James Dean was a struggling actor in Hollywood working as a parking lot attendant before starring in three popular films released within a two-year period, leading to two posthumous Academy Award nominations.

Ernest Hemingway was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author who served in both World Wars, lived a life of adventure, and ultimately committed suicide in 1961.

Ho Chi Minh was a proponent of communism to liberate Vietnam from the imperialist west and would organize the Viet Minh Party or League for the Independence of Vietnam.

Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while imprisoned after a failed coup d’é·tat of the Bavarian government. The autobiography espouses his racial views and clearly references extermination, indicating future plans for a “final solution.”

Harry Houdini was a captivating performer who used his sheer physical strength and abilities to pick conventional locks to escape harrowing situations.

Al Capone was a prohibition-era bootlegger and gangster who earned the nickname “scarface” by getting slashed with a knife. After living a high-profile life of crime in Chicago, Capone was convicted on tax-evasion charges.

Jesse Owens was a record-breaking track and field star who became the first African American athlete to sign a sponsorship deal and won four gold medals in the 1936 summer olympics.