The National History Day theme for 2014-2015 is Leadership and Legacy in History. I do special posts for STEM topics because I think they in particular are underrepresented, but I've come up with some other topic ideas that I thought I'd post. Hope this is useful!
Political Leaders
--Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the first PM of Singapore, responsible for really shaping modern Singapore
--Heydar Aliyev. Led the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic for years and then was president of the Republic of Azerbaijan after the Soviet Union dissolved. (A lot of Central Asian countries have similar leaders, so check them out!)
--Saint Steven I, King of Hungary. He wasn't the first leader of the unified Magyar tribes, but he made a lot of changes and really established the kingdom.
--Charles I of Hungary, the first of the Angevin line of kings, who reunited Hungary under royal power and under whom the Renaissance began in Hungary
--Janos Hunyadi, who led Hungary against the Ottoman Turks in the 1400s
--Count Istvan Szechenyi or Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian reformers and leaders while Hungary was ruled by the Habsburgs
--Ferenc Deak, who negotiated the Austro-Hungarian Compromise with the Emperor
--Imre Nagy, a prime minister of Communist Hungary who supported/was supported by the 1956 revolution but was executed when the revolution was crushed
Religious Leaders (of the Protestant variety)
--John and/or Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism.
--Coke and Asbury, the first Methodist bishops in the United States.
--The most common topic choice here is Martin Luther, leader of the Reformation and founder of Lutheranism. You could also look at John Calvin, another leader of the Protestant Reformation.
--John Knox, leader of the Scottish reformation
--Jerry Falwell. You could go lots of directions with this, but one is starting Liberty University
Dance
-- Martha Graham and modern dance
-- Balanchine and neo-classicism (as well as American ballet in general)
-- Rudolf Nureyev and the Paris Opera Ballet
-- Bournonville and Danish Ballet
-- Yuri Grigorovitch and the rise of choreographic symphonism in the Soviet Union
-- Ninette de Valois and Sadler's Wells (the Royal Ballet)
-- Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes
Disney
-- Walt Disney and animation (or choose an early Disney animator)
-- Walt Disney and Disneyland
-- John Hench and Disneyland (or choose an early Imagineer)
-- The Sherman brothers and Disney music
