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Inventors & Scientists
Leaders
100
Twenty-seven publishers turned down his first childrens' book that he wrote on board a ship bound for Europe.
Who is Dr. Seuss?
100
At the age of seventeen, this young man, who used to hate music and loved to fight, was composing and selling his own songs.
Who was George Gershwin?
100
This funny lady worked hard at John Murray Anderson Drama School in New York, but was told by her instructors to go home because she had no talent.
Who is Lucille Ball?
100
This man who invented the telephone first invented the comic book for his father's deaf students in Scotland.
Who is Alexander Graham Bell?
100
This English leader received poor marks in composition, spelling and writing because he would not pay attention to his lessons, but went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Who is Winston Churchill?
200
This lonely, funny looking boy, who never learned to spell, became one of the world's greatest storytellers.
Who is Hans Christian Andersen?
200
This American Rock and Roll idol earned a "C" in music.
Who is Elvis Presley?
200
A newspaper editor fired this man because he had no good ideas.
Who is Walt Disney?
200
This man, who had hearing problems and was told by his teachers he was dull, a dreamer, didn't pay attention, and could not learn, worked hard as a telegrapher and never gave up experimenting.
Who was Thomas Edison?
200
This Admiral had been retired from the navy as "unfit for service" until he flew over both poles.
Who is Admiral Richard E. Byrd?
300
This writer's teacher told him, "I have never met anybody who so persistently writes the exact opposite of what he means. He seems incapable of marshaling his thoughts on paper."
Who is Roald Dahl?
300
This famous opera singer was told by his music teacher, "You can't sing, you have no voice at all."
Who is Caruso?
300
At six feet nine inches, this young man never made made the varsity basketball team in high school.
Who is Michael Jordan?
300
This man did not speak until the age of four, his speech was difficult to understand, he loved fantasy, hated memorizing facts, his teachers thought him dull, and at the age of eighteen he failed the entrance exam to engineering school.
Who is Albert Einstein?
300
This soldier entered the Black Hawk War as a captain and came out a private.
Who is Abraham Lincoln?
400
This English author loved reading stories and making up stories in his head. He never won any grammar prizes in school. In fact when he was twelve there was no school.
Who is Charles Dickens?
400
This man was once rejected from high school chorus.
Who was Fred Waring?
400
This man with a deep, booming voice stuttered as a child and refused to speak for years.
Who is James Earl Jones?
400
This man did not invent the automobile, but invented the assembly line which made buying a car possible for the average person.
Who is Henry Ford?
400
This boy, who wanted to be a Greek hero and could recite lines from Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey at the age of eight, finally learned to read at the age of twelve.
Who was General George Patton?
500
This Russian author flunked out of college.
Who is Leo Tolstoy?
500
These three singers, who attended New York High Schools and sang in competitions during the 1950s, were not appreciated by their music teachers.
Who are Barbara Streisand, Neil Diamond and Carol King?
500
As a boy, this man drew stages and characters while his teacher explained nouns and verbs. He was also refused admission to the University of California where he wanted to study film making.
Who is Steven Spielberg?
500
This man did a lot of rocking back and forth when he was deep in thought. He was so bored in school he turned off the teacher's voice and rocked and thought instead.
Who is Bill Gates?
500
This man only made the second string football team at Harvard, and no place on the swim team. He served three terms in Congress before he finally was elected Senator from his state.
Who is John F. Kennedy?