Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born actor and musician who is remembered for his marriage to Lucille Ball and their TV show, I Love Lucy.
1917-1986
Civil rights activist Ella Baker worked with the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
1903-1986
1899-1986
James Cagney was an Academy Award-winning actor who was known for playing gangsters and short-fused tough guys.
1899-1986
French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a romance with Sartre.
1908-1986
Fashion designer Perry Ellis launched a new wave of fashion that was defined by his signature baggy look. His clothes were lauded as both classic and adventurous.
1940-1986
Benny Goodman, "The King of Swing", was the clarinetist composer responsible for multiple hit singles as a band leader before World War II.
1909-1986
Actor Cary Grant performed in films from the 1930s through the 1960s. He starred in several Hitchcock films, including the 1959 hit North by Northwest.
1904-1986
Hank Greenberg became one of Major League Baseball's first Jewish super stars, while playing for the Detroit Tigers.
1911-1986
1904-1986
Bernard Malamud was an American writer known for his novels and short stories of the Jewish-American life in the first half of the 20th century.
1914-1986
High school teacher Christa McAuliffe was the first American civilian selected to go into space. She died in the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion in 1986.
1948-1986
Married to Judy Garland and father to Liza Minnelli, film director Vincente Minnelli infused a new sophistication and vitality into movie musicals of the 1940s and '50s.
1903-1986
1954-1986
Georgia O'Keefe is a 20th century American painter best known for her flower canvases and southwestern landscapes.
1887-1986
Fritz Pollard was the first African American to play in the Rose Bowl, the first African-American NFL coach and one of the NFL's first black players.
1894-1986
1906-1986
Actress Donna Reed charmed audiences in the film It's a Wonderful Life and on television's The Donna Reed Show.
1921-1986
1918-1986
American socialite Wallis Simpson became the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Edward abdicated the throne to marry her, a period known as the Abdication Crisis.
1896-1986
Tony Spilotro is best known as a mob representative in Las Vegas from the 1970s to the '80s. He was brutally beaten and murdered by mob members in 1986.
1938-1986
Rudy Vallée was an American singer and entertainer best known as the host of the variety hour The Rudy Vallee Show (1929-43).
1901-1986
1899-1986
1915-1986
Teddy Wilson was an influential pianist of jazz and swing. He played and recorded with jazz greats such as Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald.
1912-1986
Minoru Yamasaki is an American architect designed the original World Trade Center complex and the Twin Towers.
1912-1986