Milton Berle was a Jewish-American comedian who started in vaudeville acts, and was a success in the early days of TV, becoming known as "Uncle Miltie."
Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer and world lightweight champion who, for many years, was one of Mexico's most popular sports figures.
Van Cliburn was an acclaimed pianist who played with the New York Philharmonic and founded an international piano competition.
Bill Cosby is an American comedian, actor and producer, who has played a major role in the development of more positive portrayal of African-Americans on television.
George Eastman invented the first Kodak camera, helping make photography accessible to the public. His company remains one of the largest in the industry.
Lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II collaborated with Richard Rodgers on the Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals Oklahoma! and South Pacific.
Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar turned the Roman Republic into the powerful Roman Empire. A coup ended his reign, and his life, on the Ides of March.
Though best known for her fictional novel, Deerbrook, British author Harriet Martineau also wrote about economics and social theory.
Louis B. Mayer was a film mogul and the most influential person in Hollywood from the mid-1920s to the late-1940s.
Pablo Neruda was a Nobel Prize–winning Chilean poet who was once called “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.”
Overweight as a child, Richard Simmons is now an American fitness personality best known for his high-energy and eccentric aerobic videos and DVDs.
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was a New England Transcendentalist and author of the book Walden.
American gymnast Jordyn Wieber is best known as the first U.S. Olympic women's gymnastics team member to hail from Michigan.
Kristi Yamaguchi is a U.S. figure skater and Olympic gold medalist. She is also an author, philanthropist and founder of the Always Dream Foundation.