Ansel Briggs

Ansel Briggs (February 3, 1806   May 5, 1881), American pioneer who rose from a stagecoach driver to a member of the Iowa Territorial House of Representatives (1842-1846) and the first Governor of Iowa (1846-1850).

Early life

Ansel Briggs was born in Shoreham, Vermont to farmer Benjamin Ingley Briggs and Electa Trippman Briggs. Briggs's education started in the common schools of Vermont and continued at the Norwich Academy in Connecticut.

While still a young man, Briggs moved with his parents to Guernsey County, Ohio, where his father farmed in 1821-1825. After Benjamin Briggs died in an accident, his widow relocated to Cambridge, Ohio, and Ansel lived there for the next six years, entering a stagecoach business. He married Nancy M. Dunlap on November 11, 1830. Ansel served as Township Constable, Deputy Sheriff, and Jailor of Guernsey County; he ran, as a Whig party candidate, unsuccessfully for the office of County Auditor for the Guernsey County, Ohio.

Moving to Iowa

One Direction

One Direction (commonly abbreviated as 1D) are an English-Irish pop boy band based in London, composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously, Zayn Malik until his departure from the band on 25 March 2015. The group signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010. Propelled to international success by social media, One Direction's four albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) topped charts in most major markets, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful", "Live While We're Young", and "Story of My Life". Their fifth studio album, Made in the A.M., was released in November 2015.

Their achievements include five Brit Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, eleven MTV Europe Music Awards, seven American Music Awards (including Artist of the Year in 2014 and 2015), and nineteen Teen Choice Awards out of nineteen nominations, among many others. According to Nick Gatfield, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment UK, One Direction represented a $50 million business empire by June 2012. They were proclaimed 2012's "Top New Artist" by Billboard. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, by April 2013, they had an estimated personal combined wealth of £25 million ($41.2m) making them the second-wealthiest musicians in the UK under 30 years of age. In 2014, Forbes listed them the second-highest earning celebrities under 30, with the group earning an estimated $75 million from June 2013 to June 2014. In June 2015, Forbes listed their earnings at $130 million for the previous twelve months, and ranked them the fourth highest earning celebrities in the world.

Ice Bucket Challenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, known mostly in the US as Lou Gehrig's Disease) and encourage donations to research. It went viral on social media during July–August 2014. In the US, many people participate for the ALS Association, and in the UK, many people participate for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, although some individuals have opted to donate their money from the Ice Bucket Challenge to other organizations.

The challenge encourages nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.

On 1 August 2015, the ALS Association re-introduced the Ice Bucket Challenge for 2015 to raise further funds with the intention of establishing it as an annual occurrence.

Iggy Azalea

Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea (/əˈzeɪljə/), is an Australian rapper, songwriter, and model. Born in Sydney and raised in Mullumbimby, Azalea moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a career in hip hop music, residing in the southern part of the country. She earned public recognition after releasing YouTube music videos for her songs "Pu$$y" and "Two Times". She signed a record contract with T.I.'s record label Grand Hustle in 2012, gaining attention from her debut mixtape Ignorant Art.

Her debut studio album, The New Classic (2014), peaked among the top five of several charts worldwide and received generally mixed reviews. The album spawned five singles: "Work", "Bounce", "Change Your Life", "Fancy" and "Black Widow". "Fancy" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for seven consecutive weeks, making Azalea the fourth female rapper in the history of the chart to reach number one. Additionally, Azalea was featured on Ariana Grande's single "Problem", which peaked at number two while "Fancy" was number one; Azalea joined The Beatles as the only acts to rank at numbers one and two simultaneously with their first two Hot 100 entries. Azalea also went on to pass Lil' Kim as the female rapper with the longest-leading number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100.

Lou Gehrig

Henry Louis "Lou" or "Buster"Gehrig (Born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig; June 19, 1903 – June 2, 1941) was an American baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1923 through 1939. Gehrig was renowned for his prowess as a hitter and for his durability, a trait which earned him his nickname "The Iron Horse". He was an All-Star seven consecutive times, a Triple Crown winner once, an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player twice, and a member of six World Series champion teams. He had a career .340 batting average, .632 slugging average, and a .447 on base average. He hit 493 home runs and had 1,995 runs batted in (RBI). In 1939, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and was the first MLB player to have his uniform number retired.

A native of New York City and attendee of Columbia University, Gehrig signed with the Yankees in 1923. He set several major league records during his career, including the most career grand slams (23) (since broken by Alex Rodriguez) and most consecutive games played (2,130), a record that stood for 56 years and was long considered unbreakable until surpassed by Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1995. Gehrig's streak ended in 1939 after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disorder now commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease in North America. The disease forced him to retire at age 36 and was the cause of his death two years later. The pathos of his farewell from baseball was capped off by his iconic "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" speech at the original Yankee Stadium.