List of Famous Army Officers
- John F. Kennedy, often referred to by his initials JFK, was a significant figure in the annals of American history. Born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, he was the second of nine children from the politically influential Kennedy family. His early education took place in elite institutions, culminating with a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Harvard University in 1940. Kennedy's early life was not only marked by academic pursuits but was also filled with health struggles, including a near-fatal case of Addison's disease. Kennedy's political career began in earnest after World War II. In 1946, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Massachusetts's 11th Congressional district. After serving three terms, he successfully ran for Senate in 1952. His tenure as a Senator was notable for his advocacy on labor issues and his foreign policy stances, particularly regarding Vietnam. However, it was the 1960 Presidential election that truly thrust Kennedy into the global spotlight. At the age of 43, he became the youngest person ever elected to the presidency and the first Catholic to hold the office. Kennedy's presidency, though brief, was momentous. He navigated the country through some of the most intense moments of the Cold War, including the Cuban Missile Crisis. His administration also saw the initiation of the Peace Corps, the launch of the Apollo space program, and significant strides in civil rights. Tragically, Kennedy's presidency was cut short when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Despite his short time in office, Kennedy's charismatic leadership, compelling speeches, and forward-thinking policies have ensured his enduring legacy in American history.
- George Herbert Walker Bush, born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, was the 41st President of the United States, serving one term from 1989 to 1993. Prior to his presidency, Bush showcased a life dedicated to public service. His political career spanned decades and included various roles such as the Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Vice President under Ronald Reagan. However, his contribution to society extended beyond the political sphere. His legacy is marked by his military service during World War II, his commitment to volunteerism, and his role in leading a humanitarian response to natural disasters. Born into a politically active family, Bush's early life was characterized by academic excellence and athletic prowess. He graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover before enlisting in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday, becoming the youngest pilot in the Navy during World War II. After the war, he pursued his education at Yale University, where he excelled in both academics and sports, notably baseball. Bush's political career began with his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1966. He served two terms before being appointed to several high-ranking positions, including Ambassador to the United Nations, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, and Director of the CIA. In 1980, he ran for president but lost the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan. Subsequently, he served as Vice President for eight years under Reagan's administration. In 1988, he successfully won the presidency and served one term. During his presidency, he navigated the end of the Cold War, led a successful military operation in the Gulf War, and signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law. Despite these accomplishments, economic issues at home led to his defeat in the 1992 presidential election. Post-presidency, Bush engaged in various philanthropic activities and humanitarian efforts, particularly in response to natural disasters. He passed away on November 30, 2018, leaving a legacy of service, dedication, and leadership.
- Jimi Hendrix, born Johnny Allen Hendrix in 1942, was an iconic figure in the realm of rock and roll. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, USA, he was renowned for his remarkable musicianship and innovative approach to guitar playing. His musical journey began at a young age when he taught himself to play on a one-string ukulele found amongst his father's belongings. This early passion would later evolve into a career that revolutionized the world of music. Hendrix's professional music career took off after moving to England in 1966 under the management of former Animals bassist Chas Chandler, who helped form The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding. Their debut album Are You Experienced is considered one of the greatest debuts in the history of rock music. He also achieved fame with memorable performances at major festivals like Monterey Pop Festival (1967) where he famously set his guitar on fire during his performance; Woodstock (1969), where his rendition of Star-Spangled Banner became an emblematic moment reflecting turbulent times; and the Isle Of Wight Festival (1970). Despite having only four years of limelight before his untimely death at age 27 in 1970, Jimi Hendrix left an undeniable mark on the world of music. Known for experimenting with sound effects like distortion and feedback more extensively than any previous guitarist had done before him - he transformed how electric guitar could be played while inspiring countless musicians across various genres along the way. Even decades after his passing, Hendrix continues to be revered as one of rock's most influential figures.
- George Washington was the first President of the United States, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation and remains the supreme law of the land. Washington was unanimously elected President by the electors in both the 17881789 and 1792 elections.
- Born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. has led an extraordinary life marked by notable accomplishments in politics and philanthropy. Raised in a modest peanut farming family, his upbringing was steeped in the values of hard work and community service. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, where he showcased exceptional leadership skills, Carter served in the navy until his father's death in 1953, which compelled him to return home and take over the family peanut business. Carter's political journey began with his election to the Georgia Senate in 1962, followed by a term as Georgia's governor from 1971-1975 before beginning his tenure as the 39th President of the United States from 1977-1981. His presidency was marked by significant achievements in foreign policy, including the Camp David Accords, Panama Canal Treaties, and the establishment of diplomatic relations with China. Despite these successes, the Iran hostage crisis and the energy crisis posed substantial challenges to his administration. After leaving the White House, Carter embarked on an influential career in humanitarian work, further solidifying his legacy beyond politics. He founded The Carter Center in 1982, an organization committed to advancing human rights globally. His relentless dedication to conflict resolution, disease prevention, and the promotion of democracy earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Moreover, Carter's commitment to Habitat for Humanity, where he actively participated in building homes for the less fortunate, underscored his enduring dedication to service. Jimmy Carter's life is a testament to perseverance, public service, and the belief in the power of diplomacy and peace.
- James Stewart, also known by the stage name Jimmy Stewart, was an influential figure in the world of Hollywood, with an acting career that spanned over 50 years. Born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart's humble beginnings were far from the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown. He graduated from Princeton University in 1932 with a degree in architecture but soon found his passion lay elsewhere. After joining the University Players, a summer stock theater group, he made his way to Broadway before eventually landing in Hollywood. Stewart's acting prowess shone brightly, and he quickly established himself as one of the most reliable and versatile actors of his generation. His filmography is a testament to his range, encompassing a wide variety of genres from romantic comedies to gripping thrillers. His role in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) earned him his first Academy Award nomination, but it was his performance in The Philadelphia Story (1940) that clinched the award for Best Actor. However, perhaps his most iconic role was that of George Bailey in Frank Capra's timeless classic, It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Beyond his illustrious acting career, Stewart was notable for his service during World War II. In 1941, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, where he flew numerous combat missions and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. This commitment to his country, combined with his talent and charm on screen, cemented his place as a beloved figure in American culture. Despite passing away on July 2, 1997, James Stewart's legacy continues to live on, his exceptional body of work serving as a beacon for future generations of actors and filmmakers.
- Ernest Borgnine, born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut, was an American film and television actor whose career spanned over six decades. The son of Italian immigrants, Borgnine served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, after which he pursued his interest in acting, embarking on a journey that would lead him to become one of Hollywood's most respected character actors. Borgnine's breakthrough came in 1955 when he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his unforgettable portrayal of a lovelorn butcher in Marty. This role catapulted him into stardom, and he went on to star in more than 200 films, including From Here to Eternity, The Wild Bunch, and The Poseidon Adventure. Despite his tough guy image, Borgnine was capable of great versatility, conveying vulnerability and depth in many of his performances. In addition to his successful film career, Borgnine also made a significant impact on television. He starred as the title character in the popular 1960s series McHale's Navy and later provided the voice of Mermaid Man in the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. His work earned him numerous nominations and awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2011. Ernest Borgnine passed away in July 2012, leaving behind a rich legacy of memorable performances that continue to resonate with audiences worldwide.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, led a life filled with remarkable achievements and significant contributions. Born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890, his humble beginnings laid a strong foundation for his future endeavors. After graduating from West Point in 1915, Eisenhower embarked on a military career that spanned over three decades, culminating in his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II. Eisenhower's military prowess was evident in his strategic leadership during the successful D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944, which marked a turning point in the war. His ability to command respect and unite diverse groups towards a common goal was instrumental in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Following the war, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff and later as the first Supreme Commander of NATO before transitioning into the world of politics. Eisenhower's presidency, which lasted from 1953 to 1961, was marked by significant developments in both domestic and foreign policy. Domestically, he championed the cause of civil rights, signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law and enforcing desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. On the international front, he navigated the complexities of the Cold War, promoting a policy of containment against the Soviet Union while advocating for peace and diplomacy. Despite the pressures of his office, Eisenhower remained a man of integrity and humility, widely admired for his balanced leadership style and commitment to public service. His legacy continues to influence American politics and global relations, making him one of the most impactful figures of the 20th century.
- Born on January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California, Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was also the only president in U.S. history to resign from office. Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, and he later referred to his childhood as being as poor as a church mouse. Despite these challenges, he excelled acadically, graduating from Whittier College and Duke University Law School before embarking on a political career that would make him one of the most influential figures in modern American politics. Nixon's political journey began when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and then to the Senate in 1950. His relentless pursuit of alleged communist infiltration in the U.S. government made him a national figure. This notoriety propelled him to the vice presidency under Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. As Vice President, Nixon took on major duties in the Eisenhower administration and became known for his aggressive anti-communist stance, further increasing his prominence in the political landscape. However, Nixon's tenure as President was marred by controversy. Despite significant achievements, including the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and diplomatic openings with China and the Soviet Union, his presidency is often overshadowed by the Watergate scandal. In 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. Subsequent investigations revealed a web of political spying, sabotage, and bribery that implicated Nixon and his closest aides. Facing almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974. Despite this tumultuous end to his political career, Nixon remained an important voice in American public affairs until his death in 1994. His legacy continues to provoke intense debate and discussion about politics, ethics, and leadership in America.
- Christopher Lee, born in Belgravia, London in 1922, was a multi-talented actor and singer who amassed a legendary career spanning nearly seven decades. His early life was marked by a rich cultural exposure, with schooling in Switzerland and later Wellington College. Unbeknownst to many, his first professional ambition was not acting; instead, he initially sought a career in diplomacy before the outbreak of World War II redirected his path. Lee served in the Royal Air Force and Special Forces during the war, an experience that honed his resilience and would later inform his gripping portrayals of complex characters. Lee's acting career launched in the late 1940s, but it wasn't until the late 1950s that he became synonymous with horror, playing the role of Count Dracula in a series of Hammer Horror films. These performances solidified him as a titan of the genre and earned him international acclaim. However, he was far from being typecast, displaying remarkable range across diverse roles. His tall stature, deep voice, and intense gaze made him an ideal choice for villainous characters, most notably Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels. In addition to his illustrious acting career, Lee also demonstrated a passion for music. He released several albums and singles in various genres, showcasing his deep, resonant voice. His musical endeavors ranged from opera to heavy metal, the latter of which earned him a place in the "Metal Hammer" Golden Gods Awards in 2010. Christopher Lee passed away in 2015, leaving behind a vast body of work that continues to inspire generations of actors and entertain audiences worldwide. His legacy is a testament to his versatility, dedication, and enduring influence in the entertainment industry.
- John McCain, born in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone, was a decorated figure in American political history. His life was characterized by tenacious service to his country and a commitment to principled leadership. His journey began with his enrollment in the U.S. Naval Academy, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals. McCain's military service would prove to be a defining period in his life, marked by his five-year imprisonment during the Vietnam War, from 1967 to 1973. During this time, he displayed extraordinary resilience, courageously refusing early release out of respect for his fellow prisoners. Post his military career, McCain entered the realm of politics, serving Arizona as a Congressman and later as a Senator starting from 1987. Throughout his tenure, he earned a reputation for his 'maverick' stance, often breaking away from party lines in pursuit of what he believed to be right. This led him to make significant strides in areas such as campaign finance reform, immigration policy, and foreign relations. He became a respected voice on defense and foreign policy, known for his passionate advocacy of democracy and human rights globally. In 2000 and again in 2008, McCain ran for the presidency of the United States, securing the Republican nomination in the latter year. Although he did not win either election, the campaigns highlighted his dedication to national service, bipartisanship, and uncompromising integrity. Even after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017, John McCain continued to serve his country until his death in August 2018. His legacy endures as a testament to his unwavering commitment to principled leadership and steadfast dedication to the betterment of his country.
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021), was a member of the British royal family as the husband of Elizabeth II. Philip was born into the Greek and Danish royal families. He was born in Greece, but his family was exiled from the country when he was eighteen months old. After being educated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, he joined the British Royal Navy in 1939, aged 18. From July 1939, he began corresponding with the then thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, whom he had first met in 1934. During the Second World War he served with distinction in the Mediterranean and Pacific Fleets. After the war, Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July 1947, he abandoned his Greek and Danish titles and styles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents' surname Mountbatten. He married Elizabeth on
- John Kerry, born on December 11, 1943 in Aurora, Colorado, is a notable figure in American politics. His life has been characterized by service to his nation, first as a military officer during the Vietnam War, and later in various political roles. His early experiences in public service strongly shaped his perspectives, leading him to a career characterized by an unwavering commitment to diplomacy and peace. After graduating from Yale University, Kerry enlisted in the United States Navy where he served two tours of duty. He was awarded multiple commendations for his bravery, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Post his military service, he transitioned into politics, earning a law degree from Boston College Law School. Over the years, he served as an Assistant District Attorney, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, and was elected as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, a position he occupied for almost three decades. One of Kerry's most consequential moments came in 2004 when he secured the Democratic Party's nomination for President, running against incumbent George W. Bush. Despite ultimately losing the presidential race, Kerry continued his commitment to public service. Later, under President Barack Obama's administration, he was appointed as the 68th Secretary of State. His tenure was marked by key diplomatic successes, including the negotiation of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. Today, John Kerry remains a respected figure, known for his dedication to bettering the world through political and diplomatic efforts.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (, French: [napɔleɔ̃ bɔnɑpaʁt]; Italian: Napoleone di Buonaparte, pronounced [napoleˈone di bwɔnaˈparte]; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French statesman and military leader of Italian descent who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history.Napoleon was born in Corsica to a relatively modest family originating from minor Italian nobility. He was serving as an artillery officer in the French army when the French Revolution erupted in 1789. He rapidly rose through the ranks of the military, seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution and becoming a general at age 24. The French Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed the 13 Vendémiaire revolt against the government from royalist insurgents. At age 26, he began his first military campaign against the Austrians and the Italian monarchs aligned with the Habsburgs—winning virtually every battle, conquering the Italian Peninsula in a year while establishing "sister republics" with local support, and becoming a war hero in France. In 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He orchestrated a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic. He also formed a Franco-Persian alliance and one of the Franco-Indian alliances with Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and provided them French-trained army during the Napoleonic and Anglo-Mysore Wars, with the continuous aim of having an eventual open way to attack the British in India.Napoleon's ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and he became the first Emperor of the French in 1804. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805. Napoleon shattered this coalition with decisive victories in the Ulm Campaign and a historic triumph over the Russian Empire and Austrian Empire at the Battle of Austerlitz which led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched his Grande Armée deep into Eastern Europe and annihilated the Russians in June 1807 at the Battle of Friedland. France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high-water mark of the French Empire. In 1809, the Austrians and the British challenged the French again during the War of the Fifth Coalition, but Napoleon solidified his grip over Europe after triumphing at the Battle of Wagram in July. Napoleon then invaded the Iberian Peninsula, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, and declared his brother Joseph Bonaparte the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support. The Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies against Napoleon. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia. The Russians were unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade and routinely violated the Continental System, enticing Napoleon into another war. The French launched a major invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The campaign destroyed Russian cities, but did not yield the decisive victory Napoleon wanted. It resulted in the collapse of the Grande Armée and inspired a renewed push against Napoleon by his enemies. In 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in the War of the Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, but his tactical victory at the minor Battle of Hanau allowed retreat onto French soil. The Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany, and the Bourbon dynasty was restored to power. Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition which defeated him at the Battle of Waterloo in June. The British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51. Napoleon's influence on the modern world brought liberal reforms to the numerous territories that he conquered and controlled, such as the Low Countries, Switzerland, and large parts of modern Italy and Germany. He implemented fundamental liberal policies in France and throughout Western Europe. His Napoleonic Code has influenced the legal systems of more than 70 nations around the world. British historian Andrew Roberts states: "The ideas that underpin our modern world—meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on—were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, an end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire".
- Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson (March 22, 1930 – June 8, 2023) was an American media mogul, religious broadcaster, political commentator, presidential candidate, and Southern Baptist minister. Robertson advocated a conservative Christian ideology and was known for his involvement in Republican Party politics. He was associated with the Charismatic movement within Protestant evangelicalism. He served as head of Regent University and of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Spanning over five decades, Robertson was the founder of major organizations, including CBN, Regent University, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, the International Family Entertainment Inc. (ABC Family Channel/Freeform), the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), the Founders Inn and Conference Center, and the Christian Coalition.[2][3] Robertson was also a best-selling author and the former host of The 700 Club.
- General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) was an American five-star general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, and the only one conferred the rank of field marshal in the Philippine Army. Raised in a military family in the American Old West, MacArthur was valedictorian at the West Texas Military Academy, and First Captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of the class of 1903. During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. In the fighting on the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he attempted a series of reforms. His next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, he became the Army's youngest major general. He served on the court-martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was president of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the United States Army. As such, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D.C. in 1932, and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He retired from the US Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air forces on 8 December 1941 and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. Upon his arrival, MacArthur gave a speech in which he famously promised "I shall return" to the Philippines. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled that promise. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. He officially accepted the Surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, and he oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War with initial success; however, the controversial invasion of North Korea provoked Chinese intervention. Following a series of major defeats, he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951. He later became chairman of the board of Remington Rand.
- Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. He was convicted in the Iran–Contra affair of the late 1980s, but his convictions were vacated and reversed, and all charges against him dismissed in 1991. North is primarily remembered for his term as a National Security Council staff member during the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. The scandal involved the illegal sale of weapons to Iran to encourage the release of U.S. hostages then held in Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan, which was to divert proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua, which had been specifically prohibited under the Boland Amendment. North was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before Congress about the scheme. From 2001 to 2016, North hosted War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News. In May 2018, North was chosen as president of the National Rifle Association; he began his term in September. On April 27, 2019, he resigned. North was succeeded by Carolyn D. Meadows.
- Donald Rumsfeld was an actor who appeared in "The Unknown Known: The Life And Times Of Donald Rumsfeld," "The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father CIA Spymaster William Colby," and "Global Rivals."
- Kris Kristofferson, a man of many talents, has made significant strides in both the music and film industry. Born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936, Kristofferson earned his Bachelor's degree in literature from Pomona College before becoming a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. His academic achievements, however, did not quell his thirst for music. He abandoned a promising military career to pursue his passion, a decision that led him to Nashville's thriving country music scene. Kristofferson is best known for his songwriting prowess, penning timeless classics such as Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through The Night, and For The Good Times. While his songs have been covered by countless artists, he himself enjoyed success as a recording artist, earning several gold records. His musical achievements are punctuated by numerous awards, including multiple Grammy Awards and an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In addition to his musical pursuits, Kristofferson also carved out a successful acting career. His breakthrough role came in the 1976 film A Star Is Born, for which he garnered a Golden Globe Award. He has since appeared in more than 70 films, demonstrating his range as an actor in diverse roles. Despite his multifaceted career, Kristofferson remains a humble and dedicated artist, committed to his craft and his love for storytelling through song and screen. His life and work serve as an enduring testament to his talent, resilience, and unwavering conviction to follow one's passion.
- Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; Spanish: [fɾanˈθisʲko ˈfɾaŋko]; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and politician who ruled over Spain as Head of State and dictator under the title Caudillo from 1939, after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War, until his death in 1975. This period in Spanish history is commonly known as Francoist Spain or the Francoist dictatorship. Franco was born in Ferrol, Spain as the son of upper-class parents with strong connections to the Spanish Navy. Franco however joined the Spanish Army as a cadet in the Toledo Infantry Academy in 1907, graduating in 1910. He would go on to have a successful military career in Morocco and advanced through the ranks at a very young age. He served in the Rif War and was in 1926 promoted General at age 33, the youngest in Europe. As a conservative and a monarchist, Franco opposed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the democratic secular republic in 1931. He nevertheless continued his position in the Republican Army and in 1934 led the brutal suppression of the miners' strike in Asturias, which sharpened the antagonism between Left and Right in the country. When the leftist Popular Front won the 1936 elections, Franco joined other Generals who launched a coup the same year, intending to overthrow the republic. The coup failed to take control of most of the country and precipitated the Spanish Civil War. After the war had started, Franco took control of the Army of Africa, which were air-lifted to Spain. With the death of the other leading Generals, Franco became his faction's only leader and was appointed Generalissimo and Head of State in the fall of 1936. In 1937, Franco merged all parties on the Nationalist side into a single legal party, the FET y de las JONS. In 1939 Franco won the war, which had claimed almost half a million lives. The victory extended his dictatorship to the whole country and was followed by a period of repression of political opponents and dissenters, with the result that between 58,000 and 400,000 died through the use of forced labor and executions in concentration camps.Franco continued to rule Spain alone, with more power than any Spanish leader before or since, ruling almost exclusively by decree. He nurtured a cult of personality and the Movimiento Nacional became the only channel of participation in Spanish public life. During World War II, he espoused neutrality as Spain's official wartime policy, but supported the Axis – whose members Italy and Germany had supported him during the Civil War – in various ways. After the war, Spain became isolated by many other countries for nearly a decade. By the 1950s, the nature of his regime changed from being openly totalitarian and using severe repression to an authoritarian system with limited pluralism, and consequently, Spain was allowed to join the UN in 1955. During the Cold War Franco became one of the world's foremost anti-Communist figures: his regime was assisted by the West – particulary the United States – and at this time Spain was asked to join NATO. After chronic economic depression in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Franco presided over the "Spanish miracle", abandoning autarky and pursuing economic liberalization, delegating authority to the technocrats of the Opus Dei, leading to massive economic growth.The Francoist dictatorship continued to soften over time and Luis Carrero Blanco became Franco's éminence grise, controlling the day-to-day operations of the government: this intensified when Franco began showing symptoms of Parkinson's disease in the 1960's. The introduction of the Organic Law in 1966 limited and clearly defined Franco's powers and officially created the office of Prime Minister. In 1973, beset with old age and sickness and wishing to partially relinquish the burden of governing Spain, Franco resigned as Prime Minister, and was succeeded by Carrero Blanco. However, Franco remained as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief. Franco died in 1975 at the age of 82 and was buried in the Valle de los Caídos. He restored the monarchy before his death, which had been decided in 1947, and made King Juan Carlos I his successor, who led the Spanish transition to democracy. Franco remains a controversial figure in Spanish history, but it is worth noting that the nature of his dictatorship changed over time. His reign was marked by both brutal repression, with thousands killed, and economic prosperity, which greatly improved the quality of life in Spain. Franco's dictatorial style proved very adaptable, which could introduce social and economic reform, and the only consistent points in Franco's long rule were above all authoritarianism, Spanish nationalism, national Catholicism, anti-Freemasonry, and anti-Communism.
- Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi (; c. 1942 – 20 October 2011), commonly known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, and then as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later ruled according to his own Third International Theory. Born near Sirte, Italian Libya to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary group which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Having taken power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he ejected Libya's Italian and Jewish minorities and closed its Western military bases. Strengthening ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—he unsuccessfully advocated Pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism". He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing house-building, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year, publishing these ideas in The Green Book. Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya ("state of the masses") in 1977. He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, and alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it increasingly isolated on the world stage. A particularly hostile relationship developed with the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel, resulting in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya and United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization, rapprochement with Western nations, and Pan-Africanism; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council (NTC). The government was overthrown, and Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants. A highly divisive figure, Gaddafi dominated Libya's politics for four decades and was the subject of a pervasive cult of personality. He was decorated with various awards and praised for his anti-imperialist stance, support for Arab—and then African—unity, and for significant improvements that his government brought to the Libyan people's quality of life. Conversely, Islamic fundamentalists strongly opposed his social and economic reforms, and he was posthumously accused of sexual abuse. He was condemned by many as a dictator whose authoritarian administration violated human rights and financed global terrorism.
- Hideki Tojo (Kyūjitai: 東條 英機; Shinjitai: 東条 英機; Tōjō Hideki ; 30 December 1884 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) who concurrently served as Leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II. He was among the most outspoken proponents for preventive war against the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor and one of the leading perpetrators behind Japanese war crimes on prisoners of war and civilians during the Pacific conflict. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, condemned and sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and hanged on December 23, 1948.
- Ariel Sharon (Hebrew: אֲרִיאֵל שָׁרוֹן; IPA: [aʁiˈ(ʔ)el ʃaˈʁon] (listen), Ariʼēl Sharōn, also known by his diminutive Arik, אָרִיק, born Ariel Scheinermann, אֲרִיאֵל שַׁיינֶרְמָן; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.Sharon was a commander in the Israeli Army from its creation in 1948. As a soldier and then an officer, he participated prominently in the 1948 Palestine war, becoming a platoon commander in the Alexandroni Brigade and taking part in many battles, including Operation Bin Nun Alef. He was an instrumental figure in the creation of Unit 101 and the reprisal operations, as well as in the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition, and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973. Yitzhak Rabin has called Sharon "the greatest field commander in our history".Upon retirement from the military, Sharon entered politics, joining the Likud party, and served in a number of ministerial posts in Likud-led governments in 1977–92 and 1996–99. As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre and recommended that he be removed as Defense Minister. His role in the massacre led to him being known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs.From the 1970s through to the 1990s, Sharon championed construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He became the leader of the Likud in 2000, and served as Israel's prime minister from 2001 to 2006. However, as Prime Minister, in 2004–05 Sharon orchestrated Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Facing stiff opposition to this policy within the Likud, in November 2005 he left Likud to form a new party, Kadima. He had been expected to win the next election and was widely interpreted as planning on "clearing Israel out of most of the West Bank", in a series of unilateral withdrawals. After suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006, Sharon remained in a permanent vegetative state until his death in January 2014.
- John Cooper Jr. (September 15, 1922 – May 3, 2011) was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Oscar nomination. At age nine, he was also the youngest performer to have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, an honor that he received for the film Skippy (1931). For nearly 50 years, Cooper remained the youngest Oscar nominee in any category.
- Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; German: [ˈɡøːʁɪŋ] (listen); 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German political and military leader as well as one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party (NSDAP), which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, he was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (Jasta 1), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as Minister Without Portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Following the establishment of the Nazi state, Göring amassed power and political capital to become the second most powerful man in Germany. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), a position he held until the final days of the regime. Upon being named Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan in 1936, Göring was entrusted with the task of mobilizing all sectors of the economy for war, an assignment which brought numerous government agencies under his control and helped him become one of the wealthiest men in the country. In September 1939 Hitler designated him as his successor and deputy in all his offices. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was bestowed the specially created rank of Reichsmarschall, which gave him seniority over all officers in Germany's armed forces. By 1941, Göring was at the peak of his power and influence. As the Second World War progressed, Göring's standing with Hitler and with the German public declined after the Luftwaffe proved incapable of preventing the Allied bombing of Germany's cities and resupplying surrounded Axis forces in Stalingrad. Around that time, Göring increasingly withdrew from the military and political scene to devote his attention to collecting property and artwork, much of which was stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Informed on 22 April 1945 that Hitler intended to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler requesting permission to assume control of the Reich. Considering his request an act of treason, Hitler removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest. After the war, Göring was convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide the night before the sentence was to be carried out.
- James Montgomery Doohan ( DOO-ən; March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005) was a Canadian actor, voice actor, author and former soldier in the Canadian Army, best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek. Doohan's characterization of the Scottish Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise was one of the most recognizable elements in the Star Trek franchise, and inspired many fans to pursue careers in engineering and other technical fields. He also made contributions behind the scenes, such as the initial development of the Klingon and Vulcan languages. Prior to his acting career, Doohan served in the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He also served as a pilot. He saw combat in Europe during World War II, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, in which he was wounded, apparently by friendly fire. After the war, he had extensive experience performing in radio and television, which led to his role as Scotty. Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek series, Doohan had limited success in finding other roles; he returned to play the character in the animated and film continuations of the series, and made frequent appearances at Star Trek conventions.
- David Howell Petraeus (; born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010, to July 18, 2011. His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as Commanding General, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008. As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.Petraeus has a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1974 as a distinguished cadet (top 5% of his class). In his class were three other future four-star generals, Martin Dempsey, Walter L. Sharp and Keith B. Alexander. He was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983. He subsequently earned an M.P.A. in 1985 and a Ph.D. degree in international relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He later served as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.Petraeus has repeatedly stated that he has no plans to run for elected political office. On June 23, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Petraeus to succeed General Stanley McChrystal as commanding general of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, technically a step down from his position as Commander of United States Central Command, which oversees the military efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt.On June 30, 2011, Petraeus was unanimously confirmed as the Director of the CIA by the U.S. Senate 94–0. Petraeus relinquished command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan on July 18, 2011, and retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. On November 9, 2012, he resigned from his position as Director of the CIA, citing his extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, which was reportedly discovered in the course of an FBI investigation since Broadwell was cyberstalking senior military leaders such as General Mattis, General Allen, Admiral Harward as well as their Ambassador, Jill Kelley. In January 2015, officials reported the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors had recommended bringing felony charges against Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to his biographer, Paula Broadwell (with whom he was having an affair), while serving as Director of the CIA. Eventually, Petraeus pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information.
Felipe VI of Spain
Philip VI or Felipe VI (Spanish: [feˈlipe]; Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos; born 30 January 1968) is the King of Spain. He ascended the throne on 19 June 2014 upon the abdication of his father, King Juan Carlos I. His mother is Queen Sofía, and he has two older sisters, Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, and Infanta Cristina. In 2004, Felipe married TV news journalist Letizia Ortiz with whom he has two daughters, Leonor (his heir presumptive) and Sofía. In accordance with the Spanish Constitution, as monarch, he is head of state and commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed Forces with military rank of Captain General, and also plays a role in promoting relations with Spanish America and the former Spanish East Indies, which are collectively called the "nations of its historical community".- Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor.While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Woodward teamed up with Carl Bernstein; the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. The work of Woodward and Bernstein was called "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time" by longtime journalism figure Gene Roberts.Woodward continued to work for The Washington Post after his reporting on Watergate. He has since written 19 books on American politics, 13 of which topped best-seller lists.
- Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski ( VOY-chekh YARR-oo-ZEL-skee, also UK: - YARR-uu-, US: - YAR-oo-, Polish: [ˈvɔjtɕɛɣ ˈvitɔlt jaruˈzɛlskʲi] (listen); 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer and politician. He was First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party from 1981 to 1989, and as such was the last leader of the People's Republic of Poland. He also served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985 and the country's head of state from 1985 to 1990 (titled as Chairman of the Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and as President from 1989 to 1990). He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army (LWP). He resigned after the Polish Round Table Agreement in 1989, which led to multi-party elections in Poland.
- Krishnan Nair (25 July 1939 – 16 November 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan, was an Indian film actor, naval officer, stunt performer and cultural icon of the 1970s. He starred in over 150 Malayalam films. During his film career, he was primarily an action star and was particularly famous for his macho image and unique style. He was reputed for his chauvinistic appeal and well known for performing stunts of a dangerous nature on his own. By the late 1970s, he became the most popular lead actor and bankable star of Malayalam cinema and has been acclaimed as the first action hero of Malayalam cinema.His superhuman image has also transformed him into an iconic figure of popular culture among Malayalis around the world, with widespread impersonations on stage and television programs based on his screen persona. It was accompanied by a cartoon, email and SMS phenomenon in the early 2000s, portraying him as a comic superhero with unique quotes of superhuman strength attributed to the action star becoming widespread. These movements were fuelled by a renewed fascination with his style of dialogue delivery and his machismo image. These were claimed to honour his memories, but were also criticised for parodying the legendary actor years after his death.
- Thomas Edward Lawrence, (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer. He was renowned for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title used for the 1962 film based on his wartime activities. He was born out of wedlock in Tremadog, Wales in August 1888 to Sarah Junner, a Scottish governess, and Thomas Chapman, an Anglo-Irish nobleman from County Westmeath. Chapman left his wife and family in Ireland to cohabit with Junner; in 1914 he became Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet. Chapman and Junner called themselves Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence, a name probably adopted from Sarah's likely father; Sarah’s mother had been employed as a servant for a Lawrence family when she became pregnant with Sarah. In 1889, the family moved to Kirkcudbright in Scotland where his brother William George was born, before moving to Dinard in France. In 1896, the Lawrences moved to Oxford, where Thomas attended the high school and then studied history at Jesus College from 1907 to 1910. Between 1910 and 1914, he worked as an archaeologist for the British Museum, chiefly at Carchemish in Ottoman Syria. Soon after the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the British Army and was stationed in Egypt. In 1916, he was sent to Arabia on an intelligence mission and quickly became involved with the Arab Revolt as a liaison to the Arab forces, along with other British officers. He worked closely with Emir Faisal, a leader of the revolt, and he participated in and sometimes led military activities against the Ottoman armed forces, culminating in the capture of Damascus in October 1918. After the war, Lawrence joined the Foreign Office, working with the British government and with Faisal. He was offered both the Victoria Cross and a knighthood but declined both. In 1922, he retreated from public life and spent the years until 1935 serving as an enlisted man, mostly in the Royal Air Force, with a brief stint in the Army. During this time, he published his best-known work Seven Pillars of Wisdom, an autobiographical account of his participation in the Arab Revolt. He also translated books into English and wrote The Mint, which was published posthumously and detailed his time in the Royal Air Force working as an ordinary aircraftman. He corresponded extensively and was friendly with well-known artists, writers, and politicians. For the Royal Air Force, he participated in the development of rescue motorboats. Lawrence's public image resulted in part from the sensationalised reporting of the Arab revolt by American journalist Lowell Thomas, as well as from Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In 1935, Lawrence was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident in Dorset.
- Yitzhak Rabin (; Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין, IPA: [jitsˈχak ʁaˈbin] (listen); 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995. Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and was raised in a Labor Zionist household. He learned agriculture in school and excelled as a student. He led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the commando force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israel's War of Independence. He joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s, and led the IDF's Operations Directorate from 1959 to 1963. He was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israel's victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Rabin served as Israel's ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973, during a period of deepening U.S.–Israel ties. He was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and ordered the Entebbe raid. He resigned in 1977 in the wake of a financial scandal. Rabin was Israel's minister of defense for much of the 1980s, including during the outbreak of the First Intifada. In 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several historic agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. In November 1995, he was assassinated by an extremist named Yigal Amir, who opposed the terms of the Oslo Accords. Amir was arrested and convicted of Rabin's murder; he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol. Rabin has become a symbol of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.
- Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. At the time of his birth, he was second in the line of succession to the British throne; as of May 2019, he is eighth in line. He holds the rank of commander and the honorary rank of vice admiral (as of February 2015) in the Royal Navy, in which he served as an active-duty helicopter pilot and instructor and as the captain of a warship. He saw active service during the Falklands War, flying on multiple missions including anti-surface warfare, Exocet missile decoy, and casualty evacuation. In 1986, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson; the couple's marriage, separation and eventual divorce in 1996 attracted a high level of media coverage. As well as carrying out various official engagements, he served as Britain's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment until July 2011.
- Otto Adolf Eichmann ( YKHE-mən, German: [ˈʔɔto ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈʔaɪçman]; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (Senior Assault Unit Leader) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer (Senior Group Leader) Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. He was captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, Israel. Eichmann was executed by hanging in 1962. After an unremarkable school career, Eichmann briefly worked for his father's mining company in Austria, where the family had moved in 1914. He worked as a travelling oil salesman beginning in 1927, and joined both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. He returned to Germany in 1933, where he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service); there he was appointed head of the department responsible for Jewish affairs—especially emigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economic pressure. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated in ghettos in major cities with the expectation that they would be transported either farther east or overseas. He also drew up plans for a Jewish reservation, first at Nisko in southeast Poland and later in Madagascar, but neither of these plans were ever carried out. The Nazis began the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and their Jewish policy changed from emigration to extermination. To co-ordinate planning for the genocide, Heydrich, who was Eichmann's superior, hosted the regime's administrative leaders at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Eichmann collected information for him, attended the conference, and prepared the minutes. Eichmann and his staff became responsible for Jewish deportations to extermination camps, where the victims were gassed. Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, and Eichmann oversaw the deportation of much of the Jewish population. Most of the victims were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where about 75 per cent were murdered upon arrival. By the time that the transports were stopped in July 1944, 437,000 of Hungary's 725,000 Jews had been killed. Dieter Wisliceny testified at Nuremberg that Eichmann told him he would "leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction".After Germany's defeat in 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces, but escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid re-capture. He ended up in a small village in Lower Saxony, where he lived until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using false papers. Information collected by the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, confirmed his location in 1960. A team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents captured Eichmann and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. During the trial, he did not deny the Holocaust or his role in organising it, but claimed that he was simply following orders in a totalitarian Führerprinzip system. He was found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962. The trial was widely followed in the media and was later the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil" to describe Eichmann.
- Emiliano Zapata Salazar (Spanish pronunciation: [emiˈljano saˈpata]; 8 August 1879 – 10 April 1919) was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, the main leader of the peasant revolution in the state of Morelos, and the inspiration of the agrarian movement called Zapatismo. Zapata was born in the rural village of Anenecuilco in Morelos State, where peasant communities were under increasing pressure from the small landowning class who monopolized land and water resources for sugar cane production with the support of dictator Porfirio Díaz. Zapata early on participated in political movements against Diaz and the landowning hacendados, and when the Revolution broke out in 1910 he was positioned as a central leader of the peasant revolt in Morelos. Cooperating with a number of other peasant leaders he formed the Liberation Army of the South, of which he soon became the undisputed leader. Zapata's forces contributed to the fall of Díaz, defeating the Federal Army in the Battle of Cuautla, but when the revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero became president he disavowed the role of the Zapatistas, denouncing them as simple bandits. In November 1911, Zapata promulgated the Plan de Ayala which called for substantial land reforms, redistributing lands to the peasants. Madero sent the Federal Army to root out the Zapatistas in Morelos. Madero's generals employed a scorched earth policy, burning villages and forcibly removing their inhabitants, and drafting many men into the Army or sending them to forced labor camps in southern Mexico. This strengthened Zapata's standing among the peasants, and Zapata was able to drive the forces of Madero led by Victoriano Huerta out of Morelos. In a coup against Madero in February 1913, Huerta took power in Mexico, but a coalition of Constitutionalist forces in northern Mexico led by Venustiano Carranza, Álvaro Obregón and Francisco "Pancho" Villa ousted him in July 1914 with the support of Zapata's troops. Zapata did not recognize the authority that Carranza asserted as leader of the revolutionary movement, continuing his adherence to the Plan de Ayala. In the aftermath of the revolutionaries' victory over Huerta, they attempted to sort out power relations in the Convention of Aguascalientes. Zapata and Villa broke with Carranza, and Mexico descended into civil war among the winners. Dismayed with the alliance with Villa, Zapata focused his energies on rebuilding society in Morelos which he now controlled, instituting the land reforms of the Plan de Ayala. As Carranza consolidated his power and defeated Villa in 1915, Zapata initiated guerrilla warfare against the Carrancistas, who in turn invaded Morelos, employing once again scorched-earth tactics to oust the Zapatista rebels. Zapata once again retook Morelos in 1917 and held most of the state against Carranza's troops until he was killed in an ambush in April 1919. Article 27 of the 1917 Mexican Constitution was drafted in response to his agrarian demands.After his death, Zapatista generals aligned with Obregón against Carranza and helped drive Carranza from power. In 1920, Zapatistas managed to obtain powerful posts in the governance of Morelos after Carranza's fall. They instituted many of the land reforms envisioned by Zapata in Morelos. Zapata remains an iconic figure in Mexico, used both as a nationalist symbol as well as a symbol of the neo-Zapatista movement.
- Robert Francis McDonnell (born June 15, 1954) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 71st Governor of Virginia, from 2010 to 2014. A member of the Republican Party, McDonnell also served on the executive committee of the Republican Governors Association. McDonnell was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 to 2006, and was Attorney General of Virginia from 2006 to 2009. McDonnell was elected Governor of Virginia after using the campaign slogan "Bob's for Jobs." He defeated Democratic state Senator Creigh Deeds by a 17-point margin in the 2009 general election, which was marked by the severe recession of the late 2000s. McDonnell succeeded Democrat Tim Kaine who was term-limited by Virginia law.After taking office as governor, McDonnell advocated privatization and promoted offshore drilling for Virginia. He moved to extend a contract to outsource the state's computer operations and sought to fund transportation improvements from asset sales, including a proposal to auction off liquor stores operated by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. The state's unemployment rate declined from 7.4% in January 2010, when McDonnell took office, to 5.2% in December 2013, comparable to the decline in the national unemployment rate from 9.8% to 6.7% during the same period. McDonnell's governorship ended with a 55% to 32% approval to disapproval rating among registered voters.On January 21, 2014, McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were indicted on federal corruption charges for receiving improper gifts and loans from a Virginia businessman. They were convicted on most counts by a federal jury on September 4, 2014. McDonnell, the first Virginia governor to be indicted or convicted of a felony, was sentenced on January 6, 2015, to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. However, he was free on bond during the subsequent appeals process.On June 27, 2016, the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned McDonnell's conviction and remanded the case back to a lower court. Less than three months later, the Justice Department announced that they would not prosecute the case again, and moved to dismiss the charges against the former governor and his wife. The case racked up over $27 million in legal bills, and McDonnell has taken four jobs to pay them off.McDonnell currently serves as a professor at Regent University and runs The McDonnell Group, a real estate consulting firm, with his sister.
- Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician, businessman, and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Despite his loss of the 1964 presidential election in a landslide, Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought with the conservative coalition against the New Deal coalition. Although he had supported earlier civil rights legislation, he notably opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as he believed it to be an overreach by the federal government. In 1964, Goldwater mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican presidential primaries. Although raised as an Episcopalian, Goldwater was the first candidate of ethnically Jewish heritage to be nominated for President by a major American party (his father was Jewish). Goldwater's platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969 and specialized in defense and foreign policy. As an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. Goldwater's views grew more libertarian as he reached the end of his career; he retired from the Senate in 1987. A significant accomplishment of his career was the passage of the Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986. He was succeeded by John McCain, who praised his predecessor as the man who "transformed the Republican Party from an Eastern elitist organization to the breeding ground for the election of Ronald Reagan." Goldwater strongly supported the 1980 presidential campaign of Reagan, who had become the standard-bearer of the conservative movement after his "A Time for Choosing" speech. Reagan reflected many of the principles of Goldwater's earlier run in his campaign. The Washington Post columnist George Will took note of this, writing: "We [...] who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes." After leaving the Senate, Goldwater's views cemented as libertarian. He criticized the "moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others [in the Republican Party] who are trying to...make a religious organization out of it." He lobbied for homosexuals to be able to serve openly in the military, opposed the Clinton administration's plan for health care reform, and supported abortion rights and the legalization of medicinal marijuana. In 1997, Goldwater was revealed to be in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He died one year later at the age of 89.
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (German: Otto der Große, Italian: Ottone il Grande), was German king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda. Otto inherited the Duchy of Saxony and the kingship of the Germans upon his father's death in 936. He continued his father's work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king's powers at the expense of the aristocracy. Through strategic marriages and personal appointments, Otto installed members of his family in the kingdom's most important duchies. This reduced the various dukes, who had previously been co-equals with the king, to royal subjects under his authority. Otto transformed the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to strengthen royal authority and subjected its clergy to his personal control. After putting down a brief civil war among the rebellious duchies, Otto defeated the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, thus ending the Hungarian invasions of Western Europe. The victory against the pagan Magyars earned Otto a reputation as a savior of Christendom and secured his hold over the kingdom. By 961, Otto had conquered the Kingdom of Italy. The patronage of Otto and his immediate successors facilitated a so-called "Ottonian Renaissance" of arts and architecture. Following the example of Charlemagne's coronation as "Emperor of the Romans" in 800, Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962 by Pope John XII in Rome. Otto's later years were marked by conflicts with the papacy and struggles to stabilize his rule over Italy. Reigning from Rome, Otto sought to improve relations with the Byzantine Empire, which opposed his claim to emperorship and his realm's further expansion to the south. To resolve this conflict, the Byzantine princess Theophanu married his son Otto II in April 972. Otto finally returned to Germany in August 972 and died at Memleben in May 973. Otto II succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor.- Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American soldier, politician, and international statesman who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. During the American Civil War, General Grant, with President Abraham Lincoln, led the Union Army to victory over the Confederacy. During the Reconstruction Era, President Grant led the Republicans in their efforts to remove the vestiges of Confederate nationalism, racism, and slavery. From early childhood in Ohio, Grant was a skilled equestrian who had a talent for taming horses. He graduated from West Point in 1843 and served with distinction in the Mexican–American War. Upon his return, Grant married Julia Dent, and together they had four children. In 1854, Grant abruptly resigned from the army. He and his family struggled financially in civilian life for seven years. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Grant joined the Union Army and rapidly rose in rank to general. Grant was persistent in his pursuit of the Confederate enemy, winning major battles and gaining Union control of the Mississippi River. In March 1864, President Lincoln promoted Grant to Lieutenant General, a rank previously reserved for George Washington. For over a year Grant's Army of the Potomac fought the Army of Northern Virginia led by Robert E. Lee in the Overland Campaign and at Petersburg. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, and the war ended. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated. Grant continued his service under Lincoln's successor President Andrew Johnson and was promoted General of the Army in 1866. Disillusioned by Johnson's conservative approach to Reconstruction, and the pro-slavery Democrats in the South, Grant drifted toward the "Radical" Republicans. Elected the youngest 19th Century president in 1868, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, created the Department of Justice, and prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan. He appointed African-Americans and Jewish-Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission. The Democrats and Liberal Republicans united behind Grant's opponent in the presidential election of 1872, but Grant was handily re-elected. Grant's new Peace Policy for Native Americans had both successes and failures. Grant's administration successfully resolved the Alabama claims and the Virginius Affair, but Congress rejected his Dominican annexation initiative. Grant's presidency was plagued by numerous public scandals, while the Panic of 1873 plunged the nation into a severe economic depression. After Grant left office in March 1877, he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year world tour that captured favorable global attention for him and the United States. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term. In the final year of his life, facing severe investment reversals and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs, which proved to be a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, he was memorialized as a symbol of national unity. Historical assessments of Grant's legacy have varied considerably over the years. Historians have hailed Grant's military genius, and his strategies are featured in military history textbooks. Stigmatized by multiple scandals, Grant's presidency ranked among the worst in 20th-century surveys of scholars. Modern scholars have shown greater appreciation for his achievements that included civil rights enforcement and have raised his historical reputation. Grant has been regarded as an embattled president who performed a difficult job during Reconstruction.
- Robert Edward Lee was an American soldier best known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. The son of Revolutionary War officer Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III and a top graduate of the United States Military Academy, Robert E. Lee was an exceptional officer and combat engineer in the United States Army for 32 years. During this time, he served throughout the United States, distinguished himself during the Mexican–American War, served as Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and married Mary Custis. When Virginia declared its secession from the Union in April 1861, Lee chose to follow his home state, despite his personal desire for the country to remain intact and despite an offer of a senior Union command. During the first year of the Civil War, Lee served as a senior military adviser to President Jefferson Davis. Once he took command of the main field army in 1862 he soon emerged as a shrewd tactician and battlefield commander, winning most of his battles, all against far superior Union armies.
- Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker and politician. After working as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the United States Senate from 1952 to 1963. A member of the Bush family, he was the father of Vice President and President George H. W. Bush, and the paternal grandfather of Texas Governor and President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Bush graduated from Yale College and served as an artillery officer during World War I. After the war, he worked for several companies, becoming a minor partner of the A. Harriman & Co. investment bank in 1931. He served in several high-ranking United States Golf Association offices, including president of that organization. Bush settled in Connecticut in 1925. Bush won election to the Senate in a 1952 special election, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Abraham Ribicoff. In the Senate, Bush staunchly supported President Dwight D. Eisenhower and helped enact legislation to create the Interstate Highway System. Bush won re-election in 1956 but declined to seek re-election in 1962, retiring from the Senate the following year.
- Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM, OSC (14 December 1775 – 31 October 1860), styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a British naval flag officer of the Royal Navy, mercenary and radical politician. He was a daring and successful captain of the Napoleonic Wars, leading Napoleon to nickname him Le Loup des Mers ('The Sea Wolf'). He was successful in virtually all his naval actions. He was dismissed from the Royal Navy in 1814 following a controversial conviction for fraud on the Stock Exchange. He helped organise and lead the rebel navies of Chile and Brazil during their respective successful wars of independence through the 1820s. While in charge of the Chilean Navy, Cochrane also contributed to Peruvian Independence through the Freedom Expedition of Perú. He was also asked to help the Greek Navy but was prevented by events from having much impact. In 1832, he was pardoned by the Crown and reinstated in the Royal Navy with the rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue. After several more promotions, he died in 1860 with the rank of Admiral of the Red, and the honorary title of Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom. His life and exploits inspired the naval fiction of 19th- and 20th-century novelists, particularly the figures of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's protagonist Jack Aubrey.
- Larry Rudell Ellis is a retired United States Army general, who served as the Commander of U.S. Army Forces Command from November 19, 2001 until 2004, following his assignment as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans of the Department of the Army. During his career, Ellis had assignments in the United States, Vietnam, Germany, South Korea, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. His command assignments include 1st Armored Division, Germany; Multinational Division, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Assistant Division Commander, 2nd Infantry Division, South Korea; Brigade Commander, 3rd Infantry Division, Germany; Battalion Commander, 5th Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana; Company Commander, 101st Airborne Division, Vietnam; and 82d Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
- Hafez al-Assad (Arabic: حافظ الأسد Ḥāfiẓ al-ʾAsad, Levantine Arabic: [ˈħaːfezˤ elˈʔasad], Modern Standard Arabic: [ħaːfɪðˤ al'ʔasad]; 6 October 1930 – 10 June 2000) was a Syrian politician who served as President of Syria from 1971 to 2000. He was also Prime Minister from 1970 to 1971, as well as Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Secretary General of the National Command of the Ba'ath Party from 1970 to 2000. Assad participated in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état which brought the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power, and the new leadership appointed him Commander of the Syrian Air Force. In 1966, Assad participated in a second coup, which toppled the traditional leaders of the Ba'ath Party and brought a radical military faction headed by Salah Jadid to power. Assad was appointed defense minister by the new government. Four years later, Assad initiated a third coup which ousted Jadid, and appointed himself as the undisputed leader of Syria. Assad de-radicalised the Ba'ath government when he took power by giving more space to private property and by strengthening the country's foreign relations with countries which his predecessor had deemed reactionary. He sided with the Soviet Union during the Cold War in turn for support against Israel, and, while he had forsaken the pan-Arab concept of unifying the Arab world into one Arab nation, he sought to make Syria the defender of Arab interests against Israel. When he came to power, Assad organised state services along sectarian lines (the Sunnis became the heads of political institutions, while the Alawites took control of the military, intelligence, and security apparatuses). The formerly collegial powers of Ba'athist decision-making were curtailed, and were transferred to the Syrian presidency. The Syrian government ceased to be a one-party system in the normal sense of the word, and was turned into a one-party state with a strong presidency. To maintain this system, a cult of personality centered on Assad and his family was created by the president and Ba'ath party.Having become the main source of initiative inside the Syrian government, Assad began looking for a successor. His first choice was his brother Rifaat, but Rifaat attempted to seize power in 1983–84 when Hafez's health was in doubt. Rifaat was subsequently exiled when Hafez's health recovered. Hafez's next choice of successor was his eldest son, Bassel. However Bassel died in a car accident in 1994, and Hafez turned to his third choice—his younger son Bashar, who at that time had no political experience. This move was met with criticism within some quarters of the Syrian ruling class, but Assad persisted with his plan and demoted several officials who opposed this succession. Hafez died in 2000 and Bashar succeeded him as President.
- Alcibiades, son of Cleinias (c. 450–404 BC), from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War. He played a major role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times. In his native Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated an aggressive foreign policy and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but he fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of sacrilege against him. In Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies and felt forced to defect to Persia. There he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian general (Strategos) for several years, but his enemies eventually succeeded in exiling him a second time. Scholars have argued that had the Sicilian expedition been under Alcibiades's command instead of that of Nicias, the expedition might not have met its eventual disastrous fate. In the years when he served Sparta, Alcibiades played a significant role in Athens's undoing; the capture of Decelea and the revolts of several critical Athenian subjects occurred either at his suggestion or under his supervision. Once restored to his native city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege. Alcibiades's military and political talents frequently proved valuable to whichever state currently held his allegiance, but his propensity for making powerful enemies ensured that he never remained in one place for long; and by the end of the war that he had helped to rekindle in the early 410s, his days of political relevance were a bygone memory.
- Ernst Julius Günther Röhm (German: [ˈɛɐ̯nst ˈʁøːm]; 28 November 1887 – 1 July 1934) was a German military officer and an early member of the Nazi Party. As one of the members of its predecessor, the German Workers' Party, he was a close friend and early ally of Adolf Hitler and a co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Storm Battalion"), the Nazi Party's militia, and later was its commander. By 1934, the German Army feared the SA's influence and Hitler had come to see Röhm as a potential rival, so he was executed during the Night of the Long Knives.
- Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (Russian: Асла́н (Хали́д) Али́евич Масха́дов; Chechen: Аслан Али кӏант Масхадан, romanized: Aslan Ali-khant Masxadan; 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was a politician who served as the third President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the establishment of the de facto independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Maskhadov was elected President of Chechnya in January 1997. Following the start of the Second Chechen War in August 1999, he returned to leading the guerrilla resistance against the Russian army. He was killed in Tolstoy-Yurt, a village in northern Chechnya, in March 2005.
- Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller (June 26, 1898 – October 11, 1971) was a United States Marine Corps officer. Beginning his career fighting guerillas in Haiti and Nicaragua as part of the Banana Wars, he later served with distinction in World War II and the Korean War as a senior officer. By the time of his retirement in 1955, he had reached the rank of lieutenant general. Puller is the most decorated Marine in American history. He is one of two United States servicemen to be awarded five Navy Crosses and one Army Distinguished Service Cross. Puller's six crosses are next in number to the eight times Eddie Rickenbacker received the nation's second-highest military award for valor.Puller retired from the Marine Corps in 1955, after 37 years of service. He lived in Virginia and died in 1971, at age 73.
- James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974), better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter, record producer and former British Army Officer. Blunt rose to fame in 2004 with the release of his debut album Back to Bedlam, achieving worldwide fame with the singles "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". The album has sold over 11 million copies worldwide, topping the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two in the US. "You're Beautiful" was number one in the UK, the US and a dozen other countries. Back to Bedlam was the best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK, and is one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history.Blunt has sold over 20 million records worldwide. He has received several awards, including two Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 2006—two MTV Video Music Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards, as well as receiving five Grammy Award nominations. Blunt was a reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and served under NATO in the Kosovo War in 1999. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for Music in 2016 by University of Bristol.
- Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990)is credited with designing and implementing an effective, but also controversial, systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific theater of World War II. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1961 to 1965. LeMay joined the United States Army Air Corps while studying civil engineering at Ohio State University. He had risen to the rank of major by the time of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. He commanded the 305th Operations Group from October 1942 until September 1943, and the 3rd Air Division in the European theatre of World War II until August 1944, when he was transferred to the China Burma India Theater. He was then placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a massive fire bombing campaign against Japanese cities and Operation Starvation, a crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways. After the war, he was assigned to command USAF Europe and coordinated the Berlin airlift. He served as commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) from 1948 to 1957, where he presided over the transition to an all-jet aircraft force that focused on the deployment of nuclear weapons. As Chief of Staff of the Air Force, he called for the bombing of Cuban missile sites during the Cuban Missile Crisis and sought a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. After retiring from the Air Force in 1965, LeMay agreed to serve as pro-segregation Democratic Governor George Wallace's running mate in the 1968 United States presidential election. The ticket won 13.5% of the popular vote, a strong tally for a third party campaign, but the Wallace campaign came to see LeMay as a liability. After the election, LeMay retired to his Newport Beach, California, home and died in 1990.
- John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813 – July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, politician, and soldier who, in 1856, became the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. During the 1840s, when he led five expeditions into the American West, that era's penny press and admiring historians accorded Frémont the sobriquet The Pathfinder.During the Mexican–American War, Frémont, a major in the U.S. Army, took control of California from the California Republic in 1846. Frémont was convicted in court-martial for mutiny and insubordination over a conflict of who was the rightful military governor of California. After his sentence was commuted and he was reinstated by President Polk, Frémont resigned from the Army. Frémont led a private fourth expedition, which cost ten lives, seeking a rail route over the mountains around the 38th parallel in the winter of 1849. Afterwards, Frémont settled in California at Monterey while buying cheap land in the Sierra foothills. When gold was found on his Mariposa ranch, Frémont became a wealthy man during the California Gold Rush, but he was soon bogged down with lawsuits over land claims, between the dispossession of various land owners during the Mexican–American War and the explosion of Forty-Niners immigrating during the Rush. These cases were settled by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing Frémont to keep his property. Frémont's fifth and final privately funded expedition, between 1853 and 1854, surveyed a route for a transcontinental railroad. Frémont became one of the first two U.S. senators elected from the new state of California in 1850. Frémont was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party, carrying most of the North. He lost the 1856 presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan when Know Nothings split the vote. Democrats warned that his election would lead to civil war.During the American Civil War, he was given command of Department of the West by President Abraham Lincoln. Although Frémont had successes during his brief tenure as Commander of the Western Armies, he ran his department autocratically, and made hasty decisions without consulting Washington D.C. or President Lincoln. After Frémont's emancipation edict that freed slaves in his district, he was relieved of his command by President Lincoln for insubordination. In 1861, Frémont was the first commanding Union general who recognized in Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant an "iron will" to fight and promoted him commander at the strategic base near Cairo, Illinois. Defeating the Confederates at Springfield, Frémont was the only Union General in the West to have a Union victory for 1861. After a brief service tenure in the Mountain Department in 1862, Frémont resided in New York, retiring from the Army in 1864. The same year Frémont was a presidential candidate for the Radical Democracy Party, but he resigned before the election. After the Civil War, Frémont's wealth declined after investing heavily and purchasing an unsuccessful Pacific Railroad in 1866, and lost much of his wealth during the Panic of 1873. Frémont served as Governor of Arizona from 1878 to 1881 appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. Frémont retired from politics and died destitute in New York City in 1890. Historians portray Frémont as controversial, impetuous, and contradictory. Some scholars regard him as a military hero of significant accomplishment, while others view him as a failure who repeatedly defeated his own best purposes. The keys to Frémont's character and personality may lie in his being born illegitimately, his ambitious drive for success, self-justification, and passive-aggressive behavior. Frémont's published reports and maps produced from his explorations significantly contributed to massive American emigration overland into the West starting in the 1840s. In June 1846, Frémont's and his army expedition's return to California, spurred the formation of the California Battalion, and his military advice led to the capture of Sonoma, and the formation of the Bear Flag Republic. Many people during his lifetime believed his court martial by General Kearny in 1848 was unjustified. His biographer Allan Nevins in 1939 believed that Frémont lived a dramatic lifestyle, one of remarkable successes, and one of dismal failures.
- Cristián de la Fuente (Spanish pronunciation: [kɾisˈtjãn ðe la ˈfwẽnte]; born as Cristián Andrés de la Fuente Sabarots on March 10, 1974 in Santiago de Chile, Chile) is a Chilean–American actor, presenter, model and producer.
- Francisco "Pancho" Villa (UK: , US: ; Spanish: [ˈbiʎa]; born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, 5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923) was a Mexican revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution. As commander of the División del Norte, '(Division of the North)' in the Constitutionalist Army, he was a military-landowner (caudillo) of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Given the area's size and mineral wealth, it provided him with extensive resources. Villa was also provisional Governor of Chihuahua in 1913 and 1914. Villa can be credited with decisive military victories leading to the ousting of Victoriano Huerta from the presidency in July 1914. Villa then fought his erstwhile leader in the coalition against Huerta, "First Chief" of the Constitutionalists Venustiano Carranza. Villa was in alliance with southern revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who remained fighting in his own region of Morelos. The two revolutionary generals briefly came together to take Mexico City after Carranza's forces retreated from it. Later, Villa's heretofore undefeated División del Norte engaged the military forces of Carranza under Carrancista general Álvaro Obregón and was defeated in the 1915 Battle of Celaya. Villa was again defeated by Carranza, 1 November 1915, at the Second Battle of Agua Prieta, after which Villa's army collapsed as a significant military force. Villa subsequently led a raid against a small U.S.–Mexican border town resulting in the Battle of Columbus on 9 March 1916, and then retreated to escape U.S. retaliation. The U.S. government sent U.S. Army General John J. Pershing on an expedition to capture Villa, but Villa continued to evade his attackers with guerrilla tactics during the unsuccessful, nine-month incursion into Mexican sovereign territory. The mission ended when the United States entered World War I and Pershing was recalled to other duties. In 1920, Villa made an agreement with the Mexican government to retire from hostilities, following the ouster and death of Carranza, and was given a hacienda near Parral, Chihuahua, which he turned into a "military colony" for his former soldiers. In 1923, as presidential elections approached, he re-involved himself in Mexican politics. Shortly thereafter he was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregón. In life, Villa helped fashion his own image as an internationally known revolutionary hero, starring as himself in Hollywood films and giving interviews to foreign journalists, most notably John Reed. After his death, he was excluded from the pantheon of revolutionary heroes until the Sonoran generals Obregón and Calles, whom he battled during the Revolution, were gone from the political stage. Villa's exclusion from the official narrative of the Revolution might have contributed to his continued posthumous popular acclaim. He was celebrated during the Revolution and long afterward by corridos, films about his life, and novels by prominent writers. In 1976, his remains were reburied in the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City in a huge public ceremony not attended by his widow Luz Corral.
- British born Donald Crisp became one of cinema's most reliable and beloved character actors, but few moviegoers who enjoyed his work were likely aware of just how far reaching and involved his career really was. Crisp really hit his stride in the 1930s when he became one of Warner Brothers' most prized contract players, but he had actually already been in the entertainment business for 30 years by that point. After starting off as an opera singer on the East Coast, Crisp journeyed to California and in association with D.W. Griffith, became a seasoned actor and director in the early days of silent features. He also went on to be a key figure in the world of motion picture financing, but continued to accept movie assignments out of his love for performing. The enthusiasm and considerable skill with which he conveyed both dramatic nuance and broad farce kept him of interest to the studios and Crisp enlivened such classics as "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936). In the 1940s, he was an Oscar winner for "How Green Was My Valley" (1942) and provided fine support in such MGM classics as "Lassie Come Home" (1943) and "National Velvet" (1944). Over a career that spanned more than 50 years, Crisp proved to be a venerable performer and, with his wide-ranging background in front of the camera and behind the scenes, was one of the true renaissance men of Golden Age Hollywood.
- Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (54th Massachusetts) in the Northeast and encouraged the men to refuse their pay until it was equal to the white troops' wage. At the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, a beachhead near Charleston, South Carolina, Shaw was killed while leading his men to the parapet of the Confederate held fort. Although they were overwhelmed and driven back, Shaw's leadership passed into legend with a unit that inspired tens of thousands more African-Americans to enlist for the Union and contribute to its ultimate victory.
- César Antonovich Cui (Russian: Цезарь Антонович Кюи, Tsesar Antonovich Kyui; French: Cesarius Benjaminus Cui; 18 January [O.S. 6 January] 1835 – 13 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five — a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army he rose to the rank of Engineer-General (equivalent to full General), taught fortifications in Russian military academies and wrote a number of monographs on the subject.
- Ehud Barak (Hebrew: אֵהוּד בָּרָק , born Ehud Brog; 12 February 1942) is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011. He previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government from 2007 to 2013, as he retired from politics at the end of the tenure, though he returned in June of 2019 with the formation of a new party.A Rav Aluf (Lieutenant general) in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Barak is the joint most highly decorated soldier in Israel's history, having taken part in many battles and combat missions. Following a highly decorated career, he was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1991, serving until 1995. He is a graduate in physics, mathematics, and economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stanford University.
- Syed Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرویز مشرف Parvez Muśarraf; born 11 August 1943) is a Pakistani politician and retired four-star general of the Pakistan Army, who was the 10th President of Pakistan from 2001 until tendering his resignation, to avoid impeachment, in 2008.Born in Delhi during the British Raj, Musharraf was raised in Karachi and Istanbul. He went on to study mathematics at the Forman Christian College in Lahore and would later study at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1991. Musharraf entered the Pakistan Military Academy in 1961 and was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1964 and went on to play an active role in the Afghan civil war. Musharraf saw action in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 as a second lieutenant; by the 1980s, Musharraf was commanding an artillery brigade. In the 1990s, he was promoted to major general and assigned an infantry division, and later commanded the Special Services Group. Later he served as deputy military secretary and the director general of military operation.Musharraf rose to national prominence when he was elevated to a four-star general, appointed by then-Prime Minister Sharif in October 1998, making Musharraf the head of the armed forces. He led the Kargil infiltration that almost brought India and Pakistan to a full-fledged war in 1999. After months of contentious relations with Prime Minister Sharif, Sharif unsuccessfully attempted to remove Musharraf from the army's leadership. In retaliation, the army staged a coup d'état in 1999 which allowed Musharraf to take-over Pakistan and subsequently placed Prime Minister Sharif under a strict house-arrest before moving towards a trial against Sharif in Adiala Prison.Musharraf became the head of the military government while remaining the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2001 and the Chief of the Army Staff. Although, Musharraf relinquished the position of Chairman of Joint Chiefs in 2001, he remained the Army Chief until retiring from the army in 2007. He became the President of Pakistan on 20 June 2001, only to win a controversial referendum on 1 May 2002 which awarded him five years of presidency. In October the same year, he oversaw a general election in which the army-backed PML-Q was successful. During his presidency, he advocated for a third way for varying synthesis of conservatism and left-wing ideas, he appointed Shaukat Aziz in place of Sharif and directed policies against terrorism, becoming a key player in the American-led war on terror. Over the next several years, Musharraf survived a number of assassination attempts. He reinstated the constitution in 2002, though it was heavily amended with the Legal Framework Order. He also saw a process of social liberalism under his enlightened moderation program, while also promoting economic liberalisation and banning trade unions. He oversaw a rise of in overall gross domestic product at around 50%, however domestic savings declined and saw a rapid rise in economic inequality. Musharraf's government has also been accused of human rights abuses.As Shaukat Aziz departed as Prime Minister, and after approving the suspension of the judicature branch in 2007, Musharraf's position was dramatically weakened in early 2008. Tendering his resignation in a threat to face potential impeachment movement led by the ruling Pakistan People's Party in 2008, Musharraf moved to London in self-imposed exile after returning to Pakistan to participate in the general elections held in 2013. While absent from Pakistan, Musharraf engaged in legal battles after the country's high courts issued warrants for him and Aziz for their alleged involvement in the assassinations of Benazir and Bugti. Upon his return, Musharraf was disqualified from taking part in the elections by High Court judges in April 2013. On 31 March 2014, Musharraf was booked and charged with high treason for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in 2007. On 31 August 2017, he was declared an "absconder" by Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court in verdict of Benazir Bhutto murder case. His legacy is mixed; his era saw the emergence of a more assertive middle class, but his disregard for civilian institutions weakened the state of Pakistan.
- Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975) was the 19th President of Colombia from June 1953 to May 1957. An Army General, he mounted a successful coup d'état against the incumbent President, Laureano Gómez Castro (1889—1965), imposing martial law and establishing a dictatorship-style government in Colombia.
Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty" and "The Spartan General", was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War. He saw action in the First World War as a junior officer of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At Méteren, near the Belgian border at Bailleul, he was shot through the right lung by a sniper, during the First Battle of Ypres. He returned to the Western Front as a general staff officer and took part in the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. He also took part in the Battle of Passchendaele in late 1917 before finishing the war as chief of staff of the 47th (2nd London) Division. In the inter-war years he commanded the 17th (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and, later, the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment before becoming commander of 9th Infantry Brigade and then General Officer Commanding (GOC) 8th Infantry Division. During the Second World War he commanded the British Eighth Army in the Western Desert from August 1942 until the final Allied victory in Tunisia in May 1943. This period included the Second Battle of El Alamein. He subsequently commanded the British Eighth Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Allied invasion of Italy. He was in command of all Allied ground forces during Operation Overlord from the initial landings until the end of the Battle of Normandy. He then continued in command of the 21st Army Group for the rest of the campaign in North West Europe. His 21st Army Group failed in their airborne attempt to bridge the Rhine under Operation Market Garden, after being defeated in the Battle of Arnhem. When German armoured forces broke through the American lines in Belgium months later in the Battle of the Bulge, Montgomery was given command of the north shoulder of the Bulge. This included temporary command of the US First Army and the US Ninth Army, which held up the German advance in the north of the Bulge while the US Third Army under Patton relieved Bastogne from the south. Montgomery's 21st Army Group, bolstered by the US Ninth Army and the First Allied Airborne Army, crossed the Rhine in Operation Plunder in March 1945, two weeks after the US First Army had crossed the Rhine in the Battle of Remagen. On 4 May 1945 Montgomery accepted the surrender of the German forces in North-western Europe at Lüneburg Heath, east of Hamburg, after the surrender of Berlin to the USSR on 2 May but before the general surrender to SHAEF on 7 May. After the war he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Germany and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1946–1948). From 1948 to 1951 he served as Chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee of the Western Union. He then served as NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until his retirement in 1958.- Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais CavC OA CavA (pronounced [siˈdɔniu ˈpajʃ]; 1 May 1872 – 14 December 1918) was a Portuguese politician, military officer, and diplomat, who served as the fourth President of the First Portuguese Republic in 1918. One of the most divisive figures in modern Portuguese history, he was referred to by the writer Fernando Pessoa as the "President-King", a description that stuck in later years and symbolizes his regime.
- Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who has served as the junior United States Senator for Illinois since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented Illinois's 8th district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2017. Before election to office, she served as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (2009–11) and Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs (2006–09). Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, defeating Republican incumbent Mark Kirk.Duckworth was the first Thai-American woman elected to Congress, the first born in Thailand elected to Congress, the first woman with a disability to be elected to Congress, the first female double amputee in the Senate, and the first Senator to give birth while in office. Duckworth is the second Asian American woman serving in the U.S. Senate, after Mazie Hirono, and before Kamala Harris. A combat veteran of the Iraq War, Duckworth served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, which caused her to lose both of her legs and some mobility in her right arm. She was the first female double amputee from the war. Despite her grievous injuries, she sought and obtained a medical waiver which allowed her to continue serving as a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran. Both have since retired from the armed forces.
- William Jackson (March 9, 1759 – December 17, 1828) was a figure in the American Revolution, most noteworthy as the secretary to the United States Constitutional Convention. He also served with distinction in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. After the war he served as one of President George Washington's personal secretaries.
- Jorge Rafael Videla (; Spanish: [ˈxoɾxe rafaˈel biˈðela]; August 2, 1925 – May 17, 2013) was a senior commander in the Argentine Army and dictator of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'état that deposed Isabel Martínez de Perón. In 1985, two years after the return of a representative democratic government, he was prosecuted in the Trial of the Juntas for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or forced disappearance, widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists and political opponents as well as their families at secret concentration camps. An estimated 13,000-30,000 political dissidents vanished during this period. Videla was also convicted of the theft of many babies born during the captivity of their mothers at the illegal detention centres and passing them on for illegal adoption by associates of the regime. In his defence, Videla maintained the female guerrilla detainees allowed themselves to fall pregnant in the belief they wouldn't be tortured or executed. On 5 July 2010, Videla took full responsibility for his army's actions during his rule. "I accept the responsibility as the highest military authority during the internal war. My subordinates followed my orders," he told an Argentine court. Videla also sheltered many Nazi fugitives as did Juan Perón before him, Alfredo Stroessner from Paraguay and Hugo Banzer from Bolivia. He was under house arrest until 10 October 2008, when he was sent to a military prison.Following a new trial, on 22 December 2010, Videla was sentenced to life in a civilian prison for the deaths of 31 prisoners following his coup. On 5 July 2012, Videla was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the systematic kidnapping of children during his tenure. The following year, Videla died in the Marcos Paz civilian prison five days after suffering a fall in a shower.
- James Thomas Byford McCudden, (28 March 1895 – 9 July 1918) was an English flying ace of the First World War and among the most highly decorated airmen in British military history. Born in 1895 to a middle class family with military traditions, McCudden joined the Royal Engineers in 1910. Having an interest in mechanics he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1913 at which time he first came into regular contact with aircraft. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he flew as an observer before training as a fighter pilot in 1916. McCudden claimed his first victory in September 1916. He claimed his fifth victory—making him an ace—on 15 February 1917. For the next six months he served as an instructor and flew defensive patrols over London. He returned to the frontline in summer 1917. That same year he dispatched a further 31 enemy aircraft while claiming multiple victories in one day on 11 occasions. With his six British medals and one French, McCudden received more awards for gallantry than any other airman of British nationality serving in the First World War. He was also one of the longest serving. By 1918, in part due to a campaign by the Daily Mail newspaper, McCudden became one of the most famous airmen in the British Isles. At his death he had achieved 57 aerial victories, placing him seventh on the list of the war's most successful aces. Just under two-thirds of his victims can be identified by name. This is possible since, unlike other Allied aces, a substantial proportion of McCudden's claims were made over Allied-held territory. The majority of his successes were achieved with 56 Squadron RFC and all but five fell while McCudden was flying the S.E.5a. On 9 July 1918 McCudden was killed in a flying accident when his aircraft crashed following an engine fault. His rank at the time of his death was major, a significant achievement for a man who had begun his career in the RFC as an air mechanic. McCudden is buried at the British war cemetery at Beauvoir-Wavans.
- John Francis Reed (born November 12, 1949) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Rhode Island, a seat he was first elected to in 1996. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. Representative for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district from 1991 to 1997. Reed graduated from the United States Military Academy and Harvard University, serving in the U.S. Army as an active officer from 1971 to 1979. He is the current dean of Rhode Island's congressional delegation.
- Wasfi Tal (Arabic: وصفي التل; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962-63, 1965-67 and 1970 until his assassination in 1971. Tal was born in Irbid to prominent poet Mustafa Wahbi Tal. He received his education in Al-Salt, later continuing his education at the American University of Beirut in 1941. He then joined the British Army in Mandatory Palestine after being trained in a British-run military academy, and joined the irregular Arab Liberation Army to fight against Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.Following the war, he served various positions in the Jordanian government, rising to higher positions after his abilities captured King Hussein's attention. His first tenure as Prime Minister in 1962 was short-lived, he resigned in 1963 over widespread criticism of his perceived pro-Western views. He was appointed Prime Minister again in 1965, which saw an improved climate of economic activity, but resigned just before the onset of the Six Day War in 1967. He was appointed again as Prime Minister in 1970 during Black September, the conflict which saw Palestine Liberation Organization fighters (fedayeen) expelled from Jordan. Earning the ire of PLO leaders for his role in the conflict, he was assassinated by the Black September group outside a Cairo hotel hosting an Arab League conference.Tal was reportedly extremely loyal to King Hussein, and was popular within Jordan for his success in expelling the fedayeen. Meanwhile, he was widely denounced by Arabs who had supported the fedayeen. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had also despised Tal. Tal was the third senior Jordanian political figure assassinated between 1951 and 1971; the first two being King Abdullah I and Prime Minister Hazza Majali. His assassins were found innocent and released on bail by an Egyptian court.
- Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈnwel noˈɾjeɣa]; February 11, 1934 – May 29, 2017) was a Panamanian politician and military officer who was the de facto ruler of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He had longstanding ties to United States intelligence agencies; however, he was removed from power by the U.S. invasion of Panama. Born in Panama City to a poor mestizo family, Noriega studied at the Chorrillos Military School in Lima and at the School of the Americas. He became an officer in the Panamanian army, and rose through the ranks in alliance with Omar Torrijos. In 1968, Torrijos overthrew President Arnulfo Arias in a coup, establishing himself as leader; under Torrijos' government, Noriega became chief of military intelligence. After Torrijos' death in 1981, Noriega consolidated his power to become Panama's de facto ruler in 1983. From the 1950s until shortly before the U.S. invasion, Noriega worked with U.S. intelligence agencies. Noriega was one of the Central Intelligence Agency's most valued intelligence sources, as well as one of the primary conduits for illicit weapons, military equipment and cash destined for U.S.-backed counter-insurgency forces throughout Latin America. The U.S. also regarded Noriega as an ally in its War on Drugs, despite Noriega himself having amassed a personal fortune through drug trafficking operations. Though his U.S. intelligence handlers were aware of this, it was allowed because of his usefulness to the U.S. Noriega relied upon military nationalism to maintain his support, and did not espouse a specific social or economic ideology. In 1988, Noriega was indicted by federal grand juries in Miami and Tampa on charges of racketeering, drug smuggling, and money laundering. Following the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, he was captured and flown to the United States, where he was tried on the Miami indictment. The trial, lasting from September 1991 to April 1992, ended with Noriega's conviction on most of the charges. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, and ultimately served 17 years after a reduction in his sentence and time off for good behavior. Noriega's U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007. In 2010, Noriega was extradited to France, where he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for money laundering. In 2011 France extradited him to Panama, where he was incarcerated for crimes committed during his rule. Diagnosed with a brain tumor in March 2017, Noriega suffered complications during surgery, and died two months later. Generally described as a military dictatorship, Noriega's rule in Panama was marked by repression of the media, an expansion of the military, and the persecution of political opponents, effectively controlling the outcomes of any elections. He was known for his complicated relationship with the U.S., being described as being its ally and nemesis at the same time. He has been called one of the best-known dictators of his time, and compared to authoritarian rulers such as Muammar Gaddafi and Augusto Pinochet.
- "Göth" and "Goeth" redirect here; see Goeth (surname) for a discussion of this and related surnames.Amon Leopold Göth (pronounced [ˈɡøːt]; alternative spelling Goeth; 11 December 1908 – 13 September 1946; audio ) was an Austrian SS functionary during the Nazi era and war criminal. He served as the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów in German-occupied Poland for most of the camp's existence during World War II. Göth was tried after the war by the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków and was found guilty of personally ordering the imprisonment, torture, and extermination of individuals and groups of people. He was also convicted of homicide, the first such conviction at a war crimes trial, for "personally killing, maiming and torturing a substantial, albeit unidentified number of people."Göth was executed by hanging not far from the former site of the Płaszów camp. The 1993 film Schindler's List, where Göth is portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, depicts his running of the Płaszów concentration camp.
- William Harry McRaven (born November 6, 1955) is a retired United States Navy admiral who last served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command from August 8, 2011, to August 28, 2014. From 2015 to 2018, he was the chancellor of The University of Texas System. McRaven previously served from June 13, 2008, to August 2011 as commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and from June 2006 to March 2008 as commander of Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR). In addition to his duties as COMSOCEUR, he was designated as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre (NSCC), where he was charged with enhancing the capabilities and inter-operability of all NATO Special Operations Forces. McRaven retired from the U.S. Navy on August 28, 2014, after more than 37 years of service.
- William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died of typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term (the shortest tenure), becoming the first president to die in office. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency, because the Constitution was unclear as to whether Vice President John Tyler should assume the office of president or merely execute the duties of the vacant office. Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers when the previous president fails to complete the elected term.Harrison was a son of Founding Father Benjamin Harrison V and the paternal grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States. He was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies before the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. During his early military career, he participated in the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that effectively ended the Northwest Indian War. Later, he led a military force against Tecumseh's Confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". He was promoted to major general in the Army in the War of 1812, and in 1813 led American infantry and cavalry at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada.Harrison began his political career in 1798, when he was appointed Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and in 1799 he was elected as the territory's delegate in the House of Representatives. Two years later, President John Adams named him governor of the newly established Indiana Territory, a post he held until 1812. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House in 1816. In 1824, the state legislature elected him to the United States Senate; his term was truncated by his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in May 1828. Afterward, he returned to private life in Ohio until he was nominated as the Whig Party candidate for president in the 1836 election; he was defeated by Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. Four years later, the party nominated him again with John Tyler as his running mate, and the Whig campaign slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too". They defeated Van Buren in the 1840 election, making Harrison the first Whig to win the presidency. At 68 years, 23 days of age at the time of his inauguration, Harrison was the oldest person to have assumed the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69 years, 349 days. Due to his brief tenure, scholars and historians often forgo listing him in historical presidential rankings. However, historian William W. Freehling calls him "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today".
- Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969) is an English documentarian, indigenous rights advocate, author, explorer, trek leader and former Royal Marines commando officer. He employs an ethnographic style and a form of participant observation for his documentaries.His documentary series for the BBC entitled Tribe, Amazon, and Arctic have shown Bruce exploring extreme environments, living with remote indigenous peoples and highlighting many of the important issues being faced on the environmental frontline.
- William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American radical lawyer and civil rights activist, known for his politically unpopular clients. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the co-founder of the Law Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the "leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country".Kunstler's defense of the Chicago Seven from 1969–1970 led The New York Times to label him "the country's most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer". Kunstler is also well known for defending members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Catonsville Nine, Black Panther Party, Weather Underground Organization, the Attica Prison rioters, and the American Indian Movement. He also won a de facto segregation case regarding the District of Columbia's public schools and "disinterred, singlehandedly" the concept of federal criminal removal jurisdiction in the 1960s. Kunstler refused to defend right-wing groups such as the Minutemen, on the grounds that: "I only defend those whose goals I share. I'm not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love."He was a polarizing figure; many on the right wished to see him disbarred, while many on the left admired him as a "symbol of a certain kind of radical lawyer." Even some other civil rights lawyers regarded Kunstler as a "publicity hound and a hit-and-run lawyer" who "brings cases on Page 1 and wins them on Page 68." Legal writer Sidney Zion quipped that Kunstler was "one of the few lawyers in town who knows how to talk to the press. His stories always check out and he's not afraid to talk to you, and he's got credibility—although you've got to ask sometimes, 'Bill, is it really true?'"
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American soldier and politician. An important leader of the Texas Revolution, Houston served as the 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas, and was one of the first two individuals to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He also served as the 6th Governor of Tennessee and the seventh governor of Texas, the only American to be elected governor of two different states in the United States. Born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Houston and his family migrated to Maryville, Tennessee when Houston was a teenager. Houston later ran away from home and spent time with the Cherokee, becoming known as "Raven". He served under General Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, and after the war he presided over the removal of many Cherokee from Tennessee. With the support of Jackson and others, Houston won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1823. He strongly supported Jackson's presidential candidacies, and in 1827 Houston won election as the governor of Tennessee. In 1829, after divorcing his first wife, Houston resigned from office, and joined his Cherokee friends in Arkansas Territory. Houston settled in Texas in 1832. After the Battle of Gonzales, Houston helped organize Texas's provisional government and was selected as the top-ranking official in the Texian Army. He led the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle in Texas's war for independence against Mexico. After the war, Houston won election in the 1836 Texas presidential election. He left office due to term limits in 1838, but won election to another term in the 1841 Texas presidential election. Houston played a key role in the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845, and in 1846 he was elected to represent Texas in the United States Senate. He joined the Democratic Party and supported President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War. Houston's Senate record was marked by his unionism and opposition to extremists from both the North and South. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the territorial issues left over from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. He later voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act because he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to leave the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856 presidential election and the Constitutional Union Party in the 1860 presidential election. In 1859, Houston won election as the governor of Texas. In that role, he opposed secession and unsuccessfully sought to keep Texas out of the Confederate States of America. He was forced out of office in 1861 and died in 1863. Houston's name has been honored in numerous ways, and he is the eponym of the city of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the United States.- Hyman G. Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was an Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reactors office. In addition, he oversaw the development of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, the world's first commercial pressurized water reactor used for generating electricity. Rickover is known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy," and his influence on the Navy and its warships was of such scope that he "may well go down in history as one of the Navy's most important officers." He served in a flag rank for nearly 30 years (1953 to 1982), ending his career as a four-star admiral. His total of 63 years of active duty service made Rickover the longest-serving naval officer, as well as the longest-serving member of the U.S armed forces in history.Rickover is one of four people who have been awarded two Congressional Gold Medals. His substantial legacy of technical achievements includes the United States Navy's continuing record of zero reactor accidents, defined as "the uncontrolled release of fission products to the environment subsequent to reactor core damage." However, two U.S. Navy nuclear submarines sank with the loss of all hands during his service: USS Thresher (SSN-593) in 1963 and USS Scorpion (SSN-589) in 1968. Following the subsequent establishment of the non-nuclear systems' Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE), no U.S. submarines have suffered the same fate.
- Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in observing and shooting wildfowl at a young age and later took to their rearing and breeding. He established the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge in 1946 and helped found the World Wide Fund for Nature, the logo of which he designed. He was also a gliding and yachting enthusiast from an early age. He was part of the British sailing team that won a bronze medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He was knighted in 1973 for his work in conservation of wild animals and was also a recipient of the WWF Gold Medal and the J. Paul Getty Prize.
- Khālid ibn al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah al-Makhzūmī (Arabic: خالد بن الوليد بن المغيرة المخزومي; 585–642), commonly known as simply Khalid ibn al-Walīd, and also known by his kunya as, Abu Sulaiman was a companion of Muhammad and an army commander under Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab. It was under his military leadership that Arabia, for the first time, was united under a single political entity, the Caliphate. Having remained undefeated, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest warriors and military generals in history.Khalid ibn al-Walid (Khalid son of al-Walid) was from the Meccan tribe of Quraysh, from a clan that initially opposed Muhammad. He played a vital role in the Meccan victory at the Battle of Uhud against the Muslims. He converted to Islam, and joined Muhammad after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and participated in various expeditions for him, such as the Battle of Mu'tah, which was the first battle between the Romans and the Muslims. Khalid ibn Al-Walid reported that the fighting was so intense, that while fighting, he broke nine swords in the battle. This earned him the title ‘Saif-ullah' meaning "The Sword of Allah". Khalid took over after Zayd ibn Haritha, then Jafar ibn Abi Talib, then Abdullah ibn Rawahah were killed. After Muhammad's death, he played a key role in commanding Medinan forces for Abu Bakr in the Ridda wars, conquering central Arabia and subduing Arab tribes. He captured the Sassanid Arab client Kingdom of Al-Hirah, and defeated the Sassanid Persian forces during his conquest of Iraq (Mesopotamia). He was later transferred to the western front to capture Roman Syria and the Byzantine Arab client state of the Ghassanids. Although Umar later relieved him of high command, he nevertheless remained the effective leader of the forces arrayed against the Byzantines during the early stages of the Byzantine–Arab Wars. Under his command, Damascus was captured in 634 and the key Arab victory against the Byzantine forces was achieved at the Battle of Yarmouk (636), which led to the conquest of the Bilad al-Sham (Levant). In 638, he was dismissed from military services by Umar because of people's overconfidence on him, causing shirk. Khalid fought around 200 battles, both major battles and minor skirmishes as well as single duels, during his military career.
- Paul Vories McNutt (July 19, 1891 – March 24, 1955) was an American diplomat and politician who served as the 34th Governor of Indiana, high commissioner to the Philippines, administrator of the Federal Security Agency, chairman of the War Manpower Commission and ambassador to the Philippines.
- Guan Yu ([kwán ỳ] (listen); died January or February 220), courtesy name Yunchang, was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on most of his early exploits. Guan Yu played a significant role in the events leading up to the end of the Han dynasty and the establishment of Liu Bei's state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. While he is remembered for his loyalty towards Liu Bei, he is also known for repaying Cao Cao's kindness by slaying Yan Liang, a general under Cao Cao's rival Yuan Shao, at the Battle of Boma. After Liu Bei gained control of Yi Province in 214, Guan Yu remained in Jing Province to govern and defend the area for about seven years. In 219, while he was away fighting Cao Cao's forces at the Battle of Fancheng, Liu Bei's ally Sun Quan broke the Sun–Liu alliance and sent his general Lü Meng to conquer Liu Bei's territories in Jing Province. By the time Guan Yu found out about the loss of Jing Province after his defeat at Fancheng, it was too late. He was subsequently captured in an ambush by Sun Quan's forces and executed.Guan Yu's life was lionised and his achievements glorified to such an extent after his death that he was deified during the Sui dynasty. Through generations of story telling, culminating in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, his deeds and moral qualities have been given immense emphasis, making Guan Yu one of East Asia's most popular paradigms of loyalty and righteousness. He is still worshipped by many Chinese people today in mainland China, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong and among many overseas Chinese communities. In religious devotion he is reverentially called the "Divus Guan" (Guān Dì) or "Lord Guan" (Guān Gōng). He is a deity worshipped in Chinese folk religion, popular Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism, and small shrines to him are almost ubiquitous in traditional Chinese shops and restaurants. His hometown Yuncheng has also named its airport after him.
- Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a German politician and SS commander during the Nazi era. He joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and was elected to the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic in 1930. Prior to 1929, Dietrich was Adolf Hitler's chauffeur and bodyguard. He received rapid promotions in the SS after his participation in the extrajudicial executions of political opponents during the 1934 purge known as the Night of the Long Knives. Despite having no formal staff officer training, Dietrich was, along with Paul Hausser, the highest-ranking officer in the Waffen-SS, the paramilitary branch of the SS. Reaching the rank of Oberst-Gruppenführer, he commanded units up to army level during World War II. As commanding officer of the 6th Panzer Army during the Battle of the Bulge, Dietrich bore responsibility for the Malmedy massacre, the murder of U.S. prisoners of war in December 1944. After the war, Dietrich was convicted of war crimes at the Malmedy massacre trial, conducted by the U.S. military tribunal, and later in West Germany for his involvement in the 1934 purge. Upon his release from the U.S. prison, he became active in HIAG, a lobby group established by former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel. Dietrich died in 1966.
- Colonel Théoneste Bagosora (born 16 August 1941) is a former Rwandan military officer. He is chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, for which he has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He will be imprisoned until age 89.
- Samuel Eliot Morison (July 9, 1887 – May 15, 1976) was an American historian noted for his works of maritime history and American history that were both authoritative and popular. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, and taught history at the university for 40 years. He won Pulitzer Prizes for Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), a biography of Christopher Columbus, and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). In 1942, he was commissioned to write a history of United States naval operations in World War II, which was published in 15 volumes between 1947 and 1962. Morison wrote the popular Oxford History of the American People (1965), and co-authored the classic textbook The Growth of the American Republic (1930) with Henry Steele Commager. Over the course of his career, Morison received eleven honorary doctoral degrees, and garnered numerous literary prizes, military honors, and national awards from both foreign countries and the United States, including two Pulitzer Prizes, two Bancroft Prizes, the Balzan Prize, the Legion of Merit, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands; German: Bernhard Friedrich Eberhard Leopold Julius Kurt Carl Gottfried Peter Graf von Biesterfeld; 29 June 1911 – 1 December 2004) was a Dutch prince who was the consort of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands; they were the parents of four children, including Princess Beatrix, who was Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 to 2013. He belonged to the princely House of Lippe and was a nephew of the Principality of Lippe's last sovereign Leopold IV. From birth he held the title Count of Biesterfeld; his uncle raised him to princely rank with the style of Serene Highness in 1916. He studied law and worked as an executive secretary at the Paris office of IG Farben. In 1937 he married Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, and was immediately given the title Prince of the Netherlands with the style of Royal Highness. Upon his wife's accession to the throne, in 1948 he became the prince consort of the Netherlands. Although his private life was rather controversial, Prince Bernhard was still generally regarded as a popular figure by the majority of the Dutch for his performance as a combat pilot and his activities as a liaison officer and personal aide to Queen Wilhelmina during World War II, and for his work during post-war reconstruction. During World War II, he was part of the London-based Allied war planning councils. He saw active service as a Wing Commander (RAF), flying both fighter and bomber planes into combat. He was a Dutch general and Supreme Commander of the Dutch Armed forces, involved in negotiating the terms of surrender of the German Army in the Netherlands. For proven bravery, leadership and loyalty during his wartime efforts, he was appointed a Commander of the Military William Order, the Netherlands' oldest and highest honour. After the war he was made Honorary Air Marshal of the Royal Air Force by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. In 1969, Bernhard was awarded the Grand Cross (Special Class) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bernhard helped found the World Wildlife Fund (later renamed World Wide Fund for Nature), becoming its first president in 1961. In 1970 he established the WWF's financial endowment "The 1001: A Nature Trust". In 1954, he was a co-founder of the international Bilderberg Group, which has met annually since then to discuss corporate globalisation and other issues concerning Europe and North America. He was forced to step down from both groups after being involved in the Lockheed Bribery Scandal in 1976.
- Robert Low Bacon (July 23, 1884 – September 12, 1938) was an American politician, a banker and military officer. He served as a congressman from New York from 1923 until his death in 1938. He is known as one of the authors of the Davis–Bacon Act of 1931, which regulates wages for employees on federal projects.
- John Horne Burns (October 7, 1916 – August 11, 1953) was a United States writer, the author of three novels. The first, The Gallery (1947), is his best known work, which was very well received when published and has been reissued several times.
- Larry LaRocco (born August 25, 1946) is an American Democratic politician from the US state of Idaho, who served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2008, LaRocco ran for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican incumbent Larry Craig; he was defeated by Jim Risch in the general election.
- Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Rochford (10 November 1896 – 17 December 1986) was a British World War I flying ace credited with twenty-nine aerial victories. He returned to military service in the Royal Air Force during World War II.
- John Napier is an American bobsledder.
- Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III (February 3, 1969 – May 30, 2015) was an American attorney, officer in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, and politician from Wilmington, Delaware. He was the eldest of three children from the marriage of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Biden. He served as the Attorney General of Delaware, a major in the Delaware Army National Guard.
- Dean Paul Martin Jr. (November 17, 1951 – March 21, 1987) was an American pop singer and film and television actor. A member of the California Air National Guard, Martin died in a crash during a military training flight. Martin was the son of American entertainer Dean Martin.
- The son of Irish immigrants, John McGiver was a notable character actor who made over a hundred appearances in both film and television. He got his start working in commercials in the 1960s, and appeared in the first in a popular series of "Do you know me?" ads for American Express. A large man with a thick New York City accent, McGiver was a versatile actor who could play everything from a kindly salesman in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to an ill-fated politician in the 1962 film version of "The Manchurian Candidate." His most notable role, however, came in 1969's Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, "Midnight Cowboy," in which he stood out as the fanatical religious nut, Mr. O'Daniel. His last major role came in 1971 as the recurring character Dr. Luther Quince on the NBC sitcom "The Jimmy Stewart Show," which lasted for a single season. McGiver lived with his wife, Ruth, and 10 children in West Fulton, New York, until his sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 61 in 1975.
- Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy (April 10, 1891 – January 29, 1978) was an American actor, military officer, and expert on American Indian life and customs. He was also known Colonel T.J. McCoy.
- Harry "Buster" Merryfield (27 November 1920 – 23 June 1999) was an English actor best known for starring as Uncle Albert in the BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses. His wife was Iris born in London
- Norton Parker Chipman (March 7, 1834 – February 1, 1924) was an American Civil War army officer, military prosecutor, politician, author, and judge.
- Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician. A Republican, he served as a United States Senator and the 36th Governor of California. Born in Lake Forest, Illinois, Wilson graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law after serving in the United States Marine Corps. He established a legal practice in San Diego and campaigned for Republicans such as Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater. Wilson won election to the California State Assembly in 1966 and became the Mayor of San Diego in 1971. He held that office until 1983, when he became a member of the United States Senate. In the Senate, Wilson supported the Strategic Defense Initiative and the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, while he opposed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. He resigned from the Senate after winning the 1990 California gubernatorial election. As governor, he signed a three-strikes law and supported energy deregulation and term limits. He was also an advocate for California Proposition 187, which established a state-run citizenship screening system with the intention of preventing illegal immigrants from using social services. He sought the presidential nomination in the 1996 Republican primaries but quickly dropped out of the race. Wilson retired from public office after serving two terms as governor. Since leaving office, he has worked for several businesses and has been affiliated with several other organizations. He is a distinguished visiting fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution. Wilson also co-chaired Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful 2003 gubernatorial campaign.
- Michael Strank (November 10, 1919 – March 1, 1945) was a United States Marine Corps Sergeant who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He is best known for being one of the six flag-raisers who helped raise the second U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945 as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. The Marine Corps War Memorial located in Arlington, Virginia, which was modeled after the flag-raising photograph, depicts bronze statues of each of the six Marine flag-raisers.
- Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (German: [fɔn ˈpaːpn̩] (listen); 29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) generally known as Franz von Papen, was a German conservative politician, diplomat, nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–34. Born into a wealthy family of Westphalian Roman Catholic aristocrats, Papen served in the Imperial German Army from 1898 onward and was trained as a German General Staff officer. He served as military attaché in Mexico and the United States from 1913 to 1915, organising acts of sabotage in the United States and financing Mexican forces in the Mexican Revolution. After being expelled from the United States in 1915, he served as a battalion commander on the Western Front of World War I and finished his war service in the Middle Eastern theatre as a lieutenant colonel. Appointed Chancellor in 1932 by President Paul von Hindenburg, Papen ruled by presidential decree. He negotiated the end of reparations at the Lausanne Conference of 1932. He launched the Preußenschlag coup against the Social Democratic government of the Free State of Prussia. His failure to secure a base of support in the Reichstag led to his dismissal by Hindenburg and replacement by General Kurt von Schleicher. Determined to return to power, Papen, believing that Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, persuaded Hindenburg to replace Schleicher as Chancellor with Hitler in 1933 in a cabinet not under Nazi Party domination. Papen and his allies were quickly marginalised by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, during which the Nazis killed some of his confidants. Subsequently, Papen served as an ambassador of the German Reich in Vienna from 1934 to 1938 and in Ankara from 1939 to 1944. After the Second World War, Papen was indicted in the Nuremberg trials of war criminals before the International Military Tribunal but was acquitted of all charges. In 1947 a West German denazification court found Papen to have acted as a main culprit to crimes. Papen was given an eight year hard labour prison sentence but he was released on appeal in 1949. Papen's memoirs were published in 1952 and 1953, and he died in 1969.
- Joseph William Kittinger II (born July 27, 1928) is a retired colonel in the United States Air Force and a USAF Command Pilot. His initial operational assignment was in fighter aircraft, then he participated in Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960, setting a world record for the highest skydive from a height greater than 19 miles (31 km). He was also the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon, and the first man to fully witness the curvature of the earth. Kittinger served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, and he achieved an aerial kill of a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter and was later shot down himself, spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison. He participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator in 2012 at age 84, directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking 24-mile (39 km) freefall from Earth's stratosphere.
- Georgios Papadopoulos (; Greek: Γεώργιος Παπαδόπουλος [ʝeˈorʝi.os papaˈðopulos]; 5 May 1919 – 27 June 1999) was the head of the military coup d'état that took place in Greece on 21 April 1967, and leader of the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974. He held his dictatorial power until 1973, when he was himself overthrown by his co-conspirator Dimitrios Ioannidis. Papadopoulos was a Colonel of the Artillery. During World War II, he initially resisted the Italian 1940 invasion but later became an active Axis collaborator in the Security Battalions which "hunted down" Greek resistance fighters. He underwent military and intelligence training in the United States during the 1950s, and had connections to the CIA.
- Keith Brian Alexander (born December 2, 1951) is a retired four-star general of the United States Army, who served as director of the National Security Agency (DIRNSA), chief of the Central Security Service (CHCSS), and commander of the United States Cyber Command. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2, United States Army from 2003 to 2005. He assumed the positions of Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service on August 1, 2005, and the additional duties as Commander United States Cyber Command on May 21, 2010.Alexander announced his retirement on October 16, 2013. His retirement date was March 28, 2014. In May 2014, Alexander founded IronNet Cybersecurity, a private-sector cybersecurity firm based in Fulton, Maryland.
- Thucydides (; Greek: Θουκυδίδης Thoukydídēs [tʰuːkydídɛːs]; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the deities, as outlined in his introduction to his work.He also has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by, and constructed upon, the emotions of fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal work of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics. More generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plagues, massacres, and civil war.
- Don Bendell (born January 8, 1947, in Akron, Ohio) is an American author, rancher, tracker, Producer/Director/Actor and a former Green Beret. He has published 29 books and assisted in exposing former Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy's claims of serving as a Green Beret as false.Bendell has had his work published in several newspapers and magazines, such as The American Spectator. Bendell is skilled in multiple martial arts, previously owned his own karate schools, and is a 1995 inductee into the International Karate & Kickboxing Hall of Fame.
- Ioannis Metaxas (; Greek: Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12 April 1871 – 29 January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as the strongman of the 4th of August Regime. Born to an aristocratic family in Ithaca, Metaxas took part in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the Balkan Wars (1912–13), quickly rising through the ranks of the Hellenic Army. A royalist during the National Schism, Metaxas unsuccessfully opposed Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and Greece's entry in World War I; as a result, he was exiled to Corsica in 1917. On his return, Metaxas moved into politics and founded the Freethinkers' Party, but had only limited success under the Hellenic Republic. The Greek monarchy was restored in 1935, and Metaxas was appointed Prime Minister in April 1936. On 4 August 1936, with the support of King George II, Metaxas initiated a self-coup and established an authoritarian, nationalist and anti-communist regime. Metaxas attempted to maintain Greek neutrality early in the Second World War. On 28 October 1940, Metaxas rejected an ultimatum imposed by the Italians to surrender, committing Greece to the Allies and bringing the country into the war. He died in January 1941 before the German invasion and the subsequent fall of Greece.
Dave Cummings
- Richard Montgomery (December 2, 1738 – December 31, 1775) was an Irish soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and he is most famous for leading the unsuccessful 1775 invasion of Canada. Montgomery was born and raised in Ireland. In 1754, he enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, and two years later joined the British Army to fight in the French and Indian War. He steadily rose through the ranks, serving in North America and then the Caribbean. After the war he was stationed at Fort Detroit during Pontiac's War, following which he returned to Britain for health reasons. In 1773, Montgomery returned to the Thirteen Colonies, married Janet Livingston, and began farming. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Montgomery took up the Patriot cause, and was elected to the New York Provincial Congress in May 1775. In June 1775, he was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Continental Army. After Philip Schuyler became too ill to lead the invasion of Canada, Montgomery took over. He captured Fort St. Johns and then Montreal in November 1775, and then advanced to Quebec City, where he joined another force under the command of Benedict Arnold. On December 31, he led an attack on the city, but was killed during the battle. The British found his body and gave him an honorable burial. His remains were moved to New York City in 1818.
- Dieter Felix Gerhardt (born 1 November 1935) is a former commodore in the South African Navy and commander of the strategic Simon's Town naval dockyard. He was arrested by the FBI in New York City in 1983 following information obtained from a Soviet defector. He was convicted of high treason as a Soviet spy in South Africa together with his second wife, Ruth, who had acted as his courier. Both were released prior to the change of government following the 1994 general election.
- Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Swedish pronunciation: [kɑːɭ ²ɡɵsːtav ˈeːmɪl ²manːɛrˌheɪm]; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. Mannerheim served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Regent of Finland (1918–1919), commander-in-chief of Finland's defence forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and the sixth president of Finland (1944–1946). Mannerheim made a career in the Imperial Russian Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. He also had a prominent place in the ceremonies for Tsar Nicholas II's coronation and later had several private meetings with the Russian Tsar. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in civil war between the pro-Bolshevik "Reds" and the "Whites", who were the troops of the Senate of Finland, supported by troops of the German Empire. Mannerheim was appointed the military chief of the Whites. Twenty years later, when Finland was twice at war with the Soviet Union from November 1939 until September 1944, Mannerheim successfully led the defence of Finland as commander-in-chief of the country's armed forces. In 1944, when the prospect of Germany's defeat in World War II became clear, Mannerheim was elected President of Finland and oversaw peace negotiations with the Soviet Union and the UK. He resigned the presidency in 1946 and died in 1951. In a Finnish survey 53 years after his death, Mannerheim was voted the greatest Finn of all time. Given the broad recognition in Finland and elsewhere of his unparalleled role in establishing and later preserving Finland's independence from Russia, Mannerheim has long been referred to as the father of modern Finland, and the Finnish capital Helsinki's Mannerheim Museum memorializing the leader's life and times has been called "the closest thing there is to a [Finnish] national shrine". In addition, he is the only Finn to have held the rank of field marshal, an honorary rank bestowed upon especially distinguished generals.
- Rex Joseph Walheim (born October 10, 1962) is a retired United States Air Force officer, engineer and NASA astronaut. He flew three space shuttle missions, STS-110, STS-122, and STS-135. Walheim logged over 566 hours in space, including 36 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalk (EVA) time. He was assigned as mission specialist and flight engineer on STS-135, the final space shuttle mission.
- Ernest Jennings Ford (February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991), known professionally as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American singer and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres. Noted for his rich bass-baritone voice and down-home humor, he is remembered for his hit recordings of "The Shotgun Boogie" and "Sixteen Tons".
Sudirman
General of the Army Raden Soedirman (Perfected Spelling: Sudirman; 24 January 1916 – 29 January 1950) was a high-ranking Indonesian military officer during the Indonesian National Revolution. The first commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, he continues to be widely respected in the country. Born in Purbalingga, Dutch East Indies, Soedirman moved to Cilacap in 1916 and was raised by his uncle. A diligent student at a Muhammadiyah-run school, he became respected within the community for his devotion to Islam. After dropping out of teacher's college, in 1936 he began working as a teacher, and later headmaster, at a Muhammadiyah-run elementary school. After the Japanese occupied the Indies in 1942, Soedirman continued to teach, before joining the Japanese-sponsored Defenders of the Homeland as a battalion commander in Banyumas in 1944. In this position he put down a rebellion by his fellow soldiers, but was later interned in Bogor. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence on 17 August 1945, Soedirman led a break-out then went to Jakarta to meet President Sukarno. Tasked with overseeing the surrender of Japanese soldiers in Banyumas, he established a division of the People's Safety Body there. On 12 November 1945, at an election to decide the military's commander-in-chief in Yogyakarta, Soedirman was chosen over Oerip Soemohardjo in a close vote. While waiting to be confirmed, Soedirman ordered an assault on British and Dutch forces in Ambarawa. The ensuing battle and British withdrawal strengthened Soedirman's popular support, and he was ultimately confirmed on 18 December. During the following three years Soedirman saw negotiations with the returning Dutch colonial forces fail, first after the Linggadjati Agreement – which Soedirman participated in drafting – and then the Renville Agreement; he was also faced with internal dissent, including a 1948 coup d'état attempt. He later blamed these issues for his tuberculosis, which led to his right lung being collapsed in November 1948. On 19 December 1948, several days after Soedirman's release from the hospital, the Dutch launched an assault on the capital. Soedirman and a small contingent escaped Dutch forces and left the city, making their headquarters at Sobo, near Mount Lawu. There Sudirman commanded military activities throughout Java, including a show of force in Yogyakarta on 1 March 1949. When the Dutch began withdrawing, in July 1949 Soedirman was recalled to Yogyakarta and forbidden to fight further. In late 1949 Sudirman's tuberculosis relapsed, and he retired to Magelang, where he died slightly more than a month after the Dutch recognised Indonesia's independence. He is buried at Semaki Heroes' Cemetery in Yogyakarta. Soedirman's death was grieved throughout Indonesia, with flags flown at half-mast and thousands gathering to see his funeral convoy and procession. He continues to be highly respected in Indonesia. His guerrilla campaign has been credited with developing the army's esprit de corps, and the 100-kilometre (62 mi) long route he took must be followed by Indonesian cadets before graduation. Soedirman featured prominently on the 1968 series of rupiah banknotes, and has numerous streets, museums, and monuments named after him. On 10 December 1964, he was declared a National Hero of Indonesia.- Nestor Ivanovych Makhno (Ukrainian: Не́стор Івáнович Махно́; 7 November [O.S. 26 October] 1888 – July 25, 1934), commonly known as bat'ko Makhno (Ukrainian: [ˈbɑtʲkɔ mɐxˈnɔ], "Father Makhno"), was a Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary and the commander of an independent anarchist army in Ukraine from 1917–22. As commander of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Makhnovshchina (loosely translated as "Makhno movement"), Makhno led a guerrilla campaign. The term encompasses not only the army but the whole of the movement's activities and overall spirit. The suffix -shchina can be employed in a slightly derogatory manner, but this is not the intention in this case, given that the movement's adherents – including Makhno himself – frequently used the term to describe themselves. Makhno fought all factions which sought to impose any external authority over southern Ukraine, battling in succession the forces of the Ukrainian National Republic, the Central Powers, the Hetmanate state, the Russian White Army, the Russian Red Army, and other smaller forces led by Ukrainian atamans. He is also credited as the inventor of the tachanka, a horse-drawn platform mounting a heavy machine gun. Makhno and his movement repeatedly attempted to reorganize life in the Huliaipole region along anarchist lines; however, the disruptions of the civil war precluded any long-term social experiments. Although Makhno considered the Bolsheviks a threat to the development of an anarchist Free Territory within Ukraine, he twice entered into military alliances with them to defeat the White Army. In the aftermath of the defeat of the White Army in the region in November 1920, the Bolsheviks initiated a military campaign against Makhno, which concluded with his escape across the Romanian border in August 1921. After a series of imprisonments and escapes, Makhno finally settled in Paris with his wife Halyna and daughter Yelena. In exile Makhno wrote three volumes of memoirs. Makhno died in exile at the age of 45 from tuberculosis-related causes.
- Mike Kellin (born Myron Kellin, April 26, 1922 – August 26, 1983) was an American actor.
- Nan Huai-Chin (simplified Chinese: 南怀瑾; traditional Chinese: 南懷瑾; pinyin: Nán Huáijǐn) (March 18, 1918 – September 29, 2012) was a spiritual teacher of contemporary China. He was considered by many to be the major force in the revival of Chinese Buddhism. While Nan was regarded by many in China as one of the most influential Chan Buddhist teachers, he was little known outside the Chinese cultural sphere. Nan died at the age of 95 on Sept. 29th, 2012 in Suzhou, China.
- Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker (September 28, 1811 – March 24, 1881) was a German lawyer, politician and revolutionary. He was one of the most popular speakers and agitators of the 1848 Revolution. After moving to the United States, he served as a brigade commander in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Draža Mihailović
Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović (Serbian Cyrillic: Драгољуб Дража Михаиловић; 27 April 1893 – 17 July 1946) was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. A staunch royalist, he retreated to the mountains near Belgrade when the Germans overran Yugoslavia in April 1941 and there he organized bands of guerrillas known as the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army. The organisation is commonly known as the Chetniks, although the name of the organisation was later changed to the Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland (JVUO, ЈВУО). Founded as the first Yugoslav resistance movement, it was royalist and nationalist, as opposed to the other, Josip Broz Tito's Partisans who were communist. Initially, the two groups operated in parallel, but by late 1941 began fighting each other in the attempt to gain control of post-war Yugoslavia. Many Chetnik groups collaborated or established modus vivendi with the Axis powers. Mihailović himself collaborated with Milan Nedić and Dimitrije Ljotić at the end of the war. After the war, Mihailović was captured by the communists. He was tried and convicted of high treason and war crimes by the communist authorities of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, and executed by firing squad in Belgrade. The nature and extent of his responsibility for collaboration and ethnic massacres remains controversial. On 14 May 2015, Mihailović was rehabilitated after a ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation, the highest appellate court in Serbia.Mahmoud Kabil
Mahmoud Kabil (Arabic: محمود قابيل, born May 19, 1946) is an award-winning Egyptian actor and political activist. He is also the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa. Kabil served as an officer in the Military of Egypt's Special Forces before becoming a promising actor in Egyptian cinema during the 1970s. Blacklisted in 1980, Kabil moved to the United States and took a 14-year hiatus from acting. He made a successful comeback upon his return to Egypt in 1993, and has since starred in more than 50 films and TV series on his way to becoming one of Egypt's most popular actors. After years of involvement with the United Nations, Kabil was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in November 2003.- Anthony Martin Kimmins (10 November 1901 – 19 May 1964) was an English director, playwright, screenwriter, producer and actor.
- Born on April 21, 1970 in Louisville, Kentucky, Rob Riggle is a versatile performer who has excelled both in the realm of comedy and dramatic roles. After earning his Bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas and Master's degree from Webster University, he served in the United States Marine Corps as a public affairs officer, where he received numerous accolades for his service. Riggle's journey into the entertainment industry began when he moved to New York to study improvisational comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. His big break came in 2004 when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, showcasing his comedic prowess to a national audience. In addition to his work on SNL, he has been a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he earned acclaim for his satirical segments. Besides these, he has carved out a successful career in film, with notable roles in films like The Hangover, 21 Jump Street, and Step Brothers. His talents also extend to voice acting, having lent his distinctive voice to characters in animated hits like Hotel Transylvania and The Lorax. Riggle's unique blend of humor, charisma, and versatility have made him a recognizable figure in Hollywood, with a career that spans television, film, and animation. Despite his success in the entertainment industry, Riggle continues to serve his country as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, embodying a spirit of service and commitment that is as admirable as his expansive body of work.
Fernando Figueroa
General Fernando Figueroa (4 March 1849 – 16 June 1919) was President of El Salvador from March 1, 1907 to March 1, 1911. He was the last in a series of military rulers who had ruled the country since the 1880s. He had six children and eventually two of his grandchildren would become important figures in the political landscape. Fabio Castillo Figueroa became one of the leaders in the early days of the leftist guerrilla movement and Alfredo Avila Figueroa went on to become the youngest mayor of the city of San Salvador and later on, governor of the province of San Salvador.
