Tammy Wynette, Country Music’s First Lady
By the age of 20, Tammy Wynette was divorced with three children, and working two jobs. At the time, the singer performed just to...
Noam Chomsky, Influential Linguist and Activist
The founder of modern linguistics and one of the most esteemed (and controversial) political theorists and activists of our age, Noam Chomsky has inspired,...
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...
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...
Fred Rogers, Host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”
For more than 30 years Fred Rogers welcomed children and their parents into a realm of imagination on his show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Through...
Lauren Bacall, Actress
Lauren Bacall got her start at age 19 as a sultry screen siren alongside future husband Humphrey Bogart, 25 years her senior. She went...
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...
Charles Horace Mayo of the Mayo Clinic
A member of one of the most well-known families in medicine, Charles Horace Mayo was introduced to the medical profession at an early age....
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...
Miriam Makeba, Singer and Anti-Apartheid Activist
Miriam Makeba, widely known as “Mama Africa,” was exiled from her home of South Africa for her revolutionary words and songs, but was widely...
