 Dražen Petrović was born 1965 in Šibenik, Croatia. As a young man in season 1984-85, he scored 112 points in a Croatian League game. He was a member of the silver medal-winning Yugoslavian (1988) and Croatian (1992) Olympic teams. Dražen led his Real Madrid Spanish league team to the European Cup Championship in February 1989, and led the Yugoslavian National Team to victory at the European Championships in June of same year. He began his NBA career with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1989, and continued it in the New Jersey Nets in 1991. He possessed exceptional shooting ability and during the season 1992-93 he averaged a career-high and team-leading 22.3 percent per game on 51.8 percent shooting from the floor, including 44.9 percent from three-point range. That season he was named to the All-NBA Third Team.
He died in very tragic car accident in Germany in 1993. He was only 28.
 Ivan Generalić was born in Hlebine, a village in Croatian region Podravina, on 21st Dec 1914. During his childhood, while his friends played hide-and-seek, he used a small branch to make drawings in the sand. From that time until he died he never parted from a pencil or a brush. Mostly he drew with a pencil on paper bags in his uncle's store. Those drawings were seen there by Professor Krsto Hegedusic, at that time (1930) a student of art academy, who exclaimed: "This is superb! Who did it?!" The historic meeting between Hegedusic and young Ivan Generalic happened soon after that, as well as Ivan's first public exhibition in Zagreb Art pavilion in 1931. This first contact with citizens and positive critiques led to a new era of not only Croatian art, but world art as well.
In May of 1936 Ivan Generalic, Franjo Mraz and Mirko Virko Virius opened an exhibition which they had organized by themselves. These three painters, who became known as "the first generation of croatian naive art painters" fought for affirmation and recognition of this kind of art with great enthusiasm. In 1953 he held exhibitions in Paris, where he lived and painted for two months. In 1959 he painted "The deer wedding" - his most valuable work, according to experts.
When asked why he paints, Ivan Generalic replied: "I don't know, as I wouldn't know to answer why I live." He just didn't know how to live without painting.
Ivan Generalic died in Koprivnica on 27th November 1992 and is buried in village Sigetec near Hlebine.
 Janica Kostelic (1982), born in Zagreb, Croatia. She is a famous skier. She lives with her father/coach, Ante, her mother Marica, and her brother, Ivica (also famous skier) in Zagreb, Croatia. Even though she was the strongest competitor in alpine skiing, she had to go through 3 knee surgeries, and every time she came back, her skiing was better. It is really not a surprise that she is so good, because she started skiing at the age of 3 - by the time she was 16, she had made Croatia's team for the 1998 Nagano Olympics. You may think a star like Janica would need a 5 star coach, but her father turned out to be just perfect. With her first Olympics behind her, she won a silver and bronze medal at the French World Championship.
After that, there was no stopping her. After 4 medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics and winning the World cup Chrystal globe, she became the greatest woman skier in the world. Still, there are many competitions, world championships and Olympic games left for her to win -good luck Janica!
 Lavoslav (Leopold) Ružička (1887.- 1976.), Nobel prize winner for chemistry and the first person in Croatia to receive that prize. He held eight honorary Ph.Ds (four in science, two in medicine, one in natural sciences and one in law). Ever since he was a young boy, Ružička had a keen interest for science. He earned his Ph.D in Germany, where he met Hermann Staudinger and later followed him to Zurich where he started teaching organic chemitry at ETH. His laboratory emerged as a leading place in the field of organic chemitry and in 1939 Ružička and Adolf Butendant received the Nobel prize for chemistry. During World War 2, many of his coleagues scattered but Ružička continued to bring young promising scientists to his lab, including Vladimir Prelog. He began to research new areas – biochemitry, evoulution and especially tarpen biogenesis. He retired in 1957 and left Vladimir Prelog in charge of his lab.
He also made significant contributions to education – he insisted on a better organization of academic education and scientific research in Yugoslavia and founded the Swiss-Yugoslav Association. He received numerous awards and recognitions – the Marcel Benoist Award, the highest swiss award for science; he was an honorary member of the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences and a honorary citizen of Vukovar.
 Maksim Mrvica, the 28-year-old croatian pianist, is one of the most popular pianists today who can appeal to classical, crossover and pop audiences. His story began in Sibenik, town on the Adriatic sea, where he was born and took first piano lessons. During the war in Croatia, he practiced piano for seven hours a day, in the basement of his music conservatory. Music was the everything he had those days.
In 1993, he won a first major competition in Zagreb. He was able to play many difficult pieces composed by Rachmaninof, Chopin, Handel and others. He studied at the Music Academy in Zagreb with Professor Vladimir Krpan and spent a year in Ferrenc Liszt Conservatory in Budapest. Soon, EMI Classic became just as excited by the young pianist and a new album was underway.This album ,«The Piano Player», gave new spin to Handel and Chopin tunes. What he says about his music: « I just want to reach as many people of all ages with classical music. That is my dream!»
 Miro Gavran graduated dramaturgy at the Zagreb Drama Academy. He is the author of numerous theatre plays, novels, and film scripts. His plays have been translated into seventeen languages, had 108 premieres and 7000 reruns and were seen by over a million and two hundred thousand people in Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Netherlands, United States and many other countries.
The only croatian author to have his play staged at the famous «Eugene O'Neill Center» in United States, Miro Gavran is the winner of fifteen literary and theatre awards, among which is the «Central European Time» award of Budapest for the best author in mideastern Europe. A festival which features only Miro Gavran's plays and comedies, «Gavranfest» was founded in Slovakia in 2003, which makes him one of the few living european writers who have their own festival.
 Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (1871. – 1922.) held over seventy patents in the fields of mechanics, chemistry, physics, aeronautics etc. In 1903, he patented the hot water bottle in Budapest, Vienna and elsewhere. At the same time, he was working on the mechanical pencil and fountain pen. On May 31, 1907, he obtained Patent no. 193717 DRP etc. for world’s first fountain pen using solid ink. Patents have been registered in over thirty-five countries throughout the world. Penkala fountain pens, ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils are exported to over seventy countries world-wide.
He was also engaged in the field of aeronautics. In 1907, he registered Patent No. 47149 at the Royal Patent Office in Budapest as well as in other countries for the basic of the helicopter. Penkala did not merely register patents but built an aircraft according to his drawings, which he completed in 1909 and flew in 1910. , and an aircraft under Patents 50774 and 50775. ; he also patented the air mattress under Patent 47374.
 Goran Višnjić
was born in Šibenik, on September 9th 1972. He became popular in Croatia when he was cast as Hamlet in the production of the play at Dubrovnik Summer festival. The play was a great hit, and Goran received three national Best Actor awards. He portayed Hamlet six years in a row, and in addition to his performances on the stage, he started appearing in croatian feature films. He made his american screen debut in Welcome to Sarajevo, which was shown at the the Cannes film festival, garnering Goran an American talent agent who secured him roles in The Peacemaker, Practical Magic , and Committed. He was also noticed by Madonna and appeared in her video, The power of goodbye. Goran also stars in ER, as dr. Luka Kovač, and is considered "the sexiest" doctor on TV. |
