Tommy Lee is the drummer and co-founder of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He has two children with actress Pamela Anderson.
1962-
Wen Ho Lee is a nuclear engineer who was working at Los Alamos National Laboratory when he was accused of being a Chinese spy.
1939-
1964-
John Lennon, pop star, composer, songwriter and recording artist, founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the music scene like no other before or since.
1940-1980
1912-2010
Singer Claudine Longet recorded seven albums from 1966 to 1972 and user her popularity to transition into an acting career. She murdered her boyfriend in 1976.
1942-
1899-1967
Lucky Luciano was an Italian-born American mobster best known for engineering the structure of modern organized crime in the United States.
1897-1962
1949-
Tommy Makem was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.
1932-2007
1932-1995
German novelist, short-story and essay writer Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. One of his best-known novels is Death in Venice.
1875-1955
Rudolph A. Marcus is a Canadian chemist known for his research in electron-transfer reactions. He established what is known as the Marcus Theory, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1992.
1923-
Herbert Marcuse was an American political philosopher whose Marxists theories of 20th-century Western society influenced liberal student groups in the 1960s.
1898-1979
1937-
Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter Bob Marley served as a world ambassador for reggae music and sold more than 20 million records throughout his career—making him the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World.
1945-1981
Bat Masterson was a prominent lawman, gambler, saloon keeper and sports writer of the American West. He was a good friend of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp.
1853-1921
Lois Maxwell was an actress best known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond film series.
1927-2007
Ornithologist Ernst Mayr demonstrated that the development of separate species in higher animals depends on the geographical isolation of precursor populations.
1904-2005
Actor Roddy McDowall had a recurring role on the Batman television series, and played Cornelius in the film and TV versions of Planet of the Apes.
1928-1998
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.
1890-1948
1980-
Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, responsible for hits such as "Both Sides Now" and "Big Yellow Taxi," is widely considered 1960s and '70s folk royalty.
1943-
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter, photographer and art teacher who took charge of the metal workshop of the Bauhaus.
1895-1946
Graphic designer Clarence Mok sold his design firm Studio Archetype to Sapient Corp. in 1998, marrying their technical prowess to his graphic design.
1958-
Mexican-born chemist Mario Molina won a Nobel Prize in 1995 for his research on how man-made compounds affect the ozone layer.
1943-
Actor Ricardo Montalban is best known for playing Mr. Roarke on television's Fantasy Island—the role that launched him into true stardom.
1920-2009
1873-1932
1945-
Naturalist, writer, and advocate of U.S. forest conservation, John Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.
1838-1914
Photographer Nickolas Muray was famous for his portraits of Hollywood beauties, his fabulous fencing skills and his romance with artist Frida Kahlo.
1892-1965
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is the founder and head of News Corporation, a global media conglomerate. He created Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986.
1931-
Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson in November 2011.
1953-
1899-1977
Thomas Nast is known as the “Father of the American Cartoon,” having created satirical art during the 19th century that critiqued slavery and crime.
1840-1902
Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova was one of the world's top tennis players in the 1970s and '80s.
1956-
Leslie Neilsen was an actor known for his deadpan comic delivery in such films as Airplane! and The Naked Gun
.
1926-2010
Charles Ng is a Chinese-American mass murderer who was sentenced to death after torturing and killing up to 25 people at Leonard Lake’s California ranch.
1960-
1940-1996
John G. Nicolay served as secretary to President Abraham Lincoln, and later co-wrote a 10-volume biography on the president, Abraham Lincoln: A History.
1832-1901
1882-1935
Maureen O'Hara was an Irish-born actress who was billed alongside Hollywood's leading men in a slew of swashbuckling features in the 1940s.
1920-
1941-
Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist who became known worldwide in the 1960s when she married Beatles front man John Lennon.
1933-
José Clemente Orozco was a painter who helped lead the revival of Mexican mural painting in the 1920s. His works are complex and often tragic.
1883-1949
Robert Dale Owen, son of the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, is best known for being integral to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution.
1801-1877
1745-1806
Mina Stevens was an astronomer who was a pioneer in the classification of stellar spectra.
1857-1911
1900-1958
1939-2004
I.M. Pei is a Chinese-born American architect, perhaps best known for his controversial glass pyramid in the courtyard at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
1917-
1644-1718
1910-2004
Charles Ponzi was best known for the financial crimes he committed when he conned investors into giving him millions of dollars, and paid them returns with other investors' money.
1882-1949
Actress Natalie Portman won the 2010 Academy Award for her role as a dancer in Black Swan.
1981-
1733-1804
Wolfgang Puck is a chef who expanded his purview into running restaurants, writing cookbooks and hosting cooking shows.
1949-
Professional athlete. Considered one of the top players in the sport, Albert Pujols is a Major League Baseball first baseman for Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
1980-
1847-1911
1942-
Manuel Quezon was leader of the Filipino independence movement and first president of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935.
1878-1944
Anthony Quinn was an Oscar-winning Mexican-American actor known for his roles in Viva Zapata!, Lust for Life and Zorba the Greek.
1915-2001
Panamanian-born U.S. theatrical director José Quintero was a founder of the Off-Broadway theatre Circle in the Square, where he directed regularly from 1950.
1924-1999
Sergey Rachmaninov was a Russian musician known for his magnificent piano playing as well as his distinguished compositions and symphonies.
1873-1943
1889-1967
Indian cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh created the spiritual practice of dynamic meditation. He started the Rancho Rajneesh commune in Oregon in the 1980s.
1931-1990
1905-1982
Man Ray was primarily known for his photography, which spanned both the Dada and Surrealism movements.
1890-1976
1943-2010
Wilhelm Reich was a psychiatrist who developed psychoanalysis that concentrated on overall character structure rather than on individual symptoms.
1897-1957
Syngman Rhee became South Korea’s first president in 1948. He was re-elected twice after the Korean War, but was overthrown by a 1960 student uprising.
1875-1965
1928-1991
1893-1973
1888-1931
Virginia planter and colonial official John Rolfe was the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan. He sold Virginia tobacco to England.
1585-1622
Russian-born painter Mark Rothko was a pioneer of the Abstract Expressionist movement during the mid-20th century.
1903-1970
Art Rubinstein was a famous Polish pianist who is regarded by many as the greatest Chopin interpreter of the 20th century.
1887-1982
Helena Rubinstein was a Polish entrepreneur best known for her global cosmetics empire.
1870-1965
1935-2003
Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana is leader of Santana, a band whose music uniquely blends Latin-infused rock, jazz, blues, salsa, and African rhythms.
1947-
Cristina Saralegui hosts the talk show The Cristina Show for the Univision Network. It has been on the air since 1989 and has won 11 Emmys.
1948-
May Sarton was a writer of poetry, novels and memoirs including her Journal of a Solitude.
1912-1995
1926-2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger first gained fame as a body builder, using that as a launching point to become a huge Hollywood star and, later, the governor of California.
1947-
Faisal Shahzad made headlines May 1, 2010, when he attempted to detonate a homemade car bomb in New York City's Times Square.
1979-
William Shockley was an engineer and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for his development of the transistor.
1910-1989
M. Night Shyamalan is best known for directing The Sixth Sense, which was released in 1999 to wide acclaim, including six Oscar nominations.
1970-
Igor Sikorsky was a Russian aeronautics engineer and inventor known for crafting the first four-engine plane and the first working helicopter.
1889-1972
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Jewish-American writer who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.
1904-1991
After her impressive 2006 debut, professional dancer Karina Smirnoff went on to star in six more seasons of Dancing with the Stars.
1978-
Sammy Sosa is a former MLB slugger, most notably with the Chicago Cubs, with whom he chased Roger Maris's home run record.
1968-
Jerry Springer is an American talk show host, best known for his tabloid talk show, The Jerry Springer Show. He is also a former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
1944-
1584-1656
1915-1980
Musician, Isaac Stern was a famous violinist and was responsible for discovering Yo-Yo Ma.
1920-2001
Theater director Lee Strasberg co-founded the Group Theatre, where he directed experimental plays, and later became artistic director of the Actors Studio.
1901-1982
Dorothy Stratten was a Playboy model and actress before she was murdered at the age of 20.
1960-1980
1899-1973
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer best known as one of the most influential composers in the twentieth century for ballets such as The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.
1882-1971
Ichiro Suzuki is a record-holding hitter in major league baseball, having played for the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees.
1973-