Dwight Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

Dwight Eisenhower 34th United States President, United States General of the Army. One of seven sons of a poor Kansas family, he discovered he could receive an education for free if he was accepted at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He passed the 1911 entry exam and graduated in the top half […]

Richard Nixon (1913 - 1994)

Richard Nixon 37th US President. A member of the Republican party, he served in that capacity from 1969 until August 1974, and is remembered as the only US President to resign in office to date, which occurred during the middle of his second term, amid the infamous Watergate scandal. Born into a Methodist family, his […]

Gerald Ford (1913 - 2006)

Gerald Ford Born as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, his mother divorced his father the following year and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where she remarried to Gerald R. Ford. The young boy’s name was then changed to Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Graduated from the University of Michigan and Yale Law School. Served […]

Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)

Ronald Reagan 40th United States President, Actor. Considered by many historians and political scientists as the one individual who most helped end the Cold War between the Western world and the Soviet Union and its allies (although this event occurred ten months after he left office). Born in the small town of Tampico, Illinois, he […]

Doc Holliday (1851 - 1887)

Doc Holliday A gunfighter and professional gambler, he is remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the notorious Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona that resulted in the killing of three members of the Cochise County Cowboys, a loosely associated group of outlaw cowboys in Pima and Cochise County […]

Ted Kennedy (1932 - 2009)

Ted Kennedy A member of the prominent Kennedy and Fitzgerald families, he attended Harvard University before being expelled for cheating on an exam. After serving in the United States Army from 1951 to 1953, he was readmitted to Harvard, graduating in 1956. He then studied at The Hague’s International Law School, and received his law […]

Richie Havens (1941 - 2013)

Richie Havens Havens will best be remembered as the artist who opened the Woodstock music festival with a three hour set. At an early age, he began organizing his neighborhood friends into street corner doo-wop groups and was performing with The McCrea Gospel Singers at 16. At age 20, he moved to Greenwich Village where […]

Big Pun (1971 - 2000)

Rios was born on November 10, 1971 in The Bronx, New York City, United States, to parents of Puerto Rican descent. He grew up in the South Bronx neighborhood of the city. At the age of five, Rios broke his leg while playing in a park, which would later lead to a large settlement from […]

Alec Guinness (1914 - 2000)

Guinness was born at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, London as Alec Guinness de Cuffe. His mother’s maiden name was Agnes Cuff. She was born 8 December 1890 to Edward Cuff and Mary Ann Benfield. On Guinness’s birth certificate, the space for the mother’s name shows Agnes de Cuffe. The space for […]

Chris Burden (1946 - 2015)

Burden, the son of an engineer and a biologist, was born in Boston in 1946 and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, France and Italy. He studied for his B.A. in visual arts, physics and architecture at Pomona College and received his MFA at the University of California, Irvine – where his teachers included Robert Irwin […]

Elizabeth Wilson (1921 - 2015)

Wilson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Marie Ethel (née Welter) and insurance agent Henry Dunning Wilson. Her maternal grandfather was a wealthy German immigrant, and Wilson was raised in a large mansion. She attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, then studied with Sanford Meisner at the […]

Edward III of England (1312 - 1377)

Edward was born at Windsor Castle on 13 November 1312, and was often referred to as Edward of Windsor in his early years. The reign of his father, Edward II, was a particularly problematic period of English history. One source of contention was the king’s inactivity, and repeated failure, in the ongoing war with Scotland. […]

Elizabeth I of England (1533 - 1603)

Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard. She was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. […]

James IV of Scotland (1473 - 1513)

James was the son of James III and Margaret of Denmark, probably born in Stirling Castle. As heir apparent to the Scottish crown, he became Duke of Rothesay. In 1474, his father arranged his betrothal to Princess Cecily of England. His father was not a popular king and faced two major rebellions during his reign. […]

James III of Scotland (1451 - 1488)

James was born to James II of Scotland and Mary of Guelders. His exact date and place of birth have been a matter of debate. Claims were made that he was born in May 1452, or 10 or 20 July 1451. The place of birth was either Stirling Castle or the Castle of St Andrews, […]

James II of Scotland (1430 - 1460)

James I was assassinated on 21 February 1437. The Queen, although hurt, managed to get to her six-year-old son, who was now king. On 25 March 1437, the six-year-old was formally crowned King of Scots at Holyrood Abbey. The Parliament of Scotland revoked alienations of crown property and prohibited them, without the consent of the […]

Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (1350 - 1403)

Katherine was the daughter of Paon de Roet, a herald, and later knight, who was “probably christened as Gilles”. She had two sisters, Philippa and Isabel (also called Elizabeth) de Roet, and a brother, Walter. Isabel later became Canoness of the convent of St. Waudru’s, Mons, c. 1366. Katherine is generally held to have been […]

Blanche of Lancaster (1345 - 1368)

Blanche was born on 25 March 1345, although the year 1347 has also been suggested. She was the younger daughter of Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his wife Isabel de Beaumont. She and her elder sister Maud, Countess of Leicester, were born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lindsey. Maud married Ralph de Stafford and […]

Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (1443 - 1509)

Margaret was born at Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire, on 31 May 1443 or 1441. The day and month are not disputed, as she required Westminster Abbey to celebrate her birthday on 31 May. The year of her birth is more uncertain. William Dugdale, the 17th century antiquary, has suggested that she may have been born in […]

Phil Everly (1939 - 2014)

Phil Everly Rock & roll lost one of its supreme harmony singers when Phil Everly, half of the Everly Brothers, died today at the age of 74. According to a report attributed to his wife Patti Everly, the cause was complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Everly was a longtime smoker. Harmony singing had been […]

Lesley Gore (1946 - 2015)

Lesley Gore Lesley Gore, whose No. 1 hit “It’s My Party” kicked off a successful singing career while she was still in high school, has died. She was 68. Her death was confirmed by family friend Blake Morgan, who produced her 2005 album, “Ever Since.” “We loved her and we are very sad. She was […]

Jacob Lawrence (1917 - 2000)

Jacob Lawrence was born in 1917 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was thirteen when his family, including his sister and brother, moved to New York City. Lawrence was introduced to art shortly after that, when their mother enrolled him in classes at an arts and crafts settlement house in Harlem, in an effort to […]

Charles Schulz (1922 - 2000)

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Schulz grew up in Saint Paul. He was the only child of Carl Schulz, who was born in Germany, and Dena Halverson, who was Norwegian. His uncle called him “Sparky” after the horse Spark Plug in Billy DeBeck’s comic strip, Barney Google.  Schulz loved drawing and sometimes drew his family dog, […]

Jayne Meadows (1919 - 2015)

Jayne Meadows was born Jane Meadows Cotter in 1919 in Wuchang, one of three sections of Wuhan in the Hubei Province (where the Cotter family was relocated after a bomb fell on their home in Wu Chang [clarification needed]; the other two sections are Hanyang and Hankou), the daughter of American Episcopal missionary parents, the […]

Maya Plisetskaya (1925 - 2015)

Maya Mikhaylovna Plisetskaya (Russian: Ма́йя Миха́йловна Плисе́цкая; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress, who held Spanish and Lithuanian citizenship. She danced during the Soviet era at the same time as another famed Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova, and in 1960 took over Ulanova’s title as […]

Grace Lee Whitney (1930 - 2015)

Whitney was born Mary Ann Chase in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was adopted by the Whitney family, who changed her name to Grace Elaine. She started her entertainment career as a “girl singer” on Detroit’s WJR radio at the age of fourteen. After she left home, she began to call herself Lee Whitney, eventually becoming […]

Ben E King (1938 - 2015)

Ben E King Ben E. King, the smooth, soulful baritone who led the Drifters on “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance for Me” and other hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and as a solo artist recorded the classic singles “Spanish Harlem” and “Stand by Me,” died on Thursday in Hackensack, […]

Fredric Brandt (1949 - 2015)

Fredric Brandt Fredric Sheldon Brandt was an American physician, researcher, lecturer, author, and radio host specializing in cosmetic dermatology. Among the first to use botulinum toxin (“botox”) and fillers, Brandt was noted for his role in the FDA approval of numerous fillers and botulinum toxins for cosmetic use in the United States.  Brandt, who hosted […]

Jean Nidetch (1923 - 2015)

Nidetch was born in Brooklyn, New York, to David Slutsky, a cab driver, and Mae Slutsky, a manicurist. A graduate of Girls’ High School, Nidetch received a partial scholarship to Long Island University but was unable to attend due to a lack of financial resources. Instead, Nidetch enrolled in a business course at City College […]

Suzanne Crough (1963 - 2015)

On The Partridge Family, Crough played Tracy Partridge, the youngest Partridge sibling, who played the tambourine. After The Partridge Family, she made several TV movies and made guest appearances on television shows, including Mulligan’s Stew. Her last credited on-screen role was as Kate in the 1980 TV movie Children of Divorce.  Crough graduated from Los […]