National Heroes

1
National Heroes

• Axinte Nicoleta Roxana
• Cl. a X-a D

2
Summary

• 1.Nadia Comaneci
• 2.Ivan Patzaichin
• 3.Mihai Eminescu
• 4.Helmuth Duckadam
• 5.Ecaterina Teodoroiu
• 6.Henri Coanda
• 7.Nicolae Grigorescu
• 8.George Enescu
• 9.Stephen the Great
• 10.Constantin Brancusi

3
Nadia Comaneci

• Nadia Elena Comaneci (born November
  12, 1961) is a Romanian gymnast, winner of five
  Olympic gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics,
  and the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect
  score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. She is
  one of the best-known gymnasts in the world and,
  along with Olga Korbut, is credited with
  popularizing the sport around the world.
• Comaneci was born in Gheorghe
  Gheorghiu-Dej (now Onesti), Romania, as the
  daughter of Gheorghe and Stefania-Alexandrina.Her
  pregnant mother was watching a Russian film in
  which the heroine's name was Nadya, the
  diminutive version of the Russian name Nadyezhda
  (which means, literally, "Hope"). She decided
  that her daughter would be named Nadia, too.
  Comaneci also has a younger brother named Adrian.
• 1961-Born on November 12 in
  Onesti, Romania.1967-Begins training with Bela
  and Marta Karolyi.1969-Places 13th in first
  national competition.1970-Wins Romanian National
  Junior Championships.1975-Wins five gold medas at
  European Championships.1976-Scores first perfect
  ten at Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada-1976
  Wins three gold, one silver, and one bronze medal
  at Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada 1977 Wins
  two gold medals at European Championships.1978-Win
  s three gold and one bronze medal at European
  Championships.1980-Wins two gold and two silver
  medals at Olympic Games in Moscow,
  U.S.S.R.1981-Wins five gold medals at World
  University Games.1984-Retires from
  gymnastics.1989-Immigrates to the United
  States-1996 Marries American gymnast Bart
  Conner-2001 Becomes a United States citizen.

4
Nadia Comaneci
5
Nadia Comaneci
6
Ivan Patzaichin

• Ivan Patzaichin (born November 26,
  1949) is a Romanian sprint canoer who competed
  from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. Competing
  in five Summer Olympics, he won seven medals,
  more than any other competitor in the history of
  the Canadian canoeing events. This included four
  gold (C-1 1000 m 1972, C-2 1000 m 1968, 1980,
  1984) and three silvers (C-2 500 m 1980, 1984
  C-2 1000 m 1972).
• He also won 22 world championship
  medals with nine golds (C-1 1000 m 1973, 1977
  C-1 10000 m 1978, C-2 500 m 1979, C-2 1000 m
  1970, 1981, 1983 C-2 10000 m 1982), four
  silvers (C-1 1000 m 1975, C-2 1000 m 1971, C-2
  10000 m 1981, 1983), and nine bronzes (C-1 500
  m 1971, 1973, 1974 C-1 1000 m 1974, 1978,
  1979 C-1 10000 m 1974, 1977, 1979).
• Born in Mila 23, Tulcea County, to a
  Russian Lipovan family, he was a member of the
  Dinamo Bucharest canoe club. When he retired,
  Patzaichin became a coach and is now head of the
  Romanian national team, known as Amiralul ("The
  Admiral"). His pupils, including Olympic champion
  Florin Popescu, have won over one hundred sprint
  canoe titles.

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Ivan Patzaichin
8
Mihai Eminescu

• Mihai Eminescu (January 15, 1850
  June 15, 1889), was a late Romantic poet,
  novelist and journalist, often regarded as the
  most famous and influential Romanian poet. Famous
  works include Luceafarul ("Evening Star"), Oda în
  metru antic (Ode in ancient meter), and the five
  Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems he
  frequently used metaphysical, mythological and
  historical subjects. In general his work was
  influenced by the German philosopher Arthur
  Schopenhauer. Eminescu had been active in the
  Junimea literary society, and served as editor of
  Timpul, the official newspaper of the
  Conservative Party.
• His most famous poems are
• Doina (the name is a traditional type of Romanian
  song), 1884
• Lacul (The Lake), 1876
• Luceafarul (The Evening Star), 1884
• Floare albastra (Blue Flower), 1884
• Dorinta (Desire), 1884
• Sara pe deal (Evening on the Hill), 1885
• O, ramii (Oh, Linger On), 1884
• Epigonii (Epigones), 1884
• Scrisori (Letters or "Epistles-Satires")
• Si daca (And if...), 1883
• Oda (în metru antic) (Ode (in Ancient Meter)),
  1883
• Mai am un singur dor (I Have Yet One Desire),
  1883

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Mihai Eminescu
10
Helmuth Duckadam

• Helmuth Duckadam (born April 1,
  1959 in Semlac) is a former Romanian football
  goalkeeper, dubbed "the hero of Seville" due to
  his heroics in the 1986 European Cup Final.
• Duckadam started his career
  playing in the regional league of Arad county,
  before moving to UT Arad in 1978 to become
  professional. In 1982 played twice for Romania
  and, as a result, was signed by country giants FC
  Steaua Bucharest.
• Duckadam, who was instrumental
  in helping the capital side to two consecutive
  league titles, was also between the posts for the
  1986 European Cup final against F.C. Barcelona,
  which was played in Seville, on May 7, 1986.
  Amazingly, he saved four consecutive penalty
  shots in the shootout, from José Ramón Alexanko,
  Ángel Pedraza, Pichi Alonso and Marcos, being the
  first one to do so in an official European
  competition. Steaua won it 2-0, and the main
  European trophy for the first time, and much of
  the credit for the surprise victory was given to
  Duckadam.
• In 1986, he suffered a rare blood
  disorder only few weeks after the Seville
  performance,and would only resume his career
  three years later, finishing it with lowly
  Vagonul Arad, in the second level. According to a
  personal interview given in 1999, Duckadam had
  become a major with the Romanian Border Police
  (Politia de Frontiera) in his hometown of Semlac,
  in Arad County. Also, he opened a football school
  in the city, named after himself.On 25 March
  2008, Duckadam was decorated by the president of
  Romania, Traian Basescu, with Ordinul "Meritul
  Sportiv" ("The Sportive Merit" Order - class
  II), for his part in winning the of 1986 European
  Cup.

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Helmuth Duckadam
12
Ecaterina Teodoroiu

• Ecaterina Teodoroiu (January 15,
  1894 - September 3, 1917), born Catalina
  Toderoiu, was a Romanian woman who fought and
  died in World War I, and is regarded as a heroine
  of Romania.
• In Romanian historiography,
  Ecaterina Teodoroiu is placed in the context of
  gendered experience of the Great War on the
  Eastern Front, on the same pedestal as Queen
  Maria of Romania.
• She was born in the village of
  Vadeni (nowadays part of Târgu Jiu), in the
  historical region of Oltenia, in Southern
  Romania. After studying for 4 years in Vadeni and
  Târgu Jiu and graduating from the Girls' School
  in Bucharest, she was to became a teacher when
  the Romanian Kingdom entered World War I on the
  Entente side, in 1916.
• In October 1916, Ecaterina
  joined the Romanian Army during the first Jiu
  battle when General Ion Dragalina's 1st Army
  repulsed the 9th German Army offensive. A Scouts'
  member, she had initially worked as a nurse but
  she subsequently decided to become a front-line
  soldier, being deeply impressed by the patriotism
  of the wounded and by the death of her brother
  Nicolae (Sergeant in the Romanian Army). It was
  an unusual decision for a woman of that epoch, so
  she was sent to the front rather reluctantly.
  However, soon she proved her worthiness as a
  symbol and as a soldier. She was taken prisoner
  but managed to escape by killing two, or perhaps
  three German soldiers. In November, she was
  wounded and hospitalized, but came back to the
  front where she was soon decorated, advanced in
  rank to Sublocotenent (Second Lieutenant) and
  given the command of a 25-man platoon.
• For her bravery she was
  awarded the Military Virtue Medal, 1st Class.
• On September 3, 1917 (August
  22 Old Style), she was killed in the Battle of
  Marasesti (in Vrancea County), where she was hit
  in the chest by German machine gun fire.
  According to some accounts, her last words before
  dying were "Forward, men, I'm still with you!"
  She was buried in the city center of Târgu Jiu,
  and her grave is honored by a monument erected in
  1936 by Milita Petrascu.

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Ecaterina Teodoroiu
14
Henri Coanda

• Henri Marie Coanda (June 7, 1886
  November 25, 1972) was a Romanian inventor,
  aerodynamics pioneer and the builder of world's
  first jet powered aircraft, the Coanda-1910. He
  discovered and gave his name to the Coanda
  effect.
• Born in Bucharest, Coanda was
  the second child of a large family. His father
  was General Constantin Coanda, a mathematics
  professor at the National School of Bridges and
  Roads. His mother, Aida Danet, was the daughter
  of French physician Gustave Danet, and was born
  in Brittany. He was later to recall that even as
  a child he was fascinated by the miracle of wind.
• Coanda studied at the Petrache
  Poenaru Communal School in Bucharest, then (1896)
  at the Liceu Sf. Sava (Saint Sava National
  College). After three years (1899), his father,
  who desired a military career for him, had him
  transfer to the Military Lycee in Iasi. He
  graduated from that institution in 1903 with the
  rank of sergeant major, and he continued his
  studies at the School of Artillery, Military, and
  Naval Engineering in Bucharest. Sent with an
  artillery regiment to Germany (1904), he enrolled
  in the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg,
  Berlin.
• Coanda graduated as an artillery
  officer, but he was more interested in the
  technical problems of flight. In 1905, he built a
  missile-aeroplane for the Romanian Army. He
  continued his studies (1907-1908) at the
  Montefiore Institute in Liège, Belgium, where he
  met . In 1908 Coanda returned to Romania to serve
  as an active officer in the Second Artillery
  Regiment. However, his inventor's spirit did not
  comport well with military discipline. He
  solicited and obtained permission to leave the
  army, after which he took advantage of his
  renewed freedom to take a long automobile trip to
  Isfahan, Teheran, and Tibet. Upon his return in
  1909, he travelled to Paris, where he enrolled in
  the newly founded École Nationale Superieure
  d'Ingenieurs en Construction Aéronautique (now
  the École Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique
  et de l'Espace, also known as SUPAERO). One year
  later (1910) he graduated at the head of the
  first class of aeronautical engineers.

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Henri Coanda

• With the support of engineer Gustave
  Eiffel and the mathematician, politician, and
  aeronautical pioneer Paul Painlevé, he began
  experimenting the aerodynamic techniques one of
  this experiments was mounting a device on a train
  running at 90 km/h so he could analyse the
  aerodynamic behavior. Another experiment used a
  wind tunnel with smoke and an aerodynamical
  balance to profile wings to be used in designing
  aircraft. This later led to the discovery of the
  aerodynamic effect now known as the Coanda
  effect.
• In 1910, using the workshop of ,
  he designed, built and piloted the first
  'thermojet' powered aircraft, known as the
  Coanda-1910, which he demonstrated publicly at
  the second International Aeronautic Salon in
  Paris. The powerplant used a 4-cylinder piston
  engine to power a compressor, which fed two
  burners for thrust, instead of using a propeller.
  It would be nearly 30 years until the next
  thermojet powered aircraft, the Caproni Campini
  N.1
• At the airport of
  Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, Coanda lost
  control of the jet plane, which went off of the
  runway and caught fire. Fortunately, he escaped
  with just a good scare and some minor injuries to
  his face and hands. Around that time, Coanda
  abandoned his experiments due to a lack of
  interest and support on the part of the public
  and of scientific and engineering institutions.
• In 1915, he went again to France
  where, working during World War I for
  Delaunay-Belleville in Saint-Denis, he designed
  and built three different models of propeller
  aeroplane, including the , with two propellers
  mounted close to the tail this design was to be
  reprised in the "Caravelle" transport aeroplane,
  for which Coanda was a technical consultant..In
  the years between the wars, he continued
  traveling and inventing inventions included the
  first jet-powered sleigh, and the first de luxe
  aerodynamic railroad train. In 1934 he was
  granted a French patent related to the Coanda
  Effect. In 1935, he used the same principle as
  the basis for a hovercraft called "", which was
  very similar in shape to the flying saucers later
  developed by Avro Canada before being bought by
  the United States Air Force and becoming a
  classified project.
• In 1969, during the first
  years of the Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu era, he
  returned to spend his last days in his native
  Romania, where he served as director of the
  Institute for Scientific and Technical Creation
  (INCREST) and in 1971 reorganized, along with
  professor Elie Carafoli, the Department of
  Aeronautical Engineering of the Polytechnic
  University of Bucharest, spinning it off from the
  Department of Mechanical Engineering.Coanda died
  in Bucharest November 25, 1972 at the age of
  86.Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport
  is named after him.

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Henri Coanda
17
Nicolae Grigorescu

• He was born in Pitaru, (judetul
  Dâmbovita), Romania. In 1843 the family moved to
  Bucuresti. At a young age (between 1848 and
  1850), he became an apprentice at the workshop of
  the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for
  the church of Baicoi and the monastery of
  Caldarusani. In 1856 he created the historical
  composition Mihai scapând stindardul (Michael the
  Brave dropping the flag), which he presented to
  the Wallachian Prince Barbu Stirbei, together
  with a petition asking for financial aid for his
  studies.
• Between 1856 and 1857, he
  painted the church of the Zamfira monastery,
  Prahova county, and in 1861 the church of the
  Agapia monastery. With the help of Mihail
  Kogalniceanu, he received a scholarship to study
  in France.
• In the autumn of 1861, young
  Grigorescu left for Paris, where he studied at
  the École des Beaux-Arts. He also attended the
  workshop of Sébastien Cornu, where he had as a
  colleague Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Knowing his
  weaknesses, he concentrated drawing and
  composition. However, he soon left this workshop
  and, attracted by the artistic concepts of the
  Barbizon school, he left Paris for that village,
  where he became the associate of artists such as
  Jean-François Millet, Jean-Baptiste Camille
  Corot, Gustave Courbet and Théodore Rousseau.
  Under the influence of the movement, Grigorescu
  looked for new means of expression and followed
  the trend of en plein air painting, which was
  also important in Impressionism. As part of the
  Universal Exposition of Paris (1867), he
  contributed seven works. Then he exhibited at the
  Paris Salon of 1868 the painting Tânara tiganca
  (Gypsy girl).
• He returned to Romania a few
  times and starting in 1870 he participated in the
  exhibits of living artists and those organized by
  the Society of the Friends of the Belle-Arts.
  Between 1873 and 1874 he traveled to Italy,
  Greece and Vienna.
• In 1877 he was called to
  accompany the Romanian Army as a "frontline
  painter" in the Romanian War of Independence.
  During the battles at the Grivica Strongpoint and
  Oryahovo, he made drawings and sketches which
  later used in creating larger-scale works.
• In 1889 his work was featured
  in the Universal Exhibition in Paris and at the
  Romanian Atheneum. Centerpiece exhibits took
  place at the Romanian Atheneum would follow in
  1891, 1895, 1897, 1902, and 1905. From 1879 to
  1890 he worked in France, especially in Vitré,
  Bretagne, and in his workshop in Paris. In 1890
  he settled in Câmpina and started depicting
  pastoral themes, especially portraits of peasant
  girls, pictures of ox carts on dusty country
  roads and other landscapes. He was named honorary
  member of the Romanian Academy in 1899.At the
  moment of his death, Grigorescu had been working
  on his Întoarcerea de la bâlci (The Return from
  the Fair).

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Nicolae Grigorescu
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George Enescu

• George Enescu (known in France
  as Georges Enesco) (August 19, 1881, Liveni May
  4, 1955, Paris) was a Romanian composer,
  violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.
• He was born in the village of
  Liveni, Romania (Dorohoi County at the time,
  today Botosani County), and showed musical talent
  from early in his childhood. A child prodigy,
  Enescu created his first musical composition at
  the age of five. Shortly thereafter, his father
  presented him to the professor and composer
  Eduard Caudella. At the age of seven, he entered
  the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied with
  Joseph Hellmesberger, Jr., Robert Fuchs, and
  Sigismund Bachrich, and graduated before his 13th
  birthday, earning the silver medal. In his
  Viennese concerts young Enescu played works by
  Brahms, Sarasate and Mendelssohn. In 1895 he went
  to Paris to continue his studies. He studied
  violin with Martin Pierre Marsick, harmony with
  André Gédalge, and composition with Jules
  Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.
• Many of Enescu's works were
  influenced by Romanian folk music, his most
  popular compositions being the two Romanian
  Rhapsodies (19012), the opera Œdipe (1936), and
  the suites for orchestra. He also wrote five
  symphonies (two of them unfinished), a symphonic
  poem Vox maris, and much chamber music (three
  sonatas for violin and piano, two for cello and
  piano, a piano trio, quartets with and without
  piano, a wind decet (French, "dixtuor"), an octet
  for strings, a piano quintet, a chamber symphony
  for twelve solo instruments).
• George Enescu Museum
  (Cantacuzino Palace), Bucharest

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George Enescu
21
Stephen the Great

• During his reign, he strengthened
  Moldavia and maintained its independence against
  the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman
  Empire, which all sought to subdue the land.
  Stephen achieved fame in Europe for his long
  resistance against the Ottomans. He was
  victorious in 34 of his 36 battles, and was one
  of the first to gain a decisive victory over the
  Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui, after which
  Pope Sixtus IV deemed him verus christianae fidei
  athleta (true Champion of Christian Faith). He
  was a man of religion and displayed his piety
  when he paid the debt of Mount Athos to the
  Porte, ensuring the continuity of Athos as an
  autonomous monastical community.
• Stephen was a member of the ruling
  Musatin family. His father Bogdan II had ruled
  Moldavia for two years (1449 to 1451) before
  being killed in a stealthy raid lead by Stephen's
  uncle, Petru Aron. Bogdan II was attending a
  wedding of one of his boyars - who apparently was
  in collusion with Petru Aron - and the surprise
  was complete. Stephen barely escaped with his
  life, but his father was captured and beheaded on
  the spot by his half-brother Petru Aron. Between
  1451 and 1457, Moldavia was turmoiled by civil
  war between Petru Aron and Alexandrel - a nephew
  of Alexandru cel Bun.
• Coat of arms of Moldavia in 1481,
  at Putna Monastery.
• Stephen's tombstone, Putna
  Monastery.
• Menaced by powerful neighbours, he
  successfully repelled an invasion by the
  Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, defeating him
  in the Battle of Baia (in 1467), crushed an
  invading Tatar force at Lipnic and invaded
  Wallachia in 1471 (the latter had by then
  succumbed to Ottoman power and had become its
  vassal). When the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II
  launched a retaliation attack on Moldavia,
  Stephen defeated the invaders at the Battle of
  Vaslui in 1475, a victory which temporarily
  halted the Turkish advance. Stephen was defeated
  at Razboieni (Battle of Valea Alba) the next
  year, but the Ottomans had to retreat after they
  failed to take any significant castle (see siege
  of Cetatea Neamtului) as a plague started to
  spread in the Ottoman army. Stephen's search for
  European assistance against the Turks met with
  little success, even though he had "cut off the
  pagan's right hand" - as he put it in a letter.

22
Stephen the Great

• Stephen helped to oust Vlad Tepes's
  brother, the pro-Ottoman Radu the Handsome, whose
  daughter he would marry, and installed Laiota
  Basarab the Old on the throne in the hope of
  bringing Wallachia back into the Christian camp.
  This proved to be illusory, as Laiota quickly
  turned his back on Stephen, deeming that Ottoman
  protection would better help him consolidate his
  rule. With Stephen's support, Laiota was removed
  from the throne in 1482 by Vlad Calugarul,
  brother to Vlad Tepes, and for the remainder of
  the 15th century Wallachia remained relatively
  stable under his rule.
• After 1484, when he lost the
  fortresses of Chilia Noua and Cetatea Alba to an
  Ottoman blitz invasion, Stephen had to face not
  only new Turkish onslaughts which he defeated
  again on November 16, 1485 at Catlabuga Lake and
  at Scheia on the Siret River in March 1486, but
  also the Polish designs on Moldavian
  independence. Finally on 20 August 15031 he
  concluded a treaty with Sultan Beyazid II that
  preserved Moldavia's self rule, at the cost of an
  annual tribute to the Turks.
• From the 16th century on, the
  Principality of Moldavia would spend three
  hundred years as an Ottoman vassal. In his late
  years, he dealt successfully with a Polish
  invasion, defeating the Poles at the Battle of
  the Cosmin Forest. Stephen died in Suceava, and
  is buried in the Monastery of Putna.
• Though it was marked by continual
  strife, Stephen's long reign brought considerable
  cultural development many churches and
  monasteries were erected by Stephen himself some
  of which, including Voronet, are now part of
  UNESCO's World Heritage sites.
• Stephen was seen as holy by many
  Christians, soon after his death. He has been
  canonized a saint by the Romanian Orthodox Church
  under the name "The Right-believing Voivod
  Stephen the Great and the Holy".
• In a 2006 Romanian national
  television campaign on TVR 1 (see Mari Români),
  Stephen III was voted by almost 40,000 viewers as
  the "Greatest Romanian" of all times.

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Stephen the Great
24
Constantin Brancusi

• Constantin Brâncusi (February
  19, 1876 March 16, 1957) pronounced
  konstan'tin br?n'ku??), was an internationally
  renowned Romanian sculptor whose sculptures,
  which blend simplicity and sophistication, led
  the way for modernist sculptors.
• Brâncusi grew up in the village
  of Hobita Romania, Gorj, near Târgu Jiu, near
  Romania's Carpathian Mountains, an area known for
  its rich tradition of folk crafts, particularly
  ornate woodcarving. The simple geometric patterns
  of the craftsmen is seen in his mature works.
• His parents, Nicolae and
  Maria Brâncusi, were poor peasants who earned a
  meagre living through back-breaking labor, and
  from the age of seven he herded the family's
  flock of sheep. He showed remarkable talent for
  carving objects out of wood. Strong-willed and
  determined, he often ran away from home to escape
  the bullying of his father and older brothers.
• At the age nine Brâncusi
  left the village to work at menial jobs in the
  nearest large town. At 13 he went to Craiova,
  where he worked at a grocery store for several
  years. When he was 18, impressed by Brâncusi's
  talent for carving, his employer financed his
  education at the Craiova Scoala de Meserii
  (School of Crafts). There he indulged his love
  for woodworking, taught himself to read and
  write, and graduated with honors in 1898.1
• He then enrolled in the
  Bucharest School of Fine Arts,where he received
  academic training in sculpture. He worked hard,
  and quickly distinguished himself as talented.
  One of his earliest surviving works, under the
  guidance of his anatomy teacher, Dimitrie Gerota,
  is a masterfully rendered écorché (statue of a
  man with skin removed to reveal the muscles
  underneath) which was exhibited at the Romanian
  Athenaeum in 1903.2 Though just an anatomical
  study, it foreshadowed the sculptor's later
  efforts to reveal essence rather than merely copy
  outward appearance.

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Constantin Brancusi