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Famous People in History - L

This category of our A to Z of famous people in history is for famous people with surnames beginning with the letter ''L''.

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Lafayette, Marquis de (1757-1834)

Marquis de Lafayette was a French soldier and statesman. He fought for the colonists in the American War of Independence and was a leader in the French Revolution.

Lagrange, Joseph Louis (1736-1813)

Joseph Louis Lagrange was an Italian-French astronomer and mathematician. He worked out algebraic systematization of mechanics, and laws governing motions of systems containing more than two bodies.

Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet (1744-1829)

Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Lamarck was a French academic and naturalist. He proposed the theory of evolution by inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de (1790-1869)

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French poet, orator, and politician. One oh is most famous poems is 'Le Lac'.

Lamb, Charles (1775-1834)

Charles Lamb was an English author. For children he wrote 'Tales from Shakespeare' in collaboration with his sister, Mary. He also wrote 'Essays of Elia'.

Langmuir, Irving (1881-1957)

Irving Langmuir was an American physical chemist and inventor. He extended the life of tungsten filament in electric light bulbs and developed the atomic hydrogen welding process. In 1932 he was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry for work in surface chemistry.

Laplace, Pierre Simon (1749-1827)

Pierre Simon Laplace was a French astronomer and mathematician. He refined the work of Sir Isaac Newton and Joseph Louis Lagrange on motions of planetary bodies. He invented the Laplace transform.

Laue, Max Theodore Felix von (1879-1960)

Max Theodore Felix von Laue was a German physicist. In 1914 he was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics for the development of the X-ray diffraction technique which enables the wavelength of X-rays to be calculated and the crystal structure to be studied.

Lavoisier, Antoine (1743-1794)

Antoine Lavoisier was the French chemist who gave oxygen its name and the first to establish that combustion is a form of chemical action.

Lawrence, Ernest Orlando (1901-1958)

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist. In 1939 he was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics for the development of the cyclotron (a circular particle accelerator).

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