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Lewis Stone was an American actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1914-1953, including the 1928 silent film, The Foreign Legion. For his 1929 performance in The Patriot, Stone was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In addition to this accolade, Stone is best known for his role as Judge James Hardy in the Andy Hardy film series starring Mickey Rooney. Stone also appeared in a number of films with famed actress, Greta Garbo. 

Along with his acting, Stone was known for his hair having turned prematurely gray by age 20. He is also remembered for his unconventional death: Stone died of a heart attack in 1953 at age 73 while allegedly chasing teenage boys out of his yard.

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Lars Hanson was born in Sweden in 1886. He established a successful film and stage career in his home country before moving to Hollywood in the 1920s. Hanson first caught the attention of American filmmakers with his role in the Swedish film, The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924). The film is also considered the breakout performance for Greta Garbo, one of the most successful actresses of all time. Hanson made his American film debut two years later in The Scarlet Letter (1926). The actor subsequently appeared in numerous American silent films, including two more with Garbo. With the advent of sound in film, however, concern over Hanson's thick Swedish accent led him to leave Hollywood and return to his stage career in Sweden. He died in Stockholm in 1965.  

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Karl Dane was a Danish-born comedic actor known for his performances during the American silent film era. His breakout film role was in The Big Parade (1926). The performance brought Dane to stardom almost overnight. Just a few years later, however, Dane's career ended when his thick accent prevented him from being cast in the new sound films. 

Dane was apparently never able to recover from his career's rapid end. While he worked various jobs around Hollywood including car mechanic, carpenter, and hot dog stand operator, Dane maintained a scrapbook commemorating his days of fame. The book was open on a table next to him when the actor shot himself at his Hollywood apartment in 1934. 

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Jean Hershot's last name was actually Hersholt. A Danish-born actor, Hersholt appeared in a total of 140 films. His most famous film was arguably the 1924 silent epic, Greed, which, in its original form, was nine hours long. Two months of filming took place in California's Death Valley. The heat on location placed many on set, including Hersholt, in the hospital. 

Despite his numerous performances, Hersholt is best remembered for his humanitarian work within the film industry. The actor served an 18-year tenure as president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund, which provided aid to industry members struggling financially. He also helped to establish the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital. As a result of these efforts, in 1956, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences created the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The Award gives an honorary Oscar to “an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” Hersholt is also remembered for writing an English translation of over 160 fairy tales by Danish author, Hans Christian Anderson. He died of cancer in 1956.

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Jack Perrin was an American actor who began acting in 1915 at age 19. He is best known for appearing in low-budget Western films throughout the 1930s. Though Perrin once seemed to be on the way to stardom, he was held back by various career woes. For example, in 1932, Perrin sued film producer Robert J. Horner who owed Perrin $1475 for the actor's work in five different films. Despite such setbacks, Perrin continued to appear in small film and television roles until he retired in 1961. He died six years later in Los Angeles.

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Actor George J. Lewis was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1903. He attended high school in California, where he was allegedly discovered in a school play by a Hollywood screenwriter. Lewis relocated to Hollywood after he graduated, making his screen debut in the 1923 feature, The Spanish Dancer. After an acclaimed performance as a prizefighter in the 1925 film, His People, Lewis's professional success became less consistent. Personally, however, Lewis experienced a success that is especially rare in Hollywood: his 1928 marriage to Mary Louise Lohman endured until the actor's death in 1995.

Years of career ups and downs led Lewis to leave Hollywood in 1936 for stage acting in New York. When he returned to Hollywood in 1939, Lewis started getting casted in mid-sized character acting roles in television and film westerns. The actor most notably appeared as Zorro's father in the Disney television series, Zorro. Though Lewis reportedly enjoyed these parts, he had trouble attracting different types of roles. He eventually left Hollywood in 1972 to open a real estate business.

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Fred Gilman started his career in Hollywood as a stunt double for the famed western actor, Hoot Gibson. He earned starring roles in a number of Universal's William Wyler-directed two-reel westerns, which were 11-minute silent films. By the 1930s, however, the new popularity of sound films led the studio to focus on other types of projects, halting Gilman's career rise. Gibson kept Gilman employed throughout the 1930s in small parts, but his career quietly faded as an extra and horse trainer. The actor died in 1988.

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Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892-1944), was an American lawyer and the Republican nominee for President of the United States in 1940. Despite receiving the most popular votes for a Republican up to that point, Willkie lost the election to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  A long-time, active Democrat, Willkie joined the Republican party in response to government restrictions on business. Willkie was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador to the Middle East, China, and the Soviet Union under President Roosevelt.

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Wendell Willkie was the Republican presidential candidate who ran against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. His campaign produced millions of buttons in response to items in the news about Roosevelt in an attempt to gain name recognition. 

Willkie was a lawyer from New York, who campaigned on issues such as international relations, which addressed the United States role in World War II.  He lost the election to Roosevelt, who had won 85% of the electoral college.  As a result, Roosevelt would go on to become the first president to be in office three terms, before the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951, would limit a president's time in office to two terms.

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Colonel John Glenn was an American astronaut who holds the distinction of being part of the first group of astronauts to have been selected by NASA. Announced by NASA on April 9, 1959, Glenn was part of the Mercury Seven, otherwise known as the Original Seven. Those selected were to take part in Project Mercury, an early example of the Space Race and whose goal was to put a man into orbit and return him safely to Earth before the Soviet Union could. Though NASA would fail in taking that distinction due to Soviet astronaut, Yuru Gagarin becoming the first person to journey into outer space and complete orbit, Glenn did became the first American to complete the task.

Conducted on February 20, 1962, the mission, known as Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6), was the third human spaceflight mission by the U.S.. Glenn was the pilot for the mission and successfully performed three orbits around the Earth. Glenn conducted the mission in the spacecraft, Friendship 7 . As a result of the mission, Glenn also became the the fifth person and third American in space. Upon resigning from NASA in 1964, Glenn became a Senator from Ohio and was also inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990.

Read more about the History of NASA buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.