Edmund Hillary, First Man to Summit Mt. Everest
An explorer at heart, humble New Zealand beekeeper Edmund Hillary became the first man to reach the peak of Mount Everest in 1953, and...
Flip Wilson, TV’s First Black Superstar
Through his ingenious comedy sketches, Flip Wilson and his eponymous variety show connected a racially divided world with laughter. On his birthday, we remember...
William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet and Dramatist
William Butler Yeats, a romantic, poet, playwright and senator, drew on national pride, spiritualism and love, and was credited with helping revive interest in...
Michael Phelps, Record-Breaking Swimmer
Michael Phelps is one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history, with 28 total medals, 23 of which are gold. At the 2008 Beijing...
Abraham Lincoln, “The Great Emancipator”
Abraham Lincoln worked his way from a log cabin to the White House, teaching himself law and earning the faith of the electorate through...
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...
Eliot Ness, Leader of the Prohibition-Era “Untouchables”
Eliot Ness had a distinguished career in law enforcement. He and his team of “Untouchables” fought against Al Capone and illegal bootlegging in Chicago...
Neil Armstrong, First Man to Walk on the Moon
A pilot at 16, astronaut Neil Armstrong’s early years were spent in the skies, but his later years have been grounded in academia and...
William Faulkner, American Novelist
William Faulkner, revered modernist writer, historian and sociologist, is known for capturing the raw beauty of the rural South in all its dark complexity....
Roger Staubach, America’s Quarterback
Modest, patient and undeniably talented, Roger Staubach took a long route to NFL stardom, but once there he became one of the most accomplished...
