David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE[2] (born 2 May 1975)[3] is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy[4] and the England national team.

Twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year[5] and in 2004 the world's highest-paid footballer,[6] Beckham was the first British footballer to play 100 Champions League matches.[5] He was Google's most searched of all sports topics in both 2003 and 2004.[7] With such global recognition he has become an elite advertising brand and a top fashion icon.[8][9] Beckham was captain of England from 15 November 2000[10] until the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals,[11] during which he played 58 times. Since then he has continued to represent his country and earned his much-publicised hundredth cap for England against France on 26 March 2008.[12] He is currently England's most-capped outfield player with 112 appearances.[13]

Beckham's career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17.[5] During his time there, United won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999.[5] He left Manchester United to sign for Real Madrid in 2003, where he remained for four seasons,[14] clinching the La Liga championship in his final season with the club.[15]

In January 2007, it was announced that Beckham would leave Real Madrid and sign a five-year contract with Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy.[16] Beckham's contract with Los Angeles Galaxy became effective on 1 July 2007 and gave him the highest player salary in MLS history.[17] He debuted for the team on 21 July in a friendly versus Chelsea at The Home Depot Center,[18] and on 15 August, he had his first start with the team, scoring his first goal in the 2007 SuperLiga semi-final.[19] His first league start then came on 18 August in front of a record crowd at Giants Stadium.[20]

Beckham is married to former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (née Adams).[21] The couple have three sons and currently reside in Beverly Hills, California.
www.wikipedia.com; thebleacherbums.files.wordpress.com

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain
born February 20, 1967
died April 5, 1994
height 5' 7"
weight 130 lbs
helped push the wave of Grunge rock
1991, marked the beginning of grunge and alternative rock
with the hit song "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
noted as the "anthem-of-a-generation"

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of grunge band Nirvana.
With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana's second album Nevermind (1991), Nirvana entered into the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden also gained wider audiences, and as a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-middle 1990s. Nirvana became the "flagship band" of "Generation X," and Cobain, as its frontman, found himself anointed by the media as the generation's "spokesman."[1] Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed his focus on the band's music, believing the band's message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, challenging the band's audience with its third studio album In Utero (1993).

During the last several years of his life, Cobain struggled with drug addiction as well as the professional and personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death have become a topic of fascination and debate.
Since their debut, Nirvana with Cobain as a songwriter has sold over twenty-five million albums in the US alone, and over fifty million worldwide,[2][3] making Cobain one of the most commercially successful songwriters in the history of popular music, and one of the most influential and iconic individuals in the history of popular culture, and the late 20th century.
some famous songs:
"Come as You Are", Nevermind
"Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nevermind
"Dumb", In Utero

www.wikipedia.org; www.cobain.com; www.justwilliam1959.files.wordpress.com

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī[1]; April 28, 1937[2] – December 30, 2006)[3] was the President of Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003.[4][5] A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power.

As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam spearheaded Iraq's nationalization of the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company, which had long held a monopoly on the country's oil. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparati of government as Iraq's economy grew at a rapid pace.[6]

As president, Saddam maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War of 1980 through 1988, and throughout the Persian Gulf War of 1991. During these conflicts, Saddam suppressed several movements, particularly Shi'a and Kurdish movements seeking to overthrow the government or gain independence, respectively. Whereas some Arabs venerated him for his aggressive stance against foreign intervention and for his support for the Palestinians,[7] other Arabs and Western leaders vilified him as the force behind both a deadly attack on northern Iraq in 1988 and, two years later, an invasion of Kuwait to the south.

By 2003, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush—in place following the elections of 2000—had convinced the public that Saddam remained sufficiently relevant and dangerous to be overthrown. In March of that year, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq, eventually deposing Saddam. Captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003, Saddam was brought to trial under the Iraqi interim government set up by U.S.-led forces. On November 5, 2006, he was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites suspected of planning an assassination attempt against him, and was sentenced to death by hanging. Saddam was executed on December 30, 2006.[8] By the time of his death, Saddam had become a prolific author.[9][10][11][12] Among his work are multiple novels dealing with themes of romance, politics, and war.
Saddam was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, December 30, 2006, despite his wish to be shot (which he felt would be more dignified).[67] The execution was carried out at Camp Justice, an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad.

The execution was videotaped on a mobile phone, showing Saddam being taunted before his hanging, and he and his captors insulting each other. The video was leaked to electronic media and posted on the Internet within hours, becoming the subject of global controversy.[68] It was later claimed by the head guard at the tomb where his body remains that Saddam's body was stabbed six times after the execution. [69]

Not long before the execution, Saddam's lawyers released his last letter. The following includes several excerpts:
“ To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,

Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgment, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.

You have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.

This is how you want your brother, son or leader to be ... and those who will lead you (in the future) should have the same qualifications.

Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or, He will postpone that ... so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.

Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence ... I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.

I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and peoples. Anyone who repents - whether in Iraq or abroad - you must forgive him.

You should know that among the aggressors, there are people who support your struggle against the invaders, and some of them volunteered for the legal defence of prisoners, including Saddam Hussein ... some of these people wept profusely when they said goodbye to me.

Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer ... God is Great ... God is great ... Long live our nation ... Long live our great struggling people ... Long live Iraq, long live Iraq ... Long live Palestine ... Long live jihad and the mujahedeen (the insurgency).

Saddam Hussein President and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahed Armed Forces

Additional clarification note:

I have written this letter because the lawyers told me that the so-called criminal court — established and named by the invaders — will allow the so-called defendants the chance for a last word. But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence. I wanted the people to know this.[70]
”

— Letter by Saddam Hussein

A second unofficial video, apparently showing Saddam's body on a trolley, emerged several days later. It sparked speculation that the execution was carried out incorrectly as Saddam Hussein had a gaping hole in his neck.[71]

Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, 3 km (2 mi) from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein, on December 31, 2006.[


www.wikipedia.org

Barack Hussein Obama II (pronounced /bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. The first African American to hold the office, Obama served as the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008.

Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for United States Senate in 2004. His victory, from a crowded field, in the March 2004 Democratic primary raised his visibility. His prime-time televised keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004 made him a rising star nationally in the Democratic Party. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 by the largest margin in Illinois history.

He began his run for the presidency in February 2007. After a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination, becoming the first major party African American candidate for president. In the 2008 general election, he defeated Republican candidate John McCain and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009.
www.wikipedia.org

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009), dubbed the "King of Pop", was an American recording artist and entertainer. A double-inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his other achievements feature multiple Guinness World Records—including the "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles, and the sale of over 750 million records. He was also a notable philanthropist, donating millions of dollars to the 39 charities he supported, and raising more through his own Heal the World Foundation.

The seventh child of the Jackson family, he made his debut in 1964 as a member of The Jackson 5, beginning a solo career in 1971. His 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with four others—Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995)—among the best selling. He popularized several physically complicated dance moves, such as the robot and the moonwalk, now iconic. He is widely credited with having transformed the music video from a promotional tool into an art form, with videos such as Thriller, "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" making him the first African American to amass a strong crossover following on MTV, and others, such as "Black or White" and "Scream", ensuring his popularity well into the 1990s.

Jackson's personal life generated significant controversy. His changing appearance was noticed from the early 1980s, his skin appearing paler and his facial features becoming almost androgynous. He was accused in 1993 of child sexual abuse, and though no charges were brought, his health suffered when he started using painkillers to cope with the stress. He married twice, first in 1994 and again in 1996, and brought up three children, one of them born to a surrogate mother, actions that triggered more speculation about his life. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of different child molestation allegations, which provoked a further decline in his health. Jackson died at the age of 50 on June 25, 2009, in Los Angeles, after suffering from cardiac arrest. His memorial service was broadcast live around the world, watched by upwards of one billion people.
www.wikipedia.org; www.itsmylifeclub.com

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955)[2] is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author, and chairman[3] of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is ranked consistently one of the world's wealthiest people[4] and the wealthiest overall as of 2009.[1] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock.[5] He has also authored or co-authored several books.
Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts.[6][7] In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.
Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January, 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

http://www.wikipedia.org/

Elvis Aaron Presley[1][4] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977; middle name sometimes spelled Aron)a was an American singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King.
Presley began his career in 1953 as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing "black" and "white" sounds, made him popular—and controversial[5][6][7]—as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. Presley had a versatile voice[8] and had unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including rock and roll, gospel, blues, country, ballads and pop. To date, he has been inducted into four music halls of fame.
In the 1960s, Presley made the majority of his 31 movies, most of which were poorly reviewed but financially successful musicals.[9] In 1968, he returned to live performances in a television special,[10] and performed across the U.S., notably in Las Vegas. In 1973, Presley staged the first global live concert via satellite (Aloha from Hawaii), reaching at least one billion viewers live and an additional 500 million on delay.[11][12]
Throughout his career, he set records for concert attendance, television ratings and recordings sales.[13] He is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of music, selling over one billion records internationally. Health problems, prescription drug dependence, and other factors led to his death at age 42.

http://www.wikipedia.org/