WAlbert I reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934. He ruled during an eventful period in the history of Belgium, which included the period of World War I (1914–1918), when 90 percent of Belgium was overrun, occupied, and ruled by the German Empire. Other crucial issues included the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, the ruling of the Belgian Congo as an overseas possession of the Kingdom of Belgium along with the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, the reconstruction of Belgium following the war, and the first five years of the Great Depression (1929–1934). King Albert died in a mountaineering accident in eastern Belgium in 1934, at the age of 58, and he was succeeded by his son Leopold III. He is popularly referred to as the "Knight King" or "Soldier King" in Belgium in reference to his role during World War I.
WAlexandre Joseph Artôt was a Belgian violinist.
WCharlotte of Belgium was a Belgian princess who became Empress of Mexico when her husband accepted the Imperial Throne of Mexico and reigned as Maximilian I of Mexico.
WArcadie Claret (1826–1897) was a Belgian noblewoman. She was the mistress of Leopold I of Belgium for twenty years, from 1844 until the king's death in 1865. The public affair caused a scandal and attracted great attention in contemporary Belgium.
WPrincess Clémentine of Belgium, a daughter of King Leopold II, was the wife of Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the throne of France.
WWilliam Cockerill (1759–1832) was a British inventor, entrepreneur, and industrialist. Designing and producing machines for new industrial textile manufacturing, he is best known for having established a major manufacturing firm in the Liège in modern-day Belgium. He is widely considered to have been instrumental in spreading the Industrial Revolution in Continental Europe
WAdolf Daens was a Flemish priest from Aalst. Daens was a Jesuit from 1859 to 1871, but is especially known for his socio-political involvement after he joined the diocesan clergy. He created the Daensist movement from which the Christene Volkspartij party was created in 1893, after being inspired by Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum. The Christene Volkspartij forced the radicalisation and democratisation of the Catholic party.
WJonkheer Charles Joseph Marie Ghislain de Brouckère was a Belgian nobleman and liberal politician.
WJonkheer Henri Ghislain Joseph Marie Hyacinthe de Brouckère was a Belgian nobleman and liberal politician. Born in Bruges, he was a magistrate, and a professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His brother Charles was mayor of Brussels.
WIsidore De Loor, also known by his religious name Isidore of Saint Joseph, was a Belgian professed religious from the Passionists. He served in various capacities at the convents that he served like being a janitor or a cook for his fellow religious though his cancer never limited his work for others.
WDominicus Franciscus du Bois was a Flemish artist and draughtsman. From 1826, he directed the Royal School for Applied and Visual arts in 's-Hertogenbosch.
WJean-Joseph Faict was the 20th Bishop of Bruges.
WCésar-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life.
WJeanne Haze - in religious Marie-Thérèse of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - was a Belgian Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Daughters of the Cross. Haze decided to respond to the lack of education in her homeland in the chaos resulting from the French Revolution and made that the focus of her religious apostolate; she served as her order's Superior General from its founding until her death.
WPrincess Henriette of Belgium, later Princess Henriette of Orléans, Duchess of Vendôme, was the daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. She was the younger twin sister of Princess Joséphine Marie of Belgium, who died at the age of six weeks in 1871.
WPhilippe Marie Victor Jacobs was a Belgian politician and Minister for the Catholic Party.
WLeopold I was the first king of the Belgians, reigning from July 1831 until his death.
WPrince Leopold of Belgium, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, was the second child and only son of King Leopold II of Belgium and his wife, Marie Henriette of Austria, and heir apparent to the Belgian throne.
WMarie-Anne Libert, was a Belgian botanist and mycologist. She was one of the first women plant pathologists. She is sometimes referred to as "Anne-Marie Libert."
WConstant Lievens was a Belgian (Flemish) Jesuit priest, missionary among the tribal peoples of Central India, particularly the Mundaris, Oraons. He is regarded as the apostle of the Chotanagpur.
WPrincess Louise Marie Amélie of Belgium was the eldest daughter of Leopold II and his wife, Marie Henriette of Austria. The Brussels thoroughfare Avenue Louise is named after her.
WPaul Mansion was a Belgian mathematician, editor of the journal Mathesis.
WArchduchess Marie Henriette of Austria was Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Leopold II.
WFrançoise Zoé Mathilde Mosselman (1808–1880), known as Fanny Mosselman, was a Belgian noble and salonist, known as the maîtresse en titre of the duke Charles de Morny.
WÉmilie d'Oultremont – in religion Marie of Jesus – was a Belgian Roman Catholic widow and later professed religious who founded the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix. She had four children and two of them, both daughters, joined her order and later predeceased her. She dedicated herself to the expansion of her order and sent religious to places such as England and India.
WCharles Latour Rogier was a Belgian liberal statesman and a leader in the Belgian Revolution of 1830. He became Prime Minister of Belgium on two separate occasions: from 1847 to 1852, and again from 1857 to 1868.
WGeneral Charles Auguste Jean Baptiste Rouen, nicknamed “Rouen”, was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 9 July 1838. He was a historian and Belgian soldier. He married in Brussels on 30 April 1862, to Joséphine (Jose) Straatman, daughter of ship-owner Lambert Straatman and Marie Sophie Fautier. He was the son of a hero of the Battle of Waterloo and Belgian revolutionary, Guillaume Rouen and Henriette Elius. Rouen was the brother-in-law of General Jean Prosper Beaudrihaye, who married Anne Caroline Straatman, his wife's sister.
WPrincess Stéphanie of Belgium, a Belgian princess by birth, became Crown Princess of Austria through her marriage to the heir-apparent of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Rudolf. She was famously widowed in 1889 when Rudolf and his mistress, Mary Vetsera, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide pact at the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods.
WÉrasme-Louis, Baron Surlet de Chokier, born in Liège, was a Belgian politician and, before the accession of Leopold I to the Belgian throne, was the first Regent of Belgium.
WIsala Van Diest was the first female medical doctor and the first female university graduate in Belgium.
WJules Van Praet was a Belgian diplomat and personal secretary of King Leopold I of Belgium. He was born in Bruges, and died in Brussels aged 81.
WConstantin Wesmael was a Belgian entomologist.
WAntoine Joseph Wiertz was a Belgian romantic painter and sculptor.