computer entrepreneurBorn: 1957Birthplace: Taiwan Chu's first job was selling Chinese-English dictionaries and English-language instruction tapes. He later got a job with a small Taiwanese keyboard…
musicianBorn: 3/12/1948Birthplace: Boston, Mass. The Bing Crosby of the 1970s, Taylor's brand of mellow introspective music delineated the shift away from the socially and politically charged music…
(James Lafayette)patriot of the American RevolutionBorn: 1760?Birthplace: ? An African American slave in Virginia, Armistead sought and received permission from his master, William Armistead, to…
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…
directorBorn: 8/16/1954Birthplace: Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada If he does nothing else, Cameron will always be remembered as the Oscar-winning director of Titanic (1997), the top-grossing film of…
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…