Master Quizlet of People

John Rutledge

1739-1800 American statesman and jurist. He served as associate judge of the Supreme Court from 1789-1791 and was named the second Chief Justice in 1795, serving only 5 months before the Senate rejected his nomination,

George Clinton

1739-1812 American statesman who was the first governor of New York from 1777-1795 and again form 1801-1804. And was Vice President from 1805-1812, nicknamed "Father of New York State."

James Boswell

1740-1795 Scottish author famous for his "Life of Johnson", one of the greatest English biographies.

Joseph II

1741-1790 Holy Roman Emperor from 1765-1790. The son of Maria Theresa and Francis I, he served jointly with his mother from 1765 until her death, and alone after her death in 1780.

Benedict Arnold

1741-1801 American Revolutionary War traitor. After his plot with John Andre to betray the American post at West Point was discovered in 1780, he escaped and fought for the British.

Karl Wilhelm Scheele

1742-1786 Swedish chemist famous for discovery of oxygen, independently of, but published later than, Joseph Priestley. Also discovered nitrogen, manganese, and his work led to the discovery of barium and chlorine.

Jean-Paul Marat

1743-1793 French Revolutionary and support of the Jacobins, he was murdered in his bathtub by a Girondist admirer, Charlotte Corday.

Antoine Lavoisier

1743-1794 French chemist and physicist who was a founder of modern chemistry. He is known for pioneering work in the chemistry of combustion and is known for naming Priestley's "dephlogistated air" as oxygen.

Johann David Wyss

1743-1818 Swiss author of the children's classic, "The Swiss Family Robinson."

Edmund Cartwright

1743-1823 English inventor of the power loom in 1785.

Matthew Perry

1794-1858 US Naval officer who is remembered for opening up isolationist Japan to Western trade. He negotiated a treaty in 1854 with the Tokugawa shogunate officials that permitted US ships to use two Japanese ports. His brother Oliver Hazard Perry was also a naval officer who commanded a US fleet that defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the war of 1812.

Marie Louise

1791-1847 empress of the French from 1810-1815. She married Napoleon in 1810, and was the mother of Napoleon II.

Michael Faraday

1791-1867 English scientist and developer of the first dynamo, the precursor of the modern electrical generator. He also discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831 and discovered the compound Benzene.

James Buchanan

1791-1868 15th President of the United States who became a Democrat and served under James K Polk as Secretary of State during the Mexican-American War from 1845-1849. He was a Congressman from 1821-1831 and a senator from Pennsylvania from 1834-1845. Under President Pierce he was minister to Great Britain and had a hand in drafting the Ostend Manifesto. Events during his time in office include the pony express, the Dred Scott Case, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the secession of seven states from the Union, and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Samuel Morse

1791-1872 American inventor of modern telegraphy, drawing off the work of other scientists including Andre Ampere.

Hammurabi

1792-1750 BC king of Babylonia remembered chiefly for his great code of laws

Percy Bysshe Shelley

1792-1822 English poet best known for the lyrics "Ode to the West Wind," "To a Skylark," "The Cenci," and "Prometheus Unbound." His Wife Mary Shelley, wrote "Frankenstein."

Antonio Rossini

1792-1868 Italian composer best known for his operas "The Barber of Seville," and "William Tell."

Charles Babbage

1792-1871 English mathematician most famous for his attempts to develop a mechanical computer called the analytical engine. Although not constructed in his lifetime, his ideas clearly preceded the modern computer.

Stephen Austin

1793-1836 Texan known as the Father of Texas. Began settling between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. Championed the Texas Revolution and briefly served as Secretary of State in the new Republic of Texas.

Lucretia Mott

1793-1880 American feminist who joined Elizabeth Candy Stanton in organizing the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

1794-1876 Mexican general and dictator most of 1824-1855 losing power once in when he was captured at San Jacinto and again after defeats in the Mexican War forced him into exile.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

1794-1877 American railroad magnate who entered the railroad field during the Civil War and grew his rail franchise rapidly, connecting Chicago and New York by rail in 1873. He founded Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, from his massive fortune.

William Cullen Bryant

1794-1878 American poet who wrote "Thanatopsis" and "To a Waterfowl."

John Keats

1795-1821 English poet who published his first volume of poems in 1817. This collection included "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Other well-known works include "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode On a Grecian Urn," "To Autumn," "La Belle Dame sans Merci," and the unfinished epic "Hyperion." His love for Fanny Brawne began in 1818, but they never married due to his contracting of tuberculosis. He moved to Italy because of his health and died there at the age of 25.

James K. Polk

1795-1849, 11th president of the US, a leading Jacksonian Democrat, he served in the House of Representatives from 1825-1839, and Speaker of the House from 1835-1839. He was elected governor of TN in 1839. He was defeated for governor reelection in 1844, but became the compromise dark horse candidate as a result of the divided 1844 Democratic convention. He narrowly defeated Henry Clay in the 1844 Presidential election, and his term in office included adopting the 49th parallel as the northern boundary of Oregon, and acquiring the Southwest and California through the Mexican War.

Frederick William IV

1795-1861 the son and successor of Frederick William III and ruled from 1840-1861. In 1857, his mental instability necessitated the regency of his brother and successor, William I.

James Bowie

1796-1836 Texas hero and leader of the Americans in Texas who opposed Mexican rule. A colonel in the Texas Revolution, he died at the Alamo. According to legend, he invented the knife that bears his name.

Winfield Scott

1796-1866 American General nicknamed "Old Fuss and Feathers." A hero in the War of 1812, he was appointed supreme commander of the US Army from 1841-1861 and established himself as a national hero. He ran for president in 1852 as the Whig candidate but was defeated by Franklin Pierce.

Franz Schubert

1797-1828 Austrian Romantic composer known for his "Fifth," "Eighth," and "Ninth," Symphonies. Also known for his "Quintet is A Major."

Gaetano Donizetti

1797-1848 Italian composer who is best known for his operas "Lucrezia Borgia," "Lucia di Lammermoor" (also known as "The Bride of Lammermoor,") and "The Daughter of the Regiment."

Sir Charles Lyell

1797-1875 English geologist best known for his "Principles of Geology." He helped gain acceptance of James Hutton's theory of uniformitarianism and Darwinian evolution.

Joseph Henry

1797-1878 American physicist who is famous for improving the electromagnet and discovering self-inductance. The unit of inductance is named in his honor.

Auguste Compte

1798-1857 French philosopher and founder positivism. Compte was the first person to use the term "sociology."

Eugene Delacroix

1798-1863 French painter who was the foremost French romantic. His works include "Women of Algiers," and "Liberty Leading the People."

Aleksandr Pushkin

1799-1837 Russian poet who published his first major poem "Russlan and Ludmilla" In 1820. His masterpiece, is the verse-novel "Eugene Onegin." Other works include the verse-drama "Boris Godunov," and "The Captain's Daughter," a short novel about the 1773-1775 Pugachev uprising.

Honore de Balzac

1799-1850 French writer of a work titled "The Human Comedy," which is a collection of novels written over a 20-year period. Novels in this collection include "Pere Goriot," and "Cousin Bette."

Nat Turner

1800-1831 African American slave and revolutionary famous for leading his namesake rebellion. This was the most serious slave uprising in the history of US slavery.

John Brown

1800-1859 American abolitionist who led 21 followers and captured the US Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) On October 16, 1859. The Arsenal was retaken the following morning by Robert E. Lee and Brown was hanged a month later.

Charles Goodyear

1800-1860 American inventor of vulcanized rubber.

Queen Victoria

1819-1901 queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837-1901, and empress of India, she succeeded William IV in 1837 and served 64 years, the longest reign in English history. She married her first cousin Prince Albert in 1840.

Anna Sewell

1820-1879 English author of the classic children's book "Black Beauty."

Joseph Lister

1827-1912 English surgeon who introduced the principle of antisepsis to surgery, founding modern antiseptic surgery in 1865.

Jules Verne

1828-1905 French novelist and father of modern science fiction known for the works "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," and "Around the World In 80 Days."

Henrik Ibsen

1828-1906 Norwegian dramatist who is best known for the existentialist "Peer Gynt" and the realistic social plays "A Doll's House," "Ghosts," "An Enemy of the People," and "Hedda Gabler."

Leo Tolstoy

1828-1910 Russian novelist famous for his masterpieces "War and Peace," an epic about the Napoleonic invasion, and "Anna Karenina," a tragedy about adultery. Other works include the story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich."

Emily Dickinson

1830-1885 American poet born in Amherst, Massachussetts, she spent most of her life in seclusion. Of her nearly 2000 poems, only seven were published during her lifetime.

Chester A. Arthur

1830-1886, 21st President of the US, was Vice President to James Garfield, succeeded after Garfield was assassinated

James Gillespie Blaine

1830-1893 American politician who served as a member of the US House of Representatives from Maine (1863-1876), Speaker of the House (1869-1875), US Senator (1876-1881) and US Secretary of State (1881, 1889-1892). He failed to capture the 1876 Republican presidential nomination after a land grant scandal. He was a leader of the Half-Breed Republicans who opposed the Stalwart Republicans, and was the party's nominee in 1884, but he was defeated by Grover Cleveland.

Charles Nordhoff

1830-1901 American author best known for co-authoring "Mutiny on the Bounty," with James Hall.

Pocahontas

1595-1617 daughter of Chief Powhatan, famous for saving the life of John Smith. She later married settler John Rolfe.

Rene Descartes

1596-1650 French thinker famous for his work as a mathematician, philosopher, and scientist. He founded analytical geometry and originated the Cartesian coordinate system. His philosophical works include "Discourse on Method," and "Meditations." He is famous for his assertion "Cogito, ergo sum," meaning, "I think, therefore I am."

Giovanni Bernini

1598-1680 Italian architect and sculptor, the dominant Italian Baroque figure, his sculptures include "David" (not Michaelangelo's David) "Rape of Proserpine" and "Apollo and Daphne"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807-1882 American poet. Among his popular poems are "Evangeline," "The Song of Hiawatha," "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "Paul Revere's Ride," "The Village Blacksmith," "Excelsior," and "The Wreck of the Hesperus."

Vitus Bering

1691-1741 Danish explorer who sailed for Peter the Great of Russia, exploring the extreme northeastern part of Siberia and in 1728 sailed through and discovered his namesake strait.

Voltaire

1694-1778 French author and philosopher who was a leader in the Enlightenment and had a close but stormy relationship with Frederick II. His-best known works are "Candide," "Brutus," and "Zaire."

James Oglethorpe

1696-1785 English general and founder of the colony of Georgia as an asylum for debtors.

William Hogarth

1697-1764 English painter and engraver who is famous for his works "The Rake's Progress," "The Harlot's Progress," and the "Marriage a la Mode" series.

Daniel Bernoulli

1700-1782 son of John Bernoulli is considered the first mathematical physicist whose major work, "Hydrodynamica" included the principle now called Bernoulli's principle

Jonathan Edwards

1703-1758 American theologian whose revivals of 1734-1735 helped bring the Great Awakening to New England. He is perhaps best known for his sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

John Wesley

1703-1791 English founder of Methodism, which is based on salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790 US inventor, statesman, and diplomat. As a young man he worked in Philadelphia as a printer and published "Poor Richard's Almanac" from 1732-1757. He is credited with a number of inventions including the lightning rod and the his namesake stove. He served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress where he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and organized a postal system serving as postmaster general in 1775. He was later sent to France from 1776-1785 and helped bring the French into the American Revolution on the colonists' side, and eventually was a signer of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that ended the Revolution.

Henry Fielding

1707-1754 English writer noted for his comedy "Tom Thumb" (1730), the novel "Tom Jones" (1749), and the novel "Joseph Andrews," (1742), which is a parody of Samuel Richardson's "Pamela."

Carolus Linnaeus

1707-1778 Swedish taxonomists who is considered the founder of binomial nomenclature and the originator of the modern classification system of plants and animals.

Elisha Otis

1811-1861 American inventor of the first passenger elevator in 1857.

William Makepeace Thackeray

1811-1863 English novelist famous for his satirical works "Book of Snobs," "Vanity Fair," "Henry Esmond," and "The Virginian."

Horace Greeley

1811-1872 American newspaper editor who founded the "New York Tribune" In 1841 and is best known for writing "Go West, Young Man."

Francis I

1708-1765 Holy Roman Emperor from 1745-1765, who, in 1736 married Maria Theresa, heiress to the Hapsburg lands. He became emperor after the War of Austrian Succession, but had little real power.

Czarina Elizabeth

1709-1762 czarina of Russia from 1741-1762. The daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I, she obtained the throne by overthrowing Ivan VI.

Joseph Priestly

1733-1804 English scientist who discovered sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and "dephlogisticated air," the gas Lavoisier later named oxygen.

Edward Gibbon

1734-1794 English historian who is the author of the 6 volume historical work "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

Daniel Boone

1734-1820 American frontiersman who, in 1775, as an agent for the Transylvania company, blazed the Wilderness Road and founded the city of Boonesboro, Kentucky. His many adventures, many largely exaggerated, were popularized in a so-called autobiographical work by John Filson in 1784.

Charles Cornwallis

1735-1805 English general who was the leader of British forces during the American Revolution. His defeat at Yorktown ended the war.

J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur

1735-1813 American author famous for his descriptions of the US rural life contained in works such as "Letters From an American Farmer."

Paul Revere

1735-1818 American Revolutionary leader, silversmith, and soldier, who was immortalized in Longfellow's poem about his midnight ride to warn the Massachusetts minutemen about British soldiers movements at the beginning of the American Revolution.

John Adams

1735-1826 President of the United States, events include the XYZ affair and the Alien and Sedition Acts

Patrick Henry

1736-1799 American political leader who served as a Representative at the Continental Congress and Governor of Virginia from 1776-1779. He is attributed with the phrases "Give me liberty or give me death!" and "If this be treason, make the most of it."

Charles Coulomb

1736-1806 French physicist who was known for his work in electricity and magnetism. The unit of electrical charge is named for him.

James Watt

1736-1819 Scottish inventor. Famous for his improvements in the steam engine and for coining the term horsepower, the SI unit of power is named after him.

John Hancock

1737-1792 American political leader who served as President of the Continental Congress from 1775-1777 and was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence with a huge flourish.

Luigi Galvani

1737-1798 Italian physician who was a surgeon and anatomy researcher who concluded that animal tissues generate electricity based on his observation that a frog's leg contracted when touches by two different metals in a moist environment.

Thomas Paine

1737-1809 American political writer known for his successful pamphlets "Common Sense," "The Crisis," "The Rights of Man," and the deistic work "The Age of Reason."

Ethan Allen

1738-1789 Revolutionary War leader who led the Green Mountain Boys at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga

George III

1738-1820 king of England who ruled from 1760-1820, including the time of the American Revolution. His insanity led to the regency of his son George IV.

Sir William Herschel

1738-1822 English astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus, the Saturn moons Mimas and Enceladus, and the Uranus moons Titania and Oberon.

Charles Sumner

1811-1874 US Senator from Massachusetts who was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks while he was making an anti-slavery speech.

Franz Liszt

1811-1886 Hungarian composer regarded as the greatest pianist of his time, he is best known today for his twenty "HungariN Rhapsodies."

Harriet Beecher Stowe

1811-1896 American writer and daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Henry Ward Beecher. Best known for her anti slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

Robert Bunsen

1811-1899 German scientist famous for inventing and improving various laboratory equipment, most notably his namesake Burner. Also, with Gustav Kirchhoff, he discovered the elements Cesium and Rubidium using spectroscopy.

Robert Browning

1812-1829 English poet who wrote "My Last Duchess," "The Bishop Orders His Tomb" and "The Ring and the Book". Husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Charles Dickens

1812-1870 English novelist and author of "Sketches to Boz," "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club," "Oliver Twist," "Nicholas Nickleby," "The Old Curiosity Shop," "Barnaby Rudge," "Martin Chuzzlewit," "A Christmas Carol," "David Copperfield," "Bleak House," "Little Dorrit," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Great Expectations," and his unfinished novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Alexander Stephens

1812-1883 American politician and Vice President of the Confederacy from 1861-1865.

Soren Kierkegaard

1813-1855 Dutch philosopher and forerunner of 20th century existentialism. Largely ignored in his time, he is remembered today for his works "Either/Or," and "Fear and Trembling."

Stephen Douglas

1813-1861 American statesman who was a Democratic congressman from 1843-1847 and senator of Illinois from 1847-1861. Seeking state reelection in 1858, he engaged Abraham Lincoln in a series of famous debates, and defeated Lincoln. He was nominated as Democratic presidential candidate in 1860, but lost the election to Lincoln.

David Livingstone

1813-1873 Scottish explorer who, while a medical missionary in what is now Botswana, crossed the Kalahari Desert and discovered the Zambezi River. In 1855 he discovered Victoria Falls. H. M. Stanley set out to find him, doing so in 1871. The two set out on an expedition to Lake Tanganyika. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Richard Wagner

1813-1883, German composer of the operas "The Flying Dutchman," "Tannhauser," and "The Ring of the Nibelung," which contains "The Rhinegold," "The Valkyrie," "Siegfried," and "The Twilight of the Gods." Other operas include his only comic opera "The Meistersinger of Nurnburg," and his final master work "Parsifal."

John Charles Fremont

1813-1890 American explorer and politician known as "The Pathfinder." His exploration of the West in the early 1840s sparked great interest in the area. He was a leader in the 1846 revolt of California against Mexico, and later served California as US Senator from 1850-1851. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for President in 1856.

Giuseppe Verdi

1813-1901 Italian operatic composer known for "Rigoletto," "Il Trovatore," "La Taviata," "Aida," "Macbeth," "Othello," and "Falstaff."

Samuel Colt

1814-1862 American inventor of the revolving pistol in 1835.

Anders Angstrom

1814-1874 Swedish physicist. The length unit of 10^-10 meters is named after him.

Jean-Francois Millet

1814-1875 French painter associated with the Barbizon School and his painting "The Gleaners."

Joseph Hooker

1814-1879 Union general in the US Civil War who was given command of the Army of the Potomac in 1863. He is known for being decisively defeated by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Samuel Tilden

1814-1886 American political leader and loser of the 1876 presidential election. Though he gained more votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, some of the electoral votes were disputed. He lost the election by one electoral vote when all of the disputed votes were given to Hayes.

George Boole

1815-1864 English mathematician and creator of Boolean algebra, his form of symbolic logic, which is the basis of many computer technologies

Richard Henry Dana

1815-1882 American author whose classic "Two Years before the Mast," is a novel about the days of sailing ships. His father of the same name wrote the poem "The Buccaneer," in 1827.

Anthony Trollope

1815-1882 English novelist famous for his Barsetshire novels including "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers."

Otto Bismarck

1815-1897 German statesman who was called the "Iron Chancellor" who served as premier of Prussia from 1862-1890 and Chancellor of Germany from 1871-1890. He formed a unified Germany and exploited the German states' fear of France in order to bring them under Prussia's control by starting the Franco-Prussian War which lasted from 1870-1871. After Germany defeated France, he took over the German states. William I was named emperor and named him the empire's first Chancellor. He ruled as a dictator. The accession of William II, a longtime enemy, in 1888 marked the beginning of the end of this man's reign. William II dismissed him in 1890.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

1815-1902 American feminist who, with Lucretia Mott, organizes the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY.

Henry David Thoreau

1817-1862 American author and advocate of Transcendentalism. A close friend of Emerson, the two co-edited the Transcendentalist magazine "The Dial." He built his famed cabin at Walden Pond in 1845. His works include "Walden," and the essay "Civil Disobedience."

Frederick Douglass

1817-1895 American abolitionist who, after escaping slavery in 1838, took his last name from a character in Sir Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake." In 1845, he published his "Narrative of the Life of (his name)" and two years after he established "The North Star," an abolitionist newspaper.

Ivan Turgenev

1818-1883 Russian novelist and playwright whose best-known works include the play "A Month in the Country," and the novel "Fathers and Sons."

James Prescott Joule

1818-1889 English physicist who established the mechanical theory of heat and was the first to determine the relationship between mechanical and heat energy. The mechanical unit of work is named after him.

Pierre Beauregard

1818-1893 Confederate General who directed the attack on Ft. Sumter during the Civil War

Charles Gounod

1818-1893 French composer of the romantic operas "Faust" and "Romeo and Juliet."

Karl Marx

1818-1893 German social philosopher who, with Friedrich Engels, founded modern socialism and communism with the "Communist Manifesto." He depended on Engels financial support while working on his monumental "Das Kapital" from 1867-1894.

Amelia Bloomer

1818-1894 American reformer, edited "The Lily," a periodical dedicated to women's rights and temperance, and she wore the full, poofy trousers that are now known by her name.

Richard Gatling

1818-1903 American inventor of the Gatling gun, a precursor of the modern machine gun.

Elias Howe

1819-1867 American inventor of the sewing machine.

Jean Foucault

1819-1868 French physicist famous for his invention of the Gyroscope in 1852 and his namesake pendulum that demonstrated the rotation of the Earth.

Charles Kingsley

1819-1875 English author of novels including "Westward, Ho!" and the children's work "The Water Babies."

George Eliot

1819-1880 pseudonym of English novelist Mary Ann Evans. Her novels include "Adam Bede," "Silas Marner," and "Middlemarch."

Herman Melville

1819-1891 American author whose experiences as a whaler led to the writing of "Typee," "Omoo," and his masterpiece "Moby-Dick," a tale of a whaling captain's obsession to find the white whale that had bitten off his leg. Later works include "Bartleby the Scrivener," and the novella "Billy Budd, Foretopman."

James Russell Lowell

1819-1891 American writer known for his poems "The Vision of Sir Launfal" and "The Bigelow Papers."

Walt Whitman

1819-1892 American poet who in 1885 published his volume "Leaves on Grass," which included "Song of Myself." Other works include "Drum Taps."

Abner Doubleday

1819-1893 inventor of baseball in 1839, from Cooperstown, New York, although his status as the sole inventor of the sport is often disputed.

Porfirio Diaz

1830-1915 Mexican dictator who, in 1876, after losing the presidential election, led a revolt and seized power. He ruled ruthlessly for 35 years and was overthrown in the 1910 revolution led by Francisco Madero.

Diamond Jim Brady

1856-1917 American financier who, after amassing a huge fortune selling railroad supplies, began collecting diamonds and other jewels and became famous for his lavish lifestyle.

L. Frank Baum

1856-1919 American children's author best known for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

Robert Peary

1856-1920 American arctic explorer traditionally recognized as the discoverer of the North Pole.

Joseph Conrad

1856-1924 Polish born English novelist. Born as Konrad Korzwniowski, he wrote novels in English, an acquired language. Notable novels include "Nostromo," "Lord Jim," "The ****** of Narcissus," and the novella "The Heart of Darkness."

Woodrow Wilson

1856-1924, 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. He served as president of Princeton and governor of New Jersey before being nominated as the 1912 Democratic presidential nominee. He was elected president due to the split in the Republican vote between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. His accomplishments as president include the founding of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as getting the nation through WWI. After the war he put forth his 14 Points in a conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles. He pushed to the creation of a League of Nations after the war, and futilely tried to convince Congress to allow for US membership in the League. He was awarded the 1919 Nobel peace prize for his efforts.

Sir Joseph John Thomson

1856-1940 English physicist who discovered the electron in 1897 and won the 1906 Nobel Prize in physics.

Louis Brandeis

1856-1941 American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1916-1939. He was the first Jewish justice on the Court.

George Bernard Shaw

1856-1950 Irish playwright and English socialist known for the plays "Man and Superman," "Androcles and the Lion," "Pygmalion," and "Saint Joan." Pygmalion was the basis for the musical "My Fair Lady." In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Henri Petain

1856-1951 head of the Fascist French Vichy government form 1940-1944 during WWII.

Heinrich Hertz

1857-1894 German physicist who worked with electromagnetic waves. The unit of frequency is named after him.

Alfred Binet

1857-1911 French psychologist, he and Theodore Simon devised a series of widely-used human IQ tests.

William Howard Taft

1857-1930, 27th president of the United States from 1909-1913 and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921-1930. He succeeded Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 after defeating William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 election. Events of his presidency include the admission of NM and AZ as states. Roosevelt ran against him in the 1912 election on the Progressive Party ticket, which split the Republican vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win. In 1921, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Sir Edward Elgar

1857-1934 English composer who is best known for his "Pomp and Circumstance" marches.

Sigmund Freud

1857-1939 Austrian physicist who developed many new techniques including psychoanalysis, free association, and dream interpretation summarized in his 1900 work "Interpretation of Dreams." He stressed the importance of sexuality in both normal and abnormal development, and the importance of childhood relationships to one's parents. Controversial in his time, his ideas were not well-received initially, nor are they well-received by modern psychologists. He put forth the theory of the Id, Ego, and Superego.

Robert Baden-Powell

1857-1941 British soldier who founded the Boy Scouts in 1908.

Ida Tarbell

1857-1944 American author best known for her muckraker work "History of the Standard Oil Company."

Theodore Roosevelt

1858-1919, 26th President of the US 1901-1909. A Harvard graduate in 1880, he began his career in politics as a Republican state legislator in New York. In 1884, saddened by the death of his mother and his wife, he retired briefly to his ranch in the Dakota territory. Returning to New York in 1886, he married Edith Kermit Carow. In 1898, he formed the Rough Riders regiment that fought in Cuba during the Spanish American War. He returned a hero, and parlayed that fame into a successful run for Vice President in 1901 at age 42 after McKinley was assassinated. As president he began his "trust busting" by initiating several lawsuits against the big trusts. He a s re-elected in 1904 by a landslide, events of his second term include the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and mediating the treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1912, he ran for president as the third-party Bull Moose (Progressive) candidate. He received more votes than incumbent president Taft, but he lost to Woodrow Wilson.

Giacomo Puccini

1858-1924 Italian composer best known for his operas "La Boheme," "La Tosca," "Madame Butterfly," and "Turandot."

Selma Lagerlof

1858-1940 Swedish novelist who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature In 1909.

Max Planck

1858-1947 German physicist whose hypothesis that atoms emit and absorb energy in discreet bundles, which he called quanta, led to the development of quantum physics. He also received the 1918 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on black body radiation.

Billy the Kid

1859-1881 American outlaw born in New York City as William H. Bonney. Infamous cattle rustler who was hunted and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett.

Georges Seurat

1859-1891 French neo-Impressionist famous for inventing the pointillist technique featured in such works as "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1859-1930 English author, the creator of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson. The pair first appeared in "A Study in Scarlet," Other works include another Sherlock Holmes mystery, "The Hound of the Baskervilles," and a historical romance "The White Company."

Kenneth Grahame

1859-1931 English author whose works include the children's classic "The Wind in the Willows" (about Mr. Toad) and the humorous "Golden Age."

A. E. Housman

1859-1936 English poet best known for his poetry that appeared in the 1896 volume "A Shropshire Lad." Lyrics included "To An Athlete Dying Young."

Vittorio Orlando

1860-1052 Italian statesman who was Italian premier from 1917-1919, and one of the Big Four leaders at the Paris Peace Conference.

Theodor Herzl

1860-1904 Hungarian Jew who founded modern Zionism.

Anton Chekhov

1860-1904 Russian writer famous for his plays "Ivanov" "The Seagull," "Uncle Vanya," "The Three Sisters," and "The Cherry Orchard." Also worked as a physician.

Isaac Albeniz

1860-1909 Spanish composer and pianist best known for his piano work "Iberia."

Gustav Mahler

1860-1911 Austrian composer best known for his "Song of the Earth."

William Jennings Bryan

1860-1925 American politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1891-1895 before making his famous Cross of Gold Speech at the 1896 Democratic national convention. Was nominated for president twice but lost to McKinley and Taft. In 1912 he helped re-elect Woodrow Wilson and was named Secretary of State. He was also present at the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Annie Oakley

1860-1926 US entertainer, an expert marksman, she as a star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for 17 years beginning in 1875. Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun," is based on her life.

Lizzie Borden

1860-1927 American woman accused in the 1892 ax murders of her father and stepmother. She was tried and acquitted. The case remains unsolved.

Jane Addams

1860-1935 American social reformer; co-fonder of the Hull House, a social settlement that served as a community center for the poor, especially poor women, in Chicago.

J. M. Barrie

1860-1937 Scottish writer best known for his novels "Peter Pan" and "The Little Minister."

John Pershing

1860-1948 US army officer who commanded units during the Spanish-American War and in the Philippines before commanding the American Expeditionary Force from 1917-1918 in WWI.

Grandma Moses

1860-1961 American painter, an untrained farm wife who began painting her primitive scenes of rural life while in her 70s.

Alfred North Whitehead

1861-1947 English mathematician and philosopher known for co-writing "Principia Mathematica," a landmark in the field of logic, with Bertrand Russell.

O. Henry

1862-1910 American writer, the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter, famous for writing the ironic work "The Gift of the Magi."

Claude Debussy

1862-1918 French composer who was an impressionist composer. He is best known for his tone poem "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." Other works include "La Mer," and "Nocturnes."

Aristide Briand

1862-1932 French statesman who served as premier 10 times between 1909 and 1921. During his term as foreign minister from 1925-1932, he was architect of the Locarno Pact of 1925 and the Kellogg-Briand pact of 1928. He shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Gustav Stresemann.

Edith Wharton

1862-1937 American author of the novels "The House of Mirth," "The Age of Innocence," and "Ethan Frome."

Charles Evans Hughes

1862-1948 American jurist who served as governor of New York from 1907-1910 prior to his appointment to the US Supreme Court In 1910. He resigned in 1916 to run for president but was narrowly defeated by Woodrow Wilson. In 1930, he was appointed 11th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, serving until 1941.

Francis Ferdinand

1863-1914 Archduke of Austria and nephew and heir apparent of Francis Joseph. He and his wife were assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28, 1914. The ensuing Austrian ultimatum to Serbia began WWI.

Edvard Munch

1863-1944 Norwegian painter whose violent, shocking works portray themes of fear or anxiety. The best known of which is "The Scream."

David Lloyd George

1863-1945 British statesman who replaced Herbert Asquith as prime minister during WWI, and played a crucial role in the Treaty of Versailles.

Henry Ford

1863-1947 American automobile pioneer who organized his namesake Motor Company. In 1908 he introduced the Model T and sold over 15 million of them. He introduced the assembly line to automobile production.

William Randolph Hearst

1863-1951 American publisher and yellow journalist who, during his career he established a huge publishing empire that included many newspapers and several magazines.

George Santayana

1863-1952 American philosopher famous for his only novel "The Last Puritan."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

1864-1901 French painter and lithographer credited with pioneering the modern poster, particularly of the Moulin Rouge.

George Washington Carver

1864-1943 African American agriculturalist who had been born a slave but became director of agricultural research at the Tuskegee Institute. He is most famous for discovering hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes.

Richard Strauss

1864-1949 German composer of the symphonic poems "Death and Transfiguration," and "Thus Spake Zarathustra," and the operas "Salome," and "Der Rosenkavalier."

Warren G. Harding

1865-1923, 29th President of the United States from 1921-1923. He served as a Republican US Senator for Ohio. His administration was quite possibly the most corrupt in history, and was marred by the Teapot Dome scandal involving his cabinet members Albert B. Fall and Harry M. Daughtery. He died suddenly in San Francisco on his way back from Alaska and was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

Paul Dukas

1865-1935 French composer who is best known for his symphonic poem "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."

Rudyard Kipling

1865-1936 English author whose well-known poems include "Mandalay," and "Gunga Din." His children's stories include "The Jungle Book," "Captain Courageous," and "Kim." He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature.

George V

1865-1936 king of England who was the second son of Edward VIII and ruled from 1910-1936. He changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coberg-Gotha to Windsor.

William Butler Yeats

1865-1939 Irish poet and playwright, and winner of the Nobel prize in literature in 1923.

Charles Dawes

1865-1951 Vice President of the US from 1925-1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He shared the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize for the Dawes Plan, a plan that reduced German reparations from WWI, and stabilized the German economy

George Carnarvon

1866-1923 English archaeologist and Egyptologist who, along with Howard Carter, excavated in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.

Sun Yat-sen

1866-1925 Chinese revolutionary leader. After the Revolution erupted in China, he was elected President of the Chinese republic in 1911, stepping down soon after. He rose to power again in 1921 after a revolt against Yuan Shih-Kai. Influenced by Marx, he cooperated with Chinese Communists and the USSR in order to hasten conquest of Northern China.

Lincoln Steffens

1866-1936 American muckraking author of "The Shame of the Cities."

Beatrix Potter

1866-1943 English author and illustrator best known for "The Tale of Peter Rabbit."

H. G. Wells

1866-1946 English author of "The Time Machine," "The War of the Worlds," and "Tono-Bungay."

Luigi Pirandello

1867-1936 Italian author and major figure in 20th century theatre, he was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature, best remembered for his play, "Six Characters in Search of an Author."

Gutzon Borglum

1867-1941 American sculptor famous for his monumental works carved on mountainsides, most notably Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.

Henry Louis Stimson

1867-1950 American statesman and Secretary of State from 1929-1933 known for denouncing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

Arturo Toscanini

1867-1957 Italian conductor of the Metropolitan Opera from 1908-1914, the New York Philharmonic From 1926-1936, and the NBC Symphony, which was created for him, from 1937-1954.

Scott Joplin

1868-1917 African-American composer known as the best of the ragtime composers. His works include "The Maple Leaf Rag" and the ragtime Opera "Treemonisha."

Edmond Rostand

1868-1918 French poet and dramatist best known for "Cyrano de Bergerac."

Nicholas II

1868-1918 last Czar of Russia from 1894-1917

Fritz Haber

1868-1934 German chemist who won the 1918 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the development of the Haber process used for synthesizing ammonia from its elements.

Robert Millikan

1868-1953 American physicist who received the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics for determining the charge of an electron with his famous lil drop experiment.

W. E. B. Du Bois

1868-1963 African-American civil rights leader who co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and edited the NAACP magazine, "The Crisis," until 1932. In 1961, he joined the communist party and moved to Ghana.

John Nance Garner

1868-1967 Vice President of the United States from 1933-1941. He served as Speaker of the House beginning in 1931 and was Vice President during F.D. Roosevelt's first two terms.

Edwin Arlington Robinson

1869-1935 American poet known for the poems "Miniver Chevy," and "Richard Cory." Later poems include "The Man Who Died Twice," and "Collected Poems." He also won the 1927 Pulitzer for his Arthurian romance "Tristram." He set many works in the fictional small town Tilbury Town, that was modeled after his childhood home in Gardiner, Maine.

Maxim Gorky

1869-1936 Russian writer called "the father of Russian Literature." He is best known for his revolutionary novel "Mother."

Neville Chamberlain

1869-1940 British statesman who succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister in 1937. In his efforts to avoid war with Germany, he practiced the unsuccessful strategy of appeasement that culminated in the signing of the 1938 Munich Pact. Chamberlain wrongly stated that this agreement would guarantee peace. He resigned in 1940.

Booth Tarkington

1869-1946 American author of the small-town novels "The Magnificent Ambersons," "Alice Adams," "Penrod," and "Seventeen."

Mahatma Gandhi

1869-1948 Italian spiritual and political leader who is considered the father of independent India. A proponent of passive resistance, he worked for Indian independence from Great Britain and for the rights of the untouchables in India's caste system, he was shot by a Hindu extremist in 1948.

Edgar Lee Masters

1869-1950 American poet best known for "The Spoon River Anthology," a series of epitaphs revealing the secret lives of the townspeople.

Henri Matisse

1869-1954 French painter, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century who explored Impressionism and was leader of Fauvism. His works include "The Green Line" and "The Blue Nude."

Frank Lloyd Wright

1869-1959 American architect. Famous designs include the Robbie House, in Chicago, the Kaufman House (Falling Water), and the Guggenheim Museum.

Emilio Aguinaldo

1869-1965 Philippine leader. Led a Filipino rebellion against Spanish rule in 1896, and cooperated with the US in the Spanish-American War. He later rebelled against US rule.

Frank Norris

1870-1902 American novelist and naturalist author who is best known for "McTeague," and two novels that attacked the American railroad and what industries in "The Octopus," and "The Pit."

Vladimir Lenin

1870-1924 Russian Revolutionary who was the founder of Bolshevism and a leading figure in the founding of the USSR, he led the Bolsheviks in overthrowing Kerensky's provisional government in 1917. He became virtual dictator and his associates included Trotsky and Stalin. He died in 1924 precipitating a power struggle eventually won by Stalin.

Maria Montessori

1870-1952 Italian educator who originated the Montessori method of teaching small children. She was also the first woman to receive a medical degree in Italy.

Stephen Crane

1871-1900 American author often considered the first modern American author. He introduced realism into American fiction with his first novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets." He achieved great fame with his novel "The Red Badge of Courage," a civil war story. His best known short-story is, "The Open Boat."

Marcel Proust

1871-1922 French novelist best known for his monumental work "Remembrance of Things Past."

Ernest Rutherford

1871-1937 English physicist who discovered alpha and beta radiation, said that the atom was a small, heavy nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons, and was the first to artificially split atomic nuclei. He won the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Theodore Dreiser

1871-1945 American author who was a pioneer in naturalism. His works include "Sister Carrie" and "Jennie Gerhardt," both about fallen women, and "An American Tragedy," a novel that tells of a poor young man's futile attempt to achieve financial success.

Cordell Hull

1871-1955 American statesman who was a former US congressman and senator from Tennessee. He served as Secretary of State under FDR from 1933-1944. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Grigori Rasputin

1872-1916 Russian monk known for his sinful indulgences. His ability to cure czarevich Alexis's hemophilia gave him power over Czar Nicholas II. He was assassinated in 1916.

Roald Amundsen

1872-1928 Norwegian explorer, and the first person to reach the South Pole, in 1911. In 1926, he became the first person to fly over the North Pole. Also commanded the first single ship to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1903-1906.

Calvin Coolidge

1872-1933, 30th president of the United States from 1923-1929. In his first year as governor of Massachusetts, in 1919, he became nationally known for using the militia to end a Boston police strike. He served as Vice President from 1921-1923 under Warren G. Harding, rising to the presidency after Harding's death. Events of his presidency include the Scopes Monkey Trial, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, and Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.

Zane Gray

1872-1939 American author of 54 westerns including "Riders of the Purple Sage," and "Code of the West."

Bertrand Russell

1872-1970 British philosopher and mathematician, whose most important works are "Principles of Mathematics," and, with Alfred North Whitehead, "Principia Mathematica." He was also a radical social reformer and author, winning the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Howard Carter

1873-1939 English Egyptologist who, along with George Carnarvon, excavated Egypt's Valley of the Kings and discovered the Tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.

Ford Maddox Ford

1873-1939 English author whose most important novels include "The Good Soldier" and his series "Parade's End."

Alfred Emanuel Smith

1873-1944 American politician, a four-time Governor of New York from 1919-1920 and then from 1923-1928, he ran on the Democratic ticket as the first Catholic candidate for president, but was defeated by Herbert Hoover.

Lee De Forest

1873-1961 American inventor and pioneer in the development of wireless telegraphy and television, who invented the triode in 1906.

Amy Lowell

1874-1925 American poet and a leader of the Imagists, she is best known for the volume "What's O'Clock."

Harry Houdini

1874-1926 American magician born in Hungary as Eric Weiss, best known for his amazing escape acts

Gertrude Stein

1874-1946 American author of the book "Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas."

Sam Rayburn

1882-1961 US legislator representing Texas famous for serving a record 17 years as Speaker of the House between 1940-1961.

George's Braque

1882-1963 French painter who helped develop Fauvism. He later met Picasso, and, with him, helped create Cubism.

Frances Perkins

1882-1965 US Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945 and the first woman appointed to the cabinet.

Igor Stravinsky

1882-1971 Russian-American composer of many ballets including "The Firebird," "Petrouchka," and "The Rite of Spring."

Samuel Goldwyn

1882-1974 American film producer born in Poland as Samuel Goldfish. In 1916 he founded Goldwyn Pictures, which merged with L.B. Mayer's company to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924.

Franz Kafka

1883-1924 German writer best known for his novels "The Trial," "The Castle," and the short story "The Metamorphosis."

Kahil Gibran

1883-1931 Lebanese poet and novelist famous for "The Prophet."

Benito Mussolini

1883-1945 Italian Fascist dictator who, in 1919, organized his nationalistic "black shirt" terrorist followers and founded the National Fascist Party In 1921. Called "Il Duce," he gradually created a dictatorship and ended the parliamentary government in 1928. He signed an alliance with Nazi Germany in 1939 during WWII, in 1945 he was captured, tried, and executed.

Dorothy Sayers

1883-1957 English writer and creator of detective Lord Peter Wimsey.

Nikos Kazantzakis

1883-1957 Greek writer who is best known for the novels "Zorba the Greek" and "The Greek Passion."

William Carlos Williams

1883-1963 American poet famous for his "Pictures from Brueghel."

Margaret Sanger

1883-1966 American leader in birth control movement famous for organizing the first American and international birth control stories.

Walter Gropius

1883-1969 German-American architect who founded the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Weimar Germany in 1919.

Rube Goldberg

1883-1970 American cartoonist who is best known for his drawings of incredibly intricate and complex machines that form simple tasks.

Sara Teasdale

1884-1933 American poet of the Pulitzer Prize winning volume "Love Songs." She committed suicide in 1933.

Hideki Tojo

1884-1948 Japanese general and prime minister from 1941-1944 who approved the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Eleanor Roosevelt

1884-1962 niece of Theodore Roosevelt and a distant cousin of her husband Franklin Roosevelt. Perhaps the most influential First Lady, she served as a delegate to the UN and was the chairman of the Commission for Human Rights in 1946.

Harry S. Truman

1884-1972, 33rd president of the US from 1945-1952. He was elected a US Senator from Missouri in 1934, and re-elected in 1940. He rose to prominence during WWII as a chairman of senate committee investigating government spending. He was nominated and elected Vice President in 1944 along with FD Roosevelt. With Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945, he was thrust into the presidency at the end of WWII. After the end of the war in Europe, he authorized the usage of two atomic bombs on Japan, leading to the quick Japanese surrender. Events he oversaw after the war included the Marshall Plan to help the economic recovery of postwar Western Europe, the Truman Doctrine to protect Greece and Turkey from Communist domination, and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was re-elected in 1948 in a shocking and unexpected victory over Thomas E. Dewey. His second term was dominated by the Korean War and his firing of General Douglas MacArthur. He chose not to run for reelection in 1952 and retired to his home in Independence, KS.

D. H. Lawrence

1885-1930 English author whose novels include "Sons and Lovers," "The Rainbow," "Woman In Love" and the hugely controversial "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

George Patton

1885-1945 American General who, during WWII, commanded the 3rd army that helped win the liberation of France and the defeat of Germany. Nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts."

Jerome Kern

1885-1945 American composer best known for the musical "Showboat" and his songs including "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."

Sinclair Lewis

1885-1951 American novelist who wrote great satirical 20th century American novels such as "Main Street," "Babbitt," "Arrowsmith," "Elmer Gantry," "Dodsworth," "It Can't Happen Here," and "Cass Timberlane." In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Kenneth Roberts

1885-1957 American author of the novel "Northwest Passage."

Isak Dinesen

1885-1962 Danish author, pseudonym of Karen Blixen. Best known for the autobiographical account of her years on a coffee plantation in Kenya entitled "Out of Africa."

Niels Bohr

1885-1962 Danish physicist awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on atomic structure. He postulated that electrons move in restricted orbits around an atom's nucleus. He explained how the atom emits and absorbs energy by combining the quantum theory with this new concept of atomic structure.

Chester Nimitz

1885-1966 American admiral and commander of the US Pacific Fleet throughout WWII.

Ezra Pound

1885-1972 American-born poet and leader of the Imagist poets. He was one of the most controversial poets of the 20th century. He moved to Europe in 1907, including stints in England, Paris, and Italy. He broadcast Fascist propaganda during WWII, was indicted for treason after the war, and was confined in a mental hospital. Nonetheless, he was an extremely talented poet whose works include "Homage to Sextus Propertius," "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," and an epic, "Cantos."

James Forrestal

1892-1949 Secretary of the navy from 1944-1947 and Secretary of defense from 1947-1949. He became the first secretary of defense in 1947. He resigned in 1949 and committed suicide later that year.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

1892-1950 American poet who won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for "The Harp Weaver."

Elmer Rice

1892-1967 American dramatist know for the Pulitzer Prize winning drama "The Street Scene."

Pearl S. Buck

1892-1973 American author who lived in China until 1924 with missionary parents. She is famous for her novels about life in China, most notably "The Good Earth," and won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature.

J. R. R. Tolkien

1892-1973 English novelist of the fantasy novels set in Middle Earth including "The Hobbit" and the epic trilogy "The Lord of the Rings."

Francisco Franco

1892-1975 Spanish general and dictator from 1939-1975 who assumed leadership of Spain in 1939 with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Despite his association with Germany and Italy, Spain remained neutral during WWII.

James M. Cain

1892-1977 American novelist who wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice," and "Three of a Kind," which was turned into a movie called "Double Idemnity."

Josip Broz Tito

1892-1980 Communist president of Yugoslavia from 1953-1980.

Louis de Broglie

1892-1987 French physicist from whose hypothesis wave mechanics, a form of quantum mechanics, was formed. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Huey Pierce Long

1893-1935 American politician nicknamed "The Kingfish." He served as Governor of Louisiana from 1928-1931 and was elected to the US Senate in 1930, and continued to dominate Louisiana politics in Washington D.C. His presidential aspirations were dashed in 1935 when Dr. Carl Weiss assassinated him.

Hermann Goering

1893-1946 German Nazi leader who founded and headed the secret police known as the Gestapo from 1933-1936.

Dorothy Parker

1893-1967 American writer known for witty quotes such as "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."

Dean Acheson

1893-1971; Secretary of State under Harry Truman, from 1949-1953; Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for "Present at the Creation."

Jomo Kenyatta

1893-1978, first president of Kenya from 1964-1978.

Harold Urey

1893-1981 American chemist and discoverer of deuterium (heavy hydrogen), for which he won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Omar Bradley

1893-1981 US General . During WWII he lead the US 1st Army in the invasion of Normandy in 1944. He also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949-1953.

Dashiell Hammett

1894-1961 American author of hard-boiled detective novels including "The Maltese Falcon."

James Thurber

1894-1961 American humorist and author of "The Owl in the Attic" collection and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," among others, he was also known as a prominent contributor to the "New Yorker" magazine.

Aldous Leonard Huxley

1894-1963 English author, and the grandson of T.H. Huxley, he is best known for his novels "Crome Yellow," "Point Counter Point," and his masterpiece, "A Brave New World, which describes a nightmarish future Utopia set in 632 AF (After Ford).

Nikita Khrushchev

1894-1971 Soviet premier and party leader from 1957-1964 who replaced Bulganin as premier in 1957 and saw the USSR through the Cold War. He was removed from power in 1964.

Norman Rockwell

1894-1978 American illustrator famous for his scenes of everyday American life depicted on the covers of Saturday Evening Post.

Oscar Hammerstein

1895-1960 American librettist and lyricist most famous for his collaborations with composers Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern, and especially, Richard Rodgers.

J. Edgar Hoover

1895-1972 US director of the FBI from 1924-1972.

John Ford

1895-1973 American film director who won Academy awards for "The Informer," "The Grapes of Wrath," "How Green Was My Valley," and "The Quiet Man."

Juan Peron

1895-1974 President of Argentina from 1946-1955, and again from 1973-1974. He was elected president in 1946. His support weakened after the death of his incredibly popular wife Eva.

Sir Anthony Eden

1895-1977 British statesman who succeeded Winston Churchill as prime minister in 1955, resigning in poor health two years later.

Fuller R. Buckminster

1895-1983 American architect best known for his development of the geodesic dome.

Robert Graves

1895-1985 English author best known for his novels on a Roman history including "I, Claudius," and "Claudius the God."

Matthew Ridgeway

1895-1993 US General who replaced General McArthur as commander of the UN forces in the Korean War in 1951.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1896-1940 American author who was one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century, he was a literary spokesman of the Jazz age. His novels include This Side of Paradise (1920), The Beautiful and the Damned (1922), The Great Gatsby (1922), Tender Is the Night (1934), and an unfinished novel The Last Tycoon (1941). His wife Zelda went insane.

Anastasio Somoza

1896-1956 President of Nicaragua from 1937-1947, and again from 1950-1956, his son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle was President, and was overthrown in 1979 by the Sandinistas.

Trygve Lie

1896-1968 Norwegian statesman and first Secretary General of the United Nations from 1946-1953.

John Dos Passos

1896-1970 American novelist best known for the "U.S.A. Trilogy" that includes the works "The 42nd Parallel," "1919," and "The Big Money." Other works include "Manhattan Transfer," and his second trilogy "District of Colombia."

Amelia Earhart

1897-1937 American aviator who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to California. In 1937 she and her copilot Frederick Noonan set out to fly around the world, but they disappeared without a trace.

Paul Goebbels

1897-1945 German Nazi leader and Hitler's propaganda minister beginning in 1933.

William Faulkner

1897-1962 American novelist whose novels were set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha county which he used as a microcosm of southern life. Novels include "The Sound and the Fury," "The Hamlet," "A Fable," and "The Reivers." He won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Thornton Wilder

1897-1975 American author. His first important work was the novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." Other novels include "The Cabala," "Our Town," "The Skin of Our Teeth," and "The Matchmaker."

Frank Capra

1897-1991 American film director who filmed "It Happened One Night," "You Can't Take it With You," and "It's a Wonderful Life."

Marian Anderson

1897-1993 African-American opera singer. The first African-American to be named a permanent member of the Metropolitan Opera and the first African-American to perform at the White House. She served as an alternate delegate to the UN in 1958.

George Gershwin

1898-1937 American composer who is famous for his compositions "Rhapsody in Blue," and "An American in Paris," the folk opera "Porgy and Bess," and the scores to the musicals "Lady, Be Good!" and "Of Thee I Sing." His brother Ira wrote lyrics to many of his compositions.

Stephen Vincent Benet

1898-1943 American author famous for "John Brown's Body" a long narrative ballad about the Civil War. Also wrote many great short stories, including "The Devil and Daniel Webster."

Robert Sherwood

1898-1955 American dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning play "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," and a memoir of his years in FDR's administration, "Roosevelt and Hopkins."

Bertolt Brecht

1898-1956 German Dramatist and poet who wrote "Threepenny Opera" with music by Kurt Weill. A Marxist, he went into exile in Denmark during the Nazi period before settling in the US.

C. S. Lewis

1898-1963 English author whose works explore Christian tenants and include "The Screwtape Letters," "Mere Christianity," and "The Chronicles of Narnia."

Henry Robinson Luce

1898-1967 American publisher, the founder of the magazines "Time," "Fortune," "Life," and "Sports Illustrated."

Alexander Calder

1898-1976 American sculptor who was famous for his mobiles, a type of moving structure, which he invented in 1932. The name "mobile" was given to his work by Marcel Duchamp.

Golda Meir

1898-1978 Israeli Prime Minister from 1969-1974.

William Orville Douglas

1898-1980 associate justice of the Supreme Court. His tenure was from 1939-1975, and was the longest in court history.

Jean de Brunhoff

1899-1937 French children's author and creator of a series of children's books beginning with "The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant."

Al Capone

1899-1946 American gangster known as "Scarface" whose crime syndicate ruled Chicago in the 1920s. He was finally convicted in 1931 for federal income-tax evasion, and served part of his sentence in Alcatraz.

Humphrey Bogart

1899-1957 American actor famous for his role as tough heroes. He starred in the films "The Maltese Falcon" "Casablanca" and "The African Queen."

Ernest Hemingway

1899-1961 American author who became recognized as a leading spokesman of the Lost generation of American expatriates with his novel The Sun Also Rises. Other works include the tragic love story A Farewell go Arms, the Spanish civil war story For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the novella The Old Man and the Sea, which he wrote after settling in Cuba, the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," and "The Killers." He also wrote the nonfiction works "Death in the Afternoon," and "The Green Hills of Africa." He won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature and committed suicide in 1961.

C.S. Forester

1899-1966 English novelist famous for his stories about fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower. He also wrote the novel "The African Queen."

Noel Coward

1899-1973 English playwright best known for the comedies "Private Lives," and "Blithe Spirit." Also known for the musical "Bitter Sweet."

Duke Ellington

1899-1974 African-American jazz pianist who is best known for his many jazz style innovations and his compositions including "Mood Indigo," and "Solitude."

Vladimir Nabokov

1899-1977 Russian-American novelist whose most famous work, "Lolita," the story of a Middle-ages intellectual and his infatuation with a 12 year old girl.

Charles Best

1899-1978 Canadian scientist who worked with Frederick Banting and John Macleod to isolate the hormone insulin. He also discovered the anticoagulant heparin.

Alfred Hitchcock

1899-1980 American film director famous for his suspenseful films, including "Psycho," "The Birds," "Vertigo," and "Frenzy."

Hoagy Carmichael

1899-1981 American songwriter whose most famous songs include "Stardust" and "Georgia on My Mind."

E. B. White

1899-1985 American author, a witty satirical writer he became well known for his contributions to the "New Yorker" magazine. His best-known works are children's books "Stuart Little" and "Charlotte's Web."

Fred Astaire

1899-1987 American dancer. Made many films with Ginger Rogers.

Thomas Wolfe

1900-1938 American novelist famous for his semi-autobiographical novels "Look Homeward, Angel," "Of Time and the River," "The Web and the Rock," and "You Can't Go Home Again."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1900-1944 French author of the fable "The Little Prince."

Heinrich Himmler

1900-1945 German Nazi leader who served as head of the Gestapo from 1936-1945, was captured by the British, and committed suicide in prison

Margaret Mitchell

1900-1949 American novelist whose only novel was the hugely successful "Gone With the Wind." This novel is set in Georgia during the Civil War and during Reconstruction.

Wolfgang Pauli

1900-1958 Austro-American physicist. He won the 1945 Nobel Prize for his exclusion principle that states that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state in an atom.

Louis Armstrong

1900-1971 African American musician. Born in New Orleans, he was best known for pioneering improvisational Jazz Trumpet.

Sir Hans Krebs

1900-1981 German-born English biochemist who won the 1953 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work on the Citric Acid Cycle, the major source of energy production in organisms.

Hyman Rickover

1900-1986 Russian-born US admiral famous for directing the construction of the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in 1954.

Aaron Copland

1900-1990 American composer who was famous for his ballets "Billy the Kid," "Rodeo," and "Appalachian Spring." Other works include the music for the 1939 film "Of Mice and Men."

Jan Hendrik Oort

1900-1992 Dutch astronomer who proposed in 1950 that comets originated in a cloud of material orbiting the sun at a great distance. This cloud is now named after him.

Earnest Orlando Lawrence

1901-1958 American physicist who is best known for his invention of the cyclotron particle accelerator and his studies on atomic structure. He received the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics.

Walt Disney

1901-1966 American film producer who began his career as a cartoonist and became famous for his creation of the "Steamboat Willie," short that contained Mickey Mouse. His "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," released in 1938, was the first full-length animated cartoon.

Warner Heisenberg

1901-1976 German physicist who is famous for his uncertainty principle that states it is impossible to accurately determine both the position and momentum of a subatomic particle at the same time. Heisenberg received the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on quantum theory.

Margaret Mead

1901-1978 American anthropologist who wrote "Coming of Age in Samoa," and the autobiographical "Blackberry Winter."

Linus Pauling

1901-1994 American chemist and recipient of two Nobel Prizes, one in chemistry and the Peace Prize in 1962. He was a proponent of massive doses of Vitamin C for the common cold, and wrote a classic study of the chemical bond.

Ogden Nash

1902#1971 American poet known for his humorous, light free verse style, and he was a featured poet in the "New Yorker."

John Dillinger

1902-1934 American criminal declared public enemy number one by the FBI, and was shot and killed by FBI agents in Chicago in 1934, shortly thereafter.

Langston Hughes

1902-1967 African American poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. His collections of verse include "The Weary Blues," and "One-Way Ticket." A more famous poem of his is "A Dream Differed."

John Steinbeck

1902-1968 American author whose best-selling novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," tells of the plight of 1930s dust bowl farmers turned migrant workers. Other works include "Tortilla Flat," "Cannery Row," "East of Eden," "The Winter of Our Discontent," and the novella, "Of Mice and Men."

Thomas Dewey

1902-1971 American politician who served as governor of New York from 1943-1955 and lost the presidential election of 1944 to Franklin Roosevelt, and unexpectedly lost the 1948 election to Harry S. Truman.

Charles Lindbergh

1902-1974 American aviator who is famous for making the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight. He made this trip in 1927 by flying from New York to Paris aboard his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis. His wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was a renowned writer. Their infant son was kidnapped and murdered in 1932.

Richard Joseph Daley

1902-1976 US politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1955-1976. His son Richard M. Daley became mayor of Chicago in 1989.

Richard Rodgers

1902-1979 American composer famous for musicals written with Lorenz Hart "The Girl Friend," and "Pal Joey." He also worked with Oscar Hammerstein on "Oklahoma!" "Carousel," and "The King and I."

Ansel Adams

1902-1984 American photographer and founder of the f/64 group

Nathanael West

1903-1940 American novelist famous for his "The Day of the Locust."

George Orwell

1903-1950 pen name of English author Eric Arthur Blair, who is best known for "Animal Farm" a fable about the failure of communism, and "1984," a prophetic novel depicting a totalitarian world under the watchful eye of Big Brother.

James Gould Cozzens

1903-1978 American novelist best known for his 1948 Pulitzer Prize winning novel "Guard of Honor," and for his other novel, "By Love Possessed."

Erskine Caldwell

1903-1987 American author whose works about the rural south include "Tobacco Road," and "God's Little Acre."

Alan Paton

1903-1988 South African novelist whose best known novel is "Cry, the Beloved Country."

Moss Hart

1904-1961 American dramatist who was famous for his collaborations with George S. Kaufman on the comedies "You Can't Take It With You," and "The Man Who Came to Dinner." Also collaborated with Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin on the 1941 musical "Lady in the Dark."

J. Robert Oppenheimer

1904-1967 American physicist who was director of the laboratory at Los Alamos, NM that designed the first Atomic Bomb. Later a proponent of control of atomic energy, he strongly opposed the creation of the hydrogen bomb.

Ralph Bunche

1904-1971 US diplomat and the first African-American to be a division head in the US State Department. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for his work as principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission.

Pablo Neruda

1904-1973 Chilean poet and Communist leader who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.

James T. Farrell

1904-1979 American novelist most famous for his "Studs Lonigan" trilogy.

George Balanchine

1904-1983 American ballet choreographer, a member of Ballets Russes from 1924-1928. Moved to the US and helped to found the School of American Ballet in 1934. In 1948 he became artistic director and principal choreographer of the New York City Ballet.

Salvador Dali

1904-1989 Spanish painter who led the Surrealist movement and is famous for his work "Persistence of Memory."

B. F. Skinner

1904-1990 American psychologist who was the leading exponent of Behaviorism, and was known for his research on animals using the reward technique. He wrote the works "The Behavior of Organisms," and "Walden Two."

Dr. Seuss

1904-1991, the pseudonym of American children's author Theodore Geisel. Known for his outlandish stories including "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "Horton Hears a Who."

Jean-Paul Sartre

1905-1980 French author and philosopher and leading existentialist. He is known for the play "No Exit," the novel "Nausea," and the existentialist treatise "Being and Nothingness." He declines the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Albert Speer

1905-1981 German architect and Hitler's official Nazi architect.

Ayn Rand

1905-1982 Russian-American novelist whose novels include "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged."

Arthur Koestler

1905-1983 Hungarian-born English writer best known for the novel "Darkness at Noon."

Lillian Hellman

1905-1984 American dramatist whose plays include "The Children's Hour," "The Little Foxes," "Watch on the Rhine," and "Pentimento."

Robert Penn Warren

1905-1989 American poet and author. Won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his volumes "Promises," and "Now and Then," and the Pulitzer Prize winning novel about a political figure resembling Louisiana politician Huey Long entitled "All The King's Men." In 1986, he was named the first official US Poet Laureate.

Carl Anderson

1905-1991, American physicist who discovered the positron. He shared the Nobel Prize in physics with V.F. Hess.

Adolf Eichmann

1906-1962 German Nazi official who was the head of the Gestapo's Jewish section and oversaw the murder of millions of Jews. After WWII, he escaped to Argentina, but was tried and hanged in Israel in 1962.

Clifford Odets

1906-1963 American dramatist best known for the plays "Waiting for Lefty," and "Awake and Sing."

T. H. White

1906-1964 English author famous for his retelling of the Arthurian legend in his tetralogy "The Once and Future King."

Henry Pu Yi

1906-1967 last emperor of China from 1908-1912 under the name Hsuan T'ung. In 1934 he became Emperor K'and Te of Manchuria.

Aristotle Socrates Onassis

1906-1975 Greek financier who married Jackie Kennedy, the widow of John F. Kennedy, in 1968.

Leonid Brezhnev

1906-1982 Soviet leader. He, Kosygin, and Podgorny took control of the Communist party when Khrushchev was ousted in 1964. He became president of the USSR in 1977.

Sir John Betjeman

1906-1984 English poet who served as Poet Laureate from 1972-1984. His most famous work is "Mt. Zion."

John Huston

1906-1987 American film director whose films include "The Maltese Falcon" and "The African Queen."

Chester Carlson

1906-1988 American inventor of xerography

Samuel Beckett

1906-1989 French writer of absurdism, wrote "Waiting for Godot" "Endgame" "Murphy" and "Malloy"

Albert Bruce Sabin

1906-1993 Russian-born American physicist and microbiologist best known for developing a live-virus oral vaccine for polio.

Rachel Carson

1907-1964 American marine biologist and author whose book, "Silent Spring," revealed the dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides on the environment. Other works include "The Sea Around Us," and "The Edge of the Sea."

Francois Duvalier

1907-1971 dictator of Haiti from 1957-1971. A physician, he was elected President in 1957, re-elected in 1961, and in 1964 "Papa Doc" declared himself president for life. Upon his death, his son Jean-Claude Duvalier became president for life. "Baby Doc" was forced to flee the country in 1986.

Warren Burger

1907-1995 15th justice of the Supreme Court from 1969-1986. A conservative and advocate of judicial restraint, Burger was appointed Chief Justice by Richard Nixon, following Earl Warren

Joe McCarthy

1908-1957 US Senator from Wisconsin from 1947-1957, who achieved prominence with his sensational accusations against high ranking US officials by calling them Communists. The senate condemned him in 1954.

Richard Wright

1908-1960 African-American author of the novel "Native Son," and the autobiographical "Black Boy."

Edward R. Murrow

1908-1965 American newscaster noted for his broadcasts on CBS from London during WWII, and produced television shows including "Person to Person."

William Saroyan

1908-1981 American famous for his 1939 Pulitzer winning play "The Time of Your Life."

Simone de Beauvoir

1908-1986 French author, an existentialist and close friend to Sartre, her novels include "The Second Sex" and "The Coming of Age."

Albert Camus

1913-1960 French author who, although an existentialist, was also a humanist. His best-known works are "The Stranger," "The Plague," "The Fall," and his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus." He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.

William Inge

1913-1973 American playwright who wrote realistic dramas including "Come Back, Little Sheba," "Picnic," and "Bus Stop."

Ferdinand Marcos

1917-1989 president and prime minister of the Philippines from 1965-1986, after defeating Corazon Aquino in the controversial 1986 election, he was forced from office by a popular uprising.

Anthony Burgess

1917-1993 English author of the surreal, nightmarish novel "A Clockwork Orange," which was later made into a motion picture by Stanley Kubrick.

John Connally

1917-1993 US public official, and Governor of Texas from 1962-1969. He was in the presidential car and was wounded when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Nicolae Ceausescu

1918-1989 Romanian Communist leader and president of Romania from 1967-1989. He was overthrown in 1989, and he and his wife weee executed.

Leonard Bernstein

1918-1990 American composer whose works include the ballet "Fancy Free" and the musicals "On the Town" "Candide" and "West Side Story." From 1958-1969 he served as musical director of the New York Philharmonic.

Edward Albee

1928-present, American playwright of clever and satiric plays, like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" "A Delicate Balance," "Seascape," and "Three Tall Women."

Princess Anne (of England)

1950-present British princess and Daughter of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1973 she married Mark Phillips, divorced him in 1992 and married Timothy Laurence.

Tony Blair

1953-present British politician, a lawyer and member of the Labour Party, first elected to Parliament in 1983. In 1994 he was chosen as Labour Party leader after the death of John Smith.

Pythagoras

582-507 BC Greek philosopher whose followers originated his namesake Theorem, that side a of a triangle squared plus side b of a triangle squared, equals the length of side c of the triangle squared.

Charles Martel

688-741 Frankish ruler, the illegitimate son of Pepin and the grandfather of Charlemagne. His sons Pepin the Short and Carloman divided the Frankish lands upon his death.

Cleopatra

69-30 BC queen of Egypt and the mistress of Julius Caesar, the wife of Marc Antony. She and Antony were defeated by Octavian at Actium in 31 BC. They committed suicide together in 30 BC. They committed suicide together in 30 BC.

Mother Teresa

A Roman Catholic nun born in 1910, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

Margaret Thatcher

British political leader and the first woman prime minister of Great Britain from 1979-1990. She was the longest-serving Prime Minister in the 20th century, and was succeeded in 1990 by John Major.

John Major

British political leader who, in 1990, was elected to succeed Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party.

Alexander Haig

US Secretary of State 1981-1982. A career military officer who served as NATO commander from 1974-1979 before becoming Reagan's Secretary of State in 1981.

Dean Rusk

US Secretary of State born in 1909 and served from 1961-1969 under Kennedy and Johnson.

Edmund Muskie

US Senator from Maine from 1959-1980. He was the Democratic Vice presidential nominee in 1968, and an unsuccessful candidate for President in 1972 before serving as Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State from 1980-1981.

George McGovern

US Senator from South Dakota 1963-1981 who ran for President in 1972 on the Democratic ticket but was defeated by Richard Nixon.

John Glenn

US astronaut and politician who became the first American in orbital flight when he orbited the Earth three times in his Friendship 7 capsule. He later served in the US Senate as a Democrat from Ohio. At the age of 77, he returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest man in space.

Ralph Nader

US consumer advocate whose book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," influenced Congress to bring automobile design under government control. He ran for president in 2000 on the Reform Party ticket.

Alan Greenspan

US economist who was named Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board In 1987. As chairman, he oversaw the tremendous growth of the US economy in the 1990s.

John Kenneth Galbraith

US economist whose works include The Affluent Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967).

Warren Christopher

US government official appointed Secretary of State by President Clinton in 1993

Newt Gingrich

US politician and Representative from Georgia beginning in 1978, and Speaker of the US House of Representative from 1995-1999.

Mario Cuomo

US politician and governor of New York from 1983-1995.

Lloyd Bentsen

US politician who represented Texas in the US House of Representatives from 1948-1955 and was elected to the US Senate in 1970. He was the unsuccessful running mate of Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988. In 1993, President Clinton appointed him treasury secretary.

Geraldine Ferraro

US politician who served three terms as a Democrat member of the US House of Representatives from 1979-1984 before running as Walter Mondale's Vice presidential candidate in 1984. With this unsuccessful run at the vice presidency, she became the first woman nominated for the vice presidency by a major party.

Thomas Foley

US politician who was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1989-1995 representing Washington state. In 1994 Foley became the first sitting speaker to fail to win re-election since 1860.

Robert Joseph Dole

US politician who was a US Representative from 1960-1968 and a Senator of Kansas from 1968-1995. He was the unsuccessful running mate of Gerald R. Ford in 1976 and was defeated in 1980 and 1988 for the Republican nomination. In 1996 he won the Republican nomination for presidency, but was defeated by Bill Clinton. His wife Elizabeth Hanford Dole served as secretary of Labor under President Bush and was President of the American Red Cross.

Michael Dukakis

US politician who was a member of the US House of Representatives from 1962-1970 and governor of Massachusetts from 1975-1979 and again from 1983-1991 before receiving the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. Dukakis lost the 1988 Presidential election to George Bush.

Cyrus Vance

US public official born in 1917 who was named US Secretary of State in 1977 by President Carter.

Alger Hiss

US public official who, in 1948, was accused of transmitting confidential government documents to the USSR. In 1950, he was found guilty. In 1992, a high-ranking Russian official said that there was no evidence in the archives of the former USSR that Hiss was ever a spy at all.

James Addison Baker III

US public official, was campaign chairman for a George Bush's Republican nomination in 1980. Became Chief of Staff under Ronald Reagan in 1981 and became Treasury Secretary in 1985, resigning in 1988 to manage Bush's campaign. Under Bush he served as Secretary of State from 1989-1992 and White House Chief of Staff from 1992-1993.

Barry Goldwater

US senator of Arizona from 1953-1965, and again in 1969-1987. He ran for president against Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, but was easily defeated.

Al Gore

Vice President of the US under Bill Clinton from 1993-2001. A moderate Democrat, he served as a US Representative and US Senator from Tennessee, he ran for president and was defeated by George W. Bush in the historical and highly publicized "recount election" of 2001.

Lief Erikson

Norse discoverer of America, the son of Eric the Red. Legend states that in a trip to Greenland, in 1000 AD, he was blown off-course and landed in an area he called Vinland. This area was probably present-day New England or Nova Scotia.

Izaak Walton

1593-1683 English author of "Compleat Angler," or, "The Contemplative Man's Recreation."

Lew Wallace

1827-1905 American lawyer, territorial governor, and author of the novel "Ben Hur."

Tyco Brahe

1546-1601 Danish astronomer whose precise observations of the planets were the basis of Keller's laws of planetary motion.

Claudius I

10 BC-54 AD Roman Emperor from 41-54 AD. The nephew of Tiberius, he was proclaimed emperor when Caligula was murdered in 41 AD.

Julius Caesar

102-44 BC Roman statesman who, in 63 BC undertook the reform of the calendar and the result, his namesake calendar, was one of his greatest contributions to history. In 60 BC he organized the first Triumvirate, made up of Pompey (commander in chief of the army), Marcus Crassus (the wealthiest person in Rome), and himself. In the years 58-49 BC, during the Gallic Wars, he established his reputation as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, ultimately bringing all of Gaul under Roman Control. Crassus's death in 53 BC ended the first Triumvirate, and set Pompey and this man at odds. In 50 BC, the senate ordered this man to disband his army, but two tribunes, Marc Antony and Cassius Longinus, vetoed the bill. In 49 BC, he crossed the Rubicon to enter Italy, this beginning the Roman Civil War. His march to Rome was a triumph. In 44 BC he became dictator for life, which turned out to be a short reign. On the Ides of March in 44 BC he was stabbed to death on the Senate floor by a group of conspirators including Casca, Cassius, and Brutus. His will left everything to his grandnephew Octavian (later renamed Augustus). He was married three times to Cornelia, Pompeia, and Calpurina. During his reign, he made the Roman Empire possible by uniting the state after a century of disorder and by establishing an autocracy in place of an oligarchy.

King Harold

1022-1066 king of England who succeeded Edward the Confessor and was killed at the Battle of Hastings.

Peter Abelard

1079-1142 French philosopher; founded the University of Paris; wrote "Sic et Non" (Yes or No); had a famous love affair with Heloise.

Eric the Red

10th century Norse chieftain, who in 982 AD discovered and began the colonization of Greenland.

Saint Thomas Becket

1118-1170 English martyr nominated Archbishop of Canterbury in 1163 by Henry II. After the appointment, he began a long dispute that led to Thomas's murder by Henry's partisans.

Eleanore of Aquitaine

1122-1204 Queen of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. She was the mother of Richard I (The Lionhearted) and John, future kings of England.

Leonardo Fibonacci

1170-1240 Italian mathematicians whose namesake sequence is a series of numbers in which each term is the sum of the two preceding terms (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21...)

Saint Albertus Magnus

1193-1280 Dominican philosopher. Called the "Universal Doctor" and he was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. Was a scientist, and the first to produce arsenic in its free form.

Omar Khayyam

11th century Persian poet and mathematician best known for his "Rubaiyat."

Anne Hutchinson

1591-1643 religious leader in New England. She was banished as a heretic from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637, she helped found present-day Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Caligula

12-41 AD Roman Emperor from 37-41 AD who wore military boots as a child which obtained his name, meaning "Little Boots" in Latin. He succeeded Tiberius as Emperor, was assassinated in 41, and was succeeded by Claudius I. Was known for his cruelty towards Christians.

Marcus Aurelius

121-180 Roman emperor who became emperor in 161 and is known for his spiritual writing "Meditations."

Roger Bacon

1214-1294 English scientist and philosopher often credited for foreseeing many great scientific advances like the microscope, gunpowder, aircraft, etc. Many historians doubt the authenticity of these claims.

Kublai Khan

1215-1294 Mongol emperor, and founder of the Yuan Dynasty of China, he was visited by Marco Polo on his famous trip to China.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

1225-1274 Italian philosopher and theologian known as the "Angelic Doctor." His Major Work is the monumental "Summa Theologica."

Marco Polo

1254-1324 Venetian traveler in China who left Venice in 1271 and reached Kublai Khan in what is present-day Beijing.

Dante Alighieri

1265-1321 Italian author of the classic poem "The Divine Comedy," a vernacular poem in 100 cantos, which is a tale of the poet's journey through Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. The poem is written as a memorial to his beloved Beatrice, who is featured guiding the poet through Heaven. The classic poet Virgil is Dante's guide through Purgatory and Hell.

Galen

130-200 Greek physician who made numerous anatomical and physiological discoveries including kidney secretion, respiration, and nervous system function. His work and writing helped lay the foundation for the study of medicine. William Harvey's 17th century discovery of the circulation of blood was one of the first major steps away from Galenian medicine.

Giovanni Boccaccio

1313-1375 Italian poet who wrote the classic work "Decameron," a collection of 100 witty tales set around the time of the Black Death

Charles IV

1316-1378 Holy Roman Emperor from 1355-1378

Geoffrey Chaucer

1340-1400 English author best known for his unfinished masterpiece "The Canterbury Tales," which tells the tales of a group of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Characters include the Wife of Bath and the Summoner.

Catherine of Valois

1401-1437 queen of Henry V of England, daughter of Charles VI of France, and mother of Henry VI. After Henry V's death in 1522, she married Owen Tudor. The Tudor kings of England are descended from them.

Saint Joan of Arc

1412-1431 French heroine and Catholic saint called the "Maid of Orleans." She led the French armies against the English in the Hundred Years War, relieving besieged Orleans In 1429, and ensuring that Charles VII could be crowned in previously occupied Reims. She was captured in 1430, convicted of heresy, and burned at the stake.

Tomas de Torquemada

1420-1498 Spanish churchman infamous for the harsh methods of punishment he devised for the Spanish Inquisition.

William Caxton

1421-1491 English printer who was the first printer to print books in English

Sandro Botticelli

1444-1510 Florentine Renaissance painter famous for his mythological scenes including "Birth of Venus" "Mars and Venus" and "Spring."

Heironymus Bosch

1450-1516 Dutch painter hailed as a forerunner of surrealism, who had a passion for the macabre. A favorite of Philip II of Spain, and a great influence on Pieter Brueghel the Elder. His works include "Adoration of the Magi," the famous tryptich "Garden of Earthly Delights" and "Temptation of Saint Anthony."

Christopher Colombus

1451-1506 European explorer who was born in Genoa, Italy. His most famous expeditions were done under the backing of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. In 1492, his ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria reached Cuba and Hispaniola and discovered America. In 1493 he sailed to Puerto Rico and established a colony in Hispaniola. In 1498 he explored Venezuela, and on his last voyage in 1502 he reached Central America.

Leonardo da Vinci

1452-1519 Italian Renaissance man known as a painter, sculptor, musician, architect, engineer, and scientist. He is most famous for his fresco work "The Last Supper," and for the "Mona Lisa."

Amerigo Vespucci

1454-1512 Italian navigator in whose honor America is named.

Juan Ponce de Leon

1460-1521 Spanish explorer and discoverer of Florida in 1513.

Desiderius Erasmus

1466-1536 Dutch humanist who was one of the greatest Renaissance figures, and author of "In Praise of Folly."

Pedro Cabral

1467-1520 Portuguese explorer who claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500

Vasco da Gama

1469-1524 Portuguese navigator who, at the order of Manuel I, he became the first European to travel to India by sea from 1497-1499, setting up a profitable spice trade

Niccolo Machiavelli

1469-1527 Italian philosopher whose most famous work "The Prince" describes the ideal prince and the means by which he may gain and maintain power.

Albrecht Durer

1471-1528 French painter and engraver who was most famous for his engravings and woodcuts

Nicholas Copernicus

1473-1543 Polish astronomer who put forth the heliocentric theory of planetary motion. This theory was put forth around 1512, and was published in his classic work "De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium," written in 1543.

Vasco Balboa

1475-1519 Spanish Conquistador after fleeing Hispaniola he hid in a ship that took him to Panama. After reaching the New World he seized control of the expedition, marched across the isthmus, discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513 claiming the ocean and its shores for Spain.

Michaelangelo

1475-1564 Italian sculptor and painter. A leading figure in the Renaissance, he is best known for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, sculpting the "Pieta," and was a Chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

Francisco Pizarro

1476-1541 Spanish conquistador who, in 1532, met Incan emperor Atahualpa and executed him and captured Cuzco to complete the conquest of Peru. He founded Lima as Peru's new capital.

Baldassare Castiglione

1478-1529 Italian author whose "Book of the Courtier" (1528) is a treatise on etiquette and intellectual achievement.

St. Thomas More

1478-1535 English author and statesman best known for his "Utopia."

Ferdinand Magellan

1480-1521 Portuguese explorer and the leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate the earth.

Martin Luther

1483-1546 German leader of the Protestant reformation who believed that salvation was received by faith alone and not works. This belief and his hate of the indulgences led to the posting of the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg castle church.

Huldreich Zwingli

1484-1531 leader of the protestant reformation in Switzerland.

Catherine of Aragon

1485-1536 first queen of Henry VIII (1509-1533). Only one of her six children survived infancy, (Mary I) and Henry became impatient waiting for a male heir. Henry VIII wanted the marriage annulled, a move that led to the English Reformation. After his secret marriage to Anne Boleyn, he had the court declare his first marriage invalid.

Francois Rabelais

1490-1553 French humanist famous for the satirical masterpiece "Gargantua and Pantagruel."

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

1491-1556 Spanish founder of the Jesuits, he wrote spiritual exercises, and modern-day theologians and scholars believe that he suffered from severe OCD.

Jacques Cartier

1491-1557 French explorer who explored Canada and is credited with the discovery of the Saint Lawrence River and Saint Edward Island.

Hernando de Soto

1500-1542 Spanish explorer who explored much of the south including Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. His group was probably the first group of Europeans to see the Mississippi River in 1541.

Charles V

1500-1558 Holy Roman Emperor from 1519-1558, the son of Philip I and Joanna of Castile, and grandson of Maximilian I. He was perhaps the greatest of the Hapsburg emperors. Also served as King of Spain from 1516-1556 as Charles I. He abdicated in 1556, leaving Spain and America to his son Philip II, and his brother Ferdinand I succeeded him as emperor.

Anne Boleyn

1505-1536 second queen of Henry VIII, who divorced Catherine of Aragon to marry her. The mother of Elizabeth I, she was executed in 1536 for her failure to produce a male heir.

Nicholas Udall

1505-1556 English playwright famous for his "Ralph Roister Doister."

Jane Seymour

1509-1537 third queen of Henry VIII. She died 12 days after the birth of their son Edward VI.

John Calvin

1509-1564 French theologian whose work, "Institutes of the Christian Religion," rejected papal authority, maintained that the Bible was the sole source of God's law, and put forth his doctrine of Predestination. His teachings led to the formation of a Protestant religious system named after him.

Francisco Coronado

1510-1554 Spanish explorer who, while searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola, he became the first European to explore New Mexico and Arizona.

Catherine Parr

1512-1548, 6th queen of Henry VIII, who outlived him and married Thomas Seymour in 1547.

Andreas Vesalius

1514-1564 Flemish anatomist famous for contesting and disproving several of Galen's doctrines.

John Knox

1514-1572 founder of Scottish Presbyterianism and leader in the Scottish Reformation.

Anne of Cleaves

1515-1557 fourth Queen of Henry VIII of England. Married Henry VIII in 1540 and was divorced by him later that year.

Mary I

1516-1558 Tudor Queen of England, the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, she resigned from 1553-1558. She succeeded her half-brother Edward VI after the unsuccessful attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne. She married Philip II of Spain in 1554. Nicknamed "Bloody Mary," due to her religious persecution of Protestants.

Catherine de Medici

1519-1589 queen of Henry II of France and daughter of Lorenzo de Medici. Mother of Henry III, Francis II, and Charles IX.

Catherine Howard

1521-1542 fifth queen of Henry VIII of England. She married Henry in 1540, was accused of adultery in 1541, and beheaded in 1542.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

1525-1569 Flemish painter of "The Harvesters" and "The Peasant Wedding."

Lady Jane Grey

1537-1554 queen of England who was grandniece of King Henry VIII. She was queen of England for 9 days in 1553 succeeding Edward VII. She was imprisoned, beheaded, and replaced on the throne by Mary I.

Sir Francis Drake

1540-1596 English navigator and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe in 1577-1580. His ship was named "The Golden Hind."

El Greco

1541-1614 Greek painter born in Crete as Domenicos Theotocopoulous, he studied under Titian and is best known for his works "Burial of Count Orgaz," "Baptism," "Crucifixion," and "Resurrection."

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

1547-1616 Spanish author who was crippled at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and was captured by Barbary Pirates later sold as a slave in 1575. He is best known for his masterpiece "Don Quixote de La Mancha," featuring the exploits of Don Quixote, a gentleman who has read too many chivalric romances, and his squire Sancho Panza, where, in a famous scene, Don Quixote attacks windmills that he mistakes for giants.

John Napier

1550-1617 Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms, introduced the decimal point in writing numbers, and developed his namesake "bones," a method of multiplication using numbered rods.

Edmund Spenser

1552-1599 English poet best known for his unfinished masterpiece epic poem "Faerie Queene."

Sir Philip Sidney

1554-1586 English author of "Astrophel and Stella," and his prose criticism "The Defense of Poesie."

Sir Walter Raleigh

1554-1618 English courtier, a favorite of Elizabeth I, he is known for sending colonists to found the lost colony of Roanoke in 1585 and securing a latent for the possession of unknown lands in America to be named "Virginia." He is credited with introducing the tobacco plant to England from North America, also a man of letters, he wrote "History of the World."

George Chapman

1559-1634 English author best known for translating Homer's "Iliad," and "Odyssey," and he also wrote the play "Eastward Ho!"

Sir Francis Bacon

1561-1626 English philosopher and statesman. Served as a knight, attorney general, and lord chancellor under James I, but in 1621 plead guilty to accepting bribes and was banished from office. Best known for his unfinished philosophical masterpiece "Insaturatio Magna," of which two parts were completed: "The Advancement of Learning," and "Novum Organum." Known for the quote "Knowledge is power."

Christopher Marlowe

1564-1593 English dramatist and poet known for his plays "Tamburlaine the Great," "Dr. Faustus," and "The Jew of Malta."

William Shakespeare

1564-1616 English dramatist and son of a businessman. He was born in the town of Stratford-on-Avon in 1564. Though he did not receive an extensive formal education, his many allusions to classical literature, history, and the Bible show that he was extremely well read. At age 18 he married Anne Hathaway, they had a daughter the next year, and twins two years later. Around 1590, he moved to London, joining the theatrical company Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1594. He worked for this company as an actor, playwright, and stockholder. Though scholars have questioned the true authorship of his plays in the past, it is now widely believed that he was, in fact, the true author. He wrote 36 plays beginning with light comedies in the 1950s including "The Comedy of Errors," "The Taming of the Shrew," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and the romantic tragedy "Romeo and Juliet." He also wrote "The Merchant of Venice," "Twelfth Night," "As You Like It," "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Macbeth," "Measure for Measure," and "The Tempest."

James I

1566-1625 King of England, the son of Lord Darnley and Mary Queen of Scots. He succeeded to the Scottish throne in 1567 upon the forced abdication of his mother and succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603. In 1604 he oversaw the Hampton Court Conference that commissioned the King James Version of the Bible. He was succeeded by Charles I.

Samuel Champlain

1567-1635 French explorer whose claims, beginning in 1605, were the main basis for French claims in North America. He discovered Lake Champlain in 1609.

Claudio Monteverdi

1567-1643 Italian composer perhaps the first great operatic composer, he is best remembered for his opera "Orfeo."

Johannes Kepler

1571-1630 German astronomer famous for the three laws of planetary revolution derived from Tyco Brahe's accurate observations. The 1st of his laws states that each planet's orbit is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.

Ben Jonson

1572-1637 English author best known for his comic plays "Volpone," "The Alchemist," and "Bartholomew."

Anne of Denmark

1574-1619, queen consort of James I of England

John Carver

1576-1621 first governor of Plymouth Colony

Thomas De La Warr

1577-1618, 1st Governor of the Virginia Colony, and the colony of Delaware is a bastardization of his name.

Peter Paul Rubens

1577-1640 foremost 17th century Flemish painter.

John Smith

1580-1631 English colonist in the Jamestown colony known for his capture by Powhatan and being rescued by Pocahontas.

Peter Minuit

1580-1638 first director of New Netherlands, he purchased Manhattan from the Native Americans in exchange for trinkets valued nowadays at $24.

Francis Beaumont

1584-1616 English dramatist who collaborated with John Fletcher. Among his works is "The Woman Hater."

William Baffin

1584-1622 British explorer, failed to find the Northwest Passage but discovered his namesake Bay.

Miles Standish

1584-1650 American colonist and military leader of the Plymouth colony.

John Rolfe

1585-1622 English colonist in Jamestown famous for introducing tobacco cultivation and marrying Pocahontas.

Thomas Hooker

1586-1647 Puritan colonial American who emigrated to Massachusetts in 1663, but became unhappy with the strict theological rule. He and his followers founded Hartford, a Connecticut in 1635.

John Winthrop

1588-1649 governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, elected 12 times. Wrote "History of New England 1630-49."

Thomas Hobbes

1588-1679 English philosopher whose pessimistic philosophy was largely ignored in his day, but had a tremendous influence on later Western thinkers. His major work was the 1651 Leviathan.

William Bradford

1590-1657 governor of Plymouth Colony who succeeded John Carver as governor in 1621 and was re-elected 30 times. His work "History of Plymouth Plantation" described the Mayflower voyage and the early years of the colony.

Oliver Cromwell

1599-1658 lord protector of England after the English Civil War. In 1653, the Protectorate was established, and he was named lord protector of England. He was succeeded by his son Richard upon his death in 1658. His son ruled until the protectorate collapsed and the Commonwealth was reestablished in 1659.

Charles I

1600-1649 Stuart king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who was the son and successor of James I. His reign was marred by the struggle between Parliament and king, resulting in the English Civil War. He was convicted of treason and beheaded in 1649.

Pierre de Fermat

1601-1665 French mathematician who founded modern number and probability theory and proposed his namesake Last Theorem, which was later proven in 1994 by mathematician Andrew Wiles.

Roger Williams

1603-1683 American advocate of religious freedom and the founder of Rhode Island.

Rembrandt van Rijn

1606-1669 Dutch artist whose works included over 600 paintings, 100 self-portraits, 300 etchings, and 2000 drawings. He is best known for his group portraits "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp," and "The Shooting Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq."

Sir William Berkeley

1606-1677 British colonial governor of Virginia, subject of 1676 Bacon's Rebellion, which he suppressed

John Milton

1608-1674 English poet best remembered for the epic "Paradise Lost," which tells the story of Satan's rebellion against God and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Other works include "Paradise Regained," which tells how Jesus overcame Satan's temptation, "Samson Agonistes" and his elegy "Lycidas."

Peter Stuyvesant

1610-1672 Dutch director-general of the New Netherlands colony.

Anne Bradstreet

1612-1672 American poet, the first important woman author in America and is best known for her verse volume "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America"

Jean Baptiste Colbert

1619-1683 French statesman who Louis XIV appointed general of finances in 1665, and his mercantilism helped expand France's economy.

Moliere

1622-1673 French playwright whose satirical comedies include "Tartuffe," "Le Misanthrope," "The Miser," "The Imaginary Invalid," and "The Bourgeois Gentleman."

Blaise Pascal

1623-1662 French scientist whose physics experiments with fluids led to the invention of the hydraulic press. In mathematics, he founded the modern theory of probability, and contributed to the advance of differential calculus.

George Fox

1624-1691 English religious leader who founded the Society of Friends (Quakers).

Gian Cassini

1625-1712 Italian-French astronomer who determined the rotational periods of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. He discovered four of Saturn's satellites and studied the division in Saturn's ring system that is named for him.

Robert Boyle

1627-1691 Irish chemist often called "the father of modern chemistry." Best known for his discovery of his namesake gas law.

John Bunyan

1628-1688 English author who, while in prison for unlicensed preaching, wrote the spiritual autobiography "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners." Imprisoned a second time, he began his masterpiece "Pilgrim's Progress," which is an allegory of a Christian's journey from The City of Destruction to the Celestial City

Charles Perrault

1628-1703 French poet famed for his "Mother Goose Tales."

Christiaan Huygens

1629-1695 Dutch physicist who was famous for using a pendulum in clocks, discovering the Saturn moon Titan, developing a wave theory of light, and discovering the polarization of light.

John Dryden

1631-1700 English poet and dramatist, appointed as poet laureate in 1668. He is best known for the comedy "Marriage a la Mode," and his political satire "Absalom and Achitophel.l

Michael Wigglesworth

1631-1705 American poet and Puritan clergyman known for his "The Day of Doom."

Baruch Spinoza

1632-1677 Dutch philosopher, a lens grinder by trade.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

1632-1687 French composer famous for the opera "Alceste," and for composing music to Moliere's "Bourgeois Gentleman."

John Locke

1632-1704 English philosopher whose two most important works are "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," and "Two Treaties In Civil Government."

Sir Christopher Wren

1632-1723 English architect, mathematician, and astronomer. Perhaps best known for his masterful plan formrebuilding London after the great fire of 1666 and notably the new construction of St. Paul's Cathedral.

James II

1633-1701 King of England from 1685-1688. The second son of Charles I, and the brother and successor of Charles II. His daughter Mary married the Protestant William III of Orange and they became king and queen after James was deposed by the glorious revolution of 1688. James was defeated at the 1690 battle of the Boyne, trying unsuccessfully to restore himself at the throne of Ireland.

Samuel Pepys

1633-1703 English public official and author of the most famous English diary from 1660-1669.

Robert Hooke

1635-1703 English scientist who is known for improving astronomical instruments, watches, and clocks. He is best known today for stating his namesake law of elasticity.

Jacques Marquette

1637-1675 French explorer and Jesuit priest who accompanied Louis Joliet on a trip down Mississippi River in 1673.

Jean Racine

1639-1699 French dramatist known for his works such as "Phedre."

Charles Montesquieu

1689-1755 French political philosopher whose greatest work, "The Spirit of the Laws," compares the despotic, monarchial, and Republican forms of government and advocated the separation and balance of powers within government.

Sir Isaac Newton

1642-1727 English mathematician and scientist who discovered the law of universal gravitation, discovered that white light is composed of every color in the spectrum, and began to develop calculus. His monumental work, "Principia Mathematica," included the law of universal gravitation, his three laws of motion, fluid mechanics, the motions of bodies in the solar system, and the tides. His "Optics," put forth his particle theory of light. He also built the first reflecting telescope in 1668.

Robert La Salle

1643-1687 French explorer who, in 1682, went with his assistant Henri de Tonti, descended the Mississippi to its mouth, and took possession of the whole valley, naming it Louisiana.

William Penn

1644-1718 English Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania in 1681.

Louis Jolliet

1645-1700 French explorer who, with Father Jacques Marquette discovered the upper Mississippi River in 1673, and helped settle the land that would eventually become Ludington, Michigan.

Gottfried Leibniz

1646-1716 German mathematician and philosopher who is best known for co-inventing calculus, concurrently but independently from Sir Isaac Newton.

Nathaniel Bacon

1647-1676 American rebellion leader. Upset with the leadership of William Berkeley, he led a namesake rebellion. The revolt ended when Berkeley was driven from Virginia and this man died of malaria.

Edmund Halley

1652-1742 English astronomer who became the first to predict the return of a comet, which was named after him.

Henry Purcell

1659-1695 English composer famous for the operas "Dido and Aeneas," and "The Fairy Queen."

George I

1660-1727 King of Great Britain, the first British sovereign of the House of Hanover. His rise to the throne was put forth by the Act of Settlement. He ruled from 1714-1727.

Daniel Defoe

1660-1731 English writer whose greatest novels include "Moll Flanders," "A Journal of the Plague Year," and "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," a novel based on the life of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk.

Mary II

1662-1694 Queen of England, the daughter of James II, who, in 1667 married William of Orange and became joint sovereign with him from 1689-1694.

Thomas Newcomen

1663-1729 English inventor of an early atmospheric steam engine.

Jonathan Swift

1667-1745 Anglo-Irish author and master of satire. Works include "The Battle of the Books," "Gulliver's Travels," and "Modest Proposal." The last one advocated breeding Irish babies to feed the rich, thus eliminating Ireland's poverty.

John Bernoulli

1667-1748 Brother of James Bernoulli and famous for his work in integral calculus

William Congreve

1670-1729 French dramatist who is famous for his comedies, his masterpiece "The Way of the World" was first performed in 1700. Previous plays include "The Double Dealer," and "The Mourning Bride."

Peter I

1672-1725 reigned from 1682-1725 and he served as joint czar with Ivan V, but he had more control. He had St. Petersburg built to replace the capital at Moscow. He was succeeded by his wife Catherine I in 1724, and he westernized Russia.

Charles Townshend

1674-1738 English statesman and originator of his hated namesake acts in 1767, revenue acts passed by the English Parliament to replace the repealed Stamp Acts.

Jethro Tull

1674-1741 English agriculturalist and inventor of the mechanical seed drill used for sowing seeds.

Antonio Vivaldi

1675-1741 Italian baroque composer of "The Four Seasons."

Robert Walpole

1676-1745 English statesman, usually described as the first Prime Minister.

George Farquhar

1678-1707 English dramatist whose masterpiece is "The Beaux Stratagem," written in 1707.

Joseph I

1678-1711 Holy Roman Emperor from 1705-1711. He became emperor during the War of the Spanish Succession. His brother Charles VI succeeded him upon his death.

Catherine I

1683-1727 married Peter I in 1712 and he crowned her czarina in 1724. When Peter I died, she succeeded him to the throne. Peter II succeeded her and her daughter Elizabeth became czarina in 1741.

George II

1683-1760 king of England and son of King George I who ruled from 1727-1760.

Jean-Antoine Watteau

1684-1721 French painter. Major exponent of the Rococo movement.

John Gay

1685-1732 English playwright who wrote "The Beggar's Opera" in 1728.

Charles VI

1685-1740 Holy Roman Emperor from 1711-1740. He also served as King of Hungary as Charles III from 1712-1740. He issued the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713, stating that all Hapsburg lands would be inherited by his daughter Maria Theresa.

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685-1750, German Composer known as an organist and composer. Composed "the Brandenburg Concertos," "Well Tempered Clavier," "St. John Passion," "Art of the Fugue." His work "Tocatta and Fugue In D Minor," is a trope in horror movies. He had 20 children.

George Frideric Handel

1685-1759 English baroque composer whose works include "Water Music," which he wrote for King George I, "Messiah," and "Music for the Royal Fireworks."

Frederick William I

1688-1740 king of Prussia who ruled from 1713-1740 and was succeeded by his son Frederick II.

Alexander Pope

1688-1744 English poet famous for his "Essay on Criticism," "Essay on Man," and the mock-heroic "Rape of the Lock."

Samuel Johnson

1709-1784 English author who was a leading literary critic and conversationalist of the Augustan Age of English literature, and he is best known for his biography that was written by James Boswell in 1791. His works include his great "Dictionary of the English Language," written in 1755.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712-1778 Swiss-French philosopher and figure of the French enlightenment, he is best known today for his "Social Contract," and "Discourse on the Inequalities of Men."

Frederick II

1712-1786 king of Prussia from 1740-1786. He was the son and successor of Frederick William I. His exploits in the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War made Prussia the foremost military power in Europe. He was succeeded by his nephew Frederick William II.

Laurence Sterne

1713-1768 English author of "Tristram Shandy."

Denis Diderot

1713-1784 French encyclopedia compiler most famous for his life work "The Encyciopedie."

Christoph Gluck

1714-1796 German-born composer who was famous for his revolutionary opera Orfeo Ed Euridice (Orpheus and Eurydice). Other operatic works include "Alceste" and Inphigenie en Aulide.

Thomas Gray

1716-1771 English poet and author of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

Maria Theresa

1717-1780 daughter of Charles VI. She succeeded to the Hapsburg lands in 1740 by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, issued by her father. This Succession was contested in the War of the Austrian Succession. In this war, she lost a portion of her kingdom to Prussia. But secured the election of her husband, Francis I, as Emperor. She ruled jointly with her son, Joseph II, from 1765 until her death. Among her 16 children were Joseph II, Leopold II, and Marie Antoinette.

James Hargreaves

1720-1778 English inventor of the spinning Jenny

Thomas Gage

1721-1787 English general whose soldiers fought the American patriots at Lexington in 1775 that began the American Revolution.

Sir William Blackstone

1723-1780 British jurist remembered today for his great work "Commentaries on the Laws of England," (1765)

Adam Smith

1723-1990 Scottish economist known for promoting Laissez-faire approach in his "Wealth of Nations."

Immanuel Kant

1724-1804 German philosopher, one of the great metaphysicists, his works include "Critique of Pure Reason," "Critique of Practical Reason," and, "Critique of Judgment."

James Hutton

1726-1797 Scottish geologist who is known for formulating the uniformitarianism of the earth, which stressed the slowness and gradualness of rates of change.

Thomas Gainesborough

1727-1788 English painted best known for his work "The Blue Boy."

James Cook

1728-1779 English explorer who set out in his ship the "Endeavor" in 1768 and explored the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, and, in 1776 discovered the Sandwich Islands. Cook was killed by natives on the Hawaiian Islands.

Joseph Black

1728-1799 Scottish chemist who discovered carbon dioxide (he called it fixed air) and is known for his theory of latent heat and specific heat.

Catherine (II) the Great

1729-1796 czarina of Russia married the future Peter III. In 1762, conspirators headed by her lover Grigon Orlov deposed Peter III and proclaimed her ruler. Her son, Paul I succeeded her.

Edmund Burke

1729-1797 British statesman who, in his "Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents," was the first to argue the value of political parties. His most famous work, "Reflections on the Revolution in France," expresses his opposition to the French Revolution. With Samuel Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds, he formed the Literary Club in 1764.

Oliver Goldsmith

1730-1774 Anglo-Irish author best known for the comedy "She Stoops to Conquer," and the novel "The Vicar of Wakefield."

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

1730-1794 Prussian army officer and general who helped train the Continental army in the American Revolution.

Henry Cavendish

1731-1810 English chemist who is famous for his work on the composition of water and air, he isolated a gas he called inflammable air, which was later renamed Hydrogen.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

1732-1799 French dramatist, his comedies "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro" served as the bases for the operas by Rossini and Mozart, respectively

George Washington

1732-1799, 1st president of the United States from 1789-1797. Before his rise to prominence, he lived at Mount Vernon and worked as a surveyor. He served in the French and Indian Wars from 1754-1758 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. His events in this war included surrendering Ft. Necessity in 1754 and participating in the capture of Ft. Duquesne in 1758. In 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custus and entered the Virginia House of Burgesses that same year. A leader in the movement for independence, he was a delegate to the 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses, and in 1775 he was chosen to command the Continental army. He became well-known after his successes at Trenton in 1776 and Princeton in 1777. He was defeated at Brandywine and his troops endured a winter of starvation at Valley Forge. His most brilliant military achievement was his secret march from the Hudson to Chesapeake bay, resulting in the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, ending the Revolutionary war. He presided over the Federal Convention in 1787 which adopted the constitution, and was unanimously elected first President of the United States. He was inaugurated in New York in 1789 and serve two terms in the office. He declined a third term in office, setting precedent followed until FDR. In his Farewell Address In 1796, he warned the US to steer clear of permanent alliances and political parties. He died at his Mt. Vernon estate in 1799.

Franz Joseph Haydn

1732-1809 Austrian composer who wrote over 100 symphonies, 80 string quartets, 50 sonatas, and two oratorios. Works include "The Clock Symphony," "Symphonies 82-87," and "Symphonies 93-104."

Thomas Jefferson

1743-1826 3rd President of the US from 1801-1809. At the Second Continental Congress he drafted the Declaration of Independence, showing his respect for the thought of John Locke and other philosophers. In 1779, he became governor of Virginia. In 1785 he became minister to France. Appointed Secretary of State from 1790-1793 by President Washington, he defended against the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton. He served as Vice President from 1797-1801, during which he protested the Alien and Sedition Acts by writing the Kentucky Resolutions. His party prevailed in the presidential election of 1800, but Aaron Burr, who been slated to become Vice President, tied him in the vote. He was chosen President by the House of Representatives, largely under the urging of Alexander Hamilton, who considered him less dangerous than Burr. He was the first President inaugurated in Washington DC, a city he helped plan. Highlights of his presidency include pushing the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and planning the Louis and Clark Expedition. After his term in office, he retired to his home, Monticello. While at Monticello, he oversaw the founding of the University of Virginia.

Frederick William II

1744-1797 king of Prussia who ruled from 1786-1797 and was the nephew and successor of Frederick II.

Elbridge Gerry

1744-1814 Vice President of the United States under James Madison from 1813-1814, his second term as governor of Massachusetts was marred by the rearrangement of election districts to help his party. This practice is now known as Gerrymandering.

Abigail Adams

1744-1818, Wife of President John Adams, mother of President John Quincy Adams; famous for her declaration of "Remember the Ladies."

Jean Lamarck

1744-1829 French scientist whose theory of evolution put forth that acquired characteristics could be transmitted to its offspring. His theory, although disproved by today's study of heredity, was an important forerunner to modern Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Molly Pitcher

1744-1832 American Revolutionary heroine who earned her nickname by carrying water to her husband and other soldiers in the battle of Monmouth in 1778.

Anthony Wayne

1745-1796 American general known for his 1779 capture of Stony Point, New York during the American revolution.

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier

1745-1799 French brothers who invented the first practical balloon and had the first manned balloon flight.

Oliver Ellsworth

1745-1807 3rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1796-1799.

Alessandro Volta

1745-1827 Italian physicist who invented the voltaic cell. A unit of electrical measurement is named after him.

John Jay

1745-1829 American statesman and 1st Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1789-1795.

Thaddeus Kosciusko

1746-1817 Polish general who fought for the colonists in the American Revolution. Upon returning to Poland, he fought for Polish Independence.

Jacques Charles

1746-1823 French physicist who was the first to use hydrogen gas in balloons.

Francisco Jose de Goya

1746-1828 Spanish painter who served as the court painter to Charles III and Charles IV.

John Paul Jones

1747-1792 Scottish-American naval hero who, in the American Revolution, raided British shipping waters of the coast of Great Britain while commanding his ship the "Bon Homme Richard." He once said, "I have not yet begun to fight."

Daniel Shays

1747-1825 American soldier and leader of his namesake rebellion, a revolt of poor Massachusetts farmers from 1786-1787.

Casimir Pulaski

1748-1779 Polish patriot and soldier who, after fighting against the Russian domination of Poland, commanded Patriot troops in the American Revolution.

Jacques-Louis David

1748-1825 French painter whose works include "Death of Socrates," "The Oath of the Horatii," and "Marat." He also served as the first painter to Napoleon I.

Jeremy Bentham

1748-1832 English philosopher and founder of Utilitarianism. His Principles of Morals and Legislation put forth the theory that "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" should govern our every action. His work influenced future philosophers such as John Stuart Mill

Edward Jenner

1749-1823 English physician whose experiments led to the discovery of a smallpox vaccine, and the beginning of immunology as a science.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1749-1832 German author most famous for his dramatic poem Faust. Other works include the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Richard Sheridan

1751-1816 English dramatist known for his masterpieces "The Rivals," and "School for Scandal." He created the character Miss Malaprop.

James Madison

1751-1836, 4th president of the US from 1809-1817. He helped draft the Constitution for the State of Virginia in 1776, served in the Continental Congress from 1780-1783 and again in 1787 and was a principal contributor to the Federalist Papers before becoming Jefferson's Secretary of State in 1801. He succeeded Jefferson as president in 1809. His first term in office was marred by the unpopular War of 1812. After his second term ended in 1817, he retired to his Montpelier estate with his wife, Dolly from 1768-1849.

Betsy Ross

1752-1836 American seamstress who, according to legend, designed and made the first American flag.

Samuel Crompton

1753-1827 English inventor of the spinning mule, an improvement on Arkwright's water frame and Hargreaves' spinning Jenny.

William Bligh

1754-1817 British admiral chiefly remembered for the mutiny on his ship, "The Bounty"

Pierre Charles L'Enfant

1754-1825 French-born American architect who was the architect and designer of the new US capital city of Washington DC.

Sir Humphrey Davy

1778-1829 English chemist who is known for his isolation of Sodium, Potassium, Boron, Calcium, Magnesium, and Barium.

Marie Antoinette

1755-1793 queen of France, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. She married the dauphin who would become king Louis XVI in 1774. The quote "let them eat cake," is unjustly attributed to this queen. The mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined in 1793.

Alexander Hamilton

1755-1804 US statesman who, after serving in the US Revolution under George Washington, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress pressing for a strong national government. He did much work to get the Constitution ratified, mainly through his contributions to "The Federalist." He served as Secretary of Treasury from 1789-1795 under Washington. He was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, whose 1800 bid for the presidency and 1804 bid for New York Governor were thwarted by this man.

John Marshall

1755-1835, 4th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who set the precedent for judicial review. He presided over "Marbury v. Madison," "McCulloch v. Maryland," and "Gibbons v. Ogden."

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756-1791 Austrian composer who began composing around age 5, and his works cover almost every genre of music. By age 13 he had written concertos, sonatas, operettas, and Symphonies. His works include the comic opera "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni," "The Magic Flute," and "Cosi fan Tutte." He died in poverty at age 35 and his works were catalogued in 1862 by Ludwig von Kochel.

Aaron Burr

1756-1836 American politician who, after serving in the Revolutionary War, served as a US Senator from New York from 1791-1797. He lost the controversial presidential election of 1800, after the House of Representatives, under the urging of Alexander Hamilton, voted to give the election to Thomas Jefferson. He reluctantly served as Thomas Jefferson's Vice President and, after his term as VP, ran unsuccessfully in the 1804 election for governor of New York, again, partially because of Hamilton's hostility. His political career ended when he shot and mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel.

William Godwin

1756-1836 English author who, in 1797, married feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote Frankenstein.

Marquis de Lafayette

1757-1834 French general and statesman. A friend of of George Washington, he sailed to America, was made a General by the Continental Congress, and served at Valley Ford and in the Yorktown Campaign. He is also known for leading moderates in France during the July Revolution and creating the modern French flag.

Maximillien Robespierre

1758-1794 leader of the French Revolution. A leader of the Jacobins in their struggle with the Girondists, he was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, which he dominated during the Reign of Terror. He was arrested and guillotined in July of 1794.

William Blake

1758-1827 English poet who wrote "Songs of Innocence" "Songs of Experience" "The Lamb" "The Tyger" and "London." Also wrote "The Book of Thel" "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" "Milton" and "Jerusalem."

James Monroe

1758-1831, 5th president of the US from 1817-1825. He served in the American Revolution, was a delegate to the Continental Congress, served in the US senate, and was governor of Virginia before serving as James Madison's Secretary of State from 1811-1817. He was easily elected president in 1816 and again in 1820. In 1823 he issued his famous namesake Doctrine, one of the most important principals of US foreign policy. He retired to his Oak Hill estate near Lynchburg, VA.

Noah Webster

1758-1843 American lexicographer known for "The American Dictionary of the English Language."

Robert Burns

1759-1796 considered the greatest Scottish poet, who wrote "Auld Lang Syne," "To a Mouse," "Sweet Afton," "Tam O'Shanter," and "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

Mary Wollstonecraft

1759-1797 English feminist. Famous for her "Vindication of the Rights of Women," perhaps the first important feminist work. She married author William Godwin in 1797, and her daughter was "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley.

Friedrich von Schiller

1759-1905 German dramatist and poet, one of the greatest German literary figures, his works include the dramatic trilogy "Wallenstein," the plays "Mary Stuart," "William Tell," "His Ode to Joy," was used by Beethoven for the finale of the ninth symphony.

John Breckenridge

1760-1806 American statesman who served in the US Senate from 1801-1805 and Attorney General in 1805 under President Jefferson

George IV

1762-1830 king of England and son of King George III, he was reagent of England when his father went insane. He ruled from 1820-1830 and was succeeded by his brother William IV.

James Hoban

1762-1831 American architect who designed and built the White House from 1792-1799, rebuilt the White House when it was burned in the War of 1812, and was the supervising architect of the US Capitol.

Josephine

1763-1814 empress of France from 1804-1809. In 1796 she married Napoleon, but their childless marriage was annulled in 1809 so that he could marry Marie Louise.

Charles Bullfinch

1763-1844 American architect most famous for designing the Capitol in Washington D.C.

John Jacob Astor

1763-1848 US fur merchant. His American Fur Company exercised a monopoly in fur trading in US territories. He died as the richest man in the US

Robert Fulton

1765-1815 US inventor whose greatest achievement was the steamboat "Clermont," launched in 1807. The voyage of the Clermont from New York City to Albany pioneered the usage of the steamboat as a passenger vehicle.

Eli Whitney

1765-1825 American inventor of the cotton gin.

Thomas Malthus

1766-1834 English economist and sociologist who was a pioneer in population study as evidenced in his "An Essay on the Principle of Population," which states that poverty was unavoidable because population increases faster than the means of subsistence.

John Dalton

1766-1844 English scientist renowned as the originator of the modern chemical atomic theory of matter.

Bernardo O'Higgins

1778-1842 South American revolutionary leader of Chile from 1817-1823.

Andrew Jackson

1767-1845, 7th president of the United States from 1829-1837. In the War of 1812, he defeated the Creek Indians in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 and defeated British troops at New Orleans in 1815. Known as "Old Hickory," He was made a Major General. He was known for his form of democracy that pushed to increase popular participation in government. He lost the 1824 presidential election to John Quincy Adams in the House of Representatives, but returned to win the 1828 election. His presidency was known for his "Kitchen Cabinet" and marred by his use of the spoils system. He disagreed with his Vice President, John C. Calhoun, regarding the issue of nullification, which led Calhoun to resign in 1832. He won re-election in 1832, defeating candidate Henry Clay.

John Quincy Adams

1767-1848 President, served as Secretary of State under James Monroe

Charlotte Corday

1768-1793 French assassin of Jean Paul Marat, whom she stabbed while he was taking a bath.

Tecumseh

1768-1813 Chief of the Shawnee who fought alongside the British in the War of 1812.

Francis II

1768-1835 Holy Roman Emperor from 1792-1806. The last Holy Roman Emperor, after Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, he took the title of Francis I, who was the first emperor of Austria.

Dewitt Clinton

1769-1828 American politician most famous for his support of the Erie Canal, or, his namesake "ditch." He served as mayor of New York City, Governor of New York, and lost the 1812 presidential race to James Madison.

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770-1827 German composer with three distinct periods. His first period was influenced by Mozart and Haydn, and includes the First and Second Symphonies and the "Pathetique" piano sonata. The second period contains the Third "Eroica" Symphony, the 4th-8th Symphonies, and his lone opera "Fidelio." His Third and final period, beginning around 1816, consisted of the 9th Choral Symphony (Ode to Joy), the "Missa Solemnis" and late string quartets such as "Grosse Fuge." Even when he became deaf, his work flourished.

Frederick William III

1770-1840 king of Prussia who was the son of Frederick William II and ruled from 1797-1840 and is best known for accepting the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, eventually making Prussia a French vassal.

William Wordsworth

1770-1850 English poet. With his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he wrote "Lyrical Ballads." This Book, which included "Tintern Abbey," introduced Romanticism into England.

Sir Walter Scott

1771-1832 Scottish novelist and poet known for his poems including "Lady of the Lake," His "Waverley," series of novels, including "Old Mortality," "Rob Roy," "The Heart of Midlothian," and "The Bride of Lamermoor." Also known for his historical novels including "Ivanhoe," "Kenilworth," and "Quentin Durward."

Robert Owen

1771-1858 British social reformer and founder of several self-sufficient cooperative communities including New Harmony, IN.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1772-1834 English poet who, in 1798 published Lyrical Ballads, a collaboration of William Wordsworth and one of the foremost works of English Romanticism. His most famous works include "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Christabel," and "Kubla Khan."

William Henry Harrison

1773-1841 9th president of the US who served as Governor of the Indiana Territory from 1800-1812 and engaged Tecumseh's forces in the 1811 battle of Tippecanoe. He served in the war of 1812, capturing Detroit from the British and won the Battle of the Thames in 1813. He served as a US Representative from 1816-1819 and Senator from Ohio from 1825-1828. In 1840, he garnered the Whig party nomination and, with his running mate John Tyler, won the election. He died after only one month in office and was succeeded by John Tyler.

Klemens von Metternich

1773-1859 Austrian statesman who became foreign minister in 1809 and pushed Austria into the Quadruple Alliance. He served as the guiding force of the Congress of Vienna, an international conference to remake Europe after the defeat of Napoleon.

Meriwether Lewis

1774-1809 American explorer who headed the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition and in 1807 was made Governor of the Louisiana Territory.

John Chapman

1774-1845 American pioneer and legendary figure better known as Johnny Appleseed, a poorly dressed man who wandered for 40 years planting apple seeds across the US

Jane Austen

1775-1817 English novelist. Wrote "Sense and Sensibility, " "Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," and "Emma." In 1818, "Northanger Abby" and "Persuasion" were published posthumously.

Andre Ampere

1775-1836 French scientist who furthered Hans Oersted's work on the relationship between electricity and magnetism. The basic unit of electric current is named after him (amp for short).

Joseph Turner

1775-1851 English landscape painter famous for works such as "Rain," "Steam," and "Speed."

Lyman Beecher

1775-1863 American minister who founded the American Bible Society in 1816 and had 13 children, including Henry Ward Beecher and author Harriet Beecher Stowe.

John Constable

1776-1837 English artist most famous for his landscape paintings like "The Hay Wain."

Amadeo Avogadro

1776-1856 Italian physicist. He advanced his hypothesis that equal volumes of gasses under identical pressure and temperature contain the same number of molecules. This led to the calculation of the value of the number of molecules in one mole.

Hans Christian Oersted

1777-1851 Danish physicist and chemist famous for initiating the study of electromagnetism and for isolating aluminum.

Henry Clay

1777-1852 American statesman known as "The Great Compromiser" and "Great Pacificator." He is best known for his work on the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. He also served Kentucky as a Senator and a Representative, served as Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams. He was also an unsuccessful candidate in 1832 and 1844.

Roger Brooke Taney

1777-1864, 5th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1836-1864. He presided over the Dred Scott case.

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

1778-1850 French chemist who discovered that at a constant pressure the volume of an enclosed gas is directly proportional to its temperature, a law which is now named after him. He also formulated the law combining volumes, which states that gasses combine by volume in simple multiple proportion.

Zebulon Pike

1779-1813 American explorer who led an expedition to New Mexico in 1806 and discovered the Colorado Peak named after him in the process.

Francis Scott Key

1779-1843 American poet and lawyer, who is best known for writing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Jons Jakob Berzelius

1779-1848 Swedish chemist who discovered the elements Selenium, Cerium, and Thorium. Credited with coining the words allotropy and isomerism.

Clement Clarke Moore

1779-1863 American poet who is best known for his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas."

Peter Mark Roget

1779-1869 English lexicographer famous for his "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases."

Jean Lafitte

1780-1826 pirate and smuggler who is famous for aiding US troops against the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

Sir Charles Bagot

1781-1843 British diplomat negotiated a convention limiting US armaments on the US-Canadian border.

John C. Calhoun

1782-1850 American statesman who was a defender of state's rights and the agrarian south and served in the House of Representatives from 1811-1817 as well as Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson from 1825-1832. In 1832, he resigned from the Vice Presidency and served as a senator representing South Carolina from 1832-1842 and again from 1845-1850. He was an ardent defender of slavery and fought for the rights of slave owners. In 1844-1845, as Secretary of State under John Tyler, he secured the admission of Texas as a slave state.

Daniel Webster

1782-1852 American politician. He was the presidential candidate of the Whig party in 1836. He served as secretary of state from 1841 to 1843 and was responsible for the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which settled border disputes between the US and Canada. He again served as secretary of state from 1850 to 1852 in President Millard Fillmore's administration.

Thomas Hart Benton

1782-1858 American statesman, a Democratic senator from Missouri from 1821-1851 and a US Representative from 1853-1855

Martin Van Buren

1782-1862, 8th president of the US from 1837-1841. He served as a US senator and governor of New York before becoming Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State in 1829. He was Jackson's running mate in 1832, and was elected Vice President. He was the successful Democratic candidate for President in 1836. He was defeated in his bid for re-election by Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in 1840. In 1848, he ran again for president on the Free-Soil Party ticket. He lost the election, but managed to garner enough votes to swing the election to Zachary Taylor.

Simon Bolivar

1783-1830 South American Revolutionary who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule. Hated during his life but now hailed as Latin America's greatest hero and liberator.

Stendhal

1783-1842 pseudonym of French author Marie Henri Beyle author of "The Red and the Black," and "The Charterhouse of Parma."

Washington Irving

1783-1859 American author who, under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker wrote "A History of New York," "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon" which included his famous short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." While a diplomat in Spain, he wrote "The Alhambra." After that, he retired to his Sunnyside Estate In Terrytown, New York.

Zachary Taylor

1785-1850, 12th president of the US from 1849-1850. He earned the nickname "Old Rough and Ready," in the Black Hawk War and in the !Mexican War, in which he took command of the army of Texas. He was elected president on the Whig ticket in 1848. Notable events of his term include the Wilmot Proviso and the Compromise of 1850. He died of cholera in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

John James Audobon

1785-1851 American ornithologist. After arriving in the US in 1803 from his native Santo Domingo he began collecting the extensive ornithological observations that led to the publication of his most famous work, "The Birds of America," 1838.

Thomas De Quincey

1785-1859 English author best known for the autobiographical "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater."

Jakob Grimm

1785-1863 German philologist and author best known for his collection of folk tales known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, compiled with his brother Wilhelm Grimm.

Davy Crockett

1786-1836 American frontiersman who served as a US Representative from Tennessee from 1827-1831 and again from 1833-1835. He died defending the Alamo in 1836.

Emma Willard

1787-1870 Americaeducator and pioneer and women's education, the founder of Troy Female Seminary, a women's college.

James Fenimore Cooper

1789-1851 American author regarded as the first great American novelist. His first novel, "The Spy," written in 1821, was a novel set during the American Revolution. His best-known works were those of "The Leatherstocking Tales," a series of novels featuring the frontiersman Natty Bumppo. The five novels of the Leatherstocking Tales are "The Deerslayer," "The Last of the Mohicans," "The Pathfinder," "The Pioneers," and "The Prairie." Other works include "The Pilot," and "The Red Rover."

John Tyler

1790-1862, 10th president of the US who served as governor of Virginia in 1825 and US Senator from 1827-1836 before serving as William Henry Harrison's Vice President. After only one month as Vice President, he became the first Vice President to succeed to the presidency upon the death of Harrison. His chief accomplishments as president include the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1843 that settled various boundary disputes between the US and Canada, and the annexation of Texas as a state. He failed to gain the Whig party nomination for the 1844 election.

Theodore Gericault

1791-1824 French Romantic painter who is most famous for his "Raft of the Medusa," a painting of shipwrecked men at sea.

Millard Fillmore

1800-1874 13th President of the United States from 1850-1853. A US Representative from New York (1833-1835; 1837-1843), he was elected Vice President under Zachary Taylor in 1848 on the Whig ticket. He succeeded to the presidency after Taylor's death in 1850. In 1856 he was the unsuccessful candidate of the Know-Nothing Party.

David Farragut

1801-1870 American admiral. Famous for uttering his cry, "Damn the torpedoes," while defeating a Confederate fleet in Mobile, AL. Farragut was the first officer in the US Navy to receive the rank of Admiral.

William Henry Seward

1801-1872 American statesman and Secretary of State under Lincoln and Johnson. His most notable act was purchasing Alaska and Russia.

Gail Borden

1801-1874 American inventor of many food processes, most notably the process of evaporating milk.

Brigham Young

1801-1877 American Mormon leader. After founder Joseph Smith's assassination in 1844, he became the dominant figure in Mormonism, leading the great migration to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Victor Hugo

1802-1855 French writer who wrote "The Hunchback of Norte Dame" and "Les Miserables."

Dorothea Dix

1802-1887 American social reformer who was a pioneer in treatment of the insane and influenced the founding of states hospitals in the US and Europe.

Louis Hector Berlioz

1803-1869 French composer famous for the symphonies "Harold in Italy" "Romeo and Juliet," "Symphonie Fantastique" "The Damnation of Faust" "The Trojans" and the oratorio "The Childhood of Christ."

Prosper Merimee

1803-1870 French author of the novel "Carmen," that was the basis for Georges Bizet's popular opera.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

1803-1873 English novelist best known for his historical novels, especially "The Last Days of Pompeii."

John Sutter

1803-1880 American pioneer and owner of the California mill at which Gold was discovered, setting off the California gold rush.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882 American author who served as Unitarian minister from 1829-1832 at Boston's Old North Church, but left because of doctrinal disputes. Returning home after a trip to Europe, he settled in Concord, Massachusetts and, along with Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and others began the Transcendentalist movement. He put forth the movement's principles in "Nature." Emerson often published in the Transcendentalist magazine "The Dial." He is famous for writing "The Concord Hymn."

Mikhail Glinka

1804-1857 Russian composer best known for his operas "A Life for the Czar" and "Russlan and Ludmilla."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804-1864 American author whose works include The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, Twice-Told Tales, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Faun, and Tanglewood Tales. He briefly lived at George Ripley's Transcendentalist community Brook Farm.

Franklin Pierce

1804-1869, 14th president of the United States from 1853-1857" he represented New Hampshire in the US Congress from 1833-1842, resigning to practice law in Concord. In 1852, as the compromise candidate of the divided Democratic Party, he defeated Whig candidate General Winfield Scott, becoming a successful dark horse candidate. The only true standout event of his presidency was the Gadsden Purchase from Spain.

George Sand

1804-1876 French novelist of over 80 books famous for her affair with Frederic Chopin.

Joseph Smith

1805-1844 American religious leader and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons.

Hans Christian Andersen

1805-1875 Danish fairy tale author, famous for "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Match Girl," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Snow Queen."

Giuseppe Mazzini

1806-1872 Italian Revolutionary. A leading figure in the Risorgimento, he formed "Young Italy."

John Stuart Mill

1806-1873 British philosopher and economist who founded Utilitarianism with Jeremy Bentham. His most famous work is "On Liberty."

Robert E. Lee

1807-1870 Confederate General in the US Civil War. He served in the Mexican War, was superintendent at West Point from 1852-1855, and led the capture of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. After the secession of Virginia, he took command of the Army of Northern Virginia and began the Seven Days Battles. His troops destroyed the Union army at the second battle of Bull Run, but his first invasion of the North was halted by General G. B. McClellan in the Antietam Campaign. He stopped the Union advances at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, but lost his best lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson, at Chancellorsville. His second invasion of the North ended in defeat at the Gettysburg campaign. He was named general in chief of all confederate armies in February 1865, but soon surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.

Jean Louis Agassiz

1807-1873 Swiss-American zoologist and geologist; first proposed the ice ages

Johanna Spyri

1827-1901 Swiss author best known for "Heidi," and other children's stories set in the Swiss Alps.

Giuseppe Garibaldi

1807-1882 Italian patriot who was a leading figure in the Risorgimento, a period of nationalism in the 19th century that led to the unification of Italy. In 1860 he led 1000 red shirts in a conquest of Sicily and Naples. He then relinquished his conquests to Sardinia, and Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy in 1861.

John Greenleaf Whittier

1807-1892 American poet whose works include "Snow-Bound," "Maud Muller," and "Barbara Frietchie."

Salmon Portland Chase

1808-1873 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1864-1873. Served as a US Senator from 1849-1855 and again in 1861, Governor of Ohio from 1855-1859, and Secretary of Treasury 1861-1864 before serving on the High Court.

Andrew Johnson

1808-1875, 17th President of the US from 1865-1869. He served Tennessee as a US congressman, Senator, and Governor before becoming the successful running mate to Lincoln in 1864. He succeeded to the Presidency after Lincoln was assassinated. In 1868, the House passed a resolution of impeachment after him for violating the tenure of office act when he tried to force Edwin M. Stanton, His Secretary of War, from office. The Senate failed to convict him by one vote. His administration oversaw the purchase of Alaska, among other events. He returned to the Senate in 1875 from Tennessee, but died shortly after his term began.

Jefferson Davis

1808-1889 American statesman who, before serving as President of the Confederacy from 1861-1865, served as a senator from Mississippi and US Secretary of War

Hamilton Fish

1808-1893 American statesman who was a Whig Congressman and Senator from New York. He served as President Grant's Secretary of State from 1869-1877.

Felix Mendelssohn

1809-1847 German composer who at the age of 17 composed "Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream." Later works include 5 Symphonies, including "Scottish Symphony," "Latin Symphony," and "Reformation Symphony."

Edgar Allen Poe

1809-1849 American writer who, after being kicked out of the University of Virginia and West Point, began one of the most brilliant writing careers in the history of Americans literature. His works include short stories "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." He is credited with being the father of modern detective stories with works such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." His poems include "The Raven," and "Annabelle Lee."

Louis Braille

1809-1852 French inventor of the Braille system of writing for the blind. His system was based on a much more complex system developed by Charles Barbier.

Nikolai Gogol

1809-1852 Russian writer who is famous for the drama The Inspector-General and the novel Dead Souls.

Abraham Lincoln

1809-1865, 16th President of the United States from 1861-1865. Born in Kentucky, he was almost entirely self-educated. In 1834, he as elected to the state legislature in Indiana, and in 1836 became a lawyer. He served one term in Congress 1847-1849 as a Whig, and failed in his attempt to become a senator in 1855. In 1856 he joined the new Republican Party and ran against Stephen Douglas in the 1858 Senate election. Douglas won the 1858 Senate election, but this man won great acclaim in their famous debates. In 1860 he was nominated by the Republicans for president, and won against a divided Democratic Party. By his Inauguration Day, Seven southern states had seceded, and four more seceded shortly thereafter. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that abolished slavery in the Confederacy, and later that year gave the brilliant Gettysburg Address. In 1864, he was easily re-elected over General George McClellan. On April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC, he was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth.

Kit Carson

1809-1868 American frontiersman who worked as a guide in the 1840s, including John Fremont's expeditions through California and Oregon. He also served as a Union General in the Civil War.

Charles Darwin

1809-1882 English scientist and evolutionist. He was a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831-1836 and began accumulating the data he used to formulate the concept of evolution. In 1858, he and Alfred Russell Wallace simultaneously publishes the first works putting forth the concept of natural selection. His works include "Origin of the Species," and "The Descent of Man."

Cyrus McCormick

1809-1884 American inventor of the reaper in 1813.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

1809-1892 English poet whose first work, "Poems, Chiefly Lyrical," was followed by "Poems," which contained "The Lotus-Eaters" and "The Lady of Shalott." Other works include "In Memorian," an elegy prompted by the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. "Maud," and the 12-part Arthurian epic "Idylls of the King."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

1809-1894 American author and physician who wrote the poem "Old Ironsides," "The Chambered Nautilus," and his sketches published in "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" and others in the Autocrat series.

Clarence Darrow

1809-1938 American lawyer who, in the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools, opposed William Jennings Bryan.

Frederic Chopin

1810-1849 Polish composer who helped establish the piano as a solo instrument with his piano concertos. Known for his longtime relationship wit author George Sand.

Theodor Schwann

1810-1882 German histologist known for originating the cell theory, also known for describing the nerve sheath that is named after him.

P. T. Barnum

1810-1891 American showman who opened an American Museum in New York City full of outrageous exhibits like Tom Thumb the midget and a pair of Siamese Twins. In 1850 he organized the successful US tour of the Swedish singer Jenny Lind. In 1871 he opened his circus, The Greatest Show on Earth. He merged with his chief competitor James Bailey in 1881.

William Tecumseh Sherman

1820-1891 Union general in the US Civil War, who after distinguishing himself in Vicksburg and Chattanooga, began his march to the sea. He burned Atlanta in 1864, captured Savannah, and continued through South Carolina. He is famous for the quote "War is Hell."

John Tyndall

1820-1893 English physicist known for describing the scattering of light by colloids, now known as his namesake effect.

Fredrich Engels

1820-1895 German social philosopher who, with Karl Marx, was a founder of modern socialism and communism. In 1864, he helped Marx found the International Workingmen's Association, and from 1867-1894 wrote "Das Kapital" with Marx.

Susan B. Anthony

1820-1906 leader of the woman suffrage movement. Co-founded the National Woman's Suffrage Association and served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She was featured on a short-lived US Dollar coin.

Florence Nightingale

1820-1910 English nurse and founder of modern nursing, she organized a unit of nurses in the Crimean War in 1854.

Harriet Tubman

1820-1913 African American abolitionist and escape slave famous for conducting the Underground Railroad, leading many slaves to freedom.

John Cabell Breckinridge

1821-1875 grandson of John Breckenridge who was Vice President under James Buchanan

Gustave Flaubert

1821-1880 French novelist whose masterpiece is "Madame Bovary" (1857). Other works include "Salammbo," (1862), and "Sentimental Education" (1869).

Fyodor Dostoevsky

1821-1881 Russian novelist whose first novel, "Poor Folk," was met with great acclaim. Other works include "Crime and Punishment," "The Idiot," and "The Possessed." His final novel was "The Brothers Karamazov."

Elizabeth Blackwell

1821-1910 American physician, upon her graduation from Geneva New York Medical College, she became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree.

Mary Baker Eddy

1821-1910 founder of the Christian Science Movement In 1866.

Clara Barton

1821-1912 American humanitarian who was called "The Angel of the Battlefield," she set up a supply service and served as a nurse during the Civil War. In 1881, she organized the American Red Cross.

Gregor Mendel

1822-1884 Austrian monk and geneticist noted for his work in heredity, he conducted experiments on pea plants involving controlled pollination and careful statistical data analysis. His findings were first published in 1866, but were ignored and lost until rediscovered in 1900. His conclusions are the basic tenets of the science of genetics.

Ulysses S. Grant

1822-1885 Union general and 18th President of the US, from 1868-1877. He was named Commander in Chief of the Union army by President Lincoln in 1865 after his success at Shiloh, Chattanooga, and Vicksburg. He received Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. He was elected president in 1868 after defeating Horatio Seymour, and was re-elected in 1872 after defeating Horace Greeley.

Matthew Arnold

1822-1888 English poet best known for his "Dover Beach."

Rutherford B. Hayes

1822-1893 19th president of the US from 1877-1881. He served as a US Representative 1865-1867 and was elected governor of Ohio three times before winning the controversial 1876 Presidential election. He defeated Samuel J. Tilden in the 1876 election after a special electoral commission appointed by congress awarded all the disputed returns to Hayes, giving him a majority of 1 in the electoral college.

Louis Pasteur

1822-1895 French chemist who is noted for his studies on fermentation and bacteria. He pioneered the process of Pasteurization, and developed rabies and anthrax vaccines.

Frederick Law Olmsted

1822-1903 American landscape architect. Designed New York's Central Park.

Edward Everett Hale

1822-1909 American author whose best-known work is the novel "The Man Without a Country."

Mathew Brady

1823-1896 American photographer famous for his photographic record of the Civil War

Stonewall Jackson

1824-1863 Confederate General in the US Civil War who served in the first battle of Bull Run and earned his nickname when he and his troops stood like a "stone wall." He conducted the Shenandoah Valley campaign in 1862 and joined Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles and the second battle of Bull Run. He fought in the Antietam Campaign, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville under Lee. He was mortally wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville by fire from his own troops.

Bedrich Smetana

1824-1884 Czech nationalist composer best known for the opera "The Bartered Bride."

Wilke Collins

1824-1889 English novelist. His 1868 novel "The Moonstone," is considered the first full-length detective novel.

T. H. Huxley

1825-1895 English biologist who was the chief defender of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Johann Strauss

1825-1899 Viennese composer of over 400 waltzes including "Blue Danube" and "Tales from the Vienna Woods," as well as the operettas "Die Fledermaus," and "The Gypsy Baron."

Richard Blackmore

1825-1900 English author of the novel "Lorna Doone" a romance about 17th century outlaws.

Stephen Foster

1826-1864 American songwriter who is famous for his songs including "Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Oh Susannah."

Carlo Collodi

1826-1890 Italian author famous for his children's tales, especially "Pinocchio."

James A. Garfield

1831-1881, 20th president of the US in 1881. He served in the Union army until 1863, becoming a Republican member of the US House of Representatives. He was elected in 1880, but had a very short time in office and was assassinated on July 2, 1881, by disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau. Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeded him as President.

Sitting Bull

1831-1890 Sioux chief and victor over George Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Mary Mapes Dodge

1831-1905 American author of the children's classic "Hans Brinker," or, "The Silver Skates."

Edouard Manet

1832-1883 French painter often called an Impressionist his works include "Luncheon on the Grass," "Olympia," "The Fife Player," and "The Balcony."

Louisa May Alcott

1832-1888 American author, wrote "Little Women," a largely autobiographical novel about Victorian American family life. "Little Men," and "Jo's Boys" are sequels.

Lewis Carroll

1832-1898 English author and mathematician who, although a renowned mathematician at Oxford, is best remembered for his fantasy novels "Alice and Wonderland," and its sequel, "Through the Looking Glass," both inspired by a drug trip.

Bjomstjerne Bjornson

1832-1910 Norwegian writer and his poem "Yes, We Love This Land of Ours" is the national anthem of Norway.

Aleksandr Borodin

1833-1887 Russian composer, best known for his unfinished opera "Prince Igor."

Pedro Alarcon

1833-1891 Spanish writer of "The Three-Cornered Hat," on which Manuel de Falla based a ballet.

Alfred Nobel

1833-1896 Swedish chemist and inventor who is known for his invention of dynamite and for establishing the fund to provide the annual prizes named after him.

Johannes Brahms

1833-1897 German composer whose well-known works include "German Requiem" and "Violin Concerto In D" composed in every genre except opera and gave special attention to chamber music and lieder (songs sung in German vernacular).

Benjamin Harrison

1833-1901, 23rd President of the US from 1889-1893. He was the grandson of William Henry Harrison and defeated Grover Cleveland in the 1888 presidential election, in what is arguably the most corrupt campaign in US history. He was defeated in his re-election bid by Grover Cleveland in 1892.

James Baird Weaver

1833-1912 American politician and presidential candidate of Greenback Party, then of the Populist Party.

Horatio Alger

1834-1899 American author known for rags-to-riches stories for boys, like "Ragged Dick."

Gottlieb Daimler

1834-1900 German inventor of the first high-speed internal combustion engine, which led to the development of the automobile.

James Whistler

1834-1903 American painter best known for the portrait of his mother, formally named "Arrangement in Gray and Black."

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi

1834-1904 French sculptor famous for Liberty Enlightening the World (the Statue of Liberty)

Dmitri Mendeleev

1834-1907 Russian chemist remembered for inventing the periodic table and formulating the periodic law.

Edgar Degas

1834-1927 French painter who was an influential impressionist whose most famous subjects were ballet dancers and the horse races.

Samuel Butler

1835-1902 English author whose novel "Erewhon," (an anagram of nowhere) satirized English social injustices. He wrote "Erewhon Revisited" as a sequel and the autobiography "The Way of All Flesh."

Adlai Stevenson

1835-1914 American Vice President from 1893-1897. His grandson of the same name was the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956.

Andrew Carnegie

1835-19191 Scottish-born American philanthropist and industrialist who, in 1873, began acquiring firms that later became his namesake steel company. By 1900, his business was producing a quarter of all steel made in the US. In 1901, he sold his companies to the US Steel Corporation and retired, giving over $300 million to philanthropic organizations he started.

Charles-Camille Saint-Saens

1835-1921 French composer best known for the opera "Samson et Dalila," "Carnival of the Animals," and "Danse Macabre."

George McClellan

1836-1885 Union general in the US Civil War, appointed general in chief in 1861, he was removed from command in 1862 after the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign. Called on again in 1862, he stopped Lee I the Antietam Campaign, but was again removed for allowing the Confederates to withdraw across the Potomac. He ran against Lincoln for President in 1864 but was easily defeated by Lincoln.

Bret Harte

1836-1902 American author known for his picturesque western stories including "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," and "The Luck of Roaring Camp."

Sir William Gilbert

1836-1911 English playwright who, with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, wrote several popular operettas including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, and The Yeoman of the Guard.

Ernst Mach

1836-1916 American physicist, and his namesake number is the ration between the speed of an object and the speed of sound.

Emma Lazarus

1849-1887 American poet best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus," which is engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Grover Cleveland

1837-1908, 22nd President from 1885-1889 and 24th President of the US from 1893-1897. Her served as governor of New York from 1883-1885 before defeating James G. Blaine in the 1884 Presidential election. Partially due to his spoils system, he was defeated by Benjamin Harrison in the election of 1888, but regained his presidency in the 1892 election becoming the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.

George Dewey

1837-1917 American admiral who, in 1898, during the Spanish-American War, directed the victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines.

William Dean Howells

1837-1920 American author who championed Realism. His works include "The Rise of Silas Lapham."

Johannes van der Waals

1837-1923 Dutch physicist known for discovering the weak forces of mutual attraction now named after him. He won the 1910 Nobel Prize in physics.

Georges Bizet

1838-1875 French composer most famous for the popular opera "Carmen" and "The Pearlfishers."

Tom Thumb

1838-1883 stage name of the midget Charles Stratton who achieved fame in P. T. Barnum's shows.

John Hay

1838-1905 American Secretary of State from 1898-1905 under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. He established the open door policy in China.

John Muir

1838-1914 Scottish-born American naturalist and conservationist, he crusaded for the creation of national parks and founded the Sierra Club.

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin

1838-1917 German army officer and inventor of the first rigid airship in 1900.

George Custer

1839-1876 American General who became the youngest General in 1863. He led the 1876 campaign against the Sioux on the Little Big Horn River, which he lost. This battle was known as his namesake "Last Stand."

Modest Moussorgsky

1839-1891 Russian composer, and a member of the five, he is remembered for his opera "Boris Godunov," the piano suites "Pictures at an Exhibition," and the orchestral piece "A Night on Bald Mountain."

Paul Cezanne

1839-1906 French painter whose early works such as "House of the Hanged Man," were Impressionist in style but his later paintings were more abstract, and anticipated the Cubist and Expressionist movements. Other famous works include "The Card Players," and "The Kitchen Table"

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1840-1893 Russian composer of the ballets "Swan Lake," "The Sleeping Beauty," and "The Nutcracker," among others.

Thomas Nast

1840-1902 American political cartoonist who is best known for creating the cartoon depictions of the Republican elephant and the Democratic Donkey and attacking Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.

Emile Zola

1840-1902 French novelist who took a strong stance in the Dreyfus affair with his article "J'accuse." (Meaning "I accuse.")

Chief Joseph

1840-1904 Chief of the Nez Perce tribe famous for his resistance to resettlement in the late 1870s.

Auguste Rodin

1840-1917 French sculptor whose works include "The Age of Bronze," "Gates of Hell," "The Thinker," and "The Burghers of Calais."

Claude Monet

1840-1926 French landscape painter whose painting "Impression, Sunrise," gave rise to the Impressionist movement. Other paintings include "Water Lilies," "Haystacks," and "Woman With a Parasol."

Thomas Hardy

1840-1928 English author whose novels include "Far from the Maddening Crowd," "The Return of the Native," "The Mayor of Casterbridge," "Tess of the d'Ubervilles," and "Jude the Obscure." Also a poet, he is known for his "Wessex Poems," and "The Dynasts," a historical drama in verse.

Sir Henry Stanley

1841-1904 British explorer who, in 1871, was sent by the New York Herald to find David Livingstone in Africa. Upon finding Livingstone, he delivered the famous greeting, "Dr. Livingstone I presume?" On later journeys he explored the length of the Congo River and helped to organize the future Independent State of the Congo.

Antonin Dvorak

1841-1904 Czech composer best known for his Symphony in E Minor, From the New World.

Nelson Aldrich

1841-1915 US Senator from Rhode Island (1881-1911) Republican that co-authored the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, a Compromise law that lowered some tariffs and increased others. This was the Chief issue during William Taft's presidency.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1841-1919 French Impressionist artist best known works include "Les Grande Boulevards," and "Luncheon of the Boating Party."

William Henry Hudson

1841-1922 English author who is best known for his classic romance set in a South American jungle titled, "Green Mansions."

Georges Clemenceau

1841-1929 French premier from 1906-1909 and 1917-1920). He was nicknamed "The Tiger," and was the French premier during WWI. He opposed President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference believing that the Treaty of Versailles was not strong enough.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

1841-1936 associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1902-1932. He was nicknamed "The Great Dissenter."

Sir Arthur Sullivan

1842-1900 English composer famous for his series of comic operettas, written to lyricist W.S. Gilbert including "H.M.S. Pinafore," and "The Mikado."

William James

1842-1910 American psychologist, the brother of Henry James, and the founder of Pragmatism.

James Whitcomb Riley

1849-1916 American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet" whose best-known work is "Little Orphan Annie."

Booker T. Washington

1856-1915 African-American educator and organizer of the Tuskegee Institute for African Americans in 1881. He published many works including his autobiography "Up From Slavery."

William McKinley

1843-1901, 25th president of the US from 1897-1901. A congressman from Ohio from 1877-1891 and governor of Ohio from 1891-1896 before winning the Republican nomination for president in 1896. He defeated William Jennings Bryan in the election, his term in office was marked by the annexation of Hawaii, the Open Door policy for China, and the Spanish American War. He was re-elected in 1900, and was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York, in 1901.

Edvard Grieg

1843-1907 Norwegian nationalistic composer best known for the "Peer Gynt" suite and his many Norwegian folk songs.

Robert Koch

1843-1910 German bacteriologist who established the bacterial cause of many diseases including tuberculosis, anthrax, and cholera. He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing the tuberculin skin test as a test for tuberculosis.

Ambrose Bierce

1843-1914 American author who, after serving in the Civil War, rose to prominence as a journalist. His fame came from short story collections like "In the Midst of Life" "Can Such Things Be?" and his collection of cynical definitions, "The Devil's Dictionary." He disappeared without a trace in Mexico in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution.

Henry James

1843-1916 American novelist and the Brother of William James, he is best known for the novels "Daisy Miller," "Portrait of a Lady," "The Bostonians," "The Turn of the Screw," "The Ambassadors," and "The Golden Bowl."

Friedrich Nietzsche

1844-1900 German philosopher whose writings include "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," "Ecce Homo," and "Beyond Good and Evil." He is known for the quote "God is dead."

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

1844-1908 Russian composer who is best known for the orchestral work "Scheherezade."

Anatole France

1844-1924 pseudonym of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault, a French author. Elected to the French Academy in 1896 and won the Nobel Prize for Literature In 1921.

Karl Benz

1844-1929 German engineer credited with building the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. In 1926, his company merged with Gustavo Daimler's and the combined company began production of the Mercedes-Benz.

Edward Douglass White

1845-1921 associate justice from 1894 to 1910 and ninth chief justice of the US Supreme Court from 1910 to 1921.

Wilhelm Roentgen

1845-1923 German physicist famous for discovering X-rays for which he received the first Nobel Prize in physics.

Mary Cassatt

1845-1926 American painter who, living mainly in France, made Impressionist paintings that often featured mothers with their children.

Randolph Caldecott

1846-1886 English artist whose illustrations inspired the creation of his namesake medal, an annual award given to excellent illustrators of children's books.

Carry Nation

1846-1911 American temperance advocate famous for destroying saloons with her hatchet.

George Westinghouse

1846-1914 American inventor of the railroad airbrake.

Buffalo Bill

1846-1917 American showman who organized and toured with his namesake Wild West Show.

Peter Faberge

1846-1920 Russian goldsmith well known for his richly jeweled Easter eggs he created for the Russian royal family.

Jesse James

1847-1882 American outlaw who, from 1866, went along with his brother Frank and led a band of outlaws on a crime and killing spree through the central US.

Joseph Pulitzer

1847-1911 American newspaper publisher and founder of "Yellow Journalism." He left a fund to the trustees of Colombia University, out of which the annual prizes of fiction, drama, poetry, history, biography, and general non-fiction were established. The music Prize was added in 1943.

Bram Stoker

1847-1912 English author of the horror novel "Dracula."

Alexander Graham Bell

1847-1922 Scottish-American inventor of the telephone in 1876 and helped found the "Science" magazine in 1880.

Thomas Edison

1847-1931 American inventor who, despite very little formal schooling and progressive deafness, is often regarded as the greatest inventor of all time. His inventions include the microphone, record player, and kinetoscope. Perhaps his most significant invention was the development of the first commercially successful incandescent lamp in 1879. His pioneering workshops in Menlo Park and West Orange, New Jersey employed several scientists instead of a lone inventor.

Paul von Hindenburg

1847-1934 German field marshal and president from 1925-1934. He was the greatest German war hero of WWI due to his victories in Tannenburg. He defeated Hitler in the 1932 election but appointed Hitler chancellor in 1933, becoming a virtual figurehead until his death.

Guglielmo Marconi

1847-1937 Italian physicist who shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics for his development of wireless telegraphy.

Paul Gauguin

1848-1903 French painter who was originally allied with the impressionists, Gauguin moved to Tahiti in 1891, where he painted some of his best works. While in Tahiti, he also wrote the autobiographical novel "Noa Noa." Works include "The Yellow Christ" and "The Day of the God."

Joel Chandler Harris

1848-1908 American author whose tales, narrated by former slave Uncle Remus, include "The Tar Baby," and "Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit."

Wyatt Earp

1848-1929 American lawman who, after serving as a policeman in Kansas, was involved in a gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

Arthur James Balfour

1848-1930 British Statesman, a conservative, was Prime Minister from 1902-1905. A foreign secretary under David Lloyd George he issued his namesake Declaration that pledged British support for a Jewish National Home in Palestine.

Ivan Pavlov

1849-1936 Russian physiologist whose work on the digestive system won him the 1904 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. He is known for famous experiments in psychology, in which he classically conditioned a dog to drool at the sound of a bell after associating the bell with food.

Robert Louis Stevenson

1850-1894 Scottish author best known for his adventure novels "Treasure Island," "Kidnapped," "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and "A Child's Garden of Verses."

Eugene Field

1850-1895 American writer most famous for his children's poems including "Little Boy Blue," and "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod."

Edward Bellamy

1850-1898 American author who gained fame with his novel "Looking Backward, 2000-1887" a utopian romance depicting life under state socialism. Other novels include "Miss Ludington's Sister," and "Equality" (which was a sequel to "Looking Backward")

Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini

1850-1917 American nun who in 1946 became the first US citizen to be canonized

Samuel Gompers

1850-1924 American labor leader who helped found the labor organization that became the American Federation of Labor in 1886 and served as its president from 1886-1924.

Walter Reed

1851-1902 American army surgeon who, after a yellow fever outbreak in Cuba in 1900, headed a research team that studied the disease. In 1901, he discovered that it was transmitted by mosquitos rather than by direct contact.

Kate Chopin

1851-1904 American author whose novel "The Awakening," was controversial in its time due to its treatment of female sexuality.

Melvil Dewey

1851-1931 American library pioneer and originator of the Dewey Decimal System, a system of book classification still in use today.

Sir Arthur Evans

1851-1941 English archeologist who discovered the ancient Minoan city of Knossos on the Northern coast of Crete.

Antoine Becquerel

1852-1908 French physicist famous for discovering radioactivity in Uranium in 1896 and for sharing the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with the Curies

Sir William Ramsay

1852-1916 Scottish chemist known as the discoverer of Argon, Krypton, Neon, and Xenon. He won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on gasses.

Albert Michelson

1852-1931 American physicist known for measuring the speed of light to a new level of accuracy, conducting the famous Michelson-Morley experiment and becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in physics, in 1907.

Vincent Van Gogh

1853-1890 Dutch painter whose works include "The Potato Eaters," the "Sunflowers" series, and "Starry Night." After a fit of insanity, he cut off his right ear in 1889, and committed suicide in 1890.

Cecil Rhodes

1853-1902 British businessman. After making a fortune in the diamond mines of South Africa, he became prime minister and virtual dictator of Cape Colony from 1890-1896. He resigned in 1896 and devoted himself to developing the country of Rhodesia, (now Zimbabwe). He is also a founder of his namesake scholarships.

Oscar Wilde

1854-1900 Irish writer known for his play "The Importance of Being Earnest," and for his only novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray." While in prison for homosexuality, he wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol."

Paul Ehrlich

1854-1915 German bacteriologist who was a pioneer in chemotherapy. He shared the 1908 Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for his work in the treatment of syphilis.

Engelbert Humperdinck

1854-1921 German composer and a friend of Richard Wagner. He is best known for his first opera "Hansel and Gretal."

John Phillip Sousa

1854-1932 American bandleader best known as "the march king." Works include "Semper Fidelis," and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

George Eastman

1854-1932 American inventor who invented the Kodak camera in 1888 and founded the Eastern Kodak Company in 1892.

Jacob Coxey

1854-1951 American social reformer who led his namesake "Army," in 1894, comprised of a band of jobless men, who marched across the country from Ohio to Washington DC to show the need for unemployment relief. Also ran for President in 1932 and 1936 on the Farmer-Labor Party ticket.

Percival Lowell

1855-1916 American astronomer and brother of poet Amy Lowell. He postulated that there was a planet beyond Neptune. This was confirmed in 1930 when Pluto was discovered,

Robert Marion La Follette

1855-1925 US Senator from Wisconsin from 1906-1925. He ran unsuccessfully in the 1924 presidential election on the Progressive Party ticket.

Eugene Victor Debs

1855-1926 American socialist who helped form the American Socialist Party and ran as the Socialist candidate for US president 5 times.

Robert Frost

1874-1963 US poet who received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times, from 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943. He is also known for reciting his poem "The Gift Outright," at the inauguration of President Kennedy. Among his more famous poems are "Birches," "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping by Woods On A Snowy Evening," and "Mending Wall."

Herbert Hoover

1874-1964, 31st president of the US from 1929-1933, he served as secretary of commerce under Harding and Coolidge before winning the 1928 Republican presidential nomination, later defeating Democrat Al Smith in the election. His administration was marred by the Great Depression and the stock market crash of 1929. He was easily defeated in the 1932 election attempt by FDR.

Winston Churchill

1874-1965 British statesman who, in 1940, seven months into WWII, replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister. Perhaps the greatest British statesman of the 20th century, Churchill helped draft the Allied Victory in WWII. In 1953, he was a awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

William Somerset Maugham

1874-1965 English author whose masterpiece is the partially autobiographical novel "Of Human Bondage." Other works include "The Moon and Sixpence," which was based on the life of Gauguin, and the satirical "Cakes and Ale."

Maurice Ravel

1875-1937 French composer who, with Debussy, was a leading exponent of Impressionism. Works include the orchestral work "Bolero."

D.W. Griffith

1875-1948 American film director best known for 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation."

Edgar Rice Burroughs

1875-1950 American novelist most famous for his creation of Tarzan in "Tarzan of the Apes."

Mary McCleod Bethune

1875-1955 African-American educator who in 1904 founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, which later became Bethune-Cookman College

Albert Schweitzer

1875-1955 French medical missionary, theologian, and musician, as doctor, he established a hospital in Gabon, as a musician he was an expert on Bach and wrote a biography of the composer, as a theologian, he wrote "The Quest of the Historical Jesus." He received a 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his accomplishments.

Hiram Bingham

1875-1956 American archaeologist who led the expeditions that discovered Machu Picchu and Vitcos. He later served as governor of Connecticut in 1925 and US Senator from 1925-1933

Carl Jung

1875-1961 Swiss psychiatrist who is credited as the founder of analytical psychology. He is perhaps best known for postulating the collective unconscious, those acts and mental patterns shared universally by all human beings. He also introduced the terms introversion and extroversion into psychiatry.

Jack London

1876-1916 American author whose best known novels include "Call of the Wild," "The Sea-Wolf," "White Fang," and the partially autobiographical "Martin Eden." He committed suicide at the age of 40.

Mata Hari

1876-1917 Dutch dancer and spy for Germany, born Margaretha Zelle, she became a member of the German secret service in Paris and obtained military secrets from allied officers during WWI. She was tried and executed by the French.

Ole Edvart Rolvaag

1876-1931 Norwegian-American author known for his trilogy "Giants in the Earth."

Sherwood Anderson

1876-1941 American author who wrote "Winesburg, Ohio" "Poor White" and "Dark Laughter."

Manuel de Falla

1876-1946 Spanish composer who is best known for his ballet "The Three-Cornered Hat," composed in 1917, which is based on a Pedro Alarcon novel.

Willa Cather

1876-1947 American author known for her frontier work "O Pioneers!" "My Antonia" and "Death Comes for the Archbishop."

Konrad Adenauer

1876-1967 first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949-1963)

Pablo Casals

1876-1973 Spanish cellist who is almost universally considered the greatest cellist of the 20th century.

Pancho Villa

1877-1923 Mexican Revolutionary and national hero who evade capture by a US army force for 11 months after his force killed several Americans in Columbus, NM.

Herman Hesse

1877-1962 German author who is famous for his symbolic novels including "Siddhartha" and "Steppenwolf."

George M. Cohan

1878-1942 American showman best known for his songs "Over There," "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag." His life inspired the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney.

Manuel Luis Quezon

1878-1944 first president of the Philippines from 1935-1944.

Carl Sandburg

1878-1967 American poet whose collections of his work "Chicago Poems," "Cornhuskers," "The People, Yes," "Complete Poems." He is also famous for his epic biography of Lincoln and his children's book "Rutabaga Stories."

Upton Sinclair

1878-1968 American novelist best known for "The Jungle," a graphic novel about the evils of the Chicago meatpacking industry. Other works include "The Dragon's Teeth."

Emiliano Zapata

1879-1919 Mexican revolutionary who led an army of fellow indigenous Mexican peasants during the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1919.

Will Rogers

1879-1935 American humorist famous for his quotes including "I never met a man I didn't like." He was killed in a place crash in Alaska in 1935.

Leon Trotsky

1879-1940 Russian Revolutionary born Lev Bronstein. One of the leaders in founding the USSR, he helped organize the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. He resigned in 1918 due to differences between himself and Lenin, primarily over the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. He organized the Red Army in the Civil War from 1918-1920. Upon Lenin's death in 1924, he and Stalin were chief rivals for succession. Stalin proved victorious, ousting him from the USSR in 1929. He was assassinated in Mexico by Spanish-born Ramon Mercader in 1940.

Joseph Stalin

1879-1953 Russian Revolutionary and head of the USSR from 1924-1953. He sided with Lenin in the 1903 Menshevism and Bolshevism party split, and rose through the Bolshevik party ranks. After Lenin's death in 1924, power struggle ensued. He eventually won the struggle for power even against the wishes of Lenin. In 1929, he had Leon Trotsky, his chief rival for Succession, exiled from the country. On his death in 1953, his body was placed respectfully next to Lenin's.

Albert Einstein

1879-1955 German-born Swiss-American physicist. One of the greatest scientists of all time, he is known for his many discoveries including the Theory of Relativity, an explanation of Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect which won him the 1921 Nobel Prize in physics. A Jew, he left Germany during Hitler's rise to power and stayed in the US. A pacifist, he urged President Franklin Roosevelt to investigate the possibilities of an atomic bomb, because of the danger that Germany might develop such a weapon. After the war, he worked hard to prevent nuclear proliferation. In 1940 he became an American citizen and held a post at Princeton from 1933 until his death.

Otto Hahn

1879-1968 German physicist and chemist who won the 1944 Nobel Prize in chemistry for splitting the Uranium atom five years earlier. His work led to the development of the atomic bomb.

E.M. Forester

1879-1970 English novelist whose novels include "Where Angels Fear to Tread," "The Longest Journey," "A Room With a View," "Howard's End," "Maurice," and his best-known and final novel, "A Passage to India."

Alfred Wegener

1880-1930 German geologist known for his theory of Continental Drift, set forth in his "The Origin of Continents and Oceans."

Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud

1880-1953 founder and first king of Arabia. He ruled from 1932-1953.

H.L. Mencken

1880-1956 American author, journalist, and philologist best remembered for his monumental philological work, "The American Language."

George Marshall

1880-1959 American army officer who, as Army chief of staff from 1939-1945 helped direct Allied strategy in WWII. As Secretary of State, from 1947-1949, he organized and directed the European Recovery Program, known as his namesake plan, to promote post WWII recovery in Europe. He received the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.

Douglas MacArthur

1880-1964 American General during WWII who commanded the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific, and directed the post war occupation of Japan. He served as commander of the UN military forces in the Korean War, but was removed from command by President Truman after a policy dispute. He tried unsuccessfully to win the 1948 and 1952 Republican nomination.

Jawaharlal Nehru

1880-1964 Indian statesman and first prime minister of India from 1947-1964. He was also the father of Indira Gandhi.

John L. Lewis

1880-1969 American labor leader, President of the United Mine Workers and an important figure in the AFL. He broke from the AFL founding the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) in 1940.

Bela Bartok

1881-1945 Hungarian composer known for the ballet "Miraculous Mandarin" and the opera "Bluebeard's Castle."

Sir Alexander Fleming

1881-1955 Scottish bacteriologist who discovered the antibiotic Penicillin by accident in 1928. He also discovered Iysozyme in 1922 and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Cecil B. DeMille

1881-1959 American film director who is famous for the film "The Ten Commandments."

Pablo Picasso

1881-1973 Spanish artist whose art is usually described in a series of overlapping periods. His melancholy blue period included works such as "The Old Guitarist." His "Demoiselles d'Avignon" is the most significant of his Cubist works. In the 1920s he introduced the collage. In the 1930s he adopted Surrealism, his second landmark work "Guernica," was a graphic condemnation of the 1937 bombing of the Guernica in the Spanish Civil War.

P. G. Wodehouse

1881-1975 English novelist, creator of the characters Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, the Butler.

Virginia Woolf

1882-1941 English Stream of Consciousness author famous for the novels "Mrs. Dalloway," "To the Lighthouse," and "Orlando."

James Joyce

1882-1941 Irish novelist whose novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" was published in 1916 and is an autobiographical account of main character Stephen Dedalus. Other works include "Ulysses," featuring characters Leopold and Molly Bloom, and again, Stephen Dedalus. Another story is "Finnegan's Wake."

Robert Goddard

1882-1945 American rocker designer who built the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

1882-1945, 32nd President of the US from 1933-1945. He earned a law degree from Colombia University in 1905, was elected to the NY State Senate In 1910, and served as assistant secretary of the navy from 1913-1920 before running as a vice presidential candidate with James Cox on the losing Democratic ticket in 1920. He was elected governor of NY in 1928 and was re-elected in 1930. Nominated by the Democrats in 1932, he defeated President Hoover. He took office at a time of huge financial crisis, so he rushed a flood of reform measures designed to revive the economy through Congress in the first months in office, the so-called "hundred days." He set up many new agencies including the National Recovery Administration, the Public Works Administration, and Social Security. These reforms, and many others, were collectively referred to as the New Deal. He was aided by his "Brain Trust," an academic group of his closest advisors. His presidential firsts include being the first president to broadcast on the radio, broadcasting his popular fireside chats. He easily won re-election in 1936 and broke precedent by seeking and winning a third reelection in 1940 and a fourth in 1944. As commander in Chief, he led the US through the majority of WWII. On April 12, 1945, he died suddenly of a cerebral brain hemorrhage.

Fiorello LaGuardia

1882-1947 Mayor of New York City from 1934-1945. He was known as the "Little Flower."

A. A. Milne

1882-1956 English author best known for his classic children's stories "Winnie the Pooh," and "The House at Pooh Corner."

Joyce Kilmer

1886-1918 American known primarily for his poem "Trees," found in the collection "Trees and Other Poems."

Al Jolson

1886-1950 American entertainer famous for "The Jazz Singer," the first major motion picture with sound.

Clarence Birdseye

1886-1956 American inventor and founder of the frozen-food industry. His successful experiments with food freezing processes led to the founding of General Foods Co. in 1924

Diego Rivera

1886-1957 Mexican artist known for his large murals depicting Mexican life.

Hilda Doolittle

1886-1961 American poet known as H.D. She was an imagist poet who is best known for the volumes "Sea Garden" and "Bid Me to Live."

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

1886-1969 German-American architect who was a leading figure in modern architecture. He served as director of the Bauhaus before coming to America. His works include his collaboration with Phillip Johnson on the Seagram building in New York City.

Hugo Black

1886-1971, associate justice of the Supreme Court, appointed by FDR in 1937 and served until 1971. He used to be a Klansman, but he became a proud advocate for civil rights. He served in the Senate from Alabama from 1927-1937 prior to his appointment to the high court.

David Ben-Gurion

1886-1973 Israeli statesman born in Poland as David Grun, he settled in Palestine in 1906 and devoted his life to Zionism. After Israel achieved independence, he became the first prime minister from 1949-1953 and then again from 1955-1963

Charles I

1887-1922 Austrian Emperor who ascended to the throne during WWI, and abdicated in 1918 as the last emperor of Austria.

Vidkun Quisling

1887-1945 Norwegian Fascist leader who aided the Germans in their conquest of Norway in 1940 and was installed as premier from 1942-1945. He was tried for treason and shot after the war, and his name is synonymous with "traitor,"

Erwin Schrodinger

1887-1961 Austrian physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics for developing wave mechanics and the wave equation that bears his name.

Marcel Duchamp

1887-1968 French painter who was famous for his cubist work "Nude Descending a Staircase." He was a co-founder of the Dada group, he also invented ready-mades, commonplace objects exhibited as works of art.

Chiang Kai-shek

1887-1975 Chinese leader who, after the death of Sun-Yat Sen in 1925, became prominent in the Kuomintang party. He became head of the Nationalist government in 1928. In 1949, the Communists drove Chiang and the Nationalists to Taiwan. While in Taiwan, he reorganized his military and became president of Nationalist China (Taiwan) in 1950.

Bernard Law Montgomery

1887-1976 British field marshal who, in WWII, became a British hero after his victory at El Alamein. In Normandy, he was filed commander of all ground forces until August 1944, he also headed the British occupation forces in 1945-1946.

Georgia O'Keeffe

1887-1986 American painter known for her paintings with Southwestern motifs such as "Cow's Skull, Red, White, and Blue," and "Ladder to the Moon." She married Alfred Stieglitz in 1924.

Alf Landon

1887-1987 American politician who served as governor of Kansas from 1933-1937 and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for President in 1936. His daughter Nancy Landon Kassenbaum was first elected US Senator from Kansas in 1978.

T. E. Lawrence

1888-1935 British soldier known as "Lawrence of Arabia," he is best known for his legendary guerrilla warfare with the Arabs against the Turks in WWI. He also wrote "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom."

Jim Thorpe

1888-1953 American athlete, and perhaps the greatest athlete of all time. He rose to prominence as a football star at the Carlisle Indian School. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics but his medals were stripped when it was learned he played semi-pro football. The medals were posthumously restored in 1982.

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill

1888-1953 American playwright whose first full-length play was the Pulitzer winning, "Beyond the Horizon," "The Emperor Jones," "Anna Christie," "The Hairy Ape," "Desire Under the Elms," "Strange Interlude," the trilogy "Mourning Becomes Electra," his only comedy "Ah, Wilderness!," "The Iceman Cometh," and the autobiographical masterpiece "Long Day's Journey Into Night." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936.

Richard Evelyn Byrd

1888-1957 American explorer who, in 1926 went with Floyd Bennett to become the first people to fly over the North Pole. He is also remembered for his five expeditions to Antarctica. "Discovery," and "Alone" are accounts of his trips.

Raymond Chandler

1888-1959 American author and creator of detective Philip Marlowe. Works include "The Big Sleep," and "The Long Goodbye."

Maxwell Anderson

1888-1959 American playwright who wrote "What Price Glory?" "Winterset" and "Elizabeth the Queen."

John Foster Dulles

1888-1959 US Secretary of State from 1953-1959 under President Eisenhower.

Henry Agard Wallace

1888-1960 Vice President of the United States from 1941 to 1945.

T. S. Eliot

1888-1965 English poet whose early works include "Prufrock and Other Observations," and "The Wasteland." His later poems include "Ash Wednesday," and "Four Quartets." Plays include "Murder in the Cathedral," and "The Cocktail Party." Eliot was awarded in the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Irving Berlin

1888-1989 Russian-born American songwriter who wrote over 1000 songs, including his first big hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "God Bless America."

Adolf Hitler

1889-1945 German dictator who wrote "Mein Kampf" in prison, Meaning "My Struggle." This put forth his anti-Semitic beliefs and his plans for world domination. His rise to power began in earnest when President Paul von Hindenburg named him chancellor in 1993, and the Reichstag gave him dictatorial powers. With the help of Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, and others, he quickly took control of all the facets of German life. He established concentration camps and made anti-Semitism the law of the land. His aggressive foreign policy, and the appeasement policy of the Chamberlain, led to the Munich Pact of 1938. He allied himself with Italy's Mussolini and Spain's Franco and prepared Germany for war. With his invasion of Poland in 1939, World War II began. Hitler's plans ultimately failed, and the Third Reich collapsed. He married his longtime mistress on April 29, 1945, and the two committed suicide the next day.

Edwin Hubble

1889-1953 American astronomer who put forth his namesake Law that supported the theory of the expanding universe, and discovered several large galaxies beyond the Milky Way. An important telescope is named after him.

Igor Sikorsky

1889-1972 Russian-born American engineer best known for inventing the modern helicopter.

Thomas Hart Benton

1889-1975 American painter, the best known American muralist of the 1930s and 1940s, with the exact same name of his grandfather, a Democratic Missouri Senator from the 1820s-1850s with the same exact name

Martin Heidigger

1889-1976 German philosopher regarded as one of the founders of 20th century existentialism. His major work was "Being and Time."

Charlie Chaplin

1889-1977 English actor and director whose films include "The Gold Rush," "The Kid," and "Great Dictator."

Vladimir Zworykin

1889-1982 American physicist and inventor of the ionoscope and the kinescope, a cathode-ray tube used in the first televisions.

Marc Chagall

1889-1985 Russian painter who was a forerunner of Surrealism and he drew most of his subject matter from the Jewish culture, Chagall lived most of his life in France. Works include "I and the Village," and "The Rabbi of Vitebsk."

Karel Capek

1890-1938 Czech author who wrote the play "R.U.R." (Short for "Rossum's Universal Robots,") which introduced the word "robot" to the world.

Boris Pasternak

1890-1960 Russian author whose masterpiece is the epic novel "Dr. Zhivago." He was forced to refuse the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1890-1969 34th President of the US. A West Point graduate, he rose to prominence during WWII. In 1942, he was named US Commander of the European theater, and in 1943 he became supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. He directed the Allied invasion of Europe in June 1944, and later that year was made a five-star General. He served as president of Colombia University from 1948-1950, and retired from the Army in 1952 to campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He easily defeated Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. One of his first decisions as president was to end the Korean War. Despite a heart attack in 1955, he easily won re-election in 1956. In 1957, he sent troops to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas to enforce court-ordered school desegregation. Also in 1957, he put forth his namesake doctrine, which committed the US to an active role in the Middle East to protect the area from Communist aggression. The Cold War escalated just before the end of his term, and he broke relations with Cuba just before leaving office in 1961.

Ho Chi Minh

1890-1969 Vietnamese nationalist leader who served as president of North Vietnam from 1954-1969. He became the first president of North Vietnam after the Geneva Conference that divided Vietnam. His North Vietnamese forces defeated the US supported South Vietnam government in the Vietnam War.

Charles de Gaulle

1890-1970 French statesman who served as president from 1945-1946 and the first president of the Fifth Republic from 1959-1969.

Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

1890-1973 American war hero, in WWI he became the leading US ace pilot by destroying at least 26 enemy aircraft. He later headed Eastern Airlines.

Katherine Anne Porter

1890-1980 American author whose short stories are collected in the volumes "Flowering Judas," "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," and her collected short stories. Her lone novel was the 1962 "Ship of Fools."

Sir Frederick Banting

1891-1941 Canadian physician who shared the Nobel Prize in medicine with John McLeod for isolating, together with assistant Charles Best, the pancreatic hormone insulin.

Grant Wood

1891-1942 American painter of scenes of the rural Midwest including "American Gothic."

Erwin Rommel

1891-1944 Germany field marshal known as the "desert fox," who commanded the Africa Korps in the North African campaigns of WWII. His string of victories was broken by the decisive British victory at El Alamein.

Sergei Prokofiev

1891-1953 Russian composer best known for his ballet "Romeo and Juliet," and the symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf."

Earl Warren

1891-1974 14th chief justice of the US Supreme Court from 1943 to 1953, and was in one successful candidate for Vice President in 1948. As chief justice he presided over several important civil rights decisions, most notably Brown v Topeka Board of Education in 1954. He also headed the controversial commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy.

Sir James Chadwick

1891-1974 English physicist famous for discovering the neutron. He was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Haile Selassie

1891-1975 Ethiopian Emperor from 1930-1974. In 1928 he was crowned king of Ethiopia and became emperor in 1930. He was deposed in 1974 by an army coup.

Karl Doenitz

1891-1980 German admiral and chief naval commander during WWII, and he headed the German government that negotiated the unconditional surrender to the Allies.

Wendell Lewis Willkie

1892-1944 American political leader and unexpected Republican candidate for president in 1940.

John Bardeen

1908-1991 American physicist. He was the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice in the same field, and shared the 1956 physics prize with Walter Brattain and William Shockley for developing the transistor and the 1972 physics prize with Leon Cooper and John Schreiffer for their work in superconductivity.

Thurgood Marshall

1908-1993 associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1967-1991. He became the first African-American Supreme Court Justice when Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the court in 1967.

James Agee

1909-1955 American author famous for "Let us Now Praise Famous Men," a commentary on Depression-era tent families, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning "A Death in the Family."

Lyndon B. Johnson

1909-1973, 36th president of the US from 1963-1969. He served as a Democratic congressman and Senator from Texas, becoming majority leader of the Senate following the 1954 elections. After losing the 1960 presidential nomination to John F. Kennedy, he agreed to become running mate. After Kennedy was assassinated, he was immediately sworn in as President. He was elected to a full term in 1964 and launched his social and economic welfare programs to create his Great Society. This plan included Medicare and Medicaid, and other sweeping reforms such as founding the Head Start Program and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He began the bombing of North Vietnam in 1965 and the ensuing war aroused widespread opposition in Congress and the public. He announced that he would not seek re-election in 1968, and he and his wife Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor retired to their Texas ranch.

U Thant

1909-1974 Burmese diplomat and Secretary General of the United Nations from 1962-1972.

Edwin Land

1909-1991 American inventor who, in 1937 established the Polaroid Corporation and invented the Polaroid camera in 1947.

Francis Bacon

1909-1992 English painter. Renowned 20th century artist known for "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion." (1944)

Wallace Stegner

1909-1993 American Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Angle of Repose."

Eugene Ionesco

1909-1994 Romanian-born French playwright of Absurdism, his plays include "The Bald Soprano," "The Lesson," "The Chairs," and "Rhinoceros."

Eero Saarinen

1910-1961 Finnish-American architect famous for designing the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO, and many buildings including the Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, VA.

Samuel Barber

1910-1981 American composer best known for his "Adagio for Strings," "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" and the operas "Vanessa" and "Antony and Cleopatra."

William Shockley

1910-1989 American physicist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain for producing the first transistor.

Georges Pompidou

1911-1974 President of France from 1969-1974.

Hubert Humphrey

1911-1978 US Vice President from 1965-1969. He served as mayor of Minneapolis from 1945-1948, US Senator from 1949-1964, and again from 1971-1978, and Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968 he was the Democratic presidential candidate, but lost a close race to Richard Nixon.

Konstantin Chernenko

1911-1985 Soviet political leader who was elected chairman and general secretary of the Communist party on the death of Yuri Andropov in 1984. He died shortly after taking office.

Sir William Golding

1911-1993 English novelist who is best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Eva Braun

1912-1945 longtime mistress and later wife of German dictator Adolf Hitler. She married Hitler just days before their double suicide.

Alan Turing

1912-1954 British mathematician and computer theorist famous for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence and for designing the Turing test, a procedure to test whether a computer is capable of humanlike thought.

Jackson Pollock

1912-1956 American painter and pioneer of abstract expressionism, he was influenced by Surrealism and the works of Pablo Picasso, his style is also known as drip painting and action painting, his life was made into a film in 2000 starring Ed Harris, for which Marcia Gay Harden won an Academy Award for best supporting Actress.

Werhner Von Braun

1912-1977 German-American rocket engineer who led the design team responsible for the German V-2 rocket. He was brought to the US in 1945, where he worked on NASA projects such as the Saturn rocket and the Apollo missions.

John Cheever

1912-1982 American author whose works include the novel "The Waspshot Chronicle" and a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of stories "The Stories of John Cheever."

Barbara Tuchman

1912-1989 American historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for History two times for "The Guns of August" and "Stilwell and the American Experience in China."

Tip O'Neill

1912-1994 American politician, a Democrat from Massachusetts, he served as Speaker of The House from 1977-1987.

Kim Il Sung

1912-1994 North Korean political leader who served as North Korea's first premier from 1948-1972 and became president in 1972. His son Kim Jong Is was groomed as his successor.

Babe Didrikson

1913-1956 American athlete and perhaps the greatest female athlete of all time. She won two Olympic gold medals in track and field, and as a golfer won the US and British Amateur, and the US Open three times in 1948, 1950, and 1954. In 1938 she married wrestler George Zaharias.

James Hoffa

1913-1975 American labor leader who, in 1957 became president of the Teamster's Union that was expelled from the AFL-CIO that year. He was imprisoned in 1967 and remained Teamster's president until 1971 when president Nixon commuted his sentence provided that he would not engage in union activity until 1980. He disappeared in 1975, and it is popularly believed that he was murdered.

Benjamin Britten

1913-1976 English composer whose works include "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" and "A Ceremony of Carols." His operas include "Peter Grimes" "The Turn of the Screw" and "Death in Venice."

Jesse Owens

1913-1981 African-American track star who, at the 1936 Olympics, upset Hitler by setting several world records and winning 4 gold metals in track.

Willy Brandt

1913-1992 German political leader born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm. After returning to Germany after WWII, he was elected Mayor of West Berlin from 1957-1966. He became Chancellor of West Germany in 1969 and instituted peace talks with Eastern European countries including East Germany. He was awarded the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize. He resigned in 1974 after an East German spy was discovered in his administration.

Menachem Begin

1913-1992 Israeli Prime minister from 1977-1983, signed the Camp David Accords peace agreement with Egypt in 1979. He shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Egypt's Anwar al-Sadat.

Richard Nixon

1913-1994, 37th president of the US from 1969-1974. He was the first to thrust into the national eye while serving as a Republican Representative from California from 1947-1951 during his investigation of Alger Hiss. He also served as a US Senator from 1951-1953. He was elected to the vice presidency under Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and they were re-elected in 1956. In 1960, he as narrowly defeated for the presidency by John F. Kennedy, and in 1962 he as defeated in the California gubernatorial race. Not to be denied, he won the 1968 Republican nomination and he and running mate Spiro Agnew defeated Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace in the 1968 election. He and Agnew were easily re-elected in 1972, soundly defeating George McGovern. In 1973, Agnew resigned and was replaced by Gerald R. Ford. Investigations into the Watergate Affair revealed significant corruption in his administration, and in 1974 the House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings. On August 9, 1974 he became the first president to resign. His successor Gerald R. Ford, granted him a full pardon.

Dylan Thomas

1914-1953 Welsh poet and author of "Portrait of the Author as a Young Dog." He died a young death due to obsessive drinking.

Tennessee Williams

1914-1983 American playwright whose plays include "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and "The Night of the Iguana."

Yuri Andropov

1914-1984 Soviet leader, served as head of the KGB (1967-1982), and was General Secretary of the Soviet Union, succeeded Leonid Brezhnev in 1983 as Soviet Chief of State

John Hersey

1914-1993 American author famous for his WWII novels "Hiroshima" and "A Bell for Adano."

Ralph Ellison

1914-1995 African-American author of the classic novel "Invisible Man" which detailed the struggles of a nameless young African American man.

Jonas Edward Salk

1914-1995 American physician and microbiologist famous for developing the first vaccine against polio.

Ingrid Bergman

1915-1982 Swedish film actress in films "Casablanca" "For Whom the Bell Tolls" "Notorious" and "Anastasia."

Saul Bellow

1915-2005 American novelist his novels include "Herzog" "Mr. Sammler's Planet" "Humbolt's Gift" "More Die of Heartbreak" and "The Bellarosa Connection."

Aldo Moro

1916-1978 Italian politician in 1978 he was kidnapped and murdered by terrorist Red Brigades a months before he was expected to win the Italian presidency.

Francois Mitterand

1916-1996 French political leader and the longest-serving president in the history of France, he served from 1981-1995.

John F. Kennedy

1917-1963, 35th president of the United States from 1961-1963. The son of Joseph and brother of Robert and Edward. After commanding a PT boat in the Pacific during WWII, he served as a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts from 1947-1953 and won a seat in the US Senate in 1952. He married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. He won the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1960, and defeated Republican Richard Nixon. At 43, he was the youngest man to be elected president. During his term, he put forth his domestic program, the New Frontier, he was widely criticized die the aborted Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961. In 1962, spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. He ordered a blockade of Cuba and demanded the removal of the missiles, and the Cuban Missile Crisis began. After a brief, tense period of time, the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles. Other notable accomplishments include the formation of the Peace Corp and promising that the US would place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. He was shot and killed in Dallas, TX on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald, and was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Warren commission was established to investigate the assassination, and it controversially concluded that the assassination was the work of a single gunman.

Carson McCullers

1917-1967 American author whose works include the novels "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," and "The Member of the Wedding," and the short story collection "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe."

Indira Gandhi

1917-1984 prime minister of India from 1966-1977 and again from 1980-1984. The daughter of Jawaharal Nehru, she became Prime Minister of India on the death of Shri Shastri. She was assassinated in 1984 by Sikh members of her bodyguard unit. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her as prime minister. He was assassinated in 1991 by Tamil separatists.

Spiro Theodore Agnew

1918-present, 39th Vice President of the United States (1969-1973) under Richard Nixon. He served as governor of Maryland (1967-1969). He resigned in 1973 after evidence proved political corruption during his years of Maryland politics, and pleaded no contest to the charge of income tax evasion.

Jackie Robinson

1919-1972 African-American baseball player who became the first black Major League Baseball player in 1947 when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Charles Schultz

1920-1999 American cartoonist famous for creating the Peanuts comic strip containing the characters Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Snoopy the Dog.

James Jones

1921-1977 American novelist whose novels include "From Here to Eternity," and "The Thin Red Line."

Andrei Sakharov

1921-1989 Soviet nuclear physicist and human rights activist. In the 60s he became a harsh critic of the arms race and of Soviet repression, though he helped develop the USSR's hydrogen bomb a decade earlier. His internal exile to the city of Gorky in 1980 set off a worldwide protest. This exile was lifted by Gorbachev in 1986. In 1975 he became the first Soviet citizen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Judy Garland

1922-1969 American actress whose films include "The Wizard of Oz," and "A Star Is Born."

Jack Kerouac

1922-1969 American writer and leader of the Beat Generation. He is best known for his novel "On the Road."

Kingsley Amis

1922-1995 British novelist best known for his satire "Lucky Jim."

Yitzhak Rabin

1922-1995 Israeli political leader who became the first native-born prime minister of Israel in 1974 and served from 1974-1977 and ousted Shimon Peres in 1992 serving until his assassination in 1995. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Peres and PLO Leader Yasir Arafat for their 1993 peace accord.

Rocky Marciano

1924-1969 American boxer who won the heavyweight championship in 1952 and retired in 1956 as the only undefeated heavyweight champion.

Truman Capote

1924-1984 American author who wrote works in many genres, including novels "The Grass Harp," "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood."

Patricia Roberts Harris

1924-1985 African American public official who became the first black woman to serve in a cabinet post when she was named HUD Secretary by Jimmy Carter in 1977.

James Baldwin

1924-1987 African American author of novels dealing with race relations. Works include "Go Tell it On the Mountain," and "Just Above my Head," and the essay collection "Notes of a Native Son."

Flannery O'Connor

1925-1964 American author known for her contemporary or Southern life in the novels "Wise Blood," and short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," and "Everything That Rises Must Converge."

Malcolm X

1925-1965 African-American political leader born Malcolm Little, he adopted the Black Muslim faith while in prison, and became a Muslim minister upon his release. He converted to orthodox Islam in 1964 after a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1965 he was assassinated in Harlem. His autobiography is a classic of the black power movement.

Jose Napoleon Duarte

1925-1990 President of El Salvador from 1980-1982 and again from 1984-1988.

Marilyn Monroe

1926-1962 American actress who starred in the films "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "Bus Stop," "Some Like It Hot," and "The Misfits." Her husbands included playwright Arthur Miller and baseball player Joe DiMaggio. She died from an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962.

Ralph David Abernathy

1926-1990; US civil rights leader; succeeded Martin Luther King Jr. as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after King's death.

Olaf Palme

1927-1986 Swedish Prime Minister from 1969-1976 and again from 1982-1986, when he was assassinated by an unknown gunman.

Cesar Chavez

1927-1993 American labor leader, a migrant worker who organized the grape pickers in California in 1962.

Che Guevara

1928-1967 Cuban Revolutionary who was Fidel Castro's guerrilla leader in the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and served as minister of industry from 1961-1965. He was captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

1928-1979 Pakistani leader who served as President from 1971-9173 and prime minister from 1973-1977. He came to power after Pakistan's defeat in the war over Bangladesh's independence. He was overthrown in 1977 and executed in 1979.

Martin Luther King Jr.

1929-1968 African-American civil rights leader. A Baptist minister, he first gained prominence by advocating passive resistance to segregation and leading a boycott against the segregated bus lines in Montgomery, AL. He later founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. He was assassinated by James Earl Ray in 1964 while in Memphis, TN.

Princess Grace Kelly

1929-1982 princess of Monaco, she was a movie star before marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Lorraine Hansberry

1930-1965 African-American playwright best known for her play "A Raisin in the Sun."

Edward Higgins White

1930-1967 American astronaut who was the first American to perform extravehicular activity in space, he was killed in 1967 with crewmates Virgil Grissom and Roger Chafee by a preflight fire.

Andy Warhol

1930-1987 American artist and leading figure in pop art. Known for his paintings of common place objects including Campbell's Soup cans.

Mobutu Sese Seko

1930-1997 President of Zaire from 1967-1997.

Buzz Aldrin

1930-present American astronaut. During the Apollo 11 mission, he became the second man to walk on the moon.

Sylvia Plath

1932-1963 American poet whose poems appear in the volumes "Ariel," and "Collossus." She is perhaps best known for her autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar." She committed suicide is 1963.

Akihito

1933-present Japanese Emperor. The son of and successor to Hirohito. In 1959, he became the first member of the royal family to marry a commoner, his wife Shoda Michiko.

Yuri Gagarin

1934-1968 Russian cosmonaut who became the first man to orbit the Earth when his Vostok spacecraft who orbited the earth on April 12, 1961.

Hank Aaron

1934-present; American baseball player who beat Babe Ruth's homerun record of 714. He finished with 755 homeruns ans 2297 RBIs, both records. Played for the Braves (Milwaukee and then Atlanta).

Francis Ford Coppola

1939-2000 American film director famous for his films "The Godfather: I, II, and III," and "Apocalypse Now," based on Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness."

Arthur Ashe

1943-1993 American tennis player, first black man to win US Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon. His book A Hard Road to Glory have a history of blacks in sports. Died in 1993 of AIDS.

Lech Walesa

1943-present Polish Labor leader of the independent trade union Solidarity. He won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize.

Bill Clinton

1946-present, 42nd president of the US from 1993-2001. Born in Hope, Arkansas as William Jefferson Blythe, he graduated from Georgetown University, Yale Law School, and was a Rhodes Scholar. In 1976, he was elected attorney general in his home state of Arkansas, and in 1978 became the nation's youngest governor. He lost his re-election campaign for governor in 1980, but regained the office in 1982 and was re-elected twice more in 1986 and 1990. An underdog, he won the 1992 Democratic nomination for President, and he and running mate Al Gore easily defeated incumbent George H. W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot. He won re-election in 1996 over Bob Dole. He became the second president to be impeached in the House of Representatives in 1998, but was acquitted in his Senate Trial in 1999.

Bill Gates

1955-present American businessman whom at the age of 19, founded the Microsoft Corporation with Paul Allen in 1974.

Larry Bird

1956-present American basketball player who starred at Indiana State University in the 1970s. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics, leading them to the NBA championships in 1981, 1984, and 1986. He went on to coach the Indiana Pacers when he retired.

Cato the Elder

234-149 BC Roman statesman who, feeling that Carthage was the mortal enemy of Rome, ended each of his speeches with the phrase "Carthage Must be Destroyed."

Hannibal

247-183 BC Carthaginian general who, during the second Punic War, crossed the Alps with his troops and a fleet of elephants but was unable to conquer Rome. He returned to Carthage and was decisively beaten in the final battle in the Second Punic War by Scipio Africanus Major at the battle of Zama in 202 BC.

Archimedes

287-212 BC Greek mathematician and inventor, remembered for supposedly crying "Eureka!" (I found it!) after discovering his namesake Principle of Buoyancy in a bathtub.

Ptolemy

2nd century AD astronomer and mathematician famous for his work "Almagest," that presented the geocentric theory known as the Ptolemaic system.

Saint Jerome

347-420 Christian scholar who is chiefly known for his compilation of the "Vulgate Bible."

Nero

37-68 Roman Emperor from 54-68. When his mother Agrippina married Claudius I in 49 AD, she persuaded him to adopt this man. In 59 AD he murdered his mother and in 62 AD he murdered his wife Octavia. When Rome was burned in a fire in 64 AD, he accused the Christians and began the first Roman persecution.

Aristotle

384-322 BC Greek philosopher who studied under Plato and later tutored Alexander the Great. Known for opening a school, the Lyceum.

Gerald R. Ford

38th President of the United States born in Omaha, Nebraska as Leslie Lynch King Jr. He served as a Republican congressman from Michigan from 1949-1973 and was appointed Vice President of the United States in 1973 when he succeeded Spiro T. Agnew. He succeeded to the presidency on August 9, 1974 when president Richard Nixon resigned. He lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter, partially due to a poor economy and public outrage over his pardon of Richard Nixon.

Jimmy Carter

39th President of the US from 1977-1981. He was born in Georgia, graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD in 1946. After a stint in the Navy, he returned home to his family's peanut farm in 1953. He served as Governor of Georgia from 1970-1975. A relative political outsider, he and running mate Walter Mondale won the 1976 Presidential election, narrowly defeated President Gerald R. Ford's re-election. His presidency was plagued with shortcomings, but he successfully negotiated a monumental peace treaty between Egypt and Israel with his 1979 Camp David Accords. He was defeated soundly in 1980 by Ronald Reagan, partially due to his inability to obtain the release of 50 US hostages held in Iran. Since leaving office, he has served internationally observing the beginning of democracy in several nations, and has worked in the US with Habitat for Humanity, an organization that helps build homes for needy working-class Americans.

Ronald Reagan

40th President of the US from 1981-1989. A film actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, he joined the Republican Party in 1962. He served as governor of California from 1967-1975 before narrowly losing the 1976 Republican presidential nomination to President Gerald Ford. Four years later, he won the nomination and, with running mate George Bush, defeated Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. Soon after his term began, he was the victim of would-be assassin John Hinkley Jr. he was re-elected in 1984, easily defeating Democratic candidate Walter Mondale. In 1994 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Diogenes

412-323 BC Greek philosopher who taught that a simple life was a good life. He was most famous for living in a tub and searching the streets for an honest man. He was nicknamed "The Dog," and his followers were known as "Cynics."

George H. W. Bush

41st President of the US from 1989-1993. A graduate of Yale University, he served as a Navy fighter pilot in WWII. In 1966 he was elected to the first of two terms as a Republican representative from Texas. Among other positions, he served as an ambassador to the United Nations from 1971-1973 and director of the CIA from 1976-1977. After losing the 1980 Republican presidential nomination to Ronald Reagan, he served as Vice President from 1981-1989. In 1988, he and his running mate Dan Quayle defeated Michael Dukakis in the presidential election. Highlights of his term in office include the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose strongman Manuel Noriega, the Persian Gulf War In 1991 to turn back Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in 1992. He was defeated in his bid for re-election in 1992 by Bill Clinton.

Ovid

43 BC-18 AD Latin poet of "Metamorphoses," a major mythological work.

Xenophon

430-355 BC Greek historian who is most famous work is the "Anabasis."

Aristophanes

448-388 BC Greek playwright famous for being the greatest ancient comedy writer. Wrote "The Clouds," "The Frogs," "The Wasps," and "Lysistrata."

Hippocrates

460-370 BC Greek physician regarded as the Father of Medicine. He taught medicine based on objective observation and seductive reasoning. The Hippocratic oath, an ethical code formulated in Ancient Greece, is still administered in medical colleges today.

Euripides

480-406 BC Greek tragic poet whose surviving works include "Alcestis," "Medea," "Andromache," "The Trojan Women," "Orestes," "Iphigenia in Aulis," and "The Bacchae."

Xerxes

519-465 BC, King of Persia from 486 to 465 BC and son of Darius the first, known for his victory over the Spartans at Thermopylae, and for his defeat at Salamis.

Virgil

70-19 BC great Roman poet of "The Eclogues," "Georgics," and the great epic "Aeneid."

Charlemagne

742-814 Also known as Charles I King of the Franks. The son of Pepin the Short, he served as a Carolingian king of the Franks from 768-814. After restoring Leo III to the papacy in 800, Leo III crowned him emperor of what would later become the Holy Roman Empire. He was succeeded by his son Louis I.

Louis I

778-804 Emperor of the West 814-840. The son of Charlemagne, he became emperor upon his death in 814.

Charles III

839-888, also known as Charles the Fat, he was Emperor of the West from 881-887. The son of Louis the German, he briefly United the empire of Charlemagne, but was deposed in 887.

Alfred the Great

849-899 King of Wessex, England, (871-899)

Otto I

912-973 Holy Roman Emperor often regarded as the founder of the Holy Roman Empire, he was the son and successor of Henry I of Germany. He was crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962.

Hugh Capet

938-996 king of France from 987-996, the first of the Capetian kings.

Murasaki Shikibu

978-1031 Japanese writer known for writing "Tale of Genji," one of the Great Japanese works of fiction.

Gwendolyn Brooks

African American poet who became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1949 for her volume "Annie Allen." Other works include the poetry volume "Riot" and the novelette "Maud Martha."

Jesse Jackson

African American political leader and clergyman. He became the first legitimate African-American presidential candidate with his unsuccessful attempts in the 1984 and 1988 presidential primaries.

Toni Morrison

African-American author whose novels include "Song of Solomon," "Tar Baby," "Beloved," and "Jazz." She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature In 1993.

Maya Angelou

African-American poet, playwright, and short-story writer best known for the autobiographical "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," in 1993 she read her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning," at President Bill Clinton's inauguration.

Shirley Chisholm

African-American politician who was elected to the US House of Representatives. In 1968, becoming the first African-American Representative.

Charles II

Also known as Charles the Bald, he lived from 823-877 and served as Emperor of the West from 875-877. The son of Louis I, he became emperor upon the death of his nephew Louis II.

Marlon Brando

American actor famous for his roles in the films "A Streetcar Named Desire" "On the Waterfront" "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now"

Philip Johnson

American architect best known for collaboration with Mies Van Der Rohe on the Seagram Building in New York City in 1958.

Alan Shepard

American astronaut born in 1923 who, in 1961, became the first American in space when his Freedom made a 15-minute sub-orbital flight. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission and became the 5th person to walk on the moon.

Sally Ride

American astronaut born in 1951 who, in 1983, became the first woman in space.

Neil Armstrong

American astronaut, commander of Apollo 11 mission and the first man to walk on the moon.

Carl Sagan

American astronomer born in 1934 who is famous for popularizing science in his books including "The Dragons of Eden," and creating and hosting the television series "Cosmos."

John Updike

American author and creator of Harry Angstrom, born in 1932. Angstrom was featured in the novels "Rabbit Run," "Rabbit Redux," "Rabbit is Rich," and "Rabbit at Rest."

James Dickey

American author best known for his 1969 novel "Deliverance."

Joseph Heller

American author best known for the novel Catch-22, Other works include Something Happened, and Closing Time, which was a sequel to Catch-22.

Eudora Welty

American author born in 1909 known for her southern regional novels including "The Optimist's Daughter."

J. D. Salinger

American author born in 1919 of the novel "The Catcher in the Rye."

Leon Uris

American author born in 1924 of historical novels including "Exodus," "Mila 18," and "Armageddon."

Ray Bradbury

American author famous for his science fiction works such as "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451."

Thomas Pynchon

American author of the novels "V," "The Crying of Lot 49," and "Gravity's Rainbow."

Robert Bly

American author, active in the men's movement, his book "Iron John" deals with the passage of boys into manhood.

Chuck Yeager

American aviator born in 1923, he is best known for becoming the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Steve Jobs

American businessman who, with Stephen Wozniak, created the Apple Computer Company in 1976.

Garry Trudeau

American cartoonist born in 1943 p, creator of the comic strip "Doonesbury."

Bobby Fischer

American chess player who, in 1972 at Reykjavik, Iceland, he defeated Boris Spassky and won the world chess championship. He became the youngest player in history to achieve the rank of Grand Master in 15.

Rosa Parks

American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, AL in 1955, led to a local bus boycott and inspired civil rights leaders nationwide.

Stephen Sondheim

American composer and lyricist born in 1930 best known for writing the lyrics to Bernstein's "West Side Story," and "Sunday in the Park with George."

Philip Glass

American composer who is best known for his operas "Einstein on the Beach" and "The Voyage."

Arthur Miller

American dramatist whose masterpiece, "Death of a Salesman," is the story of Willy Lombardi whose life is destroyed by his hollow values. His other works include "The Crucible," McCarthy era parable of the Salem witch trials, and "After the Fall," which reflected his marriage to Marylin Monroe.

Milton Berle

American entertainer known by many nicknames, such as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television."

Gloria Steinem

American feminist and founder of Ms. magazine.

Betty Friedan

American feminist leader who, through her best-selling book, "The Feminine Mystique," prompted women to examine their roles in society. She was the founder and first president of the National Organization of Women (NOW) from 1966-1970.

Woody Allen

American film director. Born as Allen Stewart Konigsburg. His films include "Annie Hall" "Hannah and her Sisters" and "Alice."

Jim Brown

American football player who, after an All-American career at Syracuse University, starred as a running back for the Cleveland Browns. He set NFL career marks that have since been broken, for yards rushing, touchdowns rushing, and total touchdowns. Brown retired at the peak of his career in 1965 after only 8 pro seasons.

Norman Schwarzkopf

American general born in 1934 who was supreme commander of the US and Western forces in the Persian Gulf War.

Jack Nicklaus

American golfer born in 1940 nicknamed "The Golden Bear," He is considered by many to be the greatest golfer of all time. He won two national amateur titles while at Ohio State University, and has won a record eighteen major championships.

Orville and Wilbur Wright

American inventors of the airplane. They made their first flight on December 17, 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Walter Cronkite

American journalist who served as anchor of CBS evening news from 1962-1981.

John Irving

American novelist and humorist known for his "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules" both of which were made into movies.

Kurt Vonnegut

American novelist born in 1922 whose novels include "Slaughterhouse Five," and "Player Piano."

Gore Vidal

American novelist born in 1925 of "Myra Breckinridge," "Burr," and "1876."

Phillip Roth

American novelist born in 1933 known initially for his short story collection "Goodbye Colombus," and primarily for his comic masterpiece "Portnoy's Complaint."

Anne Tyler

American novelist born in 1941 of "The Accidental Tourist" and "Breathing Lessons."

William Styron

American novelist of "The Confessions of Nat Turner," and "Sophie's Choice."

Andrew Wyeth

American painter born in 1917 best known for his "Christina's World."

Benjamin Spock

American pediatrician born in 1903, and the author of the "Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care." He was the 1972 Presidential candidate for the people's party.

Edward Teller

American physicist born in 1908 who helped develop the first hydrogen bomb.

Murry Gell-Mann

American physicist. In 1963, he and George Zweig independently postulated the existence of quarks. He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics.

Neil Simon

American playwright born in 1927 famous for his popular comedies including "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," and "Biloxi Blues." He is also known for the more serious "Lost in Yonkers."

Sam Shepard

American playwright born in 1943 known for plays such as "Buried Child," and for writing the screenplay and acting in the 1983 movie "The Right Stuff."

David Mamet

American playwright of "Glengarry Glen Ross," born in 1947.

Allen Ginsberg

American poet who was a poet of "the Beat Generation" and is best known for his poem "Howl."

Ross Perot

American politician and businessman who, after working for IBM, found3d Electronic Data Systems In 1962. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and 1996.

Jerry Brown

American politician who served as Governor of California from 1975-1983 and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, 1980, and 1992, and for the US Senate from California in 1982.

Jane Byrne

American politician who was elected in 1979 to become the first female mayor of a Chicago. She lost her 1983 bid for re-election to Harold Washington.

James Watson

American scientist born in 1928. With Francis crick, he elucidated the structure and function of the DNA double helix. He shared the 1962 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine with With Francis Crick, he elucidated the structure and function of the DNA double helix. He shared the 1962 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins. He served as head of the Human Genome Research program from 1989 to 1992.

Norman Mailer

American writer who won fame with the WWII novel "The Naked and the Dead." Other works include "The Armies of the Night," "The Executioner's Song," a novel about convicted killer Gar Gilmore, and "Harlot's Ghost."

Henry Hudson

An English explorer sailing for the Dutch East India Company, he explored the Hudson River in 1609 while searching for the Northwest Passage. He reached the bay now named after him in 1610, but was abandoned and left to die by a mutinous crew.

Homer

Ancient Greek author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad tells of an episode in the Trojan War featuring Achilles and others. The Odyssey begins 10 years after the fall of Troy and chronicles Odysseus's adventures on his way back home to Ithaca. According to legend, he was blind, but some historians argue he never existed at all.

Stephen Hawking

British physicist known for his research on black holes and the Big Bang theory and wrote "A Brief History of Time." He was paralyzed in 1962 as the result of ALS.

William Joseph Brennan

Associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1956-1990, he served as justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1952 until his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1956 by President Eisenhower

Harry Blackmun

Associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1970-1994. He was appointed by President Nixon.

Kurt Waldheim

Austrian diplomat born in 1918, he was Secretary General of the UN from 1972-1981 and president of Austria from 1986-1992.

Anne Bronte

Author of "Agnes Grey" in 1847 who wrote under the pseudonym Acton Bell

Charlotte Bronte

Author of "Jane Eyre" "Shirley" "Villette" and "The Professor" who wrote under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Author of "Sonnets from the Portuguese" and the short novel "Aurora Leigh." Wife of Robert Browning.

Emily Bronte

Author of "Wuthering Heights" in 1847 who wrote under the pseudonym Ellis Bell

Byron White

Born in 1917 associate justice of the US Supreme Court from 1962 to 1993 appointed by President Kennedy.

George Wallace

Born in 1919, governor of Alabama from 1963-1967 and again from 1971-1979 and again from 1983-1987. A segregationist, he led an unsuccessful attempt to block the integration of Alabama Public schools in the early 1960s. Prevented by law from succeeding himself as governor, his wife Lurleen Wallace (1926-1968) ran successfully in his place in 1966. George Wallace ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968 as a third party candidate. In 1972, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, he was shot and paralyzed by an attempted assassination.

Alice Walker

Born in 1944, African American novelist of "The Color Purple."

August Wilson

Born in 1945, African-American playwright known for his plays "Fences," and "The Piano Lesson."

Charles Prince of Wales

Born in 1948, Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne. The eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer in a lavish ceremony, but they separated in 1992. William and Henry are their two sons.

Saint John Paul II

Born in Poland as Karol Joseph Wojtyla in 1920, and elected Pope in October 1978, this Catholic saint translated the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, and was firmly committed to combatting international hatred and anti-Semitism, and was an advocate for human rights.

Pele

Brazilian soccer player born in 1940 who is perhaps the greatest soccer player of all time, he led Brazil's national team to world titles in 1958, 1962, and 1970. He finished his career in the US playing with the New York Cosmos.

Sir Roger Bannister

British athlete; the first man to run the mile in under 4 minutes

Arthur C. Clarke

British author who was famous for his science-fiction works, most notably "2001: A Space Odyssey," published in 1968. He emigrated to Sri Lanka in 1956.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

British composer whose first great success came with the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar." Other musicals include "Evita," a fictional biography of Eva Peron, "Cats," based on T.S. Eliot poems, and "The Phantom of the Opera."

Pol Pot

Cambodian communist leader who led the Khmer Rouge, he rose to power in 1975 after the Khmer Rouge toppled the Cambodian government, and he killed millions of innocent people in the Cambodian genocide.

Brian Mulroney

Canadian politician born in 1939 served as prime minister of Canada from 1984-1993.

Jean Chretien

Canadian politician elected prime minister of Canada in 1993.

Kim Campbell

Canadian politician who, in 1993 succeeded Brian Mulroney as prime minister of Canada, becoming Canada's first female prime minister. She lost her position later that same year in the national elections.

I. M. Pei

Chinese American architect whose works include the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and a new subterranean entrance crowned by a glass pyramid for the Louvre in Paris.

Fidel Castro

Cuban political leader who opposed the Batista dictatorship and finally toppled his regime in 1959 with a successful guerrilla campaign. He served as premier from 1959-1976 and as president for the rest of his life.

Tutankhamen

Egyptian King who's Tomb was found completely intact in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

Sir Thomas Malory

English author of "Morte d'Arthur," (about King Arthur) who died in 1471.

Harold Pinter

English dramatist born in 1930. His best known plays include "The Birthday Party," and "The Homecoming."

Tom Stoppard

English playwright of "Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead," (1966) about Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

Francis Crick

English scientist who, with James Watson, elucidated the structure and function of the DNA double helix. He shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Watson and Maurice Wilkins.

Marcel Marceau

French mime born in 1923, noted for his sad-faced clown character, Bip.

Jacques Cousteau

French oceanographer who a pioneer in the development of SCUBA, he was the co-inventor, along with Emil Gagnan, of the aqualung. He was famous for his documentary films of his oceanographic expeditions aboard his ship "Calypso."

Jacques Chirac

French political leader who became president of France in 1995 after unsuccessful attempts in 1981 and 1988.

Helmet Kohl

German political leader who served as chancellor of West Germany 1982-1990 and of Germany after 1990. With the accession of East Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, Kohl became the head of a reunited Germany.

Henry Kissinger

German-born US Secretary of State from 1973-1977 who shared the 1973 Peace Prize for negotiating a cease-fire with North Vietnam.

Euclid

Greek mathematician who was famous for his invention of elementary plane geometry. His presentation of mathematics is contained in his work titled "Elements."

King David of Israel

Hebrew king who died in 972 BC. He was the successor of Saul, and one of the greatest Hebrew rulers. He is mentioned in the Old Testament several times including his fight with Goliath, his friendship with Saul's son Johnathan, and his seduction of Bathsheba. He is also considered the author of most of the Psalms.

Haldor Laxness

Icelandic novelist born in 1902 and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Saddam Hussein

Iraqi political leader who played a leading role in the 1968 coup that brought that Ba'ath party to power. He became party leader and president in 1979 his leadership led to the Iran-Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War.

Shimon Peres

Israeli politician born in 1923, he served as prime minister from 1984-1986 and was reinstated as Labor party leader, prime minister, and defense minister when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Yasir Arafat.

Juan Carlos I

King of Spain, born in 1938, grandson of Alfonso XIII, Francisco Franco named him successor. Upon Franco's death in 1975, he became the first Spanish king since his grandfather was deposed in 1931.

Edward the Confessor

King of the English from 1042-1066, he was the son of Ethelred the Unready and was succeeded by Harold, the son of powerful noble Earl Godwin.

Paul Bunyan

Legendary American lumberjack and keeper of Babe the Blue Ox

Muammar Qaddafi

Lydian army officer and head of state from 1969. He led a 1969 coup that deposed King Idris I. In 1986 he survived a US air attack that was launched in response to his support of terrorism.

Clement Attlee

Member of Winston Churchill's cabinet, became prime minister in 1945

Sir Edmund Hillary

New Zealand mountain climber who in 1953 along with companion Tenzing Norkay became the first person to reach the peak of Mt. Everest.

Thor Heyerdahl

Norwegian explorer known for his expeditions on primitive crafts including the Kon Tiki, Ra, and Tigris expeditions.

Muhammad Ali

Originally named Cassius Clay, won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics and defeated Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight crown in boxing in 1964. Stripped of his title in 1967 when he refused to serve in the US military for religious reasons. He regained the title in 1974 by defeating George Foreman, lost it in 1978 to Leon Spinks, and then won it a third time again in 1978.

Benazir Bhutto

Pakistani politician, she was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and the first female leader of a Muslim nation when she became Prime Minister in 1988. She was dismissed in 1990 by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan under accusations of corruption. She was acquitted of all charges and became Prime Minister again in 1993.

Yasir Arafat

Palestinian political leader, head of the guerrilla group Al Fatah, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969. In 1994, he became President of the Palestine National Authority. He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin for a groundbreaking 1993 peace accord.

Manuel Noriega

Panamanian general born in 1938, who in 1985, ousted the president and became the de facto leader. He was captured in 1989 when the US invaded Panama brought him to Miami, and tried him on racketeering and drug trafficking charges.

Ellery Queen

Pen name and fictional hero of writers Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay, they followed their novel "The Roman Hat Mystery," with over 100 other novels.

Javier Perez de Cuellar

Peruvian Secretary General of the United Nations from 1982-1991.

Corazon Aquino

Philippine politician and first female president of the Philippines from 1986-1992. Her husband Benigno Aquino was Ferdinand Marco's political opponent and in 1983 government agents assassinated her husband when he returned from exile.

Augusto Pinochet

President of Chile born in 1915 and served from 1973-1990, he led the coup that overthrew President Salvadore Allende in 1973.

Hosni Mubarak

President of Egypt in 1981. He succeeded Anwar Sadat after Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

Hafez al-Assad

President of Syria, was defense minister before taking over in a military coup

Milton Obote

President of Uganda from 1966-1971, and again from 1980-1985. He was overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971, returned to power after Amin was deposed in 1979, but was deposed himself in 1985.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau

Prime minister of Canada born in 1919. He was prime minister from 1968-1979 and again from 1980-1984. He succeeded Lester Pearson as Labor Party leader and prime minister in 1968.

Queen Anne (of England)

Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1702-1714. The daughter of James II and successor to William III. The last ruler of the House of Stuart, and a Protestant. She married Prince George of Denmark in 1683. None of her children lived, so George I succeeded her.

Queen Beatrix

Queen of the Netherlands who ascended to the throne in 1980 after her mother Juliana abdicated

Peter II

Russian Czar from 1727-1730, and the grandson of Peter I, he succeeded Catherine I, he was succeeded by his cousin Anna.

Peter III

Russian Czar from 1768-1772 succeeded his aunt Czarina Elizabeth but was quickly forced to abdicate in favor of his wife, Catherine II (The Great).

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Russian writer born in 1918, he wrote his novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," based in bus experiences while confined in a Stalin Labor camp. The USSR stopped publication of his works after 1966. His novels "The First Circle" and "Cancer Ward," we're both published abroad in 1968 and were critical of his life under Stalin. He won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature, and accepted by letter. He was arrested and deported to West Germany in 1974, lived in the US from 1976-1994, and returned to Russia in 1994. Other works include the novel "August 1914," and the documentary study "The Gulag Archipelago."

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Russian-American dancer who danced with the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet

Joseph Brodsky

Russian-born US poet who has lived in the US since 1972, and wrote in both English and Russian. He was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature and was named US poet laureate for 1991-1992. His works include "A Part of Speech" "Less Than One" and "To Urania."

Sir John Buchan

Scottish author and statesman known for his work "The Thirty-Nine Steps." In 1935, he was appointed general governor of Canada.

George VI

Second son of George V who became king of England in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII.

Aesop

Slave and semi-legendary Greek fabulist, author of "The Fox and the Grapes" and "The Tortoise and the Hare."

Nelson Mandela

South African political leader and President of South Africa in 1994, and winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. DeKlerk for his efforts to end Apartheid.

Frederick de Klerk

South African political leader who succeeded P. W. Botha as President of South Africa in 1989. With Nelson Mandela, he won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. He was succeeded by Mandela in 1994.

Pieter Botha

South African prime minister from 1978-1984 and president from 1984-1989.

Desmond Tutu

South African religious leader born in 1932 who was famous for advocating nonviolence in the struggle against Apartheid. He received the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize.

Christiaan Barnard

South African surgeon who completed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967

Nadine Gordimer

South African writer and winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her works include "The Voice of the Serpent," "July's People," and "My Son's Story."

Sun Myung Moon

South Korean religious leader who founded the Unification church in 1954, and has been accused of brainwashing converts and of several illegal activities.

Boris Yeltsin

Soviet and Russian political leader born in 1931, who became president of Russia in 1991.

Valentina Tereshkova

Soviet cosmonaut born in 1937, who became the first woman to orbit the earth in 1963 aboard the Vokstok 6.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Soviet political leader who served as the final president of the USSR from 1988-1991. He introduced the policies known as "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (Restructuring). In 1990 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Charles II

Stuart King of England, Scotland, and Ireland who lived from 1630-1685. The son of Charles I, he fled to France in 1646. He was named King of Scotland upon his father's death in 1649. He attempted to march into England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell, escaping again to France. In 1660, he was restored to the throne by the Restoration. He had no legitimate children, and was succeeded by James II.

Virginia Dare

The first child of English parents born in America in 1587, she was a member of the Roanoke colony that disappeared in 1591.

Pierre and Marie Curie

This husband and wife duo were French scientists who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with Antoine Becquerel because of their work in radioactivity. The wife became the first person to win a second Nobel Prize when she received the 1911 chemistry prize for her discovery of Polomium and Radium. The husband is known for the discovery of piezoelectricity in crystals in 1883. Their daughter Irene shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry with her husband Frederic Joliot.

Idi Amin

Ugandan President from 1971-1979. Seized control of the government from Milton Obote in 1971 and was exiled in 1979.

Walter Mondale

Vice President of the US from 1977-1981, a liberal Democrat and protege of Hubert Humphrey, he succeeded Humphrey as US Senator from Minnesota from 1964-1967. In 1976, Jimmy Carter chose him as his running mate and was elected Vice President, only to lose their bid for re-election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan and George Bush, he won the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, but was defeated soundly by Ronald Reagan. He chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984, making her the first major party female Vice Presidential candidate.

J. Danforth Quayle

Vice President of the US from 1989-1993. A conservative Republican from Indiana, he served in the US House of Representatives from 1977-1981 and the US Senate from 1981-1989 before becoming George Bush's running mate in 1988.

Jean-Pierre Rampal

Well-known 20th century French virtuoso flutist born in 1922.