- Joey Chestnut
Joseph Christian "Jaws" Chestnut (born November 25, 1983) is a competitive eater from San Jose, California, currently ranked first in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. On July 4, 2007, he won the 92nd Annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, beating six-time defending champion Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi by consuming 66 HDBs (hot dogs and buns) in twelve minutes, which set a new world record.
- Greg Camp
Greg Camp (born Gregory Dean Camp on April 2, 1967 in West Covina, California) is a guitarist and main songwriter for the band Smash Mouth.
- Pat Tillman
Patrick Daniel Tillman (November 6 1976 - April 22 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002, along with his brother Kevin Tillman. Tillman was the first professional football player to be killed in combat since the death of Bob Kalsu of the Buffalo Bills, who died in the Vietnam War in 1970. Tillman was posthumously promoted from Specialist to Corporal.
- Zoe Lofgren
Zoe Lofgren (born Sue Lofgren on December 21 1947), American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1995, representing the 16th District of California (map), based in San Jose. A lifelong Bay Area resident, Lofgren attended Gunn High School in Palo Alto, earned her B.A. at Stanford University and a J.D. at Santa Clara University. She left the San Jose area for a few years after graduation from Stanford, …
- Steve Wozniak
Dr. Stephan Gary "Woz" Wozniak (born August 11 1950 in San Jose, California) is a U.S. computer engineer and the co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.), with Steve Jobs. His inventions and machines are credited with contributing greatly to the personal computer revolution of the 1970s. Wozniak created the Apple I and Apple II computers in the mid-1970s. The Apple II gained a sizable amount of popularity, …
- Norman Mineta
Norman Yoshio Mineta (born November 12, 1931) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He is one of the most successful Asian American politicians in U.S. history. Mineta most recently served in the President's Cabinet of George W. Bush as the United States Secretary of Transportation, the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary in the Republican George W. Bush Administration.
- Mike Honda
Michael Makoto (Mike) Honda (born June 27, 1941) is an American Democratic politician. He currently serves as Congressman for California's 15th congressional district, which encompasses Silicon Valley. (map)
- Steven Harwell
Steven "Smash Mouth" Harwell (born January 9, 1967) is the lead vocalist for the band Smash Mouth. He was previously a rapper for F.O.S. He was born in Santa Clara, California. Harwell has credited Van Halen, The Waterboys, and Elvis Presley as musical influences. He formed the band Smash Mouth in 1994 with Greg Camp, Kevin Coleman, and Paul De Lisle. Harwell's 6 month old son Presley died in July of 2001 from acute lymphatic leukemia.
- Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang
Jerry Yang Chih-Yuan (born November 1968) is a Taiwanese American entreprenuer, co-founder with David Filo and CEO of Yahoo! Inc. He is also one of the two Chief Yahoo!s and board director of the company. As of 2007 his net worth is estimated to be US$2.2 billion and is ranked 432nd among the world's richest people according to Forbes.
- Chuck Reed
Chuck Reed (born Charles Rufus Reed in 1948) is an American politician. He is currently the 64th Mayor of San Jose, California.
- César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was a Mexican American (Chicano) farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union workers. He is considered a hero for farm laborers, and fought against illegal immigration to help keep wages higher and improve work safety rules.
- Thomas Fallon
Thomas Fallon was an Irish-born, Canadian-raised American capitalist and politician, the tenth Mayor of San Jose, California. Fallon's family moved to Canada when he was a child. When he was 18, he moved to Texas, where he joined the expedition of John C. Frémont to Alta California. In 1844 Fallon left Frémont's force and moved to Santa Cruz. In June 1846 he joined the Bear Flag Revolt, raised a group of 22 volunteers in Santa Cruz, and appointed himself captain.
- Cong Thanh Do
Cong Thanh Do (born ca. 1959) is a Vietnamese American human rights activist. Do emigrated from Vietnam to the US in 1982. He advocates a multi-party democratic system for Vietnam, and has been accused of plotting to overthrow the Vietnamese government. On 14 August 2006 he was arrested while on holiday in Phan Thiet and held in jail in Ho Chi Minh City without trial. On 14 August 2006 he began a hunger strike.
- Ken Caminiti
Kenneth Gene Caminiti was an American third baseman in Major League Baseball. He was born in Hanford, California, and attended San Jose State University.
- Steve Caballero
Steve Caballero, (born November 8, 1964, San Jose, California), is a professional skateboarder. Steve was born in the year of the dragon, and has had several board graphics that feature dragons. He was born with scoliosis (curved spine.) Because of this condition, one of his neck glands grew larger than the other, so his head tilts to one side. Caballero started skating in 1976 at the age of 12. He was sponsored as an amateur by Powell Peralta in 1978 at the age of 15.
- Al Cisneros
Al Cisneros is an American musician from San Jose, California. He played in the stoner metal band Sleep as vocalist and bassist. After the breakup of Sleep, Al quit music for quite some time. He now fronts his new band, Om, with former Sleep drummer Chris Hakius.
- Josiah Belden
Josiah Belden (1815-1892) was an American, pioneer, and politician. Born in Connecticut, Belden was orphaned by the time he was 14. He later moved to St. Louis, Missouri and became a successful businessman. In 1841 he joined the Bidwell-Bartleson Party, the first organized emigrant party to use the California Trail to reach the Mexican province of Alta California.
- Dustin Diamond
Dustin Diamond (born Dustin Neil Diamond on January 7, 1977 in San Jose, California) is an actor, musician and stand-up comedian best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers on the television show "Saved by the Bell".
- Janet Gray Hayes
Janet Gray Hayes is an American politician from Indiana. She was the 60th Mayor of San Jose, California from 1975 to 1983, and the first woman mayor of an American city with a population over 500,000. Four years later, she was re-elected by a 72 percent margin. By the time Hayes’ administration ended, the city had earned a AAA bond rating, a feat not repeated since. San Jose came to be known as the “feminist capital of the country.” These days, …
- John Vasconcellos
John B. Vasconcellos (May 11, 1932 in San Jose, California) is an American politician from California and member of the Democratic Party. He represented the Silicon Valley as a member of the California State Assembly for 30 years and a California State Senator for 8 years. His lifelong interest in psychology led to his advocacy of the self-esteem movement in California politics. Vasconcellos comes from Portuguese and German roots.
- Jamie Stewart
James "Jamie" Stewart (born 1972) is the frontman of the American musical group, Xiu Xiu (singer/guitarist/programmer), and is also a member of 7 Year Rabbit Cycle. He is a native of Northridge, California, and currently lives in Oakland, California. He is bisexual. His father, Mike Stewart, was formerly a music producer and a computer programmer. His mother was a teacher, with whom Jamie worked temporarily.
- Rick Warren
Richard D. "Rick" Warren (born January 28, 1954) is the founding and senior pastor of Saddleback Church. He is also the author of many Christian books, including "The Purpose Driven Life", and a major (and occasionally controversial) figure amongst the Southern Baptists in the United States.
- Mark Robbins
Mark Robbins (b. Grand Rapids, Michigan 1947) is a computer software author, inventor, visionary, entrepreneur, and reporter. Robbins received a Bachelors Degree from California State University at Northridge in 1975. In 1971, Robbins co-founded the original Dial-A-Joke telephone service. He designed and built the equipment which answered the phone and delivered the jokes. He also designed and built the answering machine used for the Superfone service run by the writer, …
- Ray Barbee
Ray Barbee is an American skateboarder from San Jose, California and along with Ron Allen and Steve Steadham one of the first famous African-American skaters. He started skateboarding in 1984, when he was in seventh grade. Barbee was on the cutting edge of skateboarding in the late '80s, being a leading pioneer of applying freestyle/flatland tricks to street, technical ollie combinations and numerous no comply variations.
- Lee P. Brown
Lee P. Brown (born October 4, 1937) had a successful career in law enforcement for almost four decades before being elected as the first African-American mayor of Houston, Texas on December 6, 1997. He served the maximum of three terms from 1998 to 2004 and was succeeded by Bill White. Brown is married to Frances Young (his second wife), a teacher in the Houston Independent School District.
- Kevin Tillman
Kevin Tillman is a former college and professional baseball player and joined the United States Army with his brother Pat Tillman. He is a graduate of Cal Poly, and before joining the Army, he played college baseball at Arizona State and Cal Poly then was drafted by the Anaheim Angels.
- Nikki Sixx
Nikki Sixx is an American bassist and the main songwriter for heavy metal / glam metal band Mötley Crüe, as well as Donna D'Errico's ex-husband. He has also played bass for glam metal band London, experimental band 58 and the hard rock band Brides of Destruction. He is also currently in the band Sixx:A.M.
- Brandi Chastain
Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is a former soccer player, who was on the U.S. women's national soccer team from 1991 to 2004 and the San Jose CyberRays of the WUSA (2001-2003). She is best known for her game-winning penalty kick against China in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final and her bra-baring celebration afterwards.
- Peggy Fleming
Peggy Gale Fleming (born July 27, 1948 in San Jose, California) is an American figure skater who won an Olympic gold medal in 1968.
- Dave Meltzer
David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1961) is the editor of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON)", a newsletter for the world of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. "WON" had grown from an underground publication to one that now commonly circulates around the industry and its fans.. It is known for revealing events inside the business by breaking kayfabe.
- Ron Gonzales
Ronald R. Gonzales (born 1951) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party, who served as the 63<sup>rd</sup> Mayor of San Jose, California. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Mayor of San Jose since California became a U.S. state in 1850. Gonzales grew up in the Santa Clara Valley, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. From the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, …
- Ernie Reyes Jr.
Ernest E. Reyes, Jr. (born January 15 1972) is an American actor.
- Don Edwards
William Donlon Edwards, (born January 6, 1915), usually known as Don Edwards, is an American politician of the Democratic Party, formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives from California. Born in San Jose, California, he attended the public schools in the city, graduating from San Jose High Academy, before earning a B.A. from Stanford University in 1936, where he was member of the Stanford golf team.
- Kate Walsh
Kathleen Erin "Kate" Walsh (born October 13 1967) is an American film and television actress, currently known for her role as Dr. Addison Montgomery (former wife of "Dr. McDreamy"), on the hit ABC series "Grey's Anatomy".
- Tom McEnery
Tom McEnery is an American author, businessman, and teacher from San Jose, California, who served as the 61st mayor of that city from 1983 to 1990. McEnery attended Santa Clara University, graduating with a B.A. in 1967 and an M.A. in 1970. After his term in office, he served on the Board of Directors of the San Jose Sharks hockey team and continued to pursue his writing career. He currently writes a weekly blog for San Jose Inside, …
- Amadeo Giannini
Amadeo Peter Giannini (1870-1949), born in San Jose, California, was one of the founders of the Bank of America. Giannini's parents were Italian, from Liguria near Genoa, immigrants to the United States. He attended Heald College in San Francisco, California. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in a former San Francisco saloon on 17 October, 1904. Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780. An early difficulty to overcome was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
- Randy Stonehill
Randy Stonehill (born March 12, 1952) is an American singer/songwriter from Stockton, California, best known as one of the so-called "fathers of contemporary Christian music." His music is primarily folk rock in the style of James Taylor, but he has assayed other styles, with various albums focused on new wave, pop rock, roots rock, and children's music. His live concerts, more so than most of his albums, have a strong comedic element in the manic vein of Robin Williams.
- Matt Sanchez
Matthew Sanchez (born 1 December 1970) is an American Marine reservist, political activist, writer, and a senior at Columbia University. In the 1990s he was also a performer in adult films under such names as Pierre LaBranche and Rod Majors. He became more notable in early 2007, when it was revealed that he had made formal complaints of harassment at Columbia University against other students, …
- Kira Kener
Kira Nicole Kener (born Stephanie Knain on August 11 1974 in San Jose, California) is an American pornographic actress. Her father is of Norwegian ancestry and her mother is of Vietnamese ancestry. She has legally changed her name to Kira Kener as well as registering it as a trademark
- Edgar F. Codd
Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd was a British computer scientist who made seminal contributions to the theory of relational databases. While working for IBM, he created the relational model for database management. He made other valuable contributions to computer science, but the relational model, a very influential general theory of data management, remains his most memorable achievement.