Shigeru Miyamoto, Father of Modern Video Games
Beginning with the seminal arcade game Donkey Kong nearly three decades ago, Nintendo’s chief game developer and the father of modern video games, Shigeru...
James Madison, American President Who Authored the Bill of Rights
James Madison played a great role in defining, defending and establishing the United States as we know it. A major contributor to the Constitution,...
Sultan Abdulhamid II, Ruler of the Ottoman Empire
Sultan Abdulhamid II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire for more than 30 years, earned a reputation both as an oppressive leader and a champion...
Scott Joplin, Ragtime Composer of “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag”
American composer Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime,” composed dozens of legendary ragtime songs in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including such iconic...
Walt Disney, Creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland
Although Walt Disney’s first illustration company went broke, the ambitious animator took his sketchbook to Hollywood where he made it big with a mouse...
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...
Percival Lowell, First to Imagine Life on Mars
A naturally gifted mathematician, Percival Lowell shunned convention to pursue theories that walked the line between science fiction and scientific prophecy. He was compelled...
Omar Khayyam: Persian Mathematician, Astronomer and Poet
Omar Khayyam was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and physician of the 11th century. He contributed to the basic principles of algebra and developed...
Saul Bellow, American Novelist
“The backbone of 20th-century American literature”—this was novelist Philip Roth’s assessment of Saul Bellow. His struggle with modernism, his Jewish upbringing, his feelings of...
Marlene Dietrich, Glamorous Siren of the Silver Screen
1901
An icon of sexuality and sensuality who captured her public with understated beauty and nonchalant charm, the German-born Marlene Dietrich was one of the...
