People

Abraham Lincoln worked his way from a log cabin to the White House, teaching himself law and earning the faith of the electorate through his ability to communicate. Nearly a century and a half after the Civil War, Lincoln’s promise of freedom and unity has been realized, as Americans resoundingly elected their first black president.

In 2008, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska became the first Republican woman in U.S. history to be nominated for vice president.

Leo Szilard, the Hungarian Jewish physicist, molecular biologist and inventor, worked on the Manhattan Project but expressed himself as a “scientist of conscience,” using his knowledge of nuclear chain reactions to consult with the American government and protest about the risks of nuclear warfare.

Booker T. Washington spent his life making education available to African Americans in the post-Civil War South. He compromised with white Southern views to do so, making him a controversial figure, though undoubtedly one of the most influential African Americans of the time.

Mark Spitz was a brash swimming prodigy who overcame disappointment in the 1968 Olympics to win seven gold medals in 1972, setting a record that would stand for 36 years.

On April 19, 2008, Peggy Whitson completed a tour as the first female commander of the International Space Station. A veteran NASA astronaut, Whitson oversaw the station’s first expansion in six years.

Carole King started playing the piano at age 4 and hasn’t stopped since. Out of college in the 1960s King was writing some of the biggest hit singles of the generation. A rich solo career followed, capped by her last tour “Welcome to My Living Room.”

American figure skater Johnny Weir is known as much for his personality as his athletic prowess and artistry. His comeback is generating significant interest leading into Vancouver. 

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.

Charles Dickens is best remembered for novels such as “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield.” For his dedication to social justice, most notably his humanizing portraits of society’s lowest castes, he has been called “the conscience of Victorian England.”

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.

The 1920s were a dynamic time in American history. Flappers tested the limits of fashion. Bootleg liquor fought prohibition. In music, the era became known as the Jazz Age. And James P. Johnson, a budding pianist, became one of the best-known musicians of the time.

Jackie Robinson was an accomplished multi-sport athlete who in 1947 became the first black baseball player in the modern major leagues. He displayed courage in the face of racial abuse, earning the respect of teammates, opponents and fans during his Hall of Fame career. His on-field play and off-field involvement in political and social causes helped galvanize the American civil rights movement.

Philip Glass is known for his immensely popular symphonies, operas and soundtracks. One of the greatest innovators of modern composing and famed classical musicians of our time, Glass was instrumental in developing the minimalist tradition.

President during the Great Depression and World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is widely regarded as one of the most influential U.S. presidents in history, spearheading the creation of many government agencies that still exist today.

Oprah Winfrey, television talk show host, actress and philanthropist, is one of the richest and most powerful people in America. She defied odds by surviving an extremely damaging childhood and although primarily an entertainer, she is committed to education, enrichment and cultural expansion.

Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire’s first female governor, became the state’s first female senator in November of 2008, beating Republican incumbent John Sununu by 7 percent.

For most of his life, José Marti moved from place to place, collecting the experiences and knowledge that would influence his work as a writer, revolutionary and educator. He was passionate in every undertaking, whether organizing the Cuban independence movement, fiercely objecting dictatorships and government abuses in Mexico and Guatemala, or studying philosophy and law. His devotion to Cuba’s freedom and his own free spirit resulted in a lifetime of intriguing achievements.

Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most well known American painters of the 20th century. Famous for larger-than-life paintings of flowers and desert imagery, her sharp images, bold colors, and close-up views of objects are reminiscent of modern photographs.

Rev. Charles L. Dodgson was a man of the church, a mathematician, photographer, poet and author of the most famous children’s stories in Victorian England. Writing under the pen name Lewis Carroll, he turned his lifelong love of entertaining children into a set of books that are still read today.

In her 20s, anxious and fearful about her career, Helen Mirren visited a palm reader. Though she wrote pages of notes during the visit, she felt so uplifited by the experience that she threw them out. In an interview, she recalled the palm reader’s one indelible prophecy: “When you’re in your 50s, you will get to be very, very famous.”

Helen Frankenthaler was an American painter, sculptor and printmaker associated with the second-generation abstract expressionists, and a pioneer of the color field movement. She is renowned for using an innovative “soak stain” technique to create her landscape-inspired abstract works.

As author of a groundbreaking book about single women and editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown has been called a voice for women’s liberation and a role model for working-class women. She’s also been a target of feminist scorn.

Austrian-born nuclear physicist Lise Meitner is credited with laying much of the theoretical groundwork for the atomic bomb, and was the first to calculate the explosive potential of nuclear fission. Despite her research, Meitner was never involved in the production “death-dealing weapons,” and refuted any claim to the contrary.