Who2 Profile Updates

Gottfried Leibniz

06 Nov 2009 15:38:41 GMT

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician whose broad knowledge made him one of the most influential European thinkers of the 18th century. The son of a philosophy ... more

Yousuf Karsh

06 Nov 2009 11:55:46 GMT

Yousuf Karsh's dramatic glimpses of public figures like Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway made him one of the most famous ... more

Pope Leo X

06 Nov 2009 11:51:03 GMT

Pope Leo X is the Roman pope whose combination of extravagance and neglect helped provoke the Reformation in the sixteenth century. He was born Giovanni de Medici, the second son of Florentine ... more

Francis Gary Powers

06 Nov 2009 11:49:47 GMT

Francis Gary Powers was the pilot of an American spy plane shot down by the Soviet Union during a famous Cold War espionage incident. The event happened on 1 May 1960, while Powers was flying a U-2 ... more

Satan

06 Nov 2009 11:48:04 GMT

Satan, or the Devil, plays various evil roles in ancient and modern literature and in Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Zoroastrian religious traditions. Satan is an opponent of God and of those seeking ... more

Ruth

06 Nov 2009 11:47:13 GMT

The short biblical book of Ruth is about a foreigner who, out of loyalty to her mother-in-law, adopts the Hebrew culture as her own and becomes an ancestor of Israel's most famous king. The story ... more

Valerie Plame Wilson

06 Nov 2009 11:42:03 GMT

Valerie Plame Wilson is a central figure in a complicated political investigation of the George W. Bush administration. On 14 July 2003, newspaper columnist ... more

William Shakespeare

06 Nov 2009 11:40:41 GMT

William Shakespeare is the grand literary figure of the Western world. During England's Elizabethan period he wrote dozens of plays which continue to dominate world ... more

Jim Carrey

06 Nov 2009 09:21:22 GMT

Actor Jim Carrey is a rubber-faced comedian in the Jerry Lewis mold. His work on the TV sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990-94) made his name, and his ... more

Derek Jeter

06 Nov 2009 07:24:19 GMT

Derek Jeter played 15 games with the New York Yankees in 1995; the next year he established himself as the team's regular shortstop and quickly became an all star. The Yankees won the World Series ... more

George S. Patton, Jr.

05 Nov 2009 16:34:12 GMT

Known as "Old Blood and Guts," George S. Patton, Jr. was one of the most colorful generals of World War II. Patton went to the Virginia Military Institute and to West Point, where he was an ... more

Sir Francis Drake

05 Nov 2009 15:53:16 GMT

Francis Drake was chosen by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1577 to command a voyage around the world. Drake was already a successful privateer (or sea pirate), and his ... more

Erzsebet Bathory

05 Nov 2009 15:33:28 GMT

A member of the Transylvanian royal family, Erzsebet (or Elizabeth) Bathory was known as the "Countess of Blood" and ultimately imprisoned in her own castle for murdering more than 600 women. ... more

Edward Norton

05 Nov 2009 15:17:43 GMT

Edward Norton's 1996 film debut in Primal Fear earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. A 1991 graduate of Yale University, Norton began his performing career on the New York ... more

Harry Nilsson

05 Nov 2009 15:11:24 GMT

Harry Nilsson worked at a bank and wrote songs on the side, mostly jingles and pop tunes in the mid-1960s. Under contract with RCA, his first record was a flop, but it yielded hits for The Monkees ... more

Charles "Lucky" Luciano

05 Nov 2009 14:55:19 GMT

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was one of the most famous gangsters in the U.S. during most of the 20th century, credited with turning syndicated crime into a ... more

Lucille Ball

05 Nov 2009 14:49:19 GMT

For more than a decade Lucille Ball was American TV's most popular comedienne, known for her blazing red hair and slapstick situation comedy gags. She starred in five different TV shows during her ... more

Lil Wayne

05 Nov 2009 13:27:44 GMT

Rapper Lil Wayne is known for his next-generation mix of whimsy and menace -- what the Baltimore City Paper called a "gravelly, giggly ... more

Michael Bloomberg

05 Nov 2009 08:23:14 GMT

Michael Bloomberg succeeded Rudy Giuliani as mayor of New York City in 2002. Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in ... more

Alex Rodriguez

05 Nov 2009 04:19:10 GMT

Superstar shortstop Alex Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers in 2000, making him the highest-salaried player ... more

Alicia Witt

04 Nov 2009 14:44:00 GMT

Actress Alicia Witt combines willowy good looks with a reputation for braininess. She was home-schooled and received her high school degree at age 14, all the while training and performing as a ... more

Charlemagne

04 Nov 2009 11:27:03 GMT

Charlemagne was the Frankish king who conquered most of Europe and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in the year 800. Also known as Carolus Magnus and Karl der Grosse, Charlemagne's ... more

Charles Martel

04 Nov 2009 11:24:14 GMT

Charles Martel was a Frankish ruler whose military successes were a foundation of the Carolingian dynasty, who ruled what is now France until the tenth century. The illegitimate son of Mayor of the ... more

Max Records

04 Nov 2009 07:21:08 GMT

Max Records became a movie star with his first role -- the lead in the Spike Jonze film version of Maurice Sendak's ... more

Betty Boop

03 Nov 2009 15:30:44 GMT

Betty Boop was the cartoon cutie developed by Max Fleischer for Paramount Studio's Talkartoons cartoon series. Oddly, Betty Boop began life as a dog, but by 1930 she had evolved into a coy flapper ... more