Who is the important to the US?

Answer 1

Ansel Adams

- Photographer whose natural landscapes of the West are also a

statement about the importance of the preservation of the

wildness.

Samuel Adams- Bostonian American Revolutionary War leader, Political organizer, and journalist who helped to organize the Sons of Liberty and the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence.

- Associated with the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.

- Member of the Continental Congress and signer of the

Declaration of Independence.

Jane Addams- Progressive Era reformer in the social settlement house

Movement.

- Founder of Hull House, a Chicago settlement house.

- Cofounder and first president of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

- Corecipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).

- Involved in organizing of the NAACP.

Susan B. Anthony- Women's rights leader from 1851 until her death in 1906.

- Most active for women's suffrage, but also worked for

women's property rights and rights of married women.

Yasir Arafat- Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who met

with President Clinton and Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin in 1993

to achieve steps toward peace in the Middle East.

Klaus Barbie- Nazi war criminal who was apprehended after World War II and tried for his wartime brutality towards Jews.

- Known as the "Butcher of Lyons". (France)

John Brown- Extreme abolitionist who believed in use of violence to promote his cause.

- Became nationally known after his antislavery group killed proslavery settlers at the Pottawatomie Creek Massacre.

- His raid against a federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry led to his trial and execution.

- Considered a martyr by some antislavery groups and was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson in John Brown's Body.

William Jennings Bryan- Unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in 1896 and 1900.

- Populist who supported farmers and free silver.

- Orator, religious fundamentalist (Scopes Trial), and anti-imperialist.

John C. Cathoun- Outspoken southern leader and advocate of states' rights.

- Favored nullification and the extension of slavery into the territories.

- Vice President under Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; resigned over nullification issue.

- Secretary of state under President Tyler; successfully pressed for Texas annexation; opposed Mexican War and California statehood.

Andrew Carnegie- Industrial and philanthropist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

- Built Carnegie Steel Company (later part of U.S. Steel).

Willa Cather- Writer of stories and novels about the struggle and the strength of the pioneers settling the frontier.

- Won 1922 Pulitzer Prize for One Of Ours.

- Best known for O Pioneers! (1913), My Antonia (1918), and Death Comes to the Archbishop (1927).

Cesar Chavez- Latino leader of California farm workers from 1962 until his death in 1933.

- Organized the United Farm Workers (UFW) to help migrant farm workers gain better pay and working conditions.

Winston Churchill- Prime minister of Great Britain during World war II. Father Charles Coughlin- Roman Catholic priest who his weekly radio program to attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal Programs.

- Lost popularity because of his profascist, anti-Semetic views; ordered by the Roman Catholic in 1942 to stop his political actions.

Eugene V. Debs- Union organizer and socialist presidential candidate in every election from the 1890s until World War I. Dorothea Dix- Nineteenth- century Massachusetts socialist reformer who revolutionized mental health reform.

- Superintendent of U.S. Army nurses in Civil War.

Stephen Douglas- Illinois Senator and excellent public speaker.

- His Kansas-Nebraska Act included his idea of popular sovereignty, which increased sectional tension.

- Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois race for Senate made Lincoln nationally known.

- Candidate for Northern faction of Democratic party in 1860 election.

W.E.B. Du Bois- African American civil rights leader, historian, writer, sociologist.

- Cofounder of the Niagara Movement for racial equality and of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

- A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

- Published the poetry and stories of black writers in "The Crisis", publication of the NAACP.

- Disagreed with views of Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey as to how African Americans should go about securing equal rights.

John Foster Dulles- Secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower.

- Made famous the concept of brinkmanship, a foreign policy that brought the United States just to brink of war.

Adolf Eichmann- Nazi war criminal.

- Captured in Argentina after World War II.

- Tried and executed in Israel for the deaths of millions of Jews during World War II.

Duke Ellington- Songwriter, band leader, jazz composer, pianist, and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

- Helped popularize American music around the world.

- Famous songs include "Take The A Train", "Mood Indigo", and "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Medgar Evers- African American activist and NAACP field secretary.

- Murdered in Mississippi in 1963 by a sniper outside his house.

F. Scott Fitzgerald- Novelist whose works reflects climate of the "roaring twenties".

- Novels include "The great Gatsby", "The Side of Paradise", and "Tender is the Night."

Henry Ford- Industrialist who headed Ford Motor Company.

- His innovative production methods reduced the cost of producing cars, making it possible for the average person to own an automobile.

Benjamin Franklin- Philadelphia statesman, diplomat, scientist, writer in revolutionary period.

- Drafted the 1754 Albany Plan of Union.

- Member of Second Continental congress; served on committee to write the Declaration of Independence, which he signed.

- Helped persuade France to sign the 1778 Treaty Of Alliance against England.

- Helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris of 1783, ending American Revolution.

- Influential Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention.

Sigmund Frued- Austrian psychiatrist who developed psychoanalysis.

- Theories emphasized the importance of sexual freedom; influenced attitudes of the 1920s.

Marcus Garvey- African American nationalist leader who advocated pride and self-help as a means of empowerment.

- Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, a nationalist and separatist group that wanted a separate black economy and urged African Americans to emigrate to Africa.

Samuel Gompers- Organizer and president of American Federation of Labor, a craft union for skilled workers.

- Stressed "bread and butter" issues such as wages and hours.

Alexander Hamilton- New York delegate at Constitutional Convention who worked for a strong central government.

- Wrote 51 of "The Federalist Papers" in support of ratification of the Constitution.

- First secretary of the treasury: promoted national economic development.

William Randolph Hearst- Newspaper publisher whose style of journalism became known as yellow journalism.

- Helped create public pressure for Spanish-American War.

Ernest Hemingway- Novelist whose writings expressed conflict and concern created by changing American values.

- 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature winner.

Patrick Henry- Leader in the American Revolution in Virginia.

- As a member of Virginia House of Burgesses, introduced resolutions opposing the Stamp Act.

- Member of Continental Congress; supporter of independence.

- Opposed Constitution because of belief that it gave too much power to the federal government.

- Led movement for addition of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution.

Alger Hiss- Former State Department official investigated as a possible Communist spy by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

- Convicted of perjury in 1950.

- Prosecution by Richard Nixon made Nixon a national figure early in his career.

Langston Hughes- Poet, playwright, and novelist who wrote about the African American experience, especially that of the poor and working class.

- A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

Chiang Kai-shek- Attorney general (1961-1963) and brother of President John F. Kennedy.

- Assassinated in June 1968.

Martin Luther King Jr.

- Civil rights leader who advocated civil disobedience and nonviolent demonstrations as methods for achieving change.

- Founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957.

- Led bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

- Led march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights.

- Gave "I have A Dream" speech in Washington D.C.

- Won Nobel Peace Prize.

- Assassinated in 1968.

Henry Kissinger- secretary of state under President Nixon and Ford.

- Deeply involved in foreign policy in Vietnam, China, the soviet Union and the Middle east.

Robert La Follette- Governor of Wisconsin whose program, the "Wisconsin Idea", became the model for progressive reform.

- Served as United States Senator and Progressive leader.

- Ran for President as the Progressive party candidate in 1924.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark- Explorers who led the 1804-1806 expedition to survey lands included in the Louisiana Purchase.

- Documented the land, plants, animals, and other natural resources from Missouri to Oregon in maps, diaries, and drawings.

Sinclair Lewis- Novelist whose work Main Street attacked middle class values.

- First American to win Nobel Prize for Literature (1930).

John Locke- British Enlightenment writer whose ideas influenced the Declaration of Independence, state constitutions, and the United States Constitution.

- Believed that people are born free with certain natural rights including the right to life, liberty, and property.

Henry Cabot Lodge- Massachusetts Republican senator whose support of the American imperialism and of a powerful navy strongly influenced Theodore Roosevelt.

- As chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Majority and entry of the United States into the League of Nations.

- Served as a U.S. representative to Washington Conference.

Huey Long- Populist governor of Louisiana and U.S. senator.

- Proposed that income and inheritance taxes on the wealthy be used to give each American a $2,500 income, a car and a college education.

- Planned to challenge FDR for President, but was assassinated in 1935.

Douglas MacArthur- Led U.S. troops in the Pacific in World War II.

- Commander of U.S. occupation forces in Japan after World War II.

- Relieved of command by Truman after publicly disagreeing with him about the conduct of the Korean War.

Malcolm X- Leader of the 1960s Black Power movement.

- Assassinated in 1965.

George C. Marshall- Army chief of staff during World War II and Secretary of state under President Truman.

- Promoted the Marshall Plan, which assisted the economic recovery of Europe after World War II.

John Marshall- Chief Justice of the Untied States (!801-1835)

- Established prestige of the Supreme Court and strengthened power of federal government in cases such as Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden.

- First stated the right of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Cotton Mather- New England Puritan associated with the concept of the Puritan work ethic (meaning that hard work is its own reward) and an appreciation of thrift and industry.

- Supported the Salem witch trials.

Joseph R. McCarthy- Republican Senator of the late 1940s and early 1950s who led a campaign to root out suspected Communists in American life.

- The term McCarthyism came to be associated with an era of government investigation of the private lives of many in public service and in the entertainment industry.

Baron de Montesquieu- French Enlightenment philosopher who admired the British system of republican government.

- Influence is seen in separation of powers and in the checks and balances provisions in the Constitution.

John Muir- Naturalist, conservationist, and writer who influenced President Theodore Roosevelt to protect more land.

- Founder of the Sierra Club.

Frank Norris- Naturalist writer whose 1901 novel, "The Octopus", told of the struggle between railroad and California wheat growers. Robert Oppenheimer- Physicist who led the American effort to build the first atomic bomb in the 1940s. Thomas Plaine- English-born writer and political philosopher whose influential pamphlet "Common sense" (1776) pressed for independence from Great Britain. Rosa Parks- African American civil rights activist.

- Her refusal, in 1955, to give up her seat to a white person led to the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and helped to launch the Civil Rights Movement.

Frances Perkins- Social reformer and political leader.

- Named secretary of labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, becoming the first woman to serve a cabinet position.

H. Ross Perot- Third-party candidate and billionaire businessman who challenged George Bush and Bill Clinton for the presidency in 1992 with new ideas about balancing the federal budget and about other economic issues. Matthew Perry- Led 1853-1854 naval mission to open Japan to world trade.

- Negotiated Treaty of Kanagawa, which gave the United States trading rights with Japan.

Gifford Pinchot- Conservationist and politician who led the Division of Forestry of the Department of agriculture under President Theodore Roosevelt. Joseph Pulitzer- Publisher of the "New York Journal", whose "yellow journalism" in a circulation war with William Randolph Hearst helped provoke the Spanish American War. Yitzhak Rabin- Prime minister of Israel who signed a peace agreement with PLO leader Yasir Arafat in 1933 as a result of President Clinton's efforts.

- Assassinated in 1995.

Jacob Riis- Journalist, photographer, and social reformer of the Progressive Era.

- Documented life in New York's tenements in his 1890 book, "How The Other Half lives."

- Used writings and photographs to show the need for better housing for the poor.

Jackie Robinson- Professional baseball player.

- Became the First African American to play in Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

John D. Rockefeller- Industrialist and philanthropist.

- Founder of the Standard Oil Company.

Nelson A. Rockefeller- Former governor of New York who was appointed Vice President by President Gerald Ford in 1974.

- Only nonelected Vice President to serve with a nonelected President.

Eleanor Roosevelt- Political activist and First Lady.

- Early and long-time activist for rights for African Americans and women during the New Deals as First Lady and as political activist on her own.

- Played a key role in creation of United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and heading the UN Commission on Human Rights (1961).

- Chaired the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women during the Kennedy Administration.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg- Convicted and executed for treason in 1953 during the era of McCarthyism.

- Possible innocence is still debated.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau- French Enlightenment philosopher.

- Influenced the Declaration of Independence with his arguments in support of government by the consent of the governed.

Sacajawea- Native American guide for part of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

- Honored in 2000 with her image on a dollar coin.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

- Italian immigrants and anarchists executed for armed robbery and murder at the height of the antiradical, anti-immigrant feelings of the 1920s.

- Cleared by the Massachusetts governor in 1977, some 50 years later.

Margaret Sanger-Pioneering advocate of birth control.

- Organized first American birth control conference in 1921.

- Founder of a birth-control lobbying group that became Planned Parenthood in 1942.

Upton Sinclar- Muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era.

- Influenced the passage of the 1906 Meat Inspection act with his novel "The Jungle", which deals with the exploitation of the poor and the factory conditions that led to contaminated meat.

Alfred E. Smith- Reform governor of New York and first Catholic to run for President.

- Lost to Hoover in the 1928 election, largely because voters did not want a Catholic President and because Smith favored repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.

- Right-wing conservative Democrat who helped organized American Liberty League (1934) and opposed New Deal.

Bessie Smith- Harlem renaissance blues singer known as the "Empress of the Blues".

- Recorded with prominent jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton- Leading crusader for women's rights; also for abolition and temperance.

- Began women's rights movement with Seneca Falls Convention in New York 1848.

- Wrote Declaration of Sentiments (1848).

- With Susan B. Anthony, cofounded the National woman Suffrage Association and coedited "Revolution", a woman's rights journal.

Lincoln Steffens- Muckraking journalist, editor, and reformer.

- Wrote about corruption in government and business in his 1906 novel, "The Shame of the Cities."

John Steinbeck- Author whose novels often deal with problems of the working class during the Great Depression.

- "The Grapes of Wraith" (Pulitzer Prize, 1939) describes the effect of the drought that created the Dust Bowl on a group of farmers forced to leave Oklahoma and work as migrant laborers in California.

Ida Tarbell- Muckraking journalist of the Progressive Era.

- Her History of Standard Oil Company exposed Rockefeller's unfair and often ruthless business practices.

Norman Thomas- Political leader, minister, pacifist who ran six times as Socialist party candidate for President.

- Supporter of moderate social reform, strongly anticommunist.

- Helped organize the American Civil Liberties Union and urged nuclear disarmament.

Dr. Francis Townsend- Opponent of the New Deal.

- Promoted a financially impossible plan to provide government pensions for the elderly.

Mark Twain- author and humorist of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, famous, in part, for his homespun stories about life along the Mississippi River.

- Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel L. Clemens.

Voltaire- French Enlightenment philosopher who praised British institutions and rights.

- Influenced framers of the Constitution.

- Wrote against religious intolerance and persecution.

Earl Warren- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-1969)

- Landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizona marked his tenure.

Booker T. Washington- African American educator, author, and leader.

- Founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881.

- Author of Up From Slavery.

- Urged vocational education and self-improvement rather than confrontation as the way for African Americans to gain racial equality.

Ida Wells-Barnett- African American journalist, suffragist, and reformer.

- Launched a national crusade against lynching in the 1890s.

- Cofounder of the NAACP and of the National Association of Colored Women.

Edith Wharton- 1920s novelist who expressed concern about old versus new values in books such as "The Age of Innocence" (1921). Mao Zedong- Leader of the communist Chinese government from 1949 until his death in 1976.

- Met with President Nixon on Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972.

John Peter Zenger- German immigrant, printer and journalist.

- Tried for criminal libel for criticizing New York governor in his paper, jury found him not guilty on the grounds that he had printed the truth.

- His case was an early step in establishing freedom of the press.