FAMOUS PEOPLE

INVENTORS

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1847. He also invented the process by which sound is transmitted on a beam of light - a forerunner to fiber optics.

John Deere John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont, and spent his boyhood and young adulthood in Middlebury. He apprenticed as a blacksmith, and in 1825, began his career. He soon developed a reputation for careful workmanship. In the 1830s, business conditions deteriorated, and John Deere migrated westward with other Vermonters. In 1836, he established a blacksmith’s forge in Grand Detour, Illinois. He discovered that the cast-iron plows being used by farmers were inefficient in the rich soil of the Midwest, so he developed a steel plow that revolutionized farming for the settlers of the area. Within ten years, his company was producing 1,000 plows a year.

Thomas Edison Born in Milan, Ohio, Thomas Edison is the only American inventor with more than 1,000 patents. Some of his most famous inventions include the light bulb, the phonograph and the stock ticker.

Ruth Handler Ruth Handler (1916-2002) was born in Denver. In 1945, she and her husband Elliot established a small business enterprise, calling it Mattel Creations. In 1959, she created the Barbie Doll, naming it after her daughter. It was an instant success. More than 1 billion Barbies have been sold since 1959, making it the best-selling toy in history. Today, Mattel is one of the world’s largest toy manufacturers.

Henry Heimlich Born in 1920 in Wilmington, Delaware, Dr. Henry Heimlich, surgeon and inventor, has become a household name! In 1974, Dr. Heimlich published findings describing a technique that can save a person from choking on an object caught in the throat. Just one week after the findings were published, the first choking victim was saved by this procedure. It became known as the Heimlich Maneuver.

Wilbur and Orville Wright Born in Indiana and Dayton, Ohio. The Wright brothers operated a bicycle shop in Dayton, but they earned fame when their airplane was the first to sustain flight.

Sports

Hank Aaron Born Henry Louis Aaron in Mobile, Alabama, he first played semi-pro baseball when he was 15 years old. He played shortstop for two seasons with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro Leagues, and then joined the Milwaukee Braves in 1952. He finished his career with the all-time home run record (755) and was tops in RBIs. He won three Gold Gloves as a right fielder, and was an All-Star in each of the 23 seasons he played.

Louis Armstrong Born in New Orleans, Lousiana, Louis Armstron was a trumpet player and singer considered by many to be one of the best jazz musicians ever

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones was born Todd Jones in 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississppi, but moved to Michigan as a young boy and was raised by his mother’s parents. Best known for his incredible voice, he had a stutter as a child, and took acting lessons to help overcome it. Although he has acted in several movies, it is as the voices of Darth Vader in Star Wars and as Mustapha in The Lion King that may be best recognized.

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester City, Maryland around 1820. At the age of thirty, Tubman escaped but returned frequently to the South, risking her own life to rescue others. During a 10-year span, she is believed to have escorted approximately 300 slaves to freedom in the North.

Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington founded Tuskeegee Institute - the first college for African Americans - in 1881 in Alabama. He was a leader in helping African Americans begin gaining equality with white people.

Artists

William Hanna William Hanna (1910-2001) was born in Melrose, New Mexico. He was a film animator and producer who teamed up with Joseph Barbera to create the Tom and Jerry cartoon characters. The duo won seven Academy Awards and set up their own production company, which created such cartoon series as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound.

Cultural figures

Louis Armstrong Born in New Orleans, Lousiana, Louis Armstron was a trumpet player and singer considered by many to be one of the best jazz musicians ever

Cesar Chavez Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. He founded and led the first successful farm workers' union in U.S. history and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

Walt Disney Walt Disney (1901-1966) the creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Theme Parks was born in Chicago, Illinois. One of the world’s most creative pioneers and innovators in graphic arts, Disney received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 Academy Awards and seven Emmys.

Jim Henson Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Jim Henson began playing with puppets early in his life. His first televised puppet show came in 1954. In 1957, he made an appearance on the Tonight Show and first introduced Kermit the Frog. His biggest break came in 1969, when Public Broadcasting asked him to do the puppets for a new children’s show named Sesame Street. He later created the Muppet Show, which allowed his puppets to appear to a more adult audience, as well as making a number of movies.

Charles Schulz Charles Schultz was born in Minneapolis. After seeing a “Do You Like to Draw?” advertisement, he decided to take a correspondence course in art. After serving in World War II, he began drawing a church cartoon. In 1950, he began drawing his comic strip, “Peanuts,” which would become the most popular comic strip in history. His characters, including Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy, were world famous, and inspired such well known phrases as, “Good Grief,” “Security Blanket,” and “Happiness is a Warm Puppy.” His television special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” has aired every year since 1965.

Sally Ride Sally K. Ride, American astrophysicist and astronaut, was born in Encino, California in 1951. After earning a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University, she became a NASA astronaut and helped design the robot arm for the space shuttle. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space. Sports

Andre Agassi Andre Agassi was born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1970. He became a professional tennis player at age 16 and was ranked 4th by the age of 18. Agassi became the first unseeded tennis player since 1930 to win the U.S. Open in 1994. Two years later he won the first Olympic men's singles gold medal for the United States in 72 years.

Lou Gehrig Lou Gehrig, 1903-1941, nicknamed "The Iron Horse" was one of the most beloved Major League Baseball players. He played in 2,130 consecutive games, a record only recently broken by Cal Ripkin, Jr. He died of a rare disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is now often referred to as "Lou Gehrig’s disease."

Michael Jordan may have been born in Brooklyn, but the Jordan family moved to North Carolina when Michael Jordan was very small and he grew up in Wilmington. He played at the University of North Carolina and was twice College Player of the Year.

After being picked by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 NBA Draft, Jordan was named NBA Rookie of the Year in his first season. He broke many of the league records in scoring and steals, and in the meantime, added two Olympic Gold Medals from the 1984 and 1992 Games. After his retirement in 1998, he became part owner of the Washington Wizards team. In 2001, he resigned his position as head of basketball operations in order to become an active player again.

Writers

Samuel Clemens Born in Florida, Missouri, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, grew up in nearby Hannibal. He began his career as a printer’s apprentice, and eventually wrote for the Keokuk, Iowa Saturday Post. Soon thereafter, however, he abandoned his literary career and spent 18 months as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Writing called him back following the Civil War and he wrote for newspapers and magazines. He is probably best known for his novels about life on the Mississippi: Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Author of the Little House books; born in Pepin, Wisconsin. Wilder wrote about her own life growing up in the 1870s and 1880s on the Midwestern frontier. The books, which include “Little House on the Prairie,” “Little House in the Big Woods,” and “On the Banks of Plum Creek” have become beloved to younger readers, and were later developed into a successful television series.

Politics

Any President or Vice President