1. Audie Murphy
Audie Leon had many accomplishments during his life: War, movie actor, composer of country music, and poet. He was born on June 20, 1924 in Kingston (Texas) and lived until the age of 46. He went to school for only 5 years, but became the most decorated American soldier during World War II. He received many awards such as: The Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest award for valor, three French and one Belgium medals. Soon after the war, he started a movie career, and appeared in 44 different films. His best movie “To Hell and Back” covers his war experiences. Murphy wrote the lyrics of 16 western songs recorded by 30 pop singers. He also wrote many poems, but just a few of them have survived. Murphy suffered from insomnia, depression, and nightmares because of his battles during the war. His love life resulted in two marriages: The first one with the actress Wanda Hendrix in 1949, and the second with Pamela Archer, with whom he had two children. Murphy earned a fortune during his life, but lost it drastically because of his gambling habit. He was killed in a plane crash in 1971 at the age of 46. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
2. Roland Garros
Roland Garros was an early French aviator and a fighter pilot during World War I. He was born on October 6, 1888 in Saint-Denis, Reunion. He was a pioneer of aviation. In August 1909, he developed a passion for aviation during the Aeronautic week of “la champagne” near Reims, France. He completed the first non-stop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Frejus in the south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia. On October 1918, the day before his was thirty, Roland Garros had an aircraft crash after a fight during the war. His name has been given to a stadium “STADE ROLAND GARROS” because he practiced many sports during his life: soccer, rugby, horsemanship and tennis.
3. Amelia Bloomer
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was born in New York on May 27th, 1818. “Bloomers”, a women’s clothing reform style was not created by her, but associated to her name because of her early advocacy. She only received two years of formal schooling, but was able to defend American women’s rights and publish articles in newspapers. At the age of twenty two, she married Dexter Bloomer, a lawyer. He is the one who encouraged her first to publish in his newspaper the Seneca Falls County Courier. Her friends Susan Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton encouraged her to publish her own newspaper, the Lily. Through this journal, she fought for women’s suffrage, marriage reforms and higher education for women. She continued to write on social and political topics. Amelia Bloomer died on December 31, 1894, in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
4. Winslow Homer
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in February 24, 1836 and brought up in Cambridge, Winslow Homer is best known for his marine genre paintings. His work was focused on the forces of nature such as violent storms at sea. He began his career working as a commercial illustrator. He mastered drawing, wood engraving, oil painting and watercolor painting. Within the lithography apprenticeship in 1855 and the National Academy of Design in 1863, he did his training in his field following the realism period. He died in Prouts Neck, Maine on September 29, 1910, and never got married.
5. Louis Daguerre
Louis Daguerre was an inventor, a painter and a physicist. He was born on November 18, 1787 in Corneilles, France. His greatest achievement was the invention of the process of photography. In January 1839, Louis Daguerre’s “daguerreotype” (photographic) process was announced at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences by eminent astronomer and physicist François Arago. Daguerre was made an officer of the Legion of Honor, and in 1839 Daguerre and the heir of Niépce (his collaborator) were given annuities of 6,000 francs and 4,000 francs, respectively, for their photographic process. Daguerre retired to Bry-sur-Marne in