He forgave and befriended his grandmother’s murderer and became a nationally known advocate for the abolition of capital punishment.
He came out of retirement to serve as the senior U.S. diplomat in Libya in 2012.
He ran a one-man music-publishing shop from the basement of his Washington home and meticulously transcribed hundreds of John Coltrane’s saxophone solos in an effort to preserve jazz history.
He served as ambassador to Washington in the1990s during Syria’s on-and-off peace talks with Israel.
He was cited for confirming the existence of neutrinos, subatomic particles streaming from the sun.
He served in South Africa from 1986 to 1989, then sought to open the Foreign Service to minorities as its director general.
A Heisman Trophy winner and Hall of Fame running back, he had a love of the high life and was suspended a year for gambling.
Mr. Sutcliffe’s barbaric attacks on young women were compounded by police failures that allowed him to evade arrest and continue killing for years.
After seizing power twice in coups, he guided the African country toward democratic reform.
He died less than three months after his longtime creative partner, Joe Ruby.
He formed the White Aryan Resistance movement and eventually was pushed into the shadows and financial ruin for his organization’s role in the 1988 beating death of an Ethiopian college student in Portland, Ore.
Ruby Bridges inspired a celebrated Norman Rockwell painting, ‘The Problem We All Live With,’ when she integrated a New Orleans elementary school in 1960.
The first to play multiple conga drums, he helped shape the rhythms of Cuban music and jazz.
He led his island nation’s government for decades and survived the 2011 Arab Spring protests that demanded his ouster over corruption allegations.
He is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
He emerged as a fiery voice for Black evangelicals while condemning same-sex marriage and abortion.
He was a staunch advocate of the “two-state solution” but grew increasingly bitter about the chances of reaching a peace deal.
A prolific author with many public pulpits, he also served for 22 years as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
He drew standing convulsions for his scrambled syntax and marvelous malapropisms.
The Canadian-born broadcaster almost single-handedly made “Jeopardy!” one of the longest-lasting shows of its kind in TV history.




















