John Wooden

Legendary UCLA basketball coach "Johnny" Wooden is from Martinsville

(more to come)

"Where were you on July 20, 1969?"

Everybody knows that the first man on the moon -- Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Amstrong, is an alumnus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, right? It's been 40 years since he climbed out of the lunar excursion module ("The Eagle has landed.")on 20 July 1969. He put one foot onto the surface of the Moon and said, simply: "It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Among the items left behind (on purpose) is a memorial for the three American astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts who had lost their lives in earlier space exploration. One of the Americans was another Hoosier: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who (with the two other astronauts from Apollo 1) died in a fire aboard the spacecraft's command module during a training exercise on 27 January 1967.

Purdue, of course, remembers. According to the Purdue news bureau, mementos, artifacts and personal papers from Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and other Purdue astronaut alumni will be on display through 30 October 2009 as the university celebrates its rich space heritage and the 40th anniversary of the historic first walk on the moon.

Purdue Libraries' Archives and Special Collections will present the exhibit, titled "Purdue's Place in Space: From the Midwest to the Moon." The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be on display in the new Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives & Special Collections Research Center on the fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education Library in Stewart Center on the West Lafayette campus.

By the way, that weird numbered item in the photo is a slide rule -- dating from the days before calculators took over computations.

See also: this (on Mashable).

In addition, parts of the spacecraft were made at the Allison plant in Indianapolis (now part of Rolls Royce).

Booth Tarkington

Full name: Newton Booth Tarkington

Indianapolis

"Magnificent Ambersons" set in Woodruff Place neighborhood of Indianapolis

(more to come)

Benjamin Harrison

President Benjamin Harrison Memorial Home, Indianapolis

(more to come)

William Henry Harrison

Grouseland, Vincennes, Indiana

"Old Tippecanoe"

(more to come)

May Aufderheide

Full name: May Frances Aufderheide

born: 21 May 1888 in Indianapolis, Indiana
father: J. H. Aufderheide
husband: Thomas M. Kaufman

died: 1 September 1972 in Pasadena, California; buried in Mountain View Mausoleum, Altadena, California

composer of ragtime music, including "Blue Ribbon Rag"

References:
Wikipedia

Julia Niebergall

Full name: Julia Lee Niebergall

born in 1886 in Indianapolis, Indiana

died in 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana

pianist and composer of "Hoosier Rag"

Albert Von Tilzer

Original name: Albert Gumm (a shortened form of Gumbinski, Guminski, Gummblinsky, Gumbinsky, or...)

Born: 29 March 1878 in Indianapolis, Indiana
Parents: mother's maiden name was Tilzer

Died: 1 October 1956 in Los Angeles, California

Songwriter: most notably, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game"

References:
Wikipedia
Parlorsongs.com

Theodore Dreiser

Full name: Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser

born: 27 August 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana
parents: Sarah and John Paul Dreiser
older brother: composer Paul Dresser

author of (among others) "Sister Carrie"

died 28 December 1945

References:
International Theodore Dreiser Society
Dreiser on the Web
Wikipedia

Paul Dresser

Original name: Johann Paul Dreiser Jr.

born 24 May 1857 in Terre Haute, Indiana
parents: Sarah and John Paul Dreiser
Younger brother: author Theodore Dreiser

died 30 January 1906 in New York City; buried in Saint Boniface Cemetery, Chicago

Composed Indiana's state song: "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away".

References:
Wikipedia
"On the Banks of the Wabash"

Hoagy Carmichael

Full name: Hoagland Howard Carmichael

born: 22 November 1899 in Bloomington, Indiana

died: 27 December 1981 in Rancho Mirage, California; buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Bloomington


References:
"Official" website
Hoagy Carmichael Collection
Wikipedia

Cole Porter

Full name: Cole Albert Porter

Born in Peru, Indiana, on 9 June 1891

Died 15 October 1964 in Santa Monica, California, and is buried in Peru's Mount Hope Cemetery

The Cole Porter Festival is held each year on the weekend nearest 9 June in Peru.

References:
Wikipedia
The Cole Porter Birthplace
Cole Porter Archive
Cole Porter Resource Site

Mrs. James Ward Thorne

A native of Vincennes, Indiana; born Narcissa Hoffman Niblack in 1882; married at age nineteen the son of the co-founder of Montgomery Ward & Co.; died in 1966.

She was responsible for the 68 miniature rooms on display since 1954 in the Art Institute of Chicago, and several in the Indianapolis Children's Museum and other places; set the standard of 1-inch/1-foot for miniature rooms. Pictured is one of her rooms, at left, modeled from the Entrance Hall (1835-1845) of The Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee.

Although she lived in a country estate at 600 South Ridge Road, Lake Forest, Ill., she had an apartment and studio on Oak Street in Chicago, where she employed craftsmen to produce the rooms, including Eugene Kupjack, between 1932 and 1940.

Biographical notes:
Father (?): Mason Jenks Niblack (1857-1926), Indiana State Representative 1897-1901, 1915
Uncle: Rear Admiral Albert Parker Niblack

Sources:
Thorne Miniature Rooms, Art Institute of Chicago
Lake Forest Library, 1995
Chicago Postcard Museum
The Dolls House Emporium

Norman Norell

The fashion designer was from Indiana.

(more to come)

Halston

Roy Halston Frowick grew up in Evansville, Ind.

(more later)

Bill Blass

The fashion designer was born in Fort Wayne, Ind.


(more to come)

John Birch Society

Founded in Indianapolis.

(more to come)

Mike Tyson

Committed rape in Indianapolis, was tried and sentenced in Indianapolis, and served his jail time in Plainfield.

(more to come)

Jane Pauley

Started in television at Indianapolis' WISH-TV 8.

Osama Bin Ladin

Yes, Mr. Bin Ladin visited Indiana, according to Steve Coll in The New Yorker:

"The question of whether Osama bin Laden has ever visited the United States, a subject on which I have expended an unhealthy amount of energy in the course of various journalistic and biographical research, has now seemingly been settled. Osama was here for two weeks in 1979, it seems, and he visited Indiana and Los Angeles, among other places."