Ion Luca Caragiale (January 30, 1852 - July 9, 1912) was a Romanian playwright and short story writer.

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He was born in Haimanale, Wallachia. The name of the locality, which is now situated in Prahova County, Romania, has been changed to I. L. Caragiale.

Caragiale began his career as a writer by publishing a series of poems in the magazine Ghimpele ("The Thorn"). He became one of the leading members of the most important literary movement of his time, Junimea, movement which launched great names of Romanian literature, such as Ion Creangă and Mihai Eminescu.

His plays are characterised by a classical construction and a very acute observation of the social realities of the time, always mixed with a fine sense of irony.

His most influential works are :

* O noapte furtunoasă ("A Stormy Night")
* O scrisoare pierdută ("A Lost Letter")
* Conu Leonida faţă cu reacţiunea ("Mr. Leonida Faces the Reaction")
* Năpasta ("The Calamity")
* D-ale carnavalului ("Carnival Adventures")

Through his polemic works, Caragiale entered in conflict with influential literary and political figures of the time (just like Mihai Eminescu). His career suffered, and in 1906, Caragiale moved with his family to Berlin. He frequently visited Romania and contributed to Romanian periodicals. For his 60th birthday in 1912 friends in Romania wished to organise a jubilee, but he refused. In the spring of the same year he had the pleasure of seeing a series of remarkable poems by Mateiu Caragiale (his illegitimate son, with whom his relationship was often tense) published in Viaţa Romanească.

Ion Luca Caragiale died in Berlin on June 9, 1912 of arteriosclerosis. He was buried in Bucharest, Romania, in the Bellu cemetery.
Portrait of Caragiale on the old 1,000,000 lei note.
Portrait of Caragiale on the old 1,000,000 lei note.

As a founding figure of Romanian literature, Caragiale is portrayed on the old 1,000,000 lei note issued in December 2003 and also on the new 100 lei banknote issued after the denomination process in late 2005.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caragiale>

Nicolae Malaxa (10/22 December 1884, Huși – 1965, New York City) was a Romanian engineer and industrialist.




Born in a family of Greek origins, he studied engineering in Iași and Karlsruhe. He founded his business in 1921, a rolling stock manufacture. By the end of the 1930s, the Malaxa factories were mass-producing steam locomotives, Diesel locomotives, trainsets, rolling stock, steel pipes, and were one of the biggest industrial groups in Southeastern Europe.

Malaxa sympathised with Nazi ideology, and financed the activities of the Romanian far right Iron Guard organisation. After the Communist regime was installed in Romania, he managed to flee the country, and settled in New York City. He then received United States citizenship. When his past political sympathies were revealed, the American authorities reportedly tried to have Malaxa expelled from the United States, but did not succeed.

http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Malaxa