Curated category
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela entered the world on the 18th of July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, South Africa. He was born into the Thembu royal family, a…
- Bob DylanOn the 24th of May 1941, Robert Allen Zimmerman entered the world at St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents ran a furniture and appliance…
- John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald Kennedy entered the world on the 29th of May 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
- Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was born on the 8th of January 1935, in a small two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi. His twin brother Jesse Garon had been stillborn…
- Frank SinatraFrancis Albert Sinatra entered the world on the 12th of December 1915 inside a tenement building at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey.
- George H. W. BushOn the 9th of June 1943, George Herbert Walker Bush became one of the youngest pilots ever commissioned in the United States Navy, a distinction that would…
- Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg was born on the 18th of December 1946, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother Leah Adler ran a kosher dairy restaurant and played concert…
- Tennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier Williams III arrived in Columbus, Mississippi on the 26th of March 1911. He was the second child born to Edwina Dakin and Cornelius Coffin…
- T. S. EliotThomas Stearns Eliot was born on the 26th of September 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. He lived at a house on Locust Street for his first sixteen years before…
- Jim LovellJames Arthur Lovell Jr. was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on the 25th of March 1928. His father James Lovell Sr., a furnace salesman from Toronto, Canada, died in…
- Aretha FranklinAretha Louise Franklin was born on the 25th of March 1942, at her family's home located at 406 Lucy Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.
- James StewartJames Maitland Stewart was born on the 20th of May 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He grew up as the eldest child and only son of Elizabeth Ruth Jackson and…
- Meryl StreepMary Louise Streep was born on the 22nd of June 1949 in Summit, New Jersey. Her mother Mary Wilkinson Streep worked as an artist while her father Harry…
- Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson Clinton was born on the 19th of August 1946 at the Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. His father died three months before his birth…
- Ella FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald was born on the 25th of April 1917, in Newport News, Virginia. Her mother Temperance Fitzgerald and father William Ashland Fitzgerald…
- John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck was born on the 27th of February 1902 in Salinas, California. He grew up in a small rural valley set about 25 miles from the Pacific Coast.
- Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas was born Issur Danielovitch on the 9th of December 1916, in Amsterdam, New York. He grew up as the fourth of seven children and the only son of…
- Jimmy CarterJames Earl Carter Jr. was born on the 1st of October 1924, in the small town of Plains, Georgia. He entered the world at the Wise Sanitarium where his mother…
- Johnny CarsonJohn William Carson entered the world on the 23rd of October 1925, in Corning, Iowa. He grew up moving between small towns like Avoca and Clarinda before…
- Jerry WestJerry Alan West was born on the 28th of May, 1938, into a poor household in Chelyan, West Virginia. He grew up as the fifth of six children to Cecil Sue West…
- Duke EllingtonOn the 29th of April 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington entered the world in Washington, D.C., born to James and Daisy Ellington.
- Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Roberts was born on the 13th of October 1925 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Her father Alfred Roberts owned a tobacconist and grocery shop that…
- Al GoreOn the 31st of March 1948, Albert Arnold Gore Jr. was born in Washington, D.C., the second child of a U.S. Representative and his wife Pauline LaFon Gore.
- Helmut KohlOn the 3rd of April 1930, a boy named Helmut Kohl was born in the industrial city of Ludwigshafen. He grew up as the third child of Hans Kohl and Cäcilie…
- John WayneMarion Robert Morrison entered the world on the 26th of May 1907 at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa. The local newspaper reported his birth weight…
- Lionel MessiOn the 14th of December 2000, a Barcelona official named Carles Rexach signed a contract for Lionel Messi on the back of a paper napkin.
- Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson was born on the 27th of August 1908, in a small farmhouse near Stonewall, Texas. His family lived on the Pedernales River where the…
- Fred HaiseFred Wallace Haise Jr. was born on the 14th of November 1933, in Biloxi, Mississippi. His father enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor…
- Tom HanksThomas Jeffrey Hanks arrived in the world on the 9th of July 1956 inside a hospital in Concord, California. His mother Janet Marylyn worked as a hospital…
- Anwar SadatAnwar Sadat was born on the 25th of December 1918 in Mit Abu El Kom, a small town within the Monufia Governorate. He grew up in a poor family with fourteen…
- Audrey HepburnAudrey Kathleen Hepburn was born on the 4th of May 1929 at number 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality of Brussels, Belgium.
- Lucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was born on Sunday, the 6th of August 1911, at 69 Stewart Avenue in Jamestown, New York. Her father Henry Durrell Ball worked as a…
- Buzz AldrinEdwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. was born on the 20th of January 1930 at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. His parents were Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr.
- Muhammad AliOn the 17th of January 1942, Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Odessa Grady Clay and Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
- Aaron CoplandAaron Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York, on the 14th of November 1900. He grew up above his family's store at 628 Washington Avenue.
- Henry KissingerHeinz Alfred Kissinger was born on the 27th of May 1923 in Fürth, Bavaria. His family lived under Nazi rule when he was nine years old and Adolf Hitler…
- Jack SwigertJohn Leonard Swigert Jr. was born on the 30th of August 1931, in Denver, Colorado to parents Dr. John Leonard Swigert Sr. and Virginia Anne Swigert.
- Neil ArmstrongNeil Alden Armstrong was born on the 5th of August 1930 in rural Washington Township, Auglaize County, Ohio. His father worked as an auditor for the state…
- Bill RussellWilliam Felton Russell was born on the 12th of February 1934, in West Monroe, Louisiana. The town operated under strict segregation laws that dictated every…
- Walt DisneyWalter Elias Disney was born on the 5th of December 1901 at 1249 Tripp Avenue in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood. He moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri…
- Bill GatesIn 1970, a group of students at Lakeside School in Seattle gathered around a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal. Bill Gates was one of them.
- Michael JordanOn a Tuesday in the summer of 1978, Michael Jordan stood on the basketball court at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina.
- Ralph EllisonRalph Waldo Ellison was born on the 1st of March 1913 in Oklahoma City. His father Lewis Alfred worked as a construction foreman and small-business owner…
- Friedrich HayekFriedrich August von Hayek was born on the 8th of May 1899 in Vienna to a family that valued scholarship. His father worked as a medical doctor for the…
- Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman was born on the 31st of July 1912 in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were Jewish working-class immigrants from Beregszász in Carpathian…
- Walter CronkiteWalter Leland Cronkite Jr. entered the world on the 4th of November 1916, in Saint Joseph, Missouri. His father was a dentist named Walter Leland Cronkite…
- Michael Collins (astronaut)Michael Collins entered the world on the 31st of October 1930, inside a hospital in Rome, Italy. His father James Lawton Collins served as the United States…
- Magic JohnsonEarvin Johnson Jr. was born on the 14th of August 1959 in Lansing, Michigan. His father worked at General Motors while his mother cleaned homes and prepared…
- Edmund WilsonEdmund Wilson Jr. entered the world on the 8th of May 1895 in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father Edmund Wilson Sr. served as the state Attorney General before…