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...
Anne Frank, Holocaust Diarist
Holocaust victim and diarist Anne Frank lived 15 years, yet her legacy has lived on for decades. In the book known in English as...
Louis Armstrong, Legendary Jazz Musician and Singer
“Louis Armstrong is jazz,” said Wynton Marsalis. “He represents what the music is all about.” Armstrong was an innovative jazz musician who not only...
Joseph Pulitzer, Founder of the Pulitzer Prizes
Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer was a lawyer, politician, journalist and publisher of the nation’s most widely circulated newspaper. He is remembered best as the...
Francis Scott Key, Author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”
Francis Scott Key was a Federalist, a lawyer, attorney general of Washington, D.C., a husband and the father of 11 children. An ancestor and...
Samuel Lightnin’ Hopkins, Pioneer of Texas Blues
Blending southern poetry and a loose, all-encompassing handling of the guitar, Lightnin’ Hopkins brought a Texas accent to the masses with one of the...
George Crockett Jr., Lawyer, Politician and Civil Rights Activist
George Crockett Jr. was a prominent attorney and politician with a career that lasted nearly six decades. An outspoken man who didn’t shy away...
Orville Wright, First Man to Fly an Airplane
Orville Wright was a leading aviation pioneer of the early 20th century. He and his older brother Wilbur are credited for being the first...
Eugene Debs, Labor Leader
Eugene V. Debs spearheaded labor movements, led the American Socialist Party and is remembered today for being an agitator who never shied from passionately...
Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
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...
