Curated category
20th-century American businesspeople
- Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was born on the 29th of August 1958 in Gary, Indiana, the eighth of ten children in an African-American working-class household…
- Pete ConradPete Conrad stepped off the Lunar Module's ladder on the 19th of November 1969, paused on the landing pad, and jumped down onto the Moon.
- MadonnaMadonna Louise Ciccone arrived in New York City in 1978 with thirty-five dollars in her pocket. It was the first time she had ever flown on a plane or ridden…
- Donald TrumpDonald Trump was born on the 14th of June 1946 at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York, the fourth child of a family that was already wealthy.
- George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush carried a question with him for most of his adult life. Shot down over the Pacific in 1944, watching both crewmates die while he…
- Jay-ZJay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on the 4th of December 1969, in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in the Marcy Houses, a public housing project in the…
- Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg was born on the 18th of December 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and by the time he was twelve years old, he had already staged and filmed a…
- Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms at Oxford. The young man from Melbourne who would one day own hundreds of newspapers, television channels…
- Elon MuskElon Reeve Musk sold a video game he wrote himself at age twelve for approximately $500. The game was called Blastar, built in BASIC, and sold to a magazine…
- George LucasGeorge Lucas was nearly killed before he ever made a film. On the 12th of June 1962, a few days before his high school graduation in Modesto, California…
- Dr. DreAndre Romell Young was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Compton, California, the son of Theodore and Verna Young. His middle name came from the Romells…
- Donn F. EiseleDonn Fulton Eisele was born on the 23rd of June 1930 in Columbus, Ohio. His parents were Herman Eugene Eisele and Lee Ila June Eisele.
- James McDivittJames Alton McDivitt Jr. was born on the 10th of June 1929, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he earned the rank of Tenderfoot…
- Joan CrawfordJoan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, built one of the most tenacious careers in Hollywood history from a foundation of almost…
- John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller Sr. once said, "Competition is a sin." By 1900 the company he built, Standard Oil, controlled about 90 percent of the nation's oil…
- Louis B. MayerLouis B. Mayer was the son of a Yiddish-speaking scrap metal dealer from a Ukrainian village, and he died the highest-paid man in the United States for nine…
- Ewart AbnerEwart Gladstone Abner, Jr. was born on the 11th of May 1923 in Chicago. His father served as a minister while young Ewart attended Englewood High School…
- Birdman (rapper)Birdman was born Bryan Christopher Brooks on the 15th of February 1969 at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, without a given first name.
- Al GoreAl Gore won more votes than his opponent on Election Day 2000, yet still lost the presidency. That outcome, decided by a Supreme Court ruling of 5-4 in Bush…
- Stuart RoosaStuart Allen Roosa orbited the Moon 34 times, alone, while his two crewmates walked on the surface below. No one was watching him through a television camera.
- Walter CunninghamRonnie Walter Cunningham was born in Creston, Iowa, on the 16th of March 1932. He grew up watching movies that shaped his future path.
- Gene CernanGene Cernan stepped off the lunar surface on the 14th of December 1972, climbed the ladder of the Apollo 17 lunar module, and has not been followed by any…
- Mike LazzoMike Lazzo spent years in a shipping and receiving department before he reshaped American television animation. Born on the 10th of April 1958 in LaGrange…
- Jack L. WarnerJack Leonard Warner ran Warner Bros. Studios for more than half a century, longer than any other pioneering Hollywood mogul.
- Fred HaiseFred Wallace Haise Jr. came within days of becoming the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Born on the 14th of November 1933, in Biloxi, Mississippi, he…
- Irving ThalbergIrving Thalberg was twenty years old when Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, told him to take charge of the entire Los Angeles studio.
- Lucille BallLucille Ball was born on the 6th of August, 1911, at 69 Stewart Avenue in Jamestown, New York, and by the time she died on the 26th of April, 1989, she had…
- William WylerWilliam Wyler walked away from the set of Ben-Hur in 1959 having just overseen a chariot race that took six months to film.
- Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on the 21st of July 1969 (UTC), nineteen minutes after Neil Armstrong first touched the surface.
- Alan ShepardAlan Bartlett Shepard Jr. awoke at 01:10 on the 5th of May 1961, ate a breakfast of orange juice, a filet mignon wrapped in bacon, and scrambled eggs, then…
- MC HammerStanley Kirk Burrell grew up in a three-bedroom housing project apartment in East Oakland, California, with eight siblings and a mother who worked as a…
- Sean CombsSean Combs was born on the 4th of November 1969, in Harlem, New York City, and by the time he reached his mid-twenties he had reshaped American popular music…
- Bob IgerBob Iger started his career earning $150 a week doing menial labor on television sets. Decades later, he would oversee a company whose market capitalization…
- Thomas EdisonThomas Edison kept his own deafness a mystery, inventing elaborate false stories about how he lost his hearing. He was completely deaf in one ear and barely…
- Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman became the 33rd president of the United States not by winning an election, but by walking into a room where Eleanor Roosevelt told him her…
- Kathleen Kennedy (producer)Kathleen Kennedy was born on the 5th of June 1953 in Berkeley, California. Her father Donald R. Kennedy served as a judge and attorney while her mother Dione…
- Jack SwigertJack Swigert was born on the 30th of August, 1931, in Denver, Colorado, and he died on the 27th of December, 1982, seven days before he was supposed to be…
- Snoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. was born on the 20th of October 1971, in Long Beach, California, to a Vietnam War veteran who walked out on the family just three…
- Walt DisneyWalt Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards won by an individual, with 22 wins from 59 nominations. Yet the man behind that record was, in private…
- Bill GatesBill Gates was born on the 28th of October, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, and by age 31 he had become the world's youngest-ever billionaire.
- Eric SchmidtEric Schmidt was born on the 27th of April, 1955, in Falls Church, Virginia, into a family shaped by academia and government service.
- Frank BormanFrank Borman received a telegram after returning from the Moon. It was from a stranger, and it said simply: "Thank you Apollo 8.
- David ScottDavid Randolph Scott was born on the 6th of June 1932 at Randolph Field, near San Antonio, Texas. His middle name came directly from that base, a fitting…
- Wally SchirraWally Schirra was the only astronaut to fly in all three of America's first crewed space programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
- Allen KleinAllen Klein was the man who simultaneously managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and he did it by weaponizing the fine print.
- Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton was born on the 19th of January 1946 in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee.
- Alfred WordenAlfred Worden was, for three days in 1971, the most isolated human being who had ever lived. While his crewmates David Scott and James Irwin walked on the…
- Ken MattinglyKen Mattingly came closest to the Moon without ever landing on it. Born on the 17th of March, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II spent a…
- Michael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins orbited the Moon thirty times in July 1969 and never set foot on it. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the Sea of…
- Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson stood at the free throw line on the 7th of November 1991 and told the world he had HIV. He was 32 years old, five-time NBA champion, and…