BIOGRAPHY MAGAZINE's 50 Most Famous THE 50 MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE OF THE CENTURY

Who are the 50 Most Famous People of the 20th Century--the 25 men and 25 women whose names are the most easily recognized, whose faces are the most familiar? Biography Magazine presents its choices: a mix of icons, leaders and politicians, entertainers, royalty, inspirations, adventurers, fashion leaders, social revolutionaries, scientists, athletes, and artists. Because we made our selections based solely on fame and not necessarily on an individual's admirable qualities or contributions to society--the list includes both the saintly (Mother Teresa) and evil (Hitler), the serious (Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.) and comic (Lucille Ball), the free-spirited (Amelia Earhart) and seriously scientific (Albert Einstein). Our choices cut across the years and come from countries and cultures elsewhere on the globe. Some, like Judy Garland, deliberately set out to win acclaim; others, like Rosa Parks, became well known by happenstance. You may not agree with every one of our choices, you may have other nominees of your own, but one thing's for sure: you'll instantly recognize all 50 very famous names.
  ICONS Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis JULY 28, 1929-MAY 19, 1994 Elegant and sophisticated, with a whispery little-girl voice and a  drop-dead designer wardrobe, Jacqueline Kennedy was America's most  glamorous first lady. Often compared to royalty, she was so wildly  popular, she became the first president's wife to need her own press secretary. But when President John F. Kennedy was killed, it became clear that beneath the fashionable exterior, Jacqueline Kennedy harbored a backbone of steel. Her dignity and grace, in the words of Ted Kennedy, "held us together as a family and a country." Born to a life of privilege, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was 24 when she married dashing Senator Jack Kennedy, 36, on September 12,1953, in  society's "wedding of the year." The couple joyously welcomed daughter Caroline in 1957 and son John Jr. in 1960. Three years later on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and Jacqueline was a widow at 34. Raising Caroline and John became her focus. "If you bungle raising  your children," she once said, "I don't think whatever else you do  matters very much." A 1968 marriage to Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis was decidedly unpopular with the American public, but following his death in 1975, the former first lady, now known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (and nicknamed Jackie O), returned to favor. She worked as a book editor, enjoyed a steady relationship with diamond merchant Maurice Tempelsman, reveled in being a grandmother to Caroline's children, and always managed to remain an elusive figure, zealously guarding her privacy. No wonder that following her death from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at 64, one book editor called her story "the greatest autobiography never written."

Princess Diana JULY 1, 1961-AUGUST 31, 1997 When she died at 36 in a high-speed car crash in a Paris underpass, the whole world went into mourning. The radiant princess with the magical personal touch was the most famous, and most photographed,  woman in the world. To have her taken away at the height of her beauty and celebrity was unthinkable. Immortalized as the "queen of people's hearts" and "the people's princess," she captivated the globe in death just as she had in life. What made Diana so universally loved? Perhaps it was that people felt her life wasn't altogether different from their own: A child of divorced parents, she saw her once-happy marriage disintegrate among charges of mutual infidelities. She developed an eating disorder. Yet with two sons to worry about--to say anything of a domineering  mother-in-law--she still found time to care about the sick, the helpless, the underpriviledged. Of course, the truth is that Diana's life was not at all like anyone else's. Born Diana Frances Spencer to a family at least as told as  the British royals, she attended boarding schools and an expensive  Swiss finishing school. While working in a London preschool, the young aristocrat caught the eye of Prince Charles. On July 29, 1981, they wed in a lavish ceremony televised around the world (she had just turned 20, he was 32). Before long, the media-savvy, perennial fashion-plate Diana had eclipsed Charles in the press. No longer a  lovesick girl, she was a formidable figure in her own right. The couple produced two sons--William, heir to the crown, in 1982, and  Harry in 1984. Eventually, Charles renewed his relationship with an old flame, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and Diana reportedly took a lover as well. The couple divorced in 1996. Although she was brilliant at manipulating the press, Diana also became its victim. While she could turn its white hot light to good use, as she did while publicizing her campaign against land mines or promoting AIDS research, she also suffered constant pursuit by intrusive paparazzi. Indeed, she and her last lover, Dodi Fayed, were fleeing photographers when their chauffeur-driven car slammed  at high speed into a support-culumn in Paris' Alma tunnel. The fairytale had ended, but the people's princes lives on in her subjects' hearts. Marilyn Monroe JUNE 1, 1926-AUGUST 5, 1962 Marilyn Monroe. The name evokes images of a breathtaking blond with a voluptous figure, the definition of a sex symbol then and now. She was a movie star who epitomized glamour--yet her own life was often painfully unhappy. Born Norma Jean Mortenson to a mother with a history of mental illness, she lived in an orphanage and foster homes, left high school at 15, married at 16, and began posing for a pinup calendars and, later, the first issue of Playboy. (In one oft-quoted remark, when asked what she had on while modeling, Monroe saucily replied, "the radio.") A small part in 1950's The Asphalt Jungle launched her film career,a nd by 1953 she was a full-fledged star eith How to Marry a Millionaire and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But Monroe's well-publicized personal problems kept her life ion tumult. She had a long-standing dependency on drugs and alcohol and was beset by stage fright and chronic tardiness. There were two more marriages,  to baseball great Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller (both ending in divorce), and numerous affairs, including rumoerd liaisons with both John and Robert Kennedy. (In one of her most memorable performances, Monroe, sewn into a skin-tight sequined dress, breathlessly sang "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy at a Democratic fund-raiser in 1962.) Monroe's death at 36 from a sleeping-pill overdose in her Los Angeles home is considered a probable suicide--but remains fodder for conspiracy theorists who claim she was murdered. Despite her tragic end, Monroe's image endures as the personification of beauty, sensuality, and vulnerability, a woman Norman Mailer called the "Stradivarious of sex."
  LEADERS & POLITICIANS John Fitzgerald Kennedy MAY 29, 1917-NOVEMBER 22, 1963 He entered the history books as the youngest person ever elected president (at 43) and the first Catholic, assuming office with a razor-thin victory margin of only 118,574 votes. But John Fitzgerald Kennedy's public persona and charisma overshadowed the dry statistics of history. Bold and gifted, with a quicksilver wit, he  seemed to embody the vitality and aspirations of a new generation and inspired many of the country's youth with his programs for a Peace Corps, for putting a man on the moon, and for a New Frontier. At the same time. his glamorous wife, Jacqueline, and photogenic young children, Caroline and John Jr., captivated the nation. The First Family was many Americans' initial encounter with the Kennedy dynasty and its fortunes and tragedies, which were to engage us for the rest of the century. But perhaps what Americans alive at the time remember most was the  shock of Kennedy's death--gunned down in a Dallas motorcade by Lee  Harvey Oswald. The trauma and disbelief the nation felt that day became a benchmark in many lives. John Kennedy was the second of nine children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and only entered politics after his older brother, Joe, always considered the golden boy, was killed in World War II. A Harvard graduate and war hero himself, John Kennedy was elected to  the House and then the Senate before defeating Richard Nixon for the presidency in 1960. He was in office for 2 years, 10 months, and 2  days--a period his followers sometimes likened to Camelot, although there were missteps, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion. And although later revelations about his personal life, including sexual improprieties, may have tarnished his once lustrous image, John Kennedy's legend continues to fascinate. Eva Peron MAY 7, 1919-JULY 26, 1952 When Eva Peron, wife of Argentinian President Juan Peron, died of cancer at 33, some 40,000 countrymen wrote the pope asking that she be made a saint. The woman they worshipped and wanted canonized was a defender of the poor, a protector of workers, a minister to the sick. But there was another Eva Peron as well: the politically astute, behind-the-scenes manipulator who managed to stock a Swiss  bank account while creating one of the greatest personality cults of this century. The illegitimate daughter of a ranch hand and a cook, she was nicknamed Evita from birth. At 15, she fled her provincial town for the bright lights of Buenos Aires, a career as a radio star and actress, and a reputation for knowing how to manipulate men. She married then-Colonel Juan Peron in October 1945 and helped propel him to the country's presidency the following year, simultaneously  making herself the most important--and visible--woman in Latin America. Evita began holding daily sessions with the poor, handing  out money from her desk, and established scores of charities, all while speaking out for women's rights. In 1951, she sought the vice presidency but withdrew after she was diagnosed with cancer of the  uterus. After her death, Evita's body became such an object of veneration that when her husband was overthrown in 1955, the ruling junta shipped her remains to Italy. It was nearly 25 years before she finally was buried beside Juan Peron in Argentina. Today, her compelling rags-to-riches story is probably best known through the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical Evita.

Hillary Rodham Clinton OCTOBER 26, 1947-- This lawyer and public-service advocate entered the White House in  1993 as the first First Lady with a career of her own. Now, as the  Clinton presidency approaches its end, she's poised to run for another powerhouse position: senator from New York. Far from being  defined by her husband's job, she's used her political skills and position, along with a single-minded focus, to carve out her own place in history. At the same time, she's had to cope with immense personal stress. Whatever her private anguish about her husband's behavior with Monica Lewinsky, she has maintained a dignified grace in public and remains "committed to her marriage." "I learned a long time ago," she once said, "that the only two people who count in any marriage  are the two who are in it." Raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Clinton began life as a Republican and campaigned for BarryGoldwater. She was voted "most likely to succeed" her senior year in high school an d attended Wellesley College, where she developed a more liberal outlook and became student-body president. At Yale Law School, she met William  Jefferson Clinton; they wed in 1975, and she gave birth to daughter Chelsea in 1980. As the wife of the Arkansas governor, she became the most activist  First Lady in state history, and arrived at the White House as a working mother with a record of promoting such social issues as
 children's welfare. Now she's determined to once again redefine the
 role of women in politics and become the first First Lady elected to the Senate.
  Franklin Delano Roosevelt JANUARY 30, 1882-APRIL 12, 1945 Let me assert my firm belief," said Franklin D. Roosevelt at his
 presidential inaugural ceremony in March 1933, "that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." It was Roosevelt at his best: reassuring a nation that some felt was on the brink of economic collapse, bringing hope to the unemployed and indigent that the government could improve their lives.
  His New Deal was a turning point in American history, helping agriculture, creating Social Security, regulating the stock market, protecting unions, and ending child labor, among other things. His  radio "fireside chats" radiated strength and warmth--and comforted a worried nation. And after helping alleviate economic despair, he led the country into World War II and paved the way for the establishment of the United Nations. Born to a life of privilege, Roosevelt fought a determined personal battle against polio, contracted when he was 39. It was a defining  moment: Suddenly his charmed life had ended, and he would never walk on his own again. But from adversity came inner strength, and in
 1928 he had won the governorship of New York. In 1933, he became the nation's 32nd president.
  Both loved (by the downtrodden and suffering) and hated (by those
 wealthy individuals who wanted to perpetuate the old order), he was elected an unprecedented four times to the presidency. Although Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor, was a towering figure in her own right, the marriage was not particularly happy. When he died at 63  of a cerebral hemorrhage, one of the last faces he saw was Lucy Page Mercer, Eleanor's onetime social secretary, with whom he had begun a passionate affair decades earlier. Eleanor Roosevelt OCTOBER 11, 1884-NOVEMBER 7, 1962 The wasn't blessed with beauty, her childhood was painful, and her  marriage loveless. As a mother, she was dutiful but indifferent. Yet Eleanor Roosevelt became a great humanitarian, civil-rights activist, feminist, and social reformer. She dealt with her own misfortunes by serving others and became a towering figure at home and abroad. In the words of President Harry Truman, she was "First Lady of the World."

Born to an aloof mother who died when she was 8, and an alcoholic father who died two years later, the shy and serious Eleanor was 20 when she wed her fifth cousin, Franklin Roosevelt. During the next  11 years, she gave birth to six children (one died in infancy) as her husband's political star ascended. But in 1918, she later said, "the bottom dropped out of my own particular world" when she discovered Franklin was having an affair with her secretary, Lucy Mercer. Eleanor stayed with him, but thereafter the two led mostly  separate personal lives. After Franklin was elected governor of New York and then president  of the United States, Eleanor's political role grew enormously. With his mobility limited by polio, she became his eyes, ears, and legs, traveling constantly (from 1933 to 1940, she logged nearly 300,000  miles around the United States). All the while, she promoted her liberal causes, ranging from the establishment of a minimum wage to fighting racial discrimination, providing equal opportunities for women, and building child-care centers. After her husband's death, her moral force continued unabated. She  chaired the U.N. commission that drafted the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and later headed President John Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women until six months before her death from tuberculosis at age 78. NOVEMBER 30, 1972--JANUARY 24, 1965 He's been called Britain's greatest war leader and the greatest statesman of this century. Yet Winston Churchill also had his share of personal defeats. He was scorned by his father (who said young Winston lacked "cleverness. knowledge, and any capacity for settled work") and was defeated in his first run for Parliament. Finally elected in 1900, he was voted out in 1992. Later, after becoming prime minister, he was turned out of that job in 1945 (but returned to the position in 1951). At the same time, his enemies denounced him as an opportunist and publicity hound, a man without morals. Born to an American mother and British politician father, Churchill graduated from Sandhurst, the royal military college, joined the cavalry, and then became a writer and newspaper war correspondent.  After being elected to Parliament and marrying Clementine Hozier, he had a checkered political career until World War II led to his greatest achievements. Named prime minister in 1940, he forged an alliance with the United States and Soviet Union to defeat the Nazis as his ringing oratory, moral authority, and trademark V-for-victory sign rallied Great Britain. Among his most famous declarations: "I  have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." When his Conservative government was defeated in 1945, Churchill was forced to resign as prime minister but continued to serve in Parliament. After being subsequently re-elected to the top post, he lasted only four years before poor health led to his resignation at 80 in 1955. By then, he had been knighted and won the Nobel Prize in literature; later he was declared an honorary American citizen by an Act of Congress. JULY 18, 1918-- Speaking from the dock at his trial for high treason in the early 1960s, Nelson Mandela, leader of black South Africa's struggle against apartheid, delivered an eloquent, impassioned statement that seared the minds of his black countrymen: A democratic and free society, he said, "is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Given that he was to spend 27 years in prison, the bulk of that time at the South African version of Alcatraz, it's perhaps miraculous that he didn't sacrifice his life. But when the white govt of F. W. de Klerk finally freed him in 1990, Mandela's body, mind, and moral integrity were still intact. Four years later, he became South Africa's first black president, the result of its first democratic election.

The prisoner who became president began life as the son of a tribal leader in what is now the black homeland of Transkei. His tribal name was Rolihlahla, which translates as "one who brings trouble upon himself." True to his name, he never shied away from confrontation: In college, he organized a student strike, and he ruined his future as a lawyer with his struggle against white rule. A member of the anti-apartheid African National Congress since 1944, he was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment, and shipped to Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town. Sustained by his own steely determination and his devotion to second wife Winnie and their children, Mandela wrote, exercised, educated himself about a  variety of subjects, and proselytized fellow prisoners. He also touched the conscience of the world. Following his release, Mandela shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk. He and Winnie, who had been plagued by scandals, divorced, and last year, on his 80th birthday, Mandela wed Graca Machel, widow of the former Mozambican president. Last summer, his  work finally done, Mandela stepped down as president to write and spend more time with his family. Mohandas Gandhi OCTOBER 2, 1869-JANUARY 30, 1948 An eye for an eye," warned Mohandas Gandhi, "and soon the whole world is blind." Committed to being a peaceful force for change, Gandhi, an ascetic often clad only in a loin cloth, embodied a philosophy adopted later by such disciples as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and the Dalai Lama. "My method is conversion,  not coercion," he explained. But it was violence that took his life: Gandhi was shot to death by a Hindu extremist. The man who led his country to independence from Great Britain was  born in western India and studied law in London. In 1893, he took a one-year law assignment in South Africa that wound up lasting 21 years. While there, he challenged laws that discriminated against Indians and espoused a doctrine of nonviolence. He eventually returned to India a national hero, and people began calling him Mahatma ("Great Soul"). The next decades saw Gandhi organizing hunger strikes and civil disobedience to fight not only for independence but also for religious tolerance and social reform, including an end to discrimination against the "untouchable" caste. He spent more than a half dozen years in jail, and his worldly possessions were few: loin cloth, sandals, eyeglasses, a pocket watch, and some eating utensils. But Gandhi also had a sense of humor: Asked once what he  thought of Western civilization, he replied, "I think it would be a great idea." India's independence finally came in 1947. Margaret Thatcher OCTOBER 13, 1925-- This grocer's daughter, who grew up in a house without indoor plumbing or hot water, went on to become Britain's first female prime minister and earn the nickname Iron Lady. From the outset, Margaret Hilda Roberts proved herself enormously industrious. She attended Oxford on a scholarship, taking degrees in chemistry and law, and later became a lawyer specializing in tax issues. Fascinated with politics since childhood, and a staunch Conservative, she ran for parliament twice before finally winning a seat in 1959 at 34. By then she had married businessman Denis Thatcher and had 6-year-old twins, Carol and Mark. Rising quickly within party ranks, and serving as minister for education and science and then party leader, she became prime minister in 1979. What followed came to be known as the Thatcher Revolution as she broke the stranglehold of British trade unions, privatized national industries, and attacked the welfare state. In  1989, she successfully sent British troops to war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands. In 1984, she narrowly missed being killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb during a Conservative Party conference. Thatcher developed a warm relationship with fellow anticommunist Ronald Reagan, who came to office 18 months after she did. "Her achievements will be appreciated more as time goes on," he said in 1994.

Thatcher resigned in November 1990 over her support of an unpopular poll tax. By then, she had been in office 11 years--the longest term of any British leader this century, including Winston Churchill. In 1992, she was awarded the title baroness and took a seat in the House of Lords. Mao Zedong DECEMBER 26, 1893-SEPTEMBER 9, 1976 The changes Mao Zedong brought to China were profound: He unified the country and gave it a new start, leveling economic disparity and moving it toward becoming a modern industrialized state. But the cost in lives was incalculable: Perhaps as many as 30 million died  during his Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s and several million more during the Cultural Revolution five years later. The son of a peasant, Mao grew up in a village of 2,000 in Hunan province but left at 16 in search of better schooling. At 26, he became a member of the newly formed Chinese Communist Party and then a political organizer. In 1934, as the Nationalists appeared to be  closing in on the Communists in their civil war, Mao led 90,000 men and women on a yearlong march through 11 provinces that came to be  known as the Long March. It was a deadly undertaking: Only 10,000 finished. But Mao was now recognized as a leader, and by 1949 he was the most powerful man in China. There followed, among other events, his 1949-53 land reforms, when he urged peasants to kill landlords  and village leaders, and the 1958-62 Great Leap Forward, in which people moved into large communes but perished by the millions when  man-made and natural disasters ruined the harvest and left them starving. That was followed by the Cultural Revolution, in which the Red Guard tried to purge all capitalist or elitist culture--which included actors, scientists, doctors, teachers, and factory managers. Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and heart disease in his last years, Mao still held on to vestiges of the Cultural Revolution. Although it was expected that his fourth wife, Jiang Qing, would succeed him, the moderate wing of the Communist Party arrested her when Mao died of a heart attack. She was put on trial and committed suicide in 1991. Adolf Hitler APRIL 20, 1889-APRIL 30, 1945 The man whose name became synonymous with evil, the fanatic who presided over the deaths of 6 million Jews and 5 million other "enemies" of his Aryan Germany, the military leader who started World War II by invading Poland, was an early failure. Born in Austria, the son of a customs inspector, he was twice turned down by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he wanted to study painting. He was also rejected by the Austrian army as "unfit for combatant and auxiliary duties." Finally joining the Bavarian military, he fought in World War I, then joined a new anti-Semitic group, the forerunner of the Nazi party, and began declaring that "the final aim must unquestionably be the irrevocable [removal] of the Jews." Imprisoned after attempting an armed coup in Munich, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) behind bars. It became the Nazi bible, with such declarations as "all who are not of good race in this world are chaff." He became chancellor of Germany in 1933, then president and leader of the armed forces. As Fuhrer (leader), he was ruthless in eliminating Jews, Slavs, homosexuals, political enemies, and any others he felt violated a pure German master race. Much of the killing occurred in concentration camps like Auschwitz and Dachau. With Berlin falling to the Soviets in April 1945, Hitler married his mistress, Eva Braun, in an underground bunker, and some 40 hours later the two committed suicide there--the evidence suggests that he shot himself and she drank poison.

ENTERTAINERS
Elizabeth Taylor
FEBRUARY 27, 1932--
Her flawless beauty--that astonishing face, those luminous violet
eyes--captivated us from the moment she appeared in National Velvet
at age 12. But the melodrama of Elizabeth Taylor's personal life was
what really kept us intrigued. There were the eight marriages to
seven men, the constant health crises (including, most recently, hip
replacements and a benign brain tumor), the staggering jewels, the 
stays at the Betty Ford Center, the weight fluctuations, the crusade
against AIDS, and above all, the resilience. No wonder Taylor, who 
helped define celebrity in the second half of this century, once
said, "I am living proof of survival."
Born to American parents who were longtime residents of Britain,
Taylor was ravishing even as a youngster. Said another child star of
the time, "She was so beautiful your mouth fell open." While still a
teenager, she married first husband Nicky Hilton, the hotel heir,
who was followed by actor Michael Wilding, showman Mike Todd (who
died in a plane crash--the only husband she didn't divorce), Todd's
best friend, singer Eddie Fisher (whom she stole from Debbie
Reynolds), her married Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton (their
on-set romance was so openly torrid, the Vatican accused her of
"erotic vagrancy"), Burton for a second brief go-round, Senator John
Warner, and fellow Betty Ford grad Larry Fortensky. Along the way, 
she picked up two Oscars (for Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?) and, following the death of close friend Rock
Hudson from AIDS, joined the front ranks of those fighting the
disease.
Now once again single and sporting snow-white hair, she likes to
spend time with her four children, nine grandchildren, and (is it
possible?) great-grandson. No longer the vamp, she still turns heads
(most recently Rod Steiger's) and provides fodder for gossip
columnists who know readers can never get enough of Elizabeth Taylor.
Elvis Presley
JANUARY 8, 1935--AUGUST 16, 1977
Elvis. One name was all he needed. The first and greatest rock &
roll star had a face, voice, and presence that brought (and still
 brings) instant recognition. And he shook up people right from the
start. Born poor in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, he
 moved to Memphis with his parents at 13. There, on July 5, 1954, he
 recorded his first single "That's All Right, Mama" at the famed Sun
 Studio, and life was never the same. "It excited the life out of
 me," said Sun owner Sam Phillips about the way Elvis could combine
blues, country, and gospel into something new called rock & roll.
 After touring with country singer Hank Snow, Elvis--soon to be known
as Elvis the Pelvis--recorded his first No. 1 song, "Heartbreak
 Hotel," in 1956. Girls shrieked, parents shook their heads, and more
 than 50 million viewers tuned in to see his first appearance on the
influential Ed Sullivan Show. On Elvis' third visit to the show,
Sullivan, who became increasingly disturbed by the singer's
suggestive swiveling hips, ordered the camera to avoid shooting
below the waist.
 
When Elvis was drafted in 1958, he went without complaint, toting
 his own duffle bag. While stationed in Germany, he met 14-year-old
Priscilla Beaulieu. She moved into his lavish Memphis home,
Graceland, two years later, and they wed on May 1, 1967. Daughter
Lisa Marie arrived exactly nine months later; the couple divorced in
1973.
 During his career, Elvis recorded an astonishing 114 Top 40 hits and
41 gold albums. He also made 33 films that generally featured him
singing (and romancing an attractive female co-star) in exotic
locales.
But time--along with drugs and junk food--caught up with the once
 svelte King of Rock & Roll. Bloated and fueled by excessive doses of prescribed medications, he died at 42 at Graceland of what was officially listed as cardiac arrhythmia (10 different drugs were reportedly found in his system). Not that everyone believes he's dead--fans still report "Elvis sightings."

Judy Garland
JUNE 10, 1922-JUNE 22, 1969
Judy Garland's enchanting voice carried us all over the rainbow-but
her own life was anything but magical. The woman who said "I don't 
think I've ever had a normal day in my life" was telling the truth.
Over the course of her 47 years, Garland had two careers, five
marriages, three children, and endured alcohol and drug addictions,
psychiatric upheaval, suicide attempts, and financial ruin. But she
always had one thing she could count on: an extraordinary talent.
Born Frances Gumm, the youngest of three daughters, she soon
appeared with her sisters in a vaudeville act. After mistakenly
being introduced one night as "The Glumm Sisters," the girls changed
their name to Garland, and Frances took the name Judy after a Hoagy
Carmichael song.
By 15, she was under contract at MGM and taking diet pills to slim 
down. Her addictions had begun. In the next years, she appeared in 
the Andy Hardy movie series, starred as Dorothy in the immortal
Wizard of Oz, and began marrying: first composer David Rose and then
Vincente Minnelli, who directed her in Meet Me in St. Louis (and
with whom she had daughter Liza). When her erratic behavior cost her
an MGM contract, she became a stage performer, triumphing at the
London Palladium and the Palace in New York. She wed producer Sid
Luft (with whom she had Lorna and Joey), and then an unknown named 
Mark Herron.
Beset by financial problems and addictions to alcohol and pills, her
life steadily disintegrated. In 1969, she married Mickey Deans, a
nightclub waiter, who found her dead three months later of what the
coroner called an "incautious dose of barbiturates." Said Andy Hardy
co-star Mickey Rooney, "There will never be another talent like Judy
Garland's."
Frank Sinatra
DECEMBER 12, 1915-MAY 14, 1998
Ol' Blue Eyes. The Chairman of the Board. The Voice. Francis Albert
Sinatra's nicknames can't begin to describe the multiple facets of 
this man who helped create--and define--the concept of celebrity.
Crooner, actor, tough guy, philanthropist--for 82 years, Sinatra did
it his way and in the process enthralled three generations of fans.
The scrawny, Hoboken-born high-school dropout started performing
early: His vocal quartet, the Hoboken Four, scored big on a radio
talent show in 1935. Bandleader Harry James spotted Sinatra several
years later and signed him up as a new male vocalist. From there,
Frank jumped to the even bigger band of Tommy Dorsey, and by 1944, 
singing solos, he had teenage girls (then known as bobbysoxers)
swooning and occasionally rioting.
Films also came his way--particularly 1949's On the Town and the
1953 drama From Here to Eternity, which brought Sinatra an Oscar for
his portrayal of the luckless soldier Maggio. (His subsequent movies
included The Man with the Golden Arm, Guys and Dolls, High Society,
Pal Joey, and The Manchurian Candidate.)
Sinatra married four times: to New Jersey sweetheart Nancy Barbato 
(with whom he had three children), Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow, and
former showgirl Barbara Marx, the ex-wife of Marx brother Zeppo.
With a vocal legacy of some 1,414 studio recordings, Sinatra has
been called the entertainer of the century. And his fluid baritone 
rendition of such signature songs as "Strangers in the Night," "My Way," "New York, New York," and "I've Got You Under My Skin" will live on well into the next century. It was only fitting that when he died, the Empire State Building was bathed in blue lights to honor Ol' Blue Eyes.

Madonna
AUGUST 16, 1958-- Is there anyone who hasn't heard of Madonna? This one-woman entertainment empire, a master of reinvention, self-promotion, and chutzpah, is a celebrity in virtually every corner of the globe. Rifling through personas the way some of us rifle through closets, 
she's been (among other things) exhibitionist, dominatrix, Valkyrie,
milkmaid, Marilyn clone, sassy Latin spitfire, and Hindu goddess.
Her accessories have included dog collars, rosaries, and nubile
young men. But since the birth of daughter Lourdes three years ago,
the role she's really embraced is motherhood. "I knew having a child
would be an incredible healing experience," she said, "because I
didn't have a mother."
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone has called the death of her mother 
(also named Madonna) from breast cancer when she was 6 the formative
event of her life. Growing up in Pontiac, Michigan, in a strict
Catholic family, Madonna originally wanted to be a dancer. That
changed when she dropped out of college and headed for New York,
eventually forming her own band. Her first album, Madonna, was
released in 1983, and there was no looking back. Within nine years,
she was named one of the country's two richest female entertainers 
(Oprah was the other). Today, she enjoys an estimated fortune of
$200 million, has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, and 
has won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Eva Peron in the movie 
Evita. Her romantic life hasn't been so successful. Marriage in 1985
to volatile actor Sean Penn ended in divorce within four years (they
were known as the Poison Penns). And she's also no longer
romantically involved with personal trainer/aspiring actor Carlos
Leon, Lourdes' father. But she's still evolving. She recently
explained, "I feel like I'm shedding layers."
Harrison Ford
JULY 13, 1942--
Carpentry's loss was Hollywood's gain when Harrison Ford traded in 
his hammer and saw for a starring role as Han Solo in Star Wars--and
a subsequent career as one of the world's top box-office draws. But
even though Ford picks up a cool $20 million per picture, he still 
works hard at being an ordinary guy, husband, and dad, declaring. "I
know the life. I lead isn't normal, so I hold on to normalcy as if 
it were my life preserver."
Given Ford's off-the-charts celebrity status (he's been named, among
other firings. Star of the Century and Sexiest Man Alive), it's
intriguing to note that his early years were spent in an entirely
different fashion. If there were a poster child for late bloomers, 
it would be Harrison Ford.
A self-described "real class wimp" in high school, he was thrown out
of tiny Ripon College four days before graduation for what he later
described as "total academic failure." And his first years in
Hollywood brought only peripheral work, such as playing a bellhop in
1966's Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round. By then married with two young
sons, he took up carpentry to support the family, and it wasn't
until he was cast in 1977's Star Wars (at the ripe age of 35) that 
he became an actor full time. Han Solo begot Indiana Jones who begot
Jack Ryan (Patriot Games) and a host of other characters ranging
from sensitive cop (Witness) to fleeing murder suspect (The
Fugitive) to American president (Air Force One).
Today Ford, his second wife, screenwriter Melissa Mathison, and
their two young children divide their time between an apartment on 
Central Park West and a ranch on the banks of Wyoming's Snake Riven
After starring in a dozen $100-million-grossing movies, he's at the
top of Hollywood's A-plus list, yet says what he really values is "a
normal family life, normal relationships with the people I work
with."
The Beatles
GEORGE HARRISON: FEBRUARY 24, 1943-- JOHN LENNON: OCTOBER 9,
1940--DECEMBER 8, 1980 RINGO STARR: JULY 7, 1940-- PAUL McCARTNEY: 
JUNE 18, 1942--
This mop-topped quartet from Liverpool burst on to the intl music scene in the early 1960s and, before they disbanded in 1970, irrevocably changed the face of pop culture. They truly were, as their nickname proclaimed, the Fab Four--and the most successful band of all time.

The group began coming together in 1958 when teenage friends McCarthey and Harrison joined a Lennon-formed band called the
Quarrymen. By 1960, calling themselves the Silver Beatles, the
group, with drummer Pete Best, left England for Germany. Two years 
later, Starr replaced Best, and the group, now known simply as the 
Beatles, cut their first single, "Love Me Do." When a second single,
"Please, Please Me," rocketed to No. 1 in January 1963, the
Beatles--and Beatlemania--became a worldwide phenomenon. By the time
they arrived in the U.S. in February 1964 to appear on The Ed
Sullivan Show, hysteria had set in--at least among teenage girls.
The Beatles were witty, lovable, and irreverent. Their hair,
clothes, even their search for a guru were endlessly imitated. But 
they were more than just engaging icons: They were also talented.
McCartney and Lennon were the Beatles' creative heart, composing 20
No. 1 hits together. In all, the band racked up 47 gold albums-more
than any other recording group in history--and even found time to
make movies: A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, and
Let It Be.
The Beatles called it quits in 1970. McCartney went on to form a new
group, Wings, and was knighted in 1997; Harrison produced movies,
and Starr turned up on children's television. Any hope of a reunion
ended with Lennon's murder in 1980.
Lucille Ball
AUGUST 6, 1911-APRIL 26, 1989
We all love Lucy. Thanks to syndication, the flame-haired comedian 
with the huge eyes and elastic face still makes us laugh
uproariously almost five decades after she first debuted as zany
Lucy Ricardo. With I Love Lucy endlessly rerun over the years in
more than 100 countries, it's even been suggested that her face has
probably been seen by more people than that of any other person who
ever lived.
Known as the First Lady of Comedy, Ball was a brilliant slapstick
performer (backed by a letter-perfect ensemble) who helped define
television in its first years. For four of its six seasons
(1951-57), I Love Lucy was the No. 1 rated show; the 1953 episode in
which Little Ricky was born attracted an astounding 92% of the
nation's television audience.
Lucille Ball was not, of course, Lucy Ricardo. Ball, a native of
Jamestown, New York, was a second-tier Hollywood actress whose
career, as she approached 40, was definitely not on the fast track.
Then, after appearing in the radio comedy My Favorite Husband, CBS 
asked her to create a television show with the same premise. The
result was I Love Lucy. Ball insisted her husband, Desi Arnaz, a
Cuban bandleader she married in 1940, play her husband onscreen as 
well, and the result was one of the most successful teams in
television history. Although the couple had two children (Lucie and
Desi Jr.), the marriage did not survive; they divorced in 1960, and
Ball bought out Arnaz' shares of Desilu Productions, making her the
first woman to head a major studio. A second marriage, to comic Gary
Morton, lasted until her death from a ruptured aorta 27 years later.
Her legacy is 179 of television's funniest episodes--and a place as
one of the most influential women in the history of the medium.
Clark Gable
FEBRUARY 1, 1901-NOVEMBER 16, 1960
Hollywood has anointed only one actor The King--and that was Clark 
Gable. Even 40 years after his death, he is recognized as the
embodiment of rugged masculinity, both dangerous and charming with a
devilish grin that said "take me home"--but not to mother. Best
known for playing Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind--it's
impossible to imagine anyone else in the role--Gable made 67 films,
including an amazing 12 in 1931 alone.
The son of a wildcat oil driller, he worked in the Oklahoma oil
fields himself before joining a touring stock company and launching
an acting career. The role that cemented his stardom--and heartthrob
status--was the wisecracking newspaper reporter in the romantic
comedy It Happened One Night (opposite Claudette Colbert).
Reportedly, when he took off his shirt onscreen, revealing only bare skin beneath, undershirt sales plummeted. Gable won an Oscar for the role and nominations for his later work in Mutiny on the Bounty and GWTW.

Although married five times, the love of his life was generally conceded to be his third wife, Carole Lombard, a sassy comedic actress he wed while filming GWTW. They had only six years together:
She died in a 1942 plane crash while on a tour to sell war bonds.
After Lombard's death, Gable enlisted in the Air Corps,
participating in bombing raids over Nazi Germany and receiving the 
Distinguished Flying Cross. His postwar film career was less
lustrous, but he remained the King (the title was the result of a
newspaper poll). Death from a heart attack came shortly after he
completed The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe (and as he was awaiting
the birth of his first child). Gable's wife, Kay Spreckels, had him
buried next to Lombard in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Oprah Winfrey
JANUARY 29, 1954--
Oprah Winfrey's influence is so pervasive, there's even a name for 
it: "The Oprah Effect." If she mentions a book on her talk show, it
shoots to the top of the bestseller list. If she asks people to
contribute small change to fund college scholarships, more than $1 
million comes pouring in. And if she says, after hearing about
mad-cow disease, that she'll never eat another burger, she gets sued
for libel by Texas cattlemen fearful her remark will put them out of
business. (They lost.)
But Oprah hasn't been called the most powerful person in
entertainment just because she sways popular culture and tastes.
With some 15 million to 20 million Americans tuning in to watch The
Oprah Winfrey Show every day, she has put together the most popular
talk show in the world and the highest-rated talk show in TV
history. Her net worth has been estimated at over half a billion
dollars, making her the wealthiest woman in show business, and she 
also owns her own TV and film studio and production company. Plus
there's her acting career (Beloved, The Color Purple) , her writing
(Journey to Beloved), and her philanthropies.
It's all a long way from Kosciusko, Mississippi, where Winfrey, born
out of wedlock, was initially raised by her grandmother in a
farmhouse that lacked indoor plumbing. After attending Tennessee
State University and working in television in Nashville and
Baltimore, she moved to Chicago in 1984 to host a talk show--and the
rest is television history.
An unstoppable phenomenon (next up: a new magazine), Winfrey often 
shares her own life details with guests and viewers. "I think my
greatest gift has been the freedom to feel I could be myself on
television," she has said. "And I think people connect to my
vulnerability."
Walt Disney
DECEMBER 5, 1901--DECEMBER 15, 1966
He was a budding artist from Kansas City who moved to Hollywood,
opened a cartoon studio, and created a mouse named Mickey. With that
squeaky-voiced rodent, Walter Elias Disney launched a career that
made him one of the most successful and influential producers in the
world. The genius whose name became synonymous with wholesome family
fare also moved into television production, invented the theme park,
and founded the first multimedia empire. Uncle Wait, as he was
genially known, claimed his mission was "to bring happiness to the 
millions"--and any child who grew up entranced by his characters
would agree he succeeded.
Disney, whose lifelong business partner was his older brother Roy, 
followed Mickey's first starring vehicle, 1928's Steamboat Willie, 
with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and the daring
Fantasia, which combined classical music and animation. His other
classics included Song of the South, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp,
Sleeping Beauty, Pollyana, 101 Dalmatians, and Mary Poppins. On
television, The Mickey Mouse Club and Walt Disney (which ran for a 
record 34 seasons under a variety of names) had kids glued to the
set. And when they weren't watching, they were begging parents to
take them to Disneyland, the innovative 45-acre theme park he opened
in Anaheim, California, in 1955 (later joined by Disney World in
Orlando, Florida, and by Disneyland outposts in France and Japan).
Disney and his wife, Lillian, raised two daughters. A three-pack-a-day smoker, he died of lung cancer at 65, having left 
an indelible mark on American culture.
Katharine Hepburn
MAY 12, 1907-- She was the original liberated woman, who brought wit, intelligence,
and a no-nonsense philosophy to both the screen and her personal
life. Katharine Hepburn was peerless at portraying strong,
independent females, whether in dramas (The African Queen) or
comedies (Bringing Up Baby, Adam's Rib). Offscreen, she did things 
her way or not at all--including dressing in men's pants and
carrying on a 26-year romance with married actor Spencer Tracy.
"I've just done what I damn well wanted to," she reflected. "I've
made enough money to support myself and I ain't afraid of being
alone."
Raised in Hartford, Connecticut, where her father was a prominent
doctor and her mother a crusader for women's rights, Hepburn enjoyed
a privileged upbringing and attended Bryn Mawr College. Although her
early career wasn't always stellar (in one theater review, Dorothy 
Parker famously said Hepburn "ran the whole gamut of the emotions
from A to B"), The Philadelphia Story changed all that. Appearing in
it first on Broadway in 1939 and then in the film the following
year, Hepburn was solidly in the movie-star stratosphere when she
made Woman of the Year with Tracy in 1942. That launched a
collaboration of nine films in which their sassy, battling repartee
delighted filmgoers. Although the hard-drinking Tracy never divorced
his wife, he and Hepburn (who had been married briefly to a
socialite insurance broker) were inseparable. "I would have done
anything for him," Hepburn wrote in Me, her 1991 autobiography.
Over the course of her incomparable career, Hepburn was nominated 12
times for an Academy Award and won four (for Morning Glory, Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond).
Hepburn is reportedly frail--but still crusty--at 92 and has left
her Manhattan townhouse to live full time in Connecticut.
APRIL 23, 1928--
With her bouncy curls, dimpled smile, and plucky, can-do spirit,
little Shirley Temple was the perfect tonic for Depression-era
audiences. The most famous child star ever, Temple was earning
$1,000 a week (and she was awarded a miniature Oscar) by the time
she was 6 and reigned as the country's No. 1 box-office draw from
ages 7 to 10 (outselling Clark Gable). Fans swamped her with mail
and gifts (167,000 on one birthday alone--all later donated to
charity) and snapped up Shirley Temple dolls. She even became part 
of beverage history when the (nonalcoholic) Shirle Temple cocktail 
was created.
Not that Temple herself was overly impressed by her fame. "I
classify myself with Rin Tin Tin," she once said. Because of the
Depression., "people were looking for something to cheer them up.
They fell in love with a dof and a little girl."
ShirleyJane Temple was spotted at age 3 in dancing school by a
studio scout who gave her a small role in Baby Burlesks. She then
play toddlers in several films before winning her first major part 
in 1934's Little Miss Marker. From then on, her thousand-watt grin 
lit up such hits as The Little Colonel (which featured her famous
dance with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson), Curly Top, The Littlest
Rebel, Wee Willie Winkie, Heidi, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.
But then Shirley did the unthinkable: She started growing up. The
adorable moppet became a teenager--a concept audiences had trouble 
accepting. At 17, she married and had a daughter, then divorced
three years later. Remarried for 49 years to businessman Charles
Black (with whom she had two more children), Temple served as U.S. 
ambassador to both the Republic of Ghana and what was then Czechoslovakia, as well as chief of protocol at the White House. She made her last movie in 1949.

ROYALTY Grace Kelly NOV 12 1929-SEP 14 1982 She was a Philadelphia socialite turned Academy Award- winning actress whose exquisite blond looks and regal composure made her seem like a princess well before she actually became one at 26. "I have made my destiny," Grace Kelly said after announcing her engagement to Prince Rainier of Monaco and it seemed one for which she was eminently qualified.

Grace Patricia Kelly was the daughter of a model and a former Olympic rower who became a millionaire builder. She did some
modeling while studying acting. Appearing in only 11 films, she won
an Academy Award in 1954 for The Country Girl and earned a
nomination for 1953's Mogambo.
Grace was often described as having an icy beauty, but she
apparently smoldered underneath. Her romantic involvements
reportedly included a number of her leading men, including Clark
Gable, Ray Milland, William Holden, and Bing Crosby. Director Alfred
Hitchcock once described her as "a snow-covered volcano."
Grace and Rainier met in 1955 at the Cannes Film Festival and wed in
Monaco April 19, 1956--an occasion that drew some 1,500 journalists
to a country with only 5,000 citizens. Daughter Caroline arrived
nine months and five days after the wedding, followed by Prince
Albert and Princess Stephanie. Glamorous Grace was credited with
helping put Monaco back on the tourist map, and she won the hearts 
of her subjects by devoting herself to charities and cultural affairs.

Although she occasionally talked about resuming her film career, Rainier disapproved. In later years, she began spending part of each year in Paris on her own. Her death came suddenly: While driving from France to Monaco with Stephanie, she lost control of her car probably the result of a stroke and it plunged down an embankment. Grace died the next day without ever regaining consciousness. 

Prince Charles NOV 14 1948-- From the moment he was born, Prince Charles had only one job description: future king of England. Now 51, he's spent a lifetime preparing for the moment when he will succeed his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. But his personal life is what's really fed the headlines: first, dating an assortment of young women; then, marrying the beautiful Lady Diana Spencer and lathering two sons; finally, there was the breakup of the marriage, Diana's death, and a deliberate public acknowledgement of his relationship with longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles.

As the century ends, Charles appears determined to change his image. Shedding an aloof and unemotional demeanor, he's now a relaxed, warmhearted dad who even takes his son to a Spice Girls concert. And he's been devoting himself to the practical concerns of his subjects, such as helping underprivileged youths find jobs. The man who would be king was born Charles Philip Arthur George in Buckingham Palace and raised primarily by nannies. Packed off to boarding school at 9, he didn't find his footing until he entered Cambridge in 1967. In 1969, he was invested as Prince of Wales, and in 1970 he met socialite Camilla Shand and fell in love--although she wound up marrying military officer Andrew Parker Bowles. Charles' subsequent romantic life was endlessly chronicled, and some 750 million television viewers watched his July 29, 1981, wedding to the young, shy Diana. But despite the births of William and Harry, it was not a fairy-tale romance; they divorced in 1996. By then it was well known that Charles was again seeing Camilla, and they officially made their relationship public last January when they left a party together in full view of photographers. Although it seems unlikely that they will wed and eventually become King Charles and Queen Camilla, their names will be forever entwined.

SCIENTISTS Marie Curie NOVEMBER 7, 1867-JULY 4, 1934 I don't know whether I could live without the laboratory," Marie Curie once wrote to her sister. It was the laboratory that brought Curie, the world's most famous woman scientist, a life of "firsts" that included first woman to win a Nobel Prize and then first person to win two, along with first woman professor at the Sorbonne. In addition, her breakthrough discoveries with husband Pierre in the field of radioactivity--which laid the foundation for nuclear physics--proved that women could not just compete but excel in male-dominated fields.

From childhood, Curie seemed to follow a different track than other little girls. Born Maria Sklodowska in Poland, she was encouraged by her parents (her father was a professor, her mother the headmistress of a private school) to study--a rarity for girls in her restrictive society. She eventually moved to Paris, where she adopted the French version of her name, Marie, and was one of very few women admitted to the Sorbonne. It was there she met Pierre, a professor at the School of Physics and Chemistry, and together they formed a team of equals, delving into the mysteries of radioactivity and discovering two new elements: polonium (named after her native country) and radium. Their findings changed the world forever, leading to the creation of everything from life-saving cancer treatments to the powerful bombs that leveled two cities.

After Pierre was killed in a street accident in 1906, Marie carried on their work and raised their two daughters. An affair with a married researcher triggered tabloid-style headlines in the French press, but she weathered the storm. At 66, Curie succumbed to leukemia, believed to be brought on by her long exposure to radiation. She had literally killed herself giving the world her monumental discoveries.

Dr. Jonas Salk OCT 28, 1914-JUNE 23, 1995 Medical treatment for children in this country can be divided into before and after Dr. Jonas Salk. Before his development of the first successful vaccine for polio, the disease struck young people in particular, leaving many in iron lungs or with severe disabilities for life. After the Salk vaccine was approved for public use in 1955, the incidence of the disease dropped by 95% within six years (by then Dr. Albert Sabin had also developed a vaccine). Salk's creation has been called one of the most important medical inventions of the 20th century.

But despite saving all those young lives, Salk was not particularly popular within the highly competitive world of medical research. Sabin grumbled that Salk was "strictly a kitchen chemist," and other scientists felt he claimed too much personal glory at the expense of his research predecessors and colleagues at his University of Pittsburgh lab. (Significantly or not, Salk never was awarded a Nobel Prize.) Undaunted, he went on to found the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in LaJolla, California, where he continued his research and was working on a vaccine for AIDS before his death from congestive heart failure.

Salk, the enterprising son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, graduated from the New York University College of Medicine and began his research with the polio virus after arriving at the University of Pittsburgh in 1947. His theory was that the immune system could be triggered by using a dead virus (as opposed to Sabin, who used a live but crippled virus). Following successful clinical trials in 1954, the Salk vaccine was pronounced effective the following year, bringing health and hope to millions of children and relief to their rejoicing parents.

Salk himself never made any money from his discovery and never patented the vaccine. Thomas Alva Edison

FEBRUARY 11, 1847--OCTOBER 18, 1931 Genius," Thomas Edison famously said, "is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." The man who spent his life inventing devices that reshaped our society knew what he was talking about. Dedication and hard work led him to create, among other things, the first phonograph, the incandescent lightbulb, and the motion-picture camera.

A native of Milan, Ohio, Edison went to school only sporadically for a few years and then was taught at home by his mother. Insatiably curious and a passionate reader, he eventually became a traveling telegraph operator and, at 20, began inventing new equipment for his trade. With the windfall from a new transmitting device, he created a lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and set about creating the future. First came the phonograph, and in 1879 he unveiled his incandescent bulb. Later, the genius dubbed "the Wizard of Menlo Park" came up with a system for distributing electric power from central generating stations--a development that would revolutionize the way Americans lived and worked. Among his other inventions: the mimeograph, the microphone, a storage battery, a dictaphone, and the motion picture camera. In all, he held 1,093 patents. Perhaps not surprisingly, Edison's total absorption with work eroded his family life. His first wife suffered a physical and emotional breakdown and died at 29, leaving him with three young children. (The two oldest were nicknamed Dot and Dash.) He remarried (after proposing in Morse code) and had three more children, but his second wife also suffered bouts of depression.

In later years, Edison's inventions were less successful, but he worked hard virtually to the end. When he died at 84, all but essential lights were dimmed across America in his honor; even the Statue of Liberty's torch was switched off. Albert Einstein

MARCH 14, 1879--APRIL 18, 1955 This gentle physicist with the face of a basset hound and a halo of unruly white hair has been called the world's most famous scientist.

His theories of relativity and work on radiation physics and thermodynamics made his name synonymous with genius, and his famous equation e=mc[sup 2] can be recited by millions who have no idea what it actually means (the energy in matter is equal to its mass multiplied by the velocity of light squared, if that's any help). Einstein's work reshaped human understanding of time and space and led to the development of nuclear fission and the atom bomb. Yet he was also the epitome of the absentminded professor. There are stories of him using a $1,500 check for a bookmark and then losing the book. At Princeton University, where he took a teaching position in 1933, Einstein was known as an untidy dresser, frequently going without socks and squashing his hair under a blue stocking cap.

A native of Ulm, Germany, he studied physics and math in Switzerland, worked in a patent office in Bern (simultaneously publishing five important scientific papers), became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, and with the rise of Nazism, emigrated to the United States. An ardent pacifist, he nonetheless urged President Franklin Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb before Germany did.

Einstein found it difficult to achieve the same kind of success in his personal life. He had an illegitimate daughter by a woman he later married (they went on to have two sons before divorcing). Then he married a cousin who already had two daughters. After Einstein died of a ruptured aneurysm, his brain was preserved. Recent tests on the specimen showed that the section governing abstract thought was distinctively shaped and unusually large. Sigmund Freud

MAY 6, 1856--SEPTEMBER 23, 1939 The father of psychoanalysis changed the way we think about the mind, pioneering the study of the unconscious and its role in everyday life. Although some of his theories remain fiercely debated today, his impact was so extensive that his name has become part of our lexicon, as in "Freudian analysis" or "Freudian slip."

This revolutionary thinker, who stressed the influence of early experiences on later life, was the adored firstborn son of a mother who called him "golden Siggie." When he was 3, his family moved from Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic, to Vienna, where he was to spend the next 79 years. He studied medicine, becoming a psychiatrist and developing his new theory of the mind. To encourage patients to speak freely, he had them stretch out on a couch--a piece of furniture that's now become a symbol of Freudian analysis.

Freud's greatest book, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published in 1900 and outlined such basic principles of his psychology as the role of repression and the Oedipus complex (in which a young boy is supposedly attracted to his mother and jealous of his father). His next book, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, addressed to a mass audience, introduced the Freudian slip (in which a mental or verbal mistake is motivated by the unconscious). In other works, he theorized about infantile sexuality and divided the self into three parts: the id, ego, and superego.

The father of six children with wife Martha, Freud saw his youngest, Anna, become a prominent psychoanalyst in her own right. Freud, Martha, and Anna fled to England in 1938 when German troops entered Austria. He died there a year later of cancer of the jaw and palate, something the doctor who pioneered the "talking cure" would doubtless find ironic.

ATHLETES Muhammad ALi JANUARY 17, 1942-- He called himself "the greatest"--and he was. The boxing champ who won the heavyweight title three times (and compiled a career record of 56 wins, 5 losses, and 37 knockouts) brought new interest to an age-old sport while captivating millions with his sassy rhymes and genial self-promotion. Later, his commitment to humanitarian causes and his battle against Parkinson's disease cemented his position as beloved hero: When, hands trembling from Parkinson's, Ali lit the flame at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, fans and athletes alike wept openly.

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky, he came to his calling at age 12 when his bicycle was stolen. He told police officer Joe Martin that he wanted to "whup" the thief, and Martin, who also trained fighters, suggested he learn to box. Clay went on to rack up more than 100 wins in an amateur career that also included a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Turning pro, he piled up wins while calling knockout rounds ("ain't nojive, he'll go in five"). In 1964, he took the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston. That same year he announced he was a Black Muslim and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1967, after refusing induction into the Army on religious grounds, he was convicted of draft evasion, stripped of his title, and effectively banished from boxing. Four years later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling, affirming his right to be a conscientious objector. He returned to the ring, regaining the title in 1974 after knocking out George Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire. In 1978, he lost the title to Leon Spinks, only to win it back seven months later.

Ali retired from the sport in 1981 and in 1984 was diagnosed with Parkinson's, a condition doctors suggested was the result of "pugilistic experience." Married four times and the father of nine, he travels constantly on his humanitarian crusades, visiting Bosnia and Third World countries as well as children's hospitals, retirement homes, and prisons. Babe Ruth FEBRUARY 6, 1895-AUGUST 16, 1948 His real name was George Herman Ruth, but he was known as the Babe--or sometimes the Bambino or the Sultan of Swat. The Yankees' legendary slugger lived life to the hilt--whether it was setting record after record in baseball or carousing around town (which he did frequently). So great was his fame, Japanese troops attacking U.S. positions in World War II yelled (in English) the ultimate insult: "To hell with Babe Ruth!"

The Babe was born in Baltimore, the eldest of eight children of poor parents. A self-described "bad kid," he was sent at age 7 to St. Mary's Industrial School, a combination vocational, boarding, and reform school. It was there that Brother Matthias changed his life, teaching the young boy, who had been studying to be a tailor, how to play baseball. Clearly a natural, Ruth joined the Baltimore Orioles in 1914, where he acquired his nickname when one of the coaches referred to him as the manager's "newest babe."

From Baltimore, Ruth went to the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher and in 1920 to the New York Yankees. It was there he became a record-setting national hero and such a big draw that when Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, it was nicknamed "the house that Ruth built." In 1927, he slammed 60 home runs, a record that stood until Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961--but Ruth's season was eight games shorter. In 1930, he earned a then-unthinkable $80,000 a year-$5,000 more than President Herbert Hoover.

Married twice, Ruth was known for his enthusiastic social life and insatiable appetite for living. "I hit big or I miss big," he once said. "I like to live as big as I can." He retired from playing (by then with the Boston Braves) in 1935. When he died of throat cancer in 1948, his body lay inside the main entrance to Yankee Stadium, and more than 100,000 fans made the pilgrimage to pay their last respects.

Jim Thorpe MAY 28, 1888-MARCH 28, 1953 When King Gustav V of Sweden presented American athlete Jim Thorpe with medals for winning both the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics, the monarch declared, "You are the greatest athlete in the world." It was a description that was to follow Thorpe throughout his life as he excelled at playing professional football and major-league baseball as well as swimming, lacrosse, golf, tennis, boxing, and almost any other sport he tried. In 1950, more than 20 years after he quit professional sports, an Associated Press poll voted Thorpe the greatest male athlete of the first half of the 20th century--and the greatest football player as well.

But Thorpe's athletic glory was marred when he was forced to return his gold medals after it was disclosed that he had played semi-pro baseball in 1909 and 1910, violating his Olympics amateur status. His name was erased from the record books, and it was not until 1982 that the medals were restored to his family.

Thorpe, a Native American, was born in a one-room cabin near Prague, Oklahoma. He played football and began to run track while attending a school for Native Americans in Pennsylvania and was 24 when he competed in the Stockholm Olympics. After being stripped of his medals, he went on to play baseball with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Braves, and football with the Canton (Ohio) Bulldogs, the Cleveland Indians, and several other teams. He also was instrumental in forming the forerunner of the National Football League.

Thorpe died of a heart attack at 64 at his California home while eating dinner with his third wife. His body lay in state in Los Angeles dressed in a beaded buckskin jacket and moccasins. He was buffed in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, which later voted to change its name to Jim Thorpe.

ARTISTS Maria Callas DECEMBER 3, 1923--SEPTEMBER 16, 1977 Her glorious coloratura soprano voice thrilled millions, but opera star Mafia Callas was also celebrated for her extraordinary gift for drama--both on and off the stage. She was a temperamental diva with an explosive temper and tumultuous romantic life that included a long liaison with Greek shipping-magnate Aristotle Onassis, who left her to marry Jacqueline Kennedy.

The artist who generated so many headlines was born Mafia Kalogeropoulos in New York City, the daughter of recent Greek immigrants (her father shortened his name to Kalous, which later became Callas). It was a difficult childhood: Pudgy and nearsighted, she grew up in the shadow of an older sister, whom her mother clearly preferred. But at 8, she began music lessons and displayed such obvious talent that when she was 14, her mother returned to Greece with the two girls so Mafia could study singing there. She made her professional debut at 17 and at 18 sang Tosca. By the late 1940s, she had blossomed into a full-blown star and was recognized as one of the few voices this century who could sing the bel canto works from the early 19th century.

But Callas--who eventually slimmed down from 200 pounds to 130--also earned a reputation for being difficult. She canceled appearances, stormed off stage in mid-performance, and feuded with colleagues. Callas married only once, choosing the 26-years-older Giovanni Battista Meneghini, whom she met in Verona and who offered financial stability. In the late 1950s, she met Onassis and embarked on a tempestuous, jet-set affair, leading to her separation from Meneghini in 1959 (they didn't divorce until 1971).

Callas was reportedly shattered when Onassis left her for Jacqueline Kennedy and by one account suffered a nervous breakdown. Her last opera appearance was in 1965. She taught after that and retired completely in 1974. Three years later, she died alone in her Paris apartment. But her reputation endures in her recordings--and in Terence McNally's plays Master Class and The Lisbon Traviata, both of which are based on episodes from Callas' life.

Pablo Picasso OCTOBER 25, 1881-APRIL 8, 1973 He was the most famous and influential artist of the 20th century, a titanic talent whose prodigious output included paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramic works, illustrations, and lithographs. And with Georges Braque, he invented Cubism, with its use of geometric figures to show objects from more than one perspective.
 
 Picasso's personal life was as active as his professional one. He married twice and had a succession of mistresses, some of whom inspired his painting. He had a son by one wife, along with a son and two daughters out of wedlock, and famously characterized the women in his life as "goddesses or doormats."
 
 Born in Malaga, Spain, he learned painting from his artist father,
 who followed the classical Spanish tradition. Son quickly surpassed
 father, and in recognition of the boy's amazing talent, his father presented his own paints and brushes to the then-13-year-old and never painted again.
 
 In 1901, Pablo dropped his father's surname, Ruiz, and adopted his mother's name, Picasso. And, living in Paris and Barcelona, he began his "blue period," painting studies of the poor, sick, and elderly
 in shades of Prussian blue. This was followed by the gay "pink period" with harlequins and acrobats, then by sculpture, Cubism, and costume design for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. His most celebrated
 creation is generally considered to be 1937's Guernica, protesting the Nazi bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso worked right up until his death from pulmonary edema at his 35-room hilltop villa in Mougins, France. As evidence of his overwhelming output, he left in his personal collection alone 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 7,089 drawings, 3,222 ceramic works,
 and 17,411 prints. Numerous other works exist in collections around the world.
 By Janet Cawley staff writer for this magazine.

INSPIRATION Helen Keller JUNE 27, 1880--JUNE 1, 1968 If there is one person this century who has come to represent triumphant achievement in the face of physical disability, it is Helen Keller. Left blind, deaf, and unable to speak as a result of  an unidentified ailment contracted when she was 19 months old, Keller nonetheless went on to graduate cum laude from Radcliffe, write 14 books and innumerable magazine articles, deliver lectures, visit the White House, and travel the globe on behalf of the blind. It was for good reason that she became one of the most admired women in America--if not the world. The person who helped Keller achieve all this was her teacher, Annie Sullivan, who arrived when the then-unruly Helen was 6. In a moment immortalized in William Gibson's play (later a movie) The Miracle Worker, Sullivan finally connected Helen to the world by gushing water over the child's hand and then spelling W-A-T-E-R in her palm. Once Helen realized that everything had a name, she couldn't be stopped. Within six months, she'd learned the manual alphabet and could read Braille. She later learned how to read lips by touch (and claimed she could distinguish between a Southern accent and a Yankee drawl). She also learned to speak but was difficult to understand. Sullivan accompanied Keller to class at Radcliffe, "spelling" the class lectures into her hand. In 1904, after learning German, Latin, Greek, and French, Keller became the first deaf and blind person to receive a college degree. But Keller had dimensions beyond academics: She espoused many liberal causes, becoming an activist for sexual and racial equality. In 1916, Keller, a white Alabama-born woman, sent $100 to the NAACP. "I seldom think about my limitations," she once said, "and they never make me sad." Mother Teresa

AUGUST 27, 1910-SEPTEMBER 5, 1997 She was known as the Angel of Calcutta, a diminutive nun in a blue  and white cotton sari who devoted her life to the destitute and dying. "One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anyone," explained Mother Teresa, who gave dignity to the lowliest, comfort  to the hopeless, and love to all. Although barely 4'11", Mother Teresa was a giant of her time who never for one moment forgot those she had chosen to serve. When she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, her answer was typically humble. "I am unworthy," she said. "I accept in the name of the poor." The "living saint" who came to be so closely associated with India  was actually born in Albania as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. After joining an Irish convent, she was sent in 1929 as a novitiate to India, where she took her final vows and became Sister Teresa (after Therese, the patron saint of missionaries). In 1931, she began teaching geography at a Calcutta girls school, and then in 1946, while riding a train, she felt a call to "give up all and follow Jesus into the slums." First, she persuaded the Vatican to let her  live outside the cloister, and then in 1950 she got papal approval  to found the Missionaries of Charity. From that point on, Sister Teresa was Mother Teresa, and her order grew to encompass 4,000 nuns around the world. Her worldly possessions were few: a bedroll, three habits, a prayer book, and writing paper. In later years, her health was frail and her body bent. But the woman who said "I see God in every human being" never gave up tending the poorest of the poor. When she died, President Clinton praised her "conviction and her courage" and called her "an inspiration and a challenge to all the rest of us."

Anne Frank JUNE 12, 1929-MARCH 1945 She was only 15 when she died, but Anne Frank's words and indomitable spirit have touched millions around the world, personalizing both the horrors of the Holocaust and the strength of the human soul. The diary Anne kept from 1942 to '44 while hiding from the Nazis in the secret annex of an Amsterdam house has sold more than 25 million copies in 58 languages, inspired a movie and a Broadway play, and become a staple of school reading lists. With a  writing skill far beyond her years, Anne compellingly describes not only her family's frightened existence but also her own hopes and thoughts, grumblings and musings, reflections and coming-of-age observations. And despite the horrible circumstances, her touching  optimism shines through--as in her oft-quoted entry, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." Anne was born Anneliese Marie Frank in Frankfurt, Germany, the second daughter of Edith and Otto Frank. When Anne was 4, the family moved to Amsterdam, and when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands the  Franks, like other Jewish families, were increasingly restricted. In 1942--shortly after Anne received a diary for her 13th birthday--she, her sister Margot, her parents, and four others went into hiding in a secret annex behind her father's office. They survived there for two years until an anonymous phone caller disclosed their location to authorities. The group was sent first to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, and then Margot and Anne were transported to Bergen-Belsen in Germany, where both died of typhus  and starvation. Otto Frank, the only family member to survive, published Anne's diary in 1947. "It seems to me," she wrote in one of her first entries, "that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a 13-year-old girl." How wrong she was.

ADVENTURES Amelia Earhart JULY 24, 1897-1937 (?) What happened to Amelia Earhart? It's one of the century's most enduring-and intriguing-questions. Some 62 years after the world's  most famous female aviator vanished without a trace somewhere over  the Pacific, no one has conclusively solved the riddle. Earhart, a native of Kansas and daughter of the first woman to scale Pike's Peak, took her first ride in an airplane at 22, and it was love at first flight. In 1928, she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic--but as a passenger. She made her own solo flight across that ocean in 1932 and was the first woman to do so.  She also became the first woman to break the transcontinental speed record and the first to co-own an airline (with Eugene Vidal, father of author Gore Vidal). Pushing her along, as promoter and financier of her stunts, was publisher George Putnam, who married Earhart in  1931. An independent spirit at heart, though, she refused to wear a wedding ring or take his name. She also demanded the right to leave the marriage after a year if things didn't work out. In 1937, Earhart set out on what would prove to be her last adventure: an attempt to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. She never made it. Sometime after lifting off from Papua New Guinea--on the most dangerous leg of the journey--her plane vanished. Theories about what happened abound: She had been on a secret spying mission for the U.S. and was picked up and imprisoned by the Japanese; she died instantly in a crash; she landed on Saipan, where she and her navigator were shot by Japanese soldiers; she became the radio voice of Tokyo Rose; she happily lived out her life on a remote island with a native fisherman. One theory with some plausibility has her landing on the then-uninhabited island of Nikumaroro, where pieces of an aircraft and a shoe that seemed to match hers were later found. But to this day, no one knows for sure.

Charles Lindbergh FEB 4, 1902-AUGUST 26, 1974 When 25-year-old Charles Lindbergh landed his small silver plane in Paris on May 21, 1927, after completing the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic, he almost single-handedly ushered in the age of modern aviation. But he ushered in another era as well: that of the mass-media celebrity. The 100,000 cheering people awaiting him at Le Bourget Aerodrome were only the first of millions to be enthralled  by Lindbergh--much to the young aviator's chagrin. With his movie star looks, unassuming manner, and obvious courage,  Lindbergh, the son of a Minnesota congressman, could have been chosen by central casting to embody the American ideal. After all,  he'd flown the Atlantic in an astonishing 33 hours, 29 minutes, and 30 seconds--and solo, no less. The public (and press) were smitten  and couldn't get enough of this photogenic adventurer. Later he and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, would hold the media responsible for the kidnapping and murder of their first son, Charles, in 1932. But Lindbergh didn't stay the hero forever. During his life, his image altered repeatedly: From the dating flier nicknamed "Lucky Lindy" and the "Lone Eagle" who was honored with a huge parade down Broadway in Manhattan, he went on to be denounced by President Roosevelt for his isolationist stance before World War II. And a speech he gave in 1941 claiming that American Jews were dangerous tagged him as an and-Semite. In later years, he became involved in  the conservation movement, working to save endangered species, and  regained the public respect he'd lost. "If I had to choose," he wrote then, "I would rather have birds than airplanes." Daughter Reeve, one of his five surviving children, said that for her very private father, "fame was really painful." But she has also noted he experienced the adventures and excesses of the century "as few other human beings have done."

John Glenn JULY 18, 1921-- He's a true American hero, the embodiment of the Right Stuff, and John Glenn proved it not just once but twice. In 1962, as one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, the 40-year-old Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. Then in 1998, at 77, the former senator rode into space as a payload specialist aboard the shuttle  Discovery and became the oldest human ever to slip the bonds of our planet. He had lobbied long and hard to fly that mission, and as the Discovery reached orbit, its commander, Curtis Brown Jr., said, "Let
 the record show, John has a smile on his face, and it goes from one ear to the other one." For most of his life,John Glenn has been serving his country. A
 native of Cambridge, Ohio, who grew up in nearby New Concord, Glenn enlisted in the Marine Corps at 22 and flew more than 150 air missions in World War II and Korea, winning six Distinguished Flying
 Crosses and a string of other medals. Later, after his first launch
 into space, he served four terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio (when he ran in 1974, he carried all 88 of the state's counties).
 Glenn's personal life has always been all-American squeaky clean. He
 and wife Annie, his childhood sweetheart, have been married for 56 years and raised two children.
  But it's the space missions that brought Glenn the most fame. International interest in his last flight was so great that some 2,500 journalists crowded Gape Canaveral to cover it-including Walter Cronkite, who came out of retirement. Once again, the Rocket Man had captured our imagination.
  FASHION & BEAUTY Coco Chanel AUGUST 19, 1883--JANUARY 10, 1971 Say the name Chanel and you can instantly picture the style: the boxy trimmed suit, the quilted shoulder bag with chain straps, the  two-tone shoe, the little black dress, the swags of pearls. The designer who liberated women from corsets and got them into comfortable, practical clothes had a look as distinctive as her name. And nearly 30 years after her death, Chanel's fabric, cuts, and designs still rule the racks. Jeanne Gabrielle Chanel, the French genius who founded the first fashion empire, began life in poverty. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was 6, her father abandoned her, and she was  left to live as a charity ward in Catholic convents. The nuns did her at least one terrific favor: They taught her to sew. She began by running up military uniforms, then, bankrolled by a lover, opened a millinery shop in Parris and then several clothing  stores financed by yet another paramour (Chanel was rarely without  men in her life). Her designs were a great success, as was the perfume she launched in 1923 and named after herself: Chanel No. 5  (supposedly her lucky number). It was the world's first designer-label scent and remains popular today. From the outset, Chanel was shrewd enough to recognize the importance of personality and packaging when it came to selling her designs and perfumes.
 But her scandalous behavior during World War II led to a temporary
 downfall. Clearly anti-Semitic and unscrupulous in her financial dealings (she tried to use anti-Jewish laws to cheat Jewish partners in her perfume business), she also lived with a Nazi officer. After the war, she fled to Switzerland after being branded a traitor. But by 1954, Chanel had returned to France and staged a comeback at the age of 71, remaining atop the fashion industry until her death in Paris almost two decades later. She had, in her own words, "lived the life of the century."
  Estee Lauder JULY 1, c.1908-- Known as the queen of the cosmetics industry, Estee Lauder went from selling her chemist uncle's homemade face cream in New York City beauty parlors to heading a $3.5 billion company producing fragrances, makeup, skin-care products, and men's toiletries. In 118 countries around the world, customers recognize and enthusiastically buy Estee Lauder products. Lauder was born Josephine Esther Menzer, and although she refuses to reveal the year ("it's the best kept secret since the D-Day invasion," she wrote in her autobiography),  it's generally believed to be 1908. The daughter of Eastern European immigrants, she grew up in unfashionable Corona in the New York borough of Queens. During the Depression, she peddled her uncle's face creams, which she later learned to concoct herself on the family stove. She knew she'd found her calling. In 1930, Esther married Joseph Lauter (he later changed the spelling to Lauder). They divorced in 1939, but remarried in 1942 and were parents of two sons. In 1946, the enterprising couple founded Estee Lauder Inc. and that same year got a big order from Saks Fifth Avenue. Estee became convinced that the best way to sell her products was through top-line department stores, and over the following years she traveled the country, selecting and training staff for her counters and never hesitating to do makeup demonstrations herself. She also pioneered the "free gift with purchase" promotion, now considered almost mandatory in the cosmetics industry. Joseph Lauder died in 1983, and Estee's sons and grandchildren now  run the family business, which controls more than 40% of the cosmetics market in U.S. department stores. Since breaking a hip in 1994, she has rarely been seen in public. But her name--and reputation for quality products--remains known around the globe.

SOCIAL REVOLUTIONARIES Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. JANUARY 15, 1929--APRIL 4, 1968 I have a dream," the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in one of the most famous speeches in American history, "that my four little  children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."  He gave his life for that principle--but not before he had led the  civil-rights movement through its most crucial years and forever changed the course of this nation. The son and grandson of ministers, King was schooled in both church teachings and the nonviolent doctrine of Mohandas Gandhi. He never  wavered in his devotion to both, despite 14 jailings, numerous death threats, and the constant insults of racial discrimination. King, who graduated from Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University (where he earned a Ph.D. and met his wife, Coretta Scott), led the boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in the mid-1950s. In 1957, he was appointed head of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In the ensuing years, he repeatedly organized and led protests, marches, and voter-registration drives in Southern cities, determined that racial equality would be achieved through nonviolent means. In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and proclaimed in his  acceptance speech, "Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." A strike by city workers brought him to Memphis in April 1968, where he was shot and killed as he stood on his motel balcony. James Earl Ray eventually pleaded guilty to the killing but later recanted. In 1983, King's birthday was declared a national holiday, honoring  the man, his leadership, and his dream. Margaret Sanger

SEPTEMBER 14, 1879-SEPTEMBER 6, 1966 When Margaret Sanger opened this country's first birth-control clinic in Brooklyn in the fall of 1916, she was arrested within days--but not before 500 women lined up around the block to get information or be fitted with rudimentary contraceptives. For Sanger, it was only one more milestone in her crusade to give women control over their bodies--a campaign that helped hasten the women's-liberation movement and made family planning a fact of life for millions of Americans. The issue was a personal one for Sanger: She had seen her own mother die at 50 after being ravaged by 11 births and 7 miscarriages. Later, as a practical nurse and midwife in the poorest neighborhoods of Manhattan, she saw women die after back-alley and self-induced abortions--and determined to give others a choice about contraception. Many disagreed, of course--especially the Catholic Church (it didn't help that she once called the pope a busybody bachelor)--and she deliberately violated the laws of the land, leading to eight arrests. Sanger's own life was decidedly idiosyncratic--and some would say selfish. Although she began with a conventional marriage at 21 to architect William Sanger and produced two sons and a daughter (the  daughter died of pneumonia at 5), she later divorced her husband to enjoy a stable of lovers, including author H.G. Wells. A somewhat indifferent mother, she later wrote that fame was her "intoxicant." A marriage in her 40s to wealthy J. Noah H. Slee helped bankroll her cause. But Sanger maintained a separate residence and refused to change her name. In 1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League (today known as the Planned Parenthood Federation), and in the 1950s she coaxed a philanthropist into funding development of the birth-control pill. When she died--almost exactly 50 years after opening that first Brooklyn clinic-her legacy was the widespread belief that women should control their own destinies.

Rosa Parks FEB 4, 1913-- On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks left her job in Montgomery, Alabama, and boarded a bus to go home. When the bus became crowded, the driver ordered her to give her seat to a white man. She refused. And thus began a revolution. Parks later denied stories that fatigue prompted her actions. "People always say I didn't give up my seat because I was tired," she explained. "But that isn't true. No, the only tired I was, was  fired of giving in." Parks, a longtime community activist who had served as secretary of the local chapter of the NAACP, was arrested. She agreed to use her case to challenge the constitutionality of the city's segregation law, which decreed that African Americans must board and sit at the rear of the bus--and were expected to give up  their seats to whites. The African-American community quickly mobilized, led by Martin Luther King Jr., and began a boycott of Montgomery's buses that lasted 381 days. It finally ended on December 21, 1956, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional. That same day, a famous picture (right) was taken of Parks seated in front of a white man on a city bus. She was acclaimed the mother of the civil-rights revolution. But Parks lost her job, and in 1957 she and her husband, Raymond, moved to Detroit, where he died in 1977. A courageous symbol of dignity in the face of injustice, she has been repeatedly honored with awards and honorary degrees, including the Congressional Gold  Medal of Honor, which was presented by President Clinton last summer. Her own explanation for her actions is simple: "I had decided," she wrote, "that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen."