Louis Braille

popular name: George Pickett

date_of_death: July 30, 1875

age: 50

cause_of_death: Liver disease

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Major General George Pickett was a career United States Army officer who became a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He attended the US Military Academy at West Point, accumulating a host of demerits and graduating last in his class in 1846 (as did General George Armstrong Custer in 1861). Pickett’s classmates included Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and George B. McClellan. He is best remembered for being one of the commanders at Pickett's Charge, the futile and bloody Confederate offensive on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name and the wholesale execution of 22 soldiers (including a 15-year-old boy). A broken man after the war, his reputation was thoroughly rehabilitated and sanitized after his death by his third wife, LaSalle Corbell Pickett, whose writings turned the often incompetent general into an idealized “Lost Cause” hero.

popular name: Toots Shor

date_of_death: January 23, 1977

age: 73

cause_of_death: Cancer

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Until recently, Toots Shor was long forgotten by most –– now a whole new generation is discovering NYC’s legendary “saloon” thanks to Mad Men. The Mad Men design team even built a virtual Toots Shor set (where Don and Betty drank martinis and ate their famous Caesar Salad prepared at tableside) and sparked a renewed interest in the style of the period. The original was a bar/restaurant in NYC that thrived in the 40s and 50s –– a place where actors, writers, singers, journalists and sports figures came to play. In its heyday, it was the place to go, located at 51 w 51st Street from 1940 to 1959 (after that it moved around the corner to 52nd Street). The ringmaster was Toots Shor - one of New York's most famous restaurateurs and one of the country's foremost patrons of artists, actors, musicians and sports figures.

popular name: Franklin Pierce

date_of_death: October 8, 1869

age: 64

cause_of_death: Cirrhosis of the liver

claim_to_fame: Historical Figure

best_know_for: Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States of America. He came into office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress. That piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war by angering northerners and heightening pre-Civil War tensions by repealing the Missouri Compromise.