Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (born February 24, 1955)
was an American business magnate and inventor.
He is well-known for being the cofounder and chief
executive officer of Apple. Born in San Francisco,
he was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs of Mountain View, California. His biological mother nearly refused to agree to the adoption after she learned that the adoptive mother never graduated from college and the father never
graduated from high school. She relented only after
his new adoptive parents promised that Steve would
go to college. They kept their promise,
but Jobs dropped out of college after one semester.
He never went back and he never graduated.

"Everything else - speaks for itself!"



Apple Press Release Jobs Retires
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
(Click Image)

(Click HERE for Link to
Article CEO of The Decade)

- Click HERE for Interactive Timeline of Jobs
and how he revived Apple and remade entire
industries, defying the worst economic conditions
since the Great Depression --
and his own serious health problems.

Fortune Cover & Timeline © 2009 Cable News Network.
A Time Warner Company All Rights Reserved.

Tyler Bradt (born June 2, 1986) is an American professional whitewater kayaker who holds the
unofficial world record for the highest waterfall successfully run in a kayak. In 2007 Tyler ran the 107-foot (33 m) Alexandra Falls on the Hay River in the Northwest Territories. This record was broken by a Brazilian kayaker, Pedro Oliveira, when he ran a 127-foot 39m) falls in Brazil, breaking Tyler Bradt’s former 107-foot record by 20 feet. On April 21, 2009, just a month after Oliveira set a new world record, Bradt successfully took back the record when he kayaked the 186-foot (57 m) Palouse Falls in Eastern Washington. This drop was re-measured at 189 ft. A few feet taller than we had previously thought. Tyler had smashed the world record by 62 feet! The freefall lasted approximately four seconds. Bradt suffered only minor injuries from this record feat. His media agent released the photographs and video footage of him dropping over the falls to Sports Illustrated, which carried a video of the plunge on their website. The May 18, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated included the first published photo of Bradt's world record descent. Tyler Bradt and kayaker/filmmaker Rush Sturges included footage of the plunge in their 2010 film Dream Result, which they collaborated on and released in 2010.

The Apollo program, named after the Greek God who drove his chariot to the sun, was America's effort to be first to the moon. Conceived during
the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and
guided by NASA, it began in earnest after
President John F. Kennedy's May 25, 1961
special address to a joint session of Congress.
In this speech Kennedy declared a national goal stating, "I believe that this nation should
commit itself, to achieving the goal, before
this decade is out, of landing a man on the
Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
Apollo was preceded by the Mercury and
Gemini missions, which laid the ground
work necessary for Apollo's success.

Kennedy's goal was achieved on July 20, 1969,
when the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Moon.
Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed
astronauts on the Moon, the last in
December 1972. In these six Apollo
spaceflights, 12 men walked on the Moon
allowing them to join one of historie
most elite clubs.

The entire program was accomplished with
only two major setbacks. The first came with
the Apollo 1 launchpad fire that resulted in the
deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White
and Roger Chaffee. The second near catastrophe
was Apollo 13, when an oxygen tank ruptured
during the Moonward phase of its journey. This explosion crippled Apollo 13's command
module and the only thing that saved the
3 men was that they miraculously had a
second spacecraft, the lunar module.
There were however other problems - like the
Apollo 12 lightning strike that occurred just
be for launch that crippled the entire rocket momentarily or Apollo 14 nearly being
unable to dock, or Jim Irwin suffering
a heart attack on the moon.

In the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games, a young African runner from Tanzania, named John Stephen Akhwari, would compete in the last event of the games - the 26 mile, 385 yard marathon. Although he would ultimately finish last, nearly an hour behind the rest of the runners, he would nonetheless finish the race and in doing so deliver a finish that will be remembered long after the winner has been forgotten. Early in the race he suffered a bad a fall but he got up and kept running. Now running on a badly injured leg, and knowing full well that he was out of the competition, a voice called from within to go on, and so he
went on. The other runners would reach the finish line nearly
an hour before Akhwari. When Akhwari did finally approach
the stadium, it was nearly empty. As he entered the stadium
the meager crowd rose to their feet and began cheering. Photographers scrambled to set up cameras they had long
stowed away, barely managing to capture one of the
greatest finishes in Olympics history.

Afterwards, it was written, "Today we have seen the
young African runner who symbolizes the finest in the human spirit. A performance that gives true dignity to sport.
A performance that lifts sport out of the category of grown
men playing at games. A performance that gives meaning
to the word courage. All honor to John Stephen Akhwari
of Tanzania. Perhaps the words of John Stephen Akhwari epitomize all that is right in the human spirt. When asked why
he did not quit, he said simply . . .

'My country did not send 5000 miles to start the race,
they sent me 5000 miles to Finish the race!'"

"Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972)
better known by his stage name Eminem or his
alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper,
record producer, actor, and Academy Award Winner.

The story of Eminem's seemingly impossible rise to
global stardom defies all logic. He was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri. His father abandoned the family when Eminem was 6 months old. He and his mother moved between various cities and towns in Missouri before settling on the rough side of Detroit on 8 mile Road. After sitting through 9th grade 3 times he dropped out of high school. Then he set his sights on a huge and apparently unachievable goal - the goal of rising to the top of the rap world, a world as black dominated in 1995 as rock 'n' roll was white dominated in 1965. He paid his dues in underground clubs as the only white boy to step up and take the microphone He hustled self-made cassettes and in 1998 Dr. Dre signed Eminem to his Aftermath label. By 1999 he broke out the underground world into mainstream and his place in time as a legendary rapper was cemented. Eminem has a history, going all the way back to his first major release but he addresses his critics head on without flinching. Marshall Mathers is complicated and undeniably controversial and though his critics correctly point out that his music is filled with hate and vitriol he has forever left his mark on music world.
He beat all the odds and he did it with tireless and undaunting determination. He knew what he was
worth and he went out and got it and was
always willing to take the hits to get there.

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945 and involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers who would eventually form two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the US formally joined forces with the Allies and declared war. WWII was the most costly endeavor this country ever has been through in terms of dollars and in terms of lives. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military
resources. WW II was marked by significant events involving
the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust, and
the only use of nuclear weapons in history - so far.
It was the deadliest conflict in human history
and the most costly endeavor this country
has ever been through.

Original Cost: $288 billion
Inflation Adjusted: Cost: $3.6 trillion

Once 16 million strong, U.S. veterans of World War II
are dying at a rate of more than 1,000 a day and now
number a mere 2.5 million, the Department of Veterans
Affairs estimates. Based on the rate at which they are
dying it is predicted that they will all be gone by 2020.
God Bless Everyone of them!

~ They were the true swashbucklers -
parachuting behind enemy lines, charging onto
sandy beaches as bullets whizzed by, flying daring combat missions all while liberating countries
and the world from a totalitarian grip ~


In the end, one of the single most important lessons
learned from WWII was that of the social,
economical, and political power of education.

It came in the form of the The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the GI Bill. It was arguably one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever produced by the federal government - one that immeasurable impacted the United States socially, economically and politically. Its true impact continues to be measured, today, through those GI's childrens, childrens, children. Families futures and fortunes, forever altered by a single, simple piece of legislation that offered these men and women nothing more than whatshould be universally free, the opportunity to learn. Although it nearly stalled in Congress, as members of the House and Senate debated its worthiness and the provisions of the controversial bill, they finally delivered, in a fit of genius,
what is arguable one of the single best pieces
of legislation to ever emerge form the U.S. congress.



"THE BIG THREE"
Churchill, Roosevelt, & Stalin
(Left to Right)

    
June 6, 1944 ~ June 6, 2009
65th Reunion of the Normandy Landing

'Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge' (1920 - August 14, 2009) holds the Guinness World Record for being
the oldest person to start primary school - he enrolled in the first grade on January 12, 2004
at the age of 84. Although he had no papers to
prove his age, Maruge believed he was born in 1920. Maruge attended Kapkenduiywo Primary School in Eldoret, Kenya. He said that the government's announcement of universal and free elementary education in 2003 prompted him to enroll. In 2005 Maruge, who was a model student, was elected
head boy of his school. In September 2005,
Maruge boarded a plane for the first time in his
life, and headed to New York City to address the United Nations Millennium Development Summit
on the importance of free primary education. On Sunday May 24, 2009, Maruge was baptized at
Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Kariobangi and
took a Christian name, Stephen. By now he was
using a wheelchair. Maruge was a widower,
and a great-grandfather (two of his 30
grandchildren attend the same school). He was
a combatant in the Mau Mau Uprising against
the British colonizers in the 1950s. Maruge died
on August 14, 2009 of stomach cancer, at the
Cheshire Home for the Aged in Nairobi.
He was buried at his farm in Subukia.

'Joseph William Kittinger II' (born July 27, 1928) He entered
the Air Force in March 1949 as an aviation cadet. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in March 1950. From 1950 to
1953 he served as a jet pilot in the 86th Fighter Bomber Squadron
in Germany and then was assigned to the Air Force Missile Development Center at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.
On June 2, 1957, while stationed at the AFMDC, Kittinger
made a balloon flight to 96,000 feet in the first flight of the Air Force's "Project Man High." After being assigned to the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Kittinger, now a captain, was appointed test director of
"Project Excelsior," investigating escape from high altitude.
As jet aircraft flew higher and faster, the Air Force became increasingly concerned with the hazards faced by flight
crews ejecting from these high performance aircraft.
Project Excelsior was established in 1958 to study and
solve these high altitude escape problems.

During this project, there were three high altitude jumps accomplished from a balloon-supported gondola; the first
from 76,400 feet; the second from 74,700 feet 25 days later;
and on Aug. 16, 1960, from 102,800 feet, the highest altitude
from which man has ever jumped. It was Kittinger who did the jumping. In freefall for four and a half minutes, Kittinger fell at speeds up to 714 mph, exceeding the speed of sound. He experienced temperatures as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit. Kittinger opened his parachute at 18,000 feet and landed safely
in the New Mexico desert after a 13 minute 45 second descent. Project Excelsior successfully proved the new parachute system,
the Beaupre Multi-Stage Parachute, would solve the problem of
high altitude escape by crewmen. In December 1962, under
Project Star Gazer, Kittiger piloted a balloon into the upper atmosphere accompanied by U.S. Navy civilian astronomer to
use a high powered telescope to view regions of deep space.
They stay aloft for 18.5 hours above the skies of
southwestern New Mexico.

Kittinger also volunteered for three combat tours in Vietnam
and served as commander of the famous 555th "Triple Nickel" Tactical Fighter Squadron flying F-4s. After shooting down a
MiG-21 in aerial combat, he himself was shot down on
May 11, 1972 and spent 11 months as a prisoner of war.
Kittinger subsequently continued his career and retired as a
colonel in 1978. After retiring, Kittinger remained active in
ballooning. In 1984, at age 56, he traveled more than 3,500
miles at altitudes between 10,000 and 17,000 feet, crash-landing
in northern Italy, setting a record for the longest solo balloon
flight, both in time and distance.He has received numerous
awards for solo transatlantic balloon flights, and he is the
author of several articles about his 1960 leap for various publications, including the "The Long, Lonely Leap." Kittinger
is also the subject of a new Naval Institute book,
"The Pre-Astronauts."

'Matt Scott' (born March 27, 1985) was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He was the second child of parents David and Audrey and was born with spina bifida (read more link). Matt was first introduced to the game of wheelchair basketball at the age of 14 and it didn't take long for him to excel at the sport. He quickly found success in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association's (NWBA) junior division, where he led his team to one undefeated season and two national championships. Matt was selected as the MVP of the 2003 national tournament. During his junior year of high school, Scott began playing with the NWBA Division I Michigan Thunderbirds, with whom he played in two national championship games.

He has since become a powerful presence on the U.S.
Men's Wheelchair Basketball National Team, making the U.S. Paralympic Team in 2004, at the age of 18. It wasn't long
before he became a leader on the squad. Despite a rough
road in Beijing, Scott will surely be on the team in 2012,
as it looks to get on the medal stand.

Scott attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
and played on the Warhawks' wheelchair basketball team.
He helped the team to three national championships
(2004, 2005, 2007). On New Year's Eve 2007 and
New Year's Day 2008, Scott received national attention
in a way no U.S. Paralympic athlete had done previously,
starring in his own nationwide broadcast ad for Nike.
Scott currently plays wheelchair basketball with a
professional club team in Istanbul, Turkey.

'Linus Benedict Torvalds' (Born December 28, 1969
in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer
and hacker, best known for having initiated the development
of the Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of
the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator.
He also created the revision control system Git.

Initially Torvalds wanted to call the kernel he
developed Freax (a combination of "free", "freak",
and the letter X to indicate that it is a Unix-like
system), but his friend Ari Lemmke, who administered
the FTP server where the kernel was first hosted for
downloading, named Torvalds' directory linux.

As of 2006, approximately two percent of the Linux kernel
was written by Torvalds himself. Considering the fact
that thousands have contributed code to the Linux kernel,
such a percentage represents one of the largest personal contributions to the overall amount of code. Torvalds
remains the ultimate authority on what new code is
incorporated into the standard Linux kernel.

Torvalds owns the "Linux" trademark, and monitors
use of it chiefly through the Linux Mark Institute.

'Jim Johnson' had coached high school basketball for
25 years, always with the mantra, “dreams really do come true.” But is was during his 2006 tenure at Greece Athena High
School where he got his chance to prove that his mantra
was more than just mere words.

Jason McElwain (A.K.A. J-Mac, a tag Coach Johnson had hung on him two years earlier) was a Special Ed student at Greece Athena High School and Jason had a burning passion for basketball. But, try as he may, he was never able to make the team, in part due to 5'7" frame but also in part due to his disability — autism. After failing to make the junior varsity team Jason assumed the role of junior basketball team manager, eventually moving on to varsity manger. For years he managed with the enthusiasm of a star varsity player. So as the home finale of his senior year approach, Coach Johnson made a decision that only a real 'Coach' could make. 'Dressing for the final home game, he thought, would be a fitting show of gratitude for J-Mac's amazing dedication.' A simple but fitting reward for such extraordinary devotion. With that in mind, Johnson added J-Mac to the roster, issued him jersey #52 and then dressed him for the game. Realizing all along that his plan could backfire if something went wrong or parents complained or any other unforeseen outcome occurred, he nonetheless did the only thing he was capable of doing - he did the right thing. Initially, the plan was simply to let Jason suit up, to finally be part of the team he loved, even if it was for just one game. It was Friday night on February 15, 2006, and the bleachers at Greece Athena High School near Rochester, New York, were packed with students and parents, most notably Jason's. Greece Athena was playing Spencerport High School, a long standing rival, for a division title. As time ticked by as Jason continued to rally his team as he had done so many times before. Then with just 4:19 left in the game, and a double digit lead, Coach Johnson stood up, pointed to #52, he sent him into the game. J-Mac taking the
court with the fanfare of a rock-and-roll star! His first shot,
a 20 footer from the right baseline was a complete air ball.
His second shot missed too.

Coach Johnson hung his head in his hands, "Dear God, please,
lets just get him a basket." You know it's funny he mentioned that, because right then, God showed up. Jason's third try was a charm, a 3-point no-doubter - total mayhem broke loose. "But Jason wasn't done yet, no, not by a long shot." He would follow his first 3 pointer with 5 more, one right after another, each one more convincing than the one before. His last shot would be a 3-pointer, at the buzzer, and by then the team and the fans had reached complete state of frenzy. They carried Jason on their shoulders as though they had just wont the biggest game of their lives. And perhaps, in some small way, that's exactly what every single person in that gym did that night, witnessing a moment in time the will likely never be equaled again in their lifetimes.

All tolled J-Mac scored 20 points in just 3:11, a 200 point/game pace. He was high scorer of the game and tied the
school record for 3-point field goals.

In just a few minutes' time this diminutive 17-year-old and
his coach and his teammates, had turned the tables on a lifetime largely filled with social isolation due to his autism.

Hollywood, Cinderella, Miracle - call it what you want,
but on February 15, 2006, Coach Jim Johnson
brought 'true meaning' to the word 'Coach' &
his team true meaning to the word "Teammates".

ALL HONOR TO
Coach Johnson, Jason McElwain
and the rest of the Team !

'Christopher Nolan' (September 6, 1965 – February 20, 2009)
was an Irish poet and author and was the son of Joseph and Bernadette Nolan. He grew up in Mullingar, Ireland, but later moved to Dublin to attend college. He was educated
at the Central Remedial Clinic School, Mount Temple
Comprehensive School and at Trinity College, Dublin.

Physically disabled from birth, with quadriplegia cerebral palsy,
he could not speak, or move, or eat or do anything for himself.
His disabilities were so severe that moving his eyes was his
sole means of communicating. But his mother believed that
Christopher could understand what was going on and so she
taught him at home. The efforts put forth by the Nolan family
would eventually foster Christopher talents. When he was young,
his father told him stories and read passages from James Joyce,
Samuel Beckett and D.H. Lawrence to keep his mind stimulated.
His mother strung up letters of the alphabet in the kitchen,
where she kept up a stream of conversation. His sister,
Yvonne, sang songs and acted out skits.

At the age of 10 he was started on a new medication, a
"Miracle Drug". It was a medication that would finally
relax his muscles, at least to the extent that he would gain
this much control over his head and neck - with a unicorn stick strapped to his forehead and his head cradled in his mothers hands, he could finally communicate using a keyboard, typing
out one letter out at a time. The effort involved was herculean
and heroic for both Nolan and his mother Bernadette. Typing a
single word took minutes, yet Nolan pressed on. By the age
of 15, he published his first collection of poems titled,
"Dam-Burst of Dreams."

His next work,"Under the Eye of the Clock", was an account
of his childhood, he was now 21 years old. This literary effort
would end up winning him England's "Whitbread Book of the
Year Award" in 1987 - one of the United Kingdom's most
prestigious literary awards. He would then spend more than
a decade writing what would turn out to be his final work,
"The Banyan Tree". In addition his literary awards, he was
also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in the UK,
the medal of excellence from the United Nations Society
of Writers, and a Person of the Year award in Ireland.

Inside Job (2010) is a documentary film about the 2008
financial crisis, directed by Charles H. Ferguson. The film
was screened at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May and
won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary
Feature. Ferguson has described the film as being
about "the systemic corruption of the United States
by the financial services industry and the
consequences of that systemic corruption."[

JUST THE FACTS (Jack):

~ From 1940 to 1980, the United States experienced 40 years
of economic growth without a single financial crisis because
the financial industry was tightly regulated.

~ A 30 year period of deregulation (1981-2011) helped lead to
the savings and loan (S&L) crisis costing tax payers $124 billion.
Thousands of S&L executives went to jail.

~ The Internet Stock Bubble, fueled by the investment banks,
burst in 2001, resulting in $5 trillion in investor losses.

~ The housing boom (2001-2007) was the biggest financial
bubble in history. Is was fueled by subprime lending which shot
from $30 billion to $600 billion in just 10 years.

~ Henry Paulson saved himself $50 million in taxes when he sold
his $485 million of Goldman stock to become Treasury Secretary,
thanks to a law passed during the Bush tenure.

~ For the first time in history, the average American has less
education and is less prosperous than their parents!

Bob Andrews was born in 1944 and grew up overseas
in Venezuela, South America. On returning to the United States
in the 1960s, he attended Southern Methodist University and
later graduated from Southern Polytechnic State University,
Marietta, Georgia. After College he volunteered to join the
Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam.

One June morning, in 1967, he was sent out on a scouting mission. Walking about 25 yards being a rookie sergeant, he recalls thinking, "That idiot is walking down the path." Then a wire was tripped that sent two hand grenades rolling out at Bob's feet. Bob's sight was blown out of his head that June morning. By all rights he should have been killed. Another Sergeant carried Andrews, Forrest Gump style, to a clearing and radioed for help. When the Medevac choppers did arrive they radioed back that there was too much fire to land. The sergeant aimed his M-79 grenade launchers at the chopper and radioed back, "You're coming down here one way or another."

Andrews was unconscious for 2-1/2 months. He underwent
29 surgeries and was given last rites 3 times. His father
would sneak into Vietnam disguised as a doctor and make
off with his son, taking him back to the states. When Bob's mother called Bob's girlfriend Tina, she told her not to bother coming over but she did anyway. They would soon marry and spend the rest of their lives as a team.

Bob Would became a building contractor and he and his wife
raise healthy three sons. But on the day he turned to golf
for exercise everything would change and a whole new chapter
of his life would begin. Working with his caddy (in blind golf
they're called "Coaches") he would slowlw and imperceptibly
improve his game. Eventually his hard work and dedication
would pay off in back-to-back National Blind Championships
in 2009 and 2010. He proved to the world to the world that,
"You Don't Have To See It . . . To Tee It."

It's worth noting that, unlike many other sports that make
allowances for disabilites, the only rule change made for blind
golfers is that they are allowed to ground their club in the sand. Everything else is the same, an extrordinary fact considereing
these blind golfers can still shot in the 70's and 80's.

"Nary Manivong" was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio.
His parents, Laotian immigrants, abandoned him and his three siblings when Nary was just 14 years old. He found himself homeless, on the streets of Columbus and fending for himself.
"The first place I slept was at a donut place," he said.
Moving through some tumolutous years, he would eventually establish his identity as a gang member. However, one day,
quite by chance, he came across a copy of Vogue magazine.
He had never seen cloths like those before but knew
instantly that this was what he wanted to do.

He began making pieces out of scraps and cobbled together his first show at 17. But Ohio was as far as it gets from the world of high fasion and design. He also knew that if he was going to have any shot of all at making his dreams come true, in the brutal world of clothing design, he had to make his way to New York City. After several trips to New York, he secured a backer and debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2005 - to much praise. He seemed well on his way to success until his investors pulled the plug, and he was once again left homeless and destitute. As the designer to his self-named label, which began in 2005, Nary Manivong debuted his fall 2007 collection, after taking a hiatus for spring 2007 season. Nary has resurfaced with a new vision.

As a self-taught designer, Nary learned the fundamentals of fashion design through real world experience and determination. Such attributes are why Women’s Wear Daily named him as one of twelve designers to watch for in fall 2005. This acclaim was soon followed in short by media coverage, industry reviews, helping to create a promising horizon for anivong’s future enterprise. The Documentary, “DRESSED” is a compelling story of the young clothing designer, who defied the odds of a broken childhood and homelessness to reach his ultimate dream, a show of his collection at New York Fashion Week. A truly inspiring story that unfolds against the backdrop of the fashion industry in New York. Woven within his story are accounts and commentary from leading fashion industry experts, students and designers who relate their own perspectives about what it takes to make it in the highly competitive world of fashion.

Currently Nary Manivong’s self-named label is on hold as he works
on a new line he created with design partner Alexandria Hilfiger,
called NAHM. NAHM represent the initials of the design duo
and it also means “water” in Laos.

'Abraham Lincoln' (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)
was the 16th President of the United States, serving from
March 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the country
through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis — the
American Civil War — preserving the Union while ending slavery
and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared
in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly
self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state
legislator, and a one-term member of the United States
House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts at a
seat in the United States Senate. He was an affectionate,
though often absent, husband and father of four children.

After deftly opposing the expansion of slavery in the
United States in his campaign debates and speeches,Lincoln
secured the Republican nomination and was elected president
in 1860. Following declarations of secession by southern slave
states, war began in April 1861, and he concentrated on
both the military and political dimensions of the war effort,
seeking to reunify the nation. He vigorously exercised
unprecedented war powers, including the arrest and detention
without trial of thousands of suspected secessionists.
He prevented British recognition of the Confederacy by
skillfully handling the Trent affair late in 1861. He issued his
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage
of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
abolishing slavery.

Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection
of top generals, including the commanding general Ulysses S. Grant.
He brought leaders of various factions of his party into his
cabinet and pressured them to cooperate. Under his leadership,
the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of
the war and tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate
capital at Richmond. Each time a general failed, Lincoln
substituted another until finally Grant succeeded in 1865.
An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power
issues in each state, he reached out to War Democrats and
managed his own re-election in the 1864 presidential election.

As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican party,
Lincoln came under attack from all sides. Radical Republicans
wanted harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats
desired more compromise, and Copperheads despised him —
not to mention irreconcilable secessionists in reconquered areas. Politically, Lincoln fought back with patronage, by pitting his
opponents against each other, and by appealing to the American
people with his powers of oratory. His Gettysburg Address
of 1863 became the most quoted speech in American history.
It was an iconic statement of America's dedication to the
principles of nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy.
At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of
Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation
through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of
lingering and bitter divisiveness. However, just six days after the
surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee,
Lincoln was shot and killed by Confederate sympathizer
John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
His death marked the first assassination of a U.S. president.
Lincoln has been consistently ranked by scholars as
one of the greatest U.S. presidents.

"Anthony Robles" (born July 20, 1988) is a wrestler who
won the 2010-11 NCAA individual wrestling championship
in the 125-pound weight class despite being born with
only one leg. Robles redshirted as a freshman at Arizona State University, and finished 6th in the 2006 FILA Junior World Championships in the 55kg Freestyle Wrestling category.
Robles started his collegiate wrestling career in 2007-08,
where he was nationally ranked and finished the year with a
record of 25-11, falling just short of being named as an
All-American. In his second competitive year as a collegiate
wrestler (2008-2009) Robles earned All-American Honors,
finishing the year 29-8, winning the PAC 10 Conference Championship at 125 pounds and finishing fourth in the NCAA Championship's 125 pound weight class tournament. In 2009-10, Robles again earned All-American honors, finishing seventh in
the NCAA 125 pound weight class, going 32-4 on the season, and repeating as the Pac-10 125 pound wrestling champion.

In Robles' final year of eligibility (2010-11), Robles
went undefeated, going 36-0 on the year, becoming a
three-time Pac-10 champion (defeating Jason Lara from
Oregon State in the final, and a national champion,
defeating the defending 125 pound NCAA Champion, Iowa's Matt McDonough 7-1 in the final. For his efforts, Robles was voted the Tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler.

The 5'8" Robles concluded his Arizona State wrestling
career with a record of 122-23, a three-time Pac-10
wrestling champion as well as a three-time All-American.
Robles ranks 8th for most match wins by an
Arizona State wrestler.

"Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) is an
American computer scientist, software developer and
philanthropist best own for creating the social networking
site Facebook, of which he is CEO and President. It was
cofounded as a private company in 2004 by Zuckerberg
and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and
Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University. Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard in 2004 (like other
legendary entrepreneurs). In spite of any controversy that
may surround Facebook and its origins, I've always believed
in that old classic - credit where credit is due.

FACT's

~ 550+ million members

~ One out of every 12 people on the
planet has a Facebook account

~ 207 Countries in 75 languages

~ More than 700 billion minutes
on Facebook every month

~ Recently the site accounted for1 out of 4
American page views

~ Its membership has grown at
rates of up to 700,000 people a day

~ Market Valuation roughly $50 Billion

~ Talk of a 2012 $10 billion IPO stock offering
woud put the company valuation at
$100 Billion or more

Time Magazine
Person of the Year 2010
© 2012 Time Inc. All rights reserved