Maria Callas the famous opera singer Maria Callas was born Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos on December 3, 1923, in New York City. Her parents, George and Evangelina, were Greek immigrants who shortened their last name to Callas once Maria started primary school.

Callas began taking classical piano lessons when she was 7 years old, but soon realized that she loved singing music with dramatic flair even more than playing it. In 1937, when Callas was a teen, her parents separated and she, her mother and her sister moved back to Greece. In Athens, Maria, whose last name had been changed back to Kalogeropoulos, studied voice under Elvira de Hidalgo at the Royal Academy of Music. The school normally required that students be at least 16 years old, but the young Callas showed such great promise that they made a special exception.

As a student, Callas made her stage debut in a school production of Cavalleria Rusticana. For her dazzling performance in the role of Santuzza, she was honored by the academy.When Maria Callas was 16 years old, she made her professional debut with the Royal Opera of Athens in a modest role in Franz von Suppé's Boccaccio. In her early 20s, she took her first major role inTosca.

During World War II, Callas struggled to find roles. She moved back to New York to spend time with her father and look for work, but the Metropolitan Opera turned her down. After the war, at the urging of her teacher, Maria changed her last name back to Callas and moved to Italy in pursuit of work. In Verona, she quickly met and married rich industrialist Giovanni Meneghini.

Callas's Italian opera debut took place at the Verona Arena in August 1947, in a performance of La Gioconda. Over the next few years, under the management of her husband, Callas continued to perform in Florence and Verona to critical acclaim. Though her voice captivated audiences, as her fame increased, Callas developed a reputation as a demanding diva. Fiercely resilient, Callas said of audience members' jeers, "Hissing from the gallery is part of the scene. It is a hazard of the battlefield. Opera is a battlefield, and she must be accepted."In 1954, Callas made her American debut in Norma at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The performance was a triumph. In 1956, she at last had the opportunity to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in her home city of New York. Within three years of the performance, Callas health began to rapidly decline, as did her marriage. Callas and Meneghini divorced in 1960, during which time she was having an affair with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

During the 1960s, Maria Callas's formerly stellar singing voice was discernibly faltering. Her performances grew fewer and farther between, as a result of her frequent cancellations. Though she formally retired from the stage in the early '60s, Callas made a brief return to performing with the Metropolitan Opera from January 1964 through July 1965. Her final operatic performance was in Tosca at Covent Garden on July 5, 1965.

In the early 1970s, Callas began to teach. In '71 and '72, she conducted master classes at The Juilliard School in New York. Despite her failing health, Callas accompanied a friend on an international recital tour in 1973 to help him raise money for his ailing daughter. Following the tour and news of Onassis remarriage to Jacqueline Kennedy, Callas moved to Paris, France, and became a recluse. On September 16, 1977, at the age of 55, Maria Callas collapsed and died suddenly and mysteriously in her Paris home. The ashes were scattered in the Aegean Sea, as it was her last wish.

George Papanikolaou studied at the University of Athens, where he received his medical degree in 1904. Six years later he received his Ph.D. from the University of Munich, Germany, after he had also spent time at the universities of Jena and Freiburg. In 1910, Papanikolaou returned to Athens and got married to Andromahi Mavrogeni and then departed for Monaco where he worked for the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco, participating in the Oceanographic Exploration Team of the Prince of Monaco (1911).

In 1913 he emigrated to the U.S. in order to work in the department of Pathology of New York Hospital and the Department of Anatomy at the Cornell Medical College Cornell University.

He first reported that uterine cancer could be diagnosed by means of a vaginal smear in 1928, but the importance of his work was not recognized until the publication, together with Herbert Frederick Traut (1894 – 1963), of Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by the Vaginal Smear in 1943. The book discusses the preparation of vaginal and cervical smears, physiologic cytologic changes during the menstrual cycle, the effects of various pathological conditions, and the changes which are seen in the presence of cancer of the cervix and of the endometrium of the uterus. He thus became known for his invention of the Papanicolaou test, commonly known as the Pap smear or Pap test, which is used worldwide for the detection and prevention of cervical cancer and other cytologic diseases of the female reproductive system.

In 1961 he moved to Miami, Florida, to develop the Papanikolaou Cancer Research Institute at the University of Miami, but died in 1962 prior to its opening.

Papanikolaou was the recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 1950.

Papanikolaous portrait appeared on the obverse of the Greek 10,000-drachma banknote of 1995-2001, prior to its replacement by the Euro.

In 1978 his work was also honoured by the U.S. Postal Service with a 13-cent stamp for early cancer detection.

The Romanian physician Aurel Babeş made similar discoveries in the cytologic diagnosis of cervical cancer. He discovered that if a platinum loop was used to collect cells from a woman's cervix, and the cells were then dried on a slide and stained, it could be determined if cancer cells were present. This was the first screening test to diagnose cervical and uterine cancer. Babeş presented his findings to the Romanian Society of Gynaecology in Bucharest on 23 January 1927. His method of cancer diagnosis was published in a French medical journal, Presse Médicale, on 11 April 1928, but it is unlikely that Papanikolaou was aware of it. Moreover, the two techniques are different in their design. Therefore, although Babes preceded Papanicolaou, the design of the Pap test belongs to Papanikolaou. Recent papers have proven that Babes's method was different from Papanicolaou's and that the paternity of Pap test belongs solely to Papanikolaou. Despite this, it must be said that Aurel Babeş is viewed by most as the true pioneer in the cytologic diagnosis of cervical cancer, and in a spirit of recognition and fairness, Romania refers to cervical testing as "Methode Babeş-Papanicolaou" in honour of Babeş.

Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent of Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous adventures.

The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules. In later Western art and literature and in popular culture, Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. The name Heracles means "the Glory of Hera" somewhat ironically honoring the demigod's nemesis.

When Hercules was born, Hera, wife of Zeus, who was jealous for his infidelities, sent in his crib two snakes, but the infant strangled them. The adoptive father of Hercules, Amphitryon, who brought him up,

taught him the art of the charioteer, Castor taught him oplaskia, Ailykos wrestling, and the broad arc, the centaur Chiron Science and Linos Music.

The myth survived by Xenophon narrating the incident that, when Hercules seated on a crossroads, he saw passing in front of him two beautiful girls. One showed an easy road, wide and straight. If he followed this road, he would enjoy life, but he would make a bunch of bad acts, so to be condemned in the judgment of the people. This was the Wickedness. The other daughter, Virtue, showed a hard road, full of sharp stones and thorns, narrow and rough, the marching difficult, but in the end he would win the recognition from his fellows. So Hercules followed Virtue, preferring to suffer to traverse the rough road, but to experience the glory and honour with his good deeds and his virtue.

Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him.

Hercules is known for his many adventures, which took him to the far reaches of the Greco-Roman world. One cycle of these adventures became known as the "Twelve Labours," but the list has variations. One traditional order of the labours is shown below:

1. Slay the Nemean Lion.2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra.3. Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis.4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar.5. Clean the Auqean stables in a single day.6. Slay the Stymphalian Birds.7. Capture the Cretan Bull.8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes.9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.10. Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon.11. Steal the apples of the Hesperides.12. Capture and bring back Cerberus.

Although worshiped as a god, Hercules was properly a hero, frequently appealed to for protection from various evils. In art Hercules was portrayed as a powerful, muscular man wearing a lion's skin and armed with a huge club.

As we have already said, the greatest hero of Greece, Hercules, had to complete twelve labours to free himself from slavery to King Eurystheus of Argos. One of those labours was to clean the stables of King Augeus of Elis, who was said to have so much livestock that most of the country could not be cultivated for dung. With the help of the goddess Athena, who told him where to breach the banks of the river Alpheios (which bounds the site of Olympia on the south), he diverted the river and thus cleansed the land.

In celebration of successfully completing this labour, Hercules made a clearing in the grove, laid out the boundaries of the Altis, and instituted the first games in honour of Zeus at site of Pelops tomb. He is said to have fixed the distance of the original race (and ultimately the stadium) by placing one foot in front of the other six hundred times. This is the area of Olympia where the first Olympic Games took place. Hercules also planted the sacred olive tree that was later the source of crowns for the Olympic victors.