Portal:New York City/Selected biography

Portal:New York City/Selected biography/1

Jerome David Salinger (/ˈsælɪndʒər/ SAL-in-jər; January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010), known as J. D. Salinger, was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980.

Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his novel The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.

The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953); a volume containing a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961); and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

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Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. He served as Brooklyn Dodgers chief legal counsel when Jackie Robinson broke the racial color barrier in 1947. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Missouri.

For this, he was long vilified by Brooklyn Dodgers fans. However, neutral parties describe him as a visionary for the same business action, and many authorities cite him as one of the most influential sportsmen of the 20th century. His detractors who say that he was not a visionary, but instead a man who was in the right place at the right time, still regard him as the most powerful and influential owner in baseball after moving the team. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.

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Zabdiel Judah (born October 27, 1977) is an American professional boxer, who is a former IBF and WBO junior welterweight champion and former undisputed welterweight champion and is ranked #7 in the welterweight division by The Ring. After compiling an amateur record of 110–5, Judah turned professional in 1996. On February 12, 2000, Judah won the IBF junior welterweight title by defeating Jan Piet Bergman by fourth round knockout. He successfully defended the IBF title five times before losing to Kostya Tszyu by second round technical knockout on November 3, 2001. Judah's actions after the fight, which included throwing a stool across the ring and sticking his gloved fist into referee Jay Nady's neck, resulted in him being fined $75,000 and a six month suspension.

On July 12, 2003, Judah defeated DeMarcus Corley by split decision to win the WBO junior welterweight title. He made one successful defense of the WBO title before moving up to welterweight. On April 10, 2004, Judah lost by unanimous decision to Cory Spinks for the undisputed welterweight championship, but Judah would defeat Spinks by ninth round technical knockout in a rematch ten months later. After defeating Cosme Rivera by third round technical knockout, Judah was upended by Carlos Baldomir on January 7, 2006.

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Jonathan Allen Lethem (born February 19, 1964) is an American writer. Born in Brooklyn, Lethem trained to be an artist before moving to California and devoting his time to writing. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published The Fortress of Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller. Lethem is also a prolific essayist and short story writer. Lethem was the eldest of three children; his brother, Blake, is an artist, and his sister, Mara, is a photographer and writer. Lethem was raised in a commune in the pre-gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill

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Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929 – July 2, 2007) was an American operatic soprano who enjoyed success in the 1960s and 1970s. She was famous for her performances in coloratura soprano roles in operas around the world and on recordings. After retiring from singing in 1980, she became the general manager of the New York City Opera. In 1994, she became the Chairman of Lincoln Center and then, in 2002, of the Metropolitan Opera, stepping down in 2005. Sills lent her celebrity to further her charity work for the prevention and treatment of birth defects.

Sills was born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, New York to Shirley Bahn (née Sonia Markovna), a musician, and Morris Silverman, an insurance broker. Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Odessa and Bucharest, Romania. She was raised in Brooklyn, where she was known, among friends, as "Bubbles" Silverman. As a child, she spoke Yiddish, Russian, Romanian, French and English. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, as well as Manhattan's Professional Children's School.

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Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22, 1930) is an American musical and film composer and lyricist, winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven, more than any other composer) and the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. He has been described by Frank Rich in the The New York Times as "the greatest and perhaps best-known artist in the American musical theatre." His most famous scores include (as composer/lyricist) A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, and Assassins, as well as the lyrics for West Side Story and Gypsy. He was president of the Dramatists Guild from 1973 to 1981. Stephen Sondheim was born to Herbert and Janet ("Foxy") Sondheim, in New York City, New York, and grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and later on a farm in Pennsylvania. Herbert was a dress manufacturer and Foxy designed the dresses. An only child of well-to-do parents living in a high-rise apartment on Central Park West, Sondheim's childhood has been portrayed as isolated and emotionally neglected in Meryle Secrest's biography, Stephen Sondheim: A Life.

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Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, socialite, television personality, and author. He is the Chairman and CEO of the Trump Organization, a US-based real-estate developer. Trump is also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which operates numerous casinos and hotels across the world. Trump's extravagant lifestyle and outspoken manner have made him a celebrity for years, a status which was only amplified by the success of his NBC reality show, The Apprentice (of which he serves as host and executive producer). Donald was the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, a wealthy real estate developer based in New York City.

Trump was strongly influenced by his father in his eventual goals to make a career in real estate development, and upon his graduation from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, Trump joined his father's company, The Trump Organization. Starting with the renovation of the Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt with the Pritzker family, he continued with Trump Tower in New York City and several other residential projects. Trump would later expand into the airline industry (buying the Eastern Shuttle routes), and Atlantic City casino business, including buying the Taj Mahal Casino from the Crosby family, then taking it into bankruptcy.

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Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg on December 1, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, comedian, and playwright. Allen's distinctive films, which run the gamut from intense dramas to screwball sex comedies, have made him one of the most respected living American directors. He is also distinguished by his rapid rate of production and his very large body of work. Allen writes and directs his movies and has also acted in the majority of them. For inspiration, Allen draws heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, European cinema, and New York City, where he was born and has lived his entire life.

Allen is also a jazz clarinetist. What began as a teenage avocation has led to regular public performances at various small venues in his Manhattan hometown, with occasional appearances at various jazz festivals. Allen joined the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans Funeral Ragtime Orchestra in performances that provided the film score for his 1973 comedy Sleeper, and a rare European tour in 1996 featuring Allen was the subject of the documentary Wild Man Blues.

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Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician of the Democratic Party. He served as Governor of New York from January 2007 until his resignation on March 17, 2008 in the wake of his involvement in a high-priced prostitution ring. Prior to being elected governor, Spitzer served as New York State Attorney General.

Spitzer was born and raised in Riverdale, in the Bronx borough of New York City, to real estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer and Anne Spitzer, an English literature professor. He attended Princeton University for his undergraduate studies and Harvard University for law school. It was there that he met his future wife, Silda Wall. After earning his Juris Doctor degree, Spitzer joined the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Two years later, he joined the Manhattan district attorney's office, headed by Robert M. Morgenthau, to pursue organized crime. He launched the investigation that brought down the Gambino family's control over Manhattan's garment and trucking industries. In 1992, Spitzer left to work at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and, later, Constantine and Partners.

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Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757 – July 12, 1804) was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher. He led calls for the Philadelphia Convention, was one of America's first Constitutional lawyers, and cowrote the Federalist Papers, a primary source for Constitutional interpretation.

Born on the British West Indian island of Nevis, Hamilton was educated in the Thirteen Colonies. During the American Revolutionary War, he joined the American militia and was chosen artillery captain. Hamilton became senior aide-de-camp and confidant to General George Washington, and led three battalions at the Siege of Yorktown. He was elected to the Continental Congress, but resigned to practice law and to found the Bank of New York. He served in the New York Legislature, was the only New York signer at the Philadelphia Convention, and later returned to Congress. As Washington's Treasury Secretary, he influenced formative government policy widely. An admirer of British political systems, Hamilton emphasized strong central government and Implied Powers, under which the new U.S. Congress funded the national debt, assumed state debts, created a national bank, and established an import tariff and whiskey tax.

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Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16, 1953 in New York City), often abbreviated "rms" is an American software freedom activist, hacker (programmer), and software developer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, and has been the project's lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he started the free software movement and, in October 1985, set up the Free Software Foundation.

Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft and is the main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license. Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time advocating for free software, as well as campaigning against both software patents and what he sees as excessive extension of copyright laws. Stallman has also developed a number of pieces of widely used software, including the original Emacs, the GNU Compiler Collection, and the GNU Debugger. He co-founded the League for Programming Freedom in 1989.

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Henry Edwards (August 27, 1827 – June 9, 1891), known as "Harry", was an English-born stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theater work. Edwards was drawn to the theater early in life, and he appeared in amateur productions in London. Edwards appeared professionally in Shakespearean plays and comedies primarily in Melbourne and Sydney. Throughout his childhood in England and his acting career in Australia, he was greatly interested in collecting insects, and the National Museum of Victoria used the results of his Australian fieldwork as part of the genesis of their collection.

Edwards was a founding member of the Bohemian Club, and a gathering in Edwards' honor was the spark which began the club's traditional summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove. As well, Edwards cemented his reputation as a preeminent stage actor and theater manager. After writing a series of influential studies on Pacific Coast butterflies and moths he was elected life member of the California Academy of Sciences. Relocating to the East Coast, Edwards earned further renown in New York City. There, Edwards edited three volumes of the journal Papilio and published a major work about the life of the butterfly. His large collection of insect specimens served as the foundation of the American Museum of Natural History's butterfly and moth studies. Edwards discovered specimens not yet classified, which led to a number of butterfly, moth and beetle species bearing "Hy. Edw." as an attribution.

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Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, New York. As the shaper of a modern city, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and is one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban planning in the United States. Although he never held elected office, Moses was arguably the most powerful person in New York state government from the 1930s to the 1950s. He changed shorelines, built roadways in the sky, and transformed neighborhoods forever. His decisions favoring highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation.

Moses' projects were considered by many to be necessary for the region's development. During the height of his powers, New York City participated in the construction of two huge World's Fairs: one in 1939 and the other in 1964. Moses was also in large part responsible for the United Nations' decision to headquarter in Manhattan as opposed to Philadelphia. His supporters believe he made the city viable for the 21st century by building an infrastructure that most people wanted and that has endured.

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Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio host, television personality, humorist, writer and media mogul. Stern hosts The Howard Stern Show four days a week (Monday–Thursday) on Howard 100, a SIRIUS Satellite Radio station. The self-proclaimed "King of All Media" has been dubbed a shock jock for his highly controversial use of scatological, sexual, and racial humor. Stern has said that the show was never about shocking people, but primarily intended to offer his honest opinions on a gamut of issues (ranging from world affairs to problems among his own staff). Though controversial, he is the highest-paid radio personality in the United States and the most fined personality in radio broadcast history. He is best known for his national radio show, which for many years was syndicated on FM radio stations (and a few AM stations) throughout the United States until his last terrestrial radio broadcast on December 16, 2005. He began broadcasting on the subscription-based Sirius satellite radio service on January 9, 2006.

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Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was an American artist and a central figure in the movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, an avant-garde filmmaker, a record producer, an author, and a public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats. Warhol's art encompassed many forms of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He was also a pioneer in computer-generated art using Amiga computers that were introduced in 1984, two years before his death. He founded Interview Magazine and was the author of numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. He is also notable as a gay man who lived openly as such before the gay liberation movement. His studio, The Factory, was a famous gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame". Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$105 million for a 1963 canvas titled "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)". A 2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market". Warhol's works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.

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Michael Bernard Mukasey (/mjuːˈkeɪzi/; born July 28, 1941) is a lawyer and former judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States. Mukasey, an American lawyer, was appointed following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. He is the recipient of several awards, most notably the Learned Hand Medal of the Federal Bar Council.

Mukasey's father was born near Baranavichy in the Russian Empire (modern-day Belarus) and emigrated to the US in 1921. Mukasey was born in the Bronx in 1941 and graduated in 1959 from the Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school in Manhattan, and is currently an Orthodox Jew. His wife, Susan, was later a teacher and headmistress of the lower school at Ramaz, and both of their children (Marc and Jessica) attended the school.

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Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), best known as The Notorious B.I.G., Biggie, or Biggie Smalls, was an American rapper. Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. When he released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, Wallace became a central figure in the East Coast hip-hop scene and increased New York's visibility at a time when West Coast artists were more common in the mainstream. The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud, dominating the scene at the time.

On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc set Life After Death, released 15 days later, hit #1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000. Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow", dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities. Since his death, a further two albums have been released. MTV ranked him at #3 on their list of The Greatest MCs (Rappers) of All Time.

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George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), as well as the opera, Porgy and Bess (1935).

He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works, including more than a dozen Broadway shows, in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin. George Gershwin composed music for both Broadway and the classical concert hall, as well as popular songs that brought his work to an even wider public. His compositions have been used in numerous films and on television, and many became jazz standards recorded in numerous variations. Countless singers and musicians have recorded Gershwin songs.

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Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig (June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941), nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams (23). Gehrig is chiefly remembered for his prowess as a hitter, his consecutive games-played record and its subsequent longevity, and the pathos of his farewell from baseball at age 36, when he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A native of New York City, he played for the New York Yankees until his career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), now commonly known in the United States and Canada as Lou Gehrig's disease. Over a 15-season span from 1925 through 1939, he played in 2,130 consecutive games, the streak ending only when Gehrig became disabled by the fatal neuromuscular disease that claimed his life two years later. His streak, long considered one of baseball's few unbreakable records, stood for 56 years, until finally broken by Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles on September 6, 1995.

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Malcolm X (/ˈmælkəm ˈɛks/; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎‎), was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Malcolm X's expressed beliefs changed substantially over time. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and advocated separation of black and white Americans—in contrast to the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration. After breaking with the Nation of Islam in 1964—saying of his association with it, "I was a zombie then ... pointed in a certain direction and told to march"—and becoming a Sunni Muslim, he disavowed racism and expressed willingness to work with civil rights leaders, though still emphasizing black self-determination and self defense.

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Derek Sanderson Jeter (/ˈdʒiːtər/; born June 26, 1974) is an American baseball shortstop who has played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. A five-time World Series champion, Jeter has been a central figure of the Yankees during their success of the 1990s and 2000s due to his clubhouse presence, on-field leadership, hitting ability, and baserunning. He is the Yankees' all-time career leader in hits (3,110), games played (2,426), stolen bases (329), and at bats (9,868). His accolades include twelve All-Star selections, five Gold Glove Awards, four Silver Slugger Awards, two Hank Aaron Awards, and the Roberto Clemente Award. Jeter is the all-time MLB leader in hits by a shortstop, and the 28th player to reach 3,000 hits.

The Yankees drafted Jeter out of high school in 1992, and he debuted in the major leagues in 1995. The following year, he became the Yankees' starting shortstop, won the Rookie of the Year Award, and helped the team win the 1996 World Series. Jeter continued to contribute to the team's championship seasons of 1998–2000; he finished third in voting for the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1998, recorded multiple career-high numbers in 1999, and won both the All-Star Game MVP and World Series MVP Awards in 2000. He has consistently placed among the AL leaders in hits and runs scored for the past ten years, and since 2003, he has served as the Yankees' team captain.

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Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an Academy and Emmy-award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Charlie Wilson's War, The Social Network, Moneyball and The Newsroom.

In television, Sorkin is known as a controlling writer who rarely shares the credit of penning screenplays. His trademark rapid-fire dialogue and extended monologues are complemented, in television, by frequent collaborator Thomas Schlamme's characteristic directing technique called the "walk and talk". These sequences consist of single tracking shots of long duration involving multiple characters engaging in conversation as they move through the set; characters enter and exit the conversation as the shot continues without any cuts.

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Sanford "Sandy" Koufax (/ˈkoʊfæks/; born Sanford Braun; December 30, 1935) is a retired American baseball left-handed pitcher, who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. He retired at the peak of his career, and in 1972 became the youngest player ever elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Koufax's career peaked with a run of six outstanding seasons from 1961 to 1966, before arthritis in his left elbow ended his career prematurely at age 30. He was named the National League's (NL) Most Valuable Player in 1963. He also won the 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Awards unanimously, making him the first 3-time Cy Young winner in baseball history and the only one to win 3 times when the award was for all of baseball, not just one league. In each of his Cy Young seasons, Koufax won the pitcher's triple crown by leading the NL in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average. Koufax was the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hitters (including the eighth perfect game in baseball history). Despite his comparatively short career, Koufax's 2,396 career strikeouts ranked 7th in history as of his retirement, trailing only Warren Spahn (2,583) among left-handers. Koufax and Nolan Ryan are the only two pitchers inducted into the Hall of Fame who had more strikeouts than innings pitched.

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Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (/ˈstɛfəniː dʒɜːrməˈnɒtə/ STE-fə-nee jur-mə-NOT-ə; born March 28, 1986), better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American recording artist, activist, record producer, businesswoman, fashion designer, philanthropist, and actress. She was born, raised, and lives in New York City. Gaga studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She began performing in the rock music scene of Manhattan's Lower East Side. By the end of 2007, she signed with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records. Initially working as a songwriter at Interscope Records, her vocal abilities captured the attention of recording artist Akon, who also signed her to KonLive Distribution, his own label under Interscope.

Gaga rose to prominence with her August 2008 debut album, The Fame, which was a critical and commercial success. The record included the international number-one tracks "Just Dance" and "Poker Face". In November 2009, her extended play, The Fame Monster, was released to a similar reception, and produced the hit singles "Bad Romance", "Telephone", and "Alejandro". Its accompanying Monster Ball Tour became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Gaga's second album, Born This Way, was released in May 2011 and topped albums charts in most major markets. It generated chart-topping songs "Born This Way", "Judas", and "The Edge of Glory". After taking a sabbatical for a hip injury and the cancellation of the remaining dates of the Born This Way Ball Tour, Gaga's third album Artpop was released in November 2013 and became her second number one album in US. Artpop was preceded by singles "Applause" and "Do What U Want".

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Ann Eliza Bleecker (October 1752 – November 23, 1783) was an American poet and correspondent. Following a New York upbringing, Bleecker married John James Bleecker, a New Rochelle lawyer, in 1769. He encouraged her writings, and helped her publish a periodical containing her works.

The American Revolution saw John join the New York Militia, while Ann fled with their two daughters. She continued to write, and what remained of the family returned to Tomhannock following Burgoyne's surrender. She was saddened and affected by the deaths of numerous family members over the years, and died in 1783.

Bleecker's pastoral poetry is studied by historians to gain perspective of life on the front lines of the revolution, and her novel Maria Kittle, the first known Captivity novel, set the form for subsequent Indian Capture novels which saw great popularity after her death.

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Cornelius H. Charlton (July 24, 1929 – June 2, 1951) was a soldier in the United States Army during the Korean War. Sergeant Charlton posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions near Chipo-ri, South Korea on June 2, 1951.

Born to a coal mining family in West Virginia in 1929, Charlton moved to The Bronx in New York City during World War II. Enlisting out of high school in 1946, Charlton served first in occupied Germany, then occupied Japan in administrative duties before requesting transfer to the front. An African American, Charlton was transferred to the segregated 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division fighting in the Korean War. During a battle for Hill 543 near the village of Chipo-ri, Charlton took command of his platoon after its commanding officer was injured, leading it on three successive assaults of the hill. Charlton continued to lead the attack despite mortal wounds until Chinese troops occupying it were destroyed, saving his platoon. For these actions, Charlton was awarded the medal.

In the following years, Charlton was honored numerous times, but was controversially not given a spot in Arlington National Cemetery, which his family claimed was due to racial discrimination. The controversy attracted national attention before Charlton was finally reburied in Arlington in 2008.

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Hamilton Fish (August 3, 1808 – September 7, 1893) was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, a United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretaries of State in the United States' history, known for his judiciousness and reform efforts during the Grant Administration. Fish settled the controversial Alabama Claims with Great Britain through his development of the concept of international arbitration. Fish kept the United States out of war with Spain over Cuban independence by coolly handling the volatile Virginius Incident. In 1875, Fish initiated the process for Hawaiian statehood, by having negotiated a reciprocal trade treaty for the island nation's sugar production. Fish organized a peace conference and treaty in Washington D.C. between South American countries and Spain. Fish worked with James Milton Turner, America's first African American consul, to settle the Liberian-Grebo war. President Grant stated that Hamilton Fish, above all, was the person whom he most trusted for political advice.

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Scarlett Johansson (born November 22, 1984) is an American actress, model and singer. She made her film debut in North (1994) and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo (1996), garnering further acclaim and prominence with roles in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and Ghost World (2001). She shifted to adult roles with her performances in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) and Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), for which she won a BAFTA award for Best Actress in a Leading Role; both films earned her Golden Globe Award nominations as well.

A role in A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004) earned Johansson her third Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination. Johansson garnered another Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress with her role in Woody Allen's Match Point (2005). She has played the Marvel comic book character Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff in Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012), and is set to reprise the role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) The 2010 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge won Johansson the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. As a singer, Johansson has released two albums, Anywhere I Lay My Head and Break Up.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor and director. Although primarily a supporting player, Hoffman was known as a versatile performer who brought depth and humanity to all of his roles. He was prolific in both film and theater from the early 1990s until his death at age 46, after which The New York Times declared him "perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation".

Hoffman studied acting at the New York State Summer School of the Arts and the Tisch School of the Arts. He gained recognition for his supporting work throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in minor but seminal roles in which he typically played losers or degenerates, including the films Scent of a Woman, Twister (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Almost Famous (2000), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), and Cold Mountain (2003). In 2005, Hoffman won multiple acting awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his portrayal of Truman Capote in Capote. His three other Oscar nominations came for his supporting work in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Doubt (2008), and The Master (2012).

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Jacob Little (March 17, 1794 – March 28, 1865) was an early 19th-century Wall Street investor and the first and one of the greatest speculators in the history of the stock market, known at the time as the "Great Bear of Wall Street".

Little was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to New York City in 1817, first clerking for Jacob Barker; he then opened his own establishment in 1822, and finally his own brokerage in 1834. A market pessimist, Little made his wealth "bearing stocks", at turns short selling various companies and at others cornering markets to extract profits from other short sellers. Through his great financial foresight Little amassed an enormous fortune, becoming one of the richest men in America and one of the leading financiers on Wall Street in the 1830s and 1840s, but his speculative activities irritated his peers and earned him few admirers. Little lost and remade his legendary fortune multiple times before losing it for good in 1857; although a great many owed him enormous debts, he was a generous creditor and never collected them, and at his deathbed in 1865 Little was penniless. Although well-known on the stock market in his time, he was quickly forgotten after his death, and today has been relegated to relative obscurity.

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Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in 1819–20. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death, at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York.

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Morris "Moe" Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, Berg was never more than an average player, usually used as a backup catcher. He was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball" than for anything he accomplished in the game.

A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke several languages and regularly read 10 newspapers a day. His reputation was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information, Please in which he answered questions about the derivation of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences.

As a spy working for the United States government, Berg gathered intelligence on resistance groups the U.S. government was considering supporting in Yugoslavia. On a mission to Italy, he interviewed physicists concerning Nazi Germany's nuclear program. After the war, Berg worked occasionally for the OSS's successor, the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Susanna Cole (née Hutchinson; 1633 – c. 1713) was the lone survivor of an Indian attack in which many of her siblings and her famed mother, Anne Hutchinson, were killed. Following the attack, she was taken captive, and held for several years before her release.

Born in Alford, Lincolnshire, England, Hutchinson was less than a year old when her family sailed from to New England. She was less than five when her family settled on Aquidneck Island (later Rhode Island) in the Narragansett Bay following her mother's banishment from Massachusetts. Shortly after her father's death, when she was about eight years old, she, her mother and six of her siblings left Rhode Island to live in New Netherland. They settled in an area that became the far northeastern section of The Bronx in New York City. Caught in the middle of severe tensions between the local natives and the Dutch, the family, except for Susanna, was massacred in August 1643. She was taken captive, raised by the Indians, and later traded back to the English.

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Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was the 21st President of the United States (1881–85); he succeeded James Garfield upon the latter's assassination. At the outset, Arthur struggled to overcome his reputation, stemming from his beginnings in politics as a politician from the New York City Republican political machine. He succeeded by embracing the cause of civil service reform. His advocacy for, and subsequent enforcement of, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was the centerpiece of his administration.

Arthur grew up in upstate New York and practiced law in New York City. He served as quartermaster general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Following the Civil War, he rose in the political machine run by New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. Appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as Collector of the Port of New York in 1871. Arthur was elected vice president in 1880, with Garfield elected president. Arthur succeeded Garfield less than a year into his presidency, and took up the cause of reform, signing the Pendleton Act into law and strongly enforcing its provisions. He vetoed the Rivers and Harbors Act that would have appropriated federal funds in a manner he thought excessive. He presided over the rebirth of the United States Navy but was criticized for failing to alleviate the federal budget surplus that had been accumulating since the end of the Civil War. Suffering from poor health, Arthur retired at the close of his term.