1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [116]
Shepard, Alan B., Jr. (1923–1998) A naval aviator, Shepard became one of the seven original Mercury astronauts in 1959 and was the first American in space. He was launched on a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 space capsule on May 5, 1961.
Sheridan, Philip (1831–1888) Sheridan’s aggressive leadership under Ulysses S. Grant during the closing year of the Civil War accelerated the Confederate defeat. After the Civil War, he was William Tecumseh Sherman’s second in command during the Indian Wars in the American West. He became infamous for allegedly quipping, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Sherman, Roger (1721–1793) Sherman was a Connecticut delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. When the convention deadlocked over the Virginia Plan (calling for Congressional representation proportionate to state population) versus the New Jersey Plan (calling for equal representation among the states). Sherman’s “Great Compromise” proposed equal representation in the Senate and proportional representation in the House of Representatives. With this, the convention moved forward, and the Constitution was offered for ratification.
Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820–1891) During the last year of the Civil War, Sherman was Ulysses S. Grant’s top lieutenant. His “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to Savannah in 1864–1865 brought the war to the Confederate civilian population by cutting a wide swath of total ruin. Sherman was a brutal realist who believed the object of war was to create maximum devastation to achieve total victory as rapidly as possible. After the Civil War, he applied this approach to the Indian Wars, often with tragic results.
Short, Walter C. (1880–1949) With his naval counterpart, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Lieutenant General Walter Short absorbed most of the blame for unpreparedness during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The attack ended Short’s career.
Siegel, Bugsy (1906–1947) Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was a major figure in organized crime when, in 1945, using crime syndicate money, he began developing Las Vegas, Nevada, as a gambler’s paradise. When cost overruns became excessive, Siegel’s backers suspected that he was skimming syndicate money. On June 20, 1947, he was gunned down in his Beverly Hills, California, home.
Simpson, O. J. (1947– ) Orenthal James Simpson was a star of the University of Southern California football team (named All-American, 1967–1968) and went on to a stellar professional career as a great running back. After retiring from football, he went on to a sportscasting and acting career. On June 12, 1994, his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman were brutally stabbed to death. Simpson was accused of the crime and, after a sensational, televised 266-day trial, was found not guilty, despite what the prosecution characterized as a “mountain of evidence” against him. Most African Americans, including those on the jury, believed his defense, that he was the innocent victim of racist Los Angeles police officers determined to frame him for the murder of his white ex-wife and her white friend. The verdict and the public response to it were themselves dramatic evidence of the deep racial divides in American society.
Sinatra, Frank (1915–1998) Francis Albert Sinatra achieved his breakthrough fame in the 1940s, when he became the most popular singer in America and an idol to millions of teenage girl fans known as “bobby soxers.” His popularity was somewhat eclipsed in the 1950s by the emergence of rock and roll, but he emerged as a notable screen actor during this period. Toward the end of the decade, he was the nucleus of the Las Vegas “Rat