Portal:Wisconsin/Selected biography
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Joseph McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of extreme anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He was noted for making unsubstantiated claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government. Ultimately, his tactics led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. The term "McCarthyism," coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
Born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, McCarthy earned a law degree at Marquette University in 1935 and was elected as a circuit judge in 1939, the youngest in state history. At age 33, McCarthy volunteered for the United States Marine Corps and served during World War II. He successfully ran for the United States Senate in 1946, defeating Robert M. La Follette, Jr. After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department.
However, McCarthy was never able to substantiate his sensational charges. In succeeding years, McCarthy made accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Truman, Voice of America, and the United States Army. He also used charges of communism, communist sympathies, or disloyalty to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. With the highly publicized Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, McCarthy's support and popularity began to fade. Later in 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis; it is widely accepted that this was brought on by alcoholism.
Golda Meir was one of the founders of the State of Israel. She served as its Minister of Labor, Foreign Minister, and fourth Prime Minister.
Her family immigrated to Milwaukee from the Ukraine in 1906. The family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, Golda's father worked as a carpenter, and her mother ran a grocery store. When Golda was only eight years old, she had to oversee the store for a short time each morning while her mother bought supplies at the market.
Golda Meir attended the Fourth Street School (now Golda Meir School) across from the Schlitz Brewing Complex from 1906 to 1912. It was here that Golda undertook her first public works project, by organizing a fundraiser to pay for her classmates' textbooks. After forming the American Young Sisters Society, she rented a hall and scheduled a public meeting for the event. Despite not having known English upon entry, Golda graduated as valedictorian of her class.
When Golda was 14, she began attending North Division High School and took part-time jobs to pay expenses. Her mother suggested that she give up school for work and to marry. Golda rebelled and ran away to Denver, Colorado, where her older sister, Sheyna, was living. She stayed for about a year in a duplex at 1606 Julian Street. Golda attended North High School there and met Morris Meyerson, a sign painter, whom she would later marry.
In 1913, Golda returned to Milwaukee and re-enrolled at North Division, graduating in 1915. While there, she was an active member of the Zionist youth movement, Habonim (now Habonim Dror). She spoke at public meetings and often advocated for Socialist Zionism in her speeches. Often she hosted visitors from Palestine.
Upon her graduation from the Milwaukee State Normal School (a predecessor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), she taught in public schools. She formally joined the Labour Zionist Organization in 1915.
Golda and Morris married in 1917 and began planning to make aliyah (emigration to the Land of Israel, then a part of the Ottoman Empire). The couple, together with Golda's elder sister Sheyna, emigrated to Palestine in 1921.
On May 14, 1948 Golda Meir was one of twenty four people to sign the Declaration of the State of Israel. She became Prime Minister in 1969, and held the office before resigning in 1973. Golda later died of cancer at the age of 80 and was buried on Mount Herzl, in Jerusalem.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 – 1959) was one of the most prominent and influential architects during the first half of the 20th century. He developed a series of highly individual styles over his extraordinarily long architectural career (spanning the years 1887-1959) and influenced the entire course of American architecture and building. To this day, he remains probably America's most famous architect.
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the agricultural town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, on June 8, 1867, of Welsh descent just two years after the end of the American Civil War. As a child he spent a great deal of time playing with the kindergarten educational blocks by Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (known as Froebel Gifts) given to him by his mother, Anna Lloyd Jones. These consisted of various geometrically shaped blocks that could be assembled in various combinations to form three-dimensional compositions. Wright in his autobiography talks about the influence of these exercises on his approach to design. Many of his buildings are notable for the geometrical clarity they exhibit.
Wright began his formal education in 1885 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity International, Inc. Wisconsin Alpha chapter. He took classes part-time for three semesters, while apprenticing under a local builder and professor of civil engineering. In 1887, Wright left the university without taking a degree (although he was granted an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the university in 1955) and moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he joined the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Within the year, he had left Silsbee to work for the firm of Adler & Sullivan.
Brett Favre is a former starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). Favre started at quarterback for The University of Southern Mississippi for four years before being selected in the second round of the 1991 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons. After one season with the Falcons, Favre was traded to the Green Bay Packers on February 10, 1992 for a first-round draft pick. He became the Packers starting quarterback in the third game of the 1992 NFL season.
Favre is the only three-time MVP (1995-97) in NFL history and has led the Packers to two Super Bowls: a victory against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI and a loss to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII. Favre has started every game since his first for the Packers in 1992. His records include most consecutive starts among NFL quarterbacks and most completions. He ranks second behind Dan Marino for career touchdown passes, career attempts, and career passing yards. Heading into the 2007 season, Favre is tied with Dan Marino for second-most victories as a starting quarterback; they both trail John Elway.
William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States.
Rehnquist was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as William Donald Rehnquist and grew up in the suburb of Shorewood. His father, William Benjamin Rehnquist, was a paper salesman; his mother, Margery Peck Rehnquist, was a translator and homemaker. He graduated from Shorewood High School in 1942.
When Chief Justice Warren Burger retired in 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Rehnquist to fill the position. The Senate confirmed his appointment by a 65-33 vote, and he assumed the office on September 26. The two most visible aspects of Rehnquist's tenure as Chief were his presiding over the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton and the Bush v. Gore decision. In 1999, Rehnquist became the second Chief Justice (after Salmon P. Chase) to preside over a presidential impeachment trial, during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton.
On October 26, 2004, the Supreme Court press office announced that Rehnquist had recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. After several months out of the public eye, Rehnquist administered the oath of office to President George W. Bush at his second inauguration on January 20, 2005.
Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia, home on September 3, 2005. Rehnquist was the first member of the Supreme Court to die in office since Justice Robert H. Jackson in 1954, and the first Chief Justice to die in office since Fred M. Vinson, in 1953.
Jim Lovell is a former NASA astronaut, most notable as the commander of Apollo 13, which suffered an explosion enroute to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo mission to enter lunar orbit. Lovell is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Lovell's family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated from Juneau High School. Later he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for two years. He continued on to the United States Naval Academy and, after graduating in 1952, entered the United States Navy where he served in the Korean War. He spent four years as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center (now the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School) in Patuxent River, Maryland. He was selected in 1962 for the second group of NASA astronauts.
On April 11, 1970, Lovell took off on Apollo 13 with Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, planning to land on the Moon along with Haise. But on April 13, a damaged stir coil in a cryogenic oxygen tank sparked during a routine tank stir, triggering an explosion that crippled the Command Module "Odyssey." Venting oxygen from the damaged system, the vessel quickly lost most of both its breathable air supply and its electrical system. Apollo 13's lunar landing mission was aborted and the goal became simply survival. Using the lunar module's engine, oxygen and power, Lovell and his crew swung around the Moon on a free-return trajectory. Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth on April 17.
Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) racecar driver. He arrived at the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States with only a borrowed pickup truck, a race car, no sponsor, and a limited budget. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, Kulwicki earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award and later won the 1992 Winston Cup championship by the then-closest margin in NASCAR history. Kulwicki was known for being a perfectionist and doing things his own way: his scientific approach to NASCAR racing inspired the way teams are currently run, and he was insistent in driving for his own race team during most of his NASCAR career despite lucrative offers from top car owners. His publicist indicated that Kulwicki was "a real hard type of person to get to know," and he remained a bachelor throughout his life.
In 1998, five years after his death in a light aircraft accident, he was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers. He was inducted into the numerous halls of fame, including the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.Portal:Wisconsin/Selected biography/9
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