August 2: James
Baldwin, one of America’s most
unique, multi-talented, eloquent, and uncategorizable
writers, cultural figures, activists, and icons.
August 3: John
Scopes, the Tennessee schoolteacher
whose teaching of evolution—and more exactly whose willingness
to take a stand in defense of
that teaching—helped change the course of American
education, law, and
history, and inspired
many cultural representations.
August 4:
A tie between two unique and very talented 20th
century American artists and voices, Louis Armstrong and Robert
Hayden.
August 5:
Another tie, this one between two pioneers without
whom American
history (as a
discipline and as a
narrative) would be significantly different, Mary
Ritter Beard and Neil
Armstrong.
August 6:
A tie between two 20th century figures
who took Americans to places they had never been before, Matthew Henson and Lucille Ball.
August 7: Ralph Bunche, the pioneering political scientist and
mediator whose efforts in
Palestine earned him the Nobel
Peace Prize, one of many signal
achievements in his inspiring
life.
August 8: Bob Smith, the physician and longtime alcoholic whose founding
of Alcoholics Anonymous has not only helped
many millions of Americans, but has helped change our
cultural attitudes toward addiction.
August 9: Pierre
Charles L’Enfant, the Franco American engineer and architect
who fought in the
Revolution and created
the plan for Washington, DC—just another compelling
reason to thank
the French!
August 11:
A tie between two
talented American
writers, Sarah
Piatt and Alex Haley, and one American
Studier pére.
August 12:
Cecil B. DeMille, one of America’s most significant and ground-breaking film directors, and a pop culture showman who
combined P.T.
Barnum with D.W.
Griffith.
August 13:
A tie between two very different but
equally interesting and influential 19th century women, Lucy Stone and Annie
Oakley.
August 14:
Ernest
Thayer, the philosopher, journalist, and poet whose
most defining
legacy is as the author of the
definitive poetic tribute to America’s
national pastime.
August 15:
Julia
Child, without whose unique and charismatic voice and
presence American cooking, culture, and society would
have been left significantly more hungry and less fun.
August 16:
William
Keepers Maxwell, Jr., who managed to write some
of the 20th century’s most interesting novels and
short stories (as well as a memoir) while editing
many of the century’s other best writers in his 40 years as fiction
editor at The New Yorker.
August 17:
Davy
Crockett, whose identity
has been a complicated combination of myth, legend, and reality since his
multi-part
life, his death, and the many cultural
representations of them both.
August 18:
A tie between two
pioneering Americans, in very
different ways, Virginia
Dare and Meriwether
Lewis.
August 19:
Another tie, this time between two men without whom the history of
television and popular culture
would be very different, Philo
Farnsworth and Gene
Roddenberry.
August 20:
H.P. Lovecraft, one of the true masters of horror, fantasy,
“weird tales,”
and other supernatural
and fantastic literatures, and a figure whose creations and imagination have influenced countless sides
to 20th and 21st
century American and world culture--and whose controversies and failings have a great deal to tell us as well.
August 21:
A tie between two game-changing
performers who jazzed up American culture and scored hugely influential legacies, William
“Count” Basie and Wilt Chamberlain.
August 22:
A tie between two very different but equally unique,
talented,
and just plain entertaining
20th century
writers, Dorothy Parker and Ray Bradbury.
August 23: Clifford Geertz,
the pioneering
cultural anthropologist who brought literary, psychological,
and sociological
insights to the field, and profoundly
influenced our understandings of society,
religion, community, and
ourselves.
August 24: Howard Zinn, who embodied
many of America’s ideals in his life
and identity just as
much as in his
ground-breaking and game-changing
public scholarly works.
August 25: A tie
between two supremely talented and pioneering 20th
century
icons, composer Leonard Bernstein and tennis great Althea Gibson.
August 26:
Lee DeForest, the scientist
and inventor without whose contributions the
worlds of radio,
television, and film would sound very
different—if they sounded at all.
August 27:
A tie between two very
different but equally
unique, talented, and influential American
authors, Theodore
Dreiser and William
Least Heat-Moon.
August 28:
Elizabeth
Ann Seton, the first native-born American to be sanctified by the Catholic Church, and a
woman whose educational
and social efforts on behalf of American women and the
poor should be inspiring
regardless of one’s faith or spiritual perspective.
August 29:
Temple Grandin, the doctor and professor of animal science who is
also and most significantly one of autism’s most vocal and inspiring
advocates and voices.
August 30:
Roy
Wilkins, the Civil
Rights and NAACP leader whose editorial,
political, social, and legal
efforts contributed as much as any American to some
of the 20th
century’s most important achievements.
August 31:
A tie between two hugely impressive and inspiring 19thel
century Americans, Ely Parker and Josephine
St. Pierre Ruffin.
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