Quizbowl famous people

Anderson, Hans Christian

1805-75, Danish fairy tale writer. Denmark's greatest storyteller famous fro works such as The Ugly Duckling, The Little March Girl, and The Snow Queen Anderson, Carl - 1905-91, American physicist who discovered the positron (1932). He shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with V. F. Hess

Mill, John Stuart

1806-73, British philosopher and economist. With Jeremy Bentham he founded Utilitarianism. His most famous work is On Liberty (1859).

Lee, Robert E.

1807-70, Confederate general in the US Civil War. The son of Henry Lee, he served in the Mexican War, was superintendent at West Point (1852-5), and led the capture of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. After the succession of the southern states, he declined the field command of the US forces. After the succession of Virginia, he took command of the Army of Northern Virginia and began the Seven Days Battles. Lee's 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 in the Gettysburg campaign. Lee was named general in chief of all Confederate armies in February 1865, but soon surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse (April 9, 1865).

Agassiz, Jean Louis

1807-73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist famous for first proposing the ice ages

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

1807-82, American poet. Among his popular epic poems are Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and Paul Revere's Ride (1861). His shorter poems include "The Village Blacksmith" and "Excelsior."

Garibaldi, Giuseppe

1807-82, Italian patriot. Garibaldi 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 (1861).

Whittier, John Greenleaf

1807-92, American poet. Whittier's works include Snow-bound (1866), Maud Muller (1867), and Barbara Frietchie.

Johnson, Andrew

1808-75. 17th president of the US (1865-69). 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's assassination. In 1868, the House passed a resolution of impeachment against him for violating the tenure of office act when he tried to force Edwin M. Stanton (Secretary of War) from office. The Senate failed to convict by one vote. Johnson's administration oversaw the purchase of Alaska, among other events. He returned to the Senate (1875) from Tennessee, but died shortly after his term began.

Mendelssohn, Felix

1809-47, German composer. At the age of 17 he composed the Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Later works include 5 symphonies including the Scottish, Italian, and Reformation.

Poe, Edgar Allan

1809-49, American writer. After being kicked out of University of Virginia and West Point, he began one of the most brilliant writing careers in the history of American literature. His works include the short stories "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Gold Bug." He is credited with being the father of the modern detective story with works such as The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). Poe's poems include "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee."

Braille, Louis

1809-52, 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.

Gogol, Nikolai

1809-52, Russian writer. Famous for the drama The Inspector-General (1836) and the novel Dead Souls (1842).

Lincoln, Abraham

1809-65, 16th president of the US (1861-5). Born in a log cabin in Kentucky, Lincoln was almost entirely self- educated. In 1834, he was elected to the state legislature in Indiana, and in 1836 became a lawyer. He served one term in Congress (1847-9) 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 A. Douglas in the 1858 Senate election. Douglas won the 1858 Senate election, but Lincoln won great acclaim in the famous Lincoln-Douglas 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 already succeeded, and four more succeeded 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 reelected over General George McClellan. On April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washing D.C., he was shot and killed by actor John Wilkes Booth.

Carson, Kit

1809-68, American frontiersman. He worked as a guide in the 1840's, including John Fremont's expeditions through California and Oregon. He also served as Union general in Civil War.

Darwin, Charles

1809-82, English evolutionist. As a naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle (1831-36), Darwin began accumulating the data he used to formulate the concept of evolution. In 1858, he and Alfred Russell Wallace simultaneously published the first works putting forth the concept of natural selection. His works include Origin of the Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).

McCormick, Cyrus

1809-84, American inventor of the reaper (1813).

Tennyson, Alfred Lord

1809-92, English poet. His first work Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) was followed by Poems (1832) which contained "The Lotus Eaters" and "The Lady of Shalott." Other works include "In Memorian" (1850), an elegy prompted by the death of fried Arthur Henry Hallam; "Maud" (1855), and the 12-part Arthurian epic Idylls of the King (1888). Tennyson was named poet laureate in 1850.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

1809-94, American author and physician. Author of the poems Old Ironsides and The Chambered Nautilus. Also known for his sketches published in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858) and others in the Autocrat series. He was the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Chopin, Frederic

1810-49, Polish composer. Helped establish the piano as a solo instrument with his piano concertos, including 58 mazurkas. Known for his longtime relationship with George Sand.

Schwann, Theodor

1810-82, German histologist known for originating (with Matthias Schliden) the cell theory. Also known for describing the nerve sheath that is named after him.

Barnum, P. T.

1810-91, American showman. In 1842 he opened his American Museum in New York City. It became well known for its outrageous exhibits including Tom Thumb and a famous pair of Siamese Twins. In 1850 he organized the successful US tour of the Swedish singer Jenny Lind. In 1871 he opened his world-renowned circus, The Greatest Show on Earth. Barnum merged with his chief competitor James Bailey in 1881.

Otis, Elisha

1811-61, American inventor of the first passenger elevator (1857).

Thackeray, William Makepeace

1811-63, English novelist famous for his satirical novels Book of Snobs (1848) and Vanity Fair (1848). Other works include Henry Esmond (1852) and The Virginian (1857).

Greeley, Horace

1811-72, American newspaper editor. He founded the New York Tribune in 1841, and is best known for writing "Go West, young man."

Sumner, Charles

1811-74, US Senator from Massachusetts. An abolitionist, Sumner was assaulter by Rep. Preston S. Brooks after making an antislavery speech (1856).

Liszt, Franz

1811-86, Hungarian composer. Regarded as the greatest pianist of his time, he is best known today for his twenty Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher

1811-96, American writer and daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Henry Ward Beecher. Best known for her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Bunsen, Robert

1811-99, German scientist famous for inventing and improving various laboratory equipment, most notably the Bunsen burner. Also (with Gustav Kirchhoff) discovered the elements Cesium and Rubidium using spectroscopy.

Browning, Robert

1812-89, English poet. Known for his dramatic monologues such as My Last Duchess, and The Bishop Orders his Tomb, he was an important influence on the 20th century poetry. In 1846, after a secret courtship, he married poet Elizabeth Barrett, and took her to Italy, where they lived until her death in 1861. After returning to England, he published his masterpiece The Ring and the Book (1868). Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most famous works include Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) and the short novel written in verse, Aurora Leigh (1857).

Verdi, Guiseppe

1813-1901, Italian operatic composer known for Rigoletto (1851), Il Travatore 1853), La Traviata (1853), Aida (1871), Macbeth (1847), Otello (1887), and Falstaff (1893)

Kierkegaard, Soren

1813-55, Danish philosopher and forerunner of 20th century existentialism. Largely ignored in his time, he is remembered today for his works Either/Or (1843) and Fear and Trembling (1843).

Douglas, Stephen

1813-61, American statesman. Democratic congressman (1843-47) and senator from Illinois (1847-61). Seeking senate reelection in 1858, he engaged Abraham Lincoln in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, and defeated Lincoln. He was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1860, but lost the election to Lincoln.

Livingstone, David

1813-73, Scottish explorer. While a medical missionary in what is now Botswana, he crossed the Kalahari Desert and discovered the Zambezi River. In 1855, he discovered Victoria Falls. H.M. Stanley set out to find Livingstone, doing so in 1871. The two set out on an expedition to Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Wagner, Richard

1813-83, German composer of the operas The Flying Dutchman (1814), Tannhauser (1844), and Lohengrin (1848). Best known for his myth cycle tetralogy Ring of the Nibelungen which includes The Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and The Twilight of the Gods. Other works include his only comic opera The Mesitersinger of Nurnberg (1867), Tristan and Isolde (1857) and his final work Parsifal (1882).

Fremont, John Charles

1813-90, American explorer and politician. Called 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 (1850-1). Fremont was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for President in 1856.

Colt, Samuel

1814-62, American inventor of the revolving pistol (1835).

Angstrom, Anders

1814-74, Swedish physicist after which the length equal to 10-10 meters is named

Millet, Jean Francois

1814-75, French painter. Associated with the Barbizon School, his best-known work is The Gleaners (1857). Millikan, Robert - 1868-1953, American physicist. He received the 1923 Nobel Prize in physics for determining the charge of an electron with his famous oil drop experiment.

Hooker, Joseph

1814-79, Union general in the US Civil War. 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.

Tilden, Samuel

1814-86, American political leader and loser of the 1876 presidential election. Though Tilden garnered more votes than republican Rutherford b Hayes, some of the electoral votes were disupted. Tilden lost the election to Hayes by one vote after all the disputed votes were given to Hayes.

Dana, Richard Henry

1815-1882, American author. His classic Two Years Before the Mast (1840) is a novel about the days of sailing ships. His father Richard Henry Dana Sr. wrote the poem The Buccaneer (1827).

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

1815-1902, American feminist. With Lucretia Mott, she organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY (1848)

Boole, George

1815-64, English mathematician and creator of Boolean algebra, his form of symbolic logic, which is the basis of many computer technologies.

Trollope, Anthony

1815-82, English novelist famous for his Barsetshire novels including The Warden (1855), and Barchester Towers (1857).

Bismarck, Otto

1815-97, German statesman. Known as the "Iron Chancellor", he served as premier of Prussia (1862-90) and chancellor of Germany (1871-90). Perhaps his larges achievement was hi role in the formation of a unified Germany. He exploited the German states' fears of France in order to bring the under Prussia's control by provoking the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). After the war ended in France's defeat, Bismarck easily brought the German states under the crown of Prussia. William I was named emperor and named Bismarck the empire's first chancellor. Bismarck ruled thereafter as a virtual dictator. The accession of William II, a longtime enemy, in 1888 marked the beginning of the end of Bismarck's reign. William II dismissed him in 1890.

Thoreau, Henry David

1817-62, American author and advocate of Transcendentalism. A close friend of Emerson, the pair co- edited the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial. Thoreau built his famed cabin at Walden Pond in 1845. His works include Walden (1854) and the essay Civil Disobedience (1849).

Gatling, Richard

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

Marx, Karl

1818-83, German social philosopher. With Friedrich Engels, he founded modern socialism and communism with the Communist Manifesto (1848). He depended on Engels financial support while working on his monumental Das Kapital (1867-94).

Turgenev, Ivan

1818-83, Russian Novelist and playwright of A Month in the Country (1850), and the novel Fathers and Sons (1861)

Joule, James Prescott

1818-89, English physicist. He established the mechanical theory of heat, and was the first to determine the relationship between mechanical and heat energy. The mechanical unit of work, the Joule, is named for him.

Beauregard, P. G. T.

1818-93, Confederate general who directed the attack of Fort Sumter in 1861 during the American Civil War. Beauvoir, Simone de - 1908-1986, French author. An existentialist and a close friend and companion to Sartre, her novels include The Mandarins (1955), The Second S-- (1949), and The Coming of Age (1951).

Gounod, Charles

1818-93, French composer of the romantic operas Faust (1859) and Romeo and Juliet (1867).

Victoria, Queen

1819-1901, queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1836-1901) and empress of India; she succeeded William IV in 1837 and served 64 years, the longest in English history. She married her first cousin Albert in 1840.

Howe, Elias

1819-67, American inventor credited with the invention of the sewing machine (1845).

Foucault, Jean

1819-68, French physicist famous for his invention of the gyroscope (1852) and the Foucault pendulum that demonstrated the rotation of the earth.

Kingsley, Charles

1819-75, English author of the novel include Westward Ho! (1855) and the children's work The Water Babies (1863).

Eliot, George

1819-80, pseudonym of English novelist Mary Ann Evans. Her novels include Adam Bede (1859), Silas Marner (1861), and Middlemarch (1871).

Melville, Herman

1819-91, American writer. His experience as a whaler led to the writing of Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), and his masterpiece Moby Dick is the tale of a whaling captain's obsession to find the white whale that had bitten off his leg. Later works include the story "Bartleby the Scrivener" and the novella Billy Budd, Foretopman.

Lowell, James Russell

1819-91, American writer. Known for his poems The vision of Sir Launfal (1848) and The Bigelow Papers (1848).

Whitman, Walt

1819-92, American poet. In 1855, he published his volume Leaves of Grass, which included "Song of Myself," "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Also wrote the poems "O Captain! My Captain!" (1865) and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (1865).

Doubleday, Abner

1819-93, inventor of baseball. Though often disputed, Doubleday is often credited with the invention of baseball (1939) in Cooperstown, NY.

Anthony, Susan Brownwell

1820-1906, leader of the women's suffrage movement. Co-founded the National Woman's Suffrage Association (1896), and served as president of the National American Woman's Suffrage Association (1892-1900). Anthony was featured on a short-lived US Dollar coin.

Nightingale, Florence

1820-1910, English founder of modern nursing; famously organized a unit of nurses in the Crimean War (1854).

Tubman, Harriet

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

Sewell, Anna

1820-78, English author of the classic children's novel Black Beauty (1877)

Sherman, William Tecumseh

1820-91, Union general in the US Civil War. After distinguishing himself in Vicksburg and Chattanooga, he was appointed commander in the West and began his march to the sea. He burned Atlanta (1864), captured Savanna, and continued through South Carolina. He is famous for the statement "war is hell."

Tyndall, John

1820-93, English physicist famous for describing the scattering of light by colloids, now known as the Tyndall Effect.

Engels, Fredrich

1820-95, German social philosopher. With Karl Marx, he was a founder of modern Socialism and Communism. In 1864, he helped Marx found the International Workingmen's Association, and from 1867-94 wrote Das Kapital with Marx.

Blackwell, Elizabeth

1821-1910, American physician. In 1849, upon her graduation from the Geneva (New York) Medical College, she became the first woman in the US to receive a medical degree.

Eddy, Mary Baker

1821-1910, founder of the Christian Science movement (1866).

Barton, Clara

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

Flaubert, Gustave

1821-80, French novelist. His masterpiece is Madame Bovary (1857). Other works include Salammbo (1862) and Sentimental Education (1869).

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

1821-81, Russian novelist. His first novel, Poor Folk (1846) was met with great acclaim. Other works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1868), and The Possessed (1871). His final novel was The Brothers Karamazov (1880).

Olmstead, Frederick Law

1822-1903, American landscape architect most famous for designing NYC's Central Park.

Hale, Edward Everett

1822-1909, American author whose best-known work is the novel The Man without a Country (1863).

Mendel, Gregor

1822-84, 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. Mendel's conclusions are the basis tenets of the science of Genetics.

Grant, Ulysses Simpson

1822-85, Union general and 18th president of the US (1869-77). Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio as Hiram Ulysses Grant. He was named commander in chief of the Union army by president Lincoln in 1865 after his successes at Shiloh, Chattanooga, and Vicksburg. He received Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Grant was elected president in 1868 defeating Horatio Seymour and reelected in 1872, defeating Horace Greeley.

Arnold, Matthew

1822-88, British poet best known for his Dover Beach (1867)

Hayes, Rutherford Birchard

1822-93, 19th president of the UA (1877-81). He served as a US representative (1865-67) 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.

Brady, Mathew

1823-96, American photographer most famous for his photographic record of the US Civil War.

Walker, William

1824-1860, American filibuster who attempted to conquer several Latin American countries including Nicaragua where he installed himself as president (1856-7). Executed in 1860 in Honduras

Jackson, Stonewall (Thomas Jonathan)

1824-63, Confederate general in the US Civil War. He 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 (1862) and joined Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles and the second battle of Bull Run. Jackson fought in the Antietam Campaign, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville under Lee. Jackson was mortally wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863) by fire from his own troops.

Smetana, Bedrich

1824-84, Czech nationalist composer best known for the opera The Bartered Bride (1866)

Collins, Wilke

1824-89, English novelist. His 1868 novel The Moonstone is considered the first full-length detective novel.

Blackmore, Richard

1825-1900, English author of the novel Lorna Doone (1869), a romance about 17th century outlaws.

Dickens, Charles

1825-70, English novelist. He rose to fame with his Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837). His major novels include Oliver Twist (1838), Nicholas Nickelby (1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), Barnaby Rudge (1841), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations(1861), and the unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870).

Huxley, Thomas Henry

1825-95, English biologist. A master debater, he was a chief defender of the Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Foster, Stephen

1826-64, American songwriter. Famous for his songs including "Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home," and "Oh! Susannah."

Collodi, Carlo

1826-90, Italian author famous for his children's tale especially Pinocchio (1883).

Wallace, Lew

1827-1905, American lawyer, territorial governor, and author of Ben Hur (1880)

Lister, Joseph

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

Verne, Jules

1828-1905, French novelist and father of modern science fiction. Known for the works Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea (1870), and Around the World in 80 Days (1873).

Ibsen, Henrik

1828-1906, Norwegian dramatist. Best known for the existentialist Peer Gynt (1867), and the realistic social plays A Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), An Enemy of the People (1882), The Wild Duck (1884), and Hedda Gabler (1890).

Diaz, Porfirio

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

Dickinson, Emily

1830-85, American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, she spent most of her life in seclusion in Amherst. Of her nearly 2000 poems, only seven were published in her lifetime.

Arthur, Chester Alan

1830-86, 21st President of the US (1881-85). In 1880 he became vice president on the winning Republican ticket with President James Garfield. In 1881, he succeeded to the presidency after Garfield was assassinated.

Blaine, James Gillespie

1830-93, American politician. He served as a member of the US House of Representatives from Maine (1863-76), Speaker of the House (1869-75), US Senator (1876-81), and US Secretary of State (1881, 1889-92). Blaine 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, defeated by Grover Cleveland.

Dodge, Mary Mapes

1831-1905, American author of the children's classic Hans Brinker, or, The Silver Skates (1865). Dole, Robert Joseph - 1923-, US politician. US Representative (1960-68) and Senator (1968-95) from Kansas. He was the unsuccessful running mate of Gerald Ford in 1976, and was defeated in 1980 and 0988 for the Republican presidential nomination. IN 1996, he won the Republican nomination for the presidency but was defeated by Bill Clinton. His wife Elizabeth Hanford Dole (1936-), served as secretary of labor under President Bush, and president of the American Red Cross.

Garfield, James Abram

1831-81, 20th president of the US (March-September, 1881). He served in the Union army until 1863, becoming a Republican member of the US House. He was elected in 1880, but had a very short time in office. He was assassinated on July 2, 1881 by disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau. Vice president Chester A. Arthur succeeded him as president.

Sitting Bull

1831-90, Sioux chief and victor over George Custer in the battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

Manet, Edouard

1832-83, French painter. Often called an Impressionist, his works include Luncheon on the Grass, Olympia, The Fife Player, and The Balcony.

Alcott, Louisa May

1832-88, American author; achieved fame with Little Women (1869), a largely autobiographical novel that portrays Victorian American family life; Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886) were sequels.

Carroll, Lewis (born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)

1832-98, English author and mathematician; though a renowned mathematician at Oxford, he is best remembered for his fantasy novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking Glass (1872), and poems "Jabberwocky" and "The Hunting of the Snark."

Harrison, Benjamin

1833-1901, 23rd president of the US (1889-93). The grandson of William Henry Harrison, he defeated Grover Cleveland in the 1888 presidential election in what is arguably the most corrupt campaign in US history. He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1892 by Cleveland. Harrison, William Henry - 1773-1841, 9th president of the US (March 4 - April 4, 1941). Harrison served as governor of the Indiana Territory (1800-12) 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 (1813). He served as a US representative (1816-9) and senator (1825-28) from Ohio. In1840, he garnered the Whig party presidential nomination, and, with his running mate John Tyler, used the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" to win the election. He died after only one month in office. He was the grandfather of 23rd president Benjamin Harrison.

Borodin, Aleksandr

1833-87, Russian composer. He was one of the group of Russian composers known as The Five (along with Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.) He is perhaps best known for his unfinished opera Prince Igor.

Nobel, Alfred

1833-96, Swedish chemist and inventor. He is best known for his invention of dynamite and for establishing the fund to provide the annual Nobel Prizes.

Brahms, Johannes

1833-97, German composer. His four symphonies are considered among the greatest in symphonic music. Other well known works include German Requiem (1866), and Violin Concerto in D (1878). He composed in almost every genre except opera, and gave special attention to chamber music and lieder (or songs composed in the German vernacular).

Daimler, Gottlieb

1834-1900, German inventor. His construction of the first high-speed internal combustion engine (1885) led to the development of the automobile.

Whistler, James

1834-1903, American painter best known for Arrangement in Gray and Black, the famed portrait of his mother

Bartholdi, Frederic Auguste

1834-1904, French sculptor famous for his enormous sculptures, most notably the Statue of Liberty

Mendeleev, Dmitri

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

Degas, Edgar

1834-1927, French painter. Influential Impressionist whose most famous subjects were ballet dancers and the horse races.

Alger, Horatio

1834-99, American writer famous for his rags to riches stories for boys including Ragged Dick (1867)

Butler, Samuel

1835-1902, English author. His novel Erewhon (an anagram of nowhere) which satirized English social injustices was published in 1872. Erewhon Revisited (1901) was the sequel. He is also known for the autobiographical The Way of All Flesh (1903).

Carnegie, Andrew

1835-1919, Scottish-born American philanthropist and industrialist. In 1873, he began acquiring firms that later became Carnegie Steel. By 1900, Carnegie Steel produced one quarter of steel in US. In 1901, he sold Carnegie steel to US Steel Corporation and gave $300 million to philanthropic organizations.

Saint-Saens, Charles Camille

1835-1921, French composer best known for the opera Samson et Dalila (1877).

Harte, Bret

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

Gilbert, Sir William

1836-1911, English playwright. With the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan he wrote several popular operettas including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878), The Pirates of Penzance (1879), The Mikado (1885), and The Yeoman of the Guard (1888).

McClellan, George

1836-85, 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 in the Antietam Campaign, but was again removed for allowing the Confederates to withdraw across the Potomac. McClellan ran against Lincoln for President in 1864 but was easily defeated by Lincoln.

Cleveland, Grover

1837-1908, 22nd (1885-89) and 24th (1893-1897) President of US. Served as governor of New York (1883-85) before defeating James G. Blaine in the 1884 election. Partially due to his spoils system, he was defeated in 1888 election by Benjamin Harrison, but regained presidency after winning 1892 elections.

Dewey, George

1837-1917, American admiral. In 1898, during the Spanish-American war, he directed the victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Phillipines.

Howells, William Dean

1837-1920, American novelist. A champion of Realism, his works include the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885).

Hay, John

1838-1905, American secretary of state (1898-1905) under presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. He was responsible for establishing the open door policy in China.

Muir, John

1838-1914, Scottish-born American naturalist. A conservationist, he crusaded for the creation of national parks. Muir Woods National Monument, located north of San Fransisco, is named for him. Mulroney, Brian - 1939-, Canadian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1984-1993, when he resigned.

Mach, Ernst

1838-1916, American physicist. The Mach number, the ratio between the speed of an object and the speed of sound, is named for him.

Zeppelin, Ferdinand, Graf Von

1838-1917, German army officier and inventor of first rigid airship (1900).

Bizet, Georges

1838-75, French composer most famous for the popular opera Carmen (1875) that was based on a novel by Prosper Marimee. Other operatic works include The Pearl Fishers (1863).

Mussorgsky, Modest

1839-1891, Russian composer. A member of the "Russian Five", he is remembered for his opera Boris Gudonov, the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition (later orchestrated by Ravel), and the orchestral piece A Night on Bald Mountain.

Cezanne, Paul

1839-1906, French painter. His early works such as House of the Hanged Man were impressionist. Later works more abstract and anticipate cubist and expressionism. Also known for The Card Players (1890) and The Kitchen Table (1888).

Custer, George

1839-76, US general. Became the youngest general in the Union army (1863). In 1876 he led the campaign against the Sioux on the Little Big Horn River.

Nast, Thomas

1840-1902, American political cartoonist. He is best known for creating the cartoon depictions of the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey and attacking Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.

Zola, Emile

1840-1902, French novelist. He took strong stand in Dreyfus affair with his J'accuse (1898).

Rodin, Auguste

1840-1917, French sculptor. Works include The Age of Bronze (1876), Gates of Hell (1880), The Thinker (1900), and The Burghers of Calais (1894).

Monet, Claude

1840-1926, French landscape painter. His painting Impression: Sunrise (1872) gave rise to the Impressionist movement.

Hardy, Thomas

1840-1928, English writer. Novels include Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1896). Also a poet, he is known for his Wessex Poems (1898) and The Dynasts, a historical drama in verse.

Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich

1840-93, Russian composer of the ballets Swan Lake (1876), The Sleeping Beauty (1889) and The Nutcracker (1892); the 1812 Overture (1882) and the opera Eugene Onegin (1879).

Stanley, Sir Henry

1841-1904, British explorer. In 1871, he 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 Congo (later Zaire)

Dvorak, Antonin

1841-1904, Czech composer best known for his Symphony in E minor, From the New World (1893).

Renoir, Pierre Auguste

1841-1919, French Impressionist artist. Best known works include Les Grandes Boulevards and Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Hudson, William Henry

1841-1922, English author. He is best known for his classic romance set in a South American Jungle entitled Green Mansions (1904). Hugh Capet - 983-996, king of France (987-96). The first of the Capetian kings.

Clemenceau, Georges

1841-1929, French premier (1906-09, 1917-20). Nicknamed the "tiger," he was French premier during WWI. He opposed President Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference believing treaty of Versailles was not strong enough.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.

1841-1935, associate justice of the US Supreme Court (1902-32). Nicknamed the "Great Dissenter."

Sullivan, Sir Arthur

1842-1900, English composer famous for his series of comic operettas written with lyrics WS Gilbert including H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado (1885).

James, William

1842-1910, American psychologist. The brother of novelist Henry James, he is known as the founder of Pragmatism. He wrote the Principles of Psychology and The Varieties of Religious Experience.

McKinley, William

1843-1901, 25th president of the US (1897-1901). A congressmen from Ohio (1877-91) and governor of Ohio (1891-1896) before winning the Republican nomination for president in 1896. He defeated William Jennings Bryan in that election. His term in office was marked by the annexation of Hawaii, the Open Door policy in China, and the Spanish American War. He was reelected in 1900, by was by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, NY (1901).

Grieg, Edvard

1843-1907, Norwegian nationalistic compose best known for the Peer Gynt suite (1876) and his many Norwegian folk songs.

Koch, Robert

1843-1910, German bacteriologist. He established the bacterial cause of many diseases including tuberculosis, anthrax, and cholera. Koch won the 1905 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for developing the tuberculin skin test as a test for tuberculosis.

Bierce, Ambrose

1843-1914? American author. After serving in the Civil War, he achieved prominence as a journalist. His fame came from his collections of short stories such as In the Midst of Life (1891) and Can Such Things Be? (1893). He is perhaps best known for his collection of cynical definitions, The Devil's Dictionary (1906). He disappeared without a trace in Mexico in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution.

James, Henry

1843-1916, American novelist. The Brother of William James, he is best known for the novels Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), The Turn of the Screw (1898), The Ambassadors (1904), and The Golden Bowl (1904).

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

1844-1900, German philosopher and noted douche. His writings include Thus Spake Zarathrustra, Ecce Homo, and Beyond Good and Evil. He is known for his quote "God is dead."

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nicolai

1844-1908, Russian composer. One of the Five, he is best known for the orchestral Scheherezade (1888).

France, Anatole

1844-1924, (pseudonym of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault) French author. Elected to the French Academy (1896) and won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1921).

Benz, Karl

1844-1929, Berman engineer credited with building the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. In 1926, his company merged with Gustave Daimler's, and the combined company began production of the Mercedes Benz.

White, Edward Douglass

1845-1921, associate justice (1894-1910) and 9th chief justice (1910-21) of the US supreme court.

Roentgen, Wilhelm

1845-1923, German physicist famous for discovering X-rays for which he received the first Nobel Prize in physics (1901).

Cassatt, Mary

1845-1926, American painter. Born in Pittsburgh, she lived mainly in France and her impressionist paintings featured mothermood.

Nation, Carry

1846-1911, American temperance advocate famous for destroying saloons with her hatchet

Westinghouse, George

1846-1914, American inventor of the railroad airbrake (1868)

Buffalo Bill (William Frederick Cody)

1846-1917, American showman. He organized (1883) and toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Pulitzer, Joseph

1847-1911, American newspaper publisher and founder of "Yellow Journalism." Pulitzer left a fund to the trustees of Columbia University out of which the annual Pulitzer Prizes in fiction, drama, poetry, history, biography, and general non-fiction were established. The music prize was added in 1943.

Stoker, Bram

1847-1912, English author of the horror novel Dracula (1897).

Bell, Alexander Graham

1847-1922, Scottish-American inventor of the telephone (1876). He also helped found the magazine Science in 1880.

Edison, Thomas

1847-1931, American inventor. Despite very little formal schooling and progressive deafness, Edison 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 (1879). His pioneering workshops in Menlo Park and West Orange, New Jersey employed several scientists instead of a lone inventor.

Hindenburg, Paul von

1847-1934, German field marshal and president (1925-34). He was the greatest German war hero of WWI due to his victories including the battle of Tannenberg (1914). He was elected president in 1925. Hindenburg defeated Hitler in the 1932 election, but appointed Hitler chancellor in 1933, becoming a virtual figurehead until his death. Hippocrates - 460-370 B.C., Greek physician regarded as the "Father of medicine." He taught medicine based on objective observation and deductive reasoning. The Hippocratic oath, an ethical code formulated in ancient Greece, is still administered in medical colleges to this day.

James, Jesse

1847-82, American outlaw. From 1866, he and his brother Frank led a band of outlaws on a crime and killing spree through the central US.

Gauguin, Paul

1848-1903, French painter. 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.

Harris, Joel Chandler

1848-1908, American author. His tales, narrated by the former slave Uncle Remus, include The Tar Baby (1904) and Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit (1906).

Balfour, Arthur James

1848-1930, British statesman. A conservative, he held many government positions including prime minister from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary under David Lloyd George (1916-19), he issued the Balfour Declaration (1917), pledging British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine.

Riley, James Whitcomb

1849-1916, American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet" whose best known work is Little Orphan Annie (1905).

Pavlov, Ivan

1849-1936, Russian physiologist. For his work on the digestive system, he received the 1904 Novel Prize in physiology or medicine. He is best known for an experiment in which he conditioned a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell after associating the bell with the dog's feeling (classical conditioning).

Lazarus, Emma

1849-87, American poet best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus," which is engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Cabrini, Saint Frances Xavier

1850-1917, American nun. In 1946, she became the first US citizen to be canonized.

Gompers, Samuel

1850-1924, American labor leader. Gompers helped found the labor organization that became the American Federation of Labor in 1886, and served as AFL president (1886-1924).

Stevenson, Robert Louis

1850-94, Scottish author. Best known for his adventure novels Treasure Island (1883), and Kidnapped (1886). Other works include The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and A Child's Garden of Verses (1885). He died of TB while living in Samoa.

Bellamy, Edward

1850-98, American author. He gained fame with his influential novel Looking Backward 2000-1887 (1888), a utopian romance depicting life under state socialism. Other novels include Miss Ludington's Sister (1884) and Equality (1897), sequel to Looking Backward.

Reed, Walter

1851-1902, American army surgeon. After a yellow fever outbreak in Cuba in 1900, he headed a research team that studied the disease and discovered it was spread by mosquitoes rather than human contact.

Chopin, Kate

1851-1904, American author. Her novel The Awakening (1899) was controversial in its time due to its treatment of female s--uality.

Evans, Sir Arthur

1851-1941, English archaeologist famous for his discovery of the ancient Minoan city of Knossos on the northern coast of Crete.

Becquerel, Antoine

1852-1908, French physicist famous for discovering radioactivity in Uranium in 1896, and for sharing the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with the Curies.

Ramsay, Sir William

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.

Michelson, Albert

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 (1907)

Rhodes, Cecil

1853-1902, British businessmen. After making a fortune in the diamond mines of South Africa, he became prime minister and virtual dictator of the Cape Colony (1890-6). He resigned in 1896 and devoted himself to developing the country of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Rhodes is also known as the founder of the Rhodes Scholarships.

Van Gogh, Vincent

1853-90, Dutch painter. One of the greatest artists of all time, his works include The Potato Eaters (1885), the Sunflower series (1888), and Starry Night (1889). After a fit of insanity, he cut off his left ear, and later committed suicide.

Wilde, Oscar

1854-1900, Irish writer. Wilde is known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. While in prison for homosexuality, he wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1898).

Humperdinck, Engelbert

1854-1921, German composer. A friend of Richard Wagner, Humperdinck is best known for his first opera Hansel and Gretal (1893).

Sousa, John Phillip

1854-1932, American bandleader known as the "march king." Works include Semper fidelis (1888) and Stars and Stripes Forever (1897)

Eastman, George

1854-1932, American inventor. He invented the Kodak camera (1888) and founded the Eastman Kodak company in 1892.

Coxey, Jacob

1854-1951, American social reformer. Led Coxey's Army (1894), a band of jobless men who marched across the country from Ohio to the nation's capital to show the need for unemployment relief. Also ran for president in 1932 and 1936 on the Farmer-Labor party ticket.

Ehrlich, Paul

1854-1955, German bacteriologist. A pioneer in chemotherapy, he shared the 1908 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his work in the treatment of syphilis. Eichmann, Adolf - 1906-62, German Nazi official. As head of the Gestapo's Jewish section he oversaw the murder of millions of Jews. After WWII, he escaped to Argentina, but was tried and hanged in Israel in 1962.

Lowell, Percival

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.

La Follette, Robert Marion

1855-1925, US senator from Wisconsin (1906-25). He ran unsuccessfully in the 1924 presidential election on the Progressive Party ticket.

Debs, Eugene Victor

1855-1926, American socialist. He helped form the American Socialist party and ran as the Socialist candidate for US president 5 times.

Washington, Booker T.

1856-1915, African-American educator and organizer of the Tuskegee Institute for African Americans (1881). His "Atlanta Compromise" advocated slow accommodation, in that blacks should instead of concentrating on civil rights should concentrate instead on education and gaining wealth, in opposition to DuBois' beliefs. Author of autobiography Up From Slavery (1901)

Brady, "Diamond" Jim

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

Baum, L. Frank

1856-1919, American children's author best known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), which was made into film classic in 1939. Beatrix - 1938-, queen of the Netherlands (1980- ). She ascended to the throne in 1980 upon the abdication of the mother Juliana Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron - 1732-99, French dramatist. His comedies The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784) served as the bases for the operas by Rossini and Mozart, respectively.

Peary, Robert

1856-1920, American artic explorer who, along with Matthew Henson, is traditionally recognized as the discoverer of the North Pole.

Wilson, Woodrow

1856-1924, 28th president of the US (1913-21). He served as president of Princeton and governor of NJ before being nominated as Democrat in 1912 election. He won because of split of Republicans between Taft and T. Roosevelt. His accomplishments as president include founding the Federal Reserve System and Federal Trade Commission as well as leading the nation through WWI. After the war, he put forth his Fourteen Points during the Paris Peace Conference. Wilson pushed for creation of a League of Nations after war, and unsuccessfully tried to convince Congress to allow for US membership into League. Awarded 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts; also only president with a PHD

Conrad, Joseph

1856-1924, Polish born English novelist. Born in Poland as Konrad Korzeniowski, he wrote novels in English, an acquired language. Notable novels include Nostromo (1904), Lord Jim (1900), The Nig--- of Narcissus (1897) and the novella Heart of Darkness (1902).

Freud, Sigmund

1856-1939, Austrian psychiatrist. Freud developed many new techniques including psychoanalysis, free association, and dream interpretation (summarized in the 1900 work Interpretation of Dreams). He stressed the importance of s--uality 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. He put forth the Id, Ego, and Superego.

Thomson, Sir Joseph John

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

Brandeis, Louis

1856-1941, American jurist, served as associate justice of the US Supreme Court (1916-39). Brandeis was the first Jewish justice to serve on the Court.

Shaw, George Bernard

1856-1950, Irish playwright and Fabian socialist known for the plays Man and Superman (1905), Androcles and the Lion (1912), Pygmalion (1913), and Saint Joan (1923). Pygmalion was the basis for the musical My Fair Lady. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

Petain, Henri

1856-1951, head of the Fascist French Vichy government (1940-44) during WWII.

Binet, Alfred

1857-1911, French psychologist. A pioneer in the field of intelligence testing, Binet, with Theodore Simon, devised a series of widely used human IQ tests.

Taft, William Howard

1857-1930, 27th president of the US (1909-13) and chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1921-30). Taft succeeded Theodore Roosevelt in 1909 after defeating William Jennings Bryan in the 1908 election. Events of his presidency include the admission of New Mexico and Arizona as the 47th and 48th states and passage of the 16th amendment. Hand-picked by Roosevelt as his successor, he continued many of Roosevelt's policies, but Roosevelt became unimpressed with Taft's leadership. Roosevelt ran against him in the 1912 election on the Progressive party ticket effectively splitting the Republican vote, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the election. In 1921, President Harding appointed Taft chief justice.

Elgar, Sir Edward

1857-1934, English composer. He is best known for his Pomp and Circumstance marches.

Darrow, Clarence

1857-1938, American lawyer. In the Scoped Monkey Trial of 1925, regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools, he opposed William Jennings Bryan.

Baden-Powell, Robert

1857-1941, British soldier most famous for founding the Boy Scouts in 1908

Tarbell, Ida

1857-1944, American author. A muckraker, she is best known for her History of the Standard Oil Company (1904).

Hertz, Heinrich

1857-94, German physicist. In honor of his work with electromagnetic waves, the unit of frequency, the Hertz, is named for him.

Roosevelt, Theodore

1858-1919, 26th president of the US (1901-9). A Harvard graduate (1880), Roosevelt began his career in politics as a Republican state legislator in NY. In 1884, saddened by the deaths of his mother and wife, Alice Hathaway Lee, he retired briefly to his ranch in the Dakota Territory. Returning to NY 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 this fame into a successful run for vice president on William McKinley's ticket in 1900. He became president in 1901 and at age 42 after McKinley was assassinated. As president he began his "trust busting" by initiating several lawsuits against the big trusts. He was reelected in 1904 by a landslide. Events of his second term include the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) and mediating the treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War (1904) for which he won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1912, Roosevelt ran for president as the third- party Bull Moose (or Progressive) party candidate. He received more votes than incumbent president Taft, but lost the election to Woodrow Wilson.

Puccini, Giacomo

1858-1924, Italian composer best known for his operas La Boheme (1896), La Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1926).

Lagerlof, Selma

1858-1940, Swedish novelist who was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature (1909).

Planck, Max

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

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

1859-1930, English author. Created fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson. The pair first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887). Other works include The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and the historical romance The White Company (1891).

Grahame, Kenneth

1859-1931, English author. His works include the children's classic The Wind in the Willows (1908) and the humorous The Golden Age (1895).

Housman, A.E.

1859-1936, English poet. Best known for his poetry that appeared in the 1896 volume A Shropshire Lad (1896). Lyrics include "To an Athlete Dying Young"

Billy the Kid

1859-91, American outlaw. Born in New York City as William H. Bonney. Infamous cattle rustler who was hunted and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett

Seurat, Georges

1859-91, French neo-impressionist famous for inventing the pointillist technique featured in such works as A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Herzl, Theodor

1860-1904, Hungarian Jew who founded modern Zionism.

Chekhov, Anton

1860-1904, Russian writer. Famous for his plays Ivanov (1887), The Seagull (1898), Uncle Vanya (1899), The Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904). Also worked as a physician.

Mahler, Gustav

1860-1911, Austrian composer. Best known for his Song of the Earth (1907).

Bryan, William Jennings

1860-1925, American politician. He served as a member of the US House of Representatives (1891-95) before making his famous Cross of Gold Speech at the 1896 Democratic national convention. Bryan was nominated for president but lost to McKinley that year and again in 1900. In 1908 he lost to Taft. In 1912 he helped reelect Wilson, and was named secretary of state (1913-15). Bryan is also known for appearing for the prosecution in the 1925 Scopes Trial.

Oakley, Annie

1860-1926, US entertainer. An expert marksman, she was the 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.

Borden, Lizzie

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

Wood, Leonard

1860-1927, colonel who, along with T. Roosevelt, commanded the Rough Riders during the Spanish-Amer. war.

Addams, Jane

1860-1935, American social reformer. Addams co-founded the Hull House (1889), a social settlement that served as a community center for the poor in Chicago.

Barrie, James Matthew

1860-1937, Scottish writer best remembered for his play Peter Pan (1904), a fantasy about a boy who refused to grow up. His novel The Little Minister (1891) was an early success.

Pershing, John "Black Jack"

1860-1948, US army officer. He commanded units during the Spanish American war and pursued Pancho Villa through Mexico before commanding the American Expeditionary Force (1917-18) in WWI.

Orlando, Vittorio Emanuele

1860-1952, Italian statesman. As Italian premier (1917-19), he was one of the Big Four leaders at the Paris Peace Conference (1919).

Moses, Grandma (Anna Mary Robertson Moses)

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

Whitehead, Alfred North

1861-1947, English mathematician and process philosopher known for co-writing Principia Mathematica (1910-13), a landmark in the field of logic with Betrand Russell.

Henry, O.

1862-1910, American short story writer, the pen name of author William Sidney Porter.

Stolypin, Pyotr

1862-1911, Russian prime minister (1906-11) known for his namesake agrarian reforms during the last years of Imperial Russia.

Debussy, Claude

1862-1918, French composer. An impressionist composer, he is best known for his tone poem Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894). Other works include La Mer (1905) and Nocturnes (1899).

Briand, Aristide

1862-1932, French statesman. He served as premier 10 times between 1909 and 1921. During his term as foreign minister (1925-32), he was the ar4chitect of the Locarno Pact (1925) and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928). He shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Gustav Stresemann.

Wharton, Edith

1862-1937, American author of the novels The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920, Pulitzer) and the novella Ethan Frome (1911).

Hughes, Charles Evans

1862-1948, American jurist. He served as governor of New York (1907-10) 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 US Supreme Court serving until 1941.

Franz 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 precipitated WWI.

Munch, Edvard

1863-1944, Norwegian painter. His violent, shocking works portray themes of fear and anxiety, most notably displayed in The Scream.

Lloyd George, David

1863-1945, British statesman. He replaced Herbert Asquith as prime minister (1916) during WWI, and played a crucial role in the Treaty of Versailles.

Ford, Henry

1863-1947, American automobile pioneer. In 1903 he organized the Ford Motor Company. In 1908 he introduced the Model T and sold over 15 million of them. Introduced the assembly line to automobile production.

Hearst, William Randolph

1863-1951, American publisher and "yellow journalist." During his career he established a huge publishing empire that included many newspapers and several magazines. His estate in San Simeon, CA, is now a huge museum.

Santayana, George

1863-1952, American philosopher famous for his only novel The Last Puritan (1935).

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de

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

Carver, George Washington

1864-1943, Black American agriculturalist. Born a slave, he became director of agricultural research (1896-1943) at the Tuskegee institute. Carver is famous for discovery hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybean, and sweet potato. Casals, Pablo - 1876-1973, Spanish cellist who is considered to be the greatest 20th century cellist.

Stieglitz, Alfred

1864-1946, American photographer known for his photograph The Steerage (1907). Also married Georgia O' Keefe.

Strauss, Richard

1864-1949, German composer of the symphonic poems Death and Transfiguration (1889) and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1895) and the operas Salome (1905) and Der Rosenkavalier (1911).

Harding, Warren Gamaliel

1865-1923, 29th president of the US (1921-3). Harding served as a Republican US senator representing Ohio, and was the successful Republican presidential candidate in 1920. His administration, often called the most corrupt in history, 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. He was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

Dukas, Paul

1865-1935, French composer. He is best known for his symphonic poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1897).

Kipling, Rudyard

1865-1936, English author. His well-known poems include Mandalay and Gunga Din. His children's stories include The Jungle Book (1894), Captains Courageous (1897), and Kim (1901). He received the 1907 Nobel Prize in literature.

Yeats, William

1865-1939, Irish poet and playwright. Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

Dawes, Charles

1865-1951, vice president of the US (1925-29). The vide president 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.

Sun Yat-sen

1866-1925, Chinese revolutionary leader. After revolution erupted in China, Sun was elected president of the Chinese republic in 1911, stepping down soon after. He rose to power against in 1921 after a revolt against Yuan Shih-Kai. Influenced by Marx, he cooperated with Chinese Communists and the USSR in order to hasten the conquest of Northern China. (Also known for his Three People's Principle)

Steffens, Lincoln

1866-1936, American muckraking author of The Shame of the Cities (1904)

Potter, Beatrix

1866-1943, English author and illustrator best known for The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902).

Wells, H.G.

1866-1946, English author of The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and Tono-Bungay (1909)

Pirandello, Luigi

1867-1936, Italian author. A major figure in 20th century theatre, he was awarded the 1934 Novel Prize in Literature. Best remembered for the plays Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921).

Borglum, Gutzon

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

Stimson, Henry Louis

1867-1950, American statesman and secretary of state (1929-33) known for denouncing the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (the Stimson doctrine).

Toscanini, Arturo

1867-1957, Italian conductor of the Metropolitan Opera (1908-1914), the New York Philharmonic (1926-36), and the NBC Symphony which was created for him (1937-54).

Joplin, Scott

1868-1917, African-American composer. Known as the best of the ragtime composer, his works include the Maple Leaf Rag (1899) and the ragtime opera Treemonisha (1911).

Rostand, Edmond

1868-1918, French poet and dramatist best known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1897).

Nicholas II

1868-1918, last czar of Russia (1894-1917)

Haber, Fritz

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

Gorky, Maxim

1868-1936, Russian writer. Often called the "father of Russian literature," Gorky is best known for his revolutionary novel Mother (1906).

DuBois, W.E.B.

1868-1963, African-American civil-rights leader. He co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1910), and edited the NAACP magazine, The Crisis, until 1932. In 1961, he joined the communist party and moved to Ghana.

Garner, John Nance

1868-1967, vice president of the US (1933-41). He served as Speaker of the House beginning in 1931, and was vice president during F.D. Roosevelt's first two terms.

Robinson, Edward Arlington

1869-1935, American poet known for the poems "Miniver Cheevy" and "Richard Cory." Later poems include The Man who Died Twice (1924, Pulitzer) and Collected Poems (1921, Pulitzer). He also won the 1927 Pulitzer for his Arthurian Romance Tristram. He set many of his works in the fictional small town Tilbury Town that was modeled after his childhood home of Gardiner, Maine.

Tarkington, Booth

1869-1946, American author of the small-town novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918, Pulitzer) and Alice Adams (1921, Pulitzer). Other works include Penrod (1914) and Seventeen (1916)

Gandhi, Mahatma

1869-1948, Indian spiritual and political leader. Called the "Mahatma" meaning "great-souled," Gandhi is considered a 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. Mahatma Gandhi was shot by a Hindu extremist in 1948.

Masters, Edgar Lee

1869-1950, American poet best known for The Spoon River Anthology (1915), a series of epitaphs revealing the secret lives of the townspeople.

Wright, Frank Lloyd

1869-1959, American architect. Famous designs include the Robie House, Chicago (1909), the Kaufmann house, Falling Water (1936), and Guggenheim Museum (1946-59)

Aguinaldo, Emilio

1869-1965, Philippine leader: Aguinaldo led a Filipino rebellion against Spanish rule (1896), and then cooperated with the US during the Spanish-American War. He later rebelled against US rule.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

1870-1924, Russian revolutionary. 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. Lenin's died in 1924 precipitating a power struggle eventually won by Stalin.

Montessori, Maria

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

Crane, Stephen

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 (1893). Crane achieved great fame with his next novel The Red Badge of Courage, a civil war story. "The Open Boat" (1898) was his best-known short story.

Proust, Marcel

1871-1922, French novelist best known for his work Remembrance of Things Past (1913).

Rutherford, Ernest

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

Dreiser, Theodore

1871-1945, American author. A pioneer in Naturalism, his works include Sister Carrie (1900) and Jennie Gerhardt (1911), both about fallen women; and An American Tragedy (1925) a novel that tells of a poor young man's futile attempt to achieve financial success.

Hull, Cordell

1871-1955, American statesman. A former US congressman and senator from Tennessee, he served as secretary of state under F.D. Roosevelt (1933-44). Hull was awarded the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize.

Rasputin, Grigori

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

Amundsen, Raold

1872-1928, Norwegian explorer, and the first person to reach the South Pole (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 (1903-6)

Coolidge, Calvin

1872-1933, 30th president of the US (1923-29). In his first year as governor of Massachusetts (1919), he became nationally known for using the militia to end a Boston police strike. He served as vice president (1921-3) under Warren Harding, rising to the presidency on Harding's death. Events of his presidency include the Scopes Monkey trial, the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, and Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight.

Gray, Zane

1872-1939, American author of 54 westerns including Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) and Code of the West (1934).

Russell, Bertrand

1872-1970, British philosopher and mathematician. His most important works are Principles of Mathematics (1903) and, with Alfred North Whitehead, Principia Mathematica (1910-3). Russell was also a radical social reformer and author, winning the 1950 Nobel Prize in literature.

Carter, Howard

1873-1939, English Egyptologist who, along with Caranarvon, excavated the Valley of the Kings. Co-discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb.

Ford, Ford Maddox

1873-1939, English author. His most important novels include The Good Soldier (1915) and his Parade's End tetralogy (1950).

London, Jack

1874-1916, American author. His best known novels include The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea-Wolf (1904), White Fang (1905), and the partially autobiographical Martin Eden (1909). London committed suicide at age 40.

Lowell, Amy

1874-1925, American poet. A leader of the Imagists, she is best known for the volume What's O'clock (1925, Pulitzer).

Houdini, Harry

1874-1926, American magician. Born in Hungary as Erich Weiss, he took his stage name from the French magician Houdin. Best known for his amazing escapes

Marconi, Guglielmo

1874-1937, Italian physicist. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics for his development of wireless telegraphy.

Stein, Gertrude

1874-1946, American author of the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933)

Frost, Robert

1874-1963, US poet. He received the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times (1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943). He is also known for reciting his poem "The Gift Outright" at the inauguration of President Kennedy. Among hid more famous poems are "Birches," "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "Mending Wall."

Hoover, Herbert Clark

1874-1964, 31st president of the US (1929-33). Hoover served as secretary of commerce under Harding and Coolidge (1921) before winning the 1928 Republican presidential nomination, later defeating Democrat Al Smith in the election. His administration was marred by the Great Depression ushered in by the stock market crash of Oct. 1929. He was easily defeated in his 1932 reelection attempt by F. D. Roosevelt.

Churchill, Winston

1874-1965, British Statesman. In 1940, seven months into WWII, he replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister. Perhaps the greatest British statesman of 20th century, he helped draft the Allied victory in WWII. Won 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature and coined term "Iron Curtain."

Maugham, William Somerset

1874-1965, English author. His masterpiece is the partially autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage (1915). Other works include The Moon and Sixpence (1919) which was based on the life of Gauguin, and the satirical Cakes and Ale (1930).

Ravel, Maurice

1875-1937, French composer. With Debussy he was a leading exponent of Impressionism. Works include the repetitive Bolero (1940). aker of the house from 1940- 61.

Griffith, D.W.

1875-1948, American film director best known for his 1915 film The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Burroughs, Edgar Rice

1875-1950, American novelist most famous for his creation of Tarzan in his Tarzan of the Apes (1914). Bush, George Herbert Walker - 1924-, 41st president of the US (1989-93). A graduate of Yale University, he served as 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, she served as ambassador to the UN (1971-73) and director of the CIA (1976-77). After losing the 1980 Republican presidential nomination to Ronald Reagan, he served as his vice president (1981-89). In 1988, Bush and his running mate Dan Quayle defeated Michael Dukakis in the presidential election. Highlights of his term in office include the following: the invasion of Panama (1989) to depose strongman Manuel Noriega, the Persian Gulf War (1991) to turn back Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada (1992). He was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1992 by Bill Clinton.

Bingham, Hiram

1875-1956, American archaeologist. He led the expeditions that discovered the lost Inca cities of Machu Picchu and Vitcos. He later served as governor of Connecticut (1925) and US Senator (1925-33).

Jung, Carl

1875-1961, Swiss psychiatrist. He 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. Jung also introduced the terms introversion and extroversion to psychiatry.

Schweitzer, Albert

1875-1965, French medical missionary, theologian, and musician. As a 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 (1906). He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his many accomplishments.

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. Matisse, Henri - 1869-1954, French painter. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, he explored Impressionism and was a leader of Fauvism. His works include The Green Line (1905) and the Blue Nude (1907).

Rolvaag, Ole Edvart

1876-1931, Norwegian-American author known for his trilogy Giants in the Earth (1927).

Anderson, Sherwood

1876-1941, American author whose best known works include Winesburg, Ohio (1919), Poor White (1920), and Dark Laughter (1925)

Falla, Manuel de

1876-1946, Spanish composer. He is best known for his ballet The Three-Cornered Hat (1917) which is based on a Pablo Alarcon novel.

Cather, Willa

1876-1947, American author known for her frontier works O Pioneers (1913) and My Antonia (1918). Other works include Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

Adenauer, Konrad

1876-1967, first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949-1963)

Villa, Pancho

1877-1923, Mexican revolutionary and national hero; he evaded capture by a US army force for 11 months after his forces killed several American citizens in Columbus, New Mexico (1916).

Hesse, Hermann

1877-1962, German writer. Famous for his symbolic novels including Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927). Hesse won the 1946 Nobel Prize in literature.

Cohan, George M.

1878-1942, American showman. Best known for the songs "Over There," "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy," and "You're a Grand Old Flag."

Quezon, Manuel Luis

1878-1944, first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (1935-44).

Sandburg, Carl

1878-1967, American poet. Collections of his work include Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918, Pulitzer), The People, Yes (1936), Complete Poems (1950, Pulitzer). Sandburg is also famous for his epic biography of Lincoln (1926-39), Pulitzer) and the children's book Rootabaga Stories (1922).

Sinclair, Upton

1878-1968, American novelist best known for The Jungle (1906), a graphic novel about the evils of the Chicago meatpacking industry. Other works include Dragon's Teeth (1942, Pulitzer)

Zapata, Emiliano

1879-1919, Mexican revolutionary who led an army of fellow indigenous Mexican peasants (1910-19) during the 1910 Mexican Revolution.

Trotsky, Leon

1879-1940, Russian Revolutionary, born Lev Bronstein. One of the founding leaders of 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 (1918). He organized the Red Army in the civil war (1918-20). Upon Lenin's death in 1924 he and Stalin were the two chief rivals for succession. Stalin proved victorious, ousting Trotsky from the USSR in 1929. Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico by Ramon Mercador in 1940.

Stalin, Joseph

1879-1953, Russian revolutionary and head of the USSR (1924-53). He sided with Lenin in 1903 Menshevism and Bolshevism party split, and rose through Bolshevik party ranks. After Lenin's death in 1924, a power struggle ensued. Stalin 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.

Einstein, Albert

1879-1955, German-born Swiss-American physicist. One of the greatest scientists of all time, Einstein is known for many discoveries including the Theory of Relativity, an explanation of Brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect (1921 Nobel Prize in physics). A Jew, Einstein left Germany during Hitler's rise to power and stayed in the US. A pacifist, Einstein urged President F.D. 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 Einstein became an American citizen, and held a post at Princeton from 1933 until his death.

Hahn, Otto

1879-1968, German physicist and chemist. Hahn 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.

Forster, E.M.

1879-1970, English novelist. His novels include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howard's End (1910), Maurice (1913), and his best-known and final novel, A Passage to India (1924).

Wegener, Alfred

1880-1930, German geologist known for his theory of continental drift, set forth in his The Origin of Continents and Oceans (1915).

Ibn Saud, Abul Aziz

1880-1953, founder and first king of Saudi Arabia (1932-53).

Mencken, H.L.

1880-1956, American author, journalist, and philologist best remembered for his monumental philological work The American Language (1919).

Marshall, George Catlett

1880-1959, American army officer. As army chief of staff (1939-45) he helped direct Allied strategy in WWII. As secretary of state (1947-9), he organized and directed the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan) to promote post WWII recovery in Europe. He received the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan.

Wallace, Henry Agard

1880-1960, vice president of the US (1941-45).

MacArthur, Douglas

1880-1964, American general. During WWII he 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 presidential nomination. McCarthy, Joseph - 1908-57, US Senator from Wisconsin (1947-57). He achieved prominence with his sensational accusations against high ranking US officials by calling them Communists. The Senate condemned him in 1954.

Lewis, John L.

1880-1969, American labor leader. President of the United Mine Workers of America (1920-60), and an important figure in the AFL, he broke from the AFL founding the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) in 1940.

Bartok, Bela

1881-1945, Hungarian composer best known for the ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin and the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

Fleming, Sir Alexander

1881-1955, Scottish bacteriologist. He serendipitously discovered the antibiotic Penicillin in 1928. He also discovered lysozyme (1922) and shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

De Mille, Cecil B.

1881-1959, American film director. Among his films are the classic The Ten Comandments (1923).

Picasso, Pablo

1881-1973, Spanish artist. His art is usually described in a series of overlapping periods. His melancholy blue period included works such as The Old Guitarist (1903). His Demoiselles d' Avignon (1907) is the most significant of his Cubist works. In 1920's he introduced the collage. In 1930's he adopted surrealism. His Guernica (1937) was a condemnation of the 1937 bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Wodehouse, P.G.

1881-1975, English novelist, creator of the characters Bertie Wooster and Jeeves the butler.

Woolf, Virginia

1882-1941, English Stream of Consciousness author famous for the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928)

Joyce, James

1882-1941, Irish novelist. His first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, was published in 1916 and is an autobiographical account of the main character Stephen Dedalus. Other works include Ulysses (1921) featuring characters Leopold and Molly Bloom and, again Stephen Dedalus; and Finnegans Wake (1939).

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

1882-1945, 32nd president of the US (1933-45). Roosevelt earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1905, was elected to the NY state senate in 1910, and served as assistant secretary of the navy (1913-20) 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 reelected in 1930. Nominated by the democrats in 1932, he defeated president Hoover. FDR 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 his first months in office, the so-called "hundred days." He set up many new agencies including the National Recovery Administration, the Public Work Administration, and Social Security. These reforms and many others were collectively referred to as the New Deal. Roosevelt 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 reelection in 1936 and broke precedent by seeking and winning a third reelection in 1940 and a fourth in 1944. As commander in chief, Roosevelt led the US through the majority of WWII. On April 12, 1945, he died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Goddard, Robert

1882-1945, American rocket designer who built the first liquid-fueled rocket (1926).

LaGuardia, Fiorello

1882-1947, Mayor of NYC (1934-45). Known as the "Little Flower" (from his first name).

Milne, A.A.

1882-1956, English author best known for his classic children's stories Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928).

Braque, Georges

1882-1963, French painter. One of the developers of Fauvism, he later met Picasso, and the two of them developed Cubism.

Perkins, Frances

1882-1965, US Secretary of labor (1933-45) and first woman appointed to the cabinet.

Stravinsky, Igor

1882-1971, Russian-American composer of many ballets including The Firebird (1910), Petrouchka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913).

Kafka, Frank

1883-1924, German writer. Best known for his novels The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926), and the short story The Metamorphosis (1915).

Gibran, Khalil

1883-1931, Lebanese poet and novelist famous for The Prophet (1923)

Mussolini, Benito

1883-1945, Italian Fascist dictator. In 1919 he 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. Mussolini signed an alliance with Nazi Germany in 1939 during WWII. In 1945, Mussolini was captured, tried, and executed.

Kazantzakis, Nikos

1883-1957, Greek writer. He is best known for the novels Zorba the Greek (1946) and The Greek Passion (1938).

Williams, William Carlos

1883-1963, American imagist and modernist poet, known for his poem collection Pictures from Brueghel (1963, Pulitzer) and poems "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This is Just to Say"

Sanger, Margaret

1883-1966, American leader in the birth control movement. Famous for organizing the first American and international birth control conferences.

Attlee, Clement

1883-1967, British statesman. A former leader of the Labour Party, and a member of Winston Churchill's cabinet, he became Prime Minister in 1945.

Gropius, Walter

1883-1969, German-American architech who founded the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Weimar, Germany (1919).

Goldberg, Rube

1883-1970, American cartoonist. Goldberg is best known for his drawings of extremely intricate machines that perform simple tasks.

Tojo, Hideki

1884-1948, Japanese general and prime minister (1941-44) who approved the attack on Pearl Harbor Tolkien, J.R.R. 1892-1973, English novelist of the fantasy novels set in Middle Earth including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1956)

Roosevelt, Eleanor

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

Truman, Harry S

1884-1972, 33rd president of the US (194501952). Elected a US senator from Missouri in 1934 and reelected in 1940, he rose to prominence during WWII as chairman of a senate committee investigating government spending. He was elected vice president in 1944 along with FDR. With Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945 Truman was thrust into the presidency at the end of WWII. He authorized the usage of two atomic bombs on Japan, and after the war he oversaw the Marshall Plan to aid economic recovery of postwar western Europe, the Truman Doctrine to protect Greece and Turkey from Communist domination, and the formation of NATO. Truman was reelected 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 Macarthur. He chose not to run again in 1952 and retired to his home in Independence Kansas.

Lawrence, D.H.

1885-1930, English author. His novels include Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915), Woman in Love (1921), and the hugely controversial Lady's Chatterley's Lover (1928).

Patton, George Smith

1885-1945, American general. During WWII, he commanded the 3rd army that helped win the liberation of France (1944) and the defeat of Germany (1945). Nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts."

Dinesen, Isak

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.

Bohr, Nils

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

Nimitz, Chester

1885-1966, American admiral and commander of the US Pacific fleet during WWII

Pound, Ezra

1885-1972, American-born poet. A leader of the imagist poets, Pound 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 in WWII, was indicted for treason after the war, and was confined in a mental hospital (1946-58). Nonetheless, Pound was extremely talented poet whose works include Homage to Sextus Propretius (1918), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), Cathay (1915), and an epic, the Cantos (1926-60)

Kilmer, Joyce.

1886-1918, American poet. Known primarily for his poem "Trees," found in Trees and Other Poems (1914).

Jolson, Al

1886-1950, American entertainer. Famous for singing in The Jazz Singer, the first major motion picture with sound.

Birdseye, Clarence

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. (1924).

Rivera, Diego

1886-1957, Mexican Artist best known for his large murals depicting Mexican Life.

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

1886-1969, German-American architect. 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 NYC.

Black, Hugo

1886-1971, associate justice of the US Supreme Court. Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1937 by FDR, serving until 1971; though his appointment was strongly apposed because he had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan, during his tenure he led the Court in the battle for civil rights. Black served in the US senate (1927-37) from the state of Alabama prior to his appointment to the high court.

Ben-Gurion, David

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 (1949-53, 1955-63).

Quisling, Vidkun

1887-1945, Norwegian fascist leader. He aided the Germans in their conquest of Norway (1940) and was installed as premier (1942-45).

Nordhoff, Charles

1887-1947, American author best known for co-authoring Mutiny on the Bounty (1932)

Schrodinger, Erwin

1887-1961, Austrian physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing wave mechanics and the wave equation that bears his name.

Duchamp, Marcel

1887-1968, French painter. Famous for his cubist work Nude Descending a Staircase. 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. After the 1925 death of Sun-Yat-Sen, he became prominent in the Kuomingtang party. He became head of the Nationalist government in 1928. In 1929, Communists drove Chiang and nationalists to Taiwan, where be reorganized military and became president of Nationalist China (Taiwan) in 1950.

Montgomery, Bernard Law

1887-1976, British field marshal. In WWII, he became a British hero after his victory at El Alamein. In Normandy he was field commander of all forces until August, 1944. He also headed the British occupation forces in Germany after the war.

O'Keefe, Georgia

1887-1986, American painter. Known for her paintings with Southerwestern motifs such as Cow's skull, Red, White and Blue (1931). She married Alfred Stieglitz in 1924.

Lawrence, T.E.

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. Also wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

O'Neill, Eugene

1888-1953, American playwright. His first full-length play was the Pulitzer winning Beyond the Horizon (1920). Other works include The Emperor Jones (1920), Anna Christie (1921, Pulitzer), The Hairy Ape (1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (1928, Pulitzer), the trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), his only comedy Ah, Wilderness! (1933), The Iceman Cometh (1946), and the autobiographical masterpiece Long Day's Journey into Night (1956, Pulitzer); O'Neill was awarded Novel Prize in Literature in 1936.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn

1888-1957, American explorer. In 1926, he and Floyd Bennett became the first people to fly over the North Pole. Byrd is also remembered for his five expeditions to Antarctica. Discovery (1935) and Alone (1938) are accounts of his trips.

Chandler, Raymond

1888-1959, American author and creator of detective Philip Marlowe. Works include The Big Sleep (1939) and The Long Goodbye (1953).

Anderson, Maxwell

1888-1959, American dramatist who authored many plays including What Price Glory? (1924), Winterset (1935), and Elizabeth the Queen (1930)

Dulles, John Foster

1888-1959, US secretary of state (1953-39) under President Eisenhower.

Eliot, Thomas Sternes (T.S.)

1888-1965, English poet. His early poems include Prufrock and Other Observations (1917) and The Wasteland (1922). His later poems include Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1950). Eliot was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in literature.

Berlin, Irving

1888-1989, Russian-born American songwriter. Born in Russia as Israel Baline. Wrote almost 1,000 songs including his first big hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band, and God Bless America

Hitler, Adolf

1889-1945, German dictator. While imprisoned in 1923, he wrote Mein Kampf (which means "my struggle"), the "Nazi bible" which put forth his anti-Semitic beliefs and his plans for world domination. Hitler's rise to power began in earnest when President Paul von Hindenburg named him chancellor in 1933, and the Reichstag gave him dictatorial powers. With the help of Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, and others he quickly took control of all 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 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 very next day.

Hubble Edwin

1889-1953, American astronomer. He put forth Hubble's Law that supported the theory of an expanding universe, and discovered several large galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

Nehru, Jawaharlal

1889-1964, Indian statesman and the first prime minister of India (1947-1964); he was also the father of Indira Gandhi.

Sikorsky, Igor

1889-1972, Russian-born American engineer best known for inventing the modern helicopter.

Heidegger, Martin

1889-1976, German philosopher regarded as one of the founders of 20th century existentialism. His major work was Being and Time (1927).

Chaplin, Charlie

1889-1977, English comic actor and director. Films include The Gold Rush (1924), The Kid (1920), and Great Dictator (1940).

Zworykin, Vladimir

1889-1982, American physicist and inventor of the ionoscope and kinescope, a cathode-ray tube used in the 1st television.

Capek, Karel

1890-1938, Czech author. He wrote the play R.U.R or Rossum's Universal Robots (1921), which introduced the word "robot" to the world.

Eisenhower, Dwight David

1890-1969, 34th president of the US (1953-61). A West Point graduate, Eisenhower 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 Columbia University from 1948-50, and resigned from the Army in 1952 to campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He easily defeated Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. One of Eisenhower's first decisions as president was to end the Korean War. Despite a heart attack in 1955, he easily won reelection in 1956. In 1957, he sent troops to Central High School in Little Rock, AR to enforce court ordered school desegregation. Also in 1957, Eisenhower put forth the Eisenhower Doctrine, which committed the US to an active role in the Middle East to protect the area from Communist aggression. The Cold War escalated 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 (1954-69). He became the first president of North Vietnam after the Geneva Conference (1954) that divided Vietnam. His North Vietnamese forces defeated the US- supported South Vietnam government in the Vietnam War.

DeGaulle, Charles

1890-1970, French statesman. He served as president t1945-6, and first president of the Fifth Republic.

Rickenbacker, Edward

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.

Porter, Katherine Anne

1890-1980, American author. Her short stories are collected in the volumes Flowering Judas (1930), Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939) and her collected short stories (1965, Pulitzer). Her lone novel was the 1962 Ship of Fool.

Banting, Sir Frederick

1891-1941, Canadian physician. He shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with John MacLeod for isolating, together with Charles Brest, the pancreatic hormone insulin.

Rommel, Erwin

1891-1944, German field marshal known as the "desert fox." He commanded the Afrika Korps in the North African Campaigns of WWII. His string of victories was broken by the decisive British victory at El Alamein.

Prokofiev, Sergei

1891-1953, Russian composer best known for his ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935), the opera The Love for Three Oranges (1919) and the symphonic fairy tale Peter and the Wolf (1936).

Warren, Earl

1891-1974, 14th chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1953-69). Warren served as Attorney General and Governor of California (1943-53), and was an unsuccessful candidate for vice president in 1948. As chief justice, he presided over Brown v. Topeka, which banned segregation in schools (1954), Gideon v. Wainwright, which required that non-capital criminal defendants receive lawyers (1963), and Miranda v. Arizona, which required suspects be told of their rights (1966). He also headed a controversial 1964 namesake commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy.

Chadwick, Sir James

1891-1974, English physicist famous for discovering neutron. Awarded 1935 Nobel Prize in physics. Chagall, Marc - 1889-1985, Russian painter. He was a forerunner of Surrealism, and he drew most of his subject matter from Jewish culture. Works include I and the Village (1911) and The Rabbi of Vitebsk Chamberlain, Neville - 1869-1940, British statesman. He succeeded Stanley Baldwin as prime minister in 1937. In his efforts to avoid war with Germany, he practiced the unsuccessful appeasement strategy that culminated in 1938 Munich Pact. Chamberlain wrongly said agreement would lead to "peace in our time." He resigned in 1940.

Haile Selassie

1891-1975, Ethiopian emperor (1930-74). In 1928 he was crowned king of Ethiopia and became emperor in 1930. He was deposed in 1974 by an army coup.

Cain, James M.

1892- 1977, American novelist. Many of his hard-boiled novels have been made into movies, including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Three of a Kind (1943, filmed as Double Indemnity).

Wilkie, Wendell Lewis

1892-1944, American political leader and unexpected Republican candidate in 1940

Forrestal, James

1892-1949, secretary of the navy (1944-7) and secretary of defense (1947-9). Forrestal became the first secretary of defense in 1947. He resigned in 1949 and committed suicide later that year.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent

1892-1950, American poet. She won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for The Harp Weaver (1923).

Rice, Elmer

1892-1967, American dramatist known for the 1929 Pulitzer Prize winning drama Street Scene.

Buck, Pearl S.

1892-1973, American author. She lived in China until 1924 with her missionary parents. She is famous fro her novels about life in China, most notably The Good Earth (1931, Pulitzer). She won the 1938 Nobel Prize in literature.

Franco, Francisco

1892-1975, Spanish general and dictator (1939-75). He 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.

Broglie, Louis de

1892-1987, French physicist. Wave mechanics, a form of quantum mechanics, was developed form his hypothesis that particles should exhibit certain wavelike properties. He was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in physics.

Tito, Josip Broz

189201980, Communist president of Yugoslavia (1953-1980)

Owen, Wilfred

1893-1918, English poet known for his poems of World War I such as "Dulce et Decorum Est," "Insensibility," and "Anthem for Doomed Youth." He was killed at the battle of the Sambre a week before the war ended.

Long, Huey Pierce

1893-1936, American politician. Nicknamed the "Kingfish," Long served as governor of Louisiana (1928-31). He was elected to the US senate in 1930, and continued to dominate Louisiana politics from Washington D.C. His presidential aspirations were dashed in 1935 when Dr. Carl Weiss assassinated him.

Goering, Hermann

1893-1946, German Nazi leader. A follower of Hitler, Goering founded and headed the secret police force known as the Gestapo.

Parker, Dorothy

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

Acheson, Dean

1893-1971, Secretary of State (1949-1953) under President Truman. Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for Present at the Creation

Kenyatta, Jomo

1893-1978, 1st president of Kenya (1964-78).

Urey, Harold

1893-1981, American chemist and discoverer of deuterium (heavy hydrogen) for which he won the 1934 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Bradley, Omar

1893-1981, US general; during WWII he led the US 1st Army in the invasion of Normandy (1944). He also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1949-53)

Fuller, R(ichard) Buckminster

1893-1983, American architect best known for his development of the geodesic dome.

Hammett, Dashiell

1894-1961, American author of hard-boiled detective novels including The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Thin Man (1932).

Thurber, James

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

Huxley, Aldous Leonard

1894-1963, English author. The grandson of T.H. Huxley, Aldous Huxley is best known for his novels Chrome Yellow(1921), Point Counter Point (1928), and his masterpiece Brave New World (1932) which describes a nightmarish future Utopia set in 632 AF (After Ford).

Khrushchev, Nikita

1894-1971, Soviet premier and party leader (1957-64). He replaced Bulganin as premier in 1957 and saw the USSR through the cold war. Khrushchev was removed from power in 1964.

Rockwell, Norman

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

Hoover, J. Edgar

1895-1972, US director of the FBI (1924-72).

Ford, John

1895-1973, American film director. He won Academy Awards for The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952).

Peron, Juan Domingo

1895-1974. president of Argentina (1946-55, 1973-74). He was elected president in 1946. His support was weakened after the death of his popular wife Eva Peron (1919-52).

Eden, Sir Anthony

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

Graves, Robert

1895-1985, English author best known for his novels on Roman history including I, Claudius (1934) and Claudius the God (1934).

Ridgeway, Matthew

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

Fitzgerald, F. Scott

1896-1940, American author. One of the greatest American authors 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.

Sherwood, Robert

1896-1955, American dramatist best known for his Pulitzer prize winning play Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938) and a memoir of his years in FDR's administration Roosevelt and Hopkins (1948 Pulitzer)

Somoza, Anastasio

1896-1956, president of Nicaragua (1937-47, 1950-56). His son, Anastasio Somoza, Debayle (1925-80), was overthrown in 1979 by the Sandinistas

Lie, Trygve

1896-1968, Norwegian statesman and first secretary general of the United Nations (1946-53).

Dos Passos, John

1896-1970, American novelist. Best known for the U.S.A. trilogy that includes the works The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936). Other works include Manhattan Transfer (1925) and his second trilogy District of Columbia (1952).

Earhart, Amelia

1897-1937, American aviator. She was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to California. In 1937 she and Frederick Noonan set out to fly around the world, but they disappeared without a trace. Earp, Wyatt - 1848-1929, American lawman. After serving as a policeman in Kansas, Earp was involved in the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

Goebbels, Paul

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

Faulkner, William

1897-1962, American novelist. Many of his novels were set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha county which he used as a microcosm of southern life. Novels include The Sound and the Fury (1929), The Hamlet (1940), A Fable (1954, Pulitzer), and The Reivers (1962, Pulitzer). Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize in literature.

Wilder, Thorton

1897-1975, American author. His first important work was the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927, Pulitzer). Other novels include The Cabala (1926) and Theophilus North (1973). His plays include Our Town (1938, Pulitzer), The Skin of Our Teeth (1942, Pulitzer), and The Matchmaker (1954). Williams, Roger - 1603-1683, American advocate of religious freedom and founder of Rhode Island (1636).

Gershwin, George

1898-1937, American composer. Gershwin is famous for his composition Rhapsody in Blue (1923) and An American in Paris (1928), the folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), and the scores to the musicals Lady, Be Good! (1924) and Of Thee I Sing (1931, Pulitzer). His brother Ira (1896-1983) wrote lyrics to many of his compositions.

Benet, Stephen Vincent

1898-1943, American writer. Most famous for John Brown's Body (1928, Pulitzer), a long narrative ballad of the Civil War; also wrote many great short stories including "The Devil and Daniel Webster"

Brecht, Bertholt

1898-1956, German dramatist and poet; perhaps best known for his Threepenny Opera, with music by Kurt Weill; a Marxist, Brecht went into exile in Denmark during the Nazi period before settling in the US; he also wrote The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Lewis, C.S.

1898-1963, English author. His works explore Christian tenants and include The Screwtape Letters (1942).

Luce, Henry Robinson

1898-1967, American publisher. The founder of the magazines Time, Fortune, Life, and Sports Illustrated. Lully, Jean Baptiste - 1632-87, French composer. Famous for the opera Alceste (1674) and for composing music to Moliere's Bourgeois Gentlemen.

Calder, Alexander

1898-1976, American sculptor. Famous for his mobiles, a type of moving sculpture invented. Duchamp coined the term "mobile."

Meir, Golda

1898-1978, Israeli prime minister (1969-74).

Douglas, William Orville

1898-1980, associate justice of the Supreme Court. His tenure (1939-75) was the longest in court history. Douglass, Frederick - 1817-95, American abolitionist. After escaping from slavery in 1838, he took the name Douglass from Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake. In 1845 he published his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and two years later he established the North Star, and abolitionist paper.

Brunhoff, Jean de

1899-1937, French children's author and creator of a series of children's books beginning with The Story of Babar, the Little Elephant (1932). Since his death, his son Laurent de Brunhoff (1925-) has continued the series.

Capone, Al

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

Bogart, Humphrey

1899-1957, American actor famous for his roles as tough heroes. He starred in the films The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), and The African Queen (1954, Academy Award).

Hemingway, Ernest

1899-1961, American writer. He became recognized as a leading spokesman of the lost generation of American expatriates with the publication of his novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926. Major novels include A Farewell to Arms (1929), a tragic love story; For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) set in the Spanish Civil War; and the novella The Old Man and the Sea (1952, Pulitzer) which he wrote after settling in Cuba. Other works include the short stories "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Killers" and the nonfiction works Death in the Afternoon (1932) and Green Hills of Africa (1935). He won the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature. Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.

Forester, C.S.

1899-1966, English novelist famous for his stories about fictional Captain Horatio Hornblower. Also wrote the novel The African Queen (1935).

Coward, Noel

1899-1973, English playwright. Best known for the comedies Private Lives (1930) and Blithe Spirit (1941) and the musical Bitter Sweet (1929).

Ellington, Duke

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

Nabokov, Vladimir

1899-1977, Russian-American novelist. His most famous work Lolita, is the story of a middle-aged intellectual (Humber Humbert) and his infatuation with a 12-year-old girl.

Hitchcock, Alfred

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

White, E.B

1899-1985, American author. A witty writer, he became known for his contributions to the New Yorker Magazine. His best-known works are the children books Stuart Little (1945) and Charlotte's Web (1952).

Wolfe, Thomas

1900-1938, American novelist famous for his semi-autobiographical novels Look Homeward, Angel (1929), Of Time and the River (1935), The Web and the Rock (1939) and You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Worked with Maxwell Perkins. Wood, Grant - 1891-1942, American painter of scenes of the rural Midwest including American Gothic (1930).

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de

1900-44, French author of the fable The Little Prince (1943).

Himmler, Heinrich

1900-45, German Nazi leader who served as head of the Gestapo (1936-45). Himmler was captured by the British and committed suicide in prison.

Mitchell, Margaret

1900-49, American novelist. Her only novel was the hugely successful Gone with the Wind (1936, Pulitzer). This novel is set in Georgia during the Civil War and during reconstruction.

Pauli, Wolfgang

1900-58, Austro-American physicist. Pauli won the 1945 Novel Prize for his exclusion principle that states that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state in an atom.

Armstrong, Louis

1900-71, African-American musician. Born in New Orleans, he was best known for pioneering improvisational Jazz Trumpet.

Krebs, Sir Hans

1900-81, German-born English biochemist. He won the 1953 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work on the Citric Acid Cycle (or Krebs Cycle), the major source of energy production in organisms.

Rickover, Hyman

1900-86, Russian-born US admiral famous for directing the construction of the first nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus

Copland, Aaron

1900-90, American composer. Famous for his ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944, Pulitzer). Other works include the music for the 1939 film Of Mice and Men.

Oort, Jan Hendrik

1900-92, Dutch astronomer. Oort proposed in 1950 that comets originated in a cloud of material orbiting the sun at a great distance. This cloud is now called the Oort cloud.

Sukarno

1901-1970, 1st president of Indonesia (1945-67). Helped win his country's independence from Netherlands and led a "Guided Democracy" administration. Overthrown by Suharto in 1967.

Lawrence, Earnest Orlando

1901-58, American physicist. He is best known for his invention of the cyclotron particle accelerator and for his studies on atomic structure. He received the 1939 Novel Prize in physics.

Disney, Walter

1901-66, American film producer. He began his career as a cartoonist, becoming famous with his creation of the Steamboat Willie short that contained Mickey Mouse. His Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(1938) was the first full-length animated cartoon. His company opened the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim in 1955, Walt Disney World in Orlando in 1971.

Heisenberg, Warner

1901-76, German physicist. Famous for his uncertainty principle that states that 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.

Pauling, Linus

1901-94, American chemist. The recipient of two Novel Prizes, one in chemistry (1954) and the peace prize (1962). He created the concept of electronegativity and created a namesake scale to measure it. He was also a proponent of massive doses of vitamin C for the common cold and wrote a classic study of the chemical bond.

Nash, Ogden

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

Dillinger, John

1902-34, American criminal. He was declared public enemy number one by the FBI , and was shot and killed by FBI agents in Chicago (1934) shortly thereafter.

Hughes, Langston

1902-67, African-American poet. A major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, his collections of verse include The Weary Blues (1926) and One-Way Ticket (1949).

Steinbeck, John

1902-68, American author. His best know novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939, Pulitzer), tells of the plight of 1930's dustbowl farmers turned migrant workers. Other works include Tortilla Flat (1935), Cannery Row (1945), East of Eden (1952), The Winter of our Discontent (1961), and the novella Of Mice and Men (1937). Steinbeck won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature

Dewey, Thomas

1902-71, American politician. Dewey served as governor of NY (1943-55) and lost the presidential election of 1944 to F.D. Roosevelt, and unexpectedly lost the 1948 election to Harry S. Truman.

Lindbergh, Charles Augustus

1902-74, American aviator. He 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 plan the Spirit of St. Louis. His wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-) is a renowned writer. Their son was kidnapped in 1932.

Daley, Richard Joseph

1902-76, US politician. Served as mayor of Chicago (1955-76). His son Richard M. Daley became mayor of Chicago in 1989.

Rodgers, Richard

1902-79, American composer. Famous for musicals written with Lorenz Hart (The Girlfriend and Pal Zoey) and Oscar Hammerstein (Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The King and I).

Adams, Ansel

1902-84, American photographer and founder of the f/64 group

Spock, Benjamin

1903-, American pediatrician and author of Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. He was the 1972 presidential candidate of the People's party Spyri, Johanna - 1827-1901, Swiss author best known for Heidi (1880) and other children's stories set in the Swiss Alps

West, Nathanael

1903-40, American author of novels The Day of the Locust (1939), Miss Lonelyhearts, and A Cool Million

Orwell, George

1903-50, Pen name of English author Eric Arthur Blair. Born in British India, he is best know for the novels Animal Farm (1946), a fable about the failure of communism on Manor Farm and 1984 (1949), prophetic novel depicting a totalitarian world under the eye of Big Brother.

Caldwell, Erskine

1903-87, American author. His earthy novels of the rural south include Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933).

Paton, Alan

1903-88, South African novelist. His best-known work is Cry, the Beloved Country (1948).

Hiss, Alger

1904-, US public official. In 1948, Whitaker Chambers, a confessed Communist, accused Hiss of transmitting confidential government documents to the USSR. In 1950, at his second trial, 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.

Farrell, James T.

1904-49, American novelist most famous for his Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932-35).

Oppenheimer, J. Robert

1904-67, American physicist. He was the director of the laboratory at Los Alamos, NM that designed the first atomic bomb. Later a proponent of atomic energy, he strongly opposed the creation of the hydrogen bomb.

Bunche, Ralph

1904-71, 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.

Balanchine, George

1904-83, American ballet choreographer. One of the most important figures in 20th century ballet, Balanchine was a member of the Ballets Russe (1924-28). He moved to the US and helped to found the School of American Ballet (1934). In 1948 he became artistic director and principle choreographer of the New York City Ballet.

Dali, Salvador

1904-89, Spanish painter. A leader of the Surrealist movement, his most famous work is Persistence of Memory (1931).

Skinner, B.F.

1904-90, American psychologist. Skinner 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 (1938) and Walden Two (1961)

Seuss, Dr.

1904-91, the pseudonym of American children's author Theodore Seuss Geisel. Known for his outlandish stories including "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (1957), "Green Eggs and Ham" (1960), and "Horton Hears a Who" (1954)

Sartre, Jean-Paul

1905-80, French author and philosopher. A leading existentialist, Sartre is known for the play No Exit (1944), the novel Nausea (1938), and the existentialist treatise Being and Nothingness (1943). He declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in literature. Sayers, Dorothy - 1883-1957, English writer and creator of detective Lord Peter Wimsey.

Speer, Albert

1905-81, German architect and Hitler's official Nazi architect

Rand, Ayn

1905-82, Russian-American novelist of woks like The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which feature her philosophy Objectivism.

Koestler, Arthur

1905-83, Hungarian-born English writer best known for the novel Darkness at Noon (1941). Kohl, Helmet - 1930-, German political leader served as chancellor of West Germany (1982-90) and of Germany (1990-). With the accession of East Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, Kohl became the head of a reunited Germany.

Hellman, Lillian

1905-84, American dramatist. Her plays include The Children's Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1941), and Pentimento (1973).

Warren, Robert Penn

1905-89, American poet and author. Won Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his volumes Promises (1957) and Now and Then (1979) and Pulitzer Prize in fiction about a political figure resembling Louisiana politician Huey Long called All the King's Men (1946). In 1986, he was named first official US poet laureate.

Johnson, Philip

1906-, American architect best known for his collaboration with Mies Van Der Rohe on the Seagram Building in NYC (1958).

Brennan, William Joseph

1906-, associate justice of the US Supreme Court (1956-90). Served as justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court from the 1952 until his appointment to the US Supreme Court (1956) by President Eisenhower

Odets, Clifford

1906-63, American dramatist best known for plays Waiting for Lefty (1935) and Awake and Sing (1935)

White, T.H.

1906-64, English author famous for his retelling of the Arthurian Legend in his tetralogy The Once and Future King Whitefield, George - 1714-1770, Anglican minister and influential figure in Methodism who helped spread the 1st Great Awakening in Britain and in the British North American colonies. His disagreements with John Wesley over Arminianism led to the splitting of the Methodist movement.

Pu Yi, Henry

1906-67, last emperor of China (1908-12) under the name Hsuan T'ung. In 1934, he was appointed by the Japanese to become Emperor of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo. After WWII, he was put on trial for war crimes by the Chinese.

Brezhnev, Leonid

1906-82, Soviet leader. Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Podgorny took control of the Communist party when Khrushchev was ousted in 1964. He emerged as the chief Soviet leader, and became president of the USSR in 1977.

Beckett, Samuel

1906-89, Irish-French author. A proponent of the Theater of the Absurd, he won the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature. His most famous play is the controversial Waiting for Godot (1952). Other plays include Endgame (1957), and novels include Murphy (1938) and Malloy (1951).

Carson, Rachel

1907-68, American marine biologist and author. Her book Silent Spring (1962) revealed the dangers of excessive insecticide use to the environment. Other works include The Sea Around US (1951), and The Edge of the Sea (1954).

Duvalier, Francois

1907-71, dictator of Haiti (1957-71). A physician, he was elected president in 1947, reelected in 1961, and in 1964 "Papa Doc" declared himself president for life. Upon his death, his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, 1951-, became president for life. "Baby Doc" was forced to flee the county in 1986.

Burger, Warren

1907-95, 15th chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1969-86). A conservative and advocate of judicial restraint, Burger was appointed as chief justice by Richard Nixon, following Earl Warren.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

1908-, US economist. His works include The Affluent Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967).

Murrow, Edward R.

1908-1965, American newscaster. Noted for his broadcasts on CBS from London during WWII, and for producing TV shows like "Person to Person"

Teller, Edward

1908-2003, American physicist who helped develop the 1st hydrogen bomb (1952).

Wright, Richard

1908-60, African-American author of novel Native Son (1940) and autobiography Black Boy (1945).

Saroyan, William

1908-81, American author famous for his 1939 Pulitzer winning play The Time of Your Life (1939).

Bardeen, John

1908-91, American physicist. The first person to win a Nobel Prize twice in the same field, Bardeen 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 Schrieffer for their work in superconductivity.

Marshall, Thurgood

1908-93, associate justice of the US Supreme Court (1967-91). He became the first African-American Supreme Court justice when LB Johnson appointed him to the court in 1967.

Rusk, Dean

1909-, US secretary of state (1961-9) under Kennedy and Johnson.

Goldwater, Barry

1909-, US senator representing Arizona (1953-65, 69-87). Goldwater ran for president against Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, but was easily defeated.

Thant, U

1909-1974, Burmese diplomat and secretary General of the United Nations (1962-72). Prague Spring and Six-Days war occurred during his tenure.

Bacon, Francis

1909-1992, English painter of the 20th century; works include Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion; Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef; (Three) Screaming Popes

Welty, Eudora

1909-2001, American author known for her southern regional novels including The Optimist's Daughter (1972, Pulitzer)

Agee, James

1909-55, American author whose works include Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a commentary on depression-era tenant farmers, and the Pulitzer Prize winning A Death in the Family (1957).

Johnson, Lyndon Baines

1909-73, 36th president of the US (1963-69). 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 Kennedy, he agreed to become his running mate. After Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 23, 1963, LBJ was immediately sworn in as president. He was elected to a full term in 1964, and launched his other sweeping reforms such as founding the Head Start Program and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Johnson began the bombing of North Vietnam (1965), and the ensuing war aroused widespread opposition in Congress and in the public. He announced that he would not seek reelection in 1968, and he and hi wife, Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor retired to their Texas ranch.

Land, Edwin

1909-91, American inventor. In 1937, Land established the Polaroid Corp. and invented the Polaroid camera in 1947. Landon, Alf - 1887-1987, American politician. He served as governor of Kansas (1933-7) and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for president in 1936. His daughter, Nancy Landon Kassenbaum, (1932-) was first elected US senator from Kansas in 1978. La Salle, Robert - 1643-87, French explorer. In 1682, La Salle and his assistant, Henri de Tonti, descended the Mississippi to its mouth and took possession of the whole valley, naming is Louisiana.

Stegner, Wallace

1909-93, American Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angle of Repose (1971, Pulitzer)

Ionesco, Eugene

1909-94, Romanian-born French playwright of the Theatre of the Absurd. Plays include The Bald Soprano (1950), The Lesson (1951), The Chairs (1952), and Rhinoceros (1959).

Cousteau, Jacques

1910-, French oceanographer. A pioneer in the development of the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba), he was the co-inventor (with Emil Gagnan) of the aqualung. Famous for his documentary films of his oceanographic expeditions aboard his ship Calypso.

Saarinen, Eero

1910-61, Finnish-American architect famous for designing the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and many buildings including The Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, VA. Sabin, Albert Bruce- 1906-93, Russian-born American physicist and microbiologist best know for developing a live-virus, oral vaccine for polio.

Barber, Samuel

1910-81, American composer. 20th century composer best known for his compositions Adagio for Strings (1936) and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), and the operas Vanessa (1956, Pulitzer) and Antony and Cleopatra (1966)

Shockley, William

1910-89, American physicist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain for producing the first transistor

Teresa, Mother

1910-97, Roman Catholic missionary and winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

Reagan, Ronald Wilson

1911-, 40th president. A film actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, he joined the Republican party in 1962. He served as governor of California (1967-75) before narrowly losing the 1976 presidential nomination to Gerald Ford. Four years later he won the nomination and beat Jimmy Carter. Victim of would-be assassin John Hinkley. Reelected over Monale in 1984 and diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 1994.

Pompidou, Georges

1911-74, president of France (1969-74).

Humphrey, Hubert Horatio

1911-78, US vice president (1965-69). He served as mayor of Minneapolis (1945-48), US senator (1949-64, 1971-78), and vice president under L.B. Johnson. In 1968 Humphrey was the Democratic presidential candidate, but lost a close race to Richard Nixon.

Golding, Sir William

1911-93, English novelist. Best known for his novel Lord of the Flies (1954). He won the 1983 Nobel Prize in literature.

Seaborg, Glenn

1912-, American chemist who co-discovered the elements Plutonium, Americium, Curium, Berkelium, Californium, Einsteinium, Fermium, Mendelevium, and Nobelium.

Von Braun, Wernher

1912-1977, German-American rocket engineer; he led the design team responsible for German V-2 rocket.

Tuchman, Barbara

1912-1989, American Historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for history two times with The Guns of August (1962) and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971)

Stroessner, Alfredo

1912-2006, military dictator of Paraguay (1954-89). Known for his anti-communist actions and beliefs. Itaipu dam was built during his presidency

Braun, Eva

1912-45, longtime mistress and later wife of Berman dictator Adolf Hitler. She married Hitler just days before their double suicide.

Turing, Alan Mathison

1912-54, 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 Turner, Joseph Mallord William - 1775-1851, English landscape painter famous for works such as Rain, Steam, and Speed.

Pollock, Jackson

1912-56, American painter. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, Pollack was influenced by surrealism and the works of Pablo Picasso. His style is also known as drip painting and action painting.

Cheever, John

1912-82, American author. Works include the novel The Wapshot Chronicle (1957) and a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of stories The Stories of John Cheever (1978).

Stephens, Alexander

1912-83, American politician from Georgia and vice president of the Confederacy (1861-65).

O' Neill, Tip

1912-94, American politician. Democrat from Massachusetts; served as Speaker of the House (1977-97).

Kim Il Sung

1912-94, North Korean political leader. He served as North Korea's first premier (1948-72) and became president in 1972. His son Kim Jong Il (1942-) was groomed as his successor.

Ford, Gerald Rudolph

1913-, 38th president of the US. Born in Omaha, NE as Leslie Lynch King Jr. He served as a Republican congressman from Michigan (1949-73) and was appointed vice president of the US in 1973 when he succeeded Spiro T. Agnew. He succeeded to the presidency on August 9, 1974 when President 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.

Hoffa, James Riddle

1913-1975, American labor leader. In 1957 he became president of the Teamster's Union that was expelled from the AFL-CIO that year. Hoffa 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. Hoffa disappeared in 1975, widely believed to be a murder victim.

Nixon, Richard Milhaus

1913-1994, 37th US President (1969-1974). He was first thrust into the national eye while serving as a US Representative from California (1947-1951) during his investigation of Alger Hiss. He also served as a US senator (1951-53); he was elected to the vice presidency under Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, and they were reelected in 1956. In 1960, he was narrowly defeated for the presidency by John F. Kennedy, and in 1962, he was defeated in the California gubernatorial race. Not to be denied, Nixon won the 1968 Republican presidential nomination and he and running mate Spiro Agnew defeated Hubert H. Humphrey and George C. Wallace in the 1968 election. He and Agnew were easily reelected in 1972, soundly defeating George McGovern. During his presidency, he made a high profile visit to China in 1972. In 1973, Agnew resigned and was replaced by Gerald Ford. Investigations into the Watergate Affair revealed significant corruption in the Nixon administration, and in 1974 the US House of Representatives began impeachment proceedings. On August 9, 1974, Nixon became the first president to resign. His successor, Gerald Ford, granted him full pardon. Nixon retired to his home in Yorba Linda, CA.

Park, Rosa

1913-2005, American civil rights activist. Her 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.

Didrikson, Babe

1913-56, 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 (1948, 1950, 1954). In 1938 she married wrestler George Zharias.

Camus, Albert

1913-60, Algerian born French author. Though known as an existentialist, his humanism distinguished him from that group. His best known works are novels The Stranger (1942), The Plague (1947), and The Fall (1956) and the essay The Myth of Sisyphus. He won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Inge, William

1913-73, American playwright. His realistic dramas include Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), Picnic (1953, Pulitzer), and Bus Stop (1955).

Britten, Benjamin

1913-76, English composer. His major works include A Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra (1945), and A Ceremony of Carols (1942). His operas include Peter Grimes (1945), The Turn of the Screw (1954), and Death in Venice (1973).

Owens, Jesse

1913-81, African-American track star. At 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he upset Hitler by setting several world records and winning 4 gold medals on track.

Brandt, Willy

1913-92, Berman political leader. Born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; returning to Germany after WWII, he was elected mayor of West Berlin (1957-66); 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 within his administration.

Begin, Menachem

1913-92, Israeli Prime Minister (1977-83). During his term as prime minister, Begin signed the Camp David Accords peace agreement with Egypt (1979). For his work towards peace, Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Egypt's Anwar al-Sadat.

Heyerdahl, Thor

1914-, Norwegian explorer known for expeditions on primitive crafts including the Kon Tiki, Ra, and Tigris expeditions.

Muskie, Edmund

1914-, US Senator from Maine (1959-1980). He was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1968, and an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1972 before serving as Carter's secretary of state (1980-81).

Paz, Octavio

1914-1998 Mexican writer best know for his works Eagle or Sun? (1951), Labyrinth of Solitude (1950) and the poem "Pierda de Sol." Won the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature

Thomas, Dylan

1914-53, Welsh poet and author of Portrait of the Author as a Young Dog (1940), Under Milk Wood (1972) Do not go gentle into that good night (1952) and the poem "Fern Hill."

Williams, Tennessee (b. Thomas Lanier Williams)

1914-83, American playwright; plays include The Glass Menagerie (1945), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947, Pulitzer), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955, Pulitzer), and The Night of the Iguana (1961).

Andropov, Yuri

1914-84, Soviet Leader. Served as head of the KGB (1967-82), general secretary of the Soviet Union (1982-84), and succeeded Leonid Brezhnev in 1983 as Soviet Chief of State.

Hersey, John

1914-93, American writer famous for his WWII novels Hiroshima (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Bell for Adano (1944).

Ellison, Ralph

1914-95, African-American author of the classic novel, Invisible Man (1952), which detailed the struggles of a nameless young African-American man.

Salk, Jonas Edward

1914-95, American physician and microbiologist famous for developing the first vaccine against polio.

Miller, Arthur

1915, American dramatist. His Masterpiece, Death of a Salesman (1949) is the story of Willy Loman whose life is destroyed by his hollow values. His other works include The Crucible (1953), a McCarthy era parable of the Salem witch trials; and After the Fall (1964) which reflected Miller's own marriage to Marilyn Monroe.

Bellow, Saul

1915-2005, American novelist. Awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature for his including Herzog (1964), Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970), and Humbolt's Gift (1975, Pulitzer). Other works include More Die of Heartbreak (1987), and The Bellarosa Connection (1989).

Pinochet Ugarte, Augusto

1915-2006, President of Chile (1973-90). He led coup that overthrew President Salvadore Allende in 1973. During his rule, he worked the Chicago boys to initiate free-market reforms in his country and was known for suppressing socialist activities.

Crick, Francis

1916-, English scientist. With James Watson, he 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.

Moro, Aldo

1916-1978, Italian politician who was kidnapped and murdered in 1978 by terrorist group Red Brigades months before he was expected to win the Italian presidency.

Mitterand, Francois

1916-96, French political leader. The longest serving president in the history of France he served from 1981-95.

Brooks, Gwendolyn

1917-, African American poet. She became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1949 for her volume Annie Allen. Other works include the poetry volume Riot (1970) and the novelette Maud Martha. Brown, Jim - 1936-, American football player. After an All-American career at Syracuse University, he starred at running back for the Cleveland Browns. He set NFL Career marks (since broken) for yards rushing, touchdowns rushing, and total touchdowns. Brown retired at the peak of his career in 1965 after only 8 pro seasons.

Pei, I.M.

1917-, Chinese American architect. His works include the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC (1978), the subterranean entrance crowned by a glass pyramid for the Louvre in Paris (1985), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1995).

Vance, Cyrus

1917-, US public official named US secretary of state in 1977 by Jimmy Carter.

Gandhi, Indira

1917-1984, prime minister of India (1966-77, 1980-84). The daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, she became prime minister 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.

Clarke, Arthur C.

1917-2008, British author. Famous for science-fiction works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. Emigrated to Sri Lanka in 1956.

Wyeth, Andrew

1917-2009, America painter best known for his Christina's World (1948).

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald

1917-63, 35th president of the US (1961-63). The son of Joseph Kennedy, and the brother or Robert Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. After commanding a PT boat in the Pacific during WWII, he served as a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts (1947-53) 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 for the aborted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (1961). In 1962, spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba and demanded the removal of 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. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. He was succeeded by vice president Lyndon Johnson. The Warren commission was established to investigate the assassination, and it controversially concluded that the assassination was the work of a single gunman.

McCullers, Carson

1917-67, American author. His works include the novels The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) and The Member of the Wedding (1946) and the short story collection The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951).

Marcos, Ferdinand

1917-89, president and prime minister of the Philippines (1965-86). After defeating Corazon Aquino in the controversial 1986 election, he was forced from office by a popular uprising.

Burgess, Anthony

1917-93, English author of the surreal, nightmarish novel A Clockwork Orange (1962). This novel was later made into a motion picture by Stanley Kubrick (1971).

Angew, Spiro Theodore

1918- 39th vice president of the US (1969-73); He served as governor of Maryland (1967-69), before becoming vice president under Richard Nixon. He resigned (Oct. 10, 1973) after evidence revealed political corruption during his years in Maryland politics, and pleaded no contest to the charge of income tax evasion.

Mandela, Nelson

1918-, South African political leader. President of South Africa (1994-), and winner of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. DeKlerk for his efforts to end Apartheid.

Waldheim, Kurt

1918-2007, Austrian diplomat , secretary general of the UN (1972-81) and president of Austria (1986-92). Walesa, Lech - 1943-, Polish labor leader. The leader of independent trade union Solidarity in Gdansk, he won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize.

Ceausescu, Nicolae

1918-89, Romanian communist leader and president of Romania from 1967-89. He was overthrown in 1989, and he and his wife were executed.

Bernstein, Leonard

1918-90, American conductor and composer. His major works include the ballet Fantasy Free (1944), and the musicals On the Town (1944), Candide (1956), and West Side Story (1957). From 1958-69 he served as musical director of the New York Philharmonic. Berzelius, Jons Jacob - 1779-1848, Swedish chemist who discovered the elements Selenium, Cerium, and Thorium. Also credited with coining the words allotropy, isomerism, and protein

Salinger, J.D.

1919-, American author of the novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

Hillary, Sir Edmund

1919-, New Zealand mountain climber. In 1953, he and companion Tenzing Norkay became the first people to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

Trudeau, Pierre Elliot

1919-, Prime minister of Canada (1968-79, 1980-84). He succeeded Lester Pearson as Labor party leader and prime minister in 1968.

Robinson, Jackie

1919-72, He became the first African American major league baseball player in 1947 when he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Wallace, George

1919-98, governor of Alabama (1963-67, 1971-79, 1983-87). A segregationist, he led an unsuccessful attempt to block integration of Alabama public schools in the early 60's, including his "stand in the schoolhouse door" at the University of Alabama. Prevented by law from succeeding himself as governor, his wife Lurleen Wallace (1926-68), ran successfully in his place in 1966. George Wallace ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968 as third party candidate. In 1972, while campaigning for Democratic presidential nomination, he was shot and paralyzed by an attempted assassination attempt.

Bradbury, Ray

1920-, American writer. Famous for his science fiction works such as The Martian Chronicles (1950), and Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Perez de Cuellar, Javier

1920-, Peruvian secretary general of the United Nations (1982-91).

Moon, Sun Myung

1920-, South Korean religious leader who founded the Unification Church in 1954, and has been accused of brainwashing converts and several illegal activities.

Schultz, Charles

1920-1999, American cartoonist famous for creating the Peanuts comic strip containing the characters Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Snoopy the dog.

John Paul II

1920-2005, pope (1978-2005). Born in Poland as Karol Josef Wojtyla, he was elected pope in October 1978. His predecessor, John Paul I, 1912-78, pope (1978), an Italian named Albino Luciani, was elected pope in Aug. 1978and reigned only 34 days before his death.

Friedan, Betty

1921-, American feminist leader. Through her best selling book, The Feminine Mystique (1963), she prompted women to examine their roles in society. She was the founder and first president (1966-70) of NOW (National Organization for Women).

Suharto

1921-2008, 2nd president of Indonesia (1967-98). Under his "New Order" administration, he invaded East Timor in 1975 and led an authoritarian regime. He fell from power in 1998 following protests.

Jones, James

1921-77, American novelist. His novels include From Here to Eternity (1951) and The Thin Red Line (1962).

Sakharov, Andrei

1921-89, 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, Sakharov became the first Soviet citizen to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

McGovern, George

1922-, US Senator from South Dakota (1963-81). He ran for president in 1972 on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by Richard Nixon.

He was brought to the US in 1945, where he worked on NASA projects such as the Saturn rocket and the Apollo missions. Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

1922-2007, American novelist whose works include Slaughterhouse Five (1969), Player Piano (1951), Deadeye Dick (1982), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)

Garland, Judy

1922-69, American actress. Born in 1922 as Frances Gumm. Her films include The Wizard of Oz (1939) and A Star is Born (1954).

Kerouac, Jack

1922-69, American writer and leader of the beat generation. He is best known for the novel On the Road (1957).

Amis, Kingsley

1922-95, English novelist, best known for his satire Lucky Jim (1953). His son Martin Amis is also a novelist

Rabin, Yitzhak

1922-95, Israeli political leader. He became the first native born prime minister of Israel in 1974 and served from 1974-7 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

Marceau, Marcel

1923, French mime noted for his sad-faced clown character, Bip.

Heller, Joseph

1923-, American author best known for the novel Catch-22 (1961) and other works include Something Happened (1974) and Closing Time (1994), a sequel to Catch-22.

Yeager, Chuck

1923-, American aviator best known for becoming the 1st pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Mailer, Norman

1923-, American writer. He won fame with the WWII novel The Naked and the Dead (1948). Other works include The Armies of the Night (1968, Pulitzer), The Executioner's Song (1979, Pulitzer) (a novel about convicted killer Gar Gilmore), and Harlot's Ghost (1991).

Kissinger, Henry

1923-, German-born US Secretary of State (1973-77). He shared the 1973 peace prize for negotiating a cease-fire with North Vietnam.

Peres, Shimon

1923-, Israeli politician. He served as prime minister from 1984-86 and was reinstated as Labor part leader, prime minister, and defense minister when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. He shared 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin and Yesir Arafat. Became president of Israel in 2007

Barnard, Christiaan

1923-, South African surgeon who completed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Gordimer, Nadine

1923-, South African writer. Winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in literature. Works include the novels The Voice of the Serpent (1953), July's People (1981), and My Son's Story (1990).

Sheppard, Alan Bartlett Jr.

1923-present, American astronaut. On May 5, 1961, he became the first American in space when his Freedom 7 made a 15 minute sub-orbital flight. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission and became the 5th person to walk on the moon.

Dickey, James

1923-present, American author best known for his novel Deliverance (1969).

Carter, James Earl, Jr.

1924-, 39th president of the US (1977-1981). Born in Plains, GA, he graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis. After stint in navy, he returned home to his peanut farm. He served as governor of GA from 1970-75. A political outsider, he and running mate Walter Mondale won 1976 Presidential Elections, narrowly defeating Ford. Carter's presidency was plagued with shortcomings, but be successfully negotiate an important peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, the Camp David Accords. Carter was easily defeated by Regan in 1980, due to his inability to release 50 US Hostages in Iran. After presidency, he served internationally observing elections and worked with Habitat for Humanity.

Uris, Leon

1924-, American author of historical novels including Exodus (1958), Mila 18 (1960), and Armageddon (1964)

Haig, Alexander

1924-, US secretary of state (1981-2). A career military officer, Haig served as NATO commander (1974-9) before becoming Reagan's secretary of state in 1981.

Brando, Marlon

1924-2004, American actor. Most famous for his roles in the films A Streetcar Named Desire (1952), On the Waterfront (1954, Academy Award), The Godfather (1972, Academy Award), and Apocalypse Now (1979)

Marciano, Rocky

1924-69, American boxer. He won the heavyweight championship in 1952, and retired in 1956 as the only undefeated heavyweight champion.

Baldwin, James

1924-83, African-American author of novel dealing with African Americans and race relations. Works include Go Tell in on the Mountain (1953) and Just Above my Head (1979). Also notable is the essay collection Notes of a Native Son (1955).

Capote, Truman

1924-84, American author. He wrote in many genres including novels, The Green Harp (1951); short stories, Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958); and nonfiction novels, In Cold Blood (1966). Capra, Frank - 1897-1991, American film director of It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

Christopher, Warren

1925-, US government official appointed Secretary of State by Clinton in 1993.

Thatcher, Margaret

1925-, conservative British political leader and the first woman prime minister of Great Britain (1979-90). She was longest serving PM in the 20th century and succeeded by John Mayer in 1990.

Amin, Idi

1925-2003, Ugandan president (1971-79). Amin seized control of the Ugandan government from Milton Obote in 1971 and was exiled in 1979.

Obote, Milton

1925-2005, President of Uganda (1966-71, 1980-85). He was overthrown by Idi Amin in 1971, returned to power after Amin was disposed in 1979, but was deposed again in 1985 by the military.

Styron, William

1925-2006, American novelist of The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967, Pulitzer) and Sophie's Choice (1979, movie 1982).

O'Connor, Flannery

1925-64, American author. Known for her contemporary of Southern life in the novels Wise Blood (1952) and the short stories "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1955) and "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (1965)

Malcolm X

1925-65, 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 1964 he was assassinated in Harlem. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964) is a classic of the black power movement.

Vidal, Gore

1925-present, American novelist of Myra Breckinridge (1968), Burr (1973), Lincoln (1975), and 1876 (1976)

Ginsberg, Allen

1926-, American poet. Ginsberg was a poet of the "beat generation." He is best known for his poem Howl (1956). Glenn, John - 1921-, US astronaut and politician. He became the first American in orbital flight when he orbited the earth three times in his Friendship 7 capsule (1962). He later served in the US senate as a Democrat from Ohio. At the age of 77, Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery, becoming the oldest man in space.

Castro, Fidel

1926-, Cuban leader over overthrew Batista's dictatorship in 1959. Served as premier from 1959-76 and president from 1976-2008, when he transferred presidential duties to his brother Raul.

Greenspan, Alan

1926-, US economist. Greenspan was named chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1987. As Fed chairman oversaw the tremendous growth of the US economy in the 1990s.

Monroe, Marilyn

1926-1962, American actress. Born Norma Jean Baker, she 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.

Abernathy, Ralph David

1926-90, American civil rights leader. Abernathy succeeded Martin Luther King Jr. as leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference after King's assassination.

Simon, Neil

1927-, American playwright famous for his popular comedies including Barefoot in the Park (1963), The Odd Couple (1965), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1984), and Biloxi Blues (1985). He is also known for the more serious Lost in Yonkers (1991 Pulitzer).

Angelou, Maya

1928-, African-American poet, playwright and short-story writer best known for the autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing (1970). In 1993, she read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Clinton.

Albee, Edward

1928-, American playwright. His often clever and often satiric plays include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1967, Pulitzer), Seascape (1975, Pulitzer), and Three Tall Women (1991, Pulitzer)

Watson, James

1928-, American scientist. With Francis Crick, he discovered the structure and function of the DNA double-helix. Shared 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Crick and Maurice Wilkins. Watson served as head of Human Genome program from 1989-92.

Mubarak, Hosni

1928-, Egyptian president (1981- ) who succeeded Anwar Sadat after Sadat's assassination in 1981.

Assad, Hafez al

1928-, President of Syria (1971-). He was defense minister before leading a successful military coup (1970) that made him premier then president.

Mondale, Walter

1928-, vice president of the US (1977-81). A liberal Democrat and protégé of Hubert Humphrey, he succeeded Humphrey as US Senator from Minnesota (1964-1977). In 1976, Jimmy Carter chose him as his running mate and was elected vice president, only to lose their bid for reelection in 1980 to Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Mondale won the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination, but was soundly defeated by Reagan. He chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984, making her the first major party female vice presidential candidate.

Pol Pot

1928-1998, Cambodian communist leader. The leader of the Khemer Rouge, he rose to power in 1975 after the Khmer Rouge toppled the Cambodian government.

Guevara, Ernesto (Che)

1928-67, Cuban revolutionary. Guevara was Fidel Castro's guerrilla leader in the Cuban revolution (1959) and served as a minister of industry (1961-5). He was captured and executed in Bolivia in 1967.

Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali

1928-79, Pakistani leader. Served as president (1971-73) and prime minister (1973-77) of Pakistan; he came to power after Pakistan's defeat in the war over Bangladesh's independence. He was overthrown in 1977, and executed in 1979. His daughter, Benazir Bhutto served as prime minister of Pakistan (1988-90, 1993-96).

Gell-Mann, Murry

1929-, American physicist. In 1963 Gell-Mann and George Zweig independently postulated the existence of quarks. He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics.

Arafat, Yasser

1929-2004, Palestine political leader. Head of the guerrilla group Al Fatah, he became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (1969). In 1994, Arafat became president of the Palestine National Authority. He shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin for a groundbreaking 1993 peace accord.

King, Martin Luther, Jr.

1929-68, 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. King was assassinated by James Early Ray in 1964 while in Memphis, TN.

Armstrong, Neil

1930-, American astronaut. Armstrong was the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, and the first man to walk on the moon.

Aldrin, Edwin "Buzz"

1930-, American astronaut. During the Apollo 11 mission, Aldrin became the second person, after Neil Armstrong, to walk on the moon.

Sondheim, Stephen

1930-, American composer and lyricist best known for writing the lyrics to Bernstein's West Side Story (1958). Wrote the music and lyrics to Sunday in the Park with George (1984, Pulitzer) and many others

Perot, Ross

1930-, American politician and businessman. After working for IBM, he founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and 1996.

Pinter, Harold

1930-2008, English dramatist. His best known plays include The Birthday Party (1958), The Homecoming (1965), and The Dumb Waiter (1957). He won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Hansberry, Lorraine

1930-65, African-American playwright best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun (1959).

White, Edward Higgins

1930-67, American astronaut. White was 1st American to perform extravehicular activity in space. He was killed in 1967 with crewmates Virgil Grissom and Roger Chaffe by a preflight fire on Apollo 1.

Warhol, Andy

1930-87, American artist and leading figure in Pop Art. Known for his paintings of commonplace objects including Campbell's soup cans.

Mobutu Sese Seko

1930-97, president of Zaire (1967-97).

Wolfe, Tom

1931-, American author best known for his non-fiction novels The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), The Right Stuff (about the Project Mercury astronauts, 1979) and the fiction novel The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987).

Morrison, Toni

1931-, American author whose novels include Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, and Beloved. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

Tutu, Desmond

1931-, South African religious leader famous for advocating nonviolence in the struggle against apartheid. He received the 1984 Nobel Prize.

Gorbachev, Mikhail

1931-, Soviet political leader. Gorbachev served as the final president of the USSR (1988-91). He introduced the policies known as glastnost (or openness) and perestroika (restructuring). In 1990 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Yeltsin, Boris

1931-2007, Soviet and Russian political leader who became president of Russia in 1991 following disintegration of the USSR.

Updike, John

1932-, American author and creator of Harry Angstrom. Angstrom was featured in the novels Rabbit, Run (1960), Rabbit Redux (1971), Rabbit is Rich (1981, Pulitzer), and Rabbit at Rest (1990, Pulitzer).

Chirac, Jacques

1932-, French political leader. Chirac served as France's president from 1995 to 2007 after unsuccessful attempts in 1981 and 1988.

Plath, Sylvia

1932-63, American poet. Her poems appear in volumes Ariel (1965) and Collossus (1960). She is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar (1962). He committed suicide in 1963 by sticking her head in an oven.

Roth, Phillip

1933-, American novelist known initially for his short story collection Good-bye Columbus (1959) and primarily for his comic masterpiece Portnoy's Complaint (1969).

Akihito

1933-, Japanese Emperor (1989-present); the son and successor of Hirohito; in 1959, he became the first member of the royal family to marry a commoner, Shoda Michiko.

Aquino, Corazon

1933-, Philippine politician, president of the Philippines (1986-92). Her husband, Benito Aquino, was Ferdinand Marcos's chief political opponent, and in 1983 government agents assassinated her husband when her returned form exile. In 1986, she defeated Marcos in a controversial election, becoming the first woman president of the Philippines

Dukakis, Michael

1933-present, US politician. He was a member of the US House of Representatives (1962-70) and governor of Massachusetts (1975-79, 1983-91) before receiving the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election to George Bush.

Sagan, Carl

1934-, American astronomer famous for popularizing science in his books including The Dragons of Eden (1977, Pulitzer) and creating and hosting the television series Cosmos (1980).

Steinem, Gloria

1934-, American feminist and founder of Ms. Magazine.

Schwarzkopf, Norman

1934-, American general who was supreme commander of the US and the Western forces in the Persian Gulf War.

Chretien, Jean

1934-, Canadian prime minister from 1993-2003.

Nader, Ralph

1934-, US consumer-advocate. His book Unsafe at Any Speed influenced Congress to bring auto design under government control. He ran for president in 2000 on the Reform Party ticket.

Gagarin, Yuri

1934-68, Russian cosmonaut. Gagarin became the first man to orbit the earth when his Vostok ("East") spacecraft orbited the earth on April 12, 1961.

Ferraro, Geraldine

1935-, US politician. She served three terms as a Democrat member of the US House of Representatives (1979- 84) 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.

Bly, Robert

1936-, American author. Active in the men's movement, his book Iron John (1990) deals with the passage of boys into manhood.

DeKlerk, Frederick

1936-, South African political leader. Succeeded P.W. Botha as president of South Africa in 1989; with Nelson Mandela, he won the 1993 Nobel Peace prize; succeeded by Mandela as president in 1994.

Pynchon, Thomas

1937-, American author of the novels V, The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow (1973). Pythagoras - 582-507 BC, Greek philosopher whose followers originated the Pythagorean theorem and worshiped numbers

Stoppard, Tom

1937-, English playwright of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966) about characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Also wrote Arcadia (1993) and Rock N' Roll (2006).

Hussein, Saddam

1937-, Iraqi political leader. Hussein played a leading role in the 1968 coup that brought the Ba'ath party to power. He became party leader and president in 1979, and has ruled since. His leadership has led to the Iran Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War.

Obasanjo, Olusegun

1937-, Nigerian general. He served as military ruler of Nigeria from 1976-79 and as president from 1999- 2007.

Tereshkova, Valentina

1937-, Soviet cosmonaut who became the 1st woman to orbit in the earth in 1963 aboard the Vostok 6.

Noriega, Manuel

1938-, Panamanian general. In 1985, he ousted the president and became de facto leader of Panama. He was captured in 1989 after an American invasion and was brought to Miami where he was tried for racketeering and drug trafficking. Norris, Frank - 1870-1902, American novelist. Influential naturalist author, he is best known for McTeague (1899), and two novels that attacked the American railroad and wheat industries The Octopus (1901) and The Pit (1903). Nyerere, Julius - 1922-1999, First president of Tanzania (1964-1985). He was an advocate of African Socialism and led a 1978 invasion into Uganda which toppled Idi Amin's regime.

Juan Carlos I

1938-, king of Spain (1975-). The Grandson of Alfonso XIII, Francisco Franco named him as his successor. Upon Franco's death in 1975, he became the first Spanish king since his grandfather was deposed in 1931.

Coppola, Francis Ford

1939-2000, American film director. Famous for his films The Godfather I, II, and III (1972, 1974, 1990) and Apocalypse Now (1979) that was based on Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness.

Nicklaus, Jack

1940-, American golfer nicknamed the "Golden Bear"; he is considered to be one of the best golfers of all time. He won 2 amateur titles at Ohio State University and then won a record 18 major championships.

Brodsky, Joseph

1940-, Russian-born Us poet. He has lived in the US since 1972, and writes in both English and Russian. He was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize for literature, and was named US poet laureate for 1991-92. His works include A Part of Speech (1980), Less Than One (1986), and To Urania (1988).

Coetzee, James Maxwell

1940-, South African author best known for writing the novels Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) and Life &Times of MichaelK (1983). Won 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature

Jackson, Jesse

1941-, African-American political leader and clergyman. Jackson became the first legitimate African-American presidential candidate with his unsuccessful attempts in the 1984 and 1988 presidential primaries.

Tyler, Anne

1941-, American novelist of The Accidental Tourist (1985) and Breathing Lessons (1988).

Irving, John

1942, American novelist. Humorist known for his The World According to Garp (1978) and The Cider House Rules (1985) both of which were made into movies.

Qaddafi, Muammar

1942, Lydian army officer and head of state (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

Ali, Muhammad

1942-, American boxer. Born Cassius Clay, he changed his name when he became a Black Muslim (1964). He won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics, and he defeated Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight crown in 1964. He was stripped of his title in 1967 when he refused to enter the US armed forces on religious grounds. He regained the title in 1974 by defeating George Foreman, lost it in 1978 to Leon Spinks, and won it for a third time later in 1978.

Hawking, Stephen

1942-, British physicist known for his research on black holes and the big bang theory. He wrote A Brief History of Time (1988). Hawking was paralyzed in 1962 as the result of a motor neuron disease.

Shepard, Sam

1943- American playwright known for plays such as Buried Child (1978, Pulitzer) and for writing the screenplay and acting in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff.

Fischer, Bobby

1943-, American chess player. In 1972 at Reykjavik, Iceland, he defeated Borris Spasskey and won the world chess championship. He became the youngest player in history (age 15) to achieve the rank of Grand Master.

Gingrich, Newt

1943-, US politician. US Representative from Georgia beginning in 1978, and Speaker of the House of Representatives (1995-99)

Ashe, Arthur

1943-93, American tennis player. He was the first African-American man to win the US Open (1968), the Australian Open (1970), and Wimbledon (1975). His book, A Hard Road to Glory, gave a history of blacks in sports. He died in 1993 after a long battle with AIDS

Major, John

1943-present, British political leader; in 1990 he was elected to succeed Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party.

Walker, Alice

1944 -, African American novelist of The Color Purple (1982, Pulitzer)

Ortega, Daniel

1945-, Nicaraguan president (1985-1990, 2006-) and leader of the socialist Sandinistas. During the 1980's, he fought the Contras.

Wilson, August

1945-2005, African-Amer. playwright known for his plays Fences (1987, Pulitzer) and The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer).

Clinton, William Jefferson

1946-, 42nd president of the US (1993-2001). Born in Hope, AR as William Jefferson Blythe. Graduated from Georgetown University, Yale Law School and was a Rhodes scholar. In 1976, he was elected attorney general of Arkansas and, in 1978, became nation's youngest governor. He lost reelection campaign for governor in 1980, but regained it in 1982 and was reelected twice more in 1986 and 1990. An underdog, he was 1992 Democratic nomination for president, and he and running mate Al Gore defeated incumbent George HW Bush and independent Ross Perot. Won reelection in 1996 over Bob Dole. Became 2nd president to be impeached in House of Representatives in 1998, but was later acquitted the following year.

Mamet, David

1947, American playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross (1984, Pulitzer).

Campbell, Kim

1947-, Canadian politician. In 1993, she succeeded Brian Mulroney as Canada's first female PM. She lost her position that same year in national elections

Quayle, J. Dan forth

1947-, vice president of the US (1989-93). A conservative republican from Indiana, he served in the US House of Representatives (1977-81) and the US senate (1981-89) before becoming George Bush's mate in 1988.

Lloyd Webber, Andrew

1948-, British composer. His first great success came with the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1970). Other musicals include Evita (1976), a fictional biography of Eva Peron; Cats (1981), based on T.S. Eliot poems; and The Phantom of the Opera.

Charles

1948-, Prince of Wales, and heir apparent to the throne. Eldest son of Elizabeth II. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer, but were separated in 1992. William and Henry are their two sons.

Baryshnikov, Mikhail

1948-, Russian-American dancer. He defected to the US in 1974 and danced with the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet.

Gore, Albert

1948-, vice president of the US (1993-2001). A moderate Democrat, he served as a US representative and US senator from Tennessee before serving as Bill Clinton's vice president (1993-2001).

Anne, Princess

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

Ride, Sally

1951-, American astronaut who, in 1983, became the first woman in space.

Pamuk, Orhan

1952-, Turkish novelist known for his postmodern novels such as The Silent House (1983), The Black Book (1990) and Snow (2002). Won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Blair, Tony

1953-, British politician. A lawyer and member of the Labour party, he was first elected to Parliament in 1983. In 1994 he was chosen as Labour Party leader after the death of John Smith. He became Prime Minister in 1997 and served until his resignation in 2007.

Bhutto, Benazir

1953-2007, Pakistani politician. The daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, she became the first female leader of a Muslim nation when she became prime minister of Pakistan 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. She was assassinated in December of 2007.

Jobs, Steven

1955-, American businessman with Stephen Wozniak, he created the Apple Computer Company in 1976.

Gates, Bill

1955-, American businessman. At age 19, Gates founded Microsoft with Paul Allen (1974).

Cato the Elder

234-149 BC, Roman statesman. Feeling Carthrage was Rome's mortal enemy, he ended speeches with phrase "Carthage must be destroyed."

Hannibal

247-183 BC, Carthaginian general. During the second Punic War, he 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 of the second Punic War by Scipio Africanus Major at the battle of Zama (202 BC).

Archimedes

287-212 BC, Greek mathematician and inventor; Archimedes is remembered for supposedly crying "eureka" (I have found it) after discovering Archimedes' Principle of buoyancy.

Ptolemy

2nd century AD astronomer and mathematician. Famous for his works Almagest that presented the geocentric theory known as the Ptolemaic system. Also compiled an atlas, Geographia.

Jerome, Saint

347-420, Christian scholar. He is chiefly known for his compilation of the Vulgate Bible.

Nero

37-68AD, Roman Emperor (54-68AD); when his mother Agrippina married Claudius I in 49AD, she persuaded him to adopt Nero. In 59AD, Nero murdered his mother and in 62AD murdered his wife Octavia. When Rome was burned in a fire in 64AD, he accused the Christians and began the first Roman persecution. Neruda, Pablo - 1904-1973, Born Neftali Ricardo Reyes. Chilean poet and communist sympathizer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 for works such as Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

Zhuangzi

370-301 BC, Chinese philosopher and 2nd most famous Taoist; best known for his "Butterfly Dream", where he asked whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming it was a man.

Aristotle

384-322 BC, Greek philosopher who studied under Plato and later tutored Alexander the Great; known for opening a school, the Lyceum

Diogenes

412-323 BC, Greek philosopher taught that a simple life was a good life. Most famous for living in a tub and searching the streets looking for an "honest man"; nicknamed "the dog", his followers were known as the Cynics.

Xenophon

430-355 BC, Greek historian whose most famous work is the Anabasis.

Ovid

43BC-18AD, Latin poet of Metamorphoses, a major mythological work

Aristophanes

448-388 BC, Greek playwright; the greatest ancient comedy writer, eleven of his plays survive including The Clouds, The Frogs, The Wasps, and Lysistrata.

Euripides

480-406 B.C., Greek tragic poet; his surviving works include Alcestis, Medea, Andromache, The Trojan Women, Orestes, Iphigenia in Aulis, and The Bacchae.

Xerxes

519-465 BC, king of Persia (486-465 BC) and son of Darius I. Known for his victory over the Spartans at Thermopylae and for his defeat at Salamis.

Charles, Martel

688-741, Frankish ruler. Illegitimate son of Pepin and grandfather of Charlemagne. Defeated Umayyads at 732 Battle of Tours. His sons Pepin the Short and Carloman divided Frankish lands upon death.

Cleopatra

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

Virgil

70- 19 BC, great Roman poet of The Eclogues (or Bucolics), Georgics, and the great Epic Aeneid

Charlemagne (Charles I)

742-814, king of the Franks; the son of Pepin the Short, he served as a Carolingian king of the Franks (768-814). After restoring Leo III to the papacy in 800, Leo III crowned him emperor of what would become the Holy Roman Empire; succeeded by son Louis I.

Louis I (Louis the Pious)

778-804, emperor of the West (814-840). The son of 43Charlemagne, he became emperor upon Charlemagne's death in 814.

Charles II (Charles the Bald)

823-77, Emperor of the West (875-77); son of Louis I, became emperor upon death of nephew Louis II. Charles III (Charles the Fat) 839-88, Emperor of the West (881-87); the song of Louis the German, he briefly united the empire of Charlemagne, but was deposed in 887.

Alfred the Great

849-99, King of Wessex (871-99); sometimes referred to as Alfred the Great

Otto I (Otto the Great)

912-73, Holy Roman Emperor. Often regarded as founder of Holy Roman Empire, he was son and successor of Henry I of Germany. Otto I was crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962.

Murasaki Shikibu

978-1031, Japanese writer known for writing the Tale of Genji, one of the first great Japanese works of fiction.

Edward the Confessor

?-1066, king of the English (1042-1066). Son of Ethelred the Unready, he was succeeded by Harold, the son of the powerful noble Earl Godwin.

Malory, Sir Thomas

?-1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur.

Hudson, Henry

?-1611, English explorer. Sailing for the Dutch East India Company, he explored the Hudson River (1609) while searching for the Northwest Passage. He reached Hudson Bay in 1610, but was later abandoned by a mutinous crew.

David, King of Israel

?-972 BC, Hebrew king. The successor of Saul, he was 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 Jonathan, and his seduction of Bathsheba. He is also credited with writing many of the Psalms.

Hammurabi

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

Euclid

?300 B.C., Greek mathematician famous for his invention of elementary plane geometry. His presentation of mathematics is contained in his work entitled Elements.

Caesar, Julius

102-44 BCE., Roman statesman. In 63 BCE, he undertook the reform of the calendar and the result was the Julian Calendar. In 60 BCE, he organized the First Triumvirate, made of Pompey, commander in chief of the army; Marcus Crassus, the wealthiest person in Rome; and Caesar. 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 bring all Gaul under Roman control. Crassus' death in 53 BC ended First Triumvirate and set Pompey and Caesar at odds. In 50 BC, the senate ordered Caesar to disband his army, but two tribunes, Marc Antony and Cassius Longinus, vetoed the bill. In 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon to enter Italy, thus beginning a Civil War. On the Ides of March, 44 BC, he was stabbed by senators by a group of conspirators including Casca, Cassius, and Brutus. His will left everything to his grandnephew Octavian (later Augustus). He married three times to Cornelia, Pompeia, and Calpurnia. During his reign, Caesar made the Roman Empire possible by uniting the states after a century of disorder and by establishing an autocracy in place of the oligarchy.

Harold

1022-1066, king of England (1066). Succeeding Edward the Confessor, his short reign ended when he was killed at the battle of Hastings.

Abelard, Peter

1079-1142, French Philosopher, regarded as the founder of the University of Paris. Wrote Sic et Non (Yes and No). Also known for his love affair with Heloise

Claudius I

10BC-54AD, Roman emperor (41-54 AD). Nephew of Tiberius, he was proclaimed emperor when Caligula was murdered in 41 AD. Clay, Henry - 1777-1852, American statesman. Known as the "Great Compromiser" and "Great Pacificator" he is best known for his work on the Missouri Compromise (1821) and Compromise of 1850. Also served Kentucky as Senator and Representative, served as secretary of state under John Quincy Adams. Clay was unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1832 and 1844.

Eric the Red

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

Thomas a Becket, Saint

1118-70, English martyr and archbishop of Canterbury. Nominated as archbishop of Canterbury in 1163 by Henry II. After appointment, the two began a long dispute that led to Thomas' murder in 1170 by Henry's partisans.

Eleanor of Aquitaine

1122-1204, queen of Louis VII of France and Henry II of England. She was the mother of Richard I and John, future kings of England.

Fibonacci, Leonardo

1170-1240, Italian mathematician. The Fibonacci Sequence is a sequence of numbers in which each term is the sum of the two preceding terms. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21... Fielding, Henry - 1707-54, English writer. Noted for the comedy Tom Thumb (1730), the novel Tom Jones (1749), and the novel Joseph Andrews (1742), a parody of Samuel Richardson's Pamela.

Albertus Magnus, Saint

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

Omar Khayyam

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

Caligula

12-41 AD, Roman emperor (37-41 AD) as a child, he wore military boots, obtaining the nickname "little boots" or "Caligula." Succeeded Tiberius as emperor and was known for his mental illness. Assassinated in 41 AD and was succeeded by Claudius I.

Marcus Aurelius

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

Bacon, Roger

1214-94, English scientist and philosopher often credited with foreseeing many great scientific advances including the microscope, gunpowder, aircraft, etc. Scholars today doubt the authenticity of these claims.

Kublai Khan

1215-1294, Mongol emperor, founder of the Yuan dynasty of China. Kublai Khan was visited by Marco Polo on his famous trip to China.

Thomas Aquinas, Saint

1225-74, Italian philosopher and theologian known as the "Anglican Doctor." His major work is the monumental Summa Theologica (1267-73).

Polo, Marco

1254-1324, Venetian traveler in China. He 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. The Divine Comedy, a vernacular poem in 100 cantos, is a tale of the poet's journey through Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. The poem was 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. Galen made numerous anatomical and physiological discoveries including kidney secretion, respiration, and nervous system function. His work and writings helped lay the foundation for the study of medicine. William Harvey's 17th century discover of the circulation of blood was one of the first major steps away from Galenian medicine.

Boccaccio, Giovanni

1313-75, Italian poet. From 1384 to 1353 he wrote his classic work the Decameron, a collection of 100 witty tales set against the backdrop of the Black Death.

Charles IV

1316-78, Holy Roman emperor (1355-78).

Chaucer, Geoffrey

1340-1400, English author best known for his unfinished masterpiece The Canterbury Tales. This work tells the tales of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Tomas a Becket. Characters include Wife of Bath and the Summoner. Also wrote Parlement of Foules.

Catherine of Valois

1401-37, queen of Henry V of England, daughter of Charles VI of France and mother of Henry VI. After Henry V's death (1522), she married Owen Tudor. Tudors related to her.

Joan of Arc

1412-31, French heroine. Called the "Maid of Orleans," she led the French armies against the English in the Hundred Years War, relieving besieged Orleans (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.

Torquemada, Tomas de

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

Caxton, William

1421-91, English printer. The first printer to print books in English.

Botticelli, Sandro

1444-1510, Florentine Renaissance painter. Famous for his enchanting mythological scenes including Birth of Venus, and Spring (Primavera).

Bosch, Hieronymus

1450-1516, Dutch painter. Hailed in the 20th century as a forerunner of Surrealism, he had a passion for the macabre. He was the favorite of Ph8ilip II of Spain, and was a great influence on Peter Breughel, the Elder. His works include Adoration of the Magi, Garden of Earthly Delights, and Temptation of St. Anthony.

Columbus, Christopher

1451-1506, European explorer. Born in Genoa, Italy, Columbus' most famous expeditions were done under the backing of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. In 1492, his ships the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria reached Cuba and Hispaniola, discovering America. In 1493 he sailed to Puerto Rice 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. Most famous for his fresco work Last Supper (1495-8), and for the Mona Lisa.

Ponce de Leon, Juan

1460-1521, Spanish explorer and discoverer of Florida while trying to find the Fountain of Youth.

Erasmus, Desiderius

1466-1536, Dutch humanist. One of the greatest Renaissance figures and author of In Praise of Folly (1509).

Cabral, Pedro

1467-1520, Portuguese explorer. On an expedition planned for Italy, he sailed far off course and wound up in Brazil (1500), claiming it for Portugal.

Gama, Vasco da

1469-1524, Portuguese navigator. At the order of Manuel I, he became the first European to travel to India by sea (1497-9), setting up a profitable spice trade.

Machiavelli, Niccolo

1469-1527, Italian philosopher. His most famous work, The Prince (1532), describes the ideal prince, and the means by which he may gain and maintain power.

Durer, Albrecht

1471-1528, German painter and engraver; most famous for his engravings and woodcuts

Copernicus, Nicholas

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 Coelestium (1543).

Balboa, Vasco

1475-1519, Spanish conquistador. After fleeing Hispaniola in 1510 he hid in a ship that took him to Panama. After reaching the New World, he seized command of the expedition, marched across the isthmus, and discovered the Pacific Ocean, in 1513, claiming the ocean and its shores for Spain.

Michelangelo Buonarroi

1475-1564, Italian sculptor and painter. A leading figure of the Renaissance, he is best known for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12), sculpting the Pieta, and was a chief architect of St. Peter's Church.

Pizarro, Francisco

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

Castiglione, Baldassare

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

More, Sir Thomas

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

Magellan, Ferdinand

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

Luther, Martin

1483-1546, German leader of the Protestant reformation. His belief that salvation was received by faith alone and not by works and his hate of the indulgences led to the posting his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg castle church. Lutheranism is a religion based on Luther's principles.

Zwingli, Ulrich

1484-1531, leader of the Protestant reformation in Switzerland.

Rabelais, Francois

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

Ignatius of Loyola, Saint

1491-1556, Spanish founder of the Jesuits. He wrote Spiritual Exercises.

Cartier, Jaques

1491-1557, French explorer. Famous for his explorations of Canada, he is credited with the discovery of the Saint Lawrence River and Prince Edward Island.

De Soto, Hernando

1500-42, 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 (1541).

Charles V

1500-58, Holy Roman Emperor (1519-58). The son of Philip I and Joanna of Castile and grandson of Maximilian I, he was the greatest of the Hapsburg emperors. Also served as King of Spain (1516-56) as Charles I. Abdicated in 1556 leaving Spain and America to son Phillip II, and his brother Ferdinand I succeeded him as emperor.

Boleyn, Anne

1505-3, second queen of Henry VIII. Henry VIII divorced Katherine of Aragon to marry her. The mother of Elizabeth I, she was executed in 1536 largely for her failure to produce a male heir for Henry VIII. Bolivar, Simon - 1783-1830, South American revolutionary famous for his liberation of much of South American from Spanish rule. Though hated during his life, today he is revered as Latin America's greatest hero and its liberator.

Xavier, Francis

1506-1552, Portuguese missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Known for his travels to China, India and Japan on missionaries and for initiating the Goa Inquisition

Seymour, Jane

1509-37, third queen of Henry VIII. She died 12 days after the birth of their son Edward VI

Calvin, John

1509-64, French Theologian. His work Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) 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 Calvinism, a protestant religious system.

Coronado, Francisco

1510-54, Spanish explorer. While searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola, he became the first European to explore New Mexico and Arizona.

Parr, Catherine

1512-48, 6th queen of Henry VIII. Outliving him, he married Thomas Seymour in 1547.

Knox, John

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

Vesalius, Andreas

1514-64, Flemish anatomist famous for contesting and disproving several of Galen's theories. Vespucci, Amerigo - 1454-1512, Italian navigaot and namesake of America

Anne of Cleaves

1515-57, fourth queen of Henry VIII of England. Married Henry VIII in 1540, and was divorced by him later that same year.

Catherine de Medici

1519-89, queen of Henry II of France and daughter of Lorenzo de Medici. Mother of Henry III, Francis II, and Charles IX.

Howard, Catherine

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

Grey, Lade Jane

1537-54, queen of England. The grandniece of Henry VIII, she was queen of England for 9 days in 1553 succeeding Edward VII. She was imprisoned, beheading and replaced on the throne by Mary I.

Drake, Sir Francis

1540-96, English navigator and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577-80). His ship was named the Golden Hind.

Brahe, Tyco

1546-1601, Danish astronomer. His precise observations of the planets were the basis of Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de

1547-1616, Spanish author. Crippled at battle of Lepanto (1571), and captured by Barbary pirates later sold as a slave (1575). He is best known for Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605) featuring Don Quixote, a gentleman who reads too many chivalric romances, and squire Sancho Panza. Also wrote Galatea.

Napier, John

1550-1617, Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms, he introduced the decimal point in writing numbers, and developed Napier's bones (a method of multiplication using numbered rods).

Spenser, Edmund

1552-1599, English poet best known for his unfinished masterpiece epic poem, The Faerie Queene (1590)

Raleigh, Sir Walter

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 patent 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. He also wrote History of the World (1614).

Sidney, Sir Philip

1554-86, English author of Astrophel and Stella (1591) and the prose criticism The Defense of Poesie, or An Apology for Poetry (1595)

Chapman, George

1559-1634, English author best known for translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (1612-14). His translation subject of the Keats play "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Also wrote play Eastward Ho! (1605)

Wu Di

156-87 BC, Chinese emperor (141-87BC). His reign was marked with the massive expansion of China into Central Asia and adopting Confucianism as the state philosophy.

Bacon, Francis

1561-1626, English philosopher and statesman. Bacon served as knight, attorney general, and Lord Chancellor under James I, but in 1621, he pled guilty to accepting bribes and was banished form office. He spent the remainder of his life writing in retirement. Bacon is best known fro his unfinished philosophical masterpiece Instauratio Magna, of which two parts were completed: The Advancement of Learning, and Novum Organum

Shakespeare, William

1564-1616, English dramatist. Most scholars consider Shakespeare to be the greatest dramatist of the English language. The 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 education ended at the local school), 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, Shakespeare 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 Shakespeare's plays in the past, it is now widely believed that he was, in fact the author of all of his plays. He wrote 36 plays beginning in the 1590s with the light comedies The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Between 1595 and 1601, he wrote mostly more mature comedies including The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It. His great tragedies appeared mostly between 1602 and 1608. His work during this period included Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and the dark comedy Measure for Measure. In 1610, Shakespeare retired back to Stratford and wrote his final play, The Tempest. He died in 1616, probably on his fifty-second birthday.

James I

1566-1625, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685-1688). James I was 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. James II - 1633-1701, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (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 to the throne of Ireland.

Champlain, Samuel

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

Monteverdi, Claudio

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

Kepler, Johannes

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

Jonson, Ben

1572-1637, English writer. Best known for his comic plays Volpone (1606), The Alchemist (1610), and Bartholomew Fair (1614).

Anne of Denmark

1574-1619, queen consort of James I of England.

Rubens, Peter Paul

1577-1640, foremost 17th century Flemish painter.

Smith, John

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

Minuit, Peter

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

Beaumont, Francis

1584-1616, English dramatist. Best known for his collaborations with John Fletcher; among his works is The Woman Hater (1607)

Baffin, William

1584-1622, British explorer. Although he failed in his attempts to find the Northwest Passage, he is known today for his discovery of Baffin Bay.

Standish, Miles

1584-1650, American colonist and military leader of the Plymouth colony. He was immortalized as the failed suitor in Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish"

Rolfe, John

1585-1622, English colonist in Jamestown famous for introducing tobacco cultivation and marrying Pocahontas, daughter of a Powhatan chief.

Hooker, Thomas

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

Dare, Virginia

1587-?, The first child born in America to English parents. She was a member of the Roanoke colony that disappeared c. 1591.

Winthrop, John

1588-1649, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (elected 12 times). Wrote History of New England 1630-49 and made the sermon "A Model of Christian Charity" where he used the phrase "city upon a hill" to describe the colony.

Hobbes, Thomas

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

Bradford, William

1590-1657, Governor of Plymouth Colony. He succeeded John Carver as governor in 1621, and was reelected 30 times. His work History of Plymouth Plantation described the Mayflower voyage and early years of the colony.

Hutchinson, Anne

1591-1643, religious leader in New England. Banished as a heretic from the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1937, she helped found present-day Portsmouth, RI.

Walton, Izaak

1593-1683, English author of Compleat Angler, or the Comptemplative Man's Recreation (1653)

Pocahontas

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

Bernini, Giovanni

1598-1680, Italian architect and sculptor; the dominant Italian Baroque figure, his sculptures include David (1618), Rape of Proserpine (1622), and Apollo and Daphne (1625).

Cromwell, Oliver

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

Charles I, - 1887-1922, Austrian Emperor. Ascended to the throne during WWI, and abdicated in 1918 as the last emperor of Austria Charles I

1600-49, Stuart king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Son and successor of James I. His reign was marred by struggle between Parliament and king resulting in the English Civil War. Convicted of treason and beheaded in 1649.

Fermat, Pierre de

1601-65, French mathematician. A founder of modern number and probability theory, he proposed Fermat's Last Theorem. This theorem was apparently proven in 1994 by British mathematician Andrew Wiles.

Rembrant van Rijn

1606-69, Dutch artist of over 600 paintings, 100 self-portraits, 300 etchings, and 2000 drawings. He is best known for his group portraits Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp (1632) and The Shooting Company of Capt Frans Banning Cocq (also known as Nightwatch).

Berkeley, Sir William

1606-77, British colonial governor of Virginia. Subject of the 1676 Bacon's Rebellion, which he suppressed Berkeley, George - 1685-1753, Scottish philosopher who argued for "immaterialism" and wrote A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) and Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous

Milton, John

1608-74, English poet. Best remembered for the epic Paradise Lost (1674) 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 (1671) which tells how Jesus overcame Satan's temptations, Samson Agonistes (1671), and the elegy Lycidas (1638).

Stuyvesant, Peter

1610-72, Dutch director-general of the New Netherlands colony (1657-64).

Bradstreet, Anne

1612-72, American poet. The first important woman author in America, she is best known for her verse volume The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650).

Colbert, Jean Baptiste

1619-83, French statesman. Louis XIV appointed Colbert general of finances in 1665, and his mercantilism helped expand France's economy.

Moliere

1622-73, French playwright. Born Jean Baptiste Poquelin. His satirical comedies include Tartuffe (1664), Le Misanthrope (1666), The Miser (1668), The Imaginary Invalid (1673) and The Bourgeois Gentleman.

Fox, George

1624-91, English religious leader who founded the Society of Friends (Quakers).

Cassini, Gian

1625-1712, Italian-French astronomer. He determined rotational period of Jupiter, Mars and Venus; discovered 4 of Saturn's moons, and studied the divisions of Saturn's ring system that is named for him. Also namesake of a probe that explored Saturn.

Boyle, Robert

1627-91, Irish chemist. Often called the "Father of modern chemistry", he is best known for the discovery of Boyle's gas law.

Perrault, Charles

1628-1703, French poet famed for his Mother Goose Tales (1697).

Bunyan, John

1628-88, English author. While in prison for unlicensed preaching, he wrote the spiritual autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666); imprisoned a second time, he began his masterpiece Pilgrim's Progress (1678). Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.

Huygens, Christiaan

1629-95, Dutch physicist. Famous for using a pendulum in clocks, discovering the Saturn moon Titan, developing a wave theory of light, and discovering the polarization of light

Charles II

1630-85, Stuart king. Son of Charles I, fled to France in 1646. He was named king of Scotland upon 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 Restoration. Had no legitimate children and was succeeded by James II.

Dryden, John

1631-1700, English poet and dramatist, appointed as poet laureate in 1668. He is best know for the comedy Marriage a la Mode (1672) and his political satire Absalom and Achitophel (1681).

Wigglesworth, Michael

1631-1705, American poet and Puritan clergyman known for his The Day of Doom (1662).

Locke, John

1632-1704, English philosopher. His two most important works are Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and Two Treatises on Civil Government (1690).

Pascal, Blaise

1632-62, French scientist. In physics, his experiments with fluids led to the invention of the hydraulic press. In mathematics, he founded the modern theory of probability and contributed to the advancement of differential calculus. Pasternak, Boris - 1890-1960, Russian author. His masterpiece is the epic novel Dr. Zhivago. He was forced to refuse the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature. Pasteur, Louis - 1822-95, French chemist. Noted for his studies of fermentation and bacteria, he pioneered the process of pasteurization and developed rabies and anthrax vaccines.

Spinoza, Baruch

1632-77, Dutch philosopher, a lens grinder by trade; wrote Ethics

Pepys, Samuel

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

Hooke, Robert

1635-1703, English scientist. He is known for improving astronomical instruments, watches, and clocks. He is best known today for stating Hooke's law of elasticity.

Marquette, Jacques

1637-75, French explorer. A Jesuit priest, he accompanied Louis Joliet on a trip down the Mississippi River (1673).

Racine, Jean

1639-99, French dramatist known for his works such as Phedre (1677).

Newton, Isaac

1642-1727, English mathematician and scientist. In the 1660s he 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 (1687) included his law of universal gravitation, his 3 laws of motion, fluid mechanics, the motions of bodies in the solar system, and his work on the tides. His Optiks put forth his particle theory of light. He also built the first reflecting telescope in 1668.

Penn, William

1644-1718, English Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania (1681).

Jolliet, Louis

1645-1700, French explorer. With Jacques Marquette, he discovered the upper Mississippi river in 1673.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm

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

Bacon, Nathaniel

1647-76, American rebellion leader. Upset with the leadership of Sir William Berkeley, Bacon led an uprising in colonial Virginia (1676) known as Bacon's Rebellion. Shortly after driving Berkeley from Virginia, the revolt ended, partially to Bacon's death from malaria.

Halley, Edmund

1656-1742, English astronomer who became the first to predict the return of a comet, predicting the return of Halley's comet in 1759.

Cadillac, Antoine

1658-1730, French colonial governor and founder of Detroit, Michigan (1701). He also served as governor of Louisiana (1711-16).

Purcell, Henry

1659-1695, English composer famous for the operas Dido and Aeneas (1689) and The Fairy Queen (1692).

Defoe, Daniel

1660-1731, English writer. His greatest novels include Moll Flanders (1722), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), and Robinson Crusoe or, more accurately, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a novel based on the life of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk.

Newcomen, Thomas

1663-1729, English inventor or an early steam engine which influenced James Watt.

Swift, Jonathan

1667-1745, Anglo-Irish author and master of satire. Works include The Battle of the Books (1704), Gulliver's Travels (1726) and Modest Proposal (1729). The last advocated the breeding of Irish babies to feed to the rich in order to reduce Ireland's poverty.

Townshend, Charles

1674-1738, English statesman and originator of the hated Townshend Acts (1767), revenue acts passed by the English parliament to replace the Stamp Acts.

Tull, Jethro

1674-1741, English agriculturalist and inventor of the mechanical seed drill (1701).

Vivaldi, Antonio

1675-1741, Italian Baroque composer of The Four Seasons.

Walpole, Robert

1676-1745, English statesman, usually described as first PM of Britain (1721-42). Served during reigns of George I and George II. Resigned after the Battle of Cartagena disaster (1742).

Joseph I

1678-1711, Holy Roman Emperor (1705-11). He became emperor during the War of Spanish Succession. His brother Charles VI succeeded him upon his death.

Watteau, Jean-Antoine

1684-1721, French painter. Major exponent of the Rococo movement. Painted Embarkation for Cythera.

Gay, John

1685-1732, English playwright. Most famous for The Beggar's Opera (1728).

Charles VI

1685-1740, Holy Roman emperor (1711-40). Also served as King of Hungary as Charles III (1712-40). Issued the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713, stating that all Hapsburg lands would be inherited by his daughter Maria Theresa.

Bach, Johann Sebastian

1685-1750, German composer. During his life he was perhaps better known as an organist that as a composer. Since his death his genius as a composer has grown. His most famous works include the Brandenburg Concertos, Well Tempered Clavier, St. John Passion, and Art of the Fugue. He had 20 children, several of which became noted musicians.

Handel, George Frideric

1685-1759, English baroque composer. Works include Water Music (1717), which he wrote for George I, Messiah, and Music for the Royal Fireworks.

Pope, Alexander

1688-1744, English poet. Famous for his Essay on Criticism (1711), Essay on Man (1734), and the mock-heroic epic poem Rape of the Lock (1714).

Montesquieu, Baron Charles

1689-1755, French political philosopher. His greatest work, The Spirit of the Laws, compares the domestic, monarchial, and republic forms of government and advocated the separation and balance of powers within government.

Bering, Vitus

1691-1741, Danish explorer. Sailed for Peter I of Russia, exploring the extreme northeaster portion of Siberia and, in 1728, he sailed through what is now called the Bering Strait.

Voltaire

1694-1778, French author and philosopher born Francois Marie Arouet. He was a leading figure of the Enlightenment; he had close but stormy relationship with Frederick II; best known for his satirical Candide (1759); other words include, Zadig (1739), Brutus (1730), and Zaire (1732).

Olgethorpe, James

1696-1785, English general and founder of the colony of Georgia as an asylum for debtors (1733).

Hogarth, William

1697-1764, English painter and engraver. Famous for his The Rake's Progress, The Harlot's Progress, and the Marriage a la Mode series.

Edwards, Jonathan

1703-58, American theologian. His revivals of 1734-5 helped bring the Great Awakening to New England. Perhaps best known for his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Wesley, John

1703-91, English founder of Methodism which is based on salvation through faith in Jesus alone. Disagreed with Whitefield over the issue of Arminianism, which led to the splitting up Methodism

Franklin, Benjamin

1706-90, US inventor, statesman, and diplomat. As a young man he worked in Philadelphia as a printer and published the Poor Richard's Almanac (1732-57). He is credited with a number of inventions including the lightning rod and the Franklin stove. Franklin served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress where he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and organized a postal system, serving as the postmaster general (1775). Later sent to France (1776-85), he helped bring the French into the American Revolution on the colonists' side, and eventually was a signer of the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the Revolution.

Linnaeus, Carolus

1707-78, Swedish taxonomist. Linnaeus is considered the founder of binomial nomenclature and the originator of the modern classification system of plants and animals.

Francis I

1708-65, Holy Roman emperor (1745-65). In 1736, he married Maria Theresa, heiress to the Hapsburg lands. He became emperor after the War of Austrian Succession, but had little real power.

Johnson, Samuel

1709-84, English author. Johnson, a leading critic and conversationalist of the Augustan Age of English literature, is best known for his biography that was written by James Boswell (1791). Johnson's works include his great Dictionary of the English Language (1755).

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

1712-78, Swiss-French philosopher. A great figure of the French enlightenment, he is best known today for his Social Contract (1762) and Discourse on the Inequalities of Men (1754).

Frederick II

1712-86, king of Prussia (1740-86). 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.

Sterne, Laurence

1713-68, English author of Tristram Shandy (1760).

Diderot, Denis

1713-84, French encyclopedia compiler. Most famous for his lifework, The Encyclopedie.

Arnold, Benedict

1714-1801, American revolutionary traitor. After his plot with John Andre to betray the American post at West Point was discovered (1780), Arnold escaped and later fought for the British. His name is now synonymous with "Traitor"

Gluck, Christoph

1714-96, German-born composer. Famous for his revolutionary opera Orfeo ed Euridice (1762). Other operatic works include Alceste (1767) and Iphigenie en Aulide (1774).

Gray, Thomas

1716-71, English poet and author of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Greco, El - 1541-1614, Greek painter. Born in Crete as Domenicos Theotocopoulos. He studied under Titian, and is best known for his works Burial of Count Orgaz, Baptism, Crucifixion, and Resurrection.

Maria Theresa

1717-80, daughter of Charles VI. She succeeded (1740) to the Hapsburg lands by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, issued by her father Charles VI. 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.

Hargreaves, James

1720-78, English inventor of the spinning jenny in 1764.

Gage, Thomas

1721-87, English general. His soldiers fought the American patriots at Lexington (1775) in the battle that began the American Revolution.

Blackstone, Sir William

1723-80, British jurist remembered for his great work, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765).

Kant, Immanuel

1724-1804, German philosopher. One of the great metaphysicists, his works include Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and Critique of Judgment (1790).

Hutton, James

1726-97, Scottish geologist. Hutton is known for formulating the uniformitarianism of the earth, which stressed the slowness and gradualness of rates of change.

Catherine of Aragon - 1683

1727, first queen of Henry VIII (1509-1533). Only one of her 6 children survived infancy (Mary I) and Henry VIII wanted male heir. Henry VIII wanted marriage annulled, so he created the Anglican Church and led English Reformation. After marrying Anne Boleyn, he had court declare marriage invalid.

Gainsborough, Thomas

1727-88, English painter best known for The Blue Boy.

Black, Joseph

1728-99, Scottish chemist. In addition to discovering carbon dioxide (which he called fixed air), he is known for his theories of latent heat and specific heat.

Burke, Edmund

1729-97, British statesman. In his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770), he was the first to argue the value of political parties. His most famous work, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), expresses his opposition to the French Revolution. With Samuel Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds, he formed the Literary Club in 1764.

Goldsmith, Oliver

1730-74, Anglo-Irish author best known for the comedy She Stoops to Conquer (1773) and the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

Steuben, Fredrich Wilhelm von

1730-94, Prussian army officer and general who helped train the Continental army in the American revolution.

Cavendish, Henry

1731-1810, English chemist. Famous for work on the composition of air and water. Isolated gas called inflammable air, later called hydrogen

Washington, George

1732-1799, 1st president of US (1789-97). Before his rise to prominence, Washington lived at Mount Vernon and worked as surveyor. Served in French and Indian War (1754-58) with rank of Lt. Colonel. Washington's events in this war included surrendering Ft. Necessity (1754) and capturing Ft. Duquesne (1758). In 1759, married Martha Dandridge Custus and entered Virginia House of Burgesses that same year. A leader in movement for independence, he was delegate to 1st and 2nd Continental Congresses and in 1775 was chose to command Continental army. During this war, he won battles at Trenton (1776), Princeton (1777) and Yorktown (1781), the last leading to surrender of Cornwallis, while he lost at Brandywine (1777) and endured winter at Valley Forge (1777-78). He presided over Federal Convention (1787) which adopted constitution and was unanimously elected 1st president of US. During his two terms in office, he put down the Whiskey Revolt. He declined a 3rd term and in his Farewell Address, he warned US to "steer clear of permanent alliances." He died in Mount Vernon in 1799.

Haydn, Franz Joseph

1732-1809, Austrian composer. He wrote over 100 symphonies, 80 string quartets, 50 sonatas, and two oratorios. Works include The Clock symphony (1794), Symphonies 82-87 (Paris), and Symphonies 93-104 (London).

Priestly, Joseph

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

Boone, Daniel

1734-1820, American frontiersman. In 1775, as an agent for the Transylvania company, he blazed the Wilderness Road and founded Boonesboro, Kentucky. His legendary adventures, many largely exaggerated, were pluralized in a so-called autobiographical work by John Filson (1784).

Gibbon, Edward

1734-94, English historian. Gibbon is the author of the 6-volume historical work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88).

Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John

1735-1813, American author famous for his descriptions of the US rural life contained in works such as Letters from an American Farmer (1782).

Revere, Paul

1735-1818, American Revolutionary leader. A silversmith and solder, he was immortalized in Longfellow's poem for his midnight ride (1775) to warn the Massechusetts minutemen about British soldier's movements.

Adams, John

1735-1826, President of the United States (1797-1801). Born in Braintree (now Quincy) Massachusetts, and schooled at Harvard, Adams was an instrumental figure in the events surrounding the American Revolution. He became President Washington's vice president (1789-97) and in 1797 succeeded him as president. Events of his term in office include the XYZ affair. Adams was the father of 6th president John Quincy Adams

Coulomb, Charles

1736-1806, French physicist. Known for his work on electricity and magnetism. The unit of electric charge, the coulomb, is named for him.

Watt, James

1736-1819, Scottish inventor. Famous for his improvement to Newcomen's steam engine and for coining the term horsepower. SI unit of power, the Watt, is named after him.

Henry, Patrick

1736-99, American political leader. He served as a representative at the Continental Congress and governor of Virginia (1776-19). Henry is attributed with "Give me liberty or give me death" and "If this be treason, make the most of it." Herschel, Sir William - 1738-1822, English astronomer. Herschel discovered the planet Uranus (1781), the Saturn satellites Mimas and Enceladus, and the Uranus satellites Titania and Oberon.

Pine, Thomas

1737-1809, Anglo-American political writer. Known for successful pamphlets Common Sense (1776), The Crisis, where he wrote "these are the times that try men souls" (1776-83), The Rights of Man (1791) and the deist work The Age of Reason (1794).

Hancock, John

1737-92, American political leader. He served as president of the Continental Congress (1775-77) and was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, signing with a huge flourish

Allen, Ethan

1738-89, American Revolutionary figure who led the Green Mountain Boys at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga (1775)

Rutledge, John

1739-1800, American statesman and jurist. He served as associate justice of the Supreme Court (1789-91), and was named the second chief justice in 1795, serving only served 5 months because the senate rejected his nomination.

Clinton, George

1739-1812, American statesman and 1st governor of NY (1777-95, 1801-04). VP of US from 1805-12. Nicknamed "father of New York State."

Pugachev, Yemelyan

1740-75, Russian who led a large Cossack insurrection during the reign of Catherine the Great (1773-74). Pulaski, Casmir - 1748-79, Polish patriot and soldier. After fighting against the Russian domination of Poland, he commanded patriot troops in the American Revolution from 1777-79.

Boswell, James

1740-95, Scottish author famous for his Life of Johnson (1791), one of the greatest English biographies. Samuel Johnson is perhaps better known for his saying captured in Boswell's biography than his own work.

Joseph II

1741-90, Holy Roman emperor (1765-90). 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. Joseph, Chief - 1840-1904, chief of the New Perce tribe famous for his resistance to resettlement in the late 1870s.

Scheele, Karl Wilhelm

1742-86, Swedish chemist. Famous for his discovery of oxygen, independently of, but published later than Joseph Priestly. Also discovered nitrogen, manganese, and his work led to the discovery of barium and chlorine.

Wyss, Jonathan David

1743-1818, Swiss author of the children's classic The Swiss Family Robinson (1813).

Jefferson, Thomas

1743-1826, 3rd president of the US (1801-9). At the Second Continental Congress he drafted the Declaration of Independence, showing his respect for the though of John Locke and other philosophers. In 1779, he became governor of Virginia. In 1785, he became minister to France. Appointed secretary of states (1790-93) by President Washington, he defended against the Federalist policies of Alexander Hamilton. He served as vice president (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 had been slated to become vice president, tied Jefferson in the vote. Jefferson was chosen president by the House of Representatives, largely under the urging of Alexander Hamilton, who considered Jefferson less dangerous than Burr (ironic since Hamilton was killed by Burr in a duel in 1804). Jefferson was the first president inaugurated in Washington D.C., a city he helped plan. Highlights of his presidency include pushing the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and planning the Lewis 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.

Marat, Jean Paul

1743-93, French revolutionary. A supporter of the Jacobins, Marat was murdered while in his bath by a Girondist admirer, Charlotte Corday.

Lavoisier, Antoine

1743-94, French chemist and physicist. A founder of modern chemistry, Lavoisier is known for his pioneering work in the chemistry of combustion and is known for naming Priestley's "dephlogistated air" as Oxygen.

Gerry, Elbridge

1744-1814, vice president of the US (1813-4). His second term as governor of Massachusetts was marred by the rearrangements of election districts to help his party. This practice is now known as Gerrymandering. He served as vice president under James Madison (1813-4).

Adams, Abigail (Smith)

1744-1818 wife of President John Adams, mother of President John Quincy Adams

Lamarck, Jean

1744-1829, French scientist. Lamarck's theory of evolution (Lamarckism) put forth that acquired characteristics could be transmitted to its offspring. His theory, though disproved by study of heredity, was an important forerunner to today's evolutionary theory.

Pitcher, Molly (Molly Ludwig Hays)

1744-1832, American revolutionary heroine. She earned her nickname by carrying water to her husband and other soldiers in the battle of Monmouth (1778).

Montgolfier, Joseph

1745-1799, one of two French brothers who invented the first practical balloon and had the first manned balloon flight

Volta, Alessandro

1745-1827, Italian physicist; invented the voltaic cell; the Volt, a unit of electrical measurement, is named for him.

Jay, John

1745-1829, American statesman and 1st chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1789-95)

Wayne, Anthony

1745-96, American general known as "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Best known for his 1779 capture of Stony Point, NY during American revolution and for winning the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) against native Americans in the NW Territory. Weaver, James Baird - 1833-1912, American politician and presidential candidate of the Greenback Party (1880) and of the Populist Party (1892).

Kosciusko, Thaddeus

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

Goya, Francisco Jose de

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

Shays, Daniel

1747-1825, American soldier and leader of Shays' Rebellion, a revolt of poor Massachusetts farmers (1786-7) Shelly, Percy Bysshe - 1792-1822, English poet best known for the lyrics Ode to the West Wind (1819) and To a Skylark (1820). Other works include the poetic dramas The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820). In 1816 he married the daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. His wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly (1797-1851) is the author of Frankenstein.

Jones, John Paul

1747-92, Scottish-born American naval hero. In the American revolution he raided British shipping water off the coast of Great Britain while commanding his ship the Bon Homme Richard. He once said, "I have not yet begun to fight."

David, Jacques-Louis

1748-1825, French painter. His works include Death of Socrates (1787), The Oath of the Horatii, and Marat (1793). Also served as first painter to Napoleon I. Davis, Jefferson - 1808-89, American statesman. Before serving as president of the Confederacy (1861-5), he served as a senator from Mississippi and US Secretary of War.

Bentham, Jeremy

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 including John Stuart Mill.

Jenner, Edward

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

1749-1832, German author. Most famous for his dramatic poem Faust (1808). Other works include the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

1751-1816, English dramatist. Known for his masterpieces The Rivals (1775) and School for Scandal (1777); he created the character Miss Malaprop.

Madison, James

1751-1836, 4th president of the US (1809-17). He helped draft the Constitution for the state of Virginia (1776), served in the Continental Congress (1780-83, 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 war marred by the unpopular War of 1812, often called Mr. Madison's War. After his second term ended in 1817, he retired to his Montpelier estate with his wife, Dolly Madison (1768-1849).

Ross, Betsy

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

Wheatley, Phillis

1753-1784, African-American poet who helped create a genre of African-American literature. Born a slave, she published the poem collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)

Crompton, Samuel

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

Bligh, William

1754-1817, British admiral chiefly remembered for the mutiny on his ship, the Bounty (1789).

Hamilton, Alexander

1755-1804, US statesman. After serving in the US Revolution under George Washington, he was 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 the treasury (1789-95) under Washington. Hamilton was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, whose bids for the presidency (1800) and for New York governor (1804) Hamilton had thwarted. Hammerstein, Oscar - 1895-1960, American librettist and lyricist most famous for his collaborations with composers Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern, and especially Richard Rodgers.

Marshall, John

1755-1835, 4th chief justice of the Supreme Court (1801-35). He presided over Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden.

Marie Antoinette

1755-93, queen of France. The daughter of Holy Roman emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. She married the dauphin (French title given to the eldest son of the king) who would become King Louis XVI in 1774. The quote "Let them eat cake" is perhaps unjustly attributed to this notorious queen. The mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined in 1793.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

1756-1791, Austrian composer. He 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 (hence the "K" numbers).

Burr, Aaron

1756-1836, American politician. After serving in the American Revolution, he served as a US senator from New York (1791-97). 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 Jefferson. Burr reluctantly served as Thomas Jefferson's vide president. After his term as vide president, he ran unsuccessfully in the 1804 election for governor of New York (again partially due to Hamilton's hostility). His political career ended when he shot and mortally wounded Hamilton in a duel.

Godwin, William

1756-1836, English author. In 1797 he married feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their daughter was Frankenstein author Mary Shelley.

Blake, William

1757-1827, British poet. His most famous works, Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), contain "The Tyger", and "London". Other works include The Book of Thel (1789), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790), Milton (1804), and Jerusalem (1804).

Lafayette, Marquis de

1757-1834, French general and statesman. A friend of George Washington, he sailed to America, was made a general by the Continental Congress, and served at Valley Forge and in the Yorktown campaign. He is also known for leading the moderates in France during the July Revolution (1830) and creating the modern French flag (1789).

Robespierre, Maximilien

1757-94, leader in 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 the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794.

Monroe, James

1758-1831, 5th US President (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 Madison's secretary of state (1811- 1817). He was easily elected President in 1816 and again in 1820. In 1823 he issued the famous Monroe Doctrine, one the most important principles of US foreign policy. He retired to his Oak Hill estate near Lynchburg, VA.

Webster, Noah

1758-1843, American lexicographer and philologist known for his The American Dictionary of the English Language (1812).

Schiller, Friedrich von

1759-1905, German dramatist and poet. One of the greatest literary figures, his works include the dramatic trilogy Wallenstein (1798), the play Mary Stuart (1800), and William Tell (1804). His Ode to Joy (1785) was used by Beethoven for the finale of the ninth symphony.

Burns, Robert

1759-96, Scottish poet. Known as the greatest Scottish poet, among his works are the lyrics "Auld Lang Syne," "To a Mouse," and "Sweet Afton." His longer poems include "Tam O' Shanter" and "The Cotter's Saturday Night."

Breckenridge, John

1760-1806, American statesman. Served in the US Senate (1808-5), and Attorney General (1805) under President Johnson; his grandson John Cabell Breckenridge (1821-75) was vice president under President Buchanan.

Hoban, James

1762-1831, American architect. He designed and built the White House (1792-99), rebuilt the White House after it was burned down by the British in 1814, and was the supervising architect of the US Capitol.

Josephine

1763-1814, empress of the French (1804-9). In 1796 she married Napoleon, but their childless marriage was annulled in 1809 so that he could marry Marie Louise.

Bulfinch, Charles

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

Astor, John Jacob

1763-1848, American fur merchant. His American Fur Company exercised a virtual monopoly on the fur trade in US territories. On his death, he was the richest man in the US

Fulton, Robert

1765-1815, US inventor. His greatest achievement was the steamboat Clermont, launched in 1807. The voyage of the Clermont from NYC to Albany pioneered the use of the steamboat as a passenger vehicle.

Whitney, Eli

1765-1825, American inventor of the cotton gin (1793) and interchangeable parts.

Malthus, Thomas

1766-1834, English economist and sociologist. He was also a pioneer in population study as evidenced by his An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) which states that poverty was unavoidable because population increases faster than the means of subsistence.

Dalton, John

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

Jackson, Andrew

1767-1845, 7th president of the US (1829-37). In the war of 1812, he defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814) and defeated British troops at New Orleans (1815). Known as "Old Hickory," he was made a major general. He was known for his Jacksonian democracy that pushed to increase popular participation in the government. He lost the 1824 presidential election to J.Q. 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 regarding the issue of nullification. This led to the resignation of Calhoun in 1832. He won reelection in 1832 defeating Henry Clay.

Adams, John Quincy

1767-1848, 6th President of the United States (1825-29). Adams, the son of 2nd president John Adams, graduated from Harvard and served as Secretary of State under James Monroe before winning the 1824 Presidential election as the Federalist Party candidate. In the 1824 election, Andrew Jackson received more popular votes, but the election was decided in the House of Representatives in Adams's favor. He was defeated by Andrew Jackson in his 1828 reelection bid. Adams was elected to the House of Representatives after his presidential term ended.

Tecumseh

1768-1813, chief of the Shawnee who fought along side the British in the War of 1812. Killed at the Battle of the Thames by forces under Henry William Harrison (1813).

Francis II

1768-1835, Holy Roman emperor (1792-1806). The last Holy Roman emperor; after Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, Francis II took the title of Francis I, the first emperor of Austria (1804-35).

Corday, Charlotte

1768-93, French assassin of Jean Paul Marat (1793). She stabbed Marat while he was taking a bath. Cornwallis, Charles - 1735-1805, English general. The leader of British forces in the American Revolution. His defeat at Yorktown ended the war.

Clinton, Dewitt

1769-1828, American politician for his support of the Erie Canal, or "Clinton's Ditch." Served as mayor of NYC, Govenor of NY, and lost 1812 presidential election to James Madison.

Beethoven, Ludwig van

1770-1827, German composer. Recognized as one of the greatest composers who ever lived, his work is generally divided into three distinct periods. The first, influenced by Mozart and Haydn, includes the First and Second Symphonies and the Pathetique piano sonata. The second, or middle, period features the Third (Eroica) symphony, the Fourth through Eight symphonies, and his lone opera, Fidelio. His final period, beginning around 1816, consisted of more intense works including the Ninth (Choral) symphony (based on Schiller's Ode to Joy), the Missa Solemnis, and the late string quartets including Grosse Fugue. Though Beethoven began going deaf in his 30's and was completely deaf in his 40's, his work continued to flourish.

Wordsworth, William

1770-1850, English poet. With Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he wrote Lyrical Ballads (1798), which included "Tintern Abbey," introduced Romanticism to England. Also wrote poems "London, 1802," and "I wandered lonely as a cloud." Wren, Sir Christopher - 1632-1723, English architect, mathematician, and astronomer. Best known for rebuilding London after the 1666 Great Fire and constructed St. Paul's Cathedral

Scott, Sir Walter

1771-1832, Scottish novelist and poet known for his poems including Lady of the Lake (1810), his Waverly series of novels including Old Mortality (1816), Rob Roy (1818), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819). Also known for his historical novels Ivanhoe (1820), Kenilworth (1821), and Quentin Durward (1823).

Owen, Robert

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

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

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

Metternich

1773-1859, Austrian statesman. He became foreign minister in 1809, and pushed Austria into the Quadruple Alliance. He served as the guiding force as the Congress of Vienna (an international conference to remake Europe after Napoleon I's defeat). The period of 1815-48 is often known as the "Age of Metternich."

Lewis, Meriwether

1774-1809, American explorer. He headed the famed Lewis and Clark expedition (1803-6) and in 1807 was made governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis, Sinclair - 1885-1951, American novelist. Great satirical 20th century American author known for the novels Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925, Pulitzer), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), It Can't Happen Here (1935), and Cass Timberlane (1945). In 1930 he became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

Austen, Jane

1775-1817, English novelist. One of the masters of the English novel, Austen is best known for works such as Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1816). In 1818 the novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously.

Ampere, Andre

1775-1836, French scientist. Furthered the work of Hans Oersted on the relationship between electricity and magnetism; the basic unit of electric current is named after him (Ampere or Amp)

Constable, John

1776-1837, English artist. Most famous for his landscape paintings, most notably The Hay Wain (1821). Cook, James - 1728-79, English explorer. He set out in his ship the Endeavor in 1768, and explored the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, and in 1776 rediscovered the Sandwich Islands. Cook was killed by natives on the Hawaiian islands

Oersted, Hans Christian

1777-1851, Danish physicist and chemist famous for initiating the study of electromagnetism and for isolating Aluminum

Taney, Roger Brooke

1777-1864, 5th chief justice of the US Supreme Court (1836-64). Serving as Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasuring during the Jackson administration, he presided over the Dredd Scott Case while chief justice (1857).

Davy, Sir Humphrey

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

O' Higgins, Bernardo

1778-1842, South American revolutionary leader of Chile (1817-23).

Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis

1778-1850, French chemist. Gay-Lussac discovered in 1802 that at a constant pressure the volume of an enclosed gas is directly proportional to its temperature.

Pike, Zebulon

1779-1813, American explorer. He led an expedition to NM in 1806 and discovered the Colorado peak that is named after him in the process.

Key, Francis Scott

1779-1843, American poet. A lawyer, he is best known for writing the "Star Spangled Banner."

Moore, Clement Clarke

1779-1863, American poet best remembered for his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" often referred to by its first line, "Twas the Night before Christmas".

Lafitte, Jean

1780-1826, pirate. A pirate and smuggler, he is famous for aiding US troops against the British in the Battle of New Orleans (1815).

Bagot, Sir Charles

1781-1843, British diplomat negotiated the Rush-Bagot convention, limiting US armaments on Canadian border.

Webster, Daniel

1782-1852, American politician. He was presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1836. Webster served as secretary of state (1841-3) and was responsible for the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. He again served as secretary of state (1850-52) in Fillmore's administration. A noted orator, he was known for his Webster-Hayne debate and the "Seventh of March" speech.

Benton, Thomas Hart

1782-1858, US statesman. Democratic senator from Missouri (1821-51) and US Representative (1853-55) Benton, Thomas Hart - 1889-1975, American painter. Not to be confused with his grandfather the Missouri senator with the same name; this Thomas Hart Benton was perhaps the best known American muralist of the 1930s and 40s

Van Buren, Martin

1782-1862, 8th president of the Us (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 VP. Van Buren was the successful Democratic candidate for president in 1836. He was defeated in his bid for reelection by Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in 1840. In 1848 he ran again for president on the Free-Soil ticket.

Stendhal

1783-1842, pseudonym of French author Marie Henri Beyle author of The Red and the Black (1831) and The Charterhouse of Parma (1839).

Irving, Washington

1783-1859, American author. Under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker he wrote A History of New York (1809). Other works include the essay collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1820) that included the tales "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." While a diplomat in Spain, he wrote The Alhambra(1832). He retired to his Sunnyside estate in Terrytown, NY.

Perry, Oliver Hazard

1785-1819, naval officer. He commanded the US fleet that defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie (1813) during the war of 1812. He is known for saying "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

Audubon, John James

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

De Quincey, Thomas

1785-1859, English author best known for the autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Descartes, Rene - 1596-1650, French thinker. Famous for his work as a mathematician, philosopher, and scientist. Descartes founded analytical gormetry and originated the Cartesian coordinate system. His philosophical works include Discourse of Method (1637) and Meditations (1641). He is famous for his assertation Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am).

Grimm, Jakob

1785-1863, German philologist and author. Best known for his collection of folk tales known as Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812) compiled with his brother Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859).

Taylor, Zachary

1785-1950, 12th president of the US (1849-50) He earned the nickname "Old Rough and Ready" in the Black Hawk War (1832) and the Mexican-American War (1846-48) in which he took command of the army in Texas. He was elected president on the Whig ticket in 1848. Notable events of his term include the Wilmont Proviso and the Compromise of 1850. He died of cholera in 1850 and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

Crockett, Davy

1786-1836, American frontiersman. Crockett served as a US representative from Tennessee (1827-31, 1833-35) and died defending the Alamo (1836).

Scott, Winfield

1786-1866, American general nicknamed "Old Fuss and Feathers." A hero of the War of 1812, he was appointed supreme commander for the US Army (1841-61) and established himself as a national hero. He ran for president in 1852 as the Whig candidate but was defeated by Franklin Pierce.

Cooper, James Fenimore

1789-1851, American author, regarded as the first great American novelist. His first novel, The Spy (1821) was a novel ser 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 (in narrative order): The Deerslayer (1841), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), The Pioneers (1823), and The Prairie (1827). Other works include The Pilot (1823) and The Red Rover (1827).

Tyler, John

1790-1862, 10th president of the US; he served as a governor of Virginia (1825) and US Senator (1827-36) before serving as William Henry Harrison's vice president. After one month as VP he became the first VP to succeed to the presidency upon the death of Harrison. His chief accomplishments as president include the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1843) that settled various boundary disputes between the US and Canada, and the annexation of Texas as a state. Tyler failed to gain the Whig part nomination for the 1844 election.

Gericault, Theodore

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

Marie Louise

1791-1847, empress of the French (1810-15). She married Napoleon in 1810, and was the mother of Napoleon II. Marlowe, Christopher - 1564-93, English dramatist and poet. Known for his plays Tamburlaine the Great (1587), Dr. Faustus (1588), and The Jew of Malta (1589).

Faraday, Michael

1791-1867, English scientist and developer of the first dynamo, the precursor of the modern electrical generator. Also discovered electromagnetic induction (1831) and the compound benzene.

Buchanan, James

1791-1868, 15th president of the US (1857-61). A lawyer by trade, he was a congressman (1821-31) and senator (1834-45) from Pennsylvania. At first a Federalist, he became a Democrat and served as Polk's secretary of state (1845-49) during the Mexican American War. Under President Pierce he was minister to Great Britain and had a hand in drafting the Ostend Manifesto. In 1856, he was elected President. Events during his term in office include the pony express, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the succession of seven states from the Union, and the formation of the Confederate States of America.

Morse, Samuel

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

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio

1792-1868, Italian composer. Best known for his operas The Barber of Seville (1816) and William Tell (1829)

Babbage, Charles

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

Austin, Stephen F.

1793-1836, Texan. Known as the "Father of Texas," Austin began settling Texas between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. He later championed the Texas revolution (1836) and briefly served as the secretary state in the new Republic of Texas. The capital city of Austin was named after him. Avogadro, Amadeo - 1776-1856, Italian physicist. In 1811 he advanced the hypothesis, now known as Avogadro's law, that equal volumes of gasses under identical pressure and temperature conditions contain the same number of molecules. This hypothesis led to the determination of the value of the number of molecules in one mole, now known as Avogadro's number (6.022 X 1023)

Mott, Lucretia

1793-1880, American feminist. She joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton in organizing the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, NY (1848).

Perry, Matthew

1794-1858, US naval officer. Commodore Perry is best remembered for opening up Japan to Western trade in 1854 with the Convention of Kanagawa. Brother of Oliver Hazard Perry.

Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez de

1794-1876, Mexican general and dictator most of 1824-55, losing power once when he was captured at San Jacinto (1836) and again after defeats in the Mexican war forced his exile.

Vanderbilt, Cornelius

1794-1877, American railroad magnate. He entered the field during the 1860s and grew rapidly, connecting Chicago and New York in 1873. He founded namesake University in Nashville, TN. Van der Waals, Johannes - 1837-1923, Dutch physicist known for discovering the weak forces of mutual attraction now known as his namesake forces. He won the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Bryant, William Cullen

1794-1878, American poet. In his youth, he wrote his best-known poems Thanatopsis and To a Waterfowl.

Keats, John

1795-1821, English poet. HE published his first volume of poems in 1817. This collection included "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer>" Other well-known poems 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.

Polk, James Knox

1795-1849, 11th president of the US (1845-49). A leading Jacksonian Democrat, he served in the US House of Representative (1825-39)(speaker 1835-39) and was elected governor of Tennessee in 1839. Polk was defeated for gubernatorial reelection in 1844, but became the compromise dark horse candidate as a result of a deadlocked 1844 Democratic convention. He narrowly defeated Henry Clay in the 1844 Presidential election. Polk's term in office included the adopting the 49th parallel as the northern boundary of Oregon and acquiring the Southwest and California through the Mexican American war.

Bowie, James

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.

Schubert, Franz

1797-1828, Austrian Romantic composer known for his Fifth (1816), Eigth (The Unfinished, 1922), and Ninth symphonies. Also known for his Quintet in A Major (The Trout, 1819).

Donizetti, Gaetano

1797-1848, Italian composer. Best known for his operas Lucrezia Borgia (1833), Lucia di Lammermoor (or The Bride of Lammermoor) (1835), and The Daughter of the Regiment (1840). Doolittle, Hilda - 1886-1961, American poet known as H.D. Imagist poet who is best know for the volumes Sea Garden (1916) and Bid Me To Live (1960).

Lyell, Sir Charles

1797-1875, English geologist. Best known for his Principles of Geology (1830-3). Lyell helped gain acceptance of James Hutton's theory of uniformitarianism and Darwin's evolution theory.

Henry, Joseph

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

Comte, Auguste

1798-1857, French philosopher and founder of positivism. Comte was the first person to use the term "sociology." Congreve, William - 1670-1729, English dramatist. Famous for his Restoraton comedies, his masterpiece The Way of the World was first performed in 1700. Previous plays include The Double Dealer (1693) and The Mourning Bride (1697).

Delacroix, Eugene

1798-1863, French painter. The foremost French romantic, his works include Women of Algiers and Liberty Leading the People.

Pushkin, Aleksandr

1799-1837, Russian poet. He published his first major poem, Russlan and Ludmilla, in 1820. His masterpiece is the verse-novel Eugene Onegin (1825). Other works include the verse-drama Boris Godunov (1831) and The Captain's Daughter (1836), a short novel about the 1773-75 Pugachev uprising.

Balzac, Honore de

1799-1850, French writer. His great work, entitled The Human Comedy, is a collection of novels written over a 20 year period. Novels in the collection include Pere Goriot (1835) and Cousin Bette (1847).

Turner, Nat

1800-1831, African-American slave and revolutionary famous for leading a namesake rebellion in (1831), the most serious uprising in US history.

Goodyear, Charles

1800-60, American inventor of vulcanized rubber.

Fillmore, Millard

1800-74, 13th president of the US (1850-53). A US representative from New York (1833-35, 37-43), Fillmore 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.

Farragut, David

1801-70, 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.

Seward, William Henry

1801-72, American statesman and secretary of state under Lincoln and Johnson. His most notable act was purchasing Alaska from Russia. Known at the time as "Seward's folly," it is now regarded as one of the greatest land purchases in history.

Young, Brigham

1801-77, American Mormon leader. After Joseph Smith's 1844 assassination, Young became the dominant figure in Mormonism, leading the great migration to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Hugo, Victor

1802-85, French writer. Regarded as France's leading author of the 19th century, his works include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Miserables (1862).

Dix, Dorothea

1802-87, American social reformer. A pioneer in the treatment of the insane, she influenced the founding of state hospitals in the US and Europe.

Sutter, John

1803-1880, American pioneer and owner of the California mill at which gold was discovered (1848) setting off the California gold rush.

Berlioz, Louis Hector

1803-69, French composer. Famous for the symphonies Harold in Italy, Romeo and Juliet, and Symphony Fantastique; other works include the operas The Damnation of Faust (1846) and The Trojans (1856), and the oratorio The Childhood of Christ (1850).

Merimee, Prosper

1803-70, French author of the novel Carmen (1846) that was the basis for Bizet's popular opera.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward

1803-73, English novelist best known for his historical novels, especially The Last Days of Pompeii (1834).

Chase, Salmon Portland

1803-73, chief justice of US Supreme Court (1864-73). Served as US Senator (1849-55, 61), governor of Ohio (1855-59), and secretary of the Treasury (1861-4) before serving on high court.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

1803-82, American author. He served as Unitarian minister (1829-32) 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 (1836). Emerson often published in the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial.

Strauss, Johann Sr.

1804-1849, Viennese composer best known for the Radetzky March (1848). Father of Johann Strauss Jr Strauss, Johann Jr. - 1825-99, Viennese composer known as "The Waltz King." Composed over 400 waltzes including Blue Danube (1866) and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868) and the operettas Die Fledermaus (1873) and The Gypsy Baron (1885)

Glinka, Mikhail

1804-57, Russian composer. Nationalistic Russian composer best known for the operas A Life for the Czar (1836) and Russlan and Ludmilla (1842).

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

1804-64, American author. His masterpiece is the novel The Scarlet Letter. Other works include The House of Seven Gables (1851), the short story collection Twice-Told Tales, his last novel The Marble Faun (1860), and the juvenile book Tanglewood Tales (1853). His novel The Blithedale Romance (1852) is based on the brief time he lived at George Ripley's Transcendentalist Brook Farm community.

Pierce, Franklin

1804-69, 14th president of the US (1853-57). He represented NH in the US congress (1833-42) resigning to practice law in Concord. In 1852, as a compromise candidate of the divided Democratic Party, he defeated Whig candidate Gen. Winfield Scott, becoming a successful dark horse candidate. The only standout event from his presidency was the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico.

Sand, George

1804-76, French novelist of over 80 books; famous for her affair with Frederic Chopin.

Smith, Joseph

1805-44, American religious leader and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (or Mormons) Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr - 1918- Russian writer; wrote his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) based on his 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 were both published abroad in 1968 and were critical of 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 1976-94, and returned to Russia in 1994. Other works include the novel August 1914 (1971) and the documentary study The Gulag Archipelago (1973)

Mazzini, Giuseppe

1805-72, Italian revolutionary. A leading figure in the risorgimento, he formed "Young Italy." Mead, Margaret - 1901-78, American anthropologist. Among her books are Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) and the autobiographical Blackberry Winter (1972).

Wright, Orville and Wilbur

American inventors of the airplane. Made first flight on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, NC

Tutankhamen

Egyptian king; King Tut's tomb was found completely intact in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

Prudhomme, Rene Francois Sully

French poet known for his poem collections such as Stanzas and Poems (1865). Member of the Parnassus school. Won first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901.

Curie, Marie (1867-1934) and Pierre (1859-1906)

French scientists. For their work in radioactivity, they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with Antoine Becquerel. Marie became the first person to win a second Nobel Prize when she received the 1911 chemistry prize for the discovery of Polonium (named after her native Poland) and Radium. Pierre is also known for the discovery of piezoelectricity in crystals (1883). Their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie shared the 1935 Nobel Prize in chemistry with her husband Frederic Joliot-Curie.

Mary, Queens of England

Mary I (Mary Tudor) (1516-58), the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, she reigned from 1553-58. Mary 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. Mary II (1662-94) was the daughter of James II. In 1667 she married William of Orange and became joint sovereign with him (1689-94).

Leif Ericsson

Norse discoverer of America. The son of Eric the Red. Legend states that on a trip to Greenland c. 1000, he was blown off course and landed in an area he called Vinland. This area is probably present day New England or Nova Scotia. L'Enfant, Pierre Charles - 1754-1825, French-born American architect who was the architect and designer of the new US capital city of Washington D.C.

Peter (Russian Czars)

Peter I (Peter the Great), 1672-1725, reigned from 1682-1725. He served as joint czar with Ivan V, he Peter had more control. Had St. Petersburg build to replace capital at Moscow; Fought Sweden in the Great Northern War, where he won at Poltava. Succeeded by second wife Catherine I in 1724. Peter II, 1715-30, ruled from 1727-1730, was grandson of Peter I. Succeeded Catherine I. Peter II was succeeded by his cousin Anna. Peter III, 1728-1762, succeeded his aunt Elizabeth, but was quickly forced to abdicate in favor of his wife Catherine the Great.

Anne, Queen of England

Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1702-2), queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1707-1714). The daughter of James II, and successor to William III, the last Stuart ruler, and a devout Protestant, in 1683 she married Prince George of Denmark. None of Anne's children survived her, so George I succeeded her upon her death.

Tolstoy, Leo Count

Russian novelist. Famous for his masterpiece War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), a tragedy of adultery; other works include The Death of Ivan Ilyich Tom Thumb - 1838-1883, stage name of Charles Stratton who achieved fame in P.T. Barnum's shows

Bernoulli

Swiss scientific and mathematical family: James Bernoulli (1654-1705) was one of the developers of ordinary calculus, and his brother John Bernoulli (1667-1748) is famous for his work in integral calculus. John's son Daniel Bernoulli (1700-82) has been called the firs mathematical physicist. His major work, Hydrodynamica (1738), included the principle now known as Bernoulli's principle.

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, Homer was blind.

Catherine

czarinas of Russia. Catherine I (1683-1727) married Peter I in 1712 and became Czarina upon Peter's death. Peter II succeeded her and daughter Elizabeth became czarina in 1741. Catherine II, or Catherine the Great (1729-96) married the future Peter III (1744). In 1762, conspirators led by herlover Grigon Orlov deposed Peter III and proclaimed her ruler. Her son, Paul I, succeeded her.

Bronte

family of English novelists and poets; in 1846 the sisters published a pseudonymous collection of their poems, and the next year their most famous works appeared. In 1847 was the publication of Anne's Agnes Grey, Emily's Wuthering Heights, and Charlotte's Jane Eyre. Soon after 1847, the family was decimated by tuberculosis; Emily died in 1848, Anne died in 1849 shortly after her Tenant of Wildfell Hall appeared. Charlotte outlived her sisters her novels Shirley (1849), Villette (1853), and The Professor (1857) were all popular upon their release. They published under the following pseudonyms: Anne, Acton Bell; Emily, Ellis Bell; Charlotte, Currer Bell.

Brueghel

family of Flemish painters: Pieter Brueghel, the elder (1525-69) is best known for his peasant works including The Harvesters and Peasant Wedding. Pieter Brueghel, the younger (1564-1637), and his brother Jan "Velvet" Brueghel (1568-1625) were also well known painters of their time.

George

kings of Great Britain and Ireland. George I (1660-1727) was the first British sovereign of the house of Hanover. His rise to the throne was put forth by the Act of Setllement He ruled from 1714-27. His son George II (1683-1760) ruled from 1727-60. George III (1738-1820) ruled from 1760-1820, including the time of the American Revolution. His insanity led to the regency (1811) of his son George IV (1762-1830). George IV ruled from 1820-30, and was succeeded by his brother William IV. George V (1865-1936) was the second son of Edward VII and ruled from 1910-36. George V changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coberg-Gotha to Windsor. His second son George VI became king in 1936 upon the abdication of his brother Edward VIII.

Frederick William

kings of Prussia. Frederick William I, 1688-1740 ruled from 1713-40 and was succeeded by his son Frederick II (or Frederick the Great). Frederick William II, 1744-97, who ruled from 1786-97, was the nephew and successor of Frederick II. His son, Frederick William III, 1770-1840, ruled from 1797-1840 and is best known for accepting the Treaty of Tilsit (1807), effectively making Prussia a French vassal. Frederick William IV, 1795-1861, was the son and successor of Frederick William III and ruled from 1840-61. In 1857 his mental instability necessitated the regency of his brother and successor, William I.

Aesop

slave and semi-legendary ancient Greek fabulist. Fables attributed to Aesop include The Fox and the Grapes, and The Tortoise and the Hare

Dalai Lama

title of the leader of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso (1935-) was the recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.