Mark Spitz, Swimming Legend
Mark Spitz was a brash swimming prodigy who overcame disappointment in the 1968 Olympics to win seven gold medals in 1972, setting a record...
Buster Keaton, Silent Film Star
One of the biggest stars of the silent film era, actor and director Buster Keaton revolutionized the art of physical comedy. From a childhood...
Tony Kushner, Writer of “Angels in America”
“My day job is playwright. My citizen job is activist...I succeed and fail at both my jobs, but I try to do them both.”...
Harvey Pekar, Author of the ‘American Splendor’ Comic Books
Harvey Pekar has made a career out of being an ordinary man. As a comic book writer, he documented the most mundane details of...
Leo Szilard, Physicist and Contributor to the Manhattan Project
Leo Szilard, the Hungarian Jewish physicist, molecular biologist and inventor, worked on the Manhattan Project but expressed himself as a “scientist of conscience,” using...
Madame Marie Tussaud, Wax Sculptor and Museum Owner
After showing early artistic skill, Marie Tussaud apprenticed under one of the greatest wax modelers of her time. She made it—just barely—through the French...
Enrico Fermi, Nuclear Physicist
Enrico Fermi’s pioneering work in the field of nuclear fission won him a Nobel Prize, and ushered in the nuclear age. His discoveries led...
Isaac Asimov, Science Fiction Grand Master
In his approximately 500 books, writer Isaac Asimov explained the universe to us; where it had been, where it is now and where it...
Elinor Ostrom, First Woman to Win the Nobel Prize in Economics
Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics for her against-the-grain studies of how self-imposed regulation of common resources can be more efficient...
Margaret Sanger, Founder of Birth Control League (Planned Parenthood)
After seeing what she felt were too many women dying a result of unintended pregnancy, Margaret Sanger decided it was time for a revolution....
