Happy Birthday, Samuel Adams, One of the US's Founding Fathers

In 2004, Wangari Muta Maathai became the first African Woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai is known as the founder of the “Green Belt Movement” to reforest Africa.

During his short career, Harry Houdini’s “death-defying” feats astonished his audiences. People from all walks of life came to watch Houdini escape from shackles, milk cans and water tanks. Their fascination with his act continued his legacy long after his untimely death.

In 1954, British medical student Roger Bannister became the first man to break the four-minute mile barrier, earning him international admiration and Sports Illustrated's first Sportsman of the Year award. When asked how he achieved his record-breaking feat, he replied, “It’s the ability to take more out of yourself than you've got.”

Violinist Pablo Sarasate is a figure of tremendous national and international regard. The distinctly Spanish flavor of his compositions, combined with his masterful technique and elaborate musical arrangements, have earned him a well-deserved place in the classical music hall of fame.

It's been more than 50 years since the blond-haired, blue-eyed, impossibly proportioned Barbie doll hit the market. She's held many jobs, lived in many homes, driven several cars and weathered her share of criticism, but she remains an extremely popular toy.

Joseph Lee dedicated his life to promoting recreation and play for children and adults alike, and is best known for transforming a fledgling playground association into a national recreation movement. He was the president of the National Recreation Association for almost 30 years, and many of the ideas he formed while at the post shaped the recreation field as it stands today.

Luther Burbank moved across the country to follow his horticultural dreams. Born on the East Coast, he relocated to California where he could pursue his life’s work of developing new breeds of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Today, Burbank’s contributions to horticulture and influence on bioengineering are still felt.

Gabriel García Márquez grew up in a home filled with storytelling and the supernatural. His seminal work of fiction, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” transformed his birthplace of Aracataca, Colombia, into the magical town of Macondo. García Márquez ultimately won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his body of work.