Thea Astley

(25 August 1925 – 17 August 2004) was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia’s major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

(born August 9, 1933 in Tokyo) is an internationally famous Japanese actress, a talk show host, an author of a best-selling children’s book, a World Wide Fund for Nature advisor, and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF…

Nikki Haley

(born Nimrata “Nikki” Randhawa; January 20, 1972)is an American politician who served as the 116th Governor of South Carolina since 2011.On November 23, 2016 it was announced that Haley would be nominated to serve as Ambassador to the United Nations in the coming administration of President-elect Donald Trump…

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is the leader of the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word dalai meaning “Ocean” and the Tibetan word bla-ma (with a silent “b”) meaning “teacher.”

Daniel Irvin “Dan” Rather, Jr.

(born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel AXS TV. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9, 1981, to March 9, 2005. He also contributed to CBS’s 60 Minutes.

John Fitzgerald “Jack” Kennedy

 (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)  was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his death in 1963. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas…

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ

(September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Loretta Mary Aiken

(March 19, 1894 – May 23, 1975), known by her stage name Jackie “Moms” Mabley, was an American standup comedian. A veteran of the Chitlin’ circuit of African-American vaudeville, she later appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde

 (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) An Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams and plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment which was followed by his early death. 

Troyal Garth Brooks

(February 7, 1962) is an American country music artist. His first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Patrick Henry

(May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia. A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.

Henry led the opposition to the Stamp Act 1765 and is remembered for his “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech. Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, he is regarded as one of the most influential champions of Republicanism and an enthusiastic promoter of the American Revolution and its fight for independence

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya

(15 September 1860 – 14 April 1962]) was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918. He was a recipient of the Indian Republic’s highest honor, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire by King George V for his contributions to the public good

Thomas Paine

(February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809) was an author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in Thetford, in the English county of Norfolk, Paine emigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 in time to participate in the American Revolution. His principal contributions were the powerful, widely read pamphlet Common Sense.

William Arthur Ward

 (1921–March 30, 1994), author of Fountains of Faith, is one of America’s most quoted writers of inspirational maxims. More than 100 articles, poems and meditations written by Ward have been published in such magazines as Reader’s Digest, This Week, The Upper Room.

Dwight David Eisenhower

(14 October 1890 – 28 March 1969), also widely known by his nickname “Ike”, was an American soldier and politician. He served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, and was later elected the 34th President of the United States.

Ralph Nader

(February 27, 1934) is a Lebanese American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and four-time candidate for President of the United States, having run as a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government.

Henry Ross Perot

(born June 27, 1930), better known as Ross Perot, is an American businessman best known for being an independent presidential candidate in 1992 and the Reform party presidential candidate in 1996…

Geraldine Anne Ferraro

(August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011) was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician, and a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 1984, she was the first female vice presidential candidate representing a major American political party…

Patrick Layton Paulsen

(July 6, 1927 – April 24, 1997) was an American comedian and satirist notable for his roles on several of the Smothers Brothers television shows, and for his supposed campaigns for President of the United States in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992, and 1996, which had primarily comedic rather than political objectives

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

(October 8, 1941) is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. In 1965, he participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches organized by James Bevel, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders in Alabama.

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm

(November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first African American woman elected to the United States Congress,[2] and she represented New York’s 12th Congressional District for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.