Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader. In November 1983, President Reagan signed legislation creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, making it the third national holiday born in the twentieth century. The first was …[Continue]
Rosa Parks
On December 1, 1955, African-American Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger. One year later, on December 20, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated bus seating illegal. During that year, the …[Continue]
Abraham Lincoln
America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) is revered for ending slavery and preserving the Union by winning the Civil War. But perhaps he is best known for his Gettysburg Address of 1863 and being …[Continue]
Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) created a new standard for First Ladies because instead of retreating to a private life of decorating and entertaining, Eleanor continued her public life by holding press conferences, giving lectures, doing …[Continue]
Anne Frank
Anne Frank was just thirteen-years old when she and her family went into hiding behind the Amsterdam office of her father to avoid persecution by Hitler’s Nazis. One of her dearest possessions was the diary she had just received as …[Continue]
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart, the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic, was born July 24, 1897 at her grandparents’ home in Atchison, Kansas. Despite her many pioneering achievements, she is best known for her tragic disappearance over the Pacific …[Continue]
Frederick Douglass
Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, Frederick Douglass (February, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was a Black American abolitionist, famous for his oratory and anti-slavery writings. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement …[Continue]
Ben Franklin
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, and he has not …[Continue]
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was a U.S. Naval officer and a pioneering computer programmer. Among other accomplishments, Admiral Hopper was instrumental in the development of the computer programming language COBOL. Here’s another fun …[Continue]
Jonas Salk
Dr. Jonas Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American research biologist who studied immunity, influenza, AIDS and polio. He is best known for the development of the polio vaccine that has nearly eradicated the threat of …[Continue]
