Pelé

Pelé is an international soccer legend.

Pelé was born to a very poor family in Tres Coracos, Brazil, on October 23, 1940. His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Pelé is just a nickname.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. Both his father and his grandfather were experts on how people speak. After finishing university, Bell worked with his father. He taught deaf people how to speak and studied the sounds people make when they talk.

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley is called “The King of Rock & Roll” by millions of people around the world.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935. His family was poor and very religious. As a young boy, he sang in the local church choir and learned to play the guitar.

The Presley family moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948. After graduating from high school, Elvis worked as a truck driver. In 1953, he made a record for his mother at a local recording studio. His record impressed the studio owner, who also owned a small record company. In 1954, Elvis made his first single record, and it was a big hit with local people. He did a singing tour of the South and then started recording for RCA Records.

Presley’s musical style was influenced by African-American music. The way he dressed and his movements on stage were unique at the time. All of this made him a new and exciting performer.

In 1956, Presley appeared on a national American television show called Talk of the Town. His hip movements on stage scandalized many people, which made him even more popular with teenagers. For the next 16 years, he made many million-selling records. He also starred in over 30 movies. His music and movies were listened to and seen by his fans around the world.

In 1973, he gave up making movies and touring to be a nightclub performer. Large crowds attended his performances. He was also divorced from his wife, Priscilla, that year. Following his divorce, he became more and more reclusive. He gained a great deal of weight and he abused prescription drugs. He was found dead in Graceland, his Memphis mansion, on August 16, 1977. He was 42 years old.

Today, his music is still popular and thousands of people visit Graceland each year.

John Lennon

John Lennon was a member of The Beatles, one of the world’s most famous bands. The

other band members were Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

Lennon was born in Liverpool, England, on October 9, 1940. His first band was called The Quarrymen. Lennon played the guitar and the keyboard and sang vocals. In 1957, Paul McCartney joined Lennon’s band as a guitarist and singer. Later that year, George Harrison, another guitarist, joined. In 1960, Pete Best became the band’s drummer. The band changed its name two more times before it was called The Beatles.


In 1962, The Beatles got a record contract with a British recording company. Lennon and McCartney wrote the songs that the band recorded. Just before they made their first record, Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best on the drums.


The Beatles’ records and albums were instant best-sellers in Britain and Europe, and the group became a sensation. In 1964, they performed on U.S. television and were a huge hit. After that, they were followed everywhere by screaming fans. It was known as Beatlemania.

The Beatles performed together for the last time in San Francisco on August 29, 1966. The band later broke up.


John Lennon married Cynthia Powell, an art student, in 1962. They had a son, John Julian, in 1963 and divorced in 1968. In 1969, Lennon married Yoko Ono, an artist and a musician. Their son, Sean, was born in 1975.


After The Beatles broke up, Lennon recorded his own music. He had hit records in 1970 and 1973. He formed a band with Yoko Ono and a record album they made in 1980 was a big success. They also became active in the peace movement.


On December 8, 1980, Lennon was killed by a crazed fan in front of his New York City apartment building. Millions of people around the world grieved his death. After he died, his records became even more popular. His music is still popular today.

The Beatles

John Lennon was 17 when he formed a band called the Quarrymen. His band was made up of schoolmates from the Quarry Bank Grammar School in Liverpool, England. Lennon’s band played a mix of jazz, blues, and folk music.

 In 1957, Paul McCartney auditioned to be a guitarist in Lennon’s band. The following year, George Harrison joined, and the band began playing rock and roll music. The Quarrymen broke up, but the core members kept playing together. In 1960, they became the Beatles. 

The Beatles began touring around Europe. In 1962, Ringo Starr became the new drummer. The band released their first hit “Love Me Do” that same year. The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, came out in 1963. A year later, “Love Me Do” was released in the US and became a #1 hit. Capitol Records signed the Beatles in 1964. Nobody expected the British group to do so well in the US.


Music fans went crazy for the Beatles after the band appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. The term Beatlemania was born and the young musicians from England were nicknamed “the Fab Four.” In 1965, more than 55,000 people filled a New York stadium to watch their concert. The Beatles started making movies and went on a world tour. 

1966 was the beginning of the end of Beatlemania. The Beatles had tour troubles in the Philippines and in Japan. When John Lennon called his band “more popular than Jesus,” some people began to boycott them. The Beatles played their final concert on August 29, 1966. Between 1962 and 1970, the Beatles made over two dozen albums, and became the most popular rock band of all time.

Nessie

         

Nessie is big. She is about 40 feet (12.2 meters) long. She has a very long neck and a small head. She has three humps on her back. She lives in Loch Ness. Loch Ness is a lake in Scotland. Nessie is famous all over the world. She is also called the Loch Ness Monster.


Stories about the Loch Ness Monster are very old. There are many photographs of Nessie, too. Most of the photographs show Nessie swimming in the lake. But most of the photos are not real. Many people think the stories about Nessie are not true. 

Many people have tried to find the Loch Ness Monster. But the lake is over 22 miles (35 kilometers) long and 700 feet (213 meters) deep. Nessie is a mystery. But thousands of people come to Scotland every year. They hope to see the famous Loch Ness Monster.

Queen Elizabeth

Elizabeth II has been the Queen of the United Kingdom and the head of the Commonwealth for more than 60 years.

She was born on April 21, 1926, in London, England. Her parents were The Duke and Duchess of York. In 1936, her father became king and she became Princess Elizabeth. When her father died, she would become queen.

To prepare to be queen, Princess Elizabeth studied history and law. She also learned about the duties of a queen and how she must act in public.

In 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten. He then became Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They had a son, Charles, in 1948, and a daughter, Anne, in 1950.

Her father, King George VI, died suddenly in 1952 and she became the queen. But she was not formally crowned as queen until June 2, 1953. People all over the world listened to her coronation ceremony on radio or watched it on TV.

The Queen and her husband had two more children, Andrew and Edward. They now have several grandchildren.

One of the Queen’s duties is to visit her subjects in other countries and to visit countries that belong to the Commonwealth. These are countries that used to be ruled by Britain. She and Prince Philip have traveled to many countries over the years. Canada, New Zealand, and Nigeria are just a few of them.

When she is at home, the Queen meets every week with the British prime minister to learn what is happening in Britain. She also makes sure she knows about important events in other parts of the world.

When she is not carrying out her royal duties, Queen Elizabeth is often seen with her dogs or her horses. She has several of them. 

In 2012, there were huge celebrations in Britain because she had been queen for 60 years. When Queen Elizabeth dies or decides to step down, her oldest son, Prince Charles, will become king. But many people think she will be queen for many more years.

Bruce Lee

 In 1940, Lee Hoi Chuen, a famous Chinese opera singer, was touring America. On November 27th, his son, Lee Jun Fan, was born in the Chinatown district in San Francisco. In 1941, the family returned to Hong Kong.

 In Hong Kong, Lee Jun Fan became a child movie star. He appeared in about 20 films in Southeast Asia. Lee also enjoyed studying martial arts. But Lee Jun also got into trouble. He often got into street fights, and his parents worried. So, they sent their son back to America.

 In America, Lee Jun finished high school and entered the University of Washington. He also opened his own very successful martial arts school. Soon Lee Jun changed his name to “Bruce Lee” and began working on the TV series, The Green Hornet. The program was very popular in America and a bigger hit in Hong Kong. Bruce Lee moved back to Hong Kong and starred in three movies, The Chinese Connection, The Return of the Dragon, and Game of Death. 

 On July 20th, 1973, Bruce Lee suddenly died because of medicine he was taking for a headache. He was only 32 years old. He had two funerals; one in Hong Kong and one in America. He was buried at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington.

 

Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales, was the wife of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. Millions of people admired her for her charity work.

Diana was born on July 1, 1961, in Norfolk, England. Her father was an Earl, and she was Lady Diana Spencer. Her parents divorced when she was 6.

After she finished school, Diana worked as a teacher’s aide. When she was 19, Prince Charles became interested in her. Photographers then followed her all the time.

Diana and Charles were married on July 29, 1981. Their wedding service was shown on TV, and millions of people watched it.

Diana and Charles had two sons. William was born in 1982 and Harry in 1984. Diana was very attached to her children. She wanted their life to be as normal as it could be.

In the late 1980s, Diana began her charity work. She was a beautiful woman, and many charities benefited greatly from her support. She traveled the world to show her support for different causes. She often took William and Harry with her. She wanted them to see that many people had problems and needed help. Diana was called the “people’s princess” for her charity work.

Diana’s marriage to Charles had many problems. She and Charles separated in 1992 and were divorced in 1996. They shared custody of their children.

After the divorce, Diana decided to concentrate on just six charities. She raised a great deal of money for causes like AIDS and cancer and made people aware of things like the dangers of landmines.

Many people were still interested in her personal life and photographers followed her wherever she went. In the summer of 1997, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.


People from around the world mourned her death. They sent nearly $150 million to the Diana, Princess of Wales Fund, which was set up in her honor. More than a million people lined up to watch her funeral procession pass by on September 6, 1997.

Frankenstein

 In 1817, Mary Shelley, her husband, and her friends went to Switzerland for a holiday. There was a terrible storm one night while they were there. It rained and there was a lot of thunder and lightning. Mary Shelley and her friends could not go outside. So, they decided to sit inside and tell ghost stories. Each person told a story, but Mary Shelley could not think of a story to tell.

 That night, while Mary Shelley was in bed, she thought of a story. The story scared her. The next day, she decided to begin to write the story she thought of. One year later, when she was 19 years old, she finished writing her story. She called her new book Frankenstein.
Many people think Frankenstein is one of the best stories ever written. It is one of the first science fiction books. In the book, a scientist created a man. Then the scientist became afraid of the man he created, and called him a monster. Later, the monster killed the scientist and his family. It is a story about man, science, and responsibility.

There have been many movies made about the Frankenstein monster. Most of these movies are very different from the book. While many of the movies are for children, the book by Mary Shelley is for adults.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson sold millions of records during his career. He earned the title “King of Pop,” but his fans and friends called him “MJ.”

A teacher recognized Michael Jackson’s singing and dancing talents in kindergarten. By age 8, Michael was the lead singer in his brothers’ Motown band. The Jackson 5 had numerous hits, including ABC, I Want You Back, and I’ll Be There. Michael later referred to his own child voice as “Minnie-Mouse-like.”

Michael Jackson’s solo career took off in the 1980s. His second album, Thriller, remains the largest selling album  of all time. “Billie Jean” was the first video of a black artist to air on MTV. In 1983, Michael Jackson debuted his signature dance move, the “Moonwalk.”

In the 1990s, tabloid newspapers put Michael Jackson under the spotlight. Journalists accused him of lying about  a skin disease. They also wrote about his cosmetic surgery. During this time he married and divorced Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie. He also married and had two children with his nurse, Debbie Rowe. When his second marriage failed, Michael Jackson took custody of the children. A surrogate mother later gave Michael his third child.

Michael claimed to be the biological father of Prince, Paris, and Blanket.

Michael Jackson complained that he missed his childhood. He tried to make up for this loss as an adult. He invited children to enjoy Neverland, his private ranch and theme park. Jackson kept several exotic pets, including snakes, llamas, and Bubbles the chimpanzee. He was accused of having inappropriate relationships with children.

Michael Jackson died from a pain killer overdose in 2009. His doctor was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prior to his death, 50-year-old Jackson was rehearsing for This Is It, a sold-out concert series in London. Before he died, Michael Jackson left a voice recording on his doctor’s phone: “When people leave my show, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this in my life . . . He’s the greatest entertainer in the world.’ ”

Lady of Liberty

    In the 19th century, women in America were not allowed to vote. This made many women angry. So, they held street meetings and heckled political speakers. Many of the women were put in jail. These women were called “suffragettes.” They were a very angry and active group of women.

   Then, in 1886, the biggest woman in the world came to America. She was 151 feet (46 meters) tall and weighed 225 tons. She was a gift from France. You can see her today on Bedloe’s Island in New York. She is the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom and equality. The statue was unveiled on October 26th, 1886. That day, President Cleveland gave a speech to thousands of men on Bedloe’s Island. Except for the Statue of Liberty, women were not allowed to attend.

     So, the suffragettes circled Bedloe’s Island in a boat and heckled the president with megaphones. They shouted at the group of men, “If Liberty got off her pedestal, she would not be allowed to vote in France or America!”

     Finally, American women were allowed to vote in 1920. In France, women began voting after World War II in 1945.

Muhammad Ali

Cassius Clay was 12 years old and lived in Louisville, Kentucky. One day, his new bike was stolen. In tears, he told Officer Joe Martin, “I’m going to whip the person who stole my bike!” Joe said, “Well, then I’d better teach you how to fight.” Joe Martin was the boxing coach at the Columbia Gym.


Cassius Clay went to Columbia Gym and he learned to fight. He trained hard. When he was 15, he wore heavy boots and shadowboxed on the street. He raced school buses and drank raw eggs in his milk. He loved boxing. He wanted to go to the Olympics.

He was also very polite and religious. After school, he worked in the Nazareth College library. When the boxing team went to other towns, Cassius always stayed in his hotel room and read his bible. In 1958, he went to the Olympic trials in San Francisco. But there was a problem. Cassius was afraid to fly. So he bought a parachute, wore it on the plane, and prayed in the aisle.


At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Cassius won the gold medal. In 1964, he became the world heavyweight champion. He changed his name to Muhammad Ali and joined the Muslims. Ali refused to go to war in Vietnam, and his title was taken away. He won his title back in 1974 when he fought George Foreman in Zaire, Africa.

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator, social justice activist, and anarcho-syndicalist advocate. Noam Chomsky was a brilliant child. Born in Philadelphia on December 7, 1928. He was raised with a younger brother, David, and although his own family was middle-class, he witnessed injustices all around him.


Just as World War II was coming to a close, Chomsky began his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He found little use for his classes until he met Zellig S. Harris, an American scholar touted for discovering structural linguistics (breaking language down into distinct parts or levels) Harris was moved by Chomsky’s great potential and did much to advance the young man’s undergraduate studies, with Chomsky receiving his B.A. and M.A in nontraditional modes of study.

Akio Morita

Akio Morita was the co-founder of the Sony corporation.

  Morita was born in Nagoya, Japan, on January 26, 1921. His family had brewed sake for many generations and he was expected to join the family business.

Instead, Morita became a physicist. On May 7, 1946, he and Masaru Ibuka founded Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. Ibuka was in charge of research and developing products. Morita took care of marketing, financing, employee relations, and expanding their company internationally.

In 1958, they changed the company’s name to Sony. They wanted a name that was easy for people in other countries to say and to remember. It was the first step in their strategy for expanding their business into a global corporation.

In 1960, Morita moved to the United States to lead Sony Corporation of America. In 1961, Sony became the first Japanese company to offer shares on the New York Stock Exchange. This encouraged other Japanese companies to raise money from foreign sources instead of borrowing from Japanese banks.

Over the years, Morita’s creativity and innovation resulted in the development of products such as the Walkman and the video cassette recorder.

Morita also expanded Sony’s operations. In 1968, Sony became involved in music software. In 1979, the Sony Prudential Life Insurance company was founded. In 1988, Sony bought CBS Records and, a year later, Columbia Pictures.

Morita also worked to introduce Japanese culture and to ease Japan’s trade relations with other nations. He was very good at this, and his cheerful personality made him popular with business and political leaders around the world. Many countries, including Japan, gave him their highest awards for his work.

Morita’s energy and drive carried over to his personal life. He began to ski, play tennis, and scuba dive later in life.

In 1993, Morita suffered a stroke while playing tennis. He resigned as chairman of Sony, but remained as Honorary Chairman until his death on October 3, 1999.