Emmy Award-winning actress Kirstie Alley played Rebecca Howe on the TV series Cheers and has struggled with weight problems in the public eye. She's also competed on the dance-competition show Dancing with the Stars.
Deep-sea archaeologist and oceanographer Robert Ballard is best known for discovering the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985.
Annette Bening is an Oscar-nominated actress known for films like The Grifters, Bugsy, American Beauty and The Kids Are All Right.
Gwendolyn Brooks was a postwar poet best known as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her 1949 book Annie Allen.
Linda Brown was the child associated with the lead name in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the outlawing of U.S. school segregation in 1954.
Bob Dole is a former member of the U.S. House (1961-69) and U.S. Senate (1969-96) from Kansas. In 1996, he was the Republican Party's candidate for the presidency.
Aaron Douglas was an African-American painter and graphic artist who played a leading role in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Ann Dunham was the mother of Barack Obama, who became the 44th president of the United States and the first African-American to hold this office.
Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, mysteriously disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.
Melissa Etheridge is a rock singer-songwriter and an environmental activist. Her hit songs include "I’m the Only One" and "Come to My Window."
As press secretary for Ronald Reagan, Marlin Fitzwater helped manage the president’s and the country’s image as the Cold War came to a close.
Robert Gates served as director of the CIA under George H.W. Bush before serving as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Mass murderer Eric Harris and his friend Dylan Klebold killed themselves, 13 people and wounded more than 20 others at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.
Actor/director Dennis Hopper came to fame with 1969's Easy Rider. Later films like Blue Velvet and River's Edge cemented his legend.
William Inge was a playwright best known for his plays Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize; and Bus Stop.
Comedian and director Buster Keaton was popular for his pioneering silent comedies in the 1920s.
Stan Kenton was an American pianist, composer and bandleader associated with the swing movement in jazz.
Actress and radio performer Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar in 1940, for her supporting role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind.
Singer Janelle Monáe became an R&B sensation in 2010 with the release of her critically acclaimed debut album, The ArchAndroid.
Fighter Victor Ortiz is an American boxer who won the welterweight title in 2011.
Charlie Parker was a legendary Grammy Award–winning jazz saxophonist who with Dizzy Gillespie invented the musical style called bop or bebop.
Gordon Parks was an African-American photographer, filmmaker and author, best known for his work published in LIFE magazine and for directing the hit movie Shaft.
American actress Cassandra Peterson became famous in the 1980s for her television role as the vampy Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
Known as the "BTK Killer"—which stands for "bind, torture, and kill"—Dennis Rader terrorized the Witchita, Kansas, area from the 1970s to the '90s.
Arlen Specter was Philadelphia District Attorney and was elected to the senate five times. He helped initiate the reauthorization of the Patriot Act.
Vivian Vance was an actress chiefly known as Ethel Murtz on the 1950s TV sitcom I Love Lucy.
Ann Woodward was an American socialite best known as a murder suspect for the death of her husband who had planned to divorce her. She was never convicted of the crime.