Happy Birthday, Carole King, Chart-Topping Singer-Songwriter

Jules Verne was a pioneer in literature. With a powerful interest in writing and an imagination that was ahead of his time, Verne became a dominant figure in the science fiction world, writing about ideas that often didn’t become a reality until many years later.

American pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder did not begin writing her first book until she was 64. Only with her daughter’s coaxing did she ultimately decide to share her story, and a beloved children’s classic, the “Little House on the Prairie” series, was born.

Some consider Ronald Reagan the greatest president in contemporary American history: under his watch, the country saw the longest period of peacetime prosperity in its history. Critics of the Reagan era, however, point to the Iran-Contra scandal and the administration’s reluctance to recognize the AIDS crisis. Regardless of how Reagan’s legacy is viewed, it is certainly an enduring one.

Modest, patient and undeniably talented, Roger Staubach took a long route to NFL stardom, but once there he became one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in NFL history.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress and NAACP secretary whose simple act of civil disobedience—her refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger—helped touch off the Civil Rights Movement.

At age 25, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly a plane nonstop across the Atlantic. In addition to experiencing fame and acclamation for his heroism, Lindbergh also suffered major setbacks, including the kidnapping of his firstborn son and accusations of being a Nazi sympathizer.

When Elizabeth Blackwell was born in 1821, there were no formally trained female physicians in the Western world. But Blackwell graduated first in her class, established a hospital and medical school, and practiced medicine until she was almost 90 years old. By the time she died, there were 7,000 female doctors in the United States alone.

Outlier and icon, enemy of altruism and champion of the free market, writer and philosopher, Ayn Rand was too extreme to be categorized by any single school of thought other than her own. To this day, she has retained an avid following and garners intense interest from many great figures in business.