Otto Ludwig Preminger (December 5, 1906 - April 23, 1986) was an Austrian actor and twice Oscar-nominated film director. Preminger was born in Vienna to a well-known family. Preminger's father Marc was once the Attorney General of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As their father, both Otto and his brother, Ingo Preminger, earned law degrees in Vienna. Preminger worked with Max Reinhardt before emigrating to America. At first he directed and acted for 20th Century Fox.

Madam C.J. Walker or Madame Charles Joseph Walker (December 23, 1867-May 25, 1919) was an African American philanthropist and tycoon who made her fortune developing and marketing a hugely successful line of beauty and hair products for black women. Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Louisiana, the first member of her family born free, she was raised on farms there and in Mississippi. She was born as a Christmas baby.

Charles Evans Hughes (April 11, 1862 - August 27, 1948) was Governor of New York, United States Secretary of State, Associate Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 - September 22, 1989) was an American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. Berlin was one of the few Tin Pan Alley/Broadway songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for his songs. Although he never learned to read music beyond a rudimentary level, he composed over 3,000 songs, many of which ("God Bless America", "White Christmas", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", …

Joseph Pulitzer (April 10, 1847 - October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American publisher best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes and (along with William Randolph Hearst) for originating yellow journalism.

Jason Gould (May 27, 1836 - December 2, 1892) was an American financier, who became a leading American railroad developer and speculator.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, (November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902), was an American social activist and leading figure of the early women's rights movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States. Before Stanton narrowed her political focus almost exclusively to women's rights, …

Damon Runyon was a newspaperman and writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. He spun humorous tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors and gangsters; few of whom go by "square" names, preferring instead to be known as "Nathan Detroit", "Big Jule", "Harry the Horse", "Good Time Charley", "Dave the Dude", and so on.

Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia; December 11, 1882 - September 20, 1947) (often spelled La Guardia [la 'gwardja]) was the Republican Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945. He was popularly known as "the Little Flower," the translation of his Italian first name, "Fiorello" [fjo'rl:o], also perhaps a reference to his short stature. A popular mayor and a strong supporter of the New Deal, …

Collis Potter Huntington (April 16 or October 22 1821-August 13 1900) was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who built the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.

James Cash Penney (born September 16, 1875 in Hamilton, Missouri, USA - died February 12, 1971 in New York City, USA) was a businessman and entrepreneur. In 1902, he founded the J.C. Penney stores. After graduating from high school in Hamilton, Missouri, Penney went to work for a local dry goods merchant, then continued in that line of work after moving to Colorado for health reasons. In 1898, he began working in a small chain called the Golden Rule stores, and in 1902, …

Nellie Bly was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world.

Franklin Winfield Woolworth (April 13 1852 - April 8 1919) was an American merchant. Born in Rodman, N.Y., he was the founder of F.W. Woolworth Company, an operator of discount stores that priced merchandise at five and ten cents. He pioneered the now-common practices of buying merchandise direct from manufacturers and fixing prices on items, rather than haggling. The son of a farmer, Woolworth aspired to be a merchant.

William Christopher Handy (November 16 1873 - March 28 1958) was a blues composer and musician, often known as "the Father of the Blues." W. C. Handy remains among the most influential of American songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the style of music that is distinctively American, he is credited with giving it its contemporary form not only because he was able to notate his music for publication and hence, posterity, …

William Collins Whitney (July 5, 1841 - February 2, 1904) was an American political leader and financier and founder of the prominent Whitney family. A conservative reformer, he was considered a Bourbon Democrat. William Whitney was born at Conway, Massachusetts of Puritan stock. His father was General James S.Whitney and his mother Laurinda Collins. William had a well known older brother, industrialist, Henry Melville Whitney (1839-1923), …

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (January 9 1875 - April 18 1942) was born into the prominent United States Vanderbilt family and married into the prominent Whitney family. Gertrude was born in New York City. She was the eldest surviving daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843-1899) and Alice Claypoole Gwynne (1852-1934) and a great-granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Francesco "Frank" Scalice, a.k.a. "Don Cheech" (1893- June 17, 1957) was the early boss of the future Gambino crime family from 1930 to 1931, and an Underboss of the New York Anastasia crime family from 1951 until 1957. Scalice was born in Palermo, Sicily in 1893, and immigrated to the US, and settling in Brooklyn. He was involved in many crime, and became Capo in the Brooklyn based Family of Salvatore D'Aquila. After the murder of D'Aquila in October 10, 1928, …

Martin Wiley Littleton (January 12, 1872 - December 19, 1934) was a United States Representative from New York. Born near Kingston in Roane County, Tennessee, he moved to Texas in 1881 with his parents, who settled in Dallas. He attended the common schools, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1891 and commenced practice in Dallas. He was prosecuting attorney of Dallas County from 1893 to 1896, …

Alexander Nikolaievich Prokofiev de Seversky (Prokofiev-Seversky or DeSeversky), (June 7, 1894-August 24, 1974) was a Georgian-born Russian-American aviation pioneer, inventor, and influential advocate of strategic air power. He served as a Russian naval aviator in World War I, lost a leg in combat, and continued to fly, shooting down thirteen German aircraft. In 1917 he was in the U. S. as a member of the naval aviation mission and decided to stay.

James Anthony Bailey (July 4, 1847-April 11, 1906) was a circus manager. He was born James Anthony McGuiness in Detroit, Michigan, and died in Mount Vernon, New York. Orphaned at the age of eight, McGuinness was working as a bellhop in Pontiac, Michigan when he was discovered by Fred Harrison Bailey (a nephew of circus pioneer Hachaliah Bailey) as a teenager. Bailey gave McGuiness a job as his assistant and the two travelled together for many years.

Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 1847 - 1 August 1919) was a theater impresario in New York City. His private passion was for opera, and he rekindled its popularity in America. He was the grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Oscar Hammerstein I was born in Stettin in Pomerania to a German-speaking Jewish family consisting of Abraham Hammerstein and his first wife, Berthe. He took up music at an early age. His mother died when he was fifteen years old, …

Chancellor "Chauncey" Olcott (July 21, 1858 - March 18, 1932) was an American stage actor and songwriter. Born in Buffalo, New York, in the early years of his career Olcott sang in minstrel shows and Lillian Russell played a major role in helping make him a Broadway star. Amongst his songwriting accomplishments, Olcott wrote and composed the song "My Wild Irish Rose" for his production of "A Romance of Athlone" in 1899.

Thomas F. Gilroy, Born in Ireland, June 3 1840, died 1911. Thomas F. Gilroy was mayor of New York 1893-94. He was also a member of Tammany Hall. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

William L. Strong (1827-1900) was the Mayor of New York from 1895 to 1897. He was the last mayor of New York before the Consolidation of the City of New York on January 1, 1898. A Republican, elected on a fusion ticket by Republican and anti-Tammany Democrats, the reform-minded Strong established the Board of Education, created small parks, and is credited as the "father" of the Department of Correction.

James Coats Auchincloss (January 19 1885 in New York City - October 2 1976 in Alexandria, Virginia) was an American business and political figure, serving eleven terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1943-1965 as a Republican from the 3rd congressional district of New Jersey. Auchincloss attended the Cutler School in New York City, and the Groton School, Groton, …

Andrew Jackson Rogers (July 1, 1828 - May 22, 1900) was a nineteenth century politician, lawyer, teacher, clerk and police commissioner from New Jersey. Born in Hamburg, New Jersey, Rogers attended common schools as a child. He was employed as a clerk in a hotel and a country store, engaged in teaching for two years, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1852, commencing practice in Lafayette, New Jersey.

Royal Hurlburt Weller (July 21881 - March 11929) was a United States Representative from New York. Weller was born in New York City on July 21881. He attended the public schools and the College of the City of New York and graduated from the New York Law School in 1901. He was admitted to the bar in 1902 and commenced practice in New York City; assistant district attorney of New York County from 1911 to 1917, …

Augustus D. Juilliard (April 19 1836 - April 25 1919) was an American businessman whose philanthropy built the renowned conservatory of dance, music, and theatre in New York City that bears his name.

William Henry Harrison Stowell (July 26, 1840 - April 27, 1922) was a nineteenth century congressman, merchant and industrialist from Virginia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Born in Windsor, Vermont, Stowell attended public schools in Boston, Massachusetts as a child and graduted from Boston Latin School in 1860. He engaged in mercantile pursuits before moving to Virginia in 1865 and became collector of internal revenue for the fourth district in 1869.