Jackie Robinson, Baseball Pioneer
Jackie Robinson was an accomplished multi-sport athlete who in 1947 became the first black baseball player in the modern major leagues. He displayed courage...
Edward Jenner, Physician Who Discovered a Vaccination for Smallpox
An English physician who spent his early years studying fossils and birds, Edward Jenner discovered a vaccination for smallpox disease in 1796. His experiments...
Walter Cronkite, CBS News Anchor
To his colleagues, he was “Old Iron Pants,” and to everyone else, he was “The Most Trusted Man in America.” For more than half...
Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
Early on, it hardly seemed as if Harry S. Truman—a farmer, an army captain in World War I and a haberdasher—was on track to...
Ayn Rand, Proponent of “The Virtue of Selfishness”
Outlier and icon, enemy of altruism and champion of the free market, writer and philosopher, Ayn Rand was too extreme to be categorized by...
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...
Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese Walt Disney
Animator Hayao Miyazaki is often called the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney. His prodigious imagination has given rise to Japan’s most popular manga, animated...
Truman Capote, Investigative Journalist and Author
Writer Truman Capote emerged from the small town of Monroeville, Alabama, to become one of the most visible writers of the 1950s and ’60s....
Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Author of “Out of Africa”
Karen Blixen may be the best-known Danish writer of the 20th century, authoring books such as “Seven Gothic Tales,” “Winter’s Tales” and “Out of...
Pablo Picasso, Painter
From his Cubist works to his famous Blue Period, painter Pablo Picasso changed the face of art forever.
Pablo Picasso's Early Days
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was...
