cartoonistBorn: 11/26/1922Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota Cartoonist who created “Peanuts,” the most commercially successful syndicated comic strip of all time. Charlie Brown, piano-playing…
George W. Bush's secretary of Agriculture Veneman brings vast experience to Bush's cabinet, having served as President Bush's deputy secretary of agriculture for international affairs and…
film director and screenwriterBorn: 8/6/1970Birthplace: Tamil-Nadu, India Shyamalan was a virtual unknown when The Sixth Sense arrived in movie theaters in 1999. The film, starring Bruce Willis and…
Born: 1921Birthplace: Stoughton, Mass Medical respirators—Bird developed the first highly reliable, low-cost mass-produced respirator in the world. His “Babybird ” respirator reduced infant…
Born: 1933Birthplace: Tarentum, Pa. Implantable defibrillator—Heilman, Langer, Mower, and Mirowski: This team of doctors developed the implantable defibrillator, an internal electronic device that…
director, screenwriter, actorBorn: 10/23/1959Birthplace: Royal Oak, Michigan This creative director has won a cult following for his campy horror films Evil Dead (1983), Evil Dead 2 (1987), Darkman…
(Encyclopedia) Agee, JamesAgee, Jamesāˈjē [key], 1909–55, American writer, b. Knoxville, Tenn., grad. Harvard, 1932. He soon joined the literary and journalistic life of New York City, becoming (1932…
(Encyclopedia) Coetzee, J. M. (John Maxwell Coetzee)Coetzee, J. M.köˈtsē [key], 1940–, South African novelist, b. John Michael Coetzee. Educated at the Univ. of Cape Town (M.A. 1963) and the Univ. of…
(Encyclopedia) Husain, M. F. (Maqbool Fida Husain), 1915–2011, Indian painter. Often called the Picasso of India, he is known for brightly colored modernist paintings of mythical and religious…