Stradivari built some of the finest and most famous instruments ever made, including the violins that bear his name.

William Herschel began as a talented musician and, through math, became a brilliant astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus.

We've featured doctors and gardeners before on Lifelines, but David Hosack was both.

Few creators were ever as consistent in their creation as America's greatest portraitist.

Everyone remembers Houdini, but in his day, Howard Thurston was considered the King of Magic.

There is no shortage of biographies on Groucho Marx, but most are too worshipful or fail to separate him from his brothers.

Jim Thorpe was the only American athlete to play professional baseball and football as well as to win Olympic gold for track and field.

Thomas Jefferson was widely considered the most outstanding writer among the Founding Fathers, but they turned to another eloquent member to write the Preamble to the Constitution.

He was the most successful world conqueror in history, but there's a good chance you've never heard of him.

When a British scholar died with his work on the Oxford English Dictionary incomplete, the reins were picked up by an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.