Serena Williams is an American tennis player. She has won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles (with her older sister Venus) and two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She has also won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles (2012) and three in women’s doubles (2000, 2008 and 2012). Serena’s complete domination (6-0, 6-1) of Maria Sharapova in the gold medal match at the 2012 Olympic Games last month was remarkable. She is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but can also act appallingly classless and disrespectful.
Note: This is 8-bit tennis character #6 of 8 in celebration of the U.S. Open.
Venus Williams is an American tennis player. In 2002, she became the first African-American woman to achieve a world No. 1 ranking in the Open Era. Venus has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles (with her younger sister Serena) and two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She has also won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles (2000) and three in women’s doubles (2000, 2008 and 2012).
Note: Venus wore this controversial lacy corset dress at the French Open in 2010. This is 8-bit tennis character #5 of 8 in celebration of the U.S. Open.
Monica Seles is a former tennis player born and raised in the Socialist Republic of Serbia to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1994. Known for her aggressive game and for introducing the grunt to women’s tennis, Seles won nine Grand Slam singles titles. In 1990, at the age of 16, she became the youngest-ever French Open champion. Seles won eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday and seemed utterly unstoppable. However, in April 1993, she was stabbed on a court in Hamburg by a maniac who adored Steffi Graf. Seles did not return to tennis until 1995. Her game was never the same.
Note: This is 8-bit tennis character #3 of 8 in celebration of the U.S. Open.
Steffi Graf is a German former tennis player. She won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any tennis player in the Open Era. In 1988, she became the only player to achieve a Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Graf was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 total weeks. Many consider her the greatest women’s tennis player of all time. Graf retired in 1999 and married Andre Agassi in 2001.
Note: This is 8-bit tennis character #1 of 8 in celebration of the U.S. Open.
Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States. John F. Kennedy asked him to be his running mate for the 1960 presidential election. Johnson succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of JFK in 1963 and was elected President in 1964. He was responsible for Great Society social reforms designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Johnson also escalated U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which stimulated a large antiwar movement.
Ray Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. He is best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his science fiction short story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951). Many of Bradbury’s works have been adapted into television shows or films. He was born on this day in 1920 and died on June 5, 2012.
Philip K. Dick was one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century. His 44 published novels and 121 short stories often featured monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, altered states, paranoia and transcendental experiences. Although Dick spent most of his career in near-poverty, 10 popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report.
P.S. In February and March 1974, Dick experienced a series of life-changing visions, including an information-rich “pink light” beam that transmitted directly into his consciousness. For the final eight years of his life, this fictionalizing philosopher explored the meaning of his “2-3-74” experience with works like VALIS (1981).
Mae West was a controversial American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades. Known for her bawdy double entendres, she made a name for herself in burlesque and vaudeville, and on the stage in New York, before moving to Hollywood in 1932. The American Film Institute named West 15th among the greatest female stars of all time. She was born on this day in 1893.
Michael Johnson is a retired American sprinter. He won four Olympic gold medals (in 1992, 1996 and 2000). Johnson currently holds the world record in the 400 meters (43.18 seconds). He formerly held the world record in the 200 meters. Johnson famously wore gold track shoes during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He is one of the greatest long sprinters in history.
Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter, a six-time Olympic gold medalist and an electric personality. He is the world record record holder in the 100 meters (9.58 seconds) and the 200 meters (19.19 seconds). Bolt is the fastest man of all time, exceeding 24 miles per hour during sprints. He won the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 meter relay at both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
It would be fun to see Bolt set world records in the 400 meters and the long jump, if he’s willing to train for those events before he passes his prime. He surely has the freakish natural talent required.
Florence Griffith-Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete. She is the fastest woman of all time, still holding the world record in the 100 meters (10.49 seconds) and 200 meters (21.34 seconds)—both set in 1988 and never seriously challenged. She was also known for her trademark one-legged track suits and her long, colorful fingernails that matched her outfits. She died of epilepsy in 1998 at the age of 38.
Note: Flo-Jo was the wife of Olympic champion triple jumper Al Joyner and the sister-in-law of heptathlete and long jumper Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a retired American athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the women’s heptathlon and the women’s long jump. She won three gold, one silver and two bronze Olympic medals at four different Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996). Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century.
Note: Jackie was the sister-in-law of the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, the “fastest woman of all time.” Flo-Jo married Jackie’s brother Al Joyner, an Olympic champion triple jumper.
Emiliano Zapata was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South. Followers of Zapata were known as Zapatistas. After his murder in 1919, Zapata became a martyr who remains revered today. He was born on this day in 1879.
Mark Spitz is a retired American swimmer. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics—an achievement only surpassed by Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Spitz set new world records in all seven events in which he competed, a record that still stands. He also won four medals (two golds) at the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Michael Phelps is an American swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals. He also holds the all-time record for gold medals with 18. In winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps took the record for the most first-place finishes at any single Olympics. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won four golds and two silver medals.
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, bestselling author, magazine publisher and TV personality. She is the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine and star of the syndicated talk show Martha. Starting in 2004, Stewart served a five-month prison sentence following ImClone insider trading convictions, but her media empire simply cannot be destroyed. She was born on this day in 1941.
Jesse Owens was a barrier-breaking American track and field athlete. At a Big Ten track meet in 1935, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth in a span of 45 minutes. He was the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Nazi Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay and long jump.
Carl Lewis is an American former track and field athlete, who won 10 Olympic medals, including nine gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996, when he last won an Olympic title and subsequently retired. Lewis was a dominant sprinter and long jumper who topped the world rankings in the 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump events frequently.
LeBron James is an NBA player with the Miami Heat who plays the small forward position. He played for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2003-2010. King James is an NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP, three-time NBA MVP and NBA Rookie of the Year. He is an eight-time NBA All-Star and has earned eight All-NBA honors and four All-Defensive honors.
Fiona Apple is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She has released four albums, all critically acclaimed: Tidal (1996), When the Pawn… (1999), Extraordinary Machine (2005) and The Idler Wheel… (2012). Apple’s vocal range is contralto and her musical style contains elements of jazz and alternative rock.
Fiona Apple is one of my favorites. Tonight Heidi and I will see her in concert at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. Blake Mills opens. By the way, in case you’ve forgotten, Fiona’s stunning live cover of Elvis Costello’s “I Want You” still exists.
Usain Bolt – No. 482
Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter, a six-time Olympic gold medalist and an electric personality. He is the world record record holder in the 100 meters (9.58 seconds) and the 200 meters (19.19 seconds). Bolt is the fastest man of all time, exceeding 24 miles per hour during sprints. He won the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 meter relay at both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics.
It would be fun to see Bolt set world records in the 400 meters and the long jump, if he’s willing to train for those events before he passes his prime. He surely has the freakish natural talent required.