USHB - People Who Made America

Amos Bronson Alcott

(1799-1888) - Founding member of the Transcendentalism school of thought

Jean Louis Rudolph Agassiz

(1807-1873) - Expanded field of ecology, emphasizing personal contact with nature over instruction and lectures

Matthew Brady

(1823-1896) - Civil War photographer originally providing portraits for the wealth and prominent individuals in New York City

Willa Cather

(1873-1947) - Frontier woman known for her books about frontier life, including O, Pioneers! (1913) and My Antonia (1918)

Ansel Adams

(1902-1984) - Photographer of the American West, especially of National Parks

James Baldwin

(1924-1987) - Major literary talent, writing Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953)

John Cabot

(1450-1499) - Sailor under Henry VIII, claiming Newfoundland and establishing the basis for the British claim to Canada

Christopher Columbus

(1451-1506) - Italian-born mariner that managed to persuade King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain to finance his voyage to Asia in 1492, instead encountering North America and exciting a new found desire to explore

Amerigo Vespucci

(1454-1512) - Italian navigator serving Spain as "master navigator," touching down in the Americas as early as 1499, and the continent's namesake, coined by German geographer Martin Waldseemhller

Juan Ponce de Leon

(1460-1521) - Spanish conquistador and founder of Caparra, the oldest Puerto Rican settlement, as well as discoverer of Florida, seeking to discover the fountain of youth

Bartoleme de las Casas

(1474-1566) - Dominican friar outraged by the Spanish conquistadors' inhumanity, writing gripping accounts of atrocities and other abuses of the native peoples

Giovanni da Verrazano

(1485-1528) - Italian navigator for France, exploring the east coast of the United States and discovering New York Harbor. Name commemorated on the bridge spanning New York Harbor from Brooklyn to Staten Island (the "-Narrows" Bridge)

Hernando de Soto

(1495-1542) - Famous Spanish conquistador exploring the southeastern United States, the first European to spot the Mississippi River

Francisco Coronado

(1510-1554) - Spanish conquistador who explored the American Southwest in search of gold, the first European to behold Texas and the Grand Canyon

Powhatan

(1545-1918) - Sachem of over 30 tribes in the Potomac River area, opposed to the Jamestown settlement initially but later establishing friendly trade with it. Father of Pocahontas whose cordial treatment was critical to the survival of Jamestown

Sir Walter Raleigh

(1554-1618) - Courtier in the court of Elizabeth I, organizer and sponsor of the colonization effort on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. Colony was quickly abandoned amid his absence in 1587, with the word "Croatoan" carved into a tree as their only trace

Henry Hudson

(1565-1611) - British sailor, having made three voyages for England to discover the Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia via the Arctic Ocean, unable to do so but exploring the northeast coast; fell victim to a 1611 mutiny

Samuel de Champlain

(1567-1635) - Founder of Quebec and explorer of northern New York and the eastern Great Lakes, developing the French fur trade and consolidating French holdings in the New World

Christopher Jones

(1570-1621) - Captain of the Mayflower, perhaps bribed to land so far north beyond the meddlesome jurisdiction of the Virginia Company

George Calvert, First Baron Baltimore

(1578-1632) - Catholic founder of Maryland, having secured a charter that his son Cecil carried out in founding the actual colony

John Smith

(1580-1631) - Military leader of Jamestown, efforts critical to the struggling colony's survival. Wrote an account of how Pocahontas saved Smith's life, a tale entering American folklore

Peter Minuit

(1580-1638) - Founder of the city of New Amsterdam (later New York), having been director general of the Manhattan colony for the Dutch

Myles Standish

(1584-1656) - Military leader of the Plymouth colony, immortalized in an 1858 Longfellow poem that details an apocryphal story of him asking John Alden to propose marriage on his behalf to Priscilla Mullins, who actually married Alden himself

Squanto

(1585-1622) - English-speaking Pawtuxet Indian whom Samoset introduced to the Plymouth Colony. Became their key Indian emissary and guide

John Rolfe

(1585-1622) - First planter at Jamestown to profit from the cultivation of tobacco, husband to Pocahontas whose marriage ensured peace with the Powhatan Confederacy. Presented his wife at the court of James I, warmly greeted but she succumbed to smallpox while there

John Winthrop

(1588-1649) - First governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, chosen 12 times and regarded as a stern but loving father, also a force for Puritan intolerance and coming into conflicts with advocates of non-orthodoxy like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson

Samoset

(1590-1653) - Abenaki subchief that first greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, introducing them to Squanto and serving as an emissary

William Bradford

(1590-1657) - Governor of Plymouth colony for three decades, playing a critical role in the colony's survival and early growth, writing History of Plymouth Plantation

Massasoit

(1590-1661) - Sachem of the Wampanoag Indians, befriending the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth and teaching them to plant successfully

Anne Hutchinson

(1591-1643) - Religious leader believing that individual inspiration and insight trumped sermons or biblical knowledge, prompting her banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settling in Roger Williams' Rhode Island in 1638 and later settling in New York, where her family was killed by Indians. Judged as an early champion of religious liberty and a precursor to feminism

Peter Stuyvesant

(1592-1672) - Governor of New Netherland and trying in vain to resist British attempts to conquer it, eventually forced to surrender it to the British - renamed New York - and forced to retire to his Manhattan farm, the Bowery

Pocahontas

(1595-1617) - Daughter of the important sachem Powhatan, of 30 tribes near the Jamestown settlement who saved the live of their military leader, John Smith, and married John Rolfe, with whom she traveled to England and appeared at the court of James I. Served as an informal goodwill ambassador

Roger Williams

(1603-1683) - Radical Massachusetts Bay minister breaking from orthodox Puritan doctrine and advocating religious tolerance, banished in 1635 and founding Rhode Island in 1636, establishing separation of church and state and religious tolerance there

Pope

(1630-1688) - Medicine man from the Tewa Pueblo people who led a coordinated revolt against Spanish overlords in 1680, culminating in the invasion of Santa Fe, which the Spanish did not regain control of until 1692, and of all the Pueblos until 1696

Mary Rowlandson

(1637-1710) - New England colonist and mother of three, whose family was captured by Indians during King Philip's War and ransomed along with her children. Wrote an account of her captivity, a vivid and widely read narrative

King Philip

(1639-1676) - Wampanoag sachem known alternatively as Metacomet, the second son of Pilgrim friend Massasoit, wager of a bloody war against New England, his namesake "war" that was the deadliest war in American history

Benjamin Church

(1639-1718) - One of New England's ablest military commanders, instrumental in defeating King Philip in King Philip's War (1675-76), the deadliest war in American history, in proportion to population

Increase Mather

(1639-1723) - Father to Cotton, leading the Puritans in their early days and writing many books, one setting the stage for the Salem Witch Trials

Jacob Leisler

(1640-1691) - German-born militia commander leading New York farmers in an uprising against Catholics. Rebellion was suppressed and he was hanged as a traitor, but the movement he began persisted as a powerful anti-Catholic force in New York

Robert Sieur de la Salle

(1643-1687) - French explorer of the Mississippi River watershed, claiming the territory for King Louis XIV and christening it Louisiana. Failed attempt to conquer part of Spanish Mexico ended in mutiny and his death

William Penn

(1644-1718) - English Quaker securing a proprietary colony charter for Pennsylvania, including refuge for Quakers, a significant degree of democracy, and a commitment to peaceful relations with Indians. Drew up the "Frame of Government," considered a precursor to the Constitution and Bill of Rights

Nathaniel Bacon

(1647-1676) - Virginia planter advocating unlimited territorial expansion of the colony, leading an unauthorized military expedition against the Indians, which Gov. William Berkley opposed, leading to his orchestration of a momentous rebellion against the capital in Jamestown

Samuel Sewall

(1652-1730) - New England merchant and a judge in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, the only judge to admit the error of the 19 executions, keeping a remarkable diary of the time

Cotton Mather

(1663-1728) - Puritan conservative trying desperately to maintain the old order in the clergy of Massachusetts, a superstitious but scientific pioneer that advocated smallpox inoculation. One of the most prolific writers who ever lives, the author of some 400 works, including "Magnalia Christi Americana" (1702), a church history of America

James Oglethorpe

(1691-1785) - Founder of Georgia, a colony for debtors as a champion of prison reform, also serving as a haven for persecuted Protestant sects and promulgated on Utopian principles (chartered in 1732). Utopian provisions he envisioned were quickly renounced and, disillusioned, he abandoned the colony and returned to England

John Peter Zenger

(1697-1746) - Publisher of the "New York Weekly Journal" colonial newspaper, arrested in 1734 for "seditious libel" for criticism of royal governor William Cosby, later defended by Andrew Hamilton and acquitted, an American milestone in the freedom of the press and a precedent to the First Amendment

William Bartram

(1699-1777) - Royal botanist for the American colonies, a pioneer of naturalism and scientific expeditions into areas of the continent

Jonathan Edwards

(1703-1758) - Connecticut clergyman and religious philosopher, an orator of electrifying eloquence, who spoke "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741). Preaching greatly stimulated the Great Awakening, as the forerunner of the modern American evangelist preachers

Benjamin Franklin

(1706-1790) - Printer, publisher, author, inventor, scientist, diplomat, and polymath representing the ability of any American to accomplish. Served his country with his skilled writing ("Poor Richard's Almanack"), entrepreneurship (insurance industry), science (electricity), invention (bifocals, Franklin stove, lightning rod), and diplomacy (negotiating the Franco-American alliance during the Revolutionary War)

Junipero Serra

(1713-1784) - Spanish Franciscan missionary founding San Diego, the first California mission, and eight more missions extending the length of Alta (Upper) California and ensuring Spanish control of the region

George Whitefield

(1714-1770) - Englishman who came to America as a Methodist evangelical missionary, traveling widely throughout the country and preaching with an emotional eloquence as a prime mover of the "Great Awakening"

Pontiac

(1720-1769) - Major intertribal leader in the Great Lakes region, resisting white encroachment in his namesake "Rebellion" at the end of the French and Indian War, with a raid on Fort Detroit. Conflict continued until 1766, with the alliances falling apart

Roger Sherman

(1721-1793) - Connecticut delegate to the Constitutional Convention, proposing his "Great Compromise" that became the popular idea in the document

Samuel Adams

(1722-1803) - Boston politician, having run his father's brewery into the ground, founded the Sons of Liberty, organized opposition to the Stamp Act, organized "committees of correspondence," instigated the Boston Tea Party

Crispus Attucks

(1723-1770) - black casualty of the Boston Massacre, generally considered the first to fall in the cause of liberty

James Otis

(1725-1783) - Massachusetts attorney and former Boston enforcer of British taxes and duties, resigning by conceding "taxation without representation is tyranny"

George Mason

(1725-1792) - Virginia revolutionary leader who drafted Virginia's state constitution, which along with his declaration of rights served as a model for most other states and the Bill of Rights

Richard Henry Lee

(1732-1794) - Virginia House of Burgesses politician, instrumental in mounting opposition to the Stamp and Townshend Acts, working to create the committees of correspondence with Henry and Jefferson. Uniquely opposed changes to the Articles, but served faithfully as Senator from Virginia under the new Constitution

Francis Marion

(1732-1795) - Commander of South Carolina forces during the American Revolution, dubbed the "Swamp Fox" for leading a band of bold guerrillas defeating superior British forces. Later served in the Senate

George Washington

(1732-1799) - First president, Virginia planter, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, universally admired leader. Created the chief executive even as he led the nation through its infancy

John Dickinson

(1732-1808) - Writer of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania," crystallizing colonial resistance to the Townshend Acts and advancing the cause of independence. Delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress, and delegate from Delaware to the Constitutional Convention

Robert Morris

(1734-1806) - Prominent Philadelphia merchant and leader of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, Continental Congress delegate, primary manager of finance for the war effort in its beginning stages. Founded the Bank of North America and was superintendent of finance under the Articles

Daniel Boone

(1734-1820) - Far-ranging hunter and trapper, exploring and settling a part of Kentucky, blazing a trail through Cumberland Gap, fighting in the French and Indian as well as Revolutionary War, and earning legendary fame as a frontiersman

Paul Revere

(1735-1818) - Boston silversmith, son of a Huguenot refugee, widely praised as a great artisan and a daring courier for Boston's Committee of Public Safety. Legendarily took a "Ride" to alert the locals of approaching British troops in Lexington and Concord, depicted in the Longfellow ballad

John Adams

(1735-1826) - Second President, successful Massachusetts lawyer, leading member of the Continental Congress, first Ambassador to Britain, Vice President under Washington, a conservative force after the Revolution despite his radicalism during it

Patrick Henry

(1736-1799) - Virginia politician and electrifying orator, on top of his radical leadership of the independence movement in Virginia, remembered for his "give me liberty or give me death" speech in 1775

John Hancock

(1737-1793) - Prosperous Boston merchant, major leader of the independence movement, President of the first and second Continental Congresses, first to sign the Declaration of Independence

Thomas Paine

(1737-1809) - Philadelphia writer, who immigrated from England on Benjamin Franklin's recommendation. Prompted by Dr. Benjamin Rush to write "Common Sense," a runaway bestseller swaying the debate in favor of independence. Later wrote the "Crisis" papers, invaluable in keeping the Patriot cause alive during the war

Ethan Allen

(1738-1789) - Vermont militia leader, leading the Green Mountain Boys (1770) which aided in the capture of Ford Ticonderoga and failed to take Montreal

John Singleton Copley

(1738-1815) - Early American painter, painting "Boy with Squirrel" that became the first work of American art publicly appreciated in Europe, eventually settling in London and painting historical subjects

Benjamin West

(1738-1820) - Prominent early American painter, who uniquely was trained in America and then settled in England, painting historical narratives with King George III as his patron

Benedict Arnold

(1741-1801) - Patriot soldier notoriously turning against the Americans, giving plans of West Point fortifications to the British and earning a brigadier general position in the British Army, previously serving as a teenager in the French and Indian War

Joseph Brant

(1742-1807) - Mohawk military leader siding with the British in the Revolutionary War and later advocating peace between whites and Indians, settling for a land grant in Canada

Thomas Jefferson

(1743-1826) - Third president, second Vice President, renaissance man of the early republic, as a naturalist, inventor, architect (Monticello, University of Virginia), and author. Forged groundbreaking statute of religious freedom in Virginia, and author of the Declaration of Independence. First Secretary of State as well, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, perhaps the most radical of the founding fathers

Elbridge Gerry

(1744-1814) - Vice President under Madison, signer of the Declaration of Independence, namesake of a political action dividing electoral districts for partisan political advantage, associated with his administration as Governor of Massachusetts

Abigail Adams

(1744-1818) - First Lady to John Adams, managing his farm and his business affairs during the Revolution, urging him to "remember the ladies" during the conflict

"Mad Anthony" Wayne

(1745-1796) - Brilliant American commander in the Revolutionary War, forming a new force to repulse the Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa, and other tribes resisting white settlement in present-day Ohio and Indiana. Won the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, opening up the vast Ohio country to settlement

Oliver Ellsworth

(1745-1807) - Hartford, Connecticut lawyer during the American Revolution, orchestrated the Connecticut Compromise, wrote the Judiciary Act, served as the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1796-1800), preceding John Marshall

John Jay

(1745-1829) - First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1789-1795), establishing many judicial precedents and also a great diplomat of the early republic, negotiating his namesake "Treaty" with Britain that resolved lingering disputes and established a basis for commerce

Benjamin Rush

(1746-1813) - Pioneering American medical researcher and respected teacher of medicine, prime mover in the asylum and independence movements. His insistence was the reason for which Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense"

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

(1746-1825) - Cousin to Charles, fought in the American Revolution and was Minister to France amid the XYZ Affair, joining John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry who were solicited a bribe to speak with Talleyrand. His steadfastness was a key to the defense of U.S. sovereignty in the earliest days of the republic

John Paul Jones

(1747-1792) - Scottish sailor who fled to America, joining the Continental Navy and attacking British commerce that was protected by the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough in 1779, a daring attack. His famous cry "I have not yet begun to fight!" emerged, after he lost his own Bonhomme Richard ship

Daniel Shays

(1747-1825) - Farmer and Revolutionary War veteran who led his namesake "Rebellion" to prevent Massachusetts courts from executing foreclosures amid high taxes and an economic depression, with a force of 4,400 under Massachusetts Gov. James Bowdoin amassed to quell his uprising

Henry Knox

(1750-1806) - First Secretary of War, previously a Boston bookstore owner and Washington's chief artillery commander during the American Revolution

Gouverneur Morris

(1751-1816) - Extreme Federalist and zealous champion of independence during the American Revolution. Formulated the decimal coinage system that became the basis of the U.S. monetary system under the Articles, as well as a principal drafter of the Constitution as a delegate

James Madison

(1751-1836) - Fourth president and perhaps least well-known of the Founding Fathers, a key author of the Constitution and "The Federalist Papers," Secretary of State under Jefferson, secured the Louisiana Purchase. Presidency was marred by War of 1812, during which Washington, D.C. burned

George Rogers Clark

(1752-1818) - Leading American commander in the interior theater of the Revolutionary War, gaining victories largely responsible for Britain's cession of the Old Northwest

Phillis Wheatley

(1753-1784) - West African born slave purchased by a Boston tailor, treated as a member of the family and allowed to read and write, becoming a skilled poet and publishing "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," the first African-American female poet

Edmund Randolph

(1753-1813) - Prominent Virginia lawyer, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, proposing the "Virginia Plan," who withheld his signature believing the document provided insufficient state protection. First Attorney General under Washington, and later Secretary of State upon Jefferson's resignation

Pierre L'Enfant

(1754-1825) - Military engineer during the American Revolution, later designer of Washington, D.C., as well as redesigning New York's Federal Hall

Nathan Hale

(1755-1776) - Connecticut schoolteacher and militia captain during the Revolutionary War, hung as a spy while conducting espionage behind the British lines in Long Island, famously speaking "my only regret is that I have but one life to lose for my country"

Alexander Hamilton

(1755-1804) - Nevis born politician, staff officer to General Washington during the Revolutionary War, New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention, prime contributor to "The Federalist Papers," first Secretary of the Treasury, championing a strong central government that put him at odds with Jefferson and led to his death in a duel with his chief political foe, Aaron Burr

John Marshall

(1755-1835) - Fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, perhaps the Court's single most important figure. Architect of constitutional law, raising the judicial branch to higher status and introducing judicial review. Wrote 519 of the 1,000 plus decisions he participated in, over thirty years as Chief Justice

Henry Lee

(1756-1818) - AKA "Light-horse Harry," a skilled cavalry commander in the Revolutionary War as commander of dragoons (swift-moving, elite troops that rode into battle). Wrote the resolution in Congress after Washington's death, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen"

Aaron Burr

(1756-1836) - Prominent New York attorney, presidential candidate in 1800, Vice President under Jefferson, dueler of Alexander Hamilton, conspirator with Gen. James Wilkinson to invade Mexico and establish an independent government there, fleeing to Europe after acquitted of treason

Charles Pinckney

(1757-1824) - South Carolina delegate to the Constitutional Convention, presenting a thorough plan of the federal government that significantly influenced the document. He was critical in shaping the style and form as well as the content

Marquis de Lafayette

(1757-1834) - Major General in the Continental Army, having left his native France for Philadelphia and establishing a close bond with Washington. Won the Battle of Brandywine, persuaded King Louis XVI to devote 6,000 men to fight on behalf of America. Also instrumental in bottling up Cornwallis at Yorktown

James Monroe

(1758-1831) - Fifth president, Secretary of War under Madison, and fought alongside Washington in the Revolutionary War. Presided over "Era of Good Feelings," contributing his namesake "Doctrine" resisting any attempt to colonize Western lands by European powers

Mason Locke Weems

(1759-1825) - AKA "Parson," a traveling book salesman and writer of "The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington," inserting the entirely fictitious story of Washington chopping down his father's favorite cherry tree

Jonathan Dayton

(1760-1824) - Youngest member of the Constitutional Convention, developer of huge portions of Ohio territory, co-conspirator with Aaron Burr in their grandiose empire plans, namesake of a major Ohio city

Sequoyah

(1760-1843) - Cherokee woman that created the first written Indian alphabet and language in 1824, effectively committing the Cherokee tongue to writing

Charles Edmond Genet

(1763-1834) - French emissary to the U.S., conspired to involve American citizens directly in France's ongoing war with Britain, straining Anglo-American relations and setting the stage for a major crisis in Franco-American relations, while also testing Washington's determination to uphold sovereignty

John Jacob Astor

(1763-1848) - Fur magnate, having created the American Fur Company and securing the nation's first business monopoly, motivating the exploration of the Far West amid fur trading success

Benjamin Latrobe

(1764-1820) - British-born architect, America's first professional architect, introducing Greek Revival for many government buildings, namely the U.S. Capitol Building and part of Baltimore's Roman Catholic cathedral

Robert Fulton

(1765-1815) - Engineer and inventor of a practical submarine, steam warship, and most notably the first practical steam-powered vessel, dubbed the Clermont. Originally intended to become a painter

Eli Whitney

(1765-1825) - Yale University graduate working as a tutor at the Mulberry Grove, Georgia plantation, designing the cotton gin to automate removal of seeds from short-staple cotton, making cotton king in the South and increasing demand for slave labor. Made more fortune in selling rifles with interchangeable parts to the Army

Denmark Vesey

(1767-1822) - Self-educated slave who purchased his freedom in 1800, reading anti-slavery literature and becoming radicalized by organizing Charleston, South Carolina slaves to raid the city's arsenals. A house servant tipped off the authorities, and the rebellion never occurred, with 67 convictions and him being hanged. He planned the most extensive planned slave revolt in U.S. history

Black Hawk

(1767-1838) - Chief of the Sauk and Fox tribes of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, resisting white settlement and triggering the Black Hawk War of 1832, resulting in the massacre of many folowers

Andrew Jackson

(1767-1845) - Seventh president, expanding egalitarian - if not raucous - democracy, promoting the Indian Removal Act and embarking the "Trail of Tears." Previously defeated the Red Stick Creeks in the Creek War, and won the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, born on the frontier between North and South Carolina

John Quincy Adams

(1767-1848) - Sixth President, formidable diplomat, formulated the Monroe Doctrine while Secretary of State under Monroe, proposed a national university and national roads while president, later served in the House after his presidency

Tecumseh

(1768-1813) - Shawnee chief traveling extensively in an effort to unite various tribes against invasion of the Ohio country, striking in the War of 1812 and initially succeeding in drawing together many tribes, but killed at the Battle of the Thomas by troops under William Henry Harrison

Dolley Madison

(1768-1849) - First Lady to Madison, managing the social aspects of life at the White House and a valuable political asset to her husband's presidency, creating an atmosphere of charm and warmth. Credited with introducing ice cream to America

DeWitt Clinton

(1769-1828) - New York state legislator, promoting the construction of the Erie Canal across New York linking the Northeast coastal trade with the Great Lakes via Lake Erie. Served as Governor after 1817, opened the canal in 1825

William Clark

(1770-1838) - Younger brother of George Rogers Clark, serving in the Army before handpicked by Meriwether Lewis to co-captain the Corps of Discovery expedition

William Wirt

(1772-1834) - Attorney General under Monroe and Quincy Adams, transforming the position into a powerful one by prosecuting important cases. Previously prosecuted Aaron Burr's 1807 treason trial, and wrote a book on Patrick Henry that may have actually invented the phrase "give me liberty or give me death," however unlikely

Sally Hemings

(1773-1835) - Chambermaid to Thomas Jefferson with home he had a number of children

William Henry Harrison

(1773-1841) - Ninth president who died abruptly after a chilly inauguration, earlier Governor of Indiana Territory and victor over Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana. Campaigned with slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"

Meriwether Lewis

(1774-1809) - Army officer, personal secretary to Thomas Jefferson, leader of the Corps of Discovery expedition through the Far West (1804-06)

John Colter

(1775-1813) - First white man to see and describe the region of present-day Yellowstone National Park

Henry Clay

(1777-1852) - Congressman and Senator, orchestrated the Missouri Compromise, the 1833 Compromise Tariff, and the Compromise of 1850

Roger B. Taney

(1777-1864) - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, serving from 1836 to 1864 and writing the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision

Zebulon Pike

(1779-1813) - Important American West explorer, reporting on the Spanish military weakness in Santa Fe that whetted expansionist appetite, while also discovering his namesake "Peak" in Colorado. Killed in War of 1812

Stephen Decatur

(1779-1820) - Naval hero who led an expedition into Tripoli harbor to set fire to the U.S. frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen to Barbary pirates, later securing other important victories over the Barbary pirates

Francis Scott Key

(1779-1843) - Baltimore lawyer and writer of the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," while observing the naval bombardment of Fort McHenry while a British P.O.W. Officially proclaimed anthem by Hoover

Jean Lafitte

(1780-1825) - French smuggler and pirate, most notably a defender of New Orleans aside Andrew Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans (1814-15)

John C. Calhoun

(1782-1850) - Vice President under Jackson, Congressman, Secretary of War, Senator, and Secretary of State, known for his defense of states' rights and nullification, providing a theoretical basis for the formation of the Confederacy

Daniel Webster

(1782-1852) - Congressman and Senator from Massachusetts, Secretary of State under Tyler and Fillmore, celebrated as the greatest orator of his day. Engaged Senator Robert Hayne of South Carolina in debates over nullification, which he held was not applicable in most cases

Martin Van Buren

(1782-1862) - Eighth president, previously Vice President under Jackson in his second term, Governor of New York, and Senator from New York. Tended to appease Southern slaveholders, defeated for 1840 reelection and trying another unsuccessful comeback, in 1848 as a Free Soil candidate

Zachary Taylor

(1784-1850) - Twelfth president as a Whig, faced with the problem of extending or prohibiting slavery in the newly acquired Mexican territories, an issue he had little time to deal with, as he succumbed to cholera just 16 months after taking office. Previously a military hero in the Mexican-American War

Oliver Hazard Perry

(1785-1819) - Naval officer in the War of 1812, hastily constructing an inland naval fleet that defeated the Royal Navy at the Battle of Lake Erie, cutting off the British Army's waterborne supply route and enabling the crucial victory of William Henry Harrison at the Battle of the Thames. He sent a famous dispatch reading "we have met the enemy, and they are ours."

John James Audubon

(1785-1851) - Haitian ornithologist and famous writer and artist of his The Birds of America, earning him international acclaim as one of the first Americans to be recognized for cultural and scientific achievements

Davy Crockett

(1786-1836) - Representative from Tennessee, spinning out amusing tales that spurred almanacs and an autobiography, having previously fought Indians in the Creek War and later defending the Alamo fortress to the death

William Marcy

(1786-1857) - Leading New York state Democrat and Senator, defending and justifying the "spoils system" declaring that "to the victor belongs the spoils" (NOTE: not to be confused with William "Boss" Tweed)

Winfield Scott

(1786-1866) - Commanding general of the Army in 1841 through 1861, the leading military officer between the Revolution and the Civil War who fought heroically in the War of 1812, the wars associated with the Indian Removal Act, and the Mexican-American War

John Crittenden

(1787-1863) - Kentucky politician and namesake of his "Compromise" that would prohibit the spread of slavery beyond the current slave territories, a last-ditch effort to prevent war that failed

James Fenimore Cooper

(1789-1851) - New Yorker and novelist of the Leatherstocking Tales, which included "The Last of the Mohicans," portraying frontier scout Natty Bumppo as the archetypal frontier man

John Tyler

(1790-1862) - Tenth president, originally a Whig but later but alienating his party. Originally Vice President under William Henry Harrison, whose abrupt death ignited a newfound debate over presidential succession, where his ascension settled the issue

Robert Hayne

(1791-1839) - Senator from South Carolina, debater of Daniel Webster on nullification, defining a major dispute between North and South

James Buchanan

(1791-1868) - Fifteenth president, drifting badly in a weak effort to find a compromise between North and South, making the Civil War inevitable and rating him among the worst American presidents

Samuel F.B. Morse

(1791-1872) - Painter of little monetary success, turning to invention and designing the first truly practical telegraph, commercialized beginning 1844 with the message "what hath God wrought?" from the Supreme Court to Alfred Vail in Baltimore. Also invented his namesake "Code," a major means of communication both by wired and wireless systems

Thaddeus Stevens

(1792-1868) - Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, emerging as leader of the Radical Republicans that favored harshly punitive measures against the former Confederacy during Reconstruction. Forceful advocate for the rights of freed slaves

Grimke Sisters

(1792-1873, 1805-1879) - South Carolina born lecturers and female voices for abolition and women's rights, lecturing nationwide to unite women's rights with the struggle against slavery

Stephen F. Austin

(1793-1836) - Founded a colony for Americans in Texas, ultimately resulting in the colony's war for independence and the Mexican-American War

Eliphalet Remington

(1793-1861) - New York immigrant and fashioner of a flintlock gun at his father's forge, greatly impressing neighbors and catapulting him into the arms business. Built his first factory in 1828, with his namesake company becoming the principal firearms supplier to the U.S. military, from the Civil War to the World Wars

Sam Houston

(1793-1863) - Commander of a small Texas army that triumphed at the Battle of San Jacinto and won Texas its independence. President of the Republic of Texas in its heyday, and one of its Senators once annexation occurred. Later elected Governor of Texas, but refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy, swiftly deposing of his political career

Lucretia Mott

(1793-1880) - Nantucket, Massachusetts born female reformer active in the abolition and women's rights movement, founding the American Equal Rights Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Stephen Watts Kearny

(1794-1848) - Army officer and leader of an expedition from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas during the Mexican-American War, successfully securing New Mexico and California for the U.S.

Matthew Perry

(1794-1858) - Commissioned sailor, by Franklin Pierce, to persuade Japan to open diplomatic relations with the U.S., him concluding intimidation by a display of naval force would be most effective. He boldly sailed into fortified Uraga harbor and effectively extorted a treaty

Cornelius Vanderbilt

(1794-1877) - Steamship magnate that eventually acquired control of the New York Central railroad and connected New York to Chicago. Built his fortune originally on ferry operations between Staten Island and Manhattan, while also operating steamship service from New York to San Francisco via Nicaragua during the Gold Rush

James K. Polk

(1795-1849) - Eleventh president, a Democrat and compromise candidate, once referred to as a "Dark Horse." Texas was annexed and the Mexican-American War was fought during his administration, acquiring the American Southwest

Dred Scott

(1795-1858) - Slave taken from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Illinois, suing for his freedom in 1846 as a result. Supreme Court case ob the subject, with him versus "Sanford," where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney deciding that neither slaves nor free blacks were citizens and could not sue, thereby invalidating the Missouri Compromise and affirming constitutional protection of slavery

Jim Bowie

(1796-1836) - Legendary settler of Texas and former sugar planter who had joined the Texas independence movement and was co-commander (alongside Col. Travis) of the Alamo fortress, overrun by Santa Anna in 1836, where Bowie and the other defenders were slain, immortalizing him

Horace Mann

(1796-1859) - Early advocate of free universal public education, believing the prosperity of a democratic society depended on it. Raised in poverty and largely self-educated

Sojourner Truth

(1797-1883) - New York slave, freed in 1827, that became an itinerant evangelist and embarking on a campaign to endorse abolition and women's rights

Nat Turner

(1800-1831) - Slave and lay preacher who led 50+ fellow slaves in a Southampton County, Virginia rebellion, killing 60 whites but quickly tried and hanged for his role in 1831

John Brown

(1800-1859) - Active force in the militant antislavery movement, leading a raid on Pottawatomie Creek and massacring 5 proslavers, later leading a legendary raid on Harpers Ferry, intending to trigger a universal slave rebellion but instead quickly quelled by Marines under Robert E. Lee, leading to his hanging for treason and murder

William McGuffey

(1800-1873) - Professor at Miami University of Ohio, publisher of the first elementary reading and spelling instructional text, his namesake "Readers" that taught generations of Americans to read and spell

Nicolas Trist

(1800-1874) - Private secretary to Andrew Jackson, negotiator for Polk to end the Mexican-American War, emerging with the Treaty of Guadulupe-Hidalgo that ceded most of California and the American Southwest

Millard Fillmore

(1800-1874) - Thirteenth president, appeasing the South through the Fugitive Slave Act via the Compromise of 1850 during his presidency, alienating the North and the Whigs while galvanizing the abolition movement

Catharine Beecher

(1800-1878) - Daughter of revivalist preacher Lyman Beecher, advocated public education and the enhanced role of women in society. Wrote A Treatise on Domestic Economy

Thomas Cole

(1801-1848) - Painter of the American forestland in New York and the Hudson River, creating large canvases that evoked the mystery of the forests, inspiring the great American landscape painters

William H. Seward

(1801-1872) - Secretary of State under Lincoln, surviving an assassination attempt by a John Wilkes Booth co-conspirator, negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, widely mocked as his namesake "folly." Also an attorney and abolitionist

Brigham Young

(1801-1877) - Carpenter in Mendon, New York, follower of Joseph Smith, and leader of the Mormons (148 of them) that journeyed to Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the vanguard of the great Mormon Trek that would ensure survival of the religion

Robert Dale Owen

(1801-1877) - Founder of the New Harmony, Indiana settlement, America's most famous experiment in Utopian living

Marcus and Narcissa Whitman

(1802-1847, 1808-1847) - Couple who, along with H.H. Spaulding, founded the first American settlement in the Oregon Territory (1836), a prelude to a torrent of far-western settlement dubbed "Oregon fever." However, both were abruptly killed by Indians in 1847 in their namesake "Massacre" that drew military forces

Dorothea Dix

(1802-1887) - Schoolteacher in Massachusetts, appalled by the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill who were jailed as criminals, embarking on a campaign to reform mental illness treatment, eventually made superintendent of nurses for the Union Army

John Sutter

(1803-1880) - German-born settler to California in 1839, becoming a prominent rancher and whose employee, James Marshall, discovered gold in the stream of a mill on the ranch, triggering the California Gold Rush

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803-1882) - Unitarian minister turned philosopher, a leading exponent of Transcendentalism, positing the unity in nature of all creation, primacy of intuitive insight over received wisdom, and the power of the natural world to reveal the deepest spiritual truths

Osceola

(1804-1838) - Seminole chief and war leader during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), with unifying leadership that was highly effective and resistant of removal to "Indian Territory," despite his capture and death in captivity in the middle of the war

Franklin Pierce

(1804-1869) - Fourteenth president as a Democrat, proving a weak chief executive who evaded the difficult issues surrounding slavery, those contributing to the inexorable drift toward civil war

Oakes Ames

(1804-1873) - Known as the "Ace of Spades," tapped to create the first transcontinental railroad, founded Credit Mobilier, whose scandal brought down his reputation

John Deere

(1804-1886) - Vermont blacksmith and later farm engineer who produced a hard steel plow, breaking the plains and enabling the agricultural exploitation of vast tracts of the prairies

Joseph Smith

(1805-1844) - Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Fayette, New York. Attempted to settle his followers in Deseret, but was murdered by outsiders in Nauvoo, Illinois, with Brigham Young taking the remaining followers to the Salt Lake

William Lloyd Garrison

(1805-1879) - Founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and later the American Anti-Slavery Society, passionate journalist of "The Liberator," with uncompromising views on abolition and calling for a peaceful secession of the free northern states

John Roebling

(1806-1869) - German immigrant and designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, whose work was carried out by his son, Washington Augustus, upon his succumbing to tetanus

Robert E. Lee

(1807-1870) - West Point graduate, hero of the Mexican-American War, referred to by Gen. Winfield Scott as "the very best soldier I ever saw in the field." Offered command of Union forces, but joined the Confederacy as the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, amassing a remarkable victory record until Gettysburg, the turning point leading to his surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(1807-1882) - Portland, Maine born professor at Bowdoin and Harvard University, eventually writing poetry in earnest and in great abundance, including "The Song of Hiawatha" (1855) and "The Village Blacksmith"

Salmon P. Chase

(1808-1873) - Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln, skilled in financing the Civil War but also working behind Lincoln's back to steal the 1864 Republican nomination, later appointed to replace the late Roger Taney as new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, effectively being disposed of by Lincoln

Andrew Johnson

(1808-1875) - Seventeenth president, sixteenth Vice President, originally a Representative, Governor, and Senator from Tennessee. Opposed secession and remained loyal to the Union as Senator, advocated lenient treatment to the South after the Civil War as President, angering Radical Republicans and precipitating his impeachment, which failed to remove him

Jefferson Davis

(1808-1889) - President of the Confederate States of America, hero of the Mexican-American War, Secretary of War under Pierce, held in prison for treason but later released. Later became president of a Memphis insurance company

William Travis

(1809-1836) - Attorney and soldier in command of the Texas forces at the Alamo, falling along with the Alamo's other defenders in 1836 to Santa Anna

Edgar Allen Poe

(1809-1849) - One of the nation's most important writers, with dark-hue, melodic lyrics, including "The Raven" (1845) and the first detective story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"

Kit Carson

(1809-1868) - Fur trapper and mountain man in the Rockies, later a military guide in Oregon and California, Indian agent to the Utes in New Mexico, and colonel of a volunteer cavalry in New Mexico, fighting Confederates as well as Navajos and Apaches. Reputation as an Indian fighter

Cyrus McCormick

(1809-1884) - Virginia born farmer and blacksmith, inventing the horse-drawn plow and more importantly a mechanical reaper, his namesake that revolutionized agriculture and made possible large-scale farming without slave labor

Abraham Lincoln

(1809-1965) - Sixteenth president, often regarded as the greatest of American presidents, presided over the Civil War and advocated amnesty for the Confederate states. Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth

Phineas T. Barnum

(1810-1891) - Connecticut newspaper writer known for sensationalism (arrested for libel), founding an exhibition including the Barnum Museum and the Barnum and Bailey Circus, titled the "Greatest Show on Earth," having earlier touted a 161-year-old nurse of George Washington

Elisha Graves Otis

(1811-1861) - Mechanic and inventor that developed the passenger elevator (1853), making practical the skyscraper, soon an iconic feature of the American urban landscape

Horace Greeley

(1811-1872) - Journalist and founder of the "New York Tribune" in 1841, a liberal voice of abolitionism, woman suffrage, and political reform, setting a journalistic standard in news-gathering and moral purpose, a "crusading journalist"

Charles Sumner

(1811-1874) - Fiery anti-slavery Senator from Massachusetts, savagely beaten with a cane by South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks on the Senate floor in retaliation for having maligned South Carolina and its senator, Andrew Butler, Brooks' uncle. Caning represented Southern brutality at its worst from a Northern perspective

Judah Benjamin

(1811-1884) - South Carolina politician and the first Jew in the Senate in 1852, advocating slavery and serving as Attorney General for the Confederate States of America, Secretary of War, and eventually Secretary of State

Stephen A. Douglas

(1813-1861) - Illinois politician, noted orator, advocate of popular sovereignty, debate participant along with Abraham Lincoln in contest for an Illinois Senate seat, which he won

Henry Ward Beecher

(1813-1887) - Son of revivalist preacher Lyman Beecher, earning recognition for his oratorical eloquence and his scientific approach to religion and society

John C. Fremont

(1813-1890) - Explorer and mapper of the Far West during the 1840s, broke California away from Mexico in the Mexican-American War, committed to abolitionism, first Republican presidential candidate in 1856

John O'Sullivan

(1813-1895) - "New York Post" editor who coined the term "manifest destiny" in the "United States Magazine and Democratic Review," electrifying the nation and justifying the country's possession of territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific

Samuel Colt

(1814-1862) - Sailor that whittled a wooden model of a handgun, later perfected as a revolver, growing his business in supplying the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War, becoming the manufacturer of the most famous American handgun - the "gun that tamed the West"

David Wilmot

(1814-1868) - Representative and Senator from Pennsylvania, supporting abolition and proposing his namesake "proviso" (actually originated by Ohioan Jacob Brinkerhoff) to outlaw slavery in any formerly Mexican territory, always defeated but giving birth to the Free Soil Party

Edwin Stanton

(1814-1869) - Secretary of War under Lincoln beginning in 1862, prosecuting the Civil War with ruthless energy and ill temper. Attempt to remove him from the Cabinet triggered Andrew Johnson's impeachment

Samuel J. Tilden

(1814-1886) - Governor of New York beginning in 1874, losing the election of 1876 in a backroom deal to Hayes, agreeing that troops would be removed from the South, in exchange for Hayes' victory that he conceded. Earned national recognition for his reforms, including ousting the infamous Tammany Ring while reorganizing New York City's Democratic Party

George Meade

(1815-187) - Union cavalry officer and in command of the Army of the Potomac when engaging Lee at Gettysburg, eventually prevailing and turning the tide of the war. Failed to pursue Lee's defeated army, however, which almost certainly prolonged the conflict

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

(1815-1902) - Composer of the Declaration of Sentiments, along with Lucretia Mott, pulling together the first organized demand for woman suffrage in the U.S. and working with Susan B. Anthony for half a century to attain such a goal

Henry David Thoreau

(1817-1862) - Intellectual disciple of Ralph Waldo Emerson, contributing to Emerson's magazine "The Dial," building a cabin on Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts, and keeping a record of his observations, published as "Walden." Reclusive but hardly disengaged from society, briefly jailed for failure to pay a poll tax, disputed U.S. claims in the Mexican-American War, and wrote his most famous essay, "Civil Disobedience" on the subject

Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen

(1817-1885) - Secretary of State under Arthur, forging strong commercial ties with Latin America, acquiring Pearl Harbor, and opening diplomatic relations with the "hermit kingdom" Korea

Mary Todd Lincoln

(1818-1882) - First Lady of Lincoln, enduring the death of two sons, the emotional devastation of the Civil War, and her husband's assassination. Quite unpopular due to her Southern birth and extravagant spending, suffering from bouts of severe depression. Committed to an asylum by her son Robert Todd, fleeing to Europe to protect her image

Frederick Douglass

(1818-1895) - Famous abolitionist lecturer, writer, and former slave, writing a stirring autobiography, advocating the enlistment of black troops in the Civil War, advising Abraham Lincoln during the war, and championing women's rights

Richard Jordan Gatling

(1818-1903) - Inventor of his namesake "gun" in 1862, which was a major step in the efficiency of infantry weapons and a profound influence on modern warfare

Walt Whitman

(1819-1892) - Self-taught newspaper editor and schoolteacher who published "Leaves of Grass" as the most original collection of verse possible ever written, embodying the democratic spirit of America

Julia Ward Howe

(1819-1910) - Composer of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" during a visit to a Washington, DC military encampment in 1861, published in the "Atlantic Monthly" and set to the tune of "John Brown's Body"

Mary Surratt

(1820-1865) - Woman who ran the Washington, D.C. boardinghouse that served as the meeting place of John Wilkes Booth and co-conspirators in the assassination of President Lincoln. Tried and convicted of complicity in the conspiracy, becoming the first woman to be hanged in the U.S.

Clement Vallandigham

(1820-1871) - Ohio "Copperhead" (Northern Democrat sympathetic to the Confederacy) that saw Union victory as only benefiting moneyed interests, committing subversive activities to the Union during the War and exiled to the south

William Tecumseh Sherman

(1820-1891) - Top lieutenant to Ulysses S. Grant in the final year of the Civil War, executing his "March to the Sea" from Atlanta to Savanna that brought the war to the civilian population. A brutal realist who believed in maximum destruction for total, rapid victory

Susan B. Anthony

(1820-1906) - Outspoken women's suffrage advocate, member of a progressive Quaker family, organized Woman's New York State Temperance Society to rival the all-male counterpart

Nathan Bedford Forrest

(1821-1877) - Military commander of great skill and daring, considered the most dangerous man in the Confederacy by Gen. William T. Sherman. His role in the Fort Pillow Massacre in killing 300 African-American troops cemented his ruthlessness, as he also formed the original Ku Klux Klan

James Longstreet

(1821-1904) - High-ranking Confederate officer in many major battles of the Civil War, second in command at Gettysburg, whose reluctance to organize "Pickett's Charge" is often cited as the reason for defeat. Earned brilliant victories at the Battle of Chickamauga and the Wilderness Campaign

Mary Baker Eddy

(1821-1910) - Founder of the Christian Science religion, linking spiritual faith to physical healing, having previously suffered from chronic debilitating disease and claiming to have been healed

Clara Barton

(1821-1912) - "Angel of the battlefield," working as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War, becoming involved in the International Red Cross movement, founding the American Red Cross

Harriet Tubman

(1821-1913) - Maryland slave that escaped to freedom around 1849, repeatedly journeying back into slave territory and founding the "Underground Railroad" that smuggled thousands of fugitives to freedom. Later served as a spy in Maryland and Virginia during the Civil War

Ulysses S. Grant

(1822-1885) - Eighteenth president, originally General-in-Chief of the Union Army, leading it to a costly Civil War victory and hailed as a bold leader and great strategist. Administration was notorious for corruption, leaving office and reaching poverty had it not been for Mark Twain's publishing of his memoirs

Rutherford B. Hayes

(1822-1893) - Nineteenth president who ended Reconstruction and cleaned up the corruption of Grant's terms, but always afflicted by the stigma of the backroom dealings of his 1876 election, mocked by the title "His Fraudulency"

Frederick Law Olmsted

(1822-1903) - Landscape architect of Central Park and other city parks throughout the country, giving rise to the "city beautiful" movement as a welcome antidote to the blight of industrialization and urban sprawl

Red Cloud

(1822-1909) - Chief of the Oglala Teton Sioux who secured the Treaty of Fort Laramie, closing the Bozeman Trail as a gold field route and recognizing various Indian rights, a rare triumph for Natives

William Marcy "Boss" Tweed

(1823-1878) - Powerful ring leader for New York Democrats known then as Tammany Hall, appointing cronies and party faithful in his namesake "ring," the most famous of urban "bosses" that were exposed by Thomas Nast's satiric cartoons and ultimately convicted on forgery and larceny

Schuyler Colfax

(1823-1885) - Vice President under Grant, previously a Republican Congressman during Radical Reconstruction and an Indiana newspaper publisher, implicated in the massive Credit Mobilier scandal, becoming a symbol of corruption

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

(1824-1863) - Confederate general emerging as the most innovative and skilled tactician of the Civil War after his bold stand at the First Battle of Bull Run. Pinned down huge Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, and achieved a crushing Union defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Killed by friendly fire

Leland Stanford

(1824-1893) - Governor of California and major investor in the Central Pacific Railroad, serving as its president for over 30 years and establishing Stanford University in 1885

Chief Big Foot

(1825-1890) - Sioux chief killed by Seventh Cavalry troopers at the Battle of Wounded Knee, previously seeking peace among the tribes and peace with whites

George B. McClellan

(1826-1885) - Commander of the Army of the Potomac in the Civil War until relieved of major command after a "case of the slows" and avoidance of decisive conflict. His lack of aggressiveness likely prolonged the bloody Civil War

Levi Strauss

(1829-1902) - Bavarian-born immigrant to New York City, a dry goods merchant and San Francisco resident beginning in 1853, developing denim overalls for gold prospectors, moving on to reinforce pants at the suggestion of tailor Jacob Davis. Patented these trousers in 1973, and his namesake jeans were born

Geronimo

(1829-1909) - Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches in a highly effective guerrilla resistance to reservation confinement, leading raids from the early 1860s until his final surrender in 1886, memorialized by U.S. paratroopers in World War II that used his name as their jump cry

Helen Hunt Jackson

(1830-1885) - Prolific novelist moved by the plight of the Indians, publishing her study "A Century of Dishonor" condemning federal Indian policy

Emily Dickinson

(1830-1886) - Amherst, Massachusetts born poet of nearly 2,000 lyric poems, expression of her intense physical and spiritual passion, with her fame entirely posthumous

James G. Blaine

(1830-1893) - Secretary of State under Garfield and Harrison, championing the Pan-American Movement, a set of alliances and treaties between the United States and Latin America

O.O. Howard

(1830-1909) - Leader of the Freedman's Bureau, later president of his namesake university for African-Americans

Mary Harris Jones

(1830-1930) - AKA "Mother Jones," an Irish immigrant who became a dynamic labor organizer for the United Mine Workers, a founding member of the Social Democratic Party and the IWW

James A. Garfield

(1831-1881) - Twentieth president, originally a Representative and Senator from Ohio, assassinated in 1881 by a disgruntled office seeker, Charles Guiteau. Incapacity of his raised constitutional questions regarding assumption of the presidency by the vice president

Philip Sheridan

(1831-1888) - Union general under Ulysses S. Grant, accelerating the Confederate defeat in the closing year of the Civil War. Previously was W.T. Sherman's second-in-command in the Indian Wars

Sitting Bull

(1831-1890) - Sioux legend, leading them against the white invasion of the Black hills, fleeing to Canada after victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn, later imprisoned at Standing Rock Reservation upon return. Later traveled as a Wild West Show performer, becoming identified with the Ghost Dance movement

George Pullman

(1831-1897) - Major industrialist and train engineer, with his so-called "Pioneer" sleeping car in 1865 that transformed long-distance rail travel. Attempted to control every aspect of his employees' lives, building the quasi-Utopian town of Pullman near Chicago. Extreme paternalism a subject of great controversy

Louisa May Alcott

(1832-1888) - Author of books for young people, including Little Women about the coming of age of four daughters during the Civil War

Boston Corbett

(1832-1894) - Union soldier famous for shooting and killing John Wilkes Booth, who was slowly being surrounded by the flames engulfing the Virginia tobacco farm he was in

Horatio Alger

(1832-1899) - Famous writer of rags-to-riches stories in New York City, earlier serving as a Massachusetts preacher but forced out of the pulpit by sexual misconduct charges

Philip Armour

(1832-1901) - Innovative Chicago meatpacker, using his profits for philanthropy

Samuel Mudd

(1833-1883) - Maryland physician who aided John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of President Lincoln, tending to Booth's leg. Convicted of conspiracy to murder Lincoln, sentenced to life imprisonment and eventually pardoned after heroic medical work during a yellow fever outbreak in his prison

Benjamin Harrison

(1833-1901) - Twenty-third president, whose moderate Republicanism moved him to sign the Sherman Antitrust Act curbing monopolies. Presided over a general expansion of U.S. influence abroad, defeated Democrat Grover Cleveland in 1888 but lost to him in 1892

John M. Harlan

(1833-1911) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court since 1877, one of the high court's great dissenters that dissented on the majority of civil rights issues, arguing for equal rights of blacks

Andrew Carnegie

(1835-1919) - Scottish immigrant controlling his namesake Carnegie Steel Company, sold to U.S. Steel in 1901. Argued for the duty of the wealthy to improve society, using his enormous wealth to endow educational and other foundations

William Quantrill

(1837-1865) - Career criminal who organized a cutthroat band of guerrillas loosely attached to the Confederacy, raiding Lawrence, Kansas and a Union detachment at Baxter Springs, Kansas. Finally gunned down in 1865 during a Kentucky raid

Grover Cleveland

(1837-1908) - Twenty-second president, known as an honest politician and approaching the presidency as a genuine conservative, the only president to serve two discontinuous terms

J.P. Morgan

(1837-1913) - Son of a financier who made a fortune by reorganizing a number of major railroads and consolidating U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and General Electric, once the single most powerful figure on Wall Street

George Dewey

(1837-1917) - Sole holder of Admiral of the Navy, the highest rank, having commanded at the Battle of Manila Bay and giving the historic instructions "you may fire when ready, Gridley"

John Wilkes Booth

(1838-1865) - Assassin of President Lincoln, with Confederate sympathies during the war, remaining at large for 11 days after the assassination until cornered in a tobacco barn

John Hay

(1838-1905) - Private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, Ambassador to Great Britain under McKinley, negotiating the end of the Spanish-American War, and advocating the Open Door policy in China, while also clearing the way to the Panama Canal

John Muir

(1838-1914) - Scottish-born conservationist and passionate advocate of forest conservation, responsible for the creation of California's Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks

Queen Liliuokalani

(1838-1917) - Heir presumptive of Hawaii beginning in 1877, ascending to the throne in 1891, the first woman to reign over Hawaii and the last Hawaiian sovereign. Stepped down after Sanford Dole established a provisional government, appealing to Cleveland to restore her but unable to execute his order

Henry Adams

(1838-1918) - Historian who wrote The Education of Henry Adams depicting the struggles of moving into the 20th century, a world defined by relativism and doubt

Victoria Woodhull

(1838-1927) - Spiritualist, magazine publisher, reformist, endorser of "mystical socialism," and the first woman to run for president, under the Equal Rights Party in 1872

George Armstrong Custer

(1839-1876) - Brigadier General and Union leader that relentlessly pursued Robert E. Lee until surrender, notoriously killed by Sioux forces led by Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Bighorn

Gustavus Swift

(1839-1903) - Butcher who founded the Swift & Company meatpacking firm, transforming the industry into a giant by commissioning a refrigerated railway car for mass meat transportation

Nelson A. Miles

(1839-1925) - Military officer at overall command during the infamous Wounded Knee Massacre, he who accepted the final surrender of the Sioux and ending the era of the Indian Wars. Also led the invasion of Puerto Rico and served as its first military governor

John D. Rockefeller

(1839-1937) - Founder of Standard Oil Company and oil magnate, building the company into the first great U.S. business "trust" and vertically integrating all aspects of the oil business, provoking the Sherman Antitrust Act. Also a great philanthropist, donating to the creation of the University of Chicago

"Bloody Bill" Anderson

(1840-1864) - Murderer of 24 unarmed Union soldiers in Centralia, Missouri, later brutally ambushing Union cavalrymen in pursuit of his gang

Thomas Nast

(1840-1902) - Bavarian immigrant and newspaper illustrator, depicting stirring action scenes of the Civil War and later scathing cartoons attacked William M. "Boss" Tweed, the corrupt Tammany Hall leader, hastening Tweed's fall. Also created the donkey and elephant symbols of America's two major parties

Chief Joseph

(1840-1904) - Nez Perce leader who led a 1,000 mile trek through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, evading pursuing troops until the Battle of Bear Paw Mountain in Montana (1877), surrendering to Gen. Nelson Miles

Alfred Thayer Mahan

(1840-1914) - Naval officer and sea power lecturer, publishing "The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783," postulating that sea power was crucial in national supremacy. Ideas guided U.S. global military strategy during both world wars and transformed the nation into a major naval power

Henry Morton Stanley

(1841-1904) - Confederate soldier and journalist in the Far West, sent to Africa to cover Britain's war with Ethiopia, then sent in search of famed British missionary Dr. David Livingstone, finding him on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1871 and greeting him with "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

(1841-1935) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court beginning under Theodore Roosevelt, the most famous jurist ever to sit on the high court due to brilliantly reasoned and eloquently written opinions, many dissenting. Steadfast exponent of judicial restraint, vigorous advocate of free speech, established "clear and present danger" test

Crazy Horse

(1842-1877) - Oglala Sioux chief leading military resistance to white settlement on the Great Plains, defeating George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, later surrendering in Nebraska in 1877

William McKinley

(1843-1901) - Twenty-fifth president, amid a popular clamor for war with Spain, where the Spanish-American War (1898) transformed Cuba into an American client state, and enabling U.S. annexation of island territories, a period of intense global expansion. Assassinated by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901

Dankmar Adler

(1844-1900) - Influential architect, created Adler & Sullivan, the most famous American architectural firm, headquartered in Chicago

Sanford Dole

(1844-1926) - Son of American Protestant missionaries in Hawaii, practicing law in Honolulu and leading a movement to adopt a constitution there, engineering the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani, and obtaining U.S. annexation, after he created the Republican of Hawaii (1894)

Elihu Root

(1845-1937) - Secretary of War under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, responsible for creating governments in territories ceded after the Spanish-American War, while also gaining agreements with Japan to respect Open Door policy, in his capacity as Roosevelt's Secretary of State

George Westinghouse

(1846-1914) - Inventor of the air brake that made rail travel safe and comfortable, and the alternating current (AC) generation, deemed far more practical for commercial power than traditional direct current (DC)

"Buffalo Bill" Cody

(1846-1917) - Buffalo hunter, army scout, Indian fighter, and creator of the Wild West Show, dramatizing the American West and contributing to the historic image of the West

Jesse James

(1847-1882) - Confederate guerrilla gang member, brother of Frank, leading the most notorious outlaw gang in the American West, robbing banks, stagecoaches, and railroads. Shot in the back of the head by new gang member Robert Ford in Missouri, while he was incognito as "Thomas Howard"

John Peter Altgeld

(1847-1902) - Governor of Illinois, reformer of state's penal system and child labor laws, courageously pardoned anarchists unjustly convicted in the Haymarket Square incident

Joseph Pulitzer

(1847-1911) - Hungarian born immigrant and influential St. Louis newspaper publisher, later purchasing the "World" in New York and transforming it into the city's leading paper. Engaged in fierce circulation war with William Randolph Hearst, giving rise to "yellow journalism." Posthumously endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism

Alexander Graham Bell

(1847-1922) - Scottish inventor of the telephone in 1876, having previously worked in teaching the deaf and mute to speak. Also created the photophone, improved Edison's phonograph, developed sonar detection, and other ventures

Thomas Alva Edison

(1847-1931) - Most famous inventor in the world, holding 1,093 patents, inventing the phonograph, incandescent electric light, elements of the electric power industry, constituents of motion picture technology, among much else

Jacob Riis

(1849-1914) - Danish immigrant exploring the slums of New York City's Lower East Side, publishing "How the Other Half Lives" that documented life in those slums, stirring the American conscience and spurring legislation aimed at slum clearance and urban social reform

Henry Clay Frick

(1849-1919) - Chairman of Andrew Carnegie's steel interests, building his company into the world's largest manufacturer of steel. Shot and stabbed by anarchist Alexander Berkman during the Homestead Strike, recovering and founding U.S. Steel. Amassed a great private art collection

Edward Bellamy

(1850-1898) - Writer of Looking Backward, set in Boston in the year 2000, depicting America under a utopian socialism built on cooperation and brotherhood, as he was strongly moved by social inequality and the plight of the poor

Pat Garrett

(1850-1908) - Cowboy and buffalo hunter, later Sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, known for having tracked and shot down legendary outlaw Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1881

Henry Cabot Lodge

(1850-1924) - College professor, Ph.D. in political science, Senator from Massachusetts and advocate of isolationism, successfully opposing U.S. entrance into the League of Nations, in opposition to Woodrow Wilson. Ushered in an era of U.S. withdrawal from world affairs

Samuel Gompers

(1850-1924) - Pioneering American labor leader and first president of the AFL, originally an English immigrant to New York and a cigar maker, serving as president from 1886 to 1924

George Eastman

(1854-1932) - Introduced the Kodak camera, ushering in photography for the masses under the slogan "you press the button, we do the rest"

John Philip Sousa

(1854-1932) - Marine and most sought-after bandleader in the world at one point, composing 136 military marches including "Semper Fidelis" (1888), the official march of the Marine Corps

Jacob Coxey

(1854-1951) - Socialist politician from Ohio, leader of his namesake "Army" that marched unemployed men from Massillon, Ohio to Washington, DC, demanding jobs for the unemployed, widely ridiculed in his own time

Robert M. La Follette

(1855-1925) - Governor of Wisconsin (1901-06), Senator from Wisconsin (1906-25), led the Progressive Movement, failed in a 1924 Progressive Party bid for the presidency

Eugene Debs

(1855-1926) - Socialist labor leader, organizing labors by industry rather than craft, President of the American Railway Union, leading the Pullman Strike in 1895, running for president five times under the Socialist Party

Andrew Mellon

(1855-1937) - Secretary of the Treasury under Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, reducing the national debt by reforming taxation and stimulating the economy. Fell from favor with the onset of the Great Depression. Responsible for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., an emblem of his philanthropy

Booker T. Washington

(1856-1915) - Born a slave and impoverished after emancipation, acquired an education and headed the new Tuskegee Institute as the center of black education, believing in economic opportunity over social equality, his "accommodationist" position scorned by many younger black activists, like W.E.B. Du Bois

Frederick Winslow Taylor

(1856-1915) - Former steel plant foreman turned labor efficiency expert, publishing his "The Principles of Scientific Management" that presented a rigorous system for rationalizing the human element in industrial production, dubbed his namesake "-ism" that soon swept American industry

Woodrow Wilson

(1856-1924) - Twenty-eighth president, presiding over the country in World War I, previously an academic, President of Princeton University, and Governor of New Jersey (1910-1912), introducing reform legislation including the 16th Amendment (income tax) and steering America on an initially neutral course that gave way to war. Failed to gain ratification of the League, instead making his case on a cross-country lecture tour cut short by a massive stroke in October 1919, severely disabling him and leaving wife Edith to preside over much of the government

Frank Kellogg

(1856-1937) - Secretary of State under Coolidge, securing his namesake "Pact" with French foreign minister Aristide Briand (1928), agreeing to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy, signed by 62 nations, the reason for his Nobel Peace Prize in 1929

Louis Brandeis

(1856-1941) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the first Jew on the Court, steering a brilliant middle course between government authority and individual liberty (appointed by Wilson)

Thorstein Veblen

(1857-1929) - Publisher of "The Theory of the Leisure Class," an economic study coining the term "conspicuous consumption" to describe well-off spending habits with the desire to demonstrate socioeconomic status

William Howard Taft

(1857-1930) - Twenty-seventh president, Secretary of War under Theodore Roosevelt, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. His disappointing conservatism led to Roosevelt challenging him in the 1912 election, as he came in a humiliating third. Served on the high court from 1921 to 1930

Ida Tarbell

(1857-1944) - Pioneering investigative journalist whose 1904 "History of the Standard Oil Company" charted the rise of a giant business monopoly, one of the "muckraker" leaders

Theodore Roosevelt

(1858-1919) - Twenty-sixth president, Vice President under McKinley, and former Governor of New York and Secretary of the Navy. An author, rancher, naturalist, big game hunter, soldier, and NYC police commissioner. Expanded powers of the chief executive, championing government intervention for the public interest, fighting the "trusts" and transforming the nation into a major world power

George Washington Goethals

(1858-1928) - Leader of the Panama Canal project until its opening, serving as the first governor of the Canal Zone

Billy the Kid

(1859-1881) - Outlaw during the range wars of New Mexico, earning a legendary reputation as a gunfighter, credited with having killed 27 men before killed himself by Sheriff Pat Garrett

Carrie Chapman Catt

(1859-1947) - Successor to Susan B. Anthony as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), a brilliant and inspiring organizer mounting the campaign towards the 19th Amendment

John Dewey

(1859-1952) - University of Chicago pioneer of philosophical pragmatism, that ideas are tools to be used in the solution of environmental problems. Gave rise to philosophy that stressed interaction with the world on a practical, physical level

William Jennings Bryan

(1860-1925) - 3-time presidential candidate (1896, 1900, 1908), an electrifying orator championing Populist causes like popular election of Senators, graduated income tax, Department of Labor creation, Prohibition, and woman suffrage. Considered by some a demagogue, prosecuted schoolteacher John T. Scopes in the 1925 trial, but was intellectually shredded by defense counsel Clarence Darrow

Leonard Wood

(1860-1927) - Military Governor of Cuba when an initial protectorate, introducing a host of educational, judicial, and health reforms, later becoming Chief of Staff and bucking isolationism to prepare for outbreak of World War I. Then served as Governor-General of the Philippines after the war

Lizzy Borden

(1860-1927) - Notorious woman indicted but later acquitted of murder of both her parents, who many believed she bludgeoned and hacked with an axe

Jane Addams

(1860-1935) - Founded Hull House with Ellen Starr in Chicago, received the Nobel Peace Prize as the first American woman to do so, founding member of the NAACP and ACLU

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

(1860-1935) - Radical feminist and writer of the manifesto "Women and Economics," calling for economic liberation of women. An important precursor to the modern women's movement

John J. Pershing

(1860-1948) - AKA "Black Jack," commanded the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, successfully resisting French and British attempts to wrest control of the force and emerging victorious. Previously commanded an all-black regiment of cavalrymen before war, promoted to Brigadier General by Theodore Roosevelt

Frederick Jackson Turner

(1861-1932) - University of Wisconsin history professor who declared the "closing" of the American frontier in a speech at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

George Washington Carver

(1861-1943) - Director of the Department of Agriculture at Tuskegee University, pioneering agricultural research resulting in new uses for the peanut and soybean

Albert Fall

(1861-1944) - Secretary of the Interior under Harding, who had taken a bribe to lease naval oil reserves to private oil interests, in Wyoming and California, AKA the Teapot Dome Scandal, leading to his serving of a brief prison sentence under bribery charges

Charles Evans Hughes

(1862-1948) - Chief Justice, Associate Justice, Governor of New York, Secretary of State under Harding / Coolidge, distinguished representative of Republican conservatism. Ran for president in 1916, defeated by the incumbent Wilson. Successfully opposed FDR's court-packing scheme, but upheld key New Deal provisions, including the Wagner and Social Security Acts

Richard Outcault

(1863-1928) - Highly publicized cartoonist whose services were fought for by Pulitzer and Hearst. His first drawing, featuring a bright yellow nightshirt, gave rise to the phrase "yellow journalism"

Henry Ford

(1863-1947) - Michigan born automobile pioneer, spawning the Detroit Automobile Company (later his namesake "Company"), pioneering the Model T car and the transformation of industrial production with the modern assembly line

William Randolph Hearst

(1863-1951) - Journalist combining reformist investigative journalism with sensationalism, first taking over the ailing "San Francisco Examiner" and later the "New York Morning Journal," obtaining spectacular circulation and engaging in a circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer, creating "yellow journalism" during the Spanish-American War

Warren G. Harding

(1865-1923) - Twenty-ninth president, a genial Ohio politician chosen by a caucus of party insiders ("smoke-filled room"), promised a "return to normalcy" after war and reform under Wilson. Administration characterized by isolationism, rampant corruption, dying in California in 1923, often regarded as the least competent president

Gifford Pinchot

(1865-1946) - Naturalist trained in Europe in forestry techniques, first working at Biltmore, the estate of George W. Vanderbilt. First chief of the U.S. Forest Service, beginning under McKinley and continuing through Roosevelt and Taft, instituting scientific forest development and conservation as one of the major environmental scientists

Lincoln Steffens

(1866-1936) - Muckraking journalist and social critic, writing "The Shame of the Cities" that exposed widespread corruption of urban politics and fueled many Progressive reforms

Henry L. Stimson

(1867-1950) - Secretary of War under Taft and Governor-General of the Philippines under Coolidge, Secretary of State under Hoover, and finally Secretary of War during World War II under FDR and Truman. Previously a New York attorney and Republican politician

Frank Lloyd Wright

(1867-1959) - Great American architect of the "Prairie style," with his Robey House and the Guggenheim Museum, earlier an apprentice of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, then the great architects. Style became the influential basis of advanced residential design in America, and he became the country's most celebrated architect

Scott Joplin

(1868-1917) - African-American pianist and composer, creating classic ragtime hits of great beauty, including "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer," whose contribution to American music soon became recognized

W.E.B. Du Bois

(1868-1963) - First African-American to earn a Ph.D., organizer of the Niagara Movement that opposed the "accommodationist" view of Booker T. Washington, instrumental in the founding of the NAACP in 1909, editing its magazine, "The Crisis"

"Big Bill" Haywood

(1869-1928) - Mine labor organizer and founder of the International Workers of the World (IWW), a radical labor organization persistently harassed on charges of treason and sabotage. Fled to Soviet Russia where he lived the remainder of his life

Bernard Baruch

(1870-1965) - Chairman of the War Industries Board during World War I, top adviser to Wilson at Versailles and adviser to F. Roosevelt in World War II

Stephen Crane

(1871-1900) - Newspaper reporter and fiction writer of "The Red Badge of Courage," depicting the Civil War in a popularly authentic manner, inspiring American realistic novelists like Hemingway

Orville and Wilbur Wright

(1871-1948, 1867-1912) - Brothers who, on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, few a 750-pound aircraft that they had designed and built, propelling the airplane for 12 seconds a few feet above the ground for a 120 foot length. Brothers were partners in a Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop

Calvin Coolidge

(1872-1933) - Thirtieth president, a New Englander and Governor of Massachusetts, having put down a Boston police strike and gaining national prominence. Also Vice President under Harding, who he succeeded upon Harding's death in 1923, cleaning out the corruption and dubbed "Silent Cal"

A. Mitchell Palmer

(1872-1936) - Attorney General under Wilson, who sent federal agents to round up suspected Communist sympathizers in massive raids across 33 cities (Jan. 2, 1920), arresting 6,000 and generating the nation's first "Red Scare." Most convictions were overturned and Palmer was ultimately discredited

Leon Czolgosz

(1873-1901) - Son of Polish immigrants, steel worker and confirmed anarchist who assassinated President McKinley in 1901 in Buffalo, New York at the Pan-American Exposition

Al Smith

(1873-1944) - Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, losing to Herbert Hoover as the first Roman Catholic ever to run

Harold Ickes

(1874-1952) - Secretary of the Interior under FDR, transforming the department through the New Deal and bringing strict enforcement to stewardship of forests and public lands, keeping corporate interests at bay

Herbert Hoover

(1874-1964) - Thirty-first president, previously Food Administrator under Wilson in World War I and head of the American Relief Administration afterwards. Resisted giving direct federal aid to the jobless, homeless, and hungry in the wake of the Great Depression, costing him the presidency in 1932. Unjustly blamed for having caused the Depression

Clarence Darrow

(1875-1938) - Brilliant attorney defending liberal causes and unpopular people, defending the rioters of Haymarket Square, socialist labor leader Eugene V. Debs after the Pullman Strike, IWW leader William D. Haywood, anti-WWI protestors, and John T. Scopes, Tennessee teacher who taught evolution as a substitute teacher

D.W. Griffith

(1875-1948) - Judged the first great genius of American film direction, pioneering dramatic camera angles, camera movement, lighting, and pacing and storytelling through skillful editing. Produced the epic "Birth of a Nation," praised for ambition and condemned for its racist version of the Civil War and its aftermath

Mary McLeod Bethune

(1875-1955) - Founded a college (later Bethune Cookman College) for colored girls, founded the National Association of Colored Women, and served as Director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration under FDR

Jack London

(1876-1916) - American journeyman author, inspired by the "superman" philosophy of Friedrich Nietzche, writing stories of man against the elements including "Call of the Wild" (1903) and "White Fang" (1906), both set in Alaska. Most highly paid author in America at the time, most widely translated author in American history

George Creel

(1876-1953) - Crusading journalist at the head of the Committee on Public Information in World War I, generating a powerful propaganda machine and shaping American public opinion to favor the war

Harry Sinclair

(1876-1956) - At the heart of the Teapot Dome Scandal, given a lease on a naval oil reserve by Albert Fall. Acquitted on bribery and conspiracy, but served 7 months for contempt of court

James Montgomery Flagg

(1877-1960) - Illustrator of Uncle Sam on World War I and World War II "I Want You" recruiting posters

Upton Sinclair

(1878-1968) - Muckraking author of "The Jungle"

Margaret Sanger

(1879-1966) - Feminist and nurse, challenging prevailing abortion statutes and morality to found the birth-control movement in the U.S., coining the term "birth control" and its various concepts

Walter C. Short

(1880-1949) - Lieutenant General who absorbed most of the blame for unpreparedness during the Pearl Harbor attack, which ended his career

H.L. Mencken

(1880-1956) - Brilliant journalist and social critic who lampooned organized religion, business, and the American middle class, dubbed the "boobocracy." Penetrating literary critic and student of linguistics, publishing the monumental study "The American Language" (1919)

George C. Marshall

(1880-1959) - Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during World War II, Secretary of State under Truman, Secretary of Defense under Truman, championing his European Recovery Program, popularly known as his namesake "Plan." Recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 - the first former professional soldier to be a laureate

Douglas MacArthur

(1880-1964) - Dubbed "American Caesar," General during World War II, in command of U.S. forces in the Philippines and fighting a gallant but doomed defense against the Japanese invasion until he was ordered to evacuate to Australia. Then assumed overall command of the Southwest Pacific Theater, proving an enlightened administrator. Commanded U.S.-led UN forces in Korea, orchestrating the Inchon Landing but getting dismissed for insubordination by President Truman

Helen Keller

(1880-1968) - Alabama born woman stricken with scarlet fever, leaving her blind, deaf, and mute, taught by Anne Sullivan to communicate, enrolled at the Wright Humason School for the Deaf, Radcliffe College. Became enormously popular in her ability to contribute to intellect and humanity without sight, speech, or hearing

John Lewis

(1880-1969) - President of the United Mine Workers of America (1920-60), and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), carving out a stronger position for labor amidst the New Deal

Jeannette Rankin

(1880-1973) - First woman member of Congress, a Representative from Montana, a feminist crusader and absolute pacifist. Sole dissenter in the declaration of war against Germany (World War I) and sole dissenter in the declaration against Japan (World War II)

Branch Rickey

(1881-1965) - President and General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, securing a contract with Jackie Robinson, providing a spark that helped ignite a movement toward racial integration on a national scale

Arnold Rothstein

(1882-1928) - Prohibition-era bootlegger and gambler, mastermind of the "fixing" of the 1919 World Series in the so-called Black Sox baseball scandal. Mortally wounded by a gunshot in the poker game

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(1882-1945) - Thirty-second president during World War II and the New Deal, previously Governor of New York. Expanded the role of the federal government, judged to be the best president of the 20th century. Son of a prominent New York Family who overcame the paralytic effects of polio

Fiorello La Guardia

(1882-1947) - Republican Mayor of New York three times from 1934-45, a reform-minded politician reforming the corrupt Tammany Hall boss system, fighting corruption and organized crime, streamlining municipal services, and introducing subsidized housing. Widely considered the greatest mayor in American history

Sam Rayburn

(1882-1961) - Texas Democrat and Speaker of the House amidst the New Deal, championing it and valued as a blunt and knowledgeable adviser to FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy

Felix Frankfurter

(1882-1965) - Presidential adviser turned Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, advocating judicial restraint (judges should adhere to precedent over their own opinions)

Jonathan Wainwright

(1883-1953) - Second in command to Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II, in command of the desperate island defense once MacArthur evacuated, finally needing to surrender to the Japanese and being held as P.O.W.'s under cruel conditions

William Donovan

(1883-1959) - AKA "Wild Bill," appointed by FDR to head the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, the intelligence precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Eleanor Roosevelt

(1884-1962) - First Lady to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her distant cousin, serving as his political partner and indispensable in his recovery from polio. Activist in social and humanitarian causes, served as Ambassador to the United Nations

Harry S. Truman

(1884-1972) - Thirty-third president, Vice President under FDR, Senator from Missouri who had cleaned up War Department corruption and waste in his namesake Committee. Formulated his namesake "Doctrine," a policy of "containing" aggressive Soviet expansion. Ordered Berlin Airlift and the Korean War, the latter a reason he was so unpopular when leaving office

George S. Patton, Jr.

(1885-1945) - AKA "Old Blood-and-Guts," General in North Africa during World War II, becoming the conqueror of Sicily and leader of the Third Army across France and Germany, liberating thousands of towns and villages. Previously pioneered the use of the tank during World War I

Sinclair Lewis

(1885-1951) - American author of "Main Street," a full length portrait of mid-American society, and "Babbitt," a story of American complacency, the basis for the term "Babbittry" in the lexicon of American social criticism. Fiction combined realism with satire to skewer complacent aspects of society

Chester W. Nimitz

(1885-1966) - Principal architect of the U.S. naval victory against Japan in the Pacific during World War II, commanding all naval and land forces and, in conjunction with MacArthur, formulating the "island-hopping" strategy, leading to Japan's defeat

Ezra Pound

(1885-1972) - Challenging modern poet with profound influence, an Idaho-born poet living in Italy that made pro-fascist broadcasts and was arrested for treason

Alice Paul

(1885-1977) - Radical suffragist jailed thrice for her activities on behalf of women's suffrage, drafting and presenting to Congress an ERA to the Constitution in 1923, while also launching a campaign for passage and ratification of the amendment which ultimately failed

Ty Cobb

(1886-1961) (Sports) AKA the "Georgia Peach," scored 2,245 runs, not surpassed until 2001, stole 892 bases, and had an average of .366. Known as a miserable human being, outspoken in racism, misogyny, and prone to violence

Hugo Black

(1886-1971) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, championing the Bill of Rights as an absolute guarantee of civil liberties, arguing the 14th Amendment extended the Bill of Rights to the states

Marcus Garvey

(1887-1940) - Jamaican-born founder of the Negro Improvement and Conservation Association, or Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), seeking to create an independent black governed nation, hailed as the "Black Moses" for awakening the African-American community to self-determination possibilities

Georgia O'Keefe

(1887-1986) - Expressive painter of the American Southwest, fusing organic elements with a modernist aesthetic and producing powerful paintings of great beauty, of erotic and emotional depths

Alfred M. Landon

(1887-1987) - Republican Governor of Kansas (1933-37), campaigning for the "Bull Moose" Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, running against FDR in 1936, embodying the Progressive philosophy

Bartolomeo Vanzetti

(1888-1927) - Italian immigrant, fish peddler and committed anarchist, executed with friend Nicola Sacco for the robbery-murders of a shoe factory paymaster and a guard, convicted on flimsy circumstantial evidence. Posthumously exonerated by Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts in 1977

Jim Thorpe

(1888-1953) - Native-American, All-American football player who won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics, but subsequently stripped because he had played semiprofessional baseball prior

John Foster Dulles

(1888-1959) - Older brother of Allen, one of the architects of the United Nations, Secretary of State under Eisenhower, formulating the U.S. Cold War policy, seen as inflexible but also important in containing the expansion of international communism

Henry A. Wallace

(1888-1965) - Vice President under FDR in his third term, and Iowa agricultural expert who delivered Republican Iowa to FDR in the 1932 election, having served as FDR's Secretary of Agriculture during the New Deal

Joseph P. Kennedy

(1888-1969) - Grandson of Irish immigrants, Massachusetts businessman and banker, likely a bootlegger, Ambassador to Britain (advocating appeasement), father to John F., Joseph P., Robert F., Edward M., and five daughters Kennedy

Robert Moses

(1888-1981) - Urban planning commissioner of New York City that served as model for the nation as a whole, responsible for numerous highways, bridges, parks, the Lincoln Center, Shea Stadium, dams, and the entire New York World's Fair (1964). Considered a megalomaniacal empire builder, however, who did not hesitate to tear down buildings of historical importance

Irving Berlin

(1888-1989) - Belarus-born immigrant to New York, a leader in the creation of the American popular song and the Broadway musical, widely considered the greatest of American popular songwriters

Robert A. Taft

(1889-1953) - Son of President Taft, leader in the Senate from Ohio from 1939 to 1953, representing the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, a strong advocate of isolationism and foe of FDR's New Deal. Cosponsored the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act

Charlie Chaplin

(1889-1977) - British stage performer asked to develop into a marketable film persona in America, dubbed the "Little Tramp" and becoming an icon of silent film comedy, including the 1936 film Modern Times, considered the greatest film comic of all time

A. Philip Randolph

(1889-1979) - Early civil rights leader organizing black labor, with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters that was fashioned into the first successful black trade union. Persuaded FDR to bar discrimination in defense industries via executive order, founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation, persuading Truman to desegregate the armed forces

Harry Hopkins

(1890-1946) - Chief architect of the New Deal, while also a prominent adviser of FDR, administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, among the most powerful non-elected officials in American history

Dwight D. Eisenhower

(1890-1969) - Thirty-fourth president, born in Texas and raised in Kansas, Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, coordinating the Allied victory over Italy and Germany, served as president of Columbia University, Supreme Commander of NATO, and elected in 1952 in a landslide over Adlai E. Stevenson

Nicola Sacco

(1891-1927) - Italian-born immigrant, Massachusetts shoe factory worker, and executed for the robber-murders of a shoe factory paymaster and a guard, convicted on flimsy circumstantial evidence along with his accomplice, Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Became an international cause célèbre with protests that the conviction was based on their leftist beliefs. Both were exeuted after seven years of appeals, with riots breaking out in England and Germany, and a bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Paris

Zora Neale Hurston

(1891-1960) - Studied African-American folklore during graduate studies in anthropology at Columbia University, producing major works based on African-American folk culture and contributing to the Harlem Renaissance

Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

(1891-1967) - Secretary of the Treasury under FDR, in charge of massive spending for the New Deal and World War II. Proposed that postwar Germany be reduced to a preindustrial agricultural economy, rejected by Truman and a stance that prompted his resignation

Charles Coughlin

(1891-1971) - Catholic priest in Detroit, experiencing exploding popularity after utilizing radio-broadcast sermons and religious lessons, becoming the first electronic-media evangelist. Attacked Herbert Hoover and supported but later abandoned FDR, while his "Social Justice" magazine was banned for violation of the Espionage Act

Frank Costello

(1891-1973) - Crime boss and gang leader, rising during Prohibition and instrumental in financing the newly developing Las Vegas casino industry, enjoying political influence and targeted by the Senate Kefauver Committee

Earl Warren

(1891-1974) - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, nominated by Eisenhower, assumed to be conservative but bringing epoch-making social changes of a liberal nature, including Brown v. Board and Miranda v. Arizona. Presided over his controversial namesake Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy, and originally a California Republican

Carl Spaatz

(1891-1974) - Combat pilot in World War I, commander of the 8th Air Force in World War II, in charge of the strategic bombing offensive against German-occupied Europe and commander of U.S. Strategic Air Forces. Later was chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, when it was first created

Grant Wood

(1892-1942) - Iowa-born painter of eastern and western landscapes, mainly those of the Midwest, in his classic "American Gothic" (1930), a familiar icon of "middle-American" values and mindset

Wendell Wilkie

(1892-1944) - Prominent opponent to FDR during the New Deal, challenging him as the Republican nominee in 1940 and seeing himself as the "loyal opposition," doing much to promote the early war effort and writing "One World" to advocate postwar international cooperation, espousing isolationist views

Huey Long

(1893-1935) - Senator and Governor of Louisiana, a charismatic demagogue not above shameful displays of emotion, earning him the nickname "Kingfish." Developed the Share-the-Wealth program increasing taxes and redistributing wealth. Assassinated by Carl Austin Weiss, whose father he had publicly vilified, in the Louisiana State House, the price for acting a dictator

Allen Dulles

(1893-1969) - Younger brother of John Foster, chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Bern, Switzerland, effectively America's head spymaster in Europe, also instrumental in creating the CIA, its longest serving director

Dean Acheson

(1893-1971) - Undersecretary of state immediately following World War II, persuading the Senate to approve the United Nations, dominant force in crafting the "Truman Doctrine," formulated the Marshall Plan

Omar N. Bradley

(1893-1981) - American military general serving in the European Theater in World War II, dubbed the "G.I. General" from his disdain for ceremony and the trappings of lofty rank. Served as first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Babe Ruth

(1895-1948) - Minor league pitcher turned major league player, sold to the Boston Red Sox and later the New York Yankees in 1920, whom he played for through 1934. Dubbed the "Sultan of Swat," 60 home runs was a record until 1961, and the first superstar sports celebrity, famous for high-living extravagance off the field. Icon of baseball and one of America's most beloved sports figures

Dorothy Lange

(1895-1965) - Dust Bowl photographer recording the human face of national adversity

J. Edgar Hoover

(1895-1972) - First Director of the FBI, earlier Director of the Bureau of Investigation, the former a tenure filled with controversy, including his compiling of secret dossiers on thousands of Americans including government officials. Power was unprecedented for a non-elected official, with often shadowy and suspect intentions

Matthew Ridgway

(1895-1993) - Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, executing the first major airborne (paratrooper) assault in U.S. military history, during the 1943 Sicily campaign. Such an assault became a major war tactic. Later succeeded Douglas MacArthur as commander in charge in the Korean Warq

John Dos Passos

(1896-1970) - "Lost Generation" writer of the "U.S.A." trilogy, previously serving as a World War I ambulance driver and becoming deeply involved with the struggle for social justice, including efforts to save Sacco and Vanzetti from execution

Leslie R. Groves

(1896-1970) - Architect of the Pentagon and military director of the Manhattan Project

Ira Gershwin

(1896-1983) - Brooklyn-born American composer known as the lyricist in collaboration with his brother George on over 20 Broadway musicals, among the very greatest of popular lyricists

Sam Ervin

(1896-1985) - North Carolina Senator and leader of his namesake Senate committee that publicly investigated the Watergate scandal and brought down the Nixon presidency

James Doolittle

(1896-1993) - Aviation pioneer and expert aviator who led an extraordinary air raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet, during 1942 that culminated in success for American efforts early in World War II

Amelia Earhart

(1897-1937) - First woman to fly across the Atlantic, served as a World War I military nurse and a social worker. Piloted a plane in 1932 across the ocean, in 1935 from Hawaii to California, and setting out for a round-the-world flight but disappearing, along with her navigator Fred Noonan, their Lockheed Electra plane never to be found

Elijah Muhammad

(1897-1975) - Assistant minister to Wallace Fard, founder of the Nation of Islam, popularly called the Black Muslims, rising to replace Fard and leading the Black Muslims through expansion into a major black nationalist movement

Frank Capra

(1897-1991) - Italian director of It Happened One Night (1934), typifying sentimental comedy, as well as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Marion Anderson

(1897-1993) - Church and concert singer, sought to perform at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)'s Constitution Hall, persuaded Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to arrange an outdoor concert at the Lincoln Memorial

George Gershwin

(1898-1937) - Brooklyn born American composer of highly successful Broadway musicals and beautiful American popular songs, including "Rhapsody in Blue" and "Porgy and Bess." Brother of Ira

William O. Douglas

(1898-1980) - Washington-born Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, appointed by FDR and known as an uncompromising defender of the Bill of Rights, making him a target of conservatives

Bruno Hauptmann

(1899-1936) - Convicted of kidnapping and murdering 21-month-old son of American aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, in the "trial of the century" of a Flemington, New Jersey courthouse. Conviction, however, was plagued with controversy, but he was still executed

Al Capone

(1899-1947) - Crime boss of Chicago, the most powerful and famous criminal in the United States associated with corruption, violation of Prohibition, gambling, and prostitution, evading prosecution until conviction on income tax evasion in 1931

Humphrey Bogart

(1899-1957) - Journeyman stage actor in the 1920s, eventually transitioning to film in gangster roles (High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, both in 1941), as well as Rick Blaine in Casablanca (1942), his masterpiece portraying a tough yet altruistic hero

"Duke" Ellington

(1899-1974) - Elegant embodiment of big band jazz, one of the most prolific jazz composers in history, combining classical tone poem traditions with swing-era jazz

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899-1977) - Russian-born immigrant and author of "Lolita" (1955), the narrative of a middle-aged man's obsession with a seductive young girl, a controversial bestseller that became an icon of popular culture

Fred Astaire

(1899-1987) - Dancer and famous actor, appearing in Dancing Lady and later with Ginger Rogers in Flying Down to Rio, possessing a uniquely elegant tap style amid a cinematic dancing career in the 1940s and 1950s

Margaret Mitchell

(1900-1949) - Atlanta journalist and author of epic Civil War novel "Gone with the Wind," told from a Southern point of view and a runaway bestseller with characters Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler

Adlai E. Stevenson

(1900-1965) - Assistant Secretary of State under Roosevelt, one of the architects of the U.N. and U.N. Ambassador during 1961-1965, highlighted by his showdown with Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Previously a popular Governor of Illinois, twice defeated by Eisenhower for the presidency in 1952 and 1956

John T. Scopes

(1900-1970) - Tennessee high school teacher who taught Darwin's Theory of Evolution and was subsequently tried in a sensational July 1925 trial, defended by ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow and facing William Jennings Bryan. Found guilty and fined heavily, but had his conviction overturned on technical grounds

Aaron Copland

(1900-1990) - Brooklyn-born American composer of pieces combining jazz, folk, and spirituals, with works such as the ballets "Billy the Kid" and "Appalachian Spring," gaining recognition as a representative American classical composer

Whittaker Chambers

(1901-1961) - Left-wing journalist testifying before Congress that State Department official Alger Hiss had been part of a Communist spy ring in the 1930s, sparking the Hiss trial that became a focal point of the "red scare"

Walt Disney

(1901-1966) - Animator that created Mickey Mouse in the 1928 short "Steamboat Willie," building a cartoon and entertainment empire that came to encompass television and two theme parks, eventually becoming one of the world's great entertainment corporations

Louis Armstrong

(1901-1971) - New Orleans trumpeter and vocalist, a jazz pioneer, transforming the music from a band music to a popular art form suited to exuberant solo expression

Ed Sullivan

(1901-1974) - Broadway newspaper columnist and television pioneer with his namesake variety show from 1955 to 1971, a fixture of Sunday evening programming that boasted of a wide variety of popular entertainment

John Dillinger

(1902-1934) - Notorious criminal, primarily a bank robber, the first man on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, the subject of a long FBI manhunt ending in Chicago, where he was ambushed and killed at the Biograph Theater

Alberto Anastasia

(1902-1957) - New York City crime boss, founded "Murder, Inc." as a murder-for-hire enterprise, lead one of the infamous Five Families during the 1940s

Langston Hughes

(1902-1967) - Busboy at a Washington, DC hotel turned famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance, widely regarded as a representative voice of black America

Thomas Dewey

(1902-1971) - New York prosecutor and two-time presidential candidate, losing to FDR in 1944 and Truman in 1948, having relentlessly prosecuted New York organized crime and serving as Governor of New York

Joe Adonis

(1902-1972) - Notorious New York mobster, deported to Italy after appearing before the Senate's Kefauver crime committee

Charles Lindbergh

(1902-1974) - Son of a Congressman from Minnesota, legendary American aviator who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, catapulting him to global fame. Devoted the rest of his life to pioneering commercial aviation, but enduring the tragic kidnapping and murder of his infant son. Fell from grace in accepting a decoration from the Nazi government

Richard J. Daley

(1902-1976) - Mayor of Chicago across the 1950s through 1970s, wielding tremendous power as one of the last city bosses and controlling patronage, whose dictatorial style caused much outrage, including with his actions against demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

Richard Rodgers

(1902-1979) - A leading composer of the American musical, providing the lyrics of immensely popular Broadway shows along with Oscar Hammerstein II, namely "Oklahoma!" (1943) and "The Sound of Music" (1959)

Meyer Lansky

(1902-1983) - Russian-born crime syndicate leader, the model for organized crime in America, bankrolling other criminals and specializing in gambling across Cuba, the Bahamas, Florida, and Las Vegas

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

(1902-1985) - Grandson and namesake of isolationist Senator, serving himself as a Senator from Massachusetts and Ambassador to South Vietnam during the expanding Vietnam War, West Germany, and the Holy See. Chief negotiator in the Paris Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam

Eliot Ness

(1903-1957) - Department of Justice agent that headed the Chicago branch of the Prohibition Bureau, tasked with investigating and prosecuting Al Capone. His task force dubbed the "Untouchables" gathered enough information to secure Capone's conviction for income tax evasion

Benjamin Spock

(1903-1998) - Pioneering childcare expert, author of the "Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care," destined to be the ubiquitous bible of child rearing. High-profile opponent of the Vietnam War and convicted but overturned of counseling draft evasion

J. Robert Oppenheimer

(1904-1967) - Charismatic theoretical physicist, tapped as director of the Los Alamos laboratory during World War II, leading the Manhattan Project that developed two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Went on to direct the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, while opposing the hydrogen bomb, leading to accusations of disloyalty and his removal as powerful government adviser

Ralph Bunche

(1904-1971) - Strong advocate and planner of the United Nations, serving as undersecretary general and mediating a truce in the first Arab-Israeli War, subject of his Nobel Peace Prize

Alger Hiss

(1904-1996) - Distinguished State Department official under FDR, temporary UN secretary-general, and president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Accused by Whittaker Chambers of passing classified documents to him for transmission to a Soviet agent. Ended up serving three years in prison and trying to prove his innocence thereafter

George F. Kennan

(1904-2005) - Princeton-educated diplomat, specialist in Soviet policies who transmitted the "long telegram" from Moscow that advocated the "containment" policy. Published his ideas in "Foreign Affairs" magazine under the pseudonym "X." Containment became the cornerstone of U.S. Cold War policy

Leon Jaworski

(1905-1982) - Replacement of Archibald Cox amid his firing by Nixon, vigorously pursuing investigations into Watergate and engaging in a battle with the White House over the Oval Office tapings

Philo T. Farnsworth

(1906-1971) - Major pioneer of television, transmitting an electromechanically scanned image, said to be that of a dollar sign, the first of his 165 television and electronic patents

Margaret Bourke-White

(1906-1971) - World War II photographer, accompanying Gen. George Patton's army into Germany and documenting the horrors of concentration camps

Josephine Baker

(1906-1975) - American dancer living in France during World War II, working with the French resistance and Red Cross and entertaining Allied troops, later adopting numerous babies to create a "rainbow tribe"

Curtis LeMay

(1906-1990) - Commander of the 20th Air Force, which conducted the strategic bombing of Japan in World War II, including the dropping of the atomic bombs. Later assembled the Strategic Air Command, later running mate with George Wallace in the 1968 election

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

(1906-2001) - Wife of Charles Lindbergh, taking up flying and becoming the first American woman to earn a first-class glider pilot's license, charting air routes between continents with her husband but enduring the tragic loss of her firstborn son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III

Rachel Carson

(1907-1964) - Influential environmentalist, author of Silent Spring (1962) that opened awareness to pesticide dangers, leading to federal legislation restricting DDT and other pesticides

Joseph McCarthy

(1908-1957) - Senator from Wisconsin embarking on a Communist witch hunt after a 1950 speech in Wheeling, West Virginia announcing a list of 205 State Department Communists. Anti-Communist hysteria dominated much national life from 1952-1954, until his allegations became overly reckless and he was investigated by a televised Senate hearing, censured in 1954 for conduct unbecoming a senator

Edward Murrow

(1908-1965) - Radio broadcaster-journalist, whose radio reports of key European events about World War II shaped America's attitudes about the conflict. Became a pioneer of television news during the medium's infancy, leading the "See it Now" weekly news digest and exposing the reckless activities of Sen. McCarthy

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

(1908-1972) - New York Representative from Harlem for eleven terms, championing civil rights legislation and the first black man on the New York City Council. Lost his House seat after contempt of court in a case about a woman claiming he had wrongly accused her of graft

Lyndon B. Johnson

(1908-1973) - Thirty-sixth president, thirty-fifth Vice President, previously a Senator from Texas. Instrumental in launching America's manned space program as VP, ascending to the presidency upon JFK's assassination, endorsing his Great Society and signing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, introducing Medicare and Medicaid, expanding the Vietnam War, and declining to run for reelection

Nelson Rockefeller

(1908-1979) - Vice President under Gerald Ford, the grandson of John. Embodied the liberal wing of the Republican Party, a moderating and unifying force that failed in three bids to secure the Republican nomination. Served previously as Governor of New York (1959-1973)

Thurgood Marshall

(1908-1993) - Lawyer arguing in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), on behalf of the colored plaintiffs. Attorney for the NAACP, nominated to the Court of Appeals by Kennedy and the Supreme Court by LBJ. One of the high court's great liberal voices

Harry A. Blackmun

(1908-1999) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, writing the majority decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), unleashing decades of national controversy

Milton Berle

(1908-2002) - Television pioneer, having proved immensely popular on an early comedy show and instrumental in establishing television as a new medium

Edward Teller

(1908-2003) - Jewish immigrant from the increasingly anti-Semitic Europe, a major physicist at Georgetown that joined J. Robert Oppenheimer's Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, later pioneering the hydrogen bomb that was successfully tested at Enewetak Atoll in 1952

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908-2006) - Canadian-born adviser to JFK and Ambassador to India, advocating less consumer spending and more spending on entitlement programs, shaping JFK and LBJ policies and contributing to the concept of an American welfare state

Dean Rusk

(1909-1994) - Secretary of State under Kennedy and LBJ, a committed "cold warrior" (hardline anti-Communist) who supported the Vietnam War, and becoming a lightning rod for such antiwar protest

Barry Goldwater

(1909-1998) - Senator from Arizona (1953-64, 1969-87), failed presidential candidate in 1964, losing to incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson. Embodied hardline conservatism in a time of emerging liberalism

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow

(1910-1934, 1909-1934) - Career criminal couple that embarked on a two-year bank robbery spree in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Missouri commanding sensational national attention, portrayed as a romantic heroine and hero. Gunned down at a Gibsland, Louisiana roadblock in 1934, their violent deaths added to their popular legend

Eero Saarinen

(1910-1961) - Finnish-born architect of the Trans World Airlines (TWA) terminal at JFK Airport, a controversial masterpiece that reflected his dynamic, organic style, as well as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis

Bayard Rustin

(1910-1987) - Principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington

Orval Faubus

(1910-1994) - Governor of Arkansas during the 1950s, a segregationist leader that called the Arkansas National Guard to prevent African-Americans from attending Little Rock Central High School, put down by the 101st Airborne Division deployed by President Eisenhower

Jack Ruby

(1911-1967) - Born Jacob Rubenstein in Chicago, a small-time mobster that managed Dallas nightclubs and strip clubs, and assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald, then the assassin of President Kennedy. Died of a pulmonary embolism before his proceedings began, some believed he was hired to silence Oswald as part of a conspiracy, but all evidence supports vengeance on the killer of an admirable leader

Hubert Humphrey

(1911-1978) - Vice President under LBJ, Senator from Minnesota, Democratic candidate in 1968 for president, representative of the liberal wing of the Party. Lost in 1968 given conservatives found him too liberal and, at the time, liberals opposed to the Vietnam War found his support of it unacceptable

Tennessee Williams

(1911-1983) - Broadway playwright of "The Glass Menagerie" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947), the later a huge sensation portraying a world of frustrated desire underlying a decayed Southern romance. Actually born in Columbus, Mississippi, not indicative of his name

Lucille Ball

(1911-1989) - Film and television actress, earning acclaim on I Love Lucy in the 1950s, commanding the majority of television viewers at the time

Ronald Reagan

(1911-2004) - Fortieth president, previously Governor of California beginning in 1966. Ran an affable, optimistic White House exuding FDR-like confidence. Diminished the welfare state and cut taxes, while widely credited with bringing the downfall of Soviet communism. Grew up in small town Illinois, a radio sports announcer and B-level actor

Wernher von Braun

(1912-1977) - German aerospace engineer originally developing missiles for Nazi Germany, later serving as chief of the U.S. Army ballistic missile program and director of NASA in Huntsville, Alabama, directing much of the early U.S. space program

Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr.

(1912-2002) - Leader of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, later becoming the first African-American general in the Air Force

Archibald Cox

(1912-2004) - First special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate affair, pressing Nixon to hand over his secret tapes but fired by Nixon as a result in the so-called "Saturday Night Massacre"

Jesse Owens

(1913-1980) - African-American track athlete and four time gold medalist at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, each victory a stunning blow to Adolf Hitler's contention of Aryan superiority

John Mitchell

(1913-1988) - Attorney General under Nixon, having endorsed two unqualified Supreme Court nominees, approved wiretaps not authorized by any court, vigorously prosecuted anti-Vietnam War protesters, and attempted to block publication of the "Pentagon Papers." Such controversy led to his 1972 resignation, eventually convicted of conspiracy in the Watergate break-in and serving two years in prison

Richard M. Nixon

(1913-1994) - Thirty-seventh president, Vice President under Eisenhower, California Republican and Representative and Senator, earning the epithet "Tricky Dick" for ruthless campaign tactics. Defeated by JFK in election of 1960, lost gubernatorial race in California in 1962, won the presidency over Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Promised to end Vietnam War, but instead expanding the air war and invading Cambodia. Mired by the Watergate scandal, became the only president to resign from office, in August 1974

Rosa Parks

(1913-2005) - African-American seamstress and early civil rights activist, who famously violated a Montgomery, Alabama city ordinance in refusing to relinquish her bus seat to a white man, triggering the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a framework for the early national civil rights movement

Gerald Ford

(1913-2006) - Thirty-eighth president, originally a Congressman from Michigan, appointed as Nixon's Vice President upon Agnew's resignation and succeeding after Nixon's resignation, professing a desire to heal the nation after Watergate and announcing a blanket pardon of Nixon

W. Mark Felt, Sr.

(1913-2008) - AKA "Deep Throat," the Associate Director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal that leaked much of the information published by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Joe Louis

(1914-1981) - African-American boxer and world heavyweight champion from 1937-1949, appealing to fans of all races and defeating German champion Max Schmelling, who had the personal support of Adolf Hitler, hailed as a victory over Nazi claims of racial superiority

Ralph Ellison

(1914-1994) - Tuskegee Institute educated writer of "Invisible Man," winning the National Book Award and securing his legacy as an acutely poetic analyst of the what it means to be black in America

Jonas Salk

(1914-1995) - Medical hero and developer of the polio vaccine, ending the scourge of the cruel disease that brought death and paralysis to millions. Went on to direct the Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, later named after him

William Westmoreland

(1914-2005) - General and director of military operations in the Vietnam War from 1964-68, a lightning rod for antiwar protests who won every battle in Vietnam, but the U.S. still lost the war paradoxically

Frank Sinatra

(1915-1998) - Most popular singer in America in the 1940s and an idol to missions of teenage girl fans known as "bobby soxers." The nucleus of the Las Vegas "Rat Pack," whose artistic career was overshadowed by a very public personal life and ties to the Mafia

Paul Tibbets

(1915-2007) - Outstanding World War II bomber in charge of the 509th Composite Group, tasked with dropping the atomic bomb from his B-29, named "Enola Gay" after his mother, on Hiroshima after flying from the Mariana Islands

Eugene McCarthy

(1916-2006) - Senator from Minnesota, serving in relative obscurity until challenging incumbent LBJ in the 1968 Democratic primaries. Became the principal anti-Vietnam War candidate, also encouraging RFK's candidacy at the same time. His success in the primaries partly prompted LBJ to withdraw from consideration

Robert McNamara

(1916-2009) - Secretary of Defense under Kennedy, revolutionizing the Pentagon by revamping the military bureaucracy, cutting costs, and refocusing from strategic (nuclear) emphasis to flexible response, fighting smaller conventional wars. Played major role in resolving Cuban Missile Crisis, expanded American involvement in Vietnam, especially in the same capacity under LBJ. Previously President of the Ford Motor Company

I.M. Pei

(1917-) - Chinese-American architect studying at the University of Pennsylvania and MIT, with magnificent, exuberant elaboration of the austere "International Style" with buildings such as the JFK Memorial Library, the New York City Convention Center, and the Louvre Pyramid

John F. Kennedy

(1917-1963) - Thirty-fifth president, previously Senator from Massachusetts. Youth, determination, idealism, and optimism of youth were the center of his presidency, inspiring progression of social justice and the exploration of outer space. Tragically assassinated in Dallas in 1963

Cyrus Vance

(1917-2002) - Secretary of the Army under Kennedy and Deputy Secretary of Defense under LBJ, turning against the Vietnam War and eventually appointed deputy chief delegate to the Paris Peace Talks. Also was critical in facilitating the Camp David Accords, as Secretary of State under Carter

Caspar Weinberger

(1917-2006) - Secretary of Defense under Reagan, embroiled in the Iran-Contra Affair that led to his resignation

Billy Graham

(1918-) - Southern Baptist minister and fundamentalist televangelist through the radio, also appearing on TV in its earliest form and touring the country in revival crusades. Immensely popular and closely associated with many presidents since Truman

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

(1918-1953, 1915-1953) - First American citizens to be executed for espionage, with the husband a member of the Communist Party and an Army engineer during World War II. Found guilty of supplying Soviet agents with nuclear secrets, leaked by testimony of the wife's brother, David Greenglass, who had worked on the Los Alamos project. President Eisenhower refused to commute their sentences, despite international protests, both executed in 1953

Spiro T. Agnew

(1918-1996) - Vice President under Nixon, served previously as Governor of Maryland, denounced anti-Vietnam protestors as "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history," resigned as Vice President over a tax evasion scandal

E. Howard Hunt

(1918-2007) - CIA agent instrumental in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and was one of the so-called Plumbers involved in planning the Watergate break-in, along with G. Gordon Liddy. Served 33 months in prison as a consequence, and a sinister man deemed by the Rockefeller Commission as a suspect in the JFK assassination

Betty Ford

(1918-2011) - First Lady of Ford, founded her namesake "Center" for addiction treatment after revealing her previous addiction to pain relievers. Courage in discussing her addiction removed much of the moral stigma

George C. Wallace

(1919-1998) - Governor of Alabama beginning in 1962, pledging to maintain segregation and serving four terms as a symbol of Southern racism during the Civil Rights Movement. Ran for president in 1968 for the American Independent Party, campaigned for the 1972 Democratic nomination but was shot and paralyzed below the waist. Eventually renounced segregation and sought black reconciliation

J.D. Salinger

(1919-2010) - Literary sensation with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye," whose troubled adolescent hero Holden Caulfield was hailed as a 20th century Huckleberry Finn, an innocent lost in a corrupt society. Shied away from the celebrity that followed the publication and lived a secretive life afterfds

Elliot Richardson

(1920-1999) - Prominent attorney and politician, Attorney General under Nixon who was ordered to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, but resigned rather than do such, the beginning of the "Saturday Night Massacre." Previously was the only person to serve in four U.S. cabinet posts in history

John Glenn

(1921-) - First American to orbit the earth (1962), previously a Marine Corps aviator and later a Senator from Ohio. Became the oldest person (77) ever to travel to space, as a payload specialist aboard Discovery

Betty Friedan

(1921-2006) - Journalist, writer of "The Feminine Mystique" and launching the modern feminist movement, co-founding the National Organization of Women (NOW) in 1966, dedicated to achieving equality of opportunity for women

Jack Kerouac

(1922-1969) - French-Canadian resident of Lowell, Massachusetts, discharged during World War II as mentally disturbed, member of the "Beat Generation" with his work "On the Road" (1957), a freewheeling narrative of cross country road trips and questioning accepted American values

Harold Washington

(1922-1987) - First African-American Mayor of Chicago, beginning in 1983 and beating out Richard M. Daley, son of the longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, in the Democratic primary. Faced much opposition from the mostly white City Council

George McGovern

(1922-2012) - Democratic Representative and Senator from South Dakota, an anti-Vietnam War presidential candidate that challenged incumbent Nixon in 1972, calling for a broad social reform agenda likened to LBJ's "Great Society." Failed to unite the party and lost to Nixon in a landslide

Henry Kissinger

(1923-) - Political scientist, Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford, a major influence on Nixon's policy of detente with the Soviet Union and China, instrumental in his Vietnam War policy also. Negotiated peace with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, the reason for his Nobel Peace Prize (1973). Previously fled Nazi Germany with his Jewish family and settled in New York

Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

(1923-1998) - Naval aviator and one of seven original Mercury astronauts and the first American in space, launched on the "Freedom 7" suborbital space capsule in 1961

George H.W. Bush

(1924-) - Forty-first president, naval aviator during World War II, successful businessman, Congressman, Ambassador to the U.N. (under Nixon), Director of the C.I.A., Vice President under Reagan, defeating Michael Dukakis (D) in the 1988 election

Jimmy Carter

(1924-) - Thirty-ninth president inheriting a severe economic recession from Nixon and Ford, leading the country through an energy crisis and coping with the Iran Hostage Crisis, brokering the Camp David Accords, working for human rights and diplomacy after his presidency

Marlon Brando

(1924-2004) - Generally considered the most influential actor of his generation, gaining national attention with his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire

William Rehnquist

(1924-2005) - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and previously a Phoenix, Arizona attorney, active in conservative Republican politics and appointed by Nixon to the high court, later appointed Chief Justice by Reagan. Dissented from the court's reaffirmation of abortion rights and gay rights

Medgar Evers

(1925-1963) - African-American businessman turned NAACP leader in Mississippi, gunned down in front of his home in 1963 just hours before a JFK broadcast on civil rights, deeming him a national figure and focusing attention on civil rights and social justice

Malcolm X

(1925-1965) - Omaha, Nebraska born Black Muslim preacher, a charismatic, electrifyingly eloquent speaker on black pride and black nationalism. Convert to the Nation of Islam, employing angry rhetoric as a dramatic contrast to the non-violent approach of MLK. Had previously seen his house burned down and his father murdered by white supremacists

Robert F. Kennedy

(1925-1968) - Brother to John F., Attorney General under him, playing a key role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis, enforcing racial integration as A.G., Senator from New York, 1968 Democratic presidential hopeful. Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, dashing presidential hopes

John Tower

(1925-1991) - Conservative Republican Senator from Texas, appointed in 1986 to chair a commission that investigated the National Security Council and its role in the Iran-Contra Affair. Delivered his namesake commission's report in 1987, reporting that the council was at fault but the president could not be concluded to have been aware of the scheme

John Ehrlichman

(1925-1999) - Domestic affairs expert under Nixon, who created the Plumbers to insulate him from the public and stop information leaks, resigning in 1973 over the Watergate scandal

Ralph David Abernathy

(1926-1990) - Close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr., key activist in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) upon King's assassination

Allan Ginsberg

(1926-1997) - Central poet of the Beat movement, writing the autobiographical epic "Howl" in 1956, characterized by wild, ecstatic, angry, and richly inventive verse

James Reeb

(1927-1965) - Notable Kansan and white attendant of an SCLC demonstration in Selma, attacked by a white mob and killed on "Bloody Sunday," severely beaten and clubbed. Grisly death reverberated, raising the northern white consciousness and increasing volume of condemnation against Southern racism

Roy Cohn

(1927-1986) - New York prosecutor, helping prosecute the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951), while also assisting the Senate committee investigating Joseph McCarthy, wielding significant power but universally disdained

Edward "Cactus Ed" Abbey

(1927-1989) - American West writer and journalist, exposing environmental problems in his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang

Cesar Chavez

(1927-1993) - Migrant laborer in Arizona and California, founding the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), making great strides in organizing migrants to improve pay and working conditions, also beginning a nationwide boycott of California grapes in 1965

G. David Schine

(1927-1996) - Investigative staff member of Joseph McCarthy, where McCarthy's attempts to secure him preferential treatment after drafted into the Army were the subject of the Army-McCarthy hearings (1954), with his name becoming a household one amid rumors of a homosexual relationship between himself and McCarthy's special counsel, Roy Cohn

Robert H. Bork

(1927-2012) - Solicitor General and later Attorney General under President Nixon, appointed to A.G. after then-A.G. Richardson and Deputy A.G. Ruckelshaus both resigned after Nixon ordered them to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Bork then carried out the firing in the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," hastening Nixon's downfall

Martin Luther King, Jr.

(1929-1968) - Ordained Baptist minister, leader of the Civil Rights movement beginning with the Montgomery Bus Boycott, founding leader of the SCLC, deliverer of the "I Have a Dream" speech, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, later victim of a 1968 assassination by James Early Ray in Memphis

Francis Gary Powers

(1929-1977) - CIA pilot captured in 1960 when shot down over the Soviet Union in the "U-2 Affair," exacerbating the Cold War and prompting a major summit cancellation between Eisenhower and Khrushchev. Convicted of espionage, sentenced to ten years in prison but exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel

Sandra Day O'Connor

(1930-) - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1981-2006), appointed by Reagan as the first female justice, known for her moderate conservative orientation and succeeded by Samuel Alito. Originally served in the Arizona Senate and was raised on an Arizona ranch

G. Gordon Liddy

(1930-) - Chief of the "Plumbers" and worker for CREEP, leading the covert unit to stop information leaks and planning the Watergate break-in along with E. Howard Hunt to sabotage the Democratic presidential campaign

H. Ross Perot

(1930-) - Computer and data-processing businessman who financed his own independent run for the White House in 1992, attracting an extraordinarily large following that demonstrated widespread dissatisfaction. Secured the best performance by any independent candidate in U.S. history, later running again in 1996 as a Reform Party candidate

Pat Robertson

(1930-) - Leading evangelical Christian broadcaster and adherent to the Christian Right movement, promoting conservative Christian values criticized for violating the separation of church and state. Hosts "The 700 Club," a successful TV talk show, and challenged George H.W. Bush for the 1988 Republican nomination

Neil Armstrong

(1930-2012) - Astronaut part of the Apollo 11 mission that completed the U.S. moon landing mission, as the first man on the moon, flew in the Korean War successfully prior

Willie Mays

(1931-) - One of the earliest African-American MLB players, playing for the San Francisco Giants and earning the highest salary of any player at the time. Traded to the Mets and retiring in 1973, he is considered by many to be baseball's best all-around player

Daniel Ellsberg

(1931-) - RAND Corporation military analyst who turned against the Vietnam War and leaked the "Pentagon Papers" to the New York Times, revealing the Vietnam War to have been the product of official deceit and deception, having prior commission by LBJ's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara

Jim Jones

(1931-1978) - Preacher, founder of the People's Temple in Indianapolis and San Francisco, developing his cult and establishing the Jonestown settlement in the Guyana jungle, ordering a mass suicide by drinking poison, killing 914 of his followers after also ordering the murder of Rep. Leo Ryan

Johnny Cash

(1932-2003) - County and western singer in the mid-1950s known for overcoming drug addiction and celebrating both sincerity and the rebellious spirit

Edward Kennedy

(1932-2009) - Senator from Massachusetts, AKA "Ted," only surviving brother of JFK and RFK. Frontrunner for the 1972 Democratic nomination, until he drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, with his passenger Mary Kopechne drowning, damaging his presidential hopes

Jerry Falwell

(1933-2007) - Fundamentalist Baptist pastor and televangelist, whose moral and political pronouncements generated much controversy. Founded Liberty University and the Moral Majority PAC

Charles Manson

(1934-) - Career criminal who led a group named "the Family" or his namesake "Family" on a crime spree in the 1960s, murdering Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary La Bianca in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969. Sentenced to life imprisonment, symbolizing the darkest aspects of freewheeling 1960s counterculture. Had organized a commune (non-conventional living arrangement)

Gloria Steinem

(1934-) - Popular writer on feminist subjects, founding the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971 and founder of "Ms." magazine, featuring issues of contemporary interest treated from a feminist perspective

Ralph Nader

(1934-) - U.S. Department of Labor consultant, publisher of "Unsafe at Any Speed" detailing shortcomings of the auto industry and safety dangers, prompting the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966. Led a band of consumer activists (his namesake "Raiders"), founded Public Citizen, a major advocacy group, and ran for president twice as the Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000

Elvis Presley

(1935-1977) - Tupelo, Mississippi born rock and roll performer, debuting with "That's All Right Mama" in 1954 and appearing on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1956, the most influential variety TV program of the 1950s. One of the most popular of rock and roll performers, a pop culture icon that gave birth to "rockabilly"

Ken Kesey

(1935-2001) - Author of breakthrough novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," detailing psychiatric treatment in an Oregon mental hospital. Previously an experimental subject at a VA hospital

Geraldine Ferraro

(1935-2011) - First female vice presidential candidate, with Walter Mondale in 1984. Previously a Representative from New York

Bobby Seale

(1936-) - Dallas-born African-American political activist, advocating militant black empowerment in founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton. Implicated as part of the "Chicago Seven" in a conspiracy to incite riots during the 1968 Democratic National Convention

Madeleine Albright

(1937-) - Ambassador to the United Nations and Secretary of State under Clinton, having fled Czechoslovakia during Nazi occupation

Seymour Hersh

(1937-) - Investigative reporter known for exposing various military and security matters, including My Lai and the subsequent cover-up, Abu Ghraib abuses, and U.S. plans to employ nuclear weapons against Iran

Colin Powell

(1937-) - Secretary of State under George W. Bush, previously Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H.W. Bush and director of the OMB under Reagan. Presented to the UN the american case for going to war with Iraq, while also in a leading role during the Persian Gulf War. Son of Jamaican Immigrants growing up in the Bronx, resigning after Bush Jr.'s first term

John Dean

(1938-) - White House counsel under Nixon who courageously released damning information about Watergate against Nixon's orders, later testifying before the a Select Committee in revealing the systemic obstruction of justice in the White House

Jerry Rubin

(1938-1994) - Social activist during the 1960s, co-founder of the Yippies (Youth International) Party along with Abbie Hoffman, offering Pegasus, a pig, as their presidential candidate. Tried as one of the "Chicago Seven" who disrupted the 1938 Democratic National Convention

Lee Harvey Oswald

(1939-1963) - Disaffected Marine Corps veteran, Soviet sympathizer, pro-Castro activist, and assassin of President Kennedy, having been employed by the Texas School Book Depository and firing from the sixth floor of that building. Also killed Dallas police officer J.D. Tippet in his escape, and was himself shot to death while in police custody by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby, which instantly drew the speculation of conspiracy and intense controversy

Arthur B. Laffer

(1940-) - Chief economist for the OMB during Nixon, developed idea that lowering tax rates would increase tax revenues by stimulating investment, dubbed his namesake "Curve," a foundation of Reagan supply-side economics

Pete Rose

(1941-) (Sports) - Broke Ty Cobb's record for career hits in 1985, recognized for his all-around skill and enthusiasm at play, setting records for most games played, times at pat, and seasons with 200+ hits. Denied Hall of Fame induction after 1989 decision banning him from the game because of illegal gambling on the sport

Joan Baez

(1941-) - 1960s musician, pioneer of the "folk revival" music, protesting racial injustice and the Vietnam War in her music, a vanguard of the "hippie" culture

Bob Dylan

(1941-) - Duluth, Minnesota born singer during the folksong revival of the 1960s, combining folk traditions with contemporary sensibility, hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation. Remains an enduring voice of American popular music

Jim Bakker

(1941-) - Prominent televangelist having founded the PTL (Praise the Lord) Club, before conviction on fraud and conspiracy and serving five years in prison

Jesse Jackson

(1941-) - South Carolina born African-American Baptist turned politician, inspired by MLK to pursue Operation Breadbasket in Chicago and Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), to promote black self-reliance. Let a voter registration program electing Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, earning a reputation as an influential political figure

Dick Cheney

(1941-) - Vice President under George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush, overseeing the invasion of Panama and the First Persian Gulf War, six-time Representative from Wyoming, perceived as a shadow president, wielding unprecedented decision-making power

Ernesto Miranda

(1941-1976) - Career criminal arrested for a series of Phoenix, Arizona rapes, with an overturned conviction by the Supreme Court that established his namesake "rights" to be read to suspects, in his case versus Arizona (1966)

Stokely Carmichael

(1941-1998) - Trinidad-born immigrant to the Bronx, espousing a militant civil rights approach through his "Black Power" movement, protesting the Vietnam War and, after moving to Guinea, founded the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, dedicated to Pan-Africanism

Muhammad Ali

(1942-) - Three-time world heavyweight boxing champion, champion of civil rights, Vietnam War protestor, dedicated member of the Nation of Islam, Olympic gold medalist at age 18

Huey P. Newton

(1942-1989) - African-American political activist who co-founded (with Bobby Seale) the Black Panther Party in Oakland (1966) to defend the black community against police brutality. Later fled to Cuba when accused of murder, returning to face trial that did not result in conviction. Later found, shot to death, on an Oakland street in 1989

Bob Woodward

(1943-) - "Washington Post" investigative reporter who exposed much information of the Watergate break-in, working with Carl Bernstein and publishing two books on the subject

John Kerry

(1943-) - Current Secretary of State, previously Senator from Massachusetts beginning in 1985 and Democratic nominee for president in 2004, losing to incumbent George W. Bush, partly due to the smear campaign attacking his military decorations in the Navy in Vietnam. Earned a place on Nixon's "Enemies List" for his antiwar sentiments

Oliver North

(1943-) - Lieutenant Colonel and chief aide to John Poindexter, national security adviser to Reagan, who along with Poindexter formulated a secret plane to sell arms to Iran to secure the liberation of Lebanon-held hostages, the so-called "Iran Contra Affair" that resulted in his prosecution but not conviction

Newt Gingrich

(1943-) - Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, associated with the "Contract for America," but losing the Speakership after ethics questions and the poor Republican showing in 1998

William Calley

(1943-) - U.S. Army lieutenant responsible for the massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians in the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai, convicted in 1971 after an army cover-up discovered by Ronald Ridenhour

Carl Bernstein

(1944-) - Investigative reporter for the Washington Post, publishing his findings on the Watergate break-in with Bob Woodward that led directly to President Nixon's resignation

Rudolph Giuliani

(1944-) - Republican Mayor of New York City, pledging major reforms to the city's finances and law enforcement, seen as authoritarian but impressive for his strong and compassionate leadership during the September 11th tumult

Bill Clinton

(1946-) - Forty-second president, Arkansas-born Rhodes Scholar, deeply admired JFK, served 10 years as Governor of Arkansas, surviving a sex scandal to win election in 1992. Presided over the nation's longest peacetime economic expansion. Lewinsky scandal nearly resulted in his successful impeachment and removal from office

George W. Bush

(1946-) - Forty-third president, son of George H.W. Bush, Governor of Texas and president after close election, over Al Gore, in 2000, defining his administration on the "War on Terror

Kenneth Starr

(1946-) - Independent counsel appointed to investigate allegations of impeachable offenses committed by President Clinton in connection with real estate dealings, with his namesake "Report" clearing Clinton of wrongdoing for real estate, but instead detailing the Lewinsky scandal and concluding he had violated his oath of office. His report served as the basis to impeach Clinton, who was acquitted

Joseph Hazelwood

(1946-) - Skipper of the Exxon Valdez, most directly responsible for the destructive 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, convicted of operating a vessel while intoxicated and negligent discharge, but later overturned

Hillary Rodham Clinton

(1947-) - First Lady of Bill Clinton, an attorney and advocate of children's rights, playing a major role in her husband's campaign in 1992. Headed the Task Force on National Health Care, remained firmly with her husband amidst the Lewinsky scandal. Later elected Senator from New York in 2000, unsuccessfully ran for president in 2008, running in 2016 as a Democrat

O.J. Simpson

(1947-) - USC football player and star NFL running back found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, amid a sensational, televised 266-day trial. Not guilty despite a "mountain of evidence," with most African-Americans believing he was the innocent victim of racist LAPD officers determined to frame him

Dan Quayle

(1947-) - Vice President under George H.W. Bush, with political experience (Representative and Senator from Indiana) but seen as an intellectual lightweight. Previously the son of a prominent Indianapolis family

Clarence Thomas

(1948-) - Current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, raised by his grandfather in rural Georgia and educated in Catholic schools, serving in the Court of Peaks for D.C. in the early 1990s. Nominated to the high court by George H.W. Bush to replace Thurgood Marshall, whose televised confirmation hearings were marked by accusations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill

Al Gore

(1948-) - Vice President under Clinton, before that a Representative and Senator from Tennessee. Out-tallied George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but lost in a close Electoral College tally. Longtime champion of environmental causes

Judi Bari

(1949-1997) - Conservationist, member of Earth First!, organizer of the mass non-violent protest Redwood Summer

Rush Limbaugh

(1951-) - Nationally syndicated conservative radio talk host, articulating a conservative point of view for the masses and a motivating factor behind the Republican sweep of Congress in 1994. Addiction to pain relievers brought unwanted publicity in 2003

Condoleezza Rice

(1954-) - Secretary of State during George W. Bush's second term, the first African American woman in the position. Previously a political scientist and national security adviser and advising George H.W. Bush in Soviet affairs. Proved controversial because of her role in the Iraq War

John Hinckley

(1955-) - Man who attempted an assassination on Ronald Reagan at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., with a ricocheted bullet striking Reagan's left lung and a head wound to Press Secretary James Brady. Said to be motivated by the movie "Taxi Driver," becoming infatuated with Jodie Foster and seeking to capture her attention. Found not guilty by reason of insanity

Anita Hill

(1956-) - University of Oklahoma law professor accusing Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment amidst his confirmation hearings in 1991. Thomas denied the charges, while Hill was widely praised and condemned for speaking out

David Koresh

(1959-1993) - Leader of the Branch Dravidians, the cult that amassed a stockpile of illegal weapons in their Mount Carmel Center compound in Waco, Texas. FBI siege over 51 days led to the compound's destruction by fire (Waco Siege) and the death of 76 of his followers. Professed polygamy and child abuse, after expulsion from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Rodney King

(1965-) - African-American man shown to have been assaulted and beated by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase, sparking an outcry against racist-motivated police brutality and sparking massive Los Angeles race riots in 1992, once a jury acquitted officers on criminal charges

Timothy McVeigh

(1968-2001) - American terrorist and bomber of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (1995), the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in American history, with 167 killed. Sentenced to death and executed in 2001, after being disaffected by the federal government and loading a Ryder truck with nitrate fertilizer explosives. Previously a decorated Persian Gulf War veteran

Todd Beamer

(1968-2001) - Passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93, exclaiming "let's roll" as he and other passengers overtook the hijackers of the plane and heroically diverted the aircraft

Monica Lewinsky

(1973-) - White House intern beginning in 1995, but while employed as a paid Pentagon staffer was involved in a sexual relationship with President Clinton. Scandal detailed by Kenneth Starr, concluding Clinton violated his oath of office by perjuring himself, resulting in his impeachment but aquittal

Terri Schiavo

(1978-2005) - Florida woman whose case served a dynamic catalyst for the debate of end of life treatment, having slipped into a coma in 1990 and dying in 2005 after her husband Michael won the right to remove her feeding tube. Governor Jeb Bush intervened against Michael, and Congress upheld her parents' right to continue suing for the maintenance of the tube, but a federal district court refused to order the tube reinserted

Leif Eriksson

(970-1020) - Norse explorer believed to have been the first European to land in North America, around 1000 when he spent a winter in Vinland (present-day Newfoundland), establishing the first European settlement at present-day L'Anse aux Meadows

Cochise

(d. 1874) - Leader of the Chiricahua band of Apaches, leading a fierce resistance against white settlers in the Southwest beginning in 1861