

Obama also published a book called "Dreams from my father" in 1995 and more recently "the Audacity of Hope". Both became best sellers fairly soon after being released.

Barack is married to Michelle Obama and also has two daughters named Malia Ann and Sasha. Barack Currently lives in the Chicago area and is becoming one of the major candidates of the 2008 presidential elections.

3. ADOLF HITLER
Leader of the Third Reich

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau, Austria, a small town across the Inn River from Germany. Soon after Hitler's birth, his father, Alois Hitler, moved the family to Linz, Austria. Hitler attended school in Linz and at first was a good student, but in high school he was a very poor student. Hitler's academic abilities angered his father because his father hoped that Hitler would study to become a government worker as he had been. Hitler, however, wanted to become an artist.

In 1907, Hitler went to Vienna Austria in an attempt to fulfill his dream of becoming an artist. This attempt ended when he failed the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts. When Hitler's mother died in 1907, he decided to remain in Vienna. He took the entrance exam a year later and failed again. He did not have steady work in Vienna, but, instead, took a variety of odd jobs. He lived in cheap rooming houses or slept on park benches and he often had to get meals from charity kitchens. During his time in Vienna Hitler learned to hate non-Germans. Hitler was a German-speaking Austrian and considered himself German. He ridiculed the Austrian government for recognizing eight languages as official and believed that no government could last if it treated ethnic groups equally.

In 1913, Hitler went to Munich, Germany and when World War I began in 1914, he volunteered for service in the German army. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, but only rose to the rank of corporal. When World War I ended. Hitler was in a hospital recovering from temporary blindness possibly caused by a poison gas attack. The Versailles Treaty that ended the war stripped Germany of much of its territory, forced the country to disarm, and ordered Germany to pay huge reparations. When the army returned to Germany. the country was in despair. The country was bankrupt and millions of people were unemployed.

In 1920, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers Party known as the Nazis. The Nazis called for all Germans, even those in other countries, to unite into one nation; they called for a strong central government; and they called for the cancellation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler became leader of the Nazi party and built up membership quickly, mostly because of his powerful speaking ability. Hitler organized an army for the Nazi party called the Storm Troopers ("Brown Shirts") who were called upon to fight groups seeking to disband the Nazi rallies.

On November 9, 1923, Hitler led more than 2,000 Storm Troopers on a march to seize the Bavarian government. The attempt failed and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to prison for five years for treason. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In this book. he stated his beliefs and plans for Germany's future. Hitler only served nine months in prison and when he was released, he began to rebuild the party again. He set up a private battle-ready elite guard known as the "Schutzstaffel" (SS). By 1929, the Nazis had become an important minor political party.

In 1930, a worldwide depression hit Germany, yet Germany also had the debt of paying for the damage it had caused in World War I. Hitler protested against paying the debt and said that the Jews and Communists were the cause for Germany's defeat in World War I. He promised to rid Germany of Jews and Communists and to reunite the German speaking part of Europe.

In July 1932, the Nazis received about 40% of the vote and became the strongest party in Germany. On January 30,1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Once in this position, Hitler moved quickly toward attaining a dictatorship. When von Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler already had control of Germany and he gave himself the title "Fuehrer" (leader).

Under Hitler's government, called the Third Reich, there was no place for freedom. The government controlled every part of one's life. Hitler used extensive propaganda to brainwash the nation into believing his theory about creating the perfect Aryan or Nordic race. Therefore, it was Hitler's plan to rid the nation and eventually the world of Jews, Gypsies, Negroes, handicapped, and mentally ill persons. This plan was called the "Final Solution."

World War II began in 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland to begin his unification of all German-speaking peoples. By this time extermination camps were being established throughout Germany, Poland, and Russia. Before Hitler was stopped in 1945 by the Allied countries, he had caused the extermination over 12 million people. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30,1945 and seven days later, Germany surrendered.