Some of the world's greatest:

Aristotle
Jurist William Blackstone
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Mother Theresa
Julius Caesar
Catherine the Great of Russia
Cleopatra
Confucius
Nicolas Copernicus
Queen Elizabeth I - also at The Liz Library Women's History Collection
Alexander Fleming - scientist who discovered penicillin
Mahatma Gandhi
Jesus of Nazareth
Genghis Khan
Johannes Kepler
Nelson Mandela
Muhammed - prophet of Islam
Sir Isaac Newton
Plato
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
King Solomon - Biblical icon
Leonardo da Vinci
William the Conquerer
More "fatherless children" (alphabetically):
U.S. Senator Bella Abzug
physician Hunter "Patch" Adams
choreographer Alvin Ailey
comedian Steve Allen
cancer researcher Frederick W. Alt
medical researcher Dorothy Andersen
author Hans Christian Andersen
singer Marian Anderson
author Ivo Andric' (Nobel Prize)
mogul nun Mother Angelica
poet Maya Angelou (Marguerite Annie Johnson)
actress Jennifer Aniston
silent film star Fatty Arbuckle
historian Hannah Arendt
cyclist Lance Armstrong
musician Louis Armstrong
internet publisher Julian Assange
Hungarian poet Jozsef Attila
author Jane Austen
dancer Jeanne Beaudon Avril (Toulouse-Lautrec model)
North Carolina Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock
actor Lauren Bacall
composer Johann Sebastian Bach
politician Michele Bachmann
investigative journalist Russell Baker
entertainer hotelier Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates
author Charles Baudelaire
Isabella Baumfree (Sojourner Truth)
singer Harry Belafonte
scientist Sir Charles Bell
actor Jamie Bell (star of Billie Elliot)
composer Irving Berlin
actor Halle Berry
scientist Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar
California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird
Steve Bisciotti (Stephen J. Bisciotti) (owner, Baltimore Ravens)
legendary surfer Tom Blake
scientist Katherine Burr Blodgett
reporter Nelly Bly
physicist Max Born
"Father of Chemistry" Robert Boyle (Boyle's Law)
Plymouth Colony founder William Bradford
news correspondent Ed Bradley
U.S. Senator (and basketball great) William Warren "Bill" Bradley
actor Benjamin Bratt
Sarah Breedlove aka Madam C.J. Walker
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
actor Charles Bronson
actor Pierce Brosnan
editor Helen Gurley Brown
scientist Herbert C. Brown (Nobel Prize Chemistry)
"father of soul" musician James Brown
author Les Brown
comedian Lenny Bruce
actor Yul Brynner
satiricist Art Buchwald
Canadian rocket scientist Gerald Bull
Ralph Johnson Bunche (Nobel Peace Prize 1950)
actor Carol Burnett
vaudevillian George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum)
molecular scientist Geoffrey Burnstock
poet Lord Byron (George Gordon)
philosopher Albert Camus (Nobel Prize)
author Elias Canetti (Nobel Prize)
cancer researcher Mario Capecchi (Nobel Prize)
author Truman Capote
first "celebrity chef" Antonin Careme
comedian George Carlin
pioneering surgeon Benjamin Carson (Benjamin Solomon Carson)
explorer and soldier U.S. Brig. Gen. Christopher ("Kit") Carson
Texas politicians Julian Castro and Joaquin Castro
author Willa Cather
scientist Ernst B. Chain (Nobel Prize)
fashion designer Coco Chanel
actor Charlie Chaplin
Oona O'Neil Chaplin
actor/singer Cher
author Agatha Christie
musician Eric Clapton
computer guru Jim Clark (Silicon Graphics, Netscape)
author Mary Higgins Clark
science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke
philanthropist Thomas Green Clemson (Clemson University)
singer Patsy Cline
U.S. Senator William F. Cody
songwriter, poet Leonard Cohen
educator Ward Connerly
journalist Anderson Hayes Cooper
comedian Bill Cosby
scientist Donald Cram (Nobel Prize Chemistry)
composer Stephen Crane
actor Tom Cruise
author Roald Dahl
actor Dorothy Dandridge
actor-comedian Rodney Dangerfield
singer Bobby Darin
actor Bette Davis
Texas filibustering politician Wendy Davis
actor James Dean
actor Yvonne De Carlo
scholar Daniel Dennett
advice columnist Amy Dickinson
psychologist/author Peggy Drexler
writer-activist W.E.B. Du Bois (William Edward Burghardt Du Bois)
author Alexandre Dumas
pop psychologist Wayne Dyer
industrialist George Eastman (Eastman Kodak)
psychologist Albert Ellis
computer scientist Clarence Ellis
author Ralph Ellison
author Ralph Waldo Emerson
rapper Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III)
U.S. Senator John Ensign
psychologist Erik Erikson
basketball great Julius Erving
actor Douglas Fairbanks
psychophysicist Gustav Theodor Fechner
politician Geraldine Ferraro
singer Ella Fitzgerald
actor Jodie Foster
Australian track star Cathy Freeman
cancer researcher Emil J. Freireich
educator Frederick Wilhelm August Froebel
economist Milton Friedman
poet Robert Frost
steamboat inventor Robert Fulton
musician David Gahan (Depeche Mode)
author/businessman Chris Gardner (The Art of Happyness)
social reformer/journalist William Lloyd Garrison
actor Gloria Gaynor
author Andre Gide (Nobel Prize)
architect Cass Gilbert
actor Melissa Gilbert
author Charlotte Perkins Gilman
painter Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone (Masaccio)
actress Lillian Gish
comedian Jackie Gleason
actor Paulette Goddard
novelist Gail Godwin
actor Whoopi Goldberg
actor Cuba Gooding
writer Kenneth Grahame
Alabama Governor Bibb Graves
U.S. economist, Chair of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan
scientist Theodore Grutthuss (Nobel Peace Prize 1950)
actor Gene Hackman
nuclear engineer Susanna Harding
crystallographer David Harker
neuropsychologist and author Sam Harris (The End of Faith)
Oklahoma's first governor, Charles Nathaniel Haskell
first governor of British India Warren Hastings
opera singer Catherine "Kate" Hayes
economist Henry Hazlitt
Alan J. Heegar (Nobel Prize Chemistry 2000)
baseball player Rickey Henderson
actor Audrey Hepburn
conductor Victor Herbert
geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon
scientist Gerhard Herzberg (Nobel Prize Chemistry 1971)
industrialist William Reddington Hewlett (Hewlett-Packard)
union organizer, poet, author Joe Hill
pharmaceutical researcher George Hitchings (Nobel Prize)
singer Billie Holliday
scientist Robert Hooke
Tennessee Governor Sam Houston
industrialist Roy Wilson Howard (Scripps-Howard)
physicist, virtual reality pioneer Eric Howlett
U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hamilton Hoyer
actor/director Werner Herzog
writer Langston Hughes
poet Richard Hugo
philosopher David Hume
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
North Carolina Gov., U.S. Senator James Iredell, Jr.
writer John Irving
civil rights activist and politician Jesse Jackson
author/blogger Kevin Jackson ("The Big Black Lie")
scientist Edward Jenner
actor Angelina Jolie
actor Carolyn Jones (Morticia)
musician Rickie Lee Jones
biologist Ernest Everett Just
dictator Chiang Kai-shek
chess great Garry Kasparov
MIT political scientist William Weed Kaufman
research physician Judith Kaur
author John Keats
Jamaican Olympic skier Errol Kerr
social scientist reformer Frances Alice Kellor
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key
youtube education genius Salman Khan (Khan Academy)
musician B.B. King
television personality Larry King
author Stephen King
singer Eartha Kitt
physiologist Karl Landsteiner (Nobel Prize)
vocalist Kathryn Dawn Lang (k.d. lang)
photographer Dorothea Lange
British Army officer Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
archaeologist Mary Leakey
mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
musician John Lennon
literary critic John Leonard
economist Sir Arthur Lewis (Nobel Prize)
author Jack London
author Barry Lopez
actor George Lopez
actor Sophia Loren
computer whiz Ada Lovelace
actor-comedian Bernie Mac
musician Joe Madden
physics professor Ronald Mallett
musician Bob Marley (Robert Nesta Marley)
baseball great Billy Martin
author Harry Martinsson (Nobel Prize)
writer Frank McCourt (Pulitzer Prize)
actor Steve McQueen
U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek
chemist Dmitri Mendeleev
economist Franco Modigliani (Nobel Prize)
author Lucy Montgomery
author Herman Melville
author J. R. Moehringer (Pulitzer Prize)
Tom Monaghan (Domino's Pizza)
actor Marilyn Monroe
Florida superstar investigative reporter Lucy Morgan
newspaper and media personality Piers Morgan
feminist Robin Morgan
U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
comedian Eddie Murphy
Liberty Chick Mandy Nagy
Media personality Toure Neblett
musician Willie Nelson
actor Jack Nicholson
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
Olympic biathlete Deborah Nordyke
martial artist Chuck Norris
U.S. Senator George W. Norris
Maryland Gov. Sean O'Casey
Maryland Gov. Benjamin Ogle
Basketball great Shaquille O'Neal
writer, satirist Scott Ott
actor Al Pacino
activist Rosa Parks
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Laurdine Patrick
British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval
Argentinian political activist Eva Peron
Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters
detective Allan Pinkerton
poet Sylvia Plath
author Edgar Allen Poe
model Paulina Porizkova
composer Giacomo Puccini
celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck
short story writer Horacio Quiroga
painter Raphael
singer Lou Rawls
Ohio Gov. James Allen Rhodes
actor Doris Roberts
industrialist John Davison Rockefeller I (Standard Oil)
Dorothy Rodham, mother of Hillary Clinton
baseball great Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez
prosecutor Jim Rogan
psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach
musician W. Axl Rose (William Bruce Rose, Jr.) (Guns N' Roses)
scientist Peyton Rous (Nobel Prize)
political genius Karl Rove
Australian acting genius Geoffrey Roy Rush
philosopher Bertrand Russell
U.S. Representative (2012 V.P. candidate) Paul Ryan
Lewis & Clark guide Sacagawea
Revolutionary War soldier Deborah Sampson [Gannett] (aka "Robert Shurtlieff")
businessman Colonel Harland Sanders (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy
philosopher-author Jean-Paul Sartre (Nobel Prize)
beauty products businessman Vidal Sassoon
lawyer Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg
U.S. Senator Tim Scott
U.S. Senator Al Sharpton
Washington State Senator Paull Shin
9/11 hero, firefighter Stephen Siller
rock star Gene Simmons
New York Governor Al Smith
celebrity Anna Nicole Smith (Vickie Lynn Hogan)
U.S. Senator Robert C. "Bob" Smith
geologist William Smith
chemist philanthropist James Smithson (founder of Smithsonian Institution)
U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe
author Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Prize)
economist, author, columnist Thomas Sowell
microwave oven inventor Percy Spencer
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin
writer/explorer Henry Morton Stanley
actor Barbara Stanwyck
musician Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey Jr.)
Maryland Lt. Gov. and RNC Chair Michael Steele
activist Gloria Steinem
comedian Jon Stewart
author Jonathan Swift
inventor Henry Talbot
astronaut Daniel Tani
actor/director Quentin Tarantino
actor/model Charlize Theron
gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson
physicist Joseph John ("J.J.") Thomson (Nobel Prize)
scientist Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (Nobel Prize)
author J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)
author Leo Tolstoy
scientist Evangelista Torricelli (inventor of the barometer)
actor Laurence Tureaud ("Mr. T")
actress Lana Turner
singer Tina Turner
musician Shania Twain
boxer Mike Tyson
novelist Sigrid Undset (Nobel Prize)
physical chemist Harold Clayton Urey (Nobel Prize)
musician Ritchie Valens
President of Ireland Eamon de Valera
Queen Victoria of Britain
scientist Alessandro Volta
poet Derek Walcott (Nobel Prize)
divorce psychologist Judy Wallerstein (Judith Hannah Saretsky Wallerstein)
zoologist Max Weber
television anchor Bill Weir
singer Hank Williams
scientist Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (Nobel Prize Physics)
musician Barry White
actress Vanna White
industrialist Eli Whitney, Jr.
heart surgeon Daniel Hale Williams
Indiana Supreme Court Justice William Allen Woods
poet William Wordsworth
architect Frank Lloyd Wright
U.S. Senator George Grover Wright
author Richard Wright
activist Malcolm X
entreprenur Hiroshi Yamauchi (Nintendo)
actor Loretta Young
author Emile Zola