Jan Grzebski
Jan Grzebski was a Polish man who woke up from a 19-year coma to find the Communist party no longer in power and food no longer rationed.
James Eads How
James Eads Howwas an American organizer of the hobo community in the early 20th century. He was heir of a wealthy St. Louis family, but chose to live as a hobo and to help the homeless migrant workers. The newspapers often referred to him as the "Millionaire Hobo".
Jean-Jacques Lequeu
Jean-Jacques Lequeu was a French draughtsman and architect. Lequeu's architectural career never took off. He spent time preparing the Architecture Civile, a book intended for publication, but which was never published. Most of his drawings can be found at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Some of them are pornographic and are kept in the Enfer of the library. They include a cow barn in the shape of an Assyrian bovine; an erotic garden folly called the Hammock of Love, replete with a copulating couple; a priapic fountain in a Gothic tabernacle and two self-portraits in drag.
Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe was an American athlete. Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football at the collegiate and professional levels, and also played professional baseball and basketball.
John Dillinger
Dillinger’s death is often described as the beginning of the end of the Gangster Era. On July 22, 1934, 85 years ago, FBI agents shot and killed Dillinger during a confrontation. Dillinger, whose name once dominated the headlines, was a notorious and vicious thief. Between September 1933 and July 1934, he and his violent gang terrorized the Midwest, killing 10 men and wounding seven others, robbing banks and police arsenals, and staging three jail breaks—killing a sheriff during one and wounding two guards in another. Just 12 hours after Dillinger’s death on July 22, 1934, Harold May of the Reliance Dental Manufacturing Co. created this death mask of Dillinger’s face at the Cook County Morgue in Chicago to demonstrate the quality of the company’s plaster. People sought to remember the deceased in many ways, but death masks were uncommon at this point in history. Although the creation of a death mask seems bizarre, the FBI case files describe an even stranger scene at the morgue: “Every politician and his friend in Chicago crowded into the morgue for the morbid purpose of viewing Dillinger’s remains....Great confusion existed at the morgue for several days, inasmuch as there were thousands of people who attempted to gain admission to view Dillinger’s body.” Police departments across the country asked the FBI for copies of the death mask. The FBI denied the requests after determining that providing copies would result in a “tremendous burden.” However, the FBI decided to permit officers to cast their own copies from the original while attending the newly created FBI National Academy, which still exists today. FBI National Academy attendees cast molds as part of forensic modeling studies for many years. As a result, countless copies still exist and are sometimes auctioned online as originals. After his death, 27 individuals were convicted in federal courts on charges of harboring and aiding and abetting Dillinger and his cronies during their reign of terror. Through additional FBI casework, arrests, and law enforcement partnerships, the gangster threat quickly declined.
Jaguar E-Type
The Jaguar E-Type is a British automobile manufactured by Jaguar between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of good looks, high performance, and competitive pricing established the marque as an icon of 1960s motoring.
Juliane Köpcke
Juliane Köpcke was the sole survivor of 93 passengers and crew in the December 24, 1971 crash of LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian rainforest.
James Sowerby
James Sowerby was a naturalist and illustrator.
Jean Leon
Born as Ceferino Carrión in Santander, Spain in 1928, Jean León was always ambitious. At 19, he left Spain to find his luck in Paris, New York and ultimately Hollywood. He founded the world famous California restaurant, "La Scala" in Beverly Hills. What many people don't know is that he started the restaurant in partnership with James Dean. The gourmet establishment became the haunt of many famous actors and performers of the time.
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was one of the founders of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend.