Edward Thomas Policeman
A police officer in Houston, Texas, Thomas had some restrictions placed on him by his commanders.
From This is True for 16 August 2015
public service
Cops, firefighters, medics, soldiers, and similar
Frances Oldham Kelsey Fussy bureaucrat
A Canadian, Kelsey studied pharmacology, and applied for a position at the University of Chicago, which had just started up a pharmacology department. Its director thought “Frances” was a man, and brought Kelsey in. She worked on evaluating new drugs, and earned her Ph.D. In 1960, her husband got a job with the National Institutes … Read more
From This is True for 9 August 2015
Peggy Charren Children’s TV campaigner
She and a friend co-founded Action for Children’s Television, and kids’ TV changed forever.
From This is True for 25 January 2015
Edward Brooke III Senator
A politician, in 1950 Brooke ran for the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Oddly, state law allowed him to run as both a Democrat and a Republican — he decided to let voters decide which party he should adopt. He lost the Democratic primary but won the Republican, and kept that party affiliation after losing in … Read more
From This is True for 4 January 2015
Lowell Steward Airman
In high school, Steward was interested in going to college, but the school steered him to a vocational career instead — because he was Black. Instead, he went to Los Angeles Junior College until he could be accepted at Santa Barbara State College (now the University of California at Santa Barbara). He was the only … Read more
From This is True for 21 December 2014
Tomas Young Anti-war soldier
Young became one of the earliest Iraq war veterans to publicly protest the war, and to talk other young people out of enlisting.
From This is True for 16 November 2014
Brittany Maynard Death with Dignity advocate
She decided to use the time she had left to start a fund to help such laws pass in other states.
From This is True for 2 November 2014
Bernard Mayes Queer priest
Mayes founded the U.S.’s first suicide prevention hotline — and helped organize PBS. And then….
From This is True for 26 October 2014
James Coleman Test pilot
“No one wanted to fly it; there were no volunteers.”
From This is True for 18 May 2014
Jeremiah Denton Clever POW
“The blinding floodlights made me blink and suddenly I realized that they were playing right into my hands.”
From This is True for 30 March 2014