Nine-year-old Martha Lum arrived for the first day of school at Mississippi’s Rosedale consolidated high school in 1924. It was her second year at the school, where her older sister, Berda, was also a student, so she was already familiar with the ins and outs. But by the recess that day, a ...
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Biography (75 unread)
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16:29 Martha and Berda Lum: The Chinese American Schoolchildren Who Fought to Desegregate Southern Schools
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15:58
How Harry Hay Became a Pioneer of the Gay Rights Movement
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15:58
How Harry Hay Became a Pioneer of the Gay Rights Movement
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20:05
How Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Inspired 'In the Heights'
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20:05
How Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Inspired 'In the Heights'
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23:25
Inside the Mysterious Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and Trial
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23:25
Inside the Mysterious Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and Trial
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19:09
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' Enduring Love Story
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19:09
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' Enduring Love Story
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18:20
Inside Phil Hartman's Tragic and Shocking Death
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20:06
Inside the Hart Family Wrestling Dynasty
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18:31
How 'The Joy Luck Club' Made Asian American Film History
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21:16
Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X's Boundary-Breaking Friendship
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21:57
Why Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla Clashed During the Battle of the Currents
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16:06
Mick Foley: The Many Characters of the WWE Superstar
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15:41
10 Things You May Not Know About 'Sister Act'
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16:29
Inside Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan's Rivalry
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18:29
The Son of Sam: A Timeline of the Killings that Terrorized New York City
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18:15
10 Influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Activists
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22:33
O.J. Simpson and the Menendez Brothers: Their Surprising Connection
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18:56
Elizabeth Smart: A Complete Timeline of Her Kidnapping, Rescue and Aftermath
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19:26
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Devil Wears Prada'
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19:13
'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' Cast: Where Are They Now?
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20:00
5 Things You May Not Know About Bill Gates
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20:32
5 Things You May Not Know About Babe Ruth
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20:32
5 Things You May Not Know About Babe Ruth
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18:23
5 Things You May Not Know About Elon Musk
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18:23
5 Things You May Not Know About Elon Musk
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22:17
10 Things You May Not Know About the 'Back to the Future' Trilogy
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22:17
10 Things You May Not Know About the 'Back to the Future' Trilogy
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21:14
Ernest Hemingway: How Mental Illness Plagued the Writer and His Family
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21:14
Ernest Hemingway: How Mental Illness Plagued the Writer and His Family
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19:16
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Golden Girls'
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19:16
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Golden Girls'
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20:51
8 of Mahalia Jackson’s Most Influential Moments
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18:33
How Mahalia Jackson Sparked Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'I Have a Dream' Speech
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22:44
How “Proud Mary” Made Tina Turner a Household Name
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22:44
How “Proud Mary” Made Tina Turner a Household Name
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21:47
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Godfather' Trilogy
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21:47
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Godfather' Trilogy
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20:43
10 Things You May Not Know About 'Legally Blonde'
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14:00
10 Things You May Not Know About Aretha Franklin
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20:57
Inside Natasha Richardson's Tragic and Shocking Death
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19:27
How Shawn Michaels Bounced Back From Years of Addiction
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22:28
Inside 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth's Real-Life Relationship
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17:04
10 Catchy 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper Quotes
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16:21
Inside Booker T’s Humble Beginnings and Rise to WWE Superstar
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14:48
Inside 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Unlikely Friendship
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19:22
10 Things You May Not Know About Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
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17:37
10 of WWE's Biggest and Most Notorious Feuds
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6:00
10 Things You May Not Know About John Cena
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16:56
10 Powerful Greta Thunberg Quotes
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6:00
How Cyndi Lauper Helped Raise the Popularity of the WWE
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6:00
Inside the McMahon Family Wrestling Dynasty
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6:00
10 Things You May Not Know About the Bella Twins
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6:00
10 Things You May Not Know About the Bella Twins
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23:02
10 Things You May Not Know About Hulk Hogan
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17:37
10 Things You May Not Know About 'Bridesmaids'
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19:34
How Celia Cruz Became the ‘Queen of Salsa’
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18:17
Adnan Syed: A Complete Timeline of His Trial, Appeal and Killing of Hae Min Lee
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18:15
10 Things You May Not Know About 'Coming to America'
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17:23
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Wolf of Wall Street'
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20:36
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Wonder Years'
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19:10
5 Things You May Not Know About Madonna's First Hit Ballad, "Crazy For You"
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23:19
10 Things You May Not Know About Amy Poehler
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23:12
7 Things You May Not Know About Billie Holiday
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21:29
10 Things You May Not Know About Tina Fey
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17:21
How Biggie Smalls' Early Life Defined His Rap Career
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16:17
Billie Holiday: How the Government Targeted the "Strange Fruit" Singer with Drug Arrests
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19:59
The Never-Ending Mystery of the Black Dahlia Murder
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16:49
How Sacha Baron Cohen Created the Character Borat
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18:09
Inside Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick Decades-Long Romance
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19:28
10 Things You May Not Know About Pelé
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22:39
Natalee Holloway: A Complete Timeline of Her Disappearance in Aruba and Unsolved Case
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23:26
5 Things You May Not Know About 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'
» Biography
A homosexual, Socialist, writer, spiritualist and activist, Harry Hay would cofound a secret organization in 1950 that would become the origin of the American gay rights movement, and help shape and expound the notion that gay people were an oppressed, cultural minority whose unification would only ...
When In The Heights premiered on Broadway in 2009, composer, performer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda’s loving ode to his Latino community in upper Manhattan was a game-changer. Its skillful blend of traditional Broadway themes and joyful, energetic rap, salsa and hip-hop marked the arrival of a ...
Americans’ obsession with true crime and unsolved mysteries has led to an entire industry’s worth of documentaries, TV networks, hit podcasts and a massive library of magazines and books about high-profile and very grizzly crimes. This fanaticism was built on a number of cultural, technological and ...
In late summer 1907, Alice B. Toklas left behind her father and brother in an earthquake-and-fire-ravaged San Francisco in search of new adventures in Paris. If unsure of what her future in the City of Lights held, the once-promising concert pianist discovered the answer shortly after arriving at ...
Saturday Night Live has produced far too many legendary comedy actors and long, fruitful careers to lend its title to any kind of curse, but the iconic variety sketch series has seen tragedy befall a fair number of its alumni. And few tragedies were as shocking or heartbreaking as the death of Phil ...
Wrestling fans old enough to remember the booming popularity of the WWE in the late 20th century no doubt recall the exploits of Bret Hart, an athlete of explosive power and flawless precision who earned such nicknames as the "Hitman" and the "Excellence of Execution." And while Bret has earned his ...
Amy Tan didn’t set out to write a bestseller. In fact, she found solace in the fact that she was able to write The Joy Luck Club with “no expectations.” “I had been told that the typical first book by an unknown writer might sell five thousand copies — if you were lucky,” she told Penguin Random ...
On paper, Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X made an unexpected pair — a Japanese American mother of six and a firebrand Muslim minister and Black nationalist. But their brief friendship, interrupted by his assassination in 1965, sheds light on the multi-racial cooperation of the civil rights ...
Thomas Edison is widely known as one of history’s most consequential inventors, a legacy born of both his indisputable genius in the laboratory and noted ruthlessness as a businessman; the old adage is that history is written by the victors, and in Edison’s case, he spun his narrative in real-time. ...
Few performers in the history of professional wrestling could take a "bump" like Mick Foley, who became known as the "Hardcore Legend" for his willingness to get beaten with metal chairs, impaled with sharp objects and subjected to other brutalities that would make most of his fearsome-looking ...
Released in the summer of 1992, Sister Act starred actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg as struggling nightclub performer Deloris Van Cartier, who is forced into hiding after witnessing her gangster boyfriend committing murder and poses as nun Sister Mary Clarence while staying at a San Francisco ...
For much of the 1980s into the early '90s, Hulk Hogan served as the supreme champion of World Wrestling Entertainment and the recognizable face of an industry that was rapidly gaining global appeal. Sure, he lost the title belt (in underhanded fashion) at one point to the also iconic Andre the ...
Across 13 months of 1976 and 1977, fear over the Son of Sam murders perpetrated by then-unknown serial killer David Berkowitz gripped the citizens of New York City. Six women and men were shot and killed in three of the city’s boroughs in more than a dozen seemingly random attacks. The crimes ...
While often at the center of many movements, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and their groundbreaking accomplishments and contributions are sometimes overshadowed and ignored. Get to know 10 of the most influential Asian American and Pacific Islander activists who fought for marginalized ...
They were the men who ignited two of the most notorious legal trials of the 1990s. Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who seemingly enjoyed a privileged upbringing, shocked the nation by turning a shotgun on their parents in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. And O.J. Simpson, a football ...
In early June 2002, days before she was set to graduate from middle school, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, and held captive by street preacher Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Chained to a tree in a campsite just miles from home, Smart ...
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s New York Times bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada, the 2006 movie explored the tense relationship between magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep and her newest assistant, Andrea “Andy” Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway. The film was both a ...
When Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory first invited viewers into its world of pure imagination in 1971, the now-classic film didn’t receive such a sweet reception. Box office numbers were lackluster, and reviews for the big screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the ...
In 1975, a young programmer named Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to form a company called "Micro-soft" with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The company went on to ignite a personal computing craze and achieve overwhelming success with its technological innovations. Here’s a look at ...
One of the first megastars of modern American sports, Babe Ruth helped usher in the Roaring Twenties with his seemingly superhuman athletic abilities and outsized personality. He made good on a promise to hit a home run for a sick child. He allegedly pointed to a spot in the stands and then ...
Elon Musk is one of the brilliant minds who helped reshape the global economy following the tech boom of the late 1990s. The South African native became a millionaire many times over upon selling his shares in Zip2 in 1999 and PayPal in 2002 and made electric cars cool after taking over as CEO of ...
On October 26, 1985, Marty McFly stepped into Doc Brown’s souped-up DeLorean and launched one of Hollywood’s most beloved series. But it was a rocky road from page to screen for the sci-fi classic, which included the assistance of a legendary director as well as an infamous firing. Here are 10 ...
One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway’s stripped-down prose new literary voice captivated critics and readers alike. His outsized personality and macho swagger made him a star beyond the printed pages of his newspaper articles, short stories and novels. Behind ...
Premiering in 1985, The Golden Girls was an instant smash, attracting a diverse audience for a then-novel concept — depicting the lives of four older women sharing friendship, a home and a lot of cheesecake. In the decades since, the award-winning series starring Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue ...
Mahalia Jackson occupied an unusual place in 20th century American culture. Born into poverty in New Orleans, she became a wealthy, beloved recording artist despite the limited opportunities allocated to Black women, her refusal to perform anything besides gospel standards and a willingness to wear ...
Long before his most famous August 28, 1963, speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. He talked about that dream the previous April at a 16th Street Baptist Church meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, of “seeing Negro boys and girls walking to school with little ...
In the spoken introduction to their hit “Proud Mary,” Tina Turner promises audiences that at first, she and then-husband, Ike Turner, will take things “nice and easy” with the song, but promises the ending will be “rough.” A promise the singer delivered on time after time for decades, with the ...
It’s one of the most popular and critically acclaimed movie series in Hollywood history. But when The Godfather was in production, it was anything but a surefire hit. From casting squabbles to the producers’ real-life battle with organized crime bosses, here’s the story you may not know about The ...
What, like it’s hard? For years, fans have been quoting Legally Blonde and its very relatable main character, glamour girl turned Harvard law student, Elle Woods. But do they know it was based on a real-life person? Legally Blonde first hit theaters in 2001, with a sequel later released in 2003 ...
Iconic singer Aretha Franklin will forever be remembered for hit songs such as "Respect," "Think" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," as well as her activism and role in the civil rights movement. However, there are facets of her life and career that aren't as recognized. Here are ...
The morning of March 16, 2009, brought sunny skies and rising temperatures to the Mont Tremblant ski resort in Québec, Canada, the cusp-of-spring day beckoning visitors outdoors to its cobblestone-lined streets and scenic mountain trails. The resort's guests that Monday included 45-year-old actress ...
Upon arriving in Las Vegas in 1986 as a 20-year-old professional wrestling rookie, Shawn Michaels won $750 his first time playing a slot machine. His good fortune wouldn’t last long, however. Later that night, Michaels also used cocaine for the first time, thus beginning his descent into what he ...
Pro wrestling fans of a certain age no doubt remember the seismic impact made by "Macho Man" Randy Savage from the mid-1980s through the end of the century, his chiseled physique and intensity bolstered by an eye-popping wardrobe and growling proclamations that ended with a trademark "Oh yeah!" But ...
When compared to other pro wrestlers, WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper was hardly a physical specimen – he measured in at approximately 6 feet, 2 inches and 235 pounds, well shy of the 400-plus pounds toted by mammoth peers like Andre the Giant and King Kong Bundy. But Rowdy Roddy ...
In his early years, Booker T would have appeared to be an unlikely future wrestling star. He lacked support after being orphaned at the age of 13. He became a father before he turned 18. And by the time he was in his 20s, he was a convicted felon who'd served a 19-month prison sentence. Yet Booker ...
Before up-and-coming professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson officially became “The Rock,” he saw his future written in stone — "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, that is. “My first couple of years in the business I watched this guy Steve Austin ascend to the top and [achieve] this incredible popularity,” he ...
Few people have had as rock-solid of a career in so many realms as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. In the wrestling world, he was dubbed "The Great One" and "The People’s Champion" and in the film world, his movies have brought in at least $10 billion worldwide. On top of that, his 2000 ...
Hulk Hogan. The Rock. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. It takes a special mix of talent, toughness and charisma to become a WWE superstar. But it’s virtually impossible to make it to the top of the card alone — to go from a superstar to a legend, requires dynamic chemistry and electric rivalry with a ...
John Cena might have found his fame through wrestling, but at heart, he’s a Renaissance man. As a 16-time WWE world champion, who channels as much energy from ringside cheers as boos, he’s established himself as much outside of the arena. On the silver screen, he’s taken on leading roles in ...
In a short amount of time, Greta Thunberg has become a huge force in the fight against climate change. She first drew international attention when she went on strike from school in protest of how little was being done around the world to combat climate change. She was specifically calling ...
The early-to-mid-1980s gave birth to the rise of a new youth culture, an unabashed day-glo celebration that followed the doldrums of the late 1970s. Of the many new phenomena that emerged in that time, two acronyms, in particular, made a splash for their loud appeal to a new generation of young ...
Wrestling has long been a family business, passing genetic brawn and earned enthusiasm for a life on the road from one generation to the next. And no family has been as influential or consequential as the McMahon family, which has over four generations shaped the entire landscape of professional ...
The identical sisters in The Parent Trap may have fooled their parents, but the Bella Twins rose to WWE fame switching places in the ring during matches to ensure victory. Whether it was seen as deception or pure wrestling drama, the “Twin Magic” soon gave them a reputation, which they were able to ...
As one of the most recognizable American wrestlers, Hulk Hogan amassed such a crazed following that the sensation became known as Hulkamania. The enthusiasm was well warranted during his 33-year career, when he won 12 world titles — six with World Championship Wrestling and six with World Wrestling ...
Bridesmaids, the 2011 comedy starring Kristen Wiig and a group of equally hilarious actresses, has spanned an endless amount of movie nights and rewatching. But even the most fervent fans of the movie might not know quite everything. The movie follows the ups and downs of a group of women brought ...
Before Celia Cruz became known for her signature catchphrase, “Azucar,” she was just a young girl in Cuba absorbing the rich musical diversity in Havana. The legendary singer, born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, grew up in the low-income neighborhood of Santos Suarez as one of ...
It’s been more than two decades since the body of Woodlawn High School senior Hae Min Lee was found at Leakin Park in West Baltimore, Maryland. Although her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed, has been serving a life sentence plus 30 years since he was convicted in 2000, there may be just as many question ...
Beloved by audiences who still quote the film’s iconic lines, Coming to America has grossed over $120 million at the box office since it was released in 1988. Starring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall as Prince Akeem and his loyal servant Semmi, respectively, the pair travels from their fictional ...
Based on Jordan Belfort’s memoirs, Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, depicts the unlikely rise and dramatic fall of the Long Island-born stockbroker. The film, which divided critics and audiences, was a financial success and received five Academy Awards nominations, including ...
The Wonder Years, which ran from 1988-1993, brought the nostalgia of the '60s and '70s into modern-day living rooms. The series followed Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) as he navigates life as a teenage boy. The show also stars Dan Lauria as father Jack, Alley Mills as mother Norma, Jason Hervey as ...
On May 11, 1985, Madonna reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with her first big ballad, "Crazy for You." The song helped cement her status as a bona fide pop star. She had already raised some eyebrows with "Like a Virgin" in November 1984, but "Crazy for You" was a big departure from her ...
Amy Poehler remembers her Burlington, Massachusetts, hometown as “decidedly blue collar, filled with teachers and nurses and the occasional sales manager,” and where she and her friends fell asleep to a soundtrack of their parents “arguing about car payments and tuition.” Needless to say, part-time ...
Jazz legend Billie Holiday poured her heart into each song, making each one her own with her distinct style. Born on April 7, 1915, Holiday once said, "If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all." She saw her voice as a musical instrument, as she explained in Hear Me ...
Growing up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, Tina Fey knew by middle school that she wanted to be a comedian. “We're all comedy fans in my family,” Fey, who says she watched “a lot of TV” as a kid, once explained to The A.V. Club. “My parents mainly wouldn't let me watch stuff that was either annoying ...
Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls, was at the vanguard of 1990’s rap music and his fame would burn glaringly bright, if only briefly in life. Lauded as one of the greatest rappers of all time by peers and within the recording industry, Small’s legacy, ...
In 1939, Billie Holiday rode the service elevator in a midtown Manhattan hotel on her way to sing on stage. Of course the hotel had a front door, but Holiday wasn’t allowed to use it because she was Black. Little did she know this was just the beginning of the troubles that would follow her ...
At around 10 a.m. on January 15, 1947, Betty Bersinger was pushing her daughter in a stroller through the Leimert Park section of South Los Angeles when something caught her eye amid the weedy, vacant lots. A naked female body, severed at the waist, was lying just off the sidewalk, the stark ...
It started as an accident of sorts. Sacha Baron Cohen was hosting TalkTV on London Weekend Television and went out on the streets to pre-tape a few segments in character. He was dressed up as a hip-hop DJ who was “so keen to be presented as a gangsta,” when he spotted a group of “skateboarders who ...
In the grand scheme of Hollywood marriages, what’s most unusual about Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s relationship might just be how normal it is. After dating for about five years, their May 19, 1997, wedding was the first and only for each of them. Now they raise their three children ...
After Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup final to Uruguay, a 9 or 10-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, now better known as Pelé, made a promise to his devastated father. “I remember jokingly saying to him: ‘Don’t cry, dad — I’ll win the World Cup for you,” Pelé recalled to FIFA.com in 2014. Eight ...
It was a dream vacation for straight-A student Natalee Holloway and her senior classmates from Alabama's Mountain Brook High School, who flew to Aruba in late May 2005 to celebrate their graduation on sun-drenched beaches and in pulse-thumping nightclubs. But the dream soon became a nightmare for ...
The summer of 1984 produced several enduring movies, among them Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Purple Rain. But none was more highly anticipated than Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom starring Harrison Ford, the prequel to 1981’s box office champ, Raiders of the Lost Ark. “If adventure has a ...