Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held more than 18 patents.

Haki Madhubuti is an African-American poet, educator and founder of Third World Press, the country's oldest black-owned independent publishing house.

Earnest Everett Just was an African-American biologist and educator best known for his pioneering work in the physiology of development, especially in fertilization.

Several women have accused Chuck Close of sexually harassing them when they came to his studio to pose. The artist agreed that he has spoken candidly and crudely to women about their bodies. “Last time I looked, discomfort was not a major offense,” he said.

Google Doodle is honoring Max Born’s 135 birthday today. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist helped develop quantum mechanics -- a branch of physics that’s led to the development of many major technologies including lasers, computers and MRIs.

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist and author of Things Fall Apart, a work that in part led to his being called the "patriarch of the African novel."

Dan Brown is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code. He is known for the intricate plotting and detail in his books.

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, led America through World War I and crafted the Versailles Treaty's "Fourteen Points," the last of which was creating a League of Nations to ensure world peace. Wilson also created the Federal Reserve and supported the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote.

Biologist Alfred Kinsey wrote Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, which was based on research he and his colleagues conducted at the Institute for Sex Research.

Stonewall Jackson was a leading Confederate general during the U.S. Civil War, commanding forces at Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

Charles Drew was an African-American surgeon who pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion and organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U.S.

Educator Booker T. Washington was one of the foremost African-American leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founding the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Tuskegee University.

W.E.B. Du Bois was one of the most important African-American activists during the first half of the 20th century. He co-founded the NAACP and supported Pan-Africanism.

A four-time Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry, American Robert Frost depicted realistic New England life through language and situations familiar to the common man.

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian pianist and composer of enormous influence and originality. He was renowned in Europe during the Romantic movement.

Horace Mann was an American politician and education reformer, best known for promoting universal public education and teacher training in "normal schools."

Physicist and mathematician P.A.M Dirac, who helped found quantum electrodynamics, is known for the Dirac equation and his prediction of antiparticles. He won the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger.

James Stavridis is a retired 4-star U.S. Navy admiral who served as the 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO from 2009 to 2013. After retiring from service, he became the dean of The Fletcher School of Law at Tufts University.

In 1904, track and field athlete and scholar George Coleman Poage became the first African-American to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

Amos Bronson Alcott, teacher, mystic, writer and the father of Louisa May Alcott, became an itinerant teacher before settling in Boston to found his own school.

Award-winning, best-selling American novelist John Irving is known for The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp.

Louis Braille invented a system of raised dots that enables blind people to read and write. His system is the globally accepted code for those with visual impairments.

Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has written numerous works on patients with often unusual conditions. His titles include ‘Awakenings’ and ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.’

Daniel J. Boorstin was a writer and historian known for his Americans trilogy and The Discoverers.