The most famous Poles in the area of centuries

Mikoaj Kopernik

Nicolaus Copernicus (German: Nikolaus Kopernikus; Italian: Nicol Copernico; Polish: Mikoaj Kopernik; 19 February 1473 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.

The world's most famous polish composer

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist.

He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano" The vast majority of Chopin's works are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces and some songs. His piano writing is often technically demanding, with an emphasis on nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, tude, impromptu, scherzo and prlude.

Tadeusz KociuszkoAndrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kociuszko (February 12, 1746 October 15, 1817) was a PolishLithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kociuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus. He led the 1794 Kociuszko Uprising against Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia as Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Force.

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz(December 24, 1798 November 26, 1855) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature. He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic language or European poets. He has been described as a Slavonic bard. He was a prominent creator of Romantic drama in Poland and has been compared both at home and in Western Europe to Byron and Goethe.

Maria Curie-Skodowska(November 7, 1867 July 4, 1934) was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and, subsequently, French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the first twicehonored Nobel laureate (and still the only one in two different sciences) and the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Juliusz Sowacki( 4 September 1809 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama. His works often feature elements of Slavic pagan traditions, Polish history, mysticism and orientalism. His style includes the employment of neologisms and irony. His primary genre was the drama, and secondly, lyric poetry. His most popular works include the dramas Kordian and Balladyna and the poem Beniowski.

Jzef PisudskiJzef Klemens Pisudski ( 5 December 1867 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesmanChief of State (191822), "First Marshal" (from 1920), and authoritarian leader (192635) of the Second Polish Republic. From mid-World War I he had a major influence in Poland's politics, and was an important figure on the European political scene. He is considered largely responsible for Poland's regaining its independence in 1918, after 123 years of partitions.

Henryk SienkiewiczHenryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz, also known as "Litwos"; May 5, 1846 November 15, 1916) was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prizewinning novelist. A Polish szlachcic (noble) of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."

Czesaw Miosz(30 June 1911 14 August 2004) was a Polish poet, prose writer and translator of Lithuanian origin and subsequent American citizenship. His World War IIera sequence The World is a collection of 20 "naive" poems. He defected to the West in 1951, and his nonfiction book The Captive Mind (1953) is a classic of anti-Stalinism. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Blessed Pope John Paul II Ioannes Paulu Polish: Jan (Latin:Pawe II), born Karol Jzef Wojtya (18 May 1920 2 April 2005), served as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at 84 years and 319 days of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted 26 years and 168 days; only Pope Pius IX (18461878) who served 31 years, reigned longer. Pope John Paul II is the only Slavic or Polish pope to date and was the first non-Italian Pope since Dutch Pope Adrian VI

John Paul II was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century. He was instrumental in ending communism in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. Conversely, he denounced the excesses of capitalism. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He was one of the most-travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. He spoke Italian, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Croatian, and Latin as well as his native Polish. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, he beatified 1,340 people and canonised 483 saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the last five centuries. On 19 December 2009, John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor Pope Benedict XVI and was beatified on 1 May 2011.

Roman Polaski

(born 18 August 1933) is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international film makers." Polanski's films have inspired diverse directors, including the Coen Brothers, Atom Egoyan, Darren Aronofsky, Park Chan-wook, Abel Ferrara, and Wes Craven.

Thank you for your attention...Prepared by: Adrianna Belka Natalia Muszyska