1 National Heroes Axinte Nicoleta Roxana Cl. a X-a D.

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National Heroes

Axinte Nicoleta RoxanaCl. a X-a D

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Summary1.Nadia Comaneci2.Ivan Patzaichin3.Mihai Eminescu4.Helmuth Duckadam5.Ecaterina Teodoroiu6.Henri Coanda7.Nicolae Grigorescu8.George Enescu9.Stephen the Great10.Constantin Brancusi

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Nadia Comaneci Nadia Elena Comăneci (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.

Comăneci was born in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (now Oneşti), Romania, as the daughter of Gheorghe and Ştefania-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. Comăneci 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-Wins 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.

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Nadia Comaneci

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Nadia Comaneci

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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

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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 Luceafărul ("Evening Star"), Odă 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 areDoina (the name is a traditional type of Romanian song), 1884 Lacul (The Lake), 1876 Luceafărul (The Evening Star), 1884 Floare albastră (Blue Flower), 1884 Dorinţa (Desire), 1884 Sara pe deal (Evening on the Hill), 1885 O, rămii (Oh, Linger On), 1884 Epigonii (Epigones), 1884 Scrisori (Letters or "Epistles-Satires") Şi dacă (And if...), 1883 Odă (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

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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 (Poliţia de Frontieră) 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 Băsescu, 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

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Ecaterina Teodoroiu Ecaterina Teodoroiu (January 15, 1894 - September 3, 1917), born Cătălina 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 Vădeni (nowadays part of Târgu Jiu), in the historical region of Oltenia, in

Southern Romania. After studying for 4 years in Vădeni 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 Mărăşeşti (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 Miliţa Petraşcu.

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Ecaterina Teodoroiu

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Henri Coanda Henri Marie Coandă (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 Coandă effect.

Born in Bucharest, Coandă was the second child of a large family. His father was General Constantin Coandă, 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.

Coandă 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 Iaşi. 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.

Coandă 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 Coandă 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 Coandă effect.

In 1910, using the workshop of , he designed, built and piloted the first 'thermojet' powered aircraft, known as the Coandă-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, Coandă 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, Coandă 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 Coandă 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 Coandă 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 Ceauşescu 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.Coandă died in Bucharest November 25, 1972 at the age of 86.Bucharest's Henri Coandă International Airport is named after him.

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Henri Coanda

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Nicolae Grigorescu He was born in Pitaru, (judeţul Dâmboviţa), Romania. In 1843 the family moved to Bucureşti. 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 Băicoi and the monastery of Căldăruşani. In 1856 he created the historical composition Mihai scăpând stindardul (Michael the Brave dropping the flag), which he presented to the Wallachian Prince Barbu Ştirbei, 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 Kogălniceanu, 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 Tânără ţigancă (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

Botoşani 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 (1901–2), 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

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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 Muşatin 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 Alexăndrel - 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 Războieni (Battle of Valea Albă) the next year, but the Ottomans had to retreat after they failed to take any significant castle (see siege of Cetatea Neamţului) 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.

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Stephen the Great

Stephen helped to oust Vlad Ţepeş's brother, the pro-Ottoman Radu the Handsome, whose daughter he would marry, and installed Laiotă Basarab the Old on the throne in the hope of bringing Wallachia back into the Christian camp. This proved to be illusory, as Laiotă quickly turned his back on Stephen, deeming that Ottoman protection would better help him consolidate his rule. With Stephen's support, Laiotă was removed from the throne in 1482 by Vlad Călugărul, 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 Nouǎ and Cetatea Albǎ 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 Şcheia on the Siret River in March 1486, but also the Polish designs on Moldavian independence. Finally on 20 August 1503[1] 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 Voroneţ, 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

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Constantin Brancusi

Constantin Brâncuşi (February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) pronounced [konstanˈtin brɨnˈkuʃʲ]), was an internationally renowned Romanian sculptor whose sculptures, which blend simplicity and sophistication, led the way for modernist sculptors.

Brâncuşi grew up in the village of Hobiţa 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 Brâncuşi, 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 Brâncuşi 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 Brâncuşi's talent for carving, his employer financed his education at the Craiova Şcoala 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