Image: Youtube / Wikimedia Commons
About This Quiz
If you're a history buff, you know that Europe's history is filled with famous figures that influenced not only Europe but the entire world.
And even if you only remember European history and its characters from what you learned in school, the names and photos of the people in this quiz are sure to ring a bell.
Here you'll find everyone from navigators whose voyages changed the world as we know it, to those who made those voyages possible. You'll also find artists whose works touched our hearts and authors whose writings changed our views of life and the role we play in it. Politicians and royalty also played a huge part in the history of Europe. And there's no shortage of those in this quiz!
Now, some of these figures were famous for the good things they did. Others will be remembered for the pain and suffering they caused. But no matter what they did, they will be remembered for the impact they had, and continue to have, in the world.
So, can you identify these famous European figures from just one picture? Let's find out!
Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Immanuel Kant
Henry VIII
King Henry VIII (1491-1547) was the second Tudor monarch and is known as the king who had six wives, two of which were executed, and another two marriages which he annulled. He was also known for initiating the English Reformation, which separated the Church of England from the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.
Rene Descartes
Dante
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Who is this person?
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the Daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII of England and was the last monarch of the House of Tudor. After being deemed illegitimate and being imprisoned, she became queen in 1558 where she was responsible for establishing the English Protestant church.
Vladimir Lenen
Vincent van Gogh
Karl Marx
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Who is this person?
Salvator Dali
Victor Hugo
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) was the chancellor of Germany and served as the leader of the Nazi party. He was responsible for initiating World War II and played an imperative role in the Holocaust, an event where approximately six million European Jews were killed.
Frederic Chopin
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Christopher Colombus
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian navigator and colonizer best known for making four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean which began the European colonization of the “New World." He visited parts of Central America, the Greater and Lesser Antilles and Hispaniola.
Socrates
Voltaire
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Isaac Newton
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright and poet who is best known for his epigram and his novels, The Picture of Dorian Grey and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Later in his life, he was arrested for gross indecency and homosexuality, an event which had a major role in his death.
Michelangelo
Julius Caesar
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Mark Antony
Oscar WIlde
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was a British army officer, statesman and writer who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 -1945 and from 1951-1955. He also won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 and was voted as one of the greatest Britons of all time.
Epicurius
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Who is this person?
Sigmund Freud
Anne Frank
Anne Frank (1929-1945) is a German diarist who was one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. She wrote a series of journals which documented her life while hiding, and although she died at the age of 15, her notes were later published in The Diary of a Young Girl.
Oswald Spengler
T.S. Eliot
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Who is this person?
Georges Braque
Salvador Dali
Charlie Chaplin
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), sometimes called The Baroness Thatcher and nicknamed “The Iron Lady” was a British stateswoman who was the first woman to become the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990) and she also served as the Leader of the Conservative Party.
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English playwright, actor and poet who has been called the greatest writer of our time. His body of work includes more than 150 sonnets, almost 40 plays and a few poems. Some of his most popular works include Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet.
Salvador Dali
Hippocrates
Marie Curie
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Who is this person?
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was an Italian journalist and politician who was best known for being the leader of the National Fascist Party. He was also one of the youngest Prime Ministers of Italy, ruling the country from 1922-1943.
Adam Smith
Galileo Gallilei
Louis XIV
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Who is this person?
Anne Boleyn
Aesop
Hernan Cortez
Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) was a Spanish Conquistador (conqueror) best known for leading an expedition that led to the fall of the Aztec Empire. This subsequently led to bringing large parts of Mexico under the leadership of the King of Castile. This paved the way for the Spanish colonization of central and south America.
Marie Antoinette
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was and ancient Greek scientist, philosopher and author whose work has influenced Islamic philosophy and Christian scholasticism. He was proficient in many subject areas, including biology, psychology, metaphysics and philosophy of science.
Marie Antionette
Napoleon Bonaparte
Adolf Hitler
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Who is this person?
Elizabeth I of England
Henry VIII
Catherine the Great
Catherine II, also called Catherine the Great (1729-1796), was the Empress of Russia and also its longest ruling leader. She was known for revitalizing the country, making it stronger and larger, recognizing her as one of the great powers of England.
Constantine I
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Johannes Gutenberg
Louis XIV
Louis XIV (1638-1715), also known as Louis the Great, was the King of France from the age of 5. His ruling lasted more than 72 years, the longest of any of the European sovereign. He was innovative and responsible for bringing absolute monarchy to France.
Richard Wagner
Mozart
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Who is this person?
Marie Curie
Marie Curie (1867 – 1934) was a Polish physicist and chemist who made significant advances in research on radioactivity. She was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win the award twice, and the only person to win in two different sciences, Physics and Chemistry.
Donatello
Socrates
Archduke Francis Ferdinand
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Wiki Commons Public Domain
Who is this person?
Marie Antoinette
Coco Chanel
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) was a French military leader who, during the French Revolution, was known for his success on the battlefield and in the political realm. He was also the Emperor of the French from 1808 to 1814 and again in 1815.
Adolf Hitler
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Pablo Picasso
Albert Einstein
Louis Pasteur
Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818-1883) is a German philosopher, historian and revolutionary socialist best known for his 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifest, and Das Kapital (1867). His theories and work subsequently led to the concept and creation of Marxism.
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Who is this person?
Rene Descartes
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antionette (1755-1793) was the very last queen of France before the French Revolution (1789-1799) and was married to Louis XVI and at the time of his ascension to the throne. She was well-liked by the public, but after numerous rumors of promiscuity, spending money carelessly and “the affair of the diamond necklace,” many grew to hate her.
Marco Polo
Julius Caesar
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Johannes Gutenberg
Ludvig van Beethoven
Ludvig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German pianist and composer who is widely regarded as one of best, if not the best, of his kind. His most famous works include Emperor Piano Concerto (the Fifth Symphony), Choral Symphony (the Ninth Symphony) and Fidelo.
Victor Hugo
Sigmund Freud
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Who is this person?
George Orwell
Albert Einstein
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) was a Russian communist and politician who served as the head of the government of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union from 1917 until his death in 1924. He was also the main contributor to the political theory of Leninism.
Pablo Picasso
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Who is this person?
St. Francis of Assisi
St.Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 – 1226) was an Italian Catholic preacher, deacon and friar who was responsible for founding the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Third Order of Saint Francis.
Oscar Wilde
Charles Darwin
Louis XIV
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Who is this person?
Ludwig van Beethoven
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (1883-1971) was a French businesswoman and fashion designer who founded the luxury brand, Coco Chanel. She has often been named as the one who freed women from the confines of a corset and in doing so, created a more casual, but still feminine and chic look.
Plato
Donatello
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Who is this person?
Sigmund Freud
Charles Dickens
Rene Descartes
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) was a German Nobel Prize-winning physicist who was responsible for developing the theory of modern relativity and the law of the photoelectric effect but is most known for his mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc2.
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Who is this person?
Ludvig van Beethoven
Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (1863 – 1914) was the Archduke of Hungary as well as being the royal prince of Hungary and Bohemia (a part of the Czech Republic) from 1896 until his assassination, some 18 years later. This death, along with that of his wife, would later lead to the initiation of World War I.
Adolf Hitler
Catherine the Great
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Who is this person?
Vincent van Gogh
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was an English statistician who has been called the founder of modern nursing. During the Crimean War, she served as the manager of nurses where she tended to wounded soldiers, often making her rounds at night which gave her the nickname “The Lady with the Lamp."
Shakespeare
Mary Robinson
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Who is this person?
Vladimir Lenin
Anne Frank
St. Patrick of Ireland
St. Patrick (AD 385 – 461) was a Century Roman-British missionary and patron saint of Ireland who was responsible for bringing Christianity to the country. Every 17th of March in Ireland, Saint Patrick’s feast day is celebrated and is a public holiday.
Johannes Gutenberg
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Who is this person?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) was an English biologist and geologist who is known throughout the world for his theory of evolution. He was also known for his voyages on the HMS Beagle, specifically the second trip to the Galapagos Islands where he studied its numerous endemic species.
Margaret Thatcher
Winston Churchill
Benito Mussolini
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Who is this person?
Florence Nightingale
Aristotle
Leif Erikson
Leif Erikson (970 – 1020) was a Norse explorer and the first European to discover North America. According to some Icelandic history books, he had established a Norse settlement in what we now know as Canada. He is also the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland.
Tycho Brahe
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Who is this person?
Jane Austen
Voltaire
Elizabeth Bathory
Countess Elizabeth Bathory de Ecsed (1560 – 1614) was a Hungarian noblewoman who was also an alleged murderer. She, along with a group of four other people, was accused of torturing and murdering an estimated 650 women from 1585 – 1609. She was later confined to a solitary windowless room until she died, almost five years later.
Marie Curie
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Who is this person?
Copernicus
Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas II (1868 – 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia whose reign lasted from 1894 until he was forced to resign in 1917. He was given the nickname “Nicholas the Bloody” because of the Khodynka Tragedy, Bloody Sunday, and the Russo-Japanese War. His reign was also said to be the fall of the Russian Empire.
Martin Luther
Elizabeth I
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Who is this person?
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) was a Roman general and politician whose leadership led to the fall of the Roman Republic and rise of a new one, the Roman Empire. He was known as a fearless and sometimes controversial leader who paved the way for his country to be one of the greatest of its time.
Matternich
Charles Darwin
Vladimir Lenin
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Who is this person?
Johann Sebastian Bach
John Locke
Archimedes
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (1822-1855) is a French chemist and microbiologist whose work led to major breakthroughs in the medical field. Some of these include vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization – a process used to kill off microorganisms in canned foods, milk and drinks.
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Who is this person?
Donatello di Niccolo di Betto Bardi
Donatello di Niccolo di Betto Bardi (1386 – 1466) was an Italian sculptor during the European Renaissance. He developed his own and a new style of sculpting and his most notable works include David, St, Mark and Madonna of the Clouds.
Louis Pasteur
Karl Marx
William Shakespeare
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Adolf Hitler
Ludwig van Beethoven
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German priest and professor who played an imperative role in the Protestant Reformation. He was known for rejecting many of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. His work, particularly the Ninety-Five Theses (1517), would lead him to be excommunicated by the pope.
Plato
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Who is this person?
Elizabeth I
Socrates
Socrates (470 – 399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who was named as one of the founders of Western philosophy. Although none of his writings were documented, it was described in full detail by students and fellow philosophers, Xenophon and Plato.
Oscar Wilde
Hernan Cortez
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Who is this person?
Albert Einstein
Elizabeth Bathroy
St. Francis of Assisi
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) was an English writer and novelist who was primarily known for writing six major novels which became some of the best-selling in the world. These publications include Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility.
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Who is this person?
King Henry VIII
Christopher Columbus
Charlemange
Charlemagne (742 – 814), sometimes called “Charles the Great,” was the King of the Franks, the Emperor of the Romans and the King of the Lombards. He was responsible for uniting Europe during the Middle Ages and converted his subjects to Christianity.
Martin Luther
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Who is this person?
Oliver Cromwell
Mary I
Marie Curie
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (1412 – 1431) whose nickname is “The Maid of Orleans” is a French woman who played an important role in the Lancaster phase of the Hundred Year War. After her death, she was declared a national symbol by Napoleon Bonaparte.
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
Peter the Great
Adam Smith
Napoleon Bonaparte
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726/1727) was an English mathematician, astronomer and physicist who was one of the most influential scientists of all time. He was responsible for coming up with the laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, as well as many others.
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Wiki Commons
Who is this person?
St. Patrick (Ireland)
Voltaire
Francois-Marie Arouet, otherwise known as “Voltaire” (1694-1778), was a historian, writer and philosopher during the Age of Enlightenment and was best known for advocating freedom of religion and speech, and attacking the Catholic church and Christianity.
Charles Darwin
Leif Erikson
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Who is this person?
Petrach
Sigmund Freud
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was an Italian inventor, painter, cartographer whose resume of work includes painting Annunciation, The Last Supper, The Mona Lisa as well as drawing notes, including The Vitruvian Man and other anatomical drawings.
Marie Curie
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Who is this person?
Claude Monet
Martin Luther
Charles Darwin
Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468) was a German blacksmith and publisher and was known as the man who brought the printing press to Europe. His mechanical movable typewriter started the printing revolution and paved the way for modern printing presses.
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Who is this person?
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 – 1669) was a Dutch printmaker and painter who has been called one of the greatest “visual artists in the history of art,” and whose works, which are featured all over the world include, The Night Watch, The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Storm of the Sea of Galilee.
Catherine de Medici
Adolf Hitler
Leon Trotsky
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Who is this person?
Nicolaus Copernicus
Marco Polo
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer who is best known for creating some of the world’s greatest literary pieces, and characters. Some of them include, A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Who is this person?
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who was the founder of psychoanalysis. He also developed therapeutic techniques such as free association, and developed his own theory of the unconscious, many of the concepts which are still being studied today.
Julius Caesar
Tsar Nicholas II
Charlemagne
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Who is this person?
John Calvin
Rembrandt
Joan of Arc
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French philosopher and scientist who has been called “The Father of Western Philosophy.” He was also a key player in the scientific revolution. His book, The Meditations on First Philosophy, is still, one of the standard textbooks being used in most universities of philosophy.
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Who is this person?
Marie Antoinette
Winston Churchill
John Calvin
John Calvin (1509 – 1564) was a French pastor, theologian and Protestant, who played a major role in Christian theology, which was later called Calvinism, and has had a major impact on the world we know today.
Voltaire
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Who is this person?
Jan Van Eyck
Rembrandt
John Calvin
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1542) was a Polish mathematician and astronomer who is best known for creating a model for the universe where the sun was in the center. Before his death, he published his work in a book that served as a major contributor to the Scientific Revolution.
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Who is this person?
Alexander the Great
Leonardo Da Vinci
Galileo Gallilei
Tycho Brahe
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) was a Danish writer, nobleman and astronomer whose accurate observations of the planetary system and development of astronomical instruments made way for some of the world’s greatest discoveries.
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[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Who is this person?
Machiavelli
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) was a Venetian explorer and merchant who was the first European to document his travels throughout China. These travels, which were recorded in The Travels of Marco Polo, made him very wealthy and paved the way for people like Christopher Columbus and Bento de Goes.
Michaelangelo
Thomas Moore
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/50
Youtube / Wikimedia Commons