Salvador Dalí walking his anteater in Paris [1969]

Neil Armstrong after moonwalk [21 July 1969]

Gertrude Ederle
23 October 1905 – 30 November 2003

American swimmer. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel

Michael Collins
born 31 October 1930

American astronaut. Inspired by John Glenn, he was chosen by NASA to be part of the third group of astronauts. His first spaceflight was the Gemini 10 mission, where he performed a spacewalk. His second was Apollo 11 — the first lunar landing in history. Collins received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He currently works as an aerospace consultant.

Michael Collins, the command module pilot who stayed in orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the lunar model [20 July 1969]

Mao Zedong
26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976

He served as chairman of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1959, and led the Chinese Communist Party from 1935 until his death. Mao's "Great Leap Forward" and the Cultural Revolution were ill-conceived and had disastrous consequences, but many of his goals, including stressing China's self-reliance, were generally laudable.

Mao Zedong playing ping-pong [1963]

Pyotr Stolypin
14 April 1862 – 18 September 1911

Last effective prime minister of Imperial Russia. He was assasinated in 1911 at the Kiev Opera House in front of Nicholas II and his daughters

Richard Byrd
25 October 1888 – 11 March 1957

Naval officer and fearless explorer best known for being the first to reach the South Pole by air.

Photograph of Admiral Richard Byrd preparing for his fourth Antarctic expedition (Operation Highjump) [1946]

Behdad Salimi
born 8 December 1989

Behdad Salimi of Iran won the gold in the men's over 105-kilogram category of the weightlifting event of the 2012 London Olympics [7 August 2012]

Nelson Mandela
18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013

First black president of South Africa in 1994, serving until 1999. A symbol of global peacemaking, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

Al Capone
17 January 1899 – 25 January 1947

One of the most famous American gangsters, Al Capone, also known as "Scarface," rose to infamy as the leader of the Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition era. Before being sent to Alcatraz Prison in 1934 for a tax evasion conviction, he had amassed a personal fortune estimated at $100 million as the head of the infamous crime syndicate.

Al Capone and his attorney in 1929

Matthew Henson
8 August 1866 – 9 March 1955

African American explorer best known as the co-discoverer of the North Pole with Robert Edwin Peary in 1909

Valentina Tereshkova
born 6 March 1937

In 1963, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space aboard Vostok 6

Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space, meets Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, in 1970

Yuri Levitan
2 October 1914 – 4 August 1983

Yuri Levitan is still revered as the voice of World War II.

The announcer of the Soviet radio Yury Levitan speaks about capture of Berlin [9 May 1945]

Ezra Pound
30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972

American poet. Pound advanced a "modern" movement in English and American literature. His pro-Fascist broadcasts in Italy during World War II led to his arrest and confinement until 1958. A number of intellectuals, including Hemingway, later campaigned for his release from an insane asylum, out of recognition of his work, not his sanity.