U.S. popular singer, the “King of Rock and Roll.”

Presley was raised in Memphis, where he sang Pentecostal church music and listened to black bluesmen and Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. In 1954 he began to record for the producer Sam Phillips, who had been searching for a white singer who sounded like a black man. In 1956, under his new manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker, he released "Heartbreak Hotel," the first of numerous million-selling hits that included "Hound Dog" and "All Shook Up." In the same year, he appeared in Love Me Tender, the first of 33 mediocre films, and on several TV shows, notably the Ed Sullivan Show. Presley's intensely charismatic style—including his sexy hip shaking, ducktail haircut, and characteristic sneer—excited young fans, especially females, to wild adulation. After a stint in the army (1958–60) he resumed recording and acting, but his earlier raucous style was moderated. In 1968 he introduced a Las Vegas-based touring act with orchestra and gospel-type choir. Battling public pressures, weight gain, and drug dependence, he underwent a personal decline. His death at age 42, attributed to natural causes, was mourned by hundreds of thousands of fans at Graceland, his Memphis estate, which remains a place of international pilgrimage.

In Greek and Roman legend, a king of Phrygia.

Midas captured the satyr Silenus but treated him kindly, and as a reward was granted a wish by Dionysus. He asked that everything he touched turn to gold; but after turning his daughter to gold when she embraced him, he asked to be released from his wish. In another legend Midas was invited to judge a music contest between Apollo and the satyr Marsyas. When Midas decided against Apollo, Apollo punished him by giving him donkey's ears.

King of ancient Egypt, 1279–13 BC.

His family came to power some decades after the reign of Akhenaton. Ramses set about restoring Egypt's power by quelling rebellions in southern Syria and fighting the Hittites inconclusively at the Battle of Kadesh. He captured towns in Galilee and Amor, but, unable to defeat the Hittites, he assented to a peace treaty in 1258 BC. He married one and perhaps two of the Hittite king's daughters, and the later part of his reign was free from war. Its prosperity may be measured by the amount of construction he undertook. Early on he built himself a residence city in the Nile delta as a base for military campaigns and resumed construction of the temple of Osiris, begun by his father. He added to the temple at Karnak and completed a funerary temple for his father at Luxor. In Nubia he built six temples, most famously those at Abu Simbel.

Canadian ice-hockey player, considered the greatest in the history of the game.

As centre and captain for the Edmonton Oilers (1979–88), he led his team to four Stanley Cup victories, becoming the first player to average more than two points a game. He was traded successively to the Los Angeles Kings (1988), the St. Louis Blues (1996), and the New York Rangers (1996). When he ended his career in 1999, he held 61 National Hockey League (NHL) records. He holds the all-time NHL records for goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857), as well as corresponding seasonal records (92 goals, 163 assists, 215 points). He is the only player to have led the league in scoring for seven consecutive years (1980–87) and the only one named most valuable player for eight consecutive seasons (1979–87).

Finnish soldier and president of Finland (1944–46).

A career officer in the Russian imperial army (1889–1917), he commanded the anti-Bolshevik forces (1918) in the Finnish Civil War and expelled the Soviet forces. He served as regent of Finland (1918–19) until the new republic was declared. As chairman of the national defense council (1931–39) he oversaw construction of the Mannerheim line of fortifications across the Karelian Isthmus. As commander in chief of Finnish forces (1939–40, 1941–44), he won initial successes against greatly superior Soviet forces in the Russo-Finnish War (1939–40). Named president of the Finnish republic in 1944, he negotiated a peace agreement with the Soviets.

Finnish prime minister (1950–53, 1954–56) and president (1956–81), noted for his Soviet-oriented neutrality.

Founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and architect and builder of the Soviet state.

U.S. film actor.

While a member of the University of Southern California football team, he worked summers at the Fox Film Corporation as a propman and developed a friendship with director John Ford, who cast him in small parts from 1928. After his leading role in The Big Trail (1930), he played in more than 80 low-budget movies before winning acclaim for his starring role as the Ringo Kid in Ford's Stagecoach (1939). Noted for his image as the strong, silent man, Wayne, nicknamed “Duke,” became one of the top box-office attractions in movie history. He starred in other westerns (many directed by Ford) such as Red River (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The Searchers (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), and True Grit (1969, Academy Award), as well as in The Quiet Man (1952), The Alamo (1960), which he also directed, Hatari! (1962), and The Green Berets (1968), which he codirected.

U.S. singer and songwriter.

He learned guitar and began writing songs during military service in the early 1950s. Settling in Memphis, he earned regular appearances on Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Ole Opry with hits such as "Hey, Porter," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "I Walk the Line." By 1957 Cash was acknowledged the top country music artist. His popularity waned for a time because of health and drug addiction problems, but his album Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) led to his rediscovery by a wider audience. In 1968 he married June Carter of the Carter Family, with whom he had worked since 1961. In 1994 he released American Recordings, which was a critical and popular success and won him a new generation of fans. His later albums include American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002). Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. His autobiographies Man in Black and Cash (cowritten with Patrick Carr) were published in 1975 and 1997, respectively.

German-Swiss-U.S. scientist.

Born to a Jewish family in Germany, he grew up in Munich, and his family moved to Switzerland in 1894. He became a junior examiner at the Swiss patent office in 1902 and began producing original theoretical work that laid many of the foundations for 20th-century physics. He received his doctorate from the University of Zürich in 1905, the same year he won international fame with the publication of three articles: one on Brownian motion, demonstrating the existence of molecules; one on the photoelectric effect, in which he demonstrated the particle nature of light; and one on his special theory of relativity, which included his formulation of the equivalence of mass and energy (E = mc2). He held several professorships before becoming director of Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1914. In 1915 he published his general theory of relativity, which was confirmed experimentally during a solar eclipse in 1919 with observations of the deviation of light passing near the Sun. He received a Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect, his work on relativity still being controversial. He made important contributions to quantum field theory, and for decades he sought to discover the mathematical relationship between electromagnetism and gravitation, which he believed would be a first step toward discovering the common laws governing the behaviour of everything in the universe, but such a unified field theory eluded him. His theories of relativity and gravitation represented a profound advance over Newtonian physics and revolutionized scientific and philosophical inquiry. He resigned his position at the Prussian Academy when Adolf Hitler came to power and moved to Princeton, N.J., where he joined the Institute for Advanced Study. Though a longtime pacifist, he was instrumental in persuading Pres. Franklin Roosevelt in 1939 to initiate the Manhattan Project for the production of an atomic bomb, a technology his own theories greatly furthered, though he did not work on the project himself. The most eminent scientist in the world in the postwar years, he declined an offer to become the first prime minister of Israel and became a strong advocate for nuclear disarmament.

One of the great movie villains, Lee Van Cleef started out as an accountant. He served in the U.S. Navy aboard minesweepers and subchasers during World War II. After the war, he worked as an office administrator, becoming involved in amateur theatrics in his spare time. An audition for a professional role led to a touring company job in "Mr. Roberts". His performance therein was seen by Stanley Kramer, who cast him as henchman Jack Colby in High Noon (1952), a role that brought him great recognition despite having no dialogue. For the next decade, he played a long string of memorably villainous characters, primarily in Westerns but also in crime dramas such as The Big Combo (1955). His hawk nose and slit eyes seemed destined to keep him always in the realm of heavies, but in the mid-Sixties Sergio Leone cast him as the tough but decent Colonel Mortimer opposite Clint Eastwood in Per qualche dollaro in più (1965). A new career as a Western hero (or at least anti-hero) opened up, and Van Cleef became an international star, though in films of decreasing value. In the Eighties he moved easily into action and martial-arts movies, and starred in "The Master", a TV series featuring almost non-stop martial arts action. He died of a heart attack in December 1989, and was buried at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.

U.S. singer and songwriter.

He formed his first musical group at age 13. His first single, "Ooby Dooby" (1956), was followed in the early 1960s by a string of hits, carefully crafted ballads of loneliness and heartache that included "Only the Lonely," "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Crying," "In Dreams," and "Oh, Pretty Woman." He was known for his soaring voice, one of the most operatic in all rock music. His career waned after the death of his wife in a motorcycle accident (1966) and the death of two sons in a fire (1968). He made a comeback in the 1980s; with Bob Dylan, George Harrison (1943–2001), and Tom Petty (b. 1953) he formed the band the Traveling Wilburys.