Harry Bliss (born Rochester, New York, 1964) is a cartoonist and an illustrator of at least 20 children’s books. He illustrated Sharon Creech’s A Fine, Fine School and Doreen Cronin’s Diary of a Worm.
Bobby Fischer (born Chicago, Illinois, 1943; died Reykjavik, Iceland, January 17, 2008) was a world chess champion from 1972 to 1975.
Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin (born Gzhatsk, Russia, 1934; died in a plane crash near Moscow, Russia, March 27, 1968) was a Soviet cosmonaut. He was the first man to travel in space. His spacecraft completed one complete orbit of the earth on April 12, 1961. He was instantly famous, and eventually he became involved in the training of other cosmonauts.
William Jackson (born Cumberland, England, 1759; died Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 17, 1828) fought in the Revolutionary War. However, he is most famous for serving as the secretary during the Constitutional Convention. He did not represent any of the thirteen states, but he kept minutes and maintained secrecy during the convention. He deserves more attention than he currently gets. Older children can learn more at: William Jackson.
Ellen Levine (born New York, New York, 1939; died New York, New York, May 26, 2012) wrote around 20 books for children. Her book Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories received a 2001 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. She also wrote Henry’s Freedom Box. The illustrator, Kadir Nelson, received a 2008 Caldecott Honor Award for the artwork.
Amerigo Vespucci (born Florence, Italy, 1451; died Seville, Spain, February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer. Even though Columbus reached the New World before Vespucci, the latter was the first to realize it was a new continent. Vespucci traveled at least twice to the New World around 1499 to 1502. Columbus continued to believe he had landed near India. Martin Waldseemuller, an early cartographer, named the new land America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci. Children could read Jean Fritz’s outstanding book, Around the World in a Hundred Years to learn more about Vespucci and Columbus.