TV chef and author Julia Child adapted complex French cooking for everyday Americans, with her groundbreaking cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Dorothy Height was a civil rights and women's rights activist focused primarily on improving the circumstances of and opportunities for African-American women.

Gene Kelly was a dancer whose athletic style transformed the movie musical and did much to change the American public's conception of male dancers.

Famous 20th century artist Jackson Pollock revolutionized the world of modern art with his unique abstract painting techniques.

The wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson served as first lady from 1963 to 1969.

Eva Braun was the mistress and later the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun and Hitler killed themselves on April 30, 1945, the day after their wedding—a decided alternative to falling into the hands of enemy troops.

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.' She later established the Doris Duke Foundation.

Woody Guthrie was a singer-songwriter, and one of the legendary figures of American folk music.

Chinese-American nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu, also known as "the First Lady of Physics,” contributed to the Manhattan Project and made history with an experiment that disproved the hypothetical law of conservation of parity.

Famed mathematician Alan Turing proved in his 1936 paper, "On Computable Numbers," that a universal algorithmic method of determining truth in math cannot exist.

Jo Ann Robinson organized a city bus boycott by African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955 that changed the course of civil rights in America.

Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer and activist, best known for his work as adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s and '60s.

Kim Il-sung served as premier and president of North Korea and ran the country for decades, spearheading the creation of an Orwellian regime.

Wernher von Braun was a German engineer who worked on rocket technology, first for Germany and then for the United States.

Millvina Dean was the youngest of the 705 survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic and lived to be the last survivor.

Gordon Parks was a prolific, world-renowned photographer, writer, composer and filmmaker known for his work on projects like Shaft and The Learning Tree.