Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography

The Selected biography box on the portal chooses one of the following at random when displaying the page. Follow the instructions below for adding or nominating a new biography to the list.

Usage

Netherlands related Featured biographies can be added directly to this list without nomination. All other biographies should be nominated first to ensure that we only display our best work on the portal. The procedure for nomination is at the bottom of this page.

Template

{{Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/Layout
  |image=
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[[Category:Netherlands portal selected biographies|{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]
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Note that the prefix Image: is not required when using this template, also - the template will auto-wikilink the biography entered in the link= field. Further information on this template can be found at Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/Layout.

To add a new biography

1. Click on the next successive empty entry or red link from this page.
2. Paste the above layout template if it isn't already there.
3. Write three or four paragraphs in the text field using information from the selected notable FA biography, you may find it useful to examine the existing entries for an idea of the length required.
4. Ensure the main title of the biography is in bold and add this same biography to the link field.
5. Add a free image and caption.
6. Preview the page, check that the image size is correct. If the image is too big, add 100px to the size field.
7. Save the page.
8. Go to the main Portal:Netherlands page.
9. Click on edit page.
10. Update "max=" to its new total for the {{Random portal component}} on the main page. The line which is edited is this one: {{Random portal component|max=4|header=Selected biography|subpage=Selected biography}} Make sure that "max=" is the same numerical value as the biography entry added above (i.e. if you added biography 43, then max=43)

Selected biographies list

biographies 1 - 20

Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/1

Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named. In addition to being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post.

Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, Van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland. Charles Gehring, Director of the New Netherland Project, has called it "the fullest account of the province, its geography, the Indians who inhabited it, and its prospects…It has been said that had it not been written in Dutch, it would have gone down as one of the great works of American colonial literature."

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/2

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank was a German-born Jewish girl from the city of Frankfurt. She gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her diary which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Anne and her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 after the Nazis gained power in Germany, and were trapped by the occupation of the Netherlands, which began in 1940. As persecutions against the Jewish population increased, the family went into hiding in July 1942 in hidden rooms in her father Otto Frank's office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Seven months after her arrest, Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, within days of the death of her sister, Margot Frank. Her father Otto, the only survivor of the group, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that her diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/3

William III was the Prince of Orange from his birth, Stadtholder of the main provinces of the Dutch Republic from 28 June 1672, King of England and King of Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scots (under the name William II) from 11 April 1689, until his death.

Born a member of the House of Orange-Nassau, William III won the English, Scottish and Irish Crowns following the Glorious Revolution, during which his uncle and father-in-law, the Catholic James II (VII in Scotland)), was deposed. In England, Scotland and Ireland, William ruled jointly with his wife, Mary II, until her death on 28 December 1694. He reigned as 'William II' in Scotland, but 'William III' in England and Ireland. Often he is referred to as William of Orange, a name he shared with many other historical figures. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, he is often informally known as "King Billy".

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/4

Arjen Robben is a former Dutch footballer who played as a winger for Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. He was also a part of the Netherlands national football team and has appeared in the UEFA Euro 2004, the UEFA Euro 2008, the UEFA Euro 2012, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Robben was named F.C. Groningen's team player of the year during the Eredivisie 2000-01 season and the Netherlands' Young Player of the Year during his time at PSV Eindhoven. He was also the FA Premier League Player of the Month during the month of November 2005 at Chelsea F.C..

Born in the town of Bedum in the province of Groningen, the Netherlands, Robben took to football from an early age. He began playing with local club VV Bedum. Robben became an adherent of the Coerver Method, created and popularised by Dutch football coach Wiel Coerver. Robben's skill in ball control and technical footwork made him a valuable player, and he was quickly signed by local club F.C. Groningen.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/5

Hendrik Pieter Nicolaas Muller, GON, RNL, FRGS was a Dutch businessman, diplomat, world traveller, publicist, and philanthropist. He was a son of Hendrik Muller Sz., a Rotterdam-based Dutch businessman and politician, and Marie Cornelie van Rijckevorsel, member of another prominent Rotterdam based business family.

Muller started his career as a businessman, trading with East and West Africa. In his mid-twenties he travelled to Zanzibar, Mozambique, and South Africa for business purposes, but showed himself a keen ethnographer as well, collecting ethnographic artifacts and writing reports about the societies and people he encountered on his way. In 1890, Muller retired from business for personal reasons, and went to Germany to study ethnography and geography. He graduated with a Ph.D. dissertation four years later.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/6

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is a Dutch footballer who plays as a striker for Schalke 04 and the Netherlands. He previously represented PSV Eindhoven, De Graafschap, AGOVV Apeldoorn, SC Heerenveen and AC Milan.

Various media outlets have noted him as a rising star in Dutch football, being named Dutch Football Talent of the Year and Ajax "Player of the year" in 2006. Due to his goal-scoring ability he has earned the nickname "The Hunter", a play on his last name. He was a part of the Dutch side that won the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, where he became the tournament's leading goal-scorer. He was also named in the UEFA Team of the Tournament. He is the all-time highest goal-scorer for the Netherlands U21 squad with 18 goals in 22 matches. In domestic football he was Eredivisie's top scorer in the 2005–06 season with 33 goals in 31 games. He also became the top scorer in the 2007–08 season with 33 goals in 34 appearances.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/7

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period that historians call the Dutch Golden Age.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, his later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardship. Yet his drawings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high and for twenty years he taught nearly every important Dutch painter. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. The self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/8

Tiësto, stage name of Tijs Michiel Verwest (born 17 January 1969) is one of the world's most famous disc jockeys and record producers in the electronic dance music scene. His accomplishments include being voted "World’s number one DJ" three consecutive times by DJ Mag from 2002 through 2004 and becoming the first DJ to play live on stage in front of a public audience at an Olympic Games at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in Athens. He also won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for his remixed version of John Legend's hit "All of Me" at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/9

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA (January 8, 1836, Dronrijp, the Netherlands.- June 25, 1912 Wiesbaden, Germany) was one of the most renowned painters of late nineteenth-century Britain. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. Universally admired during his lifetime for his superb draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, he fell into disrepute after his death and only in the last thirty years has his work been reevaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century English art.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/10

Jan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende, Jr. (Dutch pronunciation: [jɑm ˈpeːtər ˈbɑlkənˌɛndə] ; born 7 May 1956) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010. Balkenende, a jurist by occupation, worked for the Academic Council and the Christian Democratic Appeal Think tank from 1982 until 1998. Balkenende became a professor of Christian theology at the VU University Amsterdam in 1993. He was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives after the Dutch general election of 1998, serving from 19 May 1998 until 22 July 2002. After the then Leader of the CDA and Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stepped down, Balkenende was selected to succeed him in both positions, and became the top candidate for the Dutch general election of 2002. The CDA became the surprising winner of the election, gaining 14 seats becoming the largest party in the House of Representatives.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/11

Eleonora "Ellen" van Dijk is a Dutch professional road and track racing cyclist. Van Dijk is a time trial specialist and became 2008 World Track Champion in the scratch race and 2012 Road World Champion in team time trial.

Van Dijk started as a speed skater and undertook cycling as part of cross-training in summer. She excelled at both, competing nationally at junior level. After becoming a national cycling champion for the fifth time in 2007, she quit speed skating and became a full-time cyclist. Along with her world title successes, Van Dijk has also twice been European track champion, twice European time trial champion and has won five world cup races. In 2012 she competed in three disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she helped Marianne Vos win the gold medal in the road race, finished eighth in the time trial and sixth in the team pursuit.

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/12

Nicolaas "Nico" Hessel Rienks (born 1 February 1962) is a former rower from the Netherlands and two-time Olympic gold medallist.

Rienks won the gold medal in the men's double sculls at the 1988 Summer Olympics, alongside Ronald Florijn. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he repeated his gold medal performance winning the eight with coxswain event with the Holland Acht (Holland Eight). He also competed at the 1984 and 2000 Olympics but finished outside the podium.

With Henk-Jan Zwolle he won the gold medal in the double sculls competition at the 1991 World Rowing Championships. He also won three silver medals at the world championships in 1989 (double sculls), 1994 and 1995 (eights).

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/13

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Not commercially successful, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, eventually leading to his suicide at age thirty-seven

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Portal:Netherlands/Selected biography/14 Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (c. 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Van Ruisdael's work was in demand in the Dutch Republic during his lifetime. Today it is spread across private and institutional collections around the world; the National Gallery in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg hold the largest collections. Van Ruisdael shaped landscape painting traditions worldwide, from the English Romantics to the Barbizon school in France, and the Hudson River School in the US, and influenced generations of Dutch landscape artists.

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Nominations

• Aletta Jacobs A GA-class biography about one of the first Women's rights activists in the Netherlands
• Christiaan Huygens One of the greatest scientists of all times

Feel free to add related featured biographies to the above list. Other biographies may be nominated here.

There is a list of featured biographies related to Netherlands here. There are also lists of good biographies.

• nominations must

1. be Featured biographies (FA), Good biographies (GA), Top or High importance biographies
2. (optional) have a free-use image available