When you begin to list the greatest American Jazz percussionists of all time, near the top of that list has to be the great Vibe the harpist and drummer Lionel Hampton.

In a career that began in the 1920s, when he was a teenager, Lionel Hampton rose to primnence in the jazz community, playing alongside such names as Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman. 

Later, Hampton became a bandleader himself.

He wrote a memoir in 1989, and that's what I met him

Raise your hand if you had a Barbie Doll, or Hot Wheels, when you were a kid.

Or how about a Chatty Cathy, or a See-and-Say? 

Bu perhaps no toy of the 20th century in America was more iconic, more popular, and more widely known than the ubiquitous Barbie doll.

Ruth Handler was the key figure in bringing all of those to market, as the co-founder of Mattel Toys.  

Well before her 20th birthday, Patty Duke had already won an Oscar and was star of her own TV series.

Patty Duke won the Oscar for best supporting actress in The 1962 movie The Miracle Worker, which was the captain from the Broadway play in which she also starred. 

On the heels of that success came her TV series, the Patty Duke Show, in which she played the dual roles of typical American teemager Patty and her identical cousin from England, Cathy.

Later Patty Duke moved on to more sophisticated, adult roles, including a part in the movie Valley of the Dolls.

But all along the way, she suffered from severe, undiagnosed bipolar disorder, Exacerbated by various forms of abuse.

In 1953, an earnest and ambitious 25-year-old scientist nmaed James Watson made a groundbreaking discovery that helped revolutionize science, medicine, even the law.

Working alongside Francis Crick, Watson identified the double-helix structure of DNA.

That breakthrough earned Watson and Crick the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1962. Watson wrote a book explaining the double helix.  

I met him in 2002, when he published another book, which he called "enes, Girls, and Gamow." That was a reference to George Gamow, a pioneering theoretical physicist who contributed to, and built on, Watson and crick's work.

A third-rate burglary” at Washington's Watergate hotel and office complex in the summer of 1972 launched a scandal that ultimately brought down the presidency of Richard M. Nixon. 

At the very center of that burglary, and ensuing Scandal, was G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent who headed the the infamous White House “Plumbers” unit.

After serving prison time for his role in Watergate, Liddy wrote a book called “Will,” which became a bestseller for years to come. 

In 1991 Liddy updated his book, adding new information that had been revealed in a book by two journalists,Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, called “Silent Coup.”

Sometimes when I interview celebrities,  they are exactly the way I thought they would be. 

And sometimes, a celebrity would surprise me a little. I was surprised a little by former First Lady Barbara Bush, wife of George H.W. Bush, our 41st president. 

When I met her in 1994, when she published her Memoir, I was unprepared for how simple, straightforward, and folksy Mrs. Bush was. It was like talking to my mom or one of her friends over a cup of coffee. 

It's important to remember that Barbara Bush holds a rare distinction in American history: she is only the second woman, behind Abigail Adams, to be the wife of one president and the mother of another.

You would probably be hard-pressed to find a person with more natural energy and enthusiasm than Dick Vitale -- former high school, college, and NBA basketball coach turn sports broadcaster. 

Indeed, it's kind of hard to think of college basketball these days without Dick Vitale coming to mind. 

And when I met him, more than 32 years ago now, he seemed as perplexed as anyone by how successful he had actually become.

Jim Lovell was the commander of the three-man crew, whose mission was to land on the Moon. But just two days into the mission, something went terribly wrong.

Tom Hanks, who played Jim Lovell in the movie Apollo 13, uttered the words that have become a catchphrase.  But in the moment when level actually said those words, he and his crew mates were dangerously close to death.

In 1994, Jim Lovell co-authored a book about the Apollo 13 mission, and that's when I met him.

Tomorrow is Major League Baseball's opening day. So today, a conversation from a few years ago with one of the greatest major league pitchers of all time.

Bob Feller, a farm boy from Iowa, joined the Cleveland Indians when he was just 17 years old. And during his 18 Major League Seasons that followed, seller set all kinds of pitching records.

Is 98 mile per hour fastball earned him the nicknames rapid Robert, or Bullet Bob.

And he is to this day the only major league pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter on the first day of the season.

I had the chance to speak with Bob Feller in 1990, 50 years after his historic opening day no hitter.

40 years ago this week, a young would-be assassin put a bullet in President Ronald Reagan.

The man whose quick thinking likely saved the president's life was Jerry Parr, a member of Mr. Reagan's Secret Service detail that day outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Before anyone was aware that one of John Hinckley jr. shots had actually hit the president, Jerry Parr recognized something was seriously wrong, and he ordered the president's driver to head straight to the hospital.

The president arrived at the hospital just in time. He collased inside the door, and was rushed into surgery.