Nicu Covaci, un compozitor, cântăreț, chitarist, pictor și grafician român, cunoscut ca fondator și lider al formației Phoenix

Singurul copil al unei croitorese (Tamara) originară din Basarabia și al unui tată bănățean de lângă granița cu Serbia, Covaci a crescut fără tată până la vârsta de cca. 11 ani, deoarece acesta a fost deținut politic la primul Canal Dunăre-Marea Neagră timp de aproximativ 10 ani.

A început de mic copil să ia lecții particulare de pian, acordeon și limbă franceză, germană și engleză. Mai târziu, după ce a învățat singur să cânte la muzicuță, a luat și lecții de chitară.

A urmat secția germană a școlii primare, secția română a școlii generale, liceul de arte plastice și Institutul de Arte Plastice din Timișoara.

Nicu Covaci a părăsit România în 26 octombrie 1976,^[1], stabilindu-se mai întâi în Olanda, apoi în Germania și în final în Spania.

În 2012, Covaci locuia în Moraira, Spania.^[2]
 
Covaci este și un iubitor al motocicletelor și al sportului, practicând, printre altele, atletismul, canotajul, karate, boxul, înotul și scufundatul sportiv.^[3]

 
Pe 23 noiembrie 2019 este lansată cartea „Nicolae Covaci – Pictorul”. Aceasta prezintă în premieră peste 100 de fotografii cu lucrări de pictură și sculptură realizate de-a lungul timpului de liderul Phoenix.

Albumul este structurat în zece secțiuni și are 116 pagini.

Pe lângă comentariile scrise ale lui Covaci, cartea include și 12 coduri QR, care conectează paginile volumului tipărit cu mediul online, fiind astfel prima carte hibridă (smart-book) din domeniul artelor plastice, publicată în România și, probabil, în lume.

Richard Attwood, a British motor racing driver, from England. During his career he raced for the BRM, Lotus and Cooper Formula One teams. He competed in 17 World Championship Grands Prix

Richard James David "Dickie" Attwood (born 4 April 1940, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire) is a British motor racing driver, from England. During his career he raced for the BRM, Lotus and Cooper Formula One teams. He competed in 17 World Championship Grands Prix, achieved one podium and scored a total of 11 championship points. He was also a successful sports car racing driver and won the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race, driving a Porsche 917, the first of Porsche's record 19 victories at the famous race.
Attwood's performances in Formula Two prompted Alfred Owen, the proprietor of BRM, to offer him an opportunity in his works Formula One team. His first outing for the team was in the non-Championship News of the World Trophy race, at Goodwood, in which he took the BRM P57 to fourth place, the first non-Lotus finisher and the only car to end on the same lap as Colin Chapman's fleet winners. Attwood's second Formula One outing was in the 1964 British Grand Prix, driving BRM's experimental four wheel drive P67 model. Having been the project's test driver Attwood did manage to qualify the overweight car, albeit in last place on the grid. However, as the car was principally intended as a rolling test bed, BRM decided to withdraw the P67 prior to the race itself.


In 1966 Attwood competed in Australia and New Zealand as a part of BRM's Tasman Series squad. His Tasman performances were very promising, including a win at Levin, but despite this – perhaps due to his underwhelming 1965 Formula One performances and growing success in sports cars – Attwood sat out the majority of the 1966 and 1967 Formula One seasons. His only appearance came as a substitute for works-Cooper driver Pedro Rodríguez at the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix, bringing the Cooper-Maserati home in 10th place. During 1966 he maintained his run of form in Formula Two, taking victory in the Rome Grand Prix and a second place at Pau in 1966, but concentrated firmly on sports cars in 1967.


After Mike Spence's death during practice for the 1968 Indianapolis 500 race Attwood rejoined the BRM works team, now run by Parnell, as his replacement. Attwood's first race on his return was perhaps his most spectacular, taking fastest lap in the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix, on his way to a strong second-place finish behind Graham Hill's works Lotus. However, results declined through the remainder of the season, and four races from the end Attwood was himself replaced by Bobby Unser.
Always something of a Monaco specialist, it was in the principality that Richard Attwood made his final Formula One start. Colin Chapman brought in the Briton as substitute for the injured Jochen Rindt, driving the Lotus 49B. He finished in a respectable fourth-place. Although this was his last Formula One drive, he did appear at the 1969 German Grand Prix in a Formula Two Brabham for Frank Williams, where he finished sixth overall, and second in the Formula Two class.

Hans Herrmann, a retired Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart

Hans Herrmann (born 23 February 1928) is a retired Formula One and sports car racing driver from Stuttgart, Germany.
In F1, he participated in 19 World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 2 August 1953. He achieved 1 podium and scored a total of 10 championship points.


In sports car racing, he also scored the first overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Porsche in 1970, in a Porsche 917.

From 1954 to 1955, he was part of the Mercedes-Benz factory team, as a junior driver behind Juan Manuel Fangio, Karl Kling, Hermann Lang and later Stirling Moss. When the Silver Arrows came back for the 1954 French Grand Prix to score a 1–2 win, Herrmann drove the fastest lap but had to retire. A podium finish at the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix was his best result in that year as he had to use older versions of the Mercedes-Benz W196, or the least reliable car.
In the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix his teammates Kling and Moss had to abandon early due to the extremely hot conditions on the southern hemisphere in January. Herrmann was called in to share his car with them for a 4th-place finish, giving one point each. Fangio won with two laps more. Hans was quick in the 1955 Mille Miglia with the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, comparably or even faster than Moss, but was less lucky than in 1954, as he had to abandon the race.

A crash in practise for the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix put Herrmann out for the ill-fated 1955 season, even though a comeback in the Targa Florio was intended.

The next years saw Herrmann racing for many marques, in F1 for Cooper, Maserati and BRM. In Berlin's AVUS during the 1959 German Grand Prix the brakes of his BRM failed, he crashed in a spectacular way, being thrown out of the car and sliding along the track with the car somersaulting in the air.
With different versions of the Porsche 718 being used as a sportscar and as a Formula Two car, Herrmann scored some wins for Porsche, mainly both the 1960 12 Hours of Sebring and Targa Florio. When the open wheeled single seater version of the Porsche 718 became eligible for Formula One in 1961 due to the rule changes, the results in F1 were disappointing. Herrmann finished 15th (last) in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, which was one of only two races in F1 history to have no retirements. He left Porsche at the beginning of the 1962 season feeling that he as a local from Stuttgart was No Prophet In His Own Land compared to Californian Dan Gurney and 1959 GP-winner Jo Bonnier from Sweden. Gurney scored two F1 wins (one non-championship) with the new Porsche 804, but Porsche retired from F1 anyway at the end of 1962.

In 1966 he returned to Porsche for a comeback in the World Sportscar Championship, as Porsche started a serious effort there. Following several podium finishes with the still underpowered two liter Porsche 906 and later models, he won the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona in a 907 as well as the Sebring 12 Hours again, now together with Swiss Jo Siffert. The overall win of the 1000km Nürburgring always eluded him, even though Herrmann had taken part in each of these races at the Nürburgring since they were introduced in 1953, and had finished second three times in a row from 1968 to 1970, behind teammates Jo Siffert and/or Vic Elford.
Herrmann missed the win in the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Porsche 908 by only 120 meters [1], but it was he who finally scored the long-awaited first overall victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours for Porsche in 1970. He was assigned to Porsche Salzburg, the Austria-based factory-backed team owned by the Porsche family, which mainly entered cars painted red and white, the Austrian colors. In heavy rain, he and his teammate Richard Attwood survived with their Porsche 917K #23 as the best of only seven finishers.


Half-jokingly, Herrmann had promised to his wife before the Le Mans race that he would retire in case of a win there. Having witnessed fatal accidents of colleagues too many times, e.g. before the 1969 German Grand Prix when his teammate and neighbor Gerhard Mitter died, the 42-year-old announced his retirement on TV, after having driven the winning car in a parade through Stuttgart from the factory to the town hall. To get out of his contract with Porsche Salzburg, Herrmann had to recommend a replacement driver to Luise Piech.

Using his contacts, Herrmann built a successful company for automotive supplies. He was kidnapped once in the 1990s and kept in a car trunk for many hours before escaping.
Herrmann has remained engaged in the racing community through his retirement, demonstrating historical cars at events such as the Solitude-Revival.

Ben Johnson, a Jamaican-born Canadian former sprinter, who was disqualified for doping after finishing third in two Olympic races and two consecutive 100 metres finishes under the world record time at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and the 1988 Summer Olympics

Benjamin Sinclair Johnson, CM OOnt (born December 30, 1961) is a Jamaican-born Canadian former sprinter, who was disqualified for doping after finishing third in two Olympic races and two consecutive 100 metres finishes under the world record time at the 1987 World Championships in Athletics and the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Benjamin Johnson was born in Falmouth, Jamaica, and immigrated to Canada in 1976, residing in Scarborough, Ontario.
Johnson met coach Charlie Francis and joined the Scarborough Optimists track and field club, training at York University. Francis was a Canadian 100 metres sprint champion himself (1970, 1971 and 1973) and a member of the Canadian team for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Francis was also Canada's national sprint coach for nine years.
Johnson's first international success came when he won 2 silver medals at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia. He finished behind Allan Wells of Scotland in the 100 metres with a time of 10.05 seconds and was a member of the Canadian 4 × 100 metres relay team which finished behind Nigeria. This success was not repeated at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals, finishing 6th with a time of 10.44, nor at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas where Johnson placed 5th in the 100 metres final with a time of 10.25.
At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, he reached the 100 metres final; after a false start, he won the bronze medal behind Carl Lewis and Sam Graddy with a time of 10.22. He also won a bronze medal with the Canadian 4 × 100 m relay team of Johnson, Tony Sharpe, Desai Williams and Sterling Hinds, who ran a time of 38.70. By the end of the 1984 season, Johnson had established himself as Canada's top sprinter, and on August 22 in Zürich, Switzerland, he bettered Williams' Canadian record of 10.17 by running 10.12.
In 1985, after eight consecutive losses, Johnson finally beat Carl Lewis. Other success against Lewis included the 1986 Goodwill Games, where Johnson beat Lewis, running 9.95 for first place, against Lewis' third-place time of 10.06. He broke Houston McTear's seven-year-old world record in the 60 metres in 1986, with a time of 6.50 seconds.[2] He also won Commonwealth gold at the 1986 games in Edinburgh, beating Linford Christie for the 100 metres title with a time of 10.07. Johnson also led the Canadian 4x100 metres relay team to gold, and won a bronze in the 200 metres. Also in 1986, Canadian sprinter Mike Dwyer expressed concern that the use of drugs had reached "epidemic proportions" among Canadian sprinters, particularly among those who trained in the Toronto area. Atlee Mahorn also speculated that many sprinters were on steroids.[3]
On April 29, 1987, Johnson was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada. "World record holder for the indoor 60-meter run, this Ontarian has proved himself to be the world's fastest human being and has broken Canadian, Commonwealth and World Cup 100-meter records," it read. "Recipient of the Norton Crowe Award for Male Athlete of the Year for 1985, 'Big Ben' was the winner of the 1986 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete."
By the time of the 1987 World Championships, Johnson had won his four previous races with Lewis and had established himself as the best 100 metres sprinter. At Rome, Johnson gained instant world fame and confirmed this status when he beat Lewis for the title, setting a new world record of 9.83 seconds as well, beating Calvin Smith's former record by a full tenth of a second.
After Rome, Johnson became a lucrative marketing celebrity. According to coach Charlie Francis, after breaking the world record, Johnson earned about $480,000 a month in endorsements.[4] Johnson won both the Lou Marsh Trophy and Lionel Conacher Award, and was named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year for 1987.
Following Johnson's defeat of Lewis in Rome, Lewis started trying to explain away his defeat. He first claimed that Johnson had false-started, then he alluded to a stomach virus which had weakened him. Finally, without naming names, Lewis said "There are a lot of people coming out of nowhere. I don't think they are doing it without drugs." This was the start of Lewis' calling on the sport of track and field to be cleaned up in terms of the illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. While cynics noted that the problem had been in the sport for many years, they pointed out that it did not become a cause for Lewis until he was actually defeated, with some also pointing to Lewis's egotistical attitude and lack of humility. During a controversial interview with the BBC, Lewis said:
  There are gold medallists at this meet who are on drugs, that [100 metres] race will be looked at for many years, for more reasons than one.

Johnson's response was:

    When Carl Lewis was winning everything, I never said a word against him. And when the next guy comes along and beats me, I won't complain about that either.

This set up the rivalry leading into the 1988 Olympic Games.
In 1988, Johnson experienced a number of setbacks to his running career. In February of that year he pulled a hamstring, and in May he aggravated the same injury. Meanwhile, in Paris in June, Lewis ran a 9.99. Then in Zurich, Switzerland on August 17, the two faced each other for the first time since the 1987 World Championships; Lewis won in 9.93, while Johnson finished third in 10.00. "The gold medal for the (Olympic) 100 meters is mine," Carl Lewis said. "I will never again lose to Johnson."

Olympic games and subsequent disqualification
On September 24, 1988, Johnson was thought to be the first sprinter from Canada since Percy Williams in 1928 to win the 100 metres final at the Summer Olympics in Seoul, lowering his own world record to 9.79 seconds. Johnson would later remark that he would have been even faster had he not raised his hand in the air just before he hit the tape.[6] However, Park Jong-sei of the Olympic Doping Control Center found that Johnson's urine sample contained stanozolol, and he was disqualified three days later.[7] He later admitted having used steroids when he ran his 1987 world record, which caused the IAAF to rescind that record as well. Johnson and coach Francis complained that they used doping in order to remain on an equal footing with the other top athletes on drugs they had to compete against. In testimony before the Dubin inquiry into drug use, Francis charged that Johnson was only one of many cheaters, and he just happened to get caught. Later, six of the eight finalists of the 100 metres race tested positive for banned drugs or were implicated in a drug scandal at some point in their careers: Carl Lewis, who was given the gold medal; Linford Christie, who was moved up to the silver medal and who went on to win gold at the next Games; Dennis Mitchell, who was moved up to fourth place and finished third to Christie in 1992; and Desai Williams, Johnson's countryman who won a bronze medal in the 4 × 100 meters relay at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

Johnson's coach, Charlie Francis, a vocal critic of the IOC testing procedures, is the author of Speed Trap, which features Johnson heavily. In the book, he freely admits that his athletes were taking anabolic steroids, as he claims all top athletes at the time were, and also claims that Johnson could not possibly have tested positive for that particular steroid since Johnson actually preferred furazabol. He thought stanozolol made his body "feel tight".[9] The numerous athletes using performance-enhancing drugs at the time understood how long before a race, and possible drug test, they should stop using the drugs. Johnson later claimed that André A. Jackson, Lewis' Santa Monica Track Club teammate, who was inside the drug testing room in Seoul, may have placed the stanozolol in one of the beers Johnson drank in order to make urine for his test.[10]

On 28 September 2018, the Toronto Star ran an article on the lab report which was created on Johnson sample during the 1988 Olympic Games. It was produced by the IOC doping control center in Seoul two days after Johnson handed in a urine sample taken after the 100m run. The newspaper concluded that the assumed substance Stanozolol was traceable, but "inconsistencies" are found in the report. The Toronto Star goes on, that no Canadian Olympic team official saw the lab report in Seoul. The lab report was requested by Canada's chief medical officer, Dr. William Stanish. The Canadian team didn't object after the IOC medical commission assured "that its testing methods were unassailable."

Félix Rodríguez, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, known for his involvement in the execution of Leftist revolutionary Che Guevara

Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia (born 31 May 1941) is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, known for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in the execution of Leftist revolutionary Che Guevara and his ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran–Contra affair. He is Cuban American.

In September, 1960 he joined a group of Cuban exiles in Guatemala, supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to receive military training. They were called Brigade 2506.

In 1967, the CIA recruited Rodríguez to train and head a team to hunt down Marxist guerrilla fighter Che Guevara, who was attempting to overthrow the US-backed government in Bolivia.

He claims that he and Guevara spoke civilly regarding the failing economy of Cuba and Guevara's tactics in starting a revolution in Bolivia. Rodríguez stated that he wanted to keep Guevara alive for further interrogation, but was thwarted by the order of the Bolivian president that Guevara be summarily executed. Rodríguez, whose cover was that of a Bolivian army major, repeated those orders, later stating that it was a Bolivian decision, and Guevara was killed. Rodríguez has in his possession Guevara's Rolex wristwatch.
The last photograph of Guevara alive includes Rodriguez standing by his side. CIA authenticated the picture of Che Guevara and Félix Rodríguez and recognizes it as original.