Luise Rainer (1910 - 2014)

Luise Rainer (12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-born Austrian and American film actress. She was the first person to win multiple Academy Awards and the first person to win them consecutively. At the time of her death, she was the longest-lived actress ever to have received an Academy Award. Rainer began […]

Eliot Ness (1903 - 1957)

Eliot Ness Ness remarried in 1939, to illustrator Evaline Michelow. The Nesses moved to Washington, D.C. in 1942 where he worked for the federal government, directing the battle against prostitution in communities surrounding military bases, where venereal disease was a serious problem. Later he made a number of forays into the corporate world, all of […]

Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926)

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix at 1:26 p.m. on October 31, 1926 in Room 401 at Detroit’s Grace Hospital, aged 52. In his final days, he optimistically held to a strong belief that he would recover, but his last words before dying were reportedly, “I’m tired of fighting.” Eyewitnesses […]

Hector Camacho (1962 - 2012)

Hector Camacho was a Puerto Rican professional boxer and singer. Known for his quickness in the ring and flamboyant style, he held major championships in the super featherweight (WBC, 1983), lightweight (WBC, 1985), and junior welterweight (WBO, 1989 and 1991) divisions. After earning minor titles in four additional weight classes, Camacho became the first boxer […]

Arturo Gatti (1972 - 2009)

Arturo Gatti He was the former IBF Junior Lightweight Champion (1995 to 1997) and WBC Junior Welterweight Champion (2004 to 2005). Born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he made his professional debut in 1991. Earning the reputation as a warrior in the ring, Gatti’s bouts often turned into wars as he was […]

Johnny Tapia (1967 - 2012)

Johnny Tapia Johnny Tapia endured a tragic early life. His father had reportedly been murdered while his mother was pregnant with him. When he was eight years old, his mother, Virginia, was kidnapped, raped, hanged, repeatedly stabbed, and left for dead by her assailant. Tapia was awakened by her screams and saw her chained to […]

Tony Martin (1961 - 2013)

Tony Martin Professional Boxer. He was the former International Boxing Council Junior-Welterweight Champion from 1991 until abandoning the title to move up in weight-class. Born in St. Louis, he moved to Philadelphia in 1985 where he launched his professional career as a prizefighter. He earned his first world championship title chance against the Guyanese fighter […]

Emile Griffith (1938 - 1970)

Emile Griffith Griffith retired from boxing in 1977 with a record of 85-24-2 with 23 knockouts. He fought in 23 matches at Madison Square Garden and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1990. He is perhaps best known for his victory against Bennie Paret on March 24, 1962 that put Paret into a […]

Tommy Morrison (1969 - 2013)

Tommy Morrison Tommy Morrison’s career reached its pinnacle on a hot June night in Las Vegas, when he stepped into the ring and beat George Foreman to become heavyweight champion. It reached its nadir when he tested positive for HIV three years later. The last 20 years of the brash boxer’s life would be defined […]

Marion Barry (1936 - 2014)

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as the second Mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth Mayor from 1995 to 1999. A Democrat, Barry had served three tenures on the Council of the District of Columbia, […]

Carol Ann Susi (1952 - 2014)

Carol Ann Susi (February 2, 1952 – November 11, 2014) was an American actress best known for providing the voice of recurring unseen character Mrs. Wolowitz on the television series The Big Bang Theory.  Susi was born in Brooklyn and was of Italian descent. She studied acting at HB Studio in New York City before […]

Mike Nichols (1931 - 2014)

Mike Nichols (born Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was a German-born American film and theatre director, producer, actor and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s with the improv troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of the Second City in Chicago, and as one half of the comedy duo Nichols […]

Joe Cocker (1944 - 2014)

Joe Cocker John Robert “Joe” Cocker, OBE (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English rock and blues singer and musician who came to popularity in the 1960s. He was known for his gritty voice, spasmodic body movement in performance, and cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles.  Cocker’s cover […]

Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005)

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an activist in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, whom the United States Congress called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”. Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, have both become Rosa […]

Pope John Paul II (1920 - 2005)

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (8 May 1920 ‒ 2 April 2005) was pope of the Catholic Church from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005. In Catholicism, since his canonisation, he is referred to as Pope Saint John Paul II or Saint John Paul […]

Franklin D Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

Franklin D Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. A Democrat, he was elected four times and served from March 1933 to his death in April 1945. He […]

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Post-Impressionist painter of Dutch origin whose work—notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color—had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. After years of painful anxiety and frequent bouts of mental illness, he died aged 37 from a gunshot wound, generally […]

Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910), also known as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher and playwright who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Tolstoy was a master of realistic fiction and is widely considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. He is best […]

Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

Louis Pasteur (December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases, and his discoveries have saved countless lives ever since. He reduced mortality from […]

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. […]

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964)

Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was the first Prime Minister of India and a central figure in Indian politics for much of the 20th century. He emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent […]

John M Keynes (1883 - 1946)

 John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB, FBA (/ˈkeɪnz/ kaynz; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was a British economist whose ideas have fundamentally affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and informed the economic policies of governments. He built on and greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and […]

Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901)

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth […]

Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed “The Wizard of Menlo Park”, he was one of the first inventors to […]

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

 Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist and philosopher of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). He is best known in popular culture for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed […]

Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

Charles Robert Darwin, (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern […]

George Orwell (1903 - 1950)

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), who used the pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism. Commonly ranked as one of the most influential English writers of […]

Christopher Columbus (1970 - 1506)

Christopher Columbus (born between 31 October 1450 and 30 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a Genoese explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of Genoa (today part of Italy). Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and his efforts to […]

Charles de Gaulle (1890 - 1970)

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was the dominant military and political leader of France for much of the period from 1940 to 1969. As an army colonel, in 1940 he bravely had some success against the Nazis, when other French units were suffering losses. Refusing to accept […]

Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts, 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013), was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the […]