Woodrow Wilson - U.S. President from 1913-1921. Had a learning disability - he was severely dyslexic

Thomas Woodrow Wilson 

U.S. President from 1913-1921. Had a learning disability - he was severely dyslexic

(December 28, 1856-February 3, 1924) 

was born in Staunton, Virginia, to parents of a predominantly Scottish heritage. Since his father was a Presbyterian minister and his mother the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Woodrow was raised in a pious and academic household. He spent a year at Davidson College in North Carolina and three at Princeton University where he received a baccalaureate degree in 1879.

After graduating from the Law School of the University of Virginia*, he practiced law for a year in Atlanta, Georgia, but it was a feeble practice. He entered graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1883 and three years later received the doctorate. In 1885 he published Congressional Government, a splendid piece of scholarship which analyzes the difficulties arising from the separation of the legislative and executive powers in the American Constitution.

Before joining the faculty of Princeton University as a professor of jurisprudence and political economy, Wilson taught for three years at Bryn Mawr College and for two years at Wesleyan College. He was enormously successful as a lecturer and productive as a scholar.

As president of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, Wilson became widely known for his ideas on reforming education. In pursuit of his idealized intellectual life for democratically chosen students, he wanted to change the admission system, the pedagogical system, the social system, even the architectural layout of the campus. But Wilson was a thinker who needed to act. So he entered politics and as governor of the State of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913 distinguished himself once again as a reformer.

Wilson won the presidential election of 1912 when William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote. Upon taking office he set about instituting the reforms he had outlined in his book The New Freedom, including the changing of the tariff, the revising of the banking system, the checking of monopolies and fraudulent advertising, the prohibiting of unfair business practices, and the like.

But the attention of this man of peace was forced to turn to war. In the early days of World War I, Wilson was determined to maintain neutrality. He protested British as well as German acts; he offered mediation to both sides but was rebuffed. The American electorate in 1916, reacting to the slogan «He kept us out of war», reelected Wilson to the presidency. However, in 1917 the issue of freedom of the seas compelled a decisive change. On January 31 Germany announced that «unrestricted submarine warfare» was already started; on March 27, after four American ships had been sunk, Wilson decided to ask for a declaration of war; on April 2 he made the formal request to Congress; and on April 6 the Congress granted it.

Wilson never doubted the outcome. He mobilized a nation - its manpower, its industry, its commerce, its agriculture. He was himself the chief mover in the propaganda war. His speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, on the «Fourteen Points» was a decisive stroke in winning that war, for people everywhere saw in his peace aims the vision of a world in which freedom, justice, and peace could flourish.

Although at the apogee of his fame when the 1919 Peace Conference assembled in Versailles, Wilson failed to carry his total conception of an ideal peace, but he did secure the adoption of the Covenant of the League of Nations. His major failure, however, was suffered at home when the Senate declined to approve American acceptance of the League of Nations. This stunning defeat resulted from his losing control of Congress after he had made the congressional election of 1918 virtually a vote of confidence, from his failure to appoint to the American peace delegation those who could speak for the Republican Party or for the Senate, from his unwillingness to compromise when some minor compromises might well have carried the day, from his physical incapacity in the days just prior to the vote.

The cause of this physical incapacity was the strain of the massive effort he made to obtain the support of the American people for the ratification of the Covenant of the League. After a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, 1919, he collapsed and a week later suffered a cerebral haemorrhage from the effects of which he never fully recovered. An invalid, he completed the remaining seventeen months of his term of office and lived in retirement for the last three years of his life.

Walt Disney - Had a learning disability

Walt Disney - ( Walter Elias Disney )
Had a learning disability

Date of Birth (location): 5 December 1901, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Date of Death : 15 December 1966

During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney "the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo DaVinci." A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 Academy Awards and 7 Emmys in his lifetime. Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations; Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt became interested in drawing at an early age, selling his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stem, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.

After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.

In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing materials, $40 in his pocket and a completed animated and live-action film. Walt's brother, Roy 0. Disney, was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500, and constructed a camera stand in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first "Alice Comedy" featurette, and the brothers began their production operation in the rear of a Hollywood real estate office two blocks away.

On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. They were blessed with two daughters: Diane, married to Ron Miller, former president and chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions; and Sharon Disney Lund, who served as a member of Disney's Board of Directors and passed away in 1993. The Millers have seven children and Mrs. Lund had three.

Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled "Plane Crazy." However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in "Steamboat Willie," the world's first fully-synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928.

Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production of his "Silly Symphonies." In 1932, the film entitled "Flowers and Trees" won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards. In 1937, he released "The Old Mill," the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique.

On December 21 of that same year, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Dumbo," and "Bambi."

In 1940, construction was completed on Disney's Burbank studio. The staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men and technicians. During World War II, 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.

Disney's 1945 feature, the musical "The Three Caballeros," combined live action with the cartoon medium, a process he used successfully in such other features as "Song of the South" and the highly acclaimed "Mary Poppins." In all, 81 features were released by the studio during his lifetime.

Walt's inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the award-winning "True-Life Adventure" series. Through such films as "The Living Desert," "The Vanishing Prairie," "The African Lion," and "White Wilderness," Disney brought fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation's outdoor heritage.

Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its investment tenfold. By its third decade, more than 250 million people were entertained, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over the globe.

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his "Wonderful World of Color" in 1961. "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "Zorro" were popular favorites in the 1950s.

But that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design on an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American industry.

Said Disney, "I don't believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future."

Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land -- twice the size of Manhattan Island -- in the center of the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole new Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982.

Prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment of California Institute of the Arts, a college level, professional school of all the creative and performing arts. Of Cal Arts, Walt once said, "It's the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something."

California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the amalgamation of two schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Walt Disney conceived the new school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a "community of the arts" as a completely new approach to professional arts training.

Walt Disney is a legend and a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of Americans than any other man in the past century. Through his work, he brought joy, happiness and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly, our world shall know but one Walt Disney.

Tanni Grey-Thompson - One of Great Britain's most successful Paralympians

Tanni Grey-Thompson -  (26 July 1969, Cardiff, Wales, UK ) 

"Tanni Carys Davina Grey-Thompson OBE - to give her full name and title - is the disabled athlete that most people instantly recognise. Formerly Tanni Grey - the Thompson was added following her marriage in 1999 - she has competed in Paralympic Games since 1988, representing Britain at distances ranging from 100m to 800m. She has won fourteen paralympic medals including nine golds, and has broken over twenty world records. As a wheelchair athlete she was also the winner of five London marathons - in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2001. In recent years, she has established herself as a TV presenter - including BBC TWO's From the Edge disability magazine programme."





Early Life

Tanni was born on 26th July 1969 in Cardiff, Wales and Christened 'Carys Davina'. She was first called the name Tanni by her two-year-old sister Sian who, on first seeing her, declared she was 'tiny.'

As a young child Tanni wore callipers, she started to use a wheelchair from the age of seven. From the outset, her parents were supportive and encouraged her independent streak. Tanni's first school experience was at Birch Grove Primary, she is remembered there as a very determined young lady.  Tanni tried many sports at primary school and particularly enjoyed swimming, archery and horse riding. 

Tanni first tried wheelchair racing at St. Cyres Comprehensive School, aged 13.  At 15 she won the 100 metres at the Junior National Wheelchair Games.  At 18, Tanni became a member of the Bridgend Athletics Club, the British Wheelchair Racing Squad and was selected for her first World Wheelchair Games.

Sporting Career

In Seoul in 1988, Tanni represented Great Britain and won her first Paralympic medal, the 400m bronze. Spinal surgery forced Tanni to take a year away from the track and incredibly, at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, she stormed to victory taking four gold medals in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres. The same year, she won her first of six London Wheelchair Marathons.

Tanni won the 800 metres gold in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics along with three silver medals in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, 31 year old Tanni returned with a vengeance, striking gold a fabulous four times in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres. In Athens 2004, aged 35, she takes first place in the 100 and 400 metres bringing her Paralympic gold medal tally to an astonishing eleven.

Present Day

After meeting as members of the national wheelchair racing squad, Tanni Grey married Ian Thompson on 1st May 1999 at St John's Church, Cardiff.  Tanni says, "The National Championships are always the first week in May so we thought it would help us both remember our wedding anniversary!"

Daughter Carys was born in 2002.  Whenever possible Carys has accompanied her mum and dad to various sporting events at home and abroad.  Carys was at the 2008 Athens Paralympic Games to see her mum win her last two gold medals.

The Grey-Thompsons live in the North East of England.

Since her retirement, Tanni has continued to be involved in sport.  She is a director of UK Athletics and a member of the board of the London Marathon.

In 2008 Tanni was appointed as a member of Transport for London, where she chairs the Environment, Corporate and Planning Panel, and is a member of the Surface Transport and Safety, Health and Environment Assurance Panels.

In 2010 Tanni was appointed to the House of Lords, where she serves as a non party political crossbench peer.  Tanni took the title Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham.  Tanni is a working peer and hopes to use her experience and knowledge to great effect in debates in the House.

 

Academic Achievements

Pro Chancellor

In 2005 Tanni became Pro Chancellor of Staffordshire University.

Degree

1991

• Loughborough University, BA Politics

Honorary Degrees

• Tanni has been awarded a combination of honorary degrees from 25 Academic Institutions.

2010

• Bath University, Hon Doctor of Laws

2005

• Newcastle University, Hon Doctor
• Oxford Brookes University, Hon Doctor
• Liverpool John Moores, Hon fellowship
• Leicester University, Hon Doctor of Laws
• Sheffield Hallam University, Hon Doctor of the University
• University of Hull, Hon Doctor of Science

2004

• University of Exeter, Doctor of Laws
• Herriot Watt University, Doctor of Laws
• Open University, Doctor of the University

2003

• University of Wales, Newport, Hon Doctor

2002

• University of Wales, Doctor of Laws

2001

• Leeds Metropolitan University, Hon Doctor
• Loughborough University, Honorary Doctor
• Teesside University, Hon Masters
• York and Ripon College, Hon Doctor
• University of Swansea, Fellowship of the University
• University of Glamorgan, Chancellors Medal
• UWIC, Hon fellowship

2000

• University of Surrey, St Mary’s, Doctor of the University

1998

• Southampton University, Hon Doctor of the School of Business
• Manchester Metropolitan University, Hon MA
• Staffordshire University, Hon Doctor of Sport

1997

• Cardiff University, Hon Fellow

1994

• Loughborough University, Hon MA  

Sporting Achievements

Paralympic Games

• 2004 Athens - 2 Gold medals in the 100m, and 400m
• 2000 Sydney - 4 Gold medals in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m
• 1996 Atlanta - 1 Gold medal in the 800m (WR). 3 Silver medals in the 100m, 200m, and 400m
• 1992 Barcelona - 4 Gold medals in the 100m (WR), 200m, 400m (WR) and 800m
• 1988 Seoul - 1 Bronze medal 400m

* WR - World Record 

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World Circuit

• 6 time winner of the Women’s London Wheelchair Marathon
• First woman in the world to break one minute for the 400m
• First British Woman to break two hours for the marathon
• British Wheelchair Racing Associations Road Race Grand Prix champion 1998 and 2005
• Current European and British record holder for the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m
• 30 world records broken
• World Championship medals - 5 golds, 4 silvers and 1 bronze medal.

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Personal Bests

• 100m - 16.77, Kirby, 2005
• 200m - 29.66 Atlanta, 2004
• 400m - 56.28, Langenthal, Switzerland, 2003
• 800m - 1.51.67, Atlanta, 2004
• 1500m - 3.35.15, Jona, Switzerland, 1999
• 5000m - 12.32.61, Jona, Switzerland, 1999
• 10,000m - 25.39.6, Kirby, England, 1999
• 10km road - 24.03, Mobile, USA, 1994
• Half Marathon - 52.17, Great North Run, 1997  

Distinctions

 Tanni has received numerous accolades and awards in recognition of her Paralympic and sporting achievements.

2010

•  Appointed to the House of Lords as a crossbench peer

2006

• Elected to the Laureus World Sports Academy

2005

• Dame of the British Empire

2004

• BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year (also 1992, 2000)

2003

• Inducted in to the BWSF Hall of Fame

2001

• Voted ‘UK Sporting Hero’ by SPORT UK

2000

• OBE
• Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year, Helen Rollason Award
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year – Helen Rollason Award (2000)
• Sportswriters Award
• Welsh Woman of the Year Award
• Welsh Sportswoman of the Year
• Best Welsh Sportswoman of 50 years
• Pride of Britain – Special Award

1992

• Awarded MBE
• Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year
• Sports Writers Association female disabled athlete of the year

Sarah Bernhardt

Robin Williams

Marlee Matlin

Lord Nelson

Lord Byron

John Milton

Ian Dury

Francsico de Goya

George Washington

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Thomas Edison

David Blunkett

Christopher Reeve

Cher

Alexander Graham Bell

Albert Einstein

Stephen Hawking - English scientist, physicist, and mathematician

Stephen Hawking

8 January 1942

English scientist, physicist, and mathematician
Disability: Motor Neuron disease or a variant of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

"Stephen William Hawking is a British theoretical physicist, whose world-renowned scientific career spans over 40 years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by motor neuron disease, likely a variant of the disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS). Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at Cambridge; he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact. The diagnosis of motor neuron disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and as of 2009 was almost completely paralyzed."

Early life

Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. His father, a well-known researcher in tropical medicine, urged his son to seek a career in medicine, but Stephen found biology and medicine were not exact enough. Therefore, he turned to the study of mathematics and physics.
Hawking was not an outstanding student at St. Alban's School, nor later at Oxford University, which he entered in 1959. He was a social young man who did little schoolwork because he was able to grasp the essentials of a mathematics or physics problem quickly. At home he reports, "I would take things apart to see how they worked, but they didn't often go back together." His early school years were marked by unhappiness at school, with his peers and on the playing field. While at Oxford he became increasingly interested in physics (study of matter and energy), eventually graduating with a first class honors in physics (1962). He immediately began postgraduate studies at Cambridge University.

Graduate school

The onset of Hawking's graduate education at Cambridge marked a turning point in his life. It was then that he embarked upon the formal study of cosmology, which focused his study. And it was then that he was first stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, a weakening disease of the nervous and muscular system that eventually led to his total confinement in a wheelchair. At Cambridge his talents were recognized, and he was encouraged to carry on his studies despite his growing physical disabilities. His marriage in 1965 was an important step in his emotional life. Marriage gave him, he recalled, the determination to live and make professional progress in the world of science. Hawking received his doctorate degree in 1966. He then began his lifelong research and teaching association with Cambridge University.

Theory of singularity

Hawking made his first major contribution to science with his idea of singularity, a work that grew out of his collaboration (working relationship) with Roger Penrose. A singularity is a place in either space or time at which some quantity becomes infinite (without an end). Such a place is found in a black hole, the final stage of a collapsed star, where the gravitational field has infinite strength. Penrose proved that a singularity could exist in the space-time of a real universe.
Drawing upon the work of both Penrose and Albert Einstein (1879–1955), Hawking demonstrated that our universe had its origins in a singularity. In the beginning all of the matter in the universe was concentrated in a single point, making a very small but tremendously dense body. Ten to twenty billion years ago that body exploded in a big bang that initiated time and the universe. Hawking was able to produce current astrophysical (having to do with the study of stars and the events that occur around them) research to support the big bang theory of the origin of the universe and oppose the competing steady-state theory.
Hawking's research led him to study the characteristics of the best-known singularity: the black hole. A black hole's edges, called the event horizon, can be detected. Hawking proved that the surface area (measurement of the surface) of the event horizon could only increase, not decrease, and that when two black holes merged the surface area of the new hole was larger than the sum of the two original.
Hawking's continuing examination of the nature of black holes led to two important discoveries. The first, that black holes can give off heat, opposed the claim that nothing could escape from a black hole. The second concerned the size of black holes. As originally conceived, black holes were immense in size because they were the end result of the collapse of gigantic stars. Hawking suggested the existence of millions of mini-black holes formed by the force of the original big bang explosion.

Stephen Hawking. 

Unified field theory

In the 1980s Hawking answered one of Einstein's unanswered theories, the famous unified field theory. A complete unified theory includes the four main interactions known to modern physics. The unified theory explains the conditions that were present at the beginning of the universe as well as the features of the physical laws of nature. When humans develop the unified field theory, said Hawking, they will "know the mind of God."

Publications

As Hawking's physical condition grew worse his intellectual achievements increased. He wrote down his ideas in A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. It sold over a million copies and was listed as the best-selling nonfiction book for over a year.
In 1993 Hawking wrote Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, which, in addition to his scientific thoughts, contains chapters about Hawking's personal life. He coauthored a book in 1996 with Sir Roger Penrose titled The Nature of Space and Time. Issues discussed in this book include whether the universe has boundaries and if it will continue to expand forever. Hawking says yes to the first question and no to the second, while Penrose argues the opposite. Hawking joined Penrose again the following year in the creation of another book, The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind (1997). In 2002 he was likewise celebrating the publication of The Universe in a Nutshell. Despite decreasing health, Hawking traveled on the traditional book release circuit. People with disabilities look to him as a hero.

Honors and commitments

Hawking's work in modern cosmology and in theoretical astronomy and physics is widely recognized. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1974 and five years later was named to a professorial chair at Cambridge University that was once held by Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). Beyond these honors he has earned a host of honorary degrees, awards, prizes, and lectureships from the major universities and scientific societies of Europe and America. By the end of the twentieth century Stephen Hawking had become one of the best-known scientists in the world. His popularity includes endorsing a wireless Internet connection and speaking to wheelchair-bound youth. He also had a special appearance on the television series Star Trek.
Though very private, it is generally known that Stephen's first marriage ended in 1991. He has three children from that marriage.
When asked about his objectives, Hawking told Zygon in a 1995 interview, "My goal is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."