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Every kid has heard of Harry Houdini, the famous magician who could escape from handcuffs, jail cells, and locked trunks. But do they know that the ever-ambitious and adventurous Houdini was also a famous movie star and the first pilot to fly a plane in A

Davy Crockett, the King of the Wild Frontier, is a man of legend.

He is said to have killed his first bear when he was three years old. His smile alone killed another, and he skinned a bear by forcing him to run between two trees. Fact or fiction?

F

Jim Henson broke into television with a five-minute puppetry segment when he was only a freshman in college. He created puppets like none ever seen before, with expressive fabric faces and rod-controlled arms. His Muppets became world-renowned celebrities

Born in Connecticut in 1811, Harriet Beecher Stowe was an abolitionist, author, and playwright. Slavery was a major industry in the American South, and Stowe worked with the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves head north towards freedom.

The pu

Did you know that John Adams had to coax Thomas Jefferson into writing the Declaration of Independence? It's true. The shy Virginia statesman refused at first, but then went on to author one of our nation's most important and inspiring documents

Viva la revoluci�n!

Find out how Che Guevara--a doctor turned communist leader and much more than a face on a T-shirt--ended up paying the ultimate price for his cause.

His very image has become associated with a spirit of rebellion, but Ernesto Gue

The wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King was a civil rights leader in her own right, playing a prominent role in the African American struggle for racial equality in the 1960s.

Here's a gripping portrait of a smart, remarkable woman.

If not for a stint in reform school, young Louis Armstrong might never have become a musician. It was a teacher at the Colored Waifs? Home who gave him a cornet, promoted him to band leader, and saw talent in the tough kid from the even tougher New Orlean

Over a long, turbulent life, Picasso continually discovered new ways of seeing the world and translating it into art. A restless genius, he went through a blue period, a rose period, and a Cubist phase. He made collages, sculptures out of everyday objects

Pete Seeger was an American folk musician and social activist whose outspoken songs about freedom and justice got him blacklisted from radio and TV for years.

Pete Seeger was still singing and playing the banjo for tens of thousands of fans even when h

Clarissa "Clara" Barton was a shy girl who grew up to become a teacher, nurse, and humanitarian.  At a time when few women worked outside the home, she became the first woman to hold a government job, as a patent clerk in Washington, DC.

In 1

A humorist, narrator, and social observer, Mark Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. Best known as the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, not unlike his protagonist, Huck, has a restless spirit.

He found adventure prospec

First he was known as Tommy, then Woodrow, and eventually, Mr. President. Born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a born leader. He was the president of Princeton University, served as governor of New Jersey after that,

As a kid, Jackie Robinson loved sports. And why not? He was a natural at football, basketball, and, of course, baseball. But beyond athletic skill, it was his strength of character that secured his place in sports history. In 1947 Jackie joined the Brookl

Who Was Charles Dickens?

A young boy who worked in a shoe-polish factory?

A world-famous speaker who travelled the globe?

The greatest writer of the Victorian era?

All of the above? - Yes!

Find out more about the real Charles Dickens in thi

Born in Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou had a difficult childhood. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites in the South. Her family life was unstable at times. But much like her poem, "Still I Rise," Angelou was able to lift herself out of her

He was only 42 years old when he was sworn in as President of the United States in 1901, making TR the youngest president ever.  But did you know that he was also the first sitting president to win the Nobel Peace Prize? The first to ride in a car? The fi

Enter a world of shrunken heads, mystic holy men, shriveled aliens, and bizarre relics in the delightfully odd tale of Robert Ripley. Born in California, Ripley began his career as a sports cartoonist. He went on to chronicle global records and oddities i

Ulysses S. Grant certainly does not have the typical war hero “back story.” Although a graduate of West Point, he never wanted to be a soldier and was terrified when he first saw battle. However, during the Civil War, after many Northern generals failed t

Learn more about Cesar Chavez, the famous Latino American civil rights activist.

When he was young, Cesar and his Mexican American family toiled in the fields as migrant farm workers. He knew all too well the hardships farm workers faced. His public-re

Known as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s unique vision in movies like Psycho and The Birds sent shivers down our spines and shock waves through the film industry.

His innovative camera techniques have been studied

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Travel to the age of the Renaissance and learn why Henry VIII is one of the most famous kings in English history.

Mainly remembered for his six marriages and his self-appointment as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, Henry VII

It seems entirely fitting that Maurice Sendak was born on the same day that Mickey Mouse first made his cartoon debut--June 10, 1928. Sendak was crazy about cartoons and comic books, and at twelve, after seeing Disney's Fantasia, he decided that he w

Meet the man who created Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum!

Lewis Carroll is the pen name of Charles L. Dodgson, a mathematician and church deacon, who taught at Oxford University. He was inspired to write his best known works, Ali

No one knew the boy they called “Jumping Badger” would grow to become a great leader. Born on the banks of the Yellowstone River, Sitting Bull, as he was later called, was tribal chief and holy man of the Lakota Sioux tribe in a time of fierce conflict wi

Who HQ has way more than 57 reasons why you'll want to read the amazing story of H. J. Heinz--the American entrepreneur who brought tomato ketchup to the masses.

Learn how this son of German immigrants from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, turned his sma

Amelia Earhart was a woman of many "firsts." In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1935, she also became the first woman to fly across the Pacific. From her early years to her mysterious 1937 disappearance

Though she grew up in rural Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson dreamed of the sea. In 1936 she began work with the Bureau of Fisheries and soon after published Under the Sea Wind, her first of many nature books.

Her 1962 bestseller, Silent Spring, sent shockw

Born a slave in Maryland, Harriet Tubman knew first-hand what it meant to be someone's property; she was whipped by owners and almost killed by an overseer. It was from other field hands that she first heard about the Underground Railroad which she t

You want girl power? Meet Annie Oakley! Born in 1860, she became one of the best-loved and most famous women of her generation. She amazed audiences all over the world with her sharpshooting, horse-riding, action-packed performances. In an age when most w

From his childhood in rural Illinois to moviemaking days in Hollywood and on to a career in politics that took him all the way to the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan kept an abiding faith in America and in what our country stood for. The oldest president ever,

The story of how a girl born into slavery became an early leader in the civil rights movement and the most famous black female journalist in nineteenth-century America.

Born into slavery in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was freed as a result of the Emancipation

In 1978, Sally Ride, a PhD candidate at Standford University, responded to a newspaper ad to join the US astronaut program. She was accepted and became the first American woman astronaut to fly in space! Among her other accomplishments, she played tennis

Our bestselling series is fit for a queen! The life of Queen Elizabeth I was dramatic and dangerous: cast out of her father?s court at the age of three and imprisoned at nineteen, Elizabeth was crowned queen in 1558, when she was only twenty-five. A tough

Abigail Adams was a strong woman far ahead of her time. She urged her husband, President John Adams, to "remember the ladies" and despite having no formal education herself, she later advocated for equal education in public schools for both boys

Told in a new Who HQ NOW format for trending topics, this Who Was? biography details NBA superstar Kobe Bryant's legendary career and the impact of his legacy on the sports world and beyond.

Kobe Bryant was just an eighteen-year-old high-school ba

Learn more about Richard Nixon--one of America's most unpopular presidents and the only one to resign from the position.

On August 8, 1974, millions sat stunned as they watched Richard Nixon on TV when he announced he was stepping down as the Pres

When Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in 1519, he believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west through or around the New World. He was right, but what he didn't know was that the treacherous voyage would take him

When Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan set sail from Spain in 1519, he believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west through or around the New World. He was right, but what he didn't know was that the treacherous voyage would take him

Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian Era, a period of industrial, cultural, scientific, and political change that was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.  But Victoria was raised under close supervision and near