soul singerBorn: 5/3/1933Birthplace: Barnwell, South Carolina Energetic, intense singer best known for his gospel-tinged, rhythm and blues songs that influenced the direction of funk, soul and…
actorBorn: 7/17/1899Birthplace: New York City Academy Award-winning actor best known for his brash gangster role in Public Enemy (1931). But Cagney first performed as a song-and-dance man,…
actorBorn: 2/8/1931 Film actor who achieved cult-figure status after making only three films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956). A car accident ended his troubled…
writerBorn: 11/27/1909Birthplace: Knoxville, Tennessee Brilliant and versatile, he wrote the text for Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), which, with photographs by Walker Evans, details the lives…
actorBorn: 5/15/1909Birthplace: Huddersfield, England A gifted and accomplished actor, Mason first performed on stage and in film in England, where in the 1940s he became the country's most popular…
actorBorn: 6/15/1954Birthplace: Chicago Younger brother of the comedian and actor John Belushi, he appeared in a number of successful movies in the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s, including…
Born: Nov. 6, 1861 Canadian physical education instructor who invented basketball in 1891 at the YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Mass. Died: Nov. 28, 1939
Born: July 26, 1935Olympics archer and sporting goods manufacturer (Easton softball bats); one of 4 American delegates to the International Olympic Committee; president of International Archery…
(Encyclopedia) Sunderland, Robert Spencer, 2d earl of, 1641–1702, English statesman. He succeeded to the earldom in 1643. During the reign of Charles II he served on various diplomatic missions and…
(Encyclopedia) LusignanLusignanlüzēnyäNˈ [key], French noble family. The name is derived from a castle in Poitou, built, according to legend, by Mélusine. The family was powerful in the Middle Ages…