East Central proudly recognizes the culture, heritage, and contributions of German Americans on NATIONAL GERMAN AMERICAN DAY
October 6, 2020 #ProudlyUnited ALBERT EINSTEIN Theoretical physicist
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) was a German born physicist who revolutionized science with his theory of relativity and mass-energy equivalence, which can be expressed by the equation E = mc2. In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1999 the influential Time Magazine of America posthumously declared him ‘Person of the Century’ in recognition of his widely acknowledged genius. Albert Einstein published in excess of 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. His relevance today is immeasurable and his contributions to science both numerous and crucial.
Einstein was born into a Jewish family in the town of Ulm, in the Kingdom of Württemberg within the German Empire. His father was Hermann Einstein, a salesman and engineer and EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES his mother was Pauline Einstein. In 1880, the family moved to Munich, where his father and his uncle founded a company, which manufactured NATIONAL electrical equipment. In 1894 his father’s business failed and Einstein GERMAN moved to Italy. It was here that he wrote his first scientific work. Einstein then moved to Switzerland and began working in the patent AMERICAN office in Berne. Here he set up a weekly science and philosophy club and evaluated patent DAY applications for electromagnetic devices. OCTOBER 6, 2020 Einstein was forced to emigrate to the United States in 1932 prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. #PROUDLYUNITED JACOB JOHN ASTOR The first multi-millionaire in the United States.
German born John Jacob Astor (1763 – 1848) was the first multi-millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading and real estate.
From humble origins in Germany, he emigrated to London and then to America following the American Revolutionary War. He built a fur- trading empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast. In the early 1800s he diversified into New York City real estate and later became a famed patron of the arts.
At the time of his death in 1848, Astor was the wealthiest person in the United States, leaving an EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES estate estimated to be worth at least $20 million; according to the latest Forbes rankings, he would have had an estimated net worth of $110.1 NATIONAL billion in 2006 U.S. dollars, making him the fourth wealthiest person in American history. GERMAN AMERICAN DAY OCTOBER 6, 2020
#PROUDLYUNITED JOHN STEINBECK Author
John Ernst Steinbeck III (1902 – 1968) was a seminal American author. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, and the novella Of Mice and Men, which was published in 1937.
In total, Steinbeck wrote twenty-five books, which comprised of sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and several collections of short stories.
In 1962 Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California but he was of German descent. Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck, Steinbeck's grandfather, shortened the family name from Großsteinbeck to Steinbeck when he migrated to the United EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES States.
There is a family farm in Heiligenhaus, Germany, NATIONAL which is still today named "Großsteinbeck". John Steinbeck died in New York City on GERMAN December 20, 1968 of a heart attack. He left behind him some of the most important works of AMERICAN American fiction ever written. DAY OCTOBER 6, 2020
#PROUDLYUNITED DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER President of the United States of America
Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (1890 – 1969) was the thirty-fourth President of the United States of America from 1953 until 1961 and a decorated general in the United States Army. During the Second World War, Eisenhower served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System. He was the last World War I veteran to serve as U.S. EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES president, and the last president born in the 19th century. Eisenhower ranks highly among former NATIONAL U.S. presidents in terms of approval rating. Eisenhower's paternal ancestors can be traced back to Hans Nicolas Eisenhauer, whose surname GERMAN is German for "iron worker." Hans Eisenhauer and his family emigrated from Karlsbrunn (Saarland), Germany to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in AMERICAN 1741. Eventually Eisenhower's family settled in Abilene, Kansas in 1892. His father David DAY Eisenhower was a college-educated engineer. He OCTOBER 6, 2020 was an all round all American-German.
#PROUDLYUNITED CHESLEY SULLENBERGER Pilot
Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (born January 23, 1951) is an American retired Air Force fighter pilot and airline captain. He is best known for his role as pilot in command in the 2009 ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike; all 155 people aboard survived. Sullenberger is a speaker on aviation safety and has helped develop new protocols for airline safety. He served as the co- chairman, along with first officer Jeffrey Skiles (his co-pilot during Flight 1549), of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles youth introduction-to-aviation program from 2009 to 2013.
Sullenberger retired from US Airways after 30 years as a commercial pilot on March 3, 2010. In EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES May of the following year, he was hired by CBS News as an aviation and safety expert.Sullenberger is the co-author, with Jeffrey NATIONAL Zaslow, of the New York Times bestseller Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, a memoir of his life and of the events surrounding Flight GERMAN 1549, published in 2009 by HarperCollins. His second book, Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America's Leaders, was published AMERICAN in May 2012. He was ranked second in Time's Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009, DAY after Michelle Obama. OCTOBER 6, 2020 Sullenberger was born in Denison, Texas. His father was a descendant of Swiss-German immigrants named Sollenberger. #PROUDLYUNITED DIRK NOWITZKI NBA Player
Dirk Werner Nowitzki (born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player. Listed at 7 ft 0 in, he is widely regarded as one of the best power forwards of all time and is considered by many to be the greatest European player of all time. An alumnus of the DJK Würzburg basketball club, Nowitzki was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks and was immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he played his entire 21-year NBA career. Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 15 NBA playoff appearances (2001–2012; 2014–2016), including the franchise's first Finals appearance in 2006 and its only NBA championship in 2011. Nowitzki won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in 2011.Nowitzki is the only player ever to play for EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES a single NBA franchise for 21 seasons. He is a 14- time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, the first European player to start in an All-Star NATIONAL Game, and the first European player to receive the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. Nowitzki is the highest-scoring foreign-born player in NBA GERMAN history.
He recently began starting the American AMERICAN citizenship process. DAY OCTOBER 6, 2020
#PROUDLYUNITED HARRY M. WURZBACH U.S. Representative
Harry McLeary Wurzbach (May 19, 1874 – November 6, 1931) was an attorney and politician. He was the first Republican elected from Texas since Reconstruction to be elected for more than two terms and was re-elected to the Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth congresses, representing Texas's 14th congressional district for several terms, from 1921 to 1929. He was re-elected in 1930 to the Seventy-second Congress and died in office. The first Republican elected from Texas who was born in the state, he was the only Republican from Texas serving in Congress during this period.
Wurzbach was born in San Antonio, Texas to Charles Louis Wurzbach and the former Kate Fink, who were ethnic Germans, descendants of EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES immigrants. He attended public schools. He went to Virginia for college, graduating in 1896 from Washington and Lee University School of Law in NATIONAL Lexington. That same year, he was admitted to the Texas bar and established his practice in San GERMAN Antonio. Harry Wurzbach Road in his hometown of San AMERICAN Antonio, TX, is named after him. DAY OCTOBER 6, 2020
#PROUDLYUNITED SUMMER GLAU Actress
Summer Lyn Glau (born July 24, 1981) is an American actress best known for her roles in science fiction and fantasy television series; as River Tam in Firefly (2002) and its continuation film Serenity (2005), as Tess Doerner in The 4400 (2005–2007), as Cameron in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009), as Bennett Halverson in Dollhouse (2009–2010), as Skylar Adams in Alphas (2011–2012) and as Isabel Rochev/Ravager in Arrow (2013–2014).
Glau was born in San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up with her two younger sisters Kaitlin and Christie. She is of Scots-Irish and German ancestry. Her mother is a schoolteacher, and her father a general contractor. Glau received a scholarship to a ballet company and was homeschooled from grades 3 to 12 to EAST CENTRAL CELEBRATES accommodate her ballet training. In addition to her classical ballet training, she studied tango and flamenco. After a broken toe ended her dancing NATIONAL career, Glau moved to Los Angeles in 2002 to pursue acting. GERMAN AMERICAN DAY OCTOBER 6, 2020
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