Cher

Cher met songwriter and producer Sonny Bono in 1963. She was 16, he was 28, and two years later they recorded their first hit ... more

Chris Farley

Chris Farley got his early comic training with Chicago's famous Second City comedy troupe. Later he became the popular big-pudgy-guy cast member of TV's Saturday Night Live and then moved into ... more

Ferdinand of Aragon

Ferdinand and his wife, Isabella of Castille, underwrote the voyages of Christopher ... more

Rurik

Rurik was the Viking (or Varangian) leader who ventured from Jutland to found what is considered to be the first Russian monarchy. According to early chronicles, Rurik and his fellow Scandinavian ... more

The Brothers Grimm

The German brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm spent years collecting and researching folk tales early in the 19th century. They published Children's and Household Tales in 1812, a collection ... more

Nick Nolte

Nick Nolte got a late start in the movies, making his mark at age 35 in the 1976 TV mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man. He had a box office hit in 1982 opposite Eddie ... more

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher Immanuel Kant's position as one of the greats in Western metaphysics comes from works he published late in life, including Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and ... more

Mary Jo Kopechne

Mary Jo Kopechne was killed in the auto accident that almost ended Edward Kennedy's political career. Kopechne was a former campaign worker for Kennedy's brother, ... more

George Gershwin

George Gershwin's popular songs and compositions from the 1920s and 1930s include "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "They Can't Take That Away From Me" ... more

Aaron Eckhart

Aaron Eckhart is a square-jawed actor of movies whose Hollywood breakthrough came as the kindly biker boyfriend of Julia Roberts in 2000's Erin Brockovich. ... more

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadin won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting the rights of women and children in her home country of Iran. Ebadi studied at Tehran University, ... more

Shania Twain

Shania Twain released her eponymous debut album in 1993, the same year she married superstar music producer Robert "Mutt" Lange. Five years later she ... more

Big Brown

Big Brown is the racehorse who won the first two legs of racing's Triple Crown in 2008. He won the Kentucky Derby by 4 3/4 lengths on 3 May 2008. His performance there was so powerful that he was a ... more

Liam Neeson

Irish actor Liam Neeson is known for his brainy yet brawny persona in movies like Schindler's List (1993, directed by Steven Spielberg) and ... more

Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons is known as a masterful and slightly unnerving dramatic actor who bounces between serious dramas and popcorn blockbusters. He won a 1991 Oscar as best actor for his uncanny portrayal of ... more

Annika Sorenstam

Annika Sorenstam dominated the Ladies Professional Golf Tour (LPGA) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She played her first LPGA events in 1993 and joined the tour in 1994, winning Rookie of the ... more

Ben Barnes

Ben Barnes was plucked from a stage production of The History Boys to be the star of the Disney version of C.S. Lewis's ... more

Carole King

Carole King's Tapestry (1971) was a number one album that won four Grammys and stayed on the charts for nearly six years. She got her start as a ... more

Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger was a brilliant theoretical and experimental physicist who worked in Vienna, Zürich and Berlin in the first half of the 20th century. He was a significant contributor to ... more

David Prowse

Tall and broad-shouldered, David Prowse played the menacing villain Darth Vader in the 1977 film Star Wars. The film was a hit and Vader became Prowse's ... more