January 1776 – Berkshire Mountains – Upstate New York: The colonial soldiers and volunteers refused to go any further. The mission was too difficult and dangerous. Colonel Henry Knox, a 25-year-old former Boston bookstore owner, pleaded and begged the men to continue....
1872 – Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia: Booker arrived at the school with 50 cents in his pocket. Exhausted and filthy after walking almost 300 miles, he was unsure whether they would take him as a student. Assistant principal Mary Mackey interviewed him and then...
1885 – Warsaw, Poland. “Papa, it’s not fair,” cried Marie. “I am smarter than all the boys in my class.” Her father assured Marie that he would teach her. Marie was brilliant. Like her father, she loved math and physics. She had graduated from high school at 15. There...
1980 – Buttercup Bakery – Berkeley, California: After six years of waitressing at the Buttercup Bakery, 29-year-old Suze Orman knew she could do more than wait tables. Over a cup of coffee, she shared her dream about having her own restaurant with Fred Hasbrook. When...
2002 – Mastala Village, Malawi, Africa: The people in his African village called him “misala,” the crazy one. The first time William Kamkwamba saw a picture of a windmill, he was in the small library in the neighboring village of Wimbe. The 15-year-old wasn’t entirely...
On October 28, 1953, at St. Bernard Hospital in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a baby boy was stillborn. The nurse wrapped his cold, blue body in a blanket and placed it on a table in the corner of the delivery room as she went about cleaning up. Busy with her tasks, she passed...
