Engineering, Technology, Aviation, Inventions

Cochran, Jacqueline

Cochran was born sometime between 1906 and 1910, and was orphaned as a baby. She was a foster child in a feckless, poverty-stricken family (she got her first pair of shoes when she was eigh... [more]

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Gökçen, Sabiha

Gökçen was one of the adoptive (or foster, sources differ) daughters of Kamal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. His other adoptive daughters included professor Afet Ýnan ; he also ado... [more]

Hannibal, Abram Petrovich

Hannibal was born an African prince, but kidnapped as a young boy about 1692 and sent to Istanbul as a hostage. A year late he was sent as a present to Tsar Peter of Russia, who used him as... [more]

Hoover, Herbert Clark

Hoover's father died when he was six and his mother when he was nine. He and his brother and sister were separated and raised by uncles. Hoover was sent from Iowa to live with an uncle in O... [more]

Jobs, Steven Paul

Jobs, with Stephen Wozniac, co-founded Apple Computers, after developing their first machine in a garage. Jobs' company was also the brains behind the first computer-animated film Toy Story... [more]

Jones, Frederick McKinley

McKinley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and orphaned as a young child. He was then raised by a priest in Kentucky until he was 16. He worked as a pinsetter in a bowling alley and then became... [more]

Li Peng

Li, an ethnic Hakka, was born the son of Li Shixun and Zhoa Juntao, friends of Zhou Enlai and his wife, Deng Yingchao. His father, who like Zhou and Deng was a Communist revolutionary, was ... [more]

McDaid, Desmond

McDaid was the son of a single mother in Ireland, who had to leave him in an orphanage when he was two. He stayed in Irish orphanages until he was nine, when he was shipped, without his mot... [more]

Spencer, Percy LaBaron

Spencer's father died when he was 18 months old and his mother left home, leaving him to be brought up by his uncle and aunt, a poor farming family in Maine. His uncle died when he was seve... [more]