Biggie Smalls, also known as Notorious B.I.G., was a revered hip-hop artist and face of East Coast gangsta rap. He was shot and killed on March 9, 1997.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a military general who became the first emperor of France. His drive for military expansion changed the world.
A talented, troubled grunge performer, Kurt Cobain became a rock legend with his band Nirvana in the 1990s and committed suicide at his Seattle home in 1994.
Tobacco heiress Doris Duke was the only child of American tobacco baron, James Duke. When she was born, the press called her the "million dollar baby."
Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, mysteriously disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's ambition and ruthlessness made him one of the wealthiest, most powerful, and most violent criminals of all-time.
Dian Fossey was a zoologist best known for researching the endangered gorillas of the Rwandan mountain forest from the 1960s to the '80s, and for her mysterious murder.
Jimmy Hoffa was became a labor organizer in the 1930s, rising in the Teamsters Union during the next two decades until he reached the office of president.
Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared during a trip to Aruba in 2005.
Harry Houdini's grand illusions and daring, spectacular escape acts made him one of the most famous magicians of all time.
Believe it or not, comedian Andy Kaufman was banned from Saturday Night Live, but beloved for his portrayal of Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi.
John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, negotiated the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and initiated the Alliance for Progress. He was assassinated in 1963.
Brandon Lee was an action film star and the son of actor Bruce Lee. His untimely death was caused by a prop gun accident and the set of the film The Crow.
Bruce Lee was an actor, film producer and director, and the martial arts expert who founded the Jeet Kune Doe martial arts system.
Actress Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols. She died of a drug overdose in 1962.
American writer, critic and editor Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his tales and poems of horror and mystery, including The Raven.
JonBenet Ramsey was a 6-year-old beauty queen who was found murdered in her parents' Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996.
Emperor Haile Selassie I worked to modernize Ethiopia for several decades before famine and political opposition forced him from office in 1974.
A hip-hop legend, with explicit and controversial lyrics, Tupac Shakur was embroiled in a feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers.
Football player Pat Tillman enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2002. He was killed in action in 2004, and the exact circumstances of his death are still in question.
Actress Natalie Wood starred in the films Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean and in West Side Story as Maria. She drowned during a boating trip in 1981.
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was Pakistani chief of Army staff, chief martial-law administrator, and president of Pakistan (1978–88).