Brigitte Bardot is a French actress and model, daughter of an industrialist. Also known simply as BB ("Bri-Bri" in childhood) she is considered the embodiment of the 1950s "sex kitten." Bardot starred with Trintignant in Vadim's film And...

The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not...

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human being to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity, a...

Ulrike Marie Meinhof (7 October 1934 – 9 May 1976) was a German left-wing militant. She co-founded the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) in 1970 after having previously worked as a journalist for the monthly left-wing magazine konkret....

What would the world of modern music be like without the inventions of Bob Moog? One answer would be: very boring. 1964 : Bob Moog’s namesake analog synthesizers have affected popular music in ways he might not have expected back in 1954 wh...

Antonius "Anton" Johannes Geesink was a Dutch 10th-dan judoka. He was a three-time World Judo Champion (1961, 1964 and 1965) and Olympic Gold Medalist (1964). He was 6'6" (1.98m) tall and at one time weighted 320 pounds (145 kg). He was bor...

Hoover Dam is a testimony to a country's ability to construct monolithic projects in the midst of adverse conditions. Built during the Depression; thousands of men and their families came to Black Canyon to...

His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. He was born in a small village called Takster in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at th...

Richard Saul Wurman is an architect and graphic designer. He is considered a pioneer in the practice of making information understandable. He has written and designed over 80 books and created the TED conferences (with which he is no longer...

Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer, musician, and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as "the King of Rock and Roll", or simply, "the King". Born in Tupelo, M...

Gone with the Wind is an American novel by Margaret Mitchell that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937. It relates the story of a rebellious Georgia woman, named Scarlett O'Hara, and her travails with friends, family, and lovers in the midst of t...

The Spanish Civil War was the result of complex political differences between the Republicans — supporters of the government of the day, the Second Spanish Republic, mostly subscribing to electoral democracy and ranging from centrists to th...

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Many critics described his music as operatic, nicknaming him "the Caruso of R...

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess Grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion (from 1960 to 1961). Widely regarded as a creative genius and the best attacking player of all time, Tal played in a daring, combinatorial style. His...

Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. He is the oldest surviving former world champion. Spassky won the Soviet Chess Championship twice outri...