Actor Rapper Tupac Shakur 1971 - 1996

Rapper, actor. Born on June 16, 1971, in New York, New York. Shakur has become a legend in hip-hop and rap circles for his talent, his violent behavior, and his brutal death. The son of a Black Panther activist, Shakur moved around a lot as a child. In his youth, he explored acting by becoming a member of the 127th Street Ensemble, a Harlem-based theater company.

As a teenager, Shakur attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he took acting and dance classes, including ballet. While living in Baltimore, he discovered rap and began performing as MC New York. In the late 1980s, Shakur and his family moved to the West Coast. He joined the Oakland, California-based hip-hop group Digital Underground, which earlier had scored a hit with the song "The Humpty Dance."

In 1991, Shakur emerged as a solo artist — using the name 2Pac — with his debut album 2Pacalypse Now. The track "Brenda's Got a Baby" reached as high as number three on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart. His second album Strictly 4 My N. I. G. G. A. Z. crossed over to the pop charts, with singles "I Get Around" and "Keep Ya Head Up." The album went platinum, selling more than a million copies. Around this time, Shakur also appeared in several films, including Poetic Justice (1993) opposite Janet Jackson.

2Pac became quite a sensation, earning praise for his musical and acting talent as well as condemnation for his explicit, violent lyrics. Many of his songs told of fights, gangs, and sex. He appeared to be living up to his aggressive gangster rap persona with several arrests for violent offenses in the 1990s. In 1994, he spent several days in jail for assaulting director Allen Hughes and was later convicted of sexual assault in another case. Shakur himself fell victim to violence, getting shot five times in the lobby of a recording studio during a mugging.

The next year, after recovering from his injuries, Shakur was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in the sexual assault case. His third solo album, Me Against the World (1995), started out in the number one spot on the album charts. Many critics praised the work, noting that tracks like "Dear Mama" showed a more genuine, reflective side to the rapper. The possibility of an early death runs through several songs on this recordings — something that many have seen as a chilling moment of foretelling.

After serving eight months in prison, Shakur returned to music with the album All Eyez on Me (1996). He was reportedly released after Death Row Records CEO Marion "Suge" Knight paid a bond of more than $1 million as part of Shakur's parole. In his latest project, Shakur as the defiant street thug was back in full force on this recording. The song "California Love" featured a guest appearance by famed rapper-producer Dr. Dre and made a strong showing on the pop charts. "How Do You Want It" also was another smash success for Shakur. It appeared to be a golden time for Shakur. Besides his hit album, he tackled several film roles.

During his career, Shakur had become embroiled in a feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers. He was known to insult his enemies on his tracks. On a trip to Las Vegas to attend a boxing match, Shakur was shot while riding in a car driven by Knight on September 7, 1996. He died six days later on September 13 from his injuries. His killer has never been caught. Since his death, numerous albums of his work have been released, selling millions of copies.

Golf Player Phil Mickelson 1970

Athlete. Born Philip Alfred Mickelson on June 16, 1970, in San Diego, California. Mickelson's career in golf began around the time he could walk; his parents Phil and Mary tell the story of a young Phil running away from home at the age of 3, telling neighbors he was going to the golf course.

Mickelson began an amateur golfing career as a teen. He won 34 San Diego Junior Golf Association titles, using his father's job as an airline pilot to score tickets to his various tournaments. His mother took a second job to help pay for his American Junior Golf Association play, which won him three consecutive AJGA Rolex Player of the Year awards, and a full scholarship to Arizona State University.

Mickelson graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988, and headed to Arizona State University to study psychology. During his time at Arizona State, Mickelson jumped to the top of the national amateur golfing ranks. He won three NCAA individual championships, three Haskins Awards for outstanding collegiate golfer, and became only the second collegiate golfer to earn 1st team All-American honors all four years. In 1990, while a junior in college, he became the first left-hander to win the U.S. Amateur title. That same year, he stunned critics when he won his first PGA Tour tournament as an amateur, becoming the fourth golfer in PGA history to accomplish this feat.

Mickelson earned his bachelor's degree at ASU after his 1991 win in Tucson. In 1992, on the eve of his 22nd birthday, he turned professional. Mickelson's first win as a pro was in 1993 at Torrey Pines, and the golfer continued to win many PGA Tour tournaments, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996. In 1998, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, followed by the Colonial National Invitation in 2000. He also won the Buick Invitational in 2000, defeating favorite Tiger Woods and ending the golf icon's streak of consecutive tournament victories. His first major championship win came at the 2004 Masters.

Mickelson's 2004 Masters tournament victory, was ranked No. 9 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Most Awesome Sports Moments (of the last 15 years)." In 2007, Forbes estimated his earnings for the year at $42 million, making him one of golf's highest-paid players.

In 2009, Mickelson came back into view as the possible U.S. Open champ. The neck-and-neck competition involved underdog Ricky Barnes, as well as Lucas Glover and Tiger Woods.

Mickelson is married to Amy McBride, who is currently battling cancer. They have three children: Amanda, Sophia, and Evan.

News Publisher Katharine Graham 1917 - 2001

(born July 16, 1917, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died July 17, 2001, Boise, Idaho) U.S. owner and publisher of news publications. The daughter of Eugene Meyer (1875–1959), owner and publisher of The Washington Post (1933–46), she studied at Vassar College and the University of Chicago. In 1940 she married Philip Graham, who later became the Post's publisher. The Grahams acquired the paper from Meyer in 1948. After her husband's suicide in 1963, she stepped in as head of the Washington Post Co. (which had purchased Newsweek in 1961). Under her leadership, and through the editorial direction of Ben Bradlee, the Post became one of the nation's most powerful newspapers, particularly with its coverage of the Watergate scandal. Her best-selling autobiography, Personal History, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 1997.

Novelist Short Story Writer Joyce Carol Oates 1938

(born June 16, 1938, Lockport, New York, U.S.) American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres. Particularly effective are her depictions of violence and evil in modern society.

Oates was born in New York state, the daughter of a tool-and-die designer. She studied English at Syracuse University (B.A., 1960) and the University of Wisconsin (M.A., 1961). She taught English at the University of Detroit, in Michigan, from 1961 to 1967 and at the University of Windsor, in Ontario, Canada, from 1967 to 1978. From 1978 she taught at Princeton University. In 1961 she married Raymond J. Smith, a fellow English student who himself became a professor and an editor. With him she published The Ontario Review, a literary magazine.

Early in her career Oates contributed short stories to a number of magazines and reviews, including the Prairie Schooner, Literary Review, Southwest Review, and Epoch, and in 1963 published her first collection of short stories, By the North Gate. Her first novel, With Shuddering Fall, appeared in 1964 and was followed by a second short-story collection, Upon the Sweeping Flood (1965). She wrote prolifically thereafter, averaging about two books per year.

Her notable fiction works include A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967), them (1969; winner of a National Book Award), Do with Me What You Will (1973), Black Water (1992), Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993), Zombie (1995), We Were the Mulvaneys (1996), Broke Heart Blues (1999), The Falls (2004), and My Sister, My Love: The Intimate Story of Skyler Rampike (2008). In 2001 she published the short-story collection Faithless: Tales of Transgression, “richly various” tales of sin. An extensive and mainly retrospective volume of her stories, High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories, 1966–2006, was published in 2006. The story collection Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway (2008) featured fictionalized accounts of the final days of various iconic American writers. Oates also wrote mysteries (under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly), plays, essays, poetry, and literary criticism. Essays, reviews, and other prose pieces are included in Where I've Been, and Where I'm Going (1999).

Oates's novels encompass a variety of historical settings and literary genres. She typically portrays American individuals whose intensely experienced and obsessive lives end in bloodshed and self-destruction owing to larger forces beyond their control. Her books blend a realistic treatment of everyday life with horrific and even sensational depictions of violence.

Titanic Disaster Victim George Dunton Widener 1861 - 1912

Businessman. Born on June 16, 1861, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The son of P. A. B. Widener, a wealthy and influential businessman, George Dunton Widener oversaw much of his father’s streetcar and railway operations. He is best remembered as one of the victims of the Titanic disaster of 1912.

In 1883, Widener wed Eleanor Elkins, the daughter of his father’s business partner, William L. Elkins. Around the turn of the century, the couple moved in with his father on a grand estate named Lynnewood Hall where they raised their three children, George Jr., Eleanor, and Harry. The Wideners were part of Philadelphia’s social elite and active in many charities. George was the director of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts for a time.

George and his wife traveled to Europe in 1912 with their youngest son Harry. When it was time to return, they chose the Titanic for their journey home. They boarded the ship in Southampton on April 10, 1912, as first-class passengers. On the night of April 14, the Wideners had a private dinner party in the ship’s a la carte restaurant, which was attended by railroad executive John B. Thayer, Major Archibald Butt, the ship’s captain Edward J. Smith among others. Rumors of icebergs in the surrounding waters had already begun to circulate, according to Titanic: A Night Remembered by Stephanie Barczewski.

Later that night, the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink. Widener helped his wife and her maid get on Lifeboat 4 with Marian Thayer, Madeleine Astor, and other passengers and crew. Widener, Thayer, and John Jacob Astor refused to board the lifeboats, believing that women and children should be the first to be lowered to safety. Widener’s son Harry, an avid book collector, had been seen last returning to his cabin to retrieve a rare book. Both father and son died in early on April 15 when the Titanic disappeared into the North Atlantic.