Richard Norton Tulfield was born on December 11, 1926.

While many will recognize the voice, he rarely appeared in front of the camera. He spent his career as an announcer beginning in the 1950s, through the 60s working on most of the TV series of Irwin Allen and into the 80s voicing narrations in cartoon series such as Thundarr the Barbarian and Spider-man.

He spoke the first words in three of Allen’s series along with Lost In Space, where he also served as the narrator he opened the first episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with “This is the Seaview, the most extraordinary submarine in all the seven seas” and The Time Tunnel, “Two American scientists are lost…”

In the 1998 movie based on the series he once again voiced the Robot.

Bob May, who died on January 18, 2009 was the man inside the Robot in the TV Series.

Oliver Hardy was born on January 18, 1892 in Harlem, Georgia and moved to Florida when he was a child. His birth name was Norvell, but unofficially to his father’s name Oliver when he came of age. To those close to him he was known as Babe, a nickname given to him in those early years.

While his mother wanted him to become a lawyer, Hardy fell in love with the new genre. His show business career began working and then running a movie theatre.

During the early days of film, sunny places were used. Florida became one of those early film locations. Oliver Hardy was hired to appear in those early films due to his large girth and expressive facial features.

He appeared in his first film in 1913. The film was called Outwitting Dad. After that he appeared in a number of series including the Pokes and Jabbs series of comedy shorts, the Plump and Runt series of two reelers, the Jimmy Aubrey series, and as an actor and co-director of comedy shorts for Larry Semon.

When Hal Roach brought Oliver and Hardy together the pair had appeared in the same film. He had a minor part in the 1917 film Lucky Dog that stared Stan Laurel. Although appearing in the same film the two didn’t have any scenes together.

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King received a B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Boston College in 1955.

King began his work in equal rights after learning of the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 for her failure to give up her bus seat to a white man. He founded the Southern Christian leadership Conference in 1957. The group was created to harness the moral authority and organizing power of black churches to conduct non-violent protests in the service of civil rights reform. His most famous speech was given during the Civil Rights March, formally called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in 1963. The words, ‘I have a dream’ will be remembered from the speech.

King was assassinated on April 14, 1968 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was in Memphis to deliver a speech in support of black garbage workers who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment. The assassination led to riots in more than 60 US cities.

Two months after the murder of King, James Earl Ray was captured at London Heathrow airport. Ray confessed to the murder during interrogation in Memphis, although he recanted the confession 3 days later. Under the advice of his attorney he plead guilty to avoid a trail conviction and a possible death penalty. In later times the family of King has their doubts that Ray was the assassin. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998 from complications related to kidney disease.

In 1986, a federal holiday established in his name was observed for the first time. President Reagan signed the law in 1983 creating the holiday to be observed on the third Monday in January.

One could say she was destined to become an entertainer. While working at the diner her parents owned and operated, she sang songs for those she waited on earning applause and tips.

After separating from her first husband, Louis Tuck, she found herself on the vaudeville stage. She performed songs wearing blackface and with a southern accent until one day when he suitcase arrived late she went on stage declaring to the audience, “You all can see I’m a white girl. Well, I’ll tell you something more: I’m not Southern. I’m a Jewish girl and I just learned this Southern accent doing a blackface act for two years. And now, Mr. Leader, please play my song.”

Still she enjoyed singing songs that had African-American roots. Many of these songs, including her signature song Some of These Days written by Shelton Brooks, she purchased exclusive rights to sing.

Tucker was proud of her Jewish heritage and one of Tucker’s best know songs is My Yiddish Momme written for her in 1925 by Jack Yellen. The song has both Yiddish and English verses. At first she sang this in concert only when she felt the audience understood Yiddish, but later she would include it in her act. When Adolf Hitler came into power in Germany he ordered all copies of the song destroyed.

Tucker never retired from entertainer. She performed in the movies, on the radio and on Television as well as on the stage during her long career. She died at the age of 82 on February 9, 1966, in New York City, just a few weeks after her last performance.

His birth name was Thomas Hezekiah Mix, but when he enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War he entered as Thomas E. Mix. The E is Edwin, his father’s name. Was his name ever legally changed. It was in his mind since he appeared to have never liked the name Hezekiah and always used Thomas Edwin Mix.

Mix was a real Cowboy. After army he worked his way west until finally working at Will A. Dickey’s Circle D Ranch. The ranch was hired by Selig Pictures to supply cowboys and Indians along with horses for the movies. Mix was originally hired by Selig to provide and handle horses.

The real Tom Mix and the Legend of Tom Mix are at times different. As a showman he tended to claim to have done things before his stardom that are either totally false or can’t be confirmed. While he was in the army during the Spanish-American War, he was not one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.

Of the reported 336 films he appeared in between 1910 and 1935, all but nine were silent. As the first Western star he defined the cowboy genre. All that followed has Tom Mix to thank. In the 1920′s he was among the highest paid film stars and one of the decade’s top box stars.

During a trip through the Arizona deserts on October 12, 1940, when he took a turn a bit too fast a suitcase stuck him in the head. He lost control of his 1937 Cord Sportsman car and plunged into a ravine. The ravine where Mix died has been named “The Tom Mix Wash” in his honor.

He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the United States Navy. He also was the first American to be a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution.

As a Lieutenant, Decatur lead a a night raid on February 16, 1804 into Tripoli harbor to destroy the previously captured U.S. frigate Philadelphia. Admiral Lord Nelson is said to have called his raid “the most bold and daring act of the Age”.

During the War of 1812 he commanded several ships including the USS United States in which he defeated one of Great Britain’s finest ships, the Macedonian. After the War he served as a Navy Commissioners in Washington DC.

The house that was built for Stephen Decatur and his wife Susan in the Capital city still remains as one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington. Across from the White House it is one of three remaining houses that were designed by the father of American architecture, Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

Stephen Decatur and James Barron had once been friends. When Barron was court martial in 1808 Decatur agreed with the verdict that expelled Barron from the Navy for five years. Throughout the next 12 years the two dueled through letters until on March 22, 1820, Commodore Stephen Decatur and Commodore James Barron met on the dueling ground in Bladensburg, Maryland. Both men were wounded, but it was Decatur who died later in the day at his home on Lafayette Square.