1001 People Who Made America - Alan Axelrod [17]
Byrd, William (1674–1744) Byrd of Westover would be remembered (if at all) as just another colonial Virginia planter were it not for his diaries, which—with often bawdy wit—provide an intimate look at life on the southern British plantations. In addition to his principal diary, he kept an encrypted shorthand version, which reveals much about the nefarious romantic life of a southern planter. In 1728, he produced History of the Dividing Line, a remarkably biting satire recording his experience as a surveyor of the North Carolina–Virginia boundary.
Byrne, Jane (1934– ) Byrne was was appointed Chicago’s head of consumer affairs by mayor Richard J. Daley in 1968. Fired in 1977 by Mayor Michael Bilandic (who had succeeded Daley upon his death), Byrne campaigned to unseat him and won election. She served from 1979–1983, when she was defeated in the Democratic primaries by Harold Washington, Chicago’s first African-American mayor.
Byrnes, James F. (1879–1972) A self-taught South Carolina lawyer, Byrnes was a congressman from 1911 to 1925 and a senator from 1931 to 1941. During World War II, he served President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a dynamic adviser and administrator and was dubbed “assistant president for domestic affairs” during his tenure as director of war mobilization (1943–1945)—a most powerful office. From 1945 to 1947, he was secretary of state.
Cabot, John (1450–circa 1499) Born Giovanni Caboto in Italy, Cabot sailed for England’s Henry VIII in 1497 and 1498 and discovered the Labrador coast of Newfoundland (which he mistook for China), thereby establishing the basis for the British claim to Canada.
Cabrini, Frances Xavier (1850–1917) Born in Italy, this nun founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1880 and sailed with them in 1889 to the United States, where she began mission work among poor Italian immigrants. She subsequently traveled throughout North America, South America, and Europe, founding 67 mission houses in addition to schools, hospitals, and orphanages. She was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1909, and was canonized on July 7, 1946.
Cage, John (1912–1992) The son of an American inventor, Cage pursued the serious study of music and included among his teachers Arnold Schoenberg and the American innovator Henry Cowell. Cage experimented with a wide variety of instruments and techniques, simultaneously expanding the musical vocabulary and paring it down to its essentials. A pioneer of aleatory music, in which chance figures prominently, Cage pushed the frontiers separating musical expression from random noise, even producing in 1952 one work, 4?33?, in which the performer sits silently before his instrument and his audience for exactly four minutes, thirty-three seconds.
Calder, Alexander (1898–1976) The son and grandson of prominent sculptors, Calder created what he called the mobile, a form of abstract kinetic sculpture, the elements of which are balanced and/or suspended, so that they move in response to wind or (in some works) an electric motor. In addition to this highly influential form, Calder produced elegant stationary sculptures (which he called stabiles) and, most delightfully, an array of imaginative wire figures, many of which he arranged into an expansive miniature circus.
Calhoun, John Caldwell (1782–1850) South Carolinian by birth, Calhoun was a congressman, secretary of war, vice president from 1825 to 1832, a senator, and secretary of state. He is best known for his defense of the doctrine of states’ rights, arguing that the U.S. Constitution was a compact among the states, which were sovereign, so that any state could nullify an act of Congress by pronouncing it unconstitutional. “Nullification” effectively protected slavery by disallowing—in the absence of a Constitutional amendment (which required ratification by two-thirds of the states to pass)—federal laws intended