Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who volunteered to serve in the Continental Army and became one of George Washington's most trusted generals. He played a key role at the Siege of Yorktown that ended the Revolutionary War, and his transatlantic idealism made him a hero on both sides of the Atlantic during the French Revolution.

John Dalton was the English chemist and physicist who developed the first modern scientific description of the atom, proposing that all matter is composed of indivisible atoms and that different elements have different atomic weights. He also conducted the first systematic study of color blindness — a condition he himself had — which was long known as Daltonism in his honor.

Jane Addams co-founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, one of the first settlement houses in the United States, which provided education, childcare, and cultural programs to poor immigrants on the city's Near West Side. A pioneering figure in social work, feminism, and pacifism, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Roger Waters was the primary lyricist, bassist, and conceptual driving force behind Pink Floyd during their most celebrated period, conceiving and largely writing the albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall — each of which is considered a landmark of progressive rock. His 1979–80 The Wall tour, featuring the construction of a literal wall between band and audience, is among the most ambitious rock concerts ever staged.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. was one of the wealthiest and most politically influential Americans of the 20th century, serving as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He groomed his sons for political life, eventually seeing John F. Kennedy elected the 35th President of the United States.