journalist, activistBorn: 1862Birthplace: Holly Springs, Miss. Her parents were slaves when Wells was born and died from yellow fever when she was 14. By 1891 Wells was an outspoken, young free…
George W. Bush's secretary of Education Born: 6/17/1933Birthplace: Monticello, Miss. As superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, Paige has revitalized the country's seventh-…
blues musicianBorn: 8/22/1917Birthplace: Clarksdale, Miss. legendary blues musician whose somber lyrics and endless one-chord guitar riffs helped to define boogie blues. He has influenced bands ra.…
actressBorn: 5/11/1892Birthplace: London, England Rutherford's film career began in her middle years, and she soon built a reputation for playing the brainy spinster and the dotty British eccentric…
(Jeri Lynn Zimmerman)actressBorn: 2/22/1968Birthplace: Munich, Germany A blond bombshell who was also a National Merit Scholar, Ryan placed fourth in the Miss America Pageant of 1990. She greatly…
actorBorn: 11/30/1927Birthplace: Los Angeles A lead and character player, he began his acting career on the radio serial Our Miss Brooks (1948–56) and later starred in the TV series The Real McCoys…
From the U.S. Census Bureau
Hurricane Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, and the deadliest to strike our nation since 1928. After initially making U.S. landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in…
actressBorn: 6/19/1928Birthplace: Buffalo, New York versatile character actress who most recently portrayed feisty matriarch Livia Soprano on HBO's Sopranos. Theatrically trained, Marchand started…
military historian and writerBirthplace: Whitewater, Wisconsin Born: 1/10/1936 Ambrose prolifically produced best-selling, authoritative war chronicles and biographies. His books, which focused…
actor, director, screenwriterBorn: 12/18/1917Birthplace: Cogdell, Georgia Originally a stage actor and writer, he later wrote the screenplay for and directed the film Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970…
