Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder

(February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, most notably the author of the Little House series of children’s novels based on her childhood in a pioneer family

Robert C. Baker

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Robert C. Baker (1921)? Robert Baker was an inventor and Cornell University professor who invented the chicken nugget as well as many other poultry-related inventions. He founded Cornell's Institute of Food Science and Marketing in 1970, and in 2004 was inducted into the American Poultry Hall of Fame. Think of Robert the next time you're chowing down on a chicken nugget! ;-)

LeBron Raymone James

(born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). James has won three NBA championships, four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, three NBA Finals MVP Awards, two Olympic gold medals, an NBA scoring title, and the NBA Rookie of the Year Award.

Andre Romelle Young

(born February 18, 1965), better known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur.

Theodore Roosevelt

(October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) 26th President United States,(09/14/1901 – 03/4/1909.) Remembered for his energetic personality, range of interests & achievements, model of masculinity, & his “cowboy” image. A leader of the Progressive Movement & the Republican Party.

Gilda Susan Radner

(June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American comedian and actress. She was best remembered as an original cast member of the hit NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978

Elvis Aaron Presley

(January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is commonly known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll” or simply “the King”

Bernard Mannes Baruch

(August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters.

Steven Spielberg

(Born December 18, 1946)

Steven Spielberg isan enormously successful and Academy-Award winning director of such films as Jaws, Schindler's List, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Saving Private Ryan. Along with his three Oscar wins, Spielberg has received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Acheivement Award, and The Presidential Medal of Freedom.
From Hebrew Calender

Eugene Levy

(Born December 17, 1946)

Born to a Jewish family in Canada, Levy is an actor and a comedian, producer, director, musician, and writer. He is the only actor to have appeared in all eight of the American Pie films, with his role as Noah Levingstein. Levy is a regular collaborator of actor-director Christopher Guest, appearing in five of his films, commencing with Waiting for Guffman in 1997. Levy received the Govenor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's highest honor in the performing arts in 2008. He was appointed to the Order of Canada on June 30, 2011.
From Jewish Thoughts Sunday December 17

Alison Malee

She is an accomplished poet, author, and actress. Her debut collection of poetry, Shifting Bone, was released March 18th 2016.

Andrew Aitken “Andy” Rooney

(January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) An American radio and television writer. He was most notable for his weekly broadcast “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney”, a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired October 2, 2011. He died a month later, on November 4, at age 92.

John Lubbock

(April 30 1834 – May 28 1913) Known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Bt from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, biologist, archaeologist and Liberal politician.

Paul David Wellstone

(July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002.

Kathleen Hall

(born 12 August 1951) is an expert in stress, mindful living and mindfulness. She is founder and C.E.O. of the Stress Institute and the Mindful Living Network.

Adam Levine

(March 18, 1979)

A singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and an actor, Adam Noah Levine was born in Los Angelos, CA, to Jewish parents. He is best known as the lead singer to the Grammy-winning band Marroon 5, although his position as a judge/coach on the reality TV show The Voice has made him an even more of a household name.

Euclid

The Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandreia, who lived around 300 BCE, is called the "father of geometry," with his Elements considered one of the most influential books ever published. Almost every American town of any size has a street named for him, often in connection  to its first high school, where geometry is commonly taught.

Judd Apatow

 (December 6, 1967)

Born to Jewish parents and raised on Long Island, Judd Apatow isan Emmy-winning screenwiter producer and director. He started doing stand-up comedy in high school but is best known for the telivision series Freaks and Geeks and for films such as The Forty Year Od Virgin and Knocked Up. He is also an executive producer for the HBO series girls.

Bella Abzug

(July 24, 1920-March 31, 1998)

Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants, Bella Abzug grew up in the Bronx, in 1974, she received a Law Degree from Columbia University, one of very few women to do so, and practiced law for twenty-five years. At age 50, Abzug ran for Congress in Manhattan and won on a strong feminist platform. She became a nationally known legislator, one of only twelve women in the House of Representatives. She was a steadfast anti-war actist and fought for social and economic justice. After three terms in Congress, Abzug ran for Senate, losing the Democratic primary by a slim margin. Although she never held office again, though she ran for both mayor of New York and Congress, she remained a respected and visable figure in the feminist movement. She established the Women's USA Fund and the Women's Environment and Development Organization, both nonprofit advocacy groups that worked to give women's issues more prominence on the United Nations' agenda.

Scarlett Johansson

(Born November 22, 1984)

Born in New York City, actress Scarlett Johansson's mother is of Ashkenazi descent, from both Poland and Minsk in the Russian Empire. Johansson has appeared in more than thirty movies, including twoWoody Allen films, several Marvel Comic films (as the Black Widow), and Lost in Translation. She has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and won a Tony Award for her performance in A View from the Bridge in 2010 and has been named Sexiest Woman Alive and Sexiest Celebrity.

OSHO

(11 Dec 1931 – 19 Jan 1990) was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following.

Lorne Micheals

(Born November 17, 1944)

Born Lorn Lipowitz, Lorn Michaels is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, comedian, and actor best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live, one of the most groundbreaking shows in modern American comedy. He has also produced the Late Night series (since 1993) and The Tonight Show (since 2014).qq

Sarah Silverman

(December 1, 1970)

A comedian, an actress, and a writer born in New Hampshire to Jewish parents of Russian and Polish descent, Silverman began her career as a stand-up comedian and got a brief writing job for Saturday Night Live in 1993 and then went to write on Mr. Show. She has become known for her raunchy, politically incorrect humor that has been the focus of her stand-up and comedy specials.

Jon Stewart

(November 28, 1962)

Born Jonathon Stuart Leibowiitz, Jon Stewart is an American comedian, actor, and director best known for his seventeen-year stint hosting Comedy Central's Emmy Award--winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has appeared in numerous film and television shows but it was his satirical critique of personality-driven media shows and Washington politics on The Daily Show, and the wide impact it had on public opinion, that has gained him the most notoriety.

Bette Midler

(December 1, 1945)

A singer, songwriter, comedian, and actress, Bette Midler has sold nearly 35 million records worldwide. She has been nominated for and/or won awards in nearly every category of entertainment including Academy Awards, Grammys, Emmys, and Tonys. Her debut album was called The Devine Miss M and Midler is often referred to with that moniker. One of the biggest hits of her career was the song "The Rose" for which she won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Perfomance. She is also well known for her charity work and received the United Nations award for influential women for the environment in 1997.

Woody Allen

(December 1, 1935)

Born Allen Stewart Konigsberg in Brooklyn, Allen started as a comedian and writer and today is one of the best- known directors in American film history.  Allen has won four Oscars (two for Annie Hall and one each for Hannah and her Sisters and Midnight in Paris)and has been nominated twenty-four times: sixteen as a screenwriter, seven as a director, and once as an actor.

Famous Authors

Did you know...
... that today is Birth of Famous Authors Day? Today is the birthday of three beloved authors: Jonathan Swift, English satirist who wrote Gulliver's Travels (1667); Mark Twain, American writer best remembered for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1835); and Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables (1874). Find a warm spot and settle in to read a favorite book today!

Naeem Callaway

He is the Founder/CEO of Get Out The Box, Inc., Pastor, and Author of the blog “Spiritual Inspiration”.

David Stephen Rossi

He is a fictional character in the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Joe Mantegna. He is a Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Charles Monroe Schulz

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Charles M. Schulz (1922)? Charles Monroe Schulz, nicknamed Sparky, was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Peanuts. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, cited as a major influence by many later cartoonists, including Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes) and Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons).

Mark Ruffalo

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Mark Ruffalo (1967)? Mark Alan Ruffalo -- American actor, filmmaker, and social activist -- gained international prominence by portraying the Marvel Comics character Hulk in The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and just recently, Thor: Ragnarok. Happy birthday, Mark!

Morihei Ueshiba

 (14 December 1883 – 26 April 1969) was a philosopher, martial artist, author, and the creator of the discipline of Aikido.

Thomas Edward “Tom” Bodett

He is an American author, voice actor, and radio host. As of 2013, he is the spokesman for the hotel chain Motel 6, whose commercials end with the phrase, “I’m Tom Bodett for Motel 6, and we’ll leave the light on for you

Naomi Wolf

(born November 12, 1962)
Wolf is an American author and former political consultant. With the publication of her bestselling book, The Beauty Myth, she became a leading spokesperson of what was later described as the third wave of the feminist movement. She has written for publications such as The Nation, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post.

Annie Leibovitz

(born October 2, 1949)
Cobsidered one of America's best portrait photographers, Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz cut her teeth and developed her style at Rolling Stone, working there from 1970 to 1983. From Rolling Stones she went to work for Vanity Fair, where her subjects included celebrities, presidents, literally icons, teen heartthrobs and more.  In 1991, Leibovitz's collection of more than 200 photographs were exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. She was the first woman to be so honored.

Mitchell David Albom

(born May 23, 1958) is an American author, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, radio and television broadcaster, and musician.

Hank Greenburg (January 1, 1911-September 4, 1986)

Born Hyman Greenberg to Romanian-born Jewish immigrants in New York, Hank Greenburg is considered the first Jewish superstar in any American team sport. Greenberg played most of his career with the Detroit Tigers and led the American League in home runs and RBIs four separate times. He won two MVPs and was the first Jewish Inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954.

Jonas Salk (October 28, 1914-June 23, 1995)

Jonas Salk was an American physician and medical researcher who developed the first safe and effective vaccine for polio. Until 1957, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered one of the most frightening public health threats in the world. Salk launched his own research organization known as the Salk Center for Biological Studies in 1963. He will always be remembered as the man who stopped polio.

Harvey Kurtzman (October 23, 1924-February 21, 1993)

Raised in Brooklyn by immagrant parents, Harvey Kurtzman was an editor, a writer, and a cartoonist best known for being the founding editor of the comic book MAD and the long-running playboy magazine strip, Little Annie Fannie. One of the major awards in the comic industry, the Harvey award is named in his honor.

Lou Ferrigno

-- American actor, fitness trainer, fitness consultant and retired professional bodybuilder -- was born on this day in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for his title role in the CBS television series The Incredible Hulk. Happy birthday, Lou!

Nancy F. Koehn

(born 1959) is a historian of business at the Harvard Business School in Allston, Massachusetts, where she is James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration.

Alexander Murray Palmer “Alex” Haley

(August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family and as the co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Jeffry Lane Flake

(born December 31, 1962) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who since 2013 has served as the Junior United States Senator from Arizona. Due to his opposition to President Trump, Flake announced on October 24, 2017, that he would retire at the end of his current term instead of seeking re-election in 2018.

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry

(August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter and producer. He is best remembered for creating the original Star Trek television series.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta

(March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress noted for her flamboyant and diverse contributions to the music industry via her fashion, live performances, and music videos. With global album and single sales of 27 million and 125 million, respectively.

Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone

(born March 10, 1974)is a co-founder of Twitter, Inc and also helped to create and launch Xanga, Odeo, The Obvious Corporation and Medium.

Amina Tharwat Abaza

He is the founder of the Society for Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt and an active member of Egypt’s animal rights community.

Earl Nightingale

(March 12, 1921 – March 28, 1989) was an American motivational speaker and author, known as the “Dean of Personal Development.” He was the voice in the early 1950s of Sky King, the hero of a radio adventure series, and was a WGN radio show host from 1950 to 1956.

Elizabeth II

(Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926[a]) has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952.

Albert Einstein

(14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th century

Pablo Picasso

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Pablo Picasso (1881)? Picasso, born on this day in Malaga, Spain, is universally renowned as one of the most influential and celebrated artists of the twentieth century. Trivia fans: Pablo Picasso's full name was Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. Whew!

Gertrude Ederle

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Gertrude Ederle (1906)? American swimmer Gertrude Ederle achieved fame when she competed in the 1924 Olympics and became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926. Trivia fans: In her private later life, Ederle taught swimming at a school for deaf children. Take today to think about some of the influential women in your life.

Barack Hussein Obama II

 (born August 4, 1961) was the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review.

He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Source   

Zac Efron (October 18, 1987)

Born Zachery David Alexander "Zac" Efron in California, Efron is an actor and singer who began his career while still in high school. He rose to fame with a starring role as Troy Bolton in the Disney Channel's super successful High School Musical (2006). He has been in over 25 films, made several TV appearances, and was second on People's Most Beautiful list.

George Walker Bush

(born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009.

Sri Chinmoy

Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, better known as Sri Chinmoy (27 August 1931 – 11 October 2007), was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the West after moving to New York City in 1964.

David Michael Letterman

 (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He hosted a late night television talk show for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC, and ending with the May 20, 2015 broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.

Rachel Louise Carson

(May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

David Lee Roth

(October 10, 1954)
David Lee Roth was born to a Jewish family in Indiana. A vocalist, songwriter, former radio personality, and an actor and author,  Roth is best-known as the original singer of the hard rock band Van Halen, which was hugely popular in the 1980s. Among their greatest hits were "Jump," "Panama," "Hot for Teacher," and "I'll Wait." In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Don Miguel Ángel Ruiz

(born 1952), better known as Don Miguel Ruiz, is a Mexican author of Toltec spiritualist and neoshamanistic texts.His work is part of the New Age movement that focuses on ancient teachings as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment…

Ralph Fulsom Marston

(February 16, 1907 December 7, 1967) was a professional football player who spent a season in the National Football League with the Boston Bulldogs in 1929

Liev Schreiber (October 4, 1967)

Isaac Liev Schreiber is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He rose to fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s, having appeared in several independent films and later mainstream Hollywood films, including the Scream trilogy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He won a Tony Award for his appearance in the Broadway revival Glengarry Glen Ross in 2005. Since 2013, he has played the leading role of Ray Donovan in the Showtime crime drama Ray Donovan.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg

(born May 14, 1984) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Facebook, and currently operates as its chairman and chief executive officer

Tryon Edwards

(7 August 1809, Hartford, Conn.; 4 January 1894) was an American theologian, best known for compiling A Dictionary of Thoughts,a book of quotations. He was minister of the Second Congregational Church in New London, Connecticut, from 1845-1857, after having served in Rochester, New York.

Thomas Earl “Tom” Petty

(October 20, 1950) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys

Groucho Marrx (October 2, 1890-August 19, 1977)

Born in New York City, Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was a film and telivision star who was considered one of the best comedians of the twentieth century. He was recognizable by his trademark look of a painted-on mustache, bushy eyebrows, and a fat cigar. He and his brothers went from working in vaudeville to on Broadway to starring in their own films, most notably Animal Crackers, Duck Soup, and a Night at the Opera. Groucho went on to a robust solo career, which included several books and a telivision show that ran for over ten years, You Bet Your Life.

Leslie William Nielsen, OC

(11 February 1926 – 28 November 2010) was a Canadian actor, comedian, and producer. He appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters

Maj. Gen. Jay B. Silveria

He is the Deputy Commander, U.S. Air Forces Central Command, and Deputy Commander, Combined Air Force Air Component, U.S. Central Command, Southwest Asia.

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky

(24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Brodsky was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”. He was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1991.

Carrie Brownstein (September 27, 1974)

Carrie Brownstein is a musician,  comedian, and a actress who first became known as a member of the punk-indie trio Sleater-Kinney. Now she is the co-star, along with Fred Armisen, of the Emmy-and Peabody Award-winning satirical comedy, IFC telivision series Portlandia. She released her memoirs in 2015.

Marc Maron (September 27, 1963)

Comedian, podcast host, actor and writer, Marc Maron was born to Jewish parents who raised him in Albuquerque, NM. Despite various small successes, he struggled as a stand up comedian working small clubs across America until he started a podcast in 2009 called WTF with Marc Maron. The hour long show, which featured in depth interviews with comedians, grew into a cult classic, with subjects as varied as Barak Obama, Loren Michaels, and Gloria Steinem. He also has his own sitcom on IFC called Maron, which debuted in 2013.

John Wesley Carlos

(born June 5, 1945) is an American former track and field athlete and professional football player. He was the bronze-medal winner in the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics and his Black Power salute on the podium with Tommie Smith caused much political controversy.

Marcus Aurelius

He was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus’ death in 169. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.

Venus Ebony Starr Williams

(born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. She is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women’s tennis and, along with younger sister Serena Williams, is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women’s professional tennis tour.

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.

Thomas Carlyle

(4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era. He called economics “the dismal science”, wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.

Menachem Begin (August 16, 1913-March 9,1992)

A politician, founderof Israel's Likud party, and the sixth prime minister of the stare of Israel. Begin's mist significant achievement as prime minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadet shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

Zachery Israel "Zach" Braft (born April 6, 1975)

An American actor, comedian, director, screenwriter and producer, Braff is best known for his role as Dr. John Dorian on the telivision series Scrubs (2001-2010). In 2004, he made his directional debut with Garden State, a film he wrote, starred in, and compiled the soundtrack for. To shoot the film, Braff returned to his home state of New Jersey. He won numerous awards for his directing work, and also won the Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack album in 2005. Braff directed another film, Wish I was Here (2014), which he partially funded with a kickstarter campain.

Bernard Mannes Baruch

(August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters.

John Adams

(October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States (1797–1801). A New England Yankee, he was deeply read and represented Enlightenment values promoting republicanism. A conservative Federalist, he was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.

Zianna Oliphant

(b. 2008) is a young girl who spoke before the Charlotte, NC city council in 2016 on race relations and police shootings of African-American men.

Simon & Garfunkel

Paul Fredric Simon (born October 13, 1941) and Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) made up the folk rock duo that rose to fame in the 1960s and '70s with songs such as "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "The Sound of Silence," and the soundtrack to the iconic film The Graduate. Simon waa born to Hingarian Jews and Garfunkel to Romanian Jews, all living in Queens, NY. In September 1981, they performed live in New York City's Central Park, attracting more than 500,000 people, at that time the largest-ever concert attendance.

Louis Daniel Armstrong

(August 4, 1901– July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo, Satch or Pops, was an American trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz.

Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel

 (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel is also the Advisory Board chairman of the Algemeiner Journal newspaper.

David Copperfield (1956)

Born David Seth Kotkin, Copperfield is an American illusionist, and one of the most commercially successful magicians in history. Copperfield's telivision specials have won 21 Emmy Awards. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, Copperfield's career of over forty years has earned him eleven Guinness World Records, a knighthood by the French government, and he has been named a living legend by the U.S. Library of Congress. When not performing magic he manages his chain of eleven islands in the Bahamas.

William Boyd “Bill” Watterson II

 (born July 5, 1958) is an American artist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995

Chester William “Chet” Powers, Jr.

(October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, and the lead singer of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also known by the stage name Dino Valenti (alternatively rendered as Dino Valente) and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow. He is best known for writing the quintessential 1960s love-and-peace anthem “Let’s Get Together.”

Thomas John “Tom” Brokaw

 (February 6, 1940) An American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He now serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other outlets.

Yao Ming

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Yao Ming (1980)? Yao Ming is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association and the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association. He is 7' 6" tall and weighs 311 pounds! Happy birthday, Yao!

Gordon Bitner Hinckley

(June 23, 1910 – January 27, 2008) was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from March 12, 1995, until his death. Considered a prophet, seer, and revelator by church members, Hinckley was the oldest person to preside over the church in its history.

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky

(24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Brodsky was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature “for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity”. He was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1991.

Junko Tabei

(22 September 1939 – 20 October 2016) was a Japanese mountaineer. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and the first woman to ascend all Seven Summits by climbing the highest peak on every continent.

Albert Einstein

(14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

Marcus Aurelius

He was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus’ death in 169. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.

Sheryl Sandberg (1969)

An American tecnology executive, avtivist and author, Sandberg is the cheif operating officer of Facebook. Before she joined Facebook as its COO, Sandberg was vice president of global sales and operations at Google and was involved in the launching at Google and was involved in Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org. In 2012, she was named in the Time 100, an annual list of the most 100 most influential people in the world, according to Times magazine.

Aesop

(620-564 bc) was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. In many of the tales, animals speak and have human characteristics.

William Harrison “Bill” Withers Jr.

(born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded several major hits, including “Lean on Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Use Me”, “Just the Two of Us”, “Lovely Day”, and “Grandma’s Hands”. Withers won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for four more. His life was the subject of the 2009 documentary film Still Bill. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Ladda Tammy Duckworth

(born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, serving as the junior United States Senator for Illinois since 2017. Duckworth was the first Asian American woman elected to Congress in Illinois, the first disabled woman to be elected to Congress, and the first member of Congress born in Thailand. An Iraq War veteran, Duckworth served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, losing both of her legs and damaging her right arm.

Albert Sabin (August 26, 1906--March 3, 1993)

A Jewish Polish-American medical researcher, Sabin is best known for developing the oral polio vaccine, which has played a key role in nearly eradicating  the disease. He was elected to the Polio Hall of Fame and recieved National Medal of Science and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Gene Simmons

Born Chaim Weitz in Haifa, Isreal, Gene Simmons and his mother immigrated to Queens, NY, when he was eight years old. A singer, songwriter, and bassist, Simmons bevame part of a band called KISS. He has also made several appearances in films, telivision, and video games.

Andrew Garfield

Garfield, whose family name was changed from Garfinkel, is of Eastern European heritage though he was born in California and raised in England. He came to international attention in 2010 with a supporting role in the film The Social Network. He starred as Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and reprised his role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was released in 2014.

Martin Luther King Jr.

(January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) (aged 39) An American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy is securing progress on civil rights in the United States. Because of this work, he has become a human rights icon. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. 

Gene Roddenberry

August 19

Star Trek created Gene Roddenberry

Gene Roddenberry may be best known for creating StarTrek, but the late writer/producer also wrote many popular series including Have Gun will Travel, The Virginian, and Dr. Kildare, often under pseudonym Robert Wesley. Following the cancellation of his most noted series in 1969, Roddenberry continued to interact with StarTrek fans as they spurred on a revival through a well documented letter writing campain. Roddenberry continued to produce and consult on the subsequent Animated Series, Films, and Sequal Shows until his death in 1991. Shortly before he passed, a new office building on the Paramont lot was dedicated as the Gene Rodenberry Building in honor of the man who created the studio's most enduring franchise.

George Walker Bush

(born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009.

George Herbert Walker Bush

(born June 12, 1924) is an American politician who was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993 and the 43rd Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

Robert Green “Bob” Ingersoll

(August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was an American lawyer, a Civil War veteran, politician, and orator of the United States during the Golden Age of Free Thought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed “The Great Agnostic”.

Julie Newmar

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Julie Newmar (1933)? Julie Newmar is an American actress, dancer and singer, known for a variety of stage, screen, and television roles. She is best known to many for her role as the purr-fect first Catwoman on the Batman TV series in the 60s. Happy birthday, Ms. Newmar!

Robert Holden

(born 1965) is a British psychologist, author, and broadcaster, who works in the field of positive psychology and well-being, and is considered “Britain’s foremost expert on happiness”.He is the founder of the “Happiness Project”, which runs an eight-week course annually, called “Happiness Now”,and the author of 10 best-selling books such as, Happiness NOW!, Be Happy, Success Intelligence and Shift Happens!…

Gary Larson

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Gary Larson (1950)? Best known for his cartoon series The Far Side, Larson's comic strip was syndicated and published in more than 1,900 newspapers around the world. Trivia fans: Fans of the strip have named three different insects after Gary Larson: Strigiphilus garylarsoni, Garylarsonus and Serratoterga larsoni! Happy birthday, Gary!

Maya Angelou

 (born Marguerite Ann Johnson April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) American author and poet. She published six autobiographies, five books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years

Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929)

An award winning cartoonist and writer, Jules Feiffer became famous for his Feiffer, a satirical comic strip notable for its emphasis on very literal captions. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as leading editorial cartoonist, and in 2004, he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame. He wrote the animated short Munro, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961. The Library of Congress has has recognized his "remarkable legacy" from 1946 to the present, as a cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, adult and children book author, illustrator and art instructor. He has written more than thirty-five books, plays, and screenplays.

William Irwin "Will" Eisner (March 6, 1917-January 3, 2005)

An American cartoonist and writer, Will Eisner first became known for his series The Spirit, which featureda masked crime fighter. Eisner popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God, which revolves around poor Jewish characters who live in a tentament building in New York City. One of the comic industries most prestigious awards, The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, are named in his honor.

LaDainian Tramayne Tomlinson

(born June 23, 1979) is a former professional American football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played the majority of his 11-year career with the San Diego Chargers. He serves as President/Co-Chairman of Tomlinson’s Touching Lives Foundation.

Golda Meir (May 3, 1898-December 8, 1978)

Born Golda Mabovitch, in Kiev, Russia, she and her family immigrated to Milwaukee, WI, in 1905. In 1921, Meir married Morris Meyerson (she officially Hebraized her name from Meyerson to Meir in th 1950s) and they immagrated to Palestine and joined a kibbutz, a communal settlement. In 1924, the couple moved to Jerusalem and had two children. Always politically active, Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, after serving as minister of labor and foriegn minister. She was the world's fourth and Israeli's first and only woman to hold such an office. Meir was often referred to as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics.

Melvin Brooks

(born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, writer, producer, director, comedian, and composer. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows. He became well known as part of the comedy duo with Carl Reiner in the comedy skit The 2000 Year Old Man. He also created, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart, which ran, from 1965 to 1970…Source

Henrietta Szold (December 21, 1860-February 13, 1945)

Hadassah founder of Hemrietta Szold was raised in Baltimore, MD, ny parents who encouraged education--even for a daughter. Her work to help Jewish immagrants started when she organized Enhlish-language and American-citizenship night classes to provide them with greater opportunities. But it was a trip to pre-state Israel, when she saw Jews living in camps without proper plumbing or sanitation, that inspired her to take action. In 1912, Szold founded Hadassah, the Women Zionist Organization of America, an organization that remains active today. In the U.S., Hadassah advocates on behalf of women's rights, religious autonomy, and U.S.-Israel diplomacy. In Israel it supports health education and research, women's initiatives, and schools and programs for underprivlaged youth.

Helen Thomas

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Helen Thomas (1920)? American reporter and author Helen Thomas was best known for her longtime membership in the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents -- from the start of the Kennedy administration to the second year of the Obama administration!

Dolores del Río

(August 3, 1904[1] – April 11, 1983), was a Mexican actress. She was the first major female Latin cross-over star in Hollywood,with an outstanding career in American films in the 1920s and 1930s. She was also considered one of the more important female figures of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Del Río is remembered as one of the most beautiful faces of the cinema in her time. Her long and varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage and radio

Sherry Lansing (born July 31, 1944)

Born Shelly Lee Duhl, Lansing was raised Jewish in Chicago. Her mother fled from Nazi Germany in 1937 at the age of seventeen. Lansing is a former CEO of Paramount Pictures, and when she was the president of 20th Century Fox, she was the first woman to head a Hollywood movie studio. In 1996, she became the first woman to be named Pioneer of the Year by the Foundation of Motion Picture Pioneers, and she was the first female studio head to recieve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America's Ladies Home Journal, and The Hollywood Reporter named her fourth on its power 100 list in 2003.

Arnold Henry Glasow

(1905 – 1998) was an American businessman who published a humor magazine that he marketed to firms nationally, which firms would turn it into their “house organ” to send to their customers. A real American thinker, self-effacing and generous of spirit, he shunned the national spotlight.

Carl Gustav Jung

(26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) A Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as “by nature religious” and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and symbolization. 

Lao Tzu Laozi

(Chinese: also Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tzu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Lao Zi, Laocius, and other variations) was a philosopher of ancient China, and is a central figure in Taoism (also spelled “Daoism”). Laozi literally means “old master”, and is generally considered honorific. Laozi is revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoism…Source

Simon Baruch (July 29, 1840-June 3, 1921)

Baruch was a physician and a pioneer of hydrotherapy in th U.S. His medical work in New York included supporting the establishment of public baths as a hygene measure and investing the effects of medical springs, as well as the treatment of appendicitis and malaria.

Paul "Magic Bullet" Ehrlich (March 14, 1854-August 20, 1915)

Dr. Paul Ehrlich was a German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy.  He invented the precurser technique to Gram staining bacteria. The methods he developed for staining tissue made it possible to distinguish between types of blood cells, which led to the capability to diagnose numerous blood diseases. In 1908, he recieved the Nobel Prize in Physiology of medicine for his contribubtions to immunology.

Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879-April 18, 1955)

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, and in 1921, won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. An outspoken pacifist eho was publicly identified with the Zionist movement, in 1932 Einstein emigrated from Germany to the United States--Prinston, New Jersey, specifically--when the Nazi's took power before WWII. Einstein is generally considered to be the most influential physicist of the twentieth century, with his work also having a major impact on the development of atomic energy.

Al Jaffee (born March 13, 1921)

Born Abraham Jaffee, Al Jaffee is an American cartoonist. He is notable for his work on the satirical Mad magazine, including his iconic trademark feature the Mad Fold-in, which began in 1964 as a satire of the triple fold-outs that were appearing in glossy magazines such as Playboy, National Geographic and Life. Jaffee won the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award in 1973, its Special Feature Award in 1971 and 1975, and its Humor Comic Book Award in 1979. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 2014.

Roy Lichenstein (October 27, 1923-September 29, 1997)

Painter Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York and grew up on the Upper West Side. In the 1960s, he became a leading figure of the new Pop Art movement, which also included Andy Warhol, James Rosenquest and Claes Oldenburg. Inspired by advertisements and comic strips, Lichtenstein's bright, graphic works parodied American popular culture and the art world itself. In addition to paintings, he also made drawings, prints, and sculpture; his work is the most important museum collections worldwide.

Sidney Lucman (November 21, 1916-July 5, 1998)

Sid Luckman was born to German Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, NY. He was a Quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1939 to 1950. During his twelve seasons with the Bears, he led them to four NFL championships. He is one of the greatest long-range passers of his time. He was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 1943, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965, and, in 1988, he was declared a joint winner of the Walter Camp Distinguished American Award.

Giddy Lee (1953)

Born Gary Lee Weinrib in Onterio, Canada, Geddy Lee is a musician, singer, and songwriter, best as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboadist for the Canadian rock group Rush. He joined the band in 1968, and they went on to be a seminal band with wide influences on other musicians. Rush was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. Geddy Lee's parents were Holocaust survivors who were imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII before they were liberated and immigrated to Canada.

Suzan-Lori Parks

(born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2002; Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor for drama.

Leon C. Megginson

(July 26, 1921 – February 22, 2010) was a business professor at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, he published some 100 articles and won numerous awards for teaching and research. He also authored or co-authored over 40 editions of 18 textbooks (including Personnel: A Behavioral Approach to Administration).

Woody Harrelson

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Woody Harrelson (1961)? Harrelson, an American actor, activist and playwright, is a two-time Academy Award nominee and winner of one Emmy Award out of seven nominations. His breakout role came in 1985 as bartender Woody Boyd in the television sitcom Cheers. Happy birthday, Woody!

Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948)

Born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev, Art Spiegelman is an American author and illustrator whose Holocaust narritives, Maus I: A Survivors Tale, My Father Bleeds History (1986) and Maus II: A Survivors Tale--And Here My Trouble Began (1991), helped establish comic storytelling as a sophisticated adult litrary medium. Maus was based on his relationship with his father, a holocaust survivor. This postmodern book depicts Nazis as cats, Jews as mice, and ethnic Poles as pigs. It won a special Pulitzer Prize and was a New York Times bestseller.

Walter Blum (born September 28, 1934)

Born in Brooklyn, Walter Blum is a retired Hall of Fame jockey. A horse racing fan from boyhood, in his teens Blum began working as a racetrack hot-walker. Despite being blind in his right eye from the age of two, in 1953 he embarked on a career as a jockey, riding his first winner on July 29 at Saratoga Race Course. During the better part of his twenty-two-year career, Blum rode mainly at East Coast tracks from New England to Florida and is one of four jockeys to ever win six races on a single card at Monmouth Park. Blum was inducted in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the following year in the United States Racing Hall of Fame.

Selman Abraham Waksman (July 22, 1888-August 16, 1973)

Waksman was a Russian-born Jewish American inventor, biochemist, and microbiologist whose research at Rutgers University over four decades led him to discover over twenty antibiotics (a word that he coined) and introduced procedures that led to the development of many others. In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine  in recognition "for his discovery of 'streptomycin,' the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis."

Victor K. Kiam

(December 7, 1926 – May 27, 2001) was an American entrepreneur and TV spokesman for Remington Products, and the owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1988–1991.

Ruth Bador Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933)

Born Ruth Joan Bador to Russian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, Ginsburg is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Conner) and the first Jewish female justice. She is generally veiwed as belonging to the liberal wing of the court. Before becoming a judge, Ginsberg spent a considerable portion of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of women's rights as a constitutional principle.

Jon Faverau (born October 19, 1966)

Jon Faverau's parents (his mother was of Russian Jewish decent) raised him in Queens, New York. In his early twenties, he gained notoriety when he starred in and wrote a screenplay for the indie hit Swingers. He has gone on to be recognized as a writer, director, producer and actor, and most notably directected the films Made, Elf, Cowboys & Aliens, Chef, and the blockbuster Iron Man and its sequals.

Epictetus

(AD c. 55 – 135) was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher.Philosophy, Epictetus taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline

Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek

(July 17, 1990 – June 22, 2004), known as Mattie J.T. Stepanek, was an American poet (or as he wanted to be remembered as “a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played”) who published seven best-selling books of poetry. Before his death (at the age of 13) he had become known as a peace advocate and motivational speaker

Haim G. Ginott

(originally Ginzburg) (1922 – 1973) was a school teacher in Israel, a child psychologist and psychotherapist and a parent educator. He pioneered techniques for conversing with children that are still taught today. His book, Between Parent and Child set out to give “specific advice derived from basic communication principles that will guide parents in living with children in mutual respect and dignity.”

Hyman Judah Schachtel

(1907–1990) was Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of Houston from 1943 to 1975. From 1975-1990 He served as Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel of Houston He also served the Houston Jewish community as “rabbi-at-large” for the remainder of his life. On January 20, 1965, Rabbi Schachtel delivered the inaugural prayer for President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C.

William James

(January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James.

Louis B. Mayer (July 12, 1884-October 29, 1957)

Louis Burt Mayer was an American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Meyer was skilled at developing star actors, including child actors, then placing them in consistently slick productions, such as musicals or comedies, for which MGM became famous. Under Meyer's management, MGM accumulated the largest concentration of leading writers, directors, and stars in Hollywood.

Sidney Franklin (July 11, 1903-April 26, 1976)

Born Sidney Frumklin to Orthodox Jewish parents, Franklin went on to  become the first Jewish American bullfighter. He studied in Mexico for several years before making his debut in Spain in 1929. In August of that year he met Ernest Hemingway, who wrote of Franklin's work in his book Death in the Afternoon. Franklin's autobiography, Bullfighter from Brooklyn, was published in 1952.

Douglas Adams

(11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a “trilogy” of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Source

Jeffrey Tambor (July 8, 1944)

Jeffrey Tambor, an actor, grew up in a conservative Jewish family in San Fransico, CA. He became well known for his roles as Hank Kingsley on the Larry Sanders show as well as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested Development. Most recently, he has portrayed Maura Pfeffman on Transparent, for which he recieved an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2015.

Napoleon Hill

(October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) An American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Ringo Starr

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Ringo Starr (1940)? Born Richard Starkey, Ringo Starr - English drummer, singer, songwriter and actor - first gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Starr, who was previously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, was inducted for his solo career in 2015, making him one of 21 performers inducted more than once. Happy birthday, Ringo!

Marc Chagall (July 6, 1887-March 28, 1985)

Marc Zakharovich Chagall was a Belorussian-born French artist whose work was generally based on emotional association rather then traditional pictoral fundementals. As early modernist, he was associated with several basic artistic style and created work in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, his primary medium; book illustrations; stained glass; set designs; ceramics; and fine art prints.

Harry S. Truman

(May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–53), assuming that office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the waning months of World War II.

Moshé Pinchas Feldenkrais

(May 6, 1904 – July 1, 1984) was an Israeli engineer and the founder of the Feldenkrais Method, which is claimed to improve human functioning by increasing self-awareness through movement; it is not supported by medical evidence.Feldenkrais’ theory is that “thought, feeling, perception and movement are closely interrelated and influence each other.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(May 25, 1803  – April 27, 1882) was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thought through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Larry David (1947)

Born Lawrence Gene "Larry" David in Brooklyn, David started his carreer as a stand-up comedian in the 1970s. He is a writer, actor, and producer best known for co-creating and writing the Seinfeld and later for the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, which he starred in as a semi-fictional version of himself. He was voted by fellow comedians and comedy insiders as No. 23 of the greatest comedu stars ever in a poll to select Comedian Comedians in 2004.

John Ruskin

(February 8 1819 – January 20 1900) was an English author, poet and artist, most famous for his work as art critic and social critic.

Sun Tzu or Sunzi

He was a Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher during the Zhou dynasty’s Spring and Autumn Period. Sun Tzu was born as Sun Wu and known outside his family by the style name Changqing. He is traditionally credited as the author of The Art of War, an extremely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy.

John Gilbert Winant OM

(February 23, 1889 – November 3, 1947) was an American politician with the Republican party after a brief career as a teacher in Concord, New Hampshire. John Winant held positions in New Hampshire, national, and international politics. He was the first man to serve more than a single two-year term as Governor of New Hampshire, winning election three times. Winant also served as US Ambassador to the United Kingdom during most of World War II.

Betty Marion White

(January 17, 1922) is an American actress, comedian, author, and former game-show host. She is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls.

She has also released several books over the span of her career. In August 2010, she entered a deal with G.P. Putnam Sons to produce two more books, the first of which is scheduled for release in 2011.

Alfred W. Adler

(February 7, 1870 – May 28, 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology.

Cheryl Richardson

She is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including, Take Time for Your Life, Life Makeovers, Stand Up for Your Life, The Unmistakable Touch of Grace, The Art of Extreme Self Care and her new book with Louise Hay called You Can Create an Exceptional Life.

Mel Brooks (1926)

Born Melvin James Kaminsky in Brooklyn, Mel Brooks is a comedian, actor, writer, producer and filmmaker whose career has endured across the decades. He is known for his early work on telivision on Your Show of Shows and for directing film comedies including The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. Mel Brooks has won awards in several catagories, including an Academy Award and multiple Emmy, Grammy, and Tony awards. He recieved a Kennedy Center Honors in 2009.

Kristoffer Kristofferson

(born June 22, 1936) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. He wrote and recorded the songs “Me and Bobby McGee”, “For the Good Times”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night”

William A. Feather (August 25, 1889 – January 7, 1981)

He was an American publisher and author, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Homer Jay Simpson

Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional main character who appears in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short “Good Night” on April 19, 1987. Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening. After appearing for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox that debuted December 17, 1989.

Viktor Emil Frankl

(26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997)[1][2] was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of existential analysis, the “Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy”

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”.

Edith Newbold Jones Wharton

(January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. In addition to novels, Wharton wrote at least 85 short stories. She was also a garden designer, interior designer, and taste-maker of her time. She wrote several design books, including her first published work, The Decoration of Houses of 1897, co-authored by Ogden Codman.

George Washington Carver

(1860s – January 5, 1943), was an American botanist and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he was born into slavery in Missouri, either in 1861, or January 1864.
His reputation is largely based on his promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes

Timothy John “Tim” Russert

(May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press.

Sylvia Beach

(March 14, 1887 – October 5, 1962), born Nancy Woodbridge Beach, was an American-born bookseller and publisher who lived most of her life in Paris, where she was one of the leading expatriate figures between World War I and II.

She is known for her Paris bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, where she published James Joyce’s controversial book, Ulysses (1922), and encouraged the publication and sold copies of Hemingway’s first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923)…

Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank

(12 June 1929 – ? March 1945) (aged 15) One of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary (which documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II) has become one of the world’s most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films…

Peter McIntyre OBE

(4 July 1910 – 11 September 1995) was a New Zealand painter and author. He was the son of Peter McIntyre, a lithographic artist from Scotland, and his wife, Isabella Edith Cubitt

William Harry McRaven

(born November 6, 1955) is a former United States Navy admiral who last served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command from August 8, 2011, to August 28, 2014. Since January 2015, he has served as the chancellor of The University of Texas System.

Maurice Sendak

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Maurice Sendak (1928)? On this day in 1928, writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York. Sendak is best known for the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are." He won the annual Caldecott Medal from the children's librarians in 1964, recognizing Wild Things as the "most distinguished American picture book for children."

Kristin S. Vickers Douglas, PhD, ABPP,

She is an Associate Professor of Psychology with specialty board certification in clinical health psychology at Mayo Clinic.

Anita Moorjani

(born 16 March 1959) is a New York Times best selling author of the book Dying to be Me,speaker,and intercultural consultant for multinational corporations.

Natalie Portman (1981)

Born Natalie Hershlag in Jerusalem, Israel, Natalie Portman is a model, actress, and a harvard graduate. She began her career as a child actress but it was not until 1999 that Portman recieved worldwide fame as Queen Amidala in the highly anticipated prequel Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999). She received an Oscar nomination for Closer (2004) and received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for Black Swan (2010).

Joan Rivers (June 8, 1933-September 4, 2014)

Born Joan Alexandra Molinsky, Joan Rivers was a comedian from Brooklyn. Her rise to fame began with her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She eventually became the permanent guest host for Johnny and coined the catch phrase "Can we talk?" Rivers was known for her irrelevant style, which paved the way for female comedian who followed her. She had several shows of her own over the years and, among many nominations she recieved a Grammy and an Emmy.

Joey Ramone (May 19, 1951-April 15, 2001)

Born Jeffrey Ross Hyman, Joey Romone was a singer-songwriter best known of the lead vocalist of the punk band the Romones, which formed in Queens New York City in 1974. Joey became an icon as the frontman for the band, which would influence a generation of punk and pop musicians. Among their best known songs are "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna be Sedated." In March 2002, the Ramones were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Judy Blume (Febuary 12, 1938)

Born Judith Sussman, Judy Blume is an acclaimed writer of novels for children and young adults. Sales of her books have exceeded 80 million copies and have been translated into 32 languages. She has won more than 90 literary awards, including three lifetime achievement awards in the U.S. Among her best known books are Forever; Are You There God? It's me Margaret; Blubber; and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Virginia Apgar (1909)

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of Virginia Apgar (1909)? An American physician and medical researcher, Virginia Apgar developed the Apgar Newborn Scoring System, which allowed doctors to determine within minutes after birth whether a baby needed special medical care through a focus on five indicators: heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, color and reflexes. It dramatically lowered infant mortality rates around the world. Thank you, Dr. Apgar!

Sandra Bernhard (1955)

A comedian, singer, actress, and author, Sandra Bernhard was raised in a conservative Jewish family in Flint, MI. She began her career doing stand-up at the comedy store in Los Angeles and acheived notoriety with her one-woman off-Broadway show Without You I'm Nothing, which became a Grammy-nominated album and film. She played telivision's first openly gay actress on the network sitcom Roseanne from 1991-1996.

Kristin S. Vickers Douglas

PhD, ABPP, is an Associate Professor of Psychology with specialty board certification in clinical health psychology at Mayo Clinic.

Ruth Westheimer (June 4, 1928)

Dr. Ruth, as she is known, is an American sex therapist, media personality, and author. She ushered in the new age of freer, franker talk about sex on radio and telivision--and was endlessly paradied for her limitless enthusiasm for it.

Kermit the frog

Kermit the Frog is puppeteer Jim Henson’s most famous Muppet creation, first introduced in 1955. He is the protagonist of many Muppet projects, most notably on The Muppet Show, and Sesame Street, as well as movies, specials, and public service announcements throughout the years.

Aesop (620-564 bc)

was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. In many of the tales, animals speak and have human characteristics.

Ralph Washington Sockman

(October 1, 1889 – August 29, 1970) was the senior pastor of Christ Church (United Methodist) in New York City, United States. He gained considerable prominence in the U.S. as the featured speaker on the weekly NBC radio program, National Radio Pulpit, which aired from 1928 to 1962, and as a writer of several best-selling books on the Christian life

Billy Joel (May 9, 1943)

Billy Joel is a pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer, and the sixth best selling recording artist and the third best-selling  solo artist in the U.S. He is known for songs such as "Piano Man," "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," "Moving Out," and "Only the Good Die Young." He has won five Grammy Awards and in 2013 he recieved the Kennedy Center Honors.

Jonathan Richman (May 16, 1951)

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman was born to Jewish parents in Massachusetts and began writing music at an early age. In his early twenties, he formed a seminal band the Modern Lovers, well known for their hits "Roadrunner" and "Pablo Picasso." Despite his being known as a godfather of punk for his early work with the band, his solo work is known for its acoustic sound and childlike lyrics.

Augustine “Og” Mandino II

(December 12, 1923 – September 3, 1996) was an American author. He wrote the bestselling book The Greatest Salesman in the World.

Amy Schumer (1982)

A New York native, Amy Schumer was raised by her Jewish father and Protestant mother and identifies as Jewish. She began doing-up in 2004 and rose to fame with her comedy central show, Inside Amy Schumer, in 2013. She also wrote and starred in the movie Trainwreck (2015). Schumer is known for being raunchy and outrageous, and for successively championing femminist issues.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 (1 BC-65 AD) Often known simply as Seneca. A Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor & later adviser to emperor Nero. He was later forced to commit suicide for complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate this last of the Julio-Claudian emperors; however, he may have been innocent. 

Wynonna Judd (1964)

Did you know...... that today is the Birthday of Wynonna Judd (1964)? Wynonna Judd, a country music superstar famous for her hits -- both solo and alongside her mother, Naomi Judd -- was born on this day in Ashland, Kentucky. Together, The Judds sold over 20 million albums and won five Grammys. After her mother fell ill, Wynonna pursued a solo career, with equally huge success. Happy birthday, Wynonna!

Daniel Jay Millman

(born February 22, 1946) is an American author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and lecturer in the personal development field.

Maurice Rose (Nobember 26,1899-March 30,1945)

Major General Maurice Rose was a U.S. Army general during WWII and a WWII veteran. The son and grandson of rabbis from Poland, General Rose was, during his time the highest ranking Jew in the U.S. Army.

Daniel Jay Millman

(born February 22, 1946) is an American author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and lecturer in the personal development field.

Stephen (or Stephan) Gary Wozniak

 (born August 11, 1950), nicknamed “Woz”, is an American inventor, electronics engineer, programmer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur who co-founded Apple Inc. He is known as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs

Gloria Steinman (1934)

Steinman is an American feminist, journalist, and sociol and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960's and the early '70s. She was a columnist for the New York magazine and a founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969 she published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation," that brought her to national fame as a feminist leader.

Aristotle

(384 BC – 322 BC) A Greek philosopher, student of Plato, teacher to Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy…

Bob Dylan (1941)

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan is one of the most influential American singer-songwriters. A key player in the 1960s folk revival, he wrote political and poetic songs that challenged the establishment and became anthems to the anti-war movement. Among his biggest hits were "Blown' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'." He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

Thomas Jefferson

(April 13 1743 – July 4, 1826 (aged 83) The third President of the United States (1801–1809), and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers. To date, Jefferson is the only president to serve two full terms in office without vetoing a single bill of Congress. Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents. 

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.

Richard Duane “Rick” Warren

(born January 28, 1954) is an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch in Lake Forest, California, that is the eighth-largest church in the United States.

Mae Carol Jemison

(born October 17, 1956) is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

Riley Ben King

(September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. King introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that influenced many later electric blues guitarists

Mark A. Copper

(March 25, 1963) is the author of the highly successful teen spy series Jason Steed. He has also written other popular middle grade novels such as Edelweiss Pirates.

John Calvin Maxwell

(born 1947) is an American author, speaker,
and pastor who has written more than 60 books…

Romain Rolland

(29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 “as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beings”…Source

John Quincy Adams

(July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was an American statesman who served as a diplomat, United States Senator, member of the House of Representatives, and was the sixth President of the United States from 1825 to 1829.

Benjamin Berell Ferencz

(born March 11, 1920) is a Hungarian-born American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the Chief Prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the twelve military trials held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, Germany.

John Wayne

Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed Duke, was an American actor and filmmaker.An Academy Award-winner for True Grit (1969), Wayne was among the top box office draws for three decades.

Sigmund Freud

(May 6, 1856-September 23, 1939)

Sigmund Freud was an Australian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis, a method through which an analyst "unpacks" unconscious conflicts based on the free assionations, dreams and fantasies of the patient.

Louise Nevelson

(September 23, 1899-April 17, 1988)

Born in Czarist Russia, the sculpture Louise Nevelson emigrated with her family to the U.S. in the early twentieth century, settling in Maine. In 1920, she moved to New York City and in the early '30 attended art classes at the Art Students League of New York. Her sculptures began to attract attention in the early 1940s, and gained wide fame in the 1950s when museums began buying them. Usually created out of wood, her sculptures and reliefs appear puzzle-like, with multiple elements placed into either wall or free-standing pieces. Her work is also recognizable because it is painted in all black or white.

Coach Lamonte Odums

He is a Certified Master Life Strategist,
Company Coach and Empowerment Speaker.

James Barrie

Did you know...
... that today is the Birthday of James Barrie (1860)? Best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan, James Barrie was born in Scotland on this day in 1860. While living in London, he met the Llewelyn Davies boys -- Nico, Jack, Peter, George, and Michael -- who inspired him to write Peter Pan. Trivia fans: Before his death, Barrie gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which continues to benefit from them.

Barbara Streisand

(born April 24, 1942)

Barbara Streisand is the highest selling female recording artist of all time and has won awards and acclaim in every medium that she worked in including theater, telivision, film and music. She has won numerous awards and honors in recognition of her charity and humanitarian work including the Israel Freedom Medal, the Anti-Defamation League's Woman of Acheivement in the Arts Award, the National Medal Freedom of the Arts, the American Film Institute Life Acheivement Award, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Paul Rudd

Born April 6, 1969
Paul Rudd is a comedian, actor, and screenwriter best known his comedic roles. His family's original name was Rudnitzsky but was changed by his grandfather while the family still lived in England. Rudd's breakout roll was in Clueless in 1995 and he has gone on to star in several Judd Apatow films on Broadway, and he had a recurring roll on the sitcom Friends.

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.

Henry Ward Beecher

(June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) A prominent, Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist, and speaker in the mid to late 19th century. An 1875 adultery trial in which he was accused of having an affair with a married woman was one of the most notorious American trials of the 19th century.

Johannes Brahms

Did you know...

... that today is the Birthday of Johannes Brahms (1833)? Brahms was a German composer and pianist. He is widely known for his Brahms' Lullaby; the melody is one of the most famous and recognizable in the world, used by countless parents to sing their babies to sleep. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music.

Abraham Kacobi

May 6, 1830-July 10, 1919
Abraham Jacobi was a pioneer of pediatrics, opening the first childrens clinic in the U. S. To date, he is the only foreign born president of the American Medical Association. He helped fpund the American Journal of Obstetrics.

Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy

(born October 4, 1980) is an American lawyer and politician, serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 4th congressional district since 2013.

Karl Marx

May 5, 1818-March 14, 1839

A German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary sociolist, Karl Marx was born in Prussia although he later became stateless and spent much of his life in London. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labor and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital.

Ethel Barrymore

(born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Regarded as the “First Lady of the American Theater”, Barrymore was a preeminent stage actress in her era. Barrymore’s career spanned six decades.

John Lobbuck

(April 30 1834 – May 28 1913) Known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Bt from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, biologist, archaeologist and Liberal politician.

Jerry Seinfeld

Born April 29 1954

Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and telivision and film producer, best known for a semi-fictional sitcom Seinfeld, which he co-created and co wrote with Larry David. Many credit the Seinfeld brand of humor with bringing "Jewishness" to the fore of popular culture in the 1990s. From Jewish American Calender 2017

Nanea Hoffman

He is the founder of Sweatpants & Coffee. She writes, she makes things, and she drinks an inordinate amount of coffee. She is also extremely fond of sweatpants. She believes in love, peace, joy, comfort, and caffeinated beverages.

James Neil Hollingworth

(1933–1996) was a beatnik, hippie, writer, and former manager of the psychedelic folk rock bands Quicksilver Messenger Service and Ace of Cups. He wrote under the pseudonym Ambrose Hollingworth Redmoon.

Diane Mariechild

She is an author and lecturer.
Her works include Mother Wit and Inner Dance

Alexander Graham Bell

(March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone.

Judy Blume

(born Judith Sussman; February 12, 1938) is an American writer known for children’s and young adult (YA) fiction.

Roman Krznaric, Ph.D.

He is a founding faculty member of The School of Life in London and empathy advisor to organizations including Oxfam and the United Nations, and he formerly taught sociology and politics at Cambridge University. He is the author of The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live and How to Find Fulfilling Work.

Leslie Calvin “Les” Brown

(born February 17, 1945) is a motivational speaker, author, radio DJ, former television host, and former politician. As a politician, he is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives. As a motivational speaker, he uses the catch phrase “it’s possible!” and teaches people to follow their dreams as he learned to do

John Ray Grisham, Jr.

(born February 8, 1955) is an American bestselling writer, attorney, politician, and activist best known for his popular legal thrillers.

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.

Yasunari Kawabata

(11 June 1899 – 16 April 1972) was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

Tyler Perry

(born Emmitt Perry Jr.; September 13, 1969)[1] is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, writer, and songwriter, specializing in the gospel genre

James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, Jr.

(October 1, 1924) was an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States (1977–1981) and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office. Before he became President, Carter served as a U.S. Naval officer, was a peanut farmer, served two terms as a Georgia State Senator and one as Governor of Georgia (1971–1975).

Bruce Lee

(born Lee Jun-fan) (November 1940 – 20 July 1973) was a Hong Kong American martial artist, Hong Kong action film actor, martial arts instructor, filmmaker, and founder of Jeet Kune Do, he is widely considered by commentators, critics, media and other martial artists to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time, and a pop culture icon of the 20th century…

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

(November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was “Solitude”, which contains the lines “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone”

Joanne “Jo” Rowling

(31 July 1965), pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British novelist, best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies.

Christian Daa Larson

(1874 – 1954) was an American New Thought leader and teacher, as well as a prolific author of metaphysical and New Thought books. He is credited by Horatio Dresser as being a founder in the New Thought movement.

Herbert Bayard Swope Sr.

(January 5, 1882 – June 20, 1958) was a U.S. editor, journalist and intimate of the Algonquin Round Table. Swope spent most of his career at the New York World newspaper. He was the first and three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting. Swope was called the greatest reporter of his time by Lord Northcliffe of the London Daily Mail

Haddon W. Robinson

(born 21 March 1931) is the Harold John Ockenga Distinguished Professor of Preaching, senior director of the Doctor of Ministry program, and former interim President at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

(1869-1948) often referred to as Mahatma Gandhi “Great Soul” he was the preeminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered  satyagraha resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence, which helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry

(October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as “Maybellene” (1955), “Roll Over Beethoven” (1956), “Rock and Roll Music” (1957) and “Johnny B. Goode” (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive

John Winston Lennon

 (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) (age 40) An English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles

William James

(January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James.

Ian James Thorpe, OAM

(born 13 October 1982) is an Australian swimmer who specialises in freestyle, but also competes in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian, and with three gold and two silver medals, was the most successful athlete at the 2000 Summer Olympics

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi

,(1207 A.D – 1273 A.D) also known as Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi and popularly known as Mevlana in Turkey and Mawlana in Iran and Afghanistan but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi  was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Rumi is a descriptive name meaning “Roman” since he lived most of his life in an area called “Rum” (then under the control of Seljuq dynasty) because it was once ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire. He was one of the figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(May 25, 1803  – April 27, 1882) was an American philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thought through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.

Ansel Easton Adams

(February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist best known for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially of Yosemite National Park.

Domonique Bertolucci

(born 1970 in Perth, Australia) is an Australian happiness expert, life coach, and author of several best-selling inspirational books.

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

 (November 23, 1911 – April 6, 2004) was wife of Gordon B. Hinckley an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

David Alan Mamet

(born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director. As a playwright, Mamet has won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony nominations for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988)

The 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”.

Dan Gutman

(born October 19, 1955)is an American writer, primarily of children’s fiction. His works include the Baseball Card Adventures children’s book series that began with Honus & Me, and the My Weird School series, numbering 21 titles, and spinoff series including My Weird School Daze and My Weirder School…

Lyndon Baines Johnson

(August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969, assuming the office after serving as the 37th Vice President of the United States under President John F. Kennedy, from 1961 to 1963.

Oprah Gail Winfrey

 (January 29, 1954) An American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. 

John Muir

(21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas. The Sierra Club, which he founded, is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States.

Hilary Hinton Ziglar

 ( November 6, 1926 – November 28, 2012 ) An American author, salesperson, and motivational speaker born in Coffee County, Alabama the tenth of 12 children. He has published over 48 works. Since 1970, his career has moved from master seller to master motivator. Ten of his 25 books have been best sellers.

Guy R. McPherson

(born 29 February 1960) is an American scientist, professor emeritus of natural resources and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.He is best known for promoting the idea of near term extinction (NTE), a term he coined about the possibility of human extinction as soon as 2030.

Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone

(born March 10, 1974)is a co-founder of Twitter, Inc and also helped to create and launch Xanga, Odeo, The Obvious Corporation and Medium.

Albert Einstein

(14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

Sasha Etheredge

She is a student attending a class in which Wynton Marsalis
teaches how working together is key in music and democracy.

Julie Kagawa

(born October 12, 1982) is an American author, best known for writing The Iron Fey Series consisting of four books: The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, and The Iron Knight.

Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek

(July 17, 1990 – June 22, 2004), known as Mattie J.T. Stepanek, was an American poet (or as he wanted to be remembered as “a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played”) who published seven best-selling books of poetry. Before his death (at the age of 13) he had become known as a peace advocate and motivational speaker.

Cory Anthony Booker

(born April 27, 1969) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from New Jersey, in office since 2013. Previously he served as Mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013

Bernard C. Meltzer

(May 2, 1916 – March 25, 1998) was a United States radio host for several decades. His advice call-in show, “What’s Your Problem?,” aired from 1967 until the mid-1990s on stations WCAU-AM and WPEN-AM in Philadelphia, WOR-AM and WEVD-AM in New York and in national syndication on NBC Talknet.

Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel

 (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps. Wiesel is also the Advisory Board chairman of the Algemeiner Journal newspaper.

Mary Tyler Moore

(December 29, 1936 – January 25, 2017) was an American actress, known for her roles in the television sitcoms The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), and The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966).

Thomas Eugene “Tom” Robbins

(born July 22, 1932) is an American novelist. His best-selling novels are “seriocomedies” (also known as “comedy-drama”),often wildly poetic stories with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent, an irreverent bent, and scenes extrapolated from carefully researched bizarre facts

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.

Barack Hussein Obama II

 (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review.

He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. 

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) An Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and others, founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as “inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” He was the first Irishman so honored

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton

He was born August 19, 1946,is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. 

Ralph Fulsom Marston

(February 16, 1907 December 7, 1967) was a professional football player who spent a season in the National Football League with the Boston Bulldogs in 1929.

Helen Adams Keller

 (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) An American author, political activist, lecturer & the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. At 19 months old she contracted an illness, that left her deaf and blind. Keller wrote a total of 12 published books and several articles. She is remembered as an advocate for people with disabilities, amid numerous other causes

Brian Tracy

(born 5 January 1944) is a self-help author who has recorded many of his works as audio books. His presentations and seminar topics include leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness, and business strategy. He is now the Chairman of Brian Tracy International, a human resource company based in Solana Beach, California, with affiliates throughout the United States and thirty-one other countries.

Neale Donald Walsch

(born September 10, 1943) is an American author of the series Conversations with God. The nine books in the complete series are Conversations With God (books 1–3), Friendship with God, Communion with God, The New Revelations, Conversations with God for Teens, Tomorrow’s God, and Home with God: In a Life That Never Ends. He is also an actor, screenwriter, and speaker.

Gregory Maguire

(born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and several dozen other novels for adults and children

Deepak Chopra

 (October 22, 1946) is an Indian-born, American physician, public speaker, and writer. He is generally specialized in subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

An American author best-known for his inspirational book, Life’s Little Instruction Book, a New York Times bestseller (1991–1994).

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

(18 July 1918 – December 5, 2013) President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life in prison, he served 27 years. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to multi-racial democracy in 1994. As president, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.