Historical Figures

Sixteenth U.S. President, preserved Union, ended slavery — Learn about Abraham Lincoln in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-founder and former CEO of WeWork — Learn about Adam Neumann in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Firing experienced salespeople, accelerating Circuit City's bankruptcy — Learn about Alan McCollough in Arthur Lee's …

Last CEO during Bear Stearns' collapse — Learn about Alan Schwartz in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Destroying Circuit City through mass layoffs — Learn about Alan Wurtzel in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Discoverer of penicillin antibiotic — Learn about Alexander Fleming in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventor of dynamite and founder of Nobel Prizes — Learn about Alfred Nobel in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CIA Director who oversaw MKUltra program — Learn about Allen Dulles in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Chernobyl nuclear disaster supervisor — Learn about Anatoly Dyatlov in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Steel magnate and philanthropist of the Gilded Age — Learn about Andrew Carnegie in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Enron CFO convicted of fraud — Learn about Andrew Fastow in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

7th U.S. President and westward expansion — Learn about Andrew Jackson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Bath School massacre perpetrator — Learn about Andrew Kehoe in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Investigative journalist exposing government secrets — Learn about Annie Jacobsen in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Kodak CEO during company's bankruptcy — Learn about Antonio Perez in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Ford manager at Fordlandia during 1930 revolt — Learn about Archibald Johnston in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Manager during Great Molasses Flood disaster — Learn about Arthur Jell in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Nazi rocket engineer turned NASA Saturn V designer — Learn about Arthur Rudolph in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Transforming Coca-Cola into America's first national brand — Learn about Asa Griggs Candler in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Operating Australia's deadliest asbestos mine in Wittenoom — Learn about Australian Blue Asbestos Company in Arthur …

Aboriginal traditional owners of asbestos-contaminated Pilbara mining region — Learn about Banjima people in Arthur …

Federal Reserve Chairman during 2008 financial crisis — Learn about Ben Bernanke in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

American Founding Father and polymath — Learn about Benjamin Franklin in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Rebuilding and running the Slinky company for nearly 40 years — Learn about Betty James in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Criminal mastermind behind Lincoln body theft plot — Learn about Big Jim Kennally in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Soviet official who led Chernobyl disaster response — Learn about Boris Shcherbina in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Mobster who helped develop Las Vegas casinos — Learn about Bugsy Siegel in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Onondaga leader and Iroquois Confederacy spokesman — Learn about Canassatego in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Captain of the SS Sultana disaster — Learn about Captain Frederic Speed in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Captain during General Slocum steamboat disaster — Learn about Captain William Van Schaick in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Billionaire activist investor and corporate raider — Learn about Carl Icahn in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Vulcanized rubber and dying broke despite changing the world — Learn about Charles Goodyear in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Founder of Toys"R"Us — Learn about Charles Lazarus in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First solo nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927 — Learn about Charles Lindbergh in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Creator of the Ponzi scheme — Learn about Charles Ponzi in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CEO who expanded Radio Shack nationwide — Learn about Charles Tandy in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Northern Paiute war chief and reluctant military leader — Learn about Chief Numaga in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-founding MySpace, the first dominant social network — Learn about Chris DeWolfe in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Founder of the American Red Cross — Learn about Clara Barton in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First American to die from radiation exposure — Learn about Clarence Dally in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Navy officer involved in major WWII munitions disaster — Learn about Commander Frederick Wyatt in Arthur Lee's …

Father of American Cavalry, Revolutionary War hero — Learn about Count Casimir Pulaski in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Australia's deadliest blue asbestos mining operations — Learn about CSR Limited in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Steel magnate who warned against the Johnstown dam — Learn about Daniel Morrell in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Founder of Blockbuster Video — Learn about David Cook in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Figure in Centralia underground fire disaster — Learn about David Lamb in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

34th U.S. President and WWII Supreme Allied Commander — Learn about Dwight Eisenhower in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-founder of Medtronic, pioneer of cardiac pacemakers — Learn about Earl Bakken in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Corporate negligence in Cleveland's 1944 gas explosion disaster — Learn about East Ohio Gas Company executives in Arthur …

Hedge fund manager who oversaw Sears' final decline — Learn about Eddie Lampert in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

First known victim of military biological weapons testing — Learn about Edward Nevin in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Drilling America's first commercial oil well in 1859 — Learn about Edwin Drake in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventing instant photography and founding Polaroid Corporation — Learn about Edwin Land in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Exposing secret government radiation experiments on Americans — Learn about Eileen Welsome in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Ford plantation manager during Fordlandia worker revolt — Learn about Einar Oxholm in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Founding U.S. Steel and the city of Gary, Indiana — Learn about Elbert Henry Gary in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Theranos founder convicted of fraud — Learn about Elizabeth Holmes in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Mastermind of 1876 plot to steal Lincoln's body — Learn about Elmer Washburn in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventing dynamite and establishing the Nobel Prizes — Learn about Emil Nobel in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Mining engineer linked to Centralia coal fire — Learn about Eric Wolfgang in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Environmental justice advocate who defeated PG&E — Learn about Erin Brockovich in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Co-developer of penicillin antibiotic — Learn about Ernst Boris Chain in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Leading the 1969 Cornell University sit-in for Black student rights — Learn about Ezra Sit-In participants in Arthur …

Figure in major American industrial explosion — Learn about Francis Mackey in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Pioneer of commercial radio broadcasting — Learn about Frank Conrad in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Creating the Coca-Cola name and iconic logo — Learn about Frank Mason Robinson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Death linked to secret military biological experiments — Learn about Frank Olney in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

CIA scientist killed in MKUltra experiments — Learn about Frank Olson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

32nd US President during Depression and WWII — Learn about Franklin Roosevelt in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventor of gas mask and traffic signal — Learn about Garrett Morgan in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First Latina Fortune 500 utility CEO during Camp Fire — Learn about Geisha Williams in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Opened America's first pizzeria — Learn about Gennaro Lombardi in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventing Velcro — Learn about George de Mestral in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Founder of Kodak photography company — Learn about George Eastman in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Former Secretary of State and Theranos board member — Learn about George Shultz in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Builder of Biltmore Estate and forestry pioneer — Learn about George Washington Vanderbilt II in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Key intermediary in 1934 Business Plot against FDR — Learn about Gerald MacGuire in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Apache leader and last major Indigenous resistance fighter — Learn about Geronimo in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Cold War classified city operations — Learn about Gladys Owens in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Wall Street financier in alleged Business Plot — Learn about Grayson Murphy in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Treasury Secretary during 2008 financial crisis — Learn about Hank Paulson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

33rd U.S. President and Cold War architect — Learn about Harry Truman in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First African American to win an Academy Award — Learn about Hattie McDaniel in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Perfecting implantable pacemaker technology — Learn about Henning Elmqvist in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Steel and coke magnate, Homestead Strike, Johnstown Flood — Learn about Henry Clay Frick in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Standard Oil co-founder and Florida developer — Learn about Henry Flagler in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Revolutionizing mass production and the modern assembly line — Learn about Henry Ford in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Treasury Secretary during 2008 financial crisis — Learn about Henry Paulson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Pioneer of commission government system after 1900 Galveston Hurricane — Learn about Henry Sealy in Arthur Lee's …

Confederate prison commandant executed for war crimes — Learn about Henry Wirz in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Music industry advocate during the Napster wars — Learn about Hilary Rosen in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Co-developer of penicillin antibiotic — Learn about Howard Florey in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Aviator, filmmaker, and reclusive billionaire — Learn about Howard Hughes in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Father of Space Medicine, Nazi medical experimenter — Learn about Hubertus Strughold in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Last CEO before Polaroid's 2001 bankruptcy — Learn about I MacAllister Booth in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Explosive innovations and founding Nobel industrial dynasty — Learn about Immanuel Nobel in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Chief meteorologist during 1900 Galveston Hurricane — Learn about Isaac Cline in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Great Molasses Flood victim or witness — Learn about Isaac Gonzales in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Galveston reconstruction leader and Texas business magnate — Learn about Isaac Kempner in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Discovered gold that started the California Gold Rush — Learn about James Marshall in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

U.S. Secretary of Defense and Marine Corps general — Learn about James Mattis in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Chief engineer of Ford's failed Amazon rubber plantation — Learn about James Weir in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

CEO of JPMorgan Chase, crisis-era dealmaker — Learn about Jamie Dimon in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Pirate who helped defend New Orleans in War of 1812 — Learn about Jean Lafitte in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Former Enron CEO convicted of fraud — Learn about Jeffrey Skilling in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Co-founder and former CEO of BlackBerry — Learn about Jim Balsillie in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Former Blockbuster CEO during its decline — Learn about Jim Keyes in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

39th President, humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize winner — Learn about Jimmy Carter in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

CEO during Bear Stearns collapse, bridge tournament absence — Learn about Jimmy Cayne in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Establishing America's first legal brothel — Learn about Joe Conforte in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Blockbuster CEO who rejected Netflix partnership — Learn about John Antioco in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Custodian who helped foil Lincoln body theft plot — Learn about John Carroll Power in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Centralia mine fire advocate and resident — Learn about John Coddington in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Health reformer, cereal inventor, and eugenics advocate — Learn about John Harvey Kellogg in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-creator of ENIAC, first general-purpose electronic computer — Learn about John Mauchly in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-creator of ENIAC, the first electronic computer — Learn about John Presper Eckert in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Environmental activist addressing Cuyahoga River pollution — Learn about John Rankin in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Tandy Corporation CEO during Radio Shack's peak — Learn about John Roach in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventing Coca-Cola in 1886 Atlanta — Learn about John Stith Pemberton in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Father of American vertebrate paleontology — Learn about Joseph Leidy in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Building Pan Am into America's global aviation empire — Learn about Juan Trippe in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Times Beach dioxin contamination activist — Learn about Judy Piatt in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

RadioShack executive during company's decline — Learn about Julian Day in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Sears executive and philanthropist — Learn about Julius Rosenwald in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Singer, actor, and MySpace investor — Learn about Justin Timberlake in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First African American woman mayor of Gary, Indiana — Learn about Karen Freeman-Wilson in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Revolutionary aircraft designer and Skunk Works founder — Learn about Kelly Johnson in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Enron CEO convicted of fraud — Learn about Kenneth Lay in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center director and launch operations expert — Learn about Kurt Debus in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Metallica drummer and anti-piracy advocate — Learn about Lars Ulrich in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Raytheon co-founder and microwave oven developer — Learn about Laurence Marshall in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Former Radio Shack CEO — Learn about Leonard Roberts in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Manhattan Project director — Learn about Leslie Groves in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Early Nevada territorial leader killed at Pyramid Lake — Learn about Major William Ormsby in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Times Beach dioxin contamination activist — Learn about Marilyn Leistner in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Penicillin production researcher — Learn about Mary Hunt in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

General Slocum disaster survivor — Learn about Mary McCann in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

SoftBank founder and Vision Fund creator — Learn about Masayoshi Son in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Authorizing the flooding of four towns for Boston's water supply — Learn about Massachusetts Legislature in Arthur Lee's …

Massive water infrastructure projects enabling Southern California's growth — Learn about Metropolitan Water District in …

King of Pop, global music icon — Learn about Michael Jackson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

BlackBerry co-founder and former co-CEO — Learn about Mike Lazaridis in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Japan's powerful zaibatsu and forced wartime labor — Learn about Mitsubishi Corporation in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

French Emperor and military conqueror — Learn about Napoleon Bonaparte in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Sulfur-rubber experiments that enabled vulcanization — Learn about Nathaniel Hayward in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-inventor of the airplane and first powered flight pilot — Learn about Orville Wright in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Martian canal theories and founding Lowell Observatory — Learn about Percival Lowell in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Inventor of the microwave oven — Learn about Percy Spencer in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam — Learn about Peter Stuyvesant in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CEO whose cost-cutting destroyed Circuit City — Learn about Philip Schoonover in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First licensed female transport pilot and aviation educator — Learn about Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie in Arthur Lee's …

Last Queen of Hawaii — Learn about Queen Liliuokalani in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Former Theranos president convicted of fraud — Learn about Ramesh Balwani in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

First woman to serve in the U.S. Senate — Learn about Rebecca Latimer Felton in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

WeWork co-founder's wife and cultural architect — Learn about Rebekah Neumann in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Netflix co-founder and former CEO — Learn about Reed Hastings in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CIA spymaster behind U-2 spy planes and Area 51 — Learn about Richard Bissell in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Last CEO of Lehman Brothers — Learn about Richard Fuld in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CIA Director who oversaw MKUltra program — Learn about Richard Helms in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventor of the Slinky — Learn about Richard James in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company — Learn about Richard Sears in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

EPA administrator convicted in Superfund scandal — Learn about Rita Lavelle in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

24th Governor of Nevada, Western conservative leader — Learn about Robert List in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Relocating London Bridge to Arizona desert — Learn about Robert McCulloch in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Building News Corporation global media empire — Learn about Rupert Murdoch in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Founder of Tower Records — Learn about Russ Solomon in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Waste hauler in Times Beach dioxin contamination — Learn about Russell Bliss in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CEO who destroyed Circuit City through mass layoffs — Learn about Samuel Wurtzel in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-founder of Napster, Facebook founding president — Learn about Sean Parker in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Surviving Andersonville prison and the SS Sultana explosion — Learn about Sergeant William Fies in Arthur Lee's …

Creating Napster peer-to-peer file-sharing service — Learn about Shawn Fanning in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Enron whistleblower who exposed corporate fraud — Learn about Sherron Watkins in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CIA chemist who ran the MKUltra mind control program — Learn about Sidney Gottlieb in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Creating Las Vegas atomic bomb viewing parties — Learn about Siemon Muller in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Two-time Medal of Honor winner who exposed fascist coup plot — Learn about Smedley Butler in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Tower Records executive during its rise and fall — Learn about Stan Goman in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Co-founder of Apple, creator of the iPhone — Learn about Steve Jobs in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera — Learn about Steve Sasson in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Investigative journalist specializing in government secrets — Learn about Ted Gup in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Inventing the phonograph, electric light system, and motion pictures — Learn about Thomas Edison in Arthur Lee's …

Reverse-engineering and commercializing vulcanized rubber — Learn about Thomas Hancock in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Centralia resident who experienced the underground mine fire — Learn about Thomas Larkin in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Treasury Secretary during 2008 financial crisis — Learn about Timothy Geithner in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Centralia boy who nearly fell into mine fire sinkhole — Learn about Todd Domboski in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-founder and first president of MySpace — Learn about Tom Anderson in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Lead scientist investigating Chernobyl disaster — Learn about Valery Legasov in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Chernobyl first responder firefighter — Learn about Vasily Ignatenko in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Halifax Explosion hero telegraph operator — Learn about Vince Coleman in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

CBS Evening News anchor, "Most trusted man in America" — Learn about Walter Cronkite in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Galveston police chief during 1900 hurricane disaster response — Learn about Walter Gresham in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Chief engineer of Brooklyn Bridge — Learn about Washington Roebling in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Father of American space program, former Nazi SS officer — Learn about Wernher von Braun in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Co-inventor of the airplane — Learn about Wilbur Wright in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Developing radiocarbon dating and nuclear weapons research — Learn about Willard Libby in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Inventor of three-color traffic light — Learn about William Potts in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

NIH ethical oversight and biological research policy — Learn about William Raub in Arthur Lee's Adventures …

Inventing modern air conditioning — Learn about Willis Carrier in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.

Inventing the implantable cardiac pacemaker — Learn about Wilson Greatbatch in Arthur Lee's Adventures documentaries.