People

Legendary bodybuilder Charles Atlas became an icon in the 1920s as the man who transformed himself from a skinny weakling into a muscle-bound celebrity.

Dorothy Parker was known for her biting wit and social commentary in the midst of women’s liberation of the 1920s. Parker’s legacy lives on with an extensive list of timeless quotes and poems.

In honor of her October 29 birthday, we look at the life and career of longtime politician and economist-in-exile Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who became the first elected female president in Africa when she won the 2006 general election in Liberia.

Each year scores of journalists and other writers are threatened, arrested, abused and even murdered for sharing true stories about human rights atrocities through news articles, essays, books and poems. Meet five dissident writers whose lives and struggles will enlighten and inspire.

As a young boy, Hannibal Barca swore to his father that the Roman Republic would be his lifelong enemy. The fierce Carthaginian general never broke that oath, and is remembered as a military genius for his innovative strategies.

Playing with a skill so dazzling and in so eerie a manner that it was seen as supernatural, violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini is considered to be one of the greatest violin virtuosos of all time.

In 2008, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman to hold a spot as a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus in every state, and the first woman to win a presidential primary.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was Shah of Iran for more than 30 years. His reforms transformed his country into a substantial Middle Eastern economic and military power, but his autocratic rule and corrupt regime eventually led to his downfall.

This week findingEducation caught up with Blake Harrison, a.k.a. Emcee Escher, rapper, educator and creative director of Flocabulary, to hear how he and Alex Rappaport, co-founder and executive producer, are bringing their energy and passion for hip-hop to the classroom.

From his Cubist works to his famous Blue Period, painter Pablo Picasso changed the face of art forever.

The “Father of Microbiology,” Anton van Leeuwenhoek was not a trained scientist, yet he made some of the most astounding scientific discoveries of his time. He is credited with being the first to observe bacteria under his microscopes and discovering the cellular processes underlying sexual reproduction in animals.

Pelé turned a childhood of playing soccer in a small Brazilian village into athletic stardom. Known as “The King of Football,” he spent his career breaking records and defying expectations.

A powerful, politically minded and acerbic Nobel Laureate, Britain's Doris Lessing is a treasured social commentator and novelist who has continued her prolific and award-winning career into her 80s.

Novelist, poet and translator Ursula Le Guin is best known for creating worlds of fantasy and of the far future, but that is only part of an acclaimed body of work that incorporates Eastern philosophy, anthropology, linguistics and feminist principles.

As wife of King Akhenaten, Nefertiti was queen of Egypt’s 18th dynasty and played a prominent role in Egyptian worship of the sun god Aton or Aten. Her name means “the beautiful one has come,” and her legendary beauty is still evident in Egyptian reliefs and statuary.

Founder of the Favorite Poem Project, former United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky has made waves throughout the literary world as a multifaceted artist: essayist, poet, computer adventure game writer, and one of the most popular translators of Dante’s “Inferno.”

Preeminent secret-agent-turned-spy-novelist, John le Carré depicts the darker side of the lives of secret agents. In honor of his October 19 birthday, findingDulcinea looks at his life and work.

Josie Carbone, the founding principal of Girls Prep Bronx, an all-girls charter school for pre-K through first-grade students in the Bronx, New York, got involved in teaching while volunteering to teach Spanish at a local elementary school during high school. After graduating from college in 1997, she worked with Teach For America in New York. Carbone taught for six more years before becoming involved with the New York charter school movement in 2003.

Equally accomplished at jazz and classical music, bandleader and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Evel Knievel was one of the world’s most famous daredevils. In honor of his birthday, we explore his rise to fame, his bone-breaking stunts and his darker, more violent side.

Noah Webster was a pioneering thinker devoted to books and learning. After the American Revolution, he set out to help the United States develop a distinctly American culture and an educational system all its own, and gave the country some of its most popular dictionaries.

“Nietzsche’s actual thought is a … system, at the beginning of which stands the death of God … the ensuing nihilism, and at its end the self-surmounting of nihilism in eternal recurrence,” Nietzsche scholar Karl Lowith once wrote, capturing the intensity, depth and wildly compelling contradictions inherent in the German philosopher’s oeuvre. To this day, Friedrich Nietzsche is considered one of the most influential Western thinkers.

American poet, novelist and painter E. E. Cummings was one of the best-selling poets of the 20th century, earning fame for his unique approach to punctuation and syntax.

Considered by many to be the greatest leader in history, Genghis Khan united the warring tribes of the Mongols and ruled one of the largest empires in the world. He also left an enduring legacy—and perhaps millions of descendants.

Known as the “Iron Lady,” British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to lead a Western democracy, a position she held for 11 years.

Luciano Pavarotti, the so-called “King of the High Cs,” brought opera to the masses with his clear, pitch-perfect voice. In a life that began with singing on his parents’ porch as a boy in Italy and led to appearing on the world’s most famous stages, Pavarotti was a performer to his very core.

In Topeka, Kan., the library is the second favorite place for teens to hang out. “We’re sort of kicked out at the mall,” they tell David Lee King, the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library’s digital branch and services manager. As a result, the building, particularly the new media area and gaming room, are a little noisier than your average library. But King, a former DJ and assistant recording engineer, and now an author, blogger and librarian thought leader, takes pride in all the bustle. “Not too many people can say, ‘Yeah, teenagers think that the library’s cool.’”

Eleanor Roosevelt was more than just a first lady. She was a politician in her own right, serving on the United Nations, promoting the New Deal and setting off second-wave feminism with her insistence that she—and all other women—be treated as equal to men.

Famous for his sculptures of stick-thin figures with razor-sharp, fine features, Alberto Giacometti was an artist who defied categorization. His work flirted with nearly every major art movement of the 20th century, and eventually evolved into a style that was uniquely his own.

Some people see Aimee Semple McPherson as one of the first feminists, while others believe she is one of the 20th century’s greatest spiritual leaders. Her vivacious personality and strongly held beliefs attracted legions of followers, but the end of McPherson’s life was marred by controversy and legal battles.