Boundless, superlative and unique

HEROIC DEEDS

Captain of the Exodus ship whose attempt to take Holocaust survivors to Palestine built support for Israel's founding.

Garment industry executive who was one of the Holocaust survivors whose stories were told in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Last Days."

Medal of Honor winner killed 9 German soldiers, most while he was wounded.

Fighter pilot who became one of the top Air Force aces of the Korean War before being shot down by the enemy and imprisoned for more than two years by the Chinese.

Workers' Compensation Appeals Board judge disarmed gunman in his court.

One of the most decorated soldiers in the Vietnam War and a Medal of Honor recipient.

Army Ranger led World War II assault on Japanese prison camp in the Philippines.

Retired Marine Corps pilot who flew 253 combat missions in three wars and was shot down five times.

Marine Corps pilot awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands.

Navy pharmacist's mate during World War II tended to more than a dozen casualties on Iwo Jima while seriously wounded himself, received the Medal of Honor for his actions.

ADVENTURERS AND DISCOVERERS

Legendary figure in the obscure and close-knit world of rock climbing, died after a fall.

A retired Navy vice admiral who commanded the nuclear-powered submarine Skate, the first vessel to surface at the North Pole.

Legendary Italian mountain climber.

Italian climber's team was first to reach summit of K2.

Pilot killed in crash near Edwards had a long and diverse flying record.

Mountaineer helped found the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit.

Spacecraft designer and cosmonaut.

Helicopter test pilot who flew a record, nonstop solo flight from California to Florida in 1966.

Doctor diagnosed and treated her own breast cancer in remote South Pole camp before being rescued in daring airlift.

World War II pilot from New Hampshire who went on a quest to find his buried pilot's wings in Germany 65 years after his B-24 bomber was shot down.

Hollywood lawyer to celebrities such as Mel Gibson and Simon Cowell who became a celebrity himself for his discoveries of the fabled ancient city of Ubar and the frankincense trade route in Yemen.

Experienced alpinist devoted himself to the medical dangers faced by climbers after death of a fellow mountaineer.

Archaeologist who unearthed a 16th century gold signet ring while exploring ties between native people and the doomed English colonists who first tried to settle the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Soviet cosmonaut who in 1962 piloted one of two manned satellites that orbited the Earth at the same time.

First U.S. woman to set foot on Antarctica when she accompanied her explorer husband there in 1947.

DID THE MOST

World's oldest man and a World War I veteran.

Was oldest person in the world.

Principal clarinetist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for nearly 45 years.

Believed to have been the world's oldest person.

Believed to be the oldest African American in the San Fernando Valley and a driving force for civil rights.

Shoe shiner worked at Santa Anita for 74 years.

Spanish great-grandmother who described herself as the world's oldest blogger.

Named America's oldest worker, gained fame in his later years as a competitive runner and beekeeper.

Believed to Japan's oldest Kabuki actor.

Oldest living military veteran.

Owner of Minnesota Twins baseball team and one of the richest men in America, said to be worth $3.8 billion.

Believed to be Britain's oldest Olympian and winner of gold medal in the 4x400-meter relay at the 1936 Berlin Games.

World's oldest man credited diet for longevity.

One of the oldest survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

Oldest living former major league baseball player and a teammate of Babe Ruth.

FIRST AND LAST

One of the first African American singers to reach prominence on the international opera stage.

Retired Air Force major general was one of the last surviving members of the Flying Tigers.

Broke into the male-dominated sport of bullfighting at 13 and became one of the world's first famous female matadors.

One of the first U.S. Forest Service smoke jumpers to parachute into a forest fire.

Last survivor of Titanic diaster dies on 98th anniversary of ship's launching.

The last surviving leader of the ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against the Nazis.

Republican candidate for California secretary of state in 1970 who was the first black person nominated by either major party for a partisan statewide office.

Architect dubbed "the last American in Vietnam" when stranded in the country for 15 months after the U.S. military withdrew.

One of the last of Hollywood's celluloid cowboys and a founder of what is now the Autry National Center of the American West.

Believed to be last survivor of San Francisco earthquake.

Last of six crew members who crossed the Pacific Ocean aboard the balsa wood raft Kon-Tiki.

First woman elected to the Senate without family connections.

Leader of one of two teams that first broke through the wall between chemistry and biology by synthesizing an enzyme -- a key component of life -- in the laboratory.

Wife of hockey great Gordie Howe and one of the first female sports agents.

Chicago native was first white and first woman to become president of Guyana.

First black woman to serve as a police commissioner in the U.S. when she stepped into that role in 1971 in Los Angeles.

Marine Corps brigadier general who led the first official ground combat troops into Vietnam.

Massachusetts Democrat and icon of American liberal politics who was the last surviving brother of a legendary political family.

First woman in North America to become a licensed ship captain.

Republican activist was one of first African-Americans to serve on GOP national committee.

One of the first female combat correspondents covering the Vietnam War.

First woman to win a Sports Car Club of America national championship and a participant in the original "Cannonball Run."

Dodger Stadium organist and one of the last surviving working accompanists from the silent-film era.

A guardian of native Hawaiian culture who taught traditional hula dance and chanting to generations of students.

The last surviving member of a group of central Virginia National Guardsmen from World War II who came to be known as the Bedford Boys.

Longtime CBS executive was one of first women to get through entertainment industry's glass ceiling.

Last surviving grandson of an Ottoman sultan and regarded as the head of the living members of the former Ottoman dynasty.

Britain's last survivor of the trenches of World War I, a reluctant soldier who became a powerful eyewitness to the horror of war and a symbol of a lost generation.

First African American to build, own and operate a golf course.

President of the University of Texas in the 1970s, believed to be the first woman to head a public university in the United States.

The last of France's postwar greats of photography.

South Korea's first Roman Catholic cardinal.

Star athlete at USF whose team refused to play bowl game without African American players. Became first African American NFL game official

In 1979 became the first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction.

First Native American woman to be selected as state district judge in U.S.

Aviation pioneer was first woman in Australia to pilot a commercial aircraft.

Romance novelist whose 1980 book "Entwined Destinies" was the first novel in the genre to feature African American characters by a black author.

A well-connected political power broker who founded the first major Washington lobbying firm to be led by a woman.

First African American Coast Guard pilot

First woman to manage a major Las Vegas Strip casino.

First black woman to head NAACP board

Scientist who cloned the first farm animal in the U.S.

MET TRAGEDY

Angels' rookie pitcher killed hours after his season debut in a car crash involving an alleged drunk driver.

A former two-division champion who gained stardom when he became the first boxer to defeat Shane Mosley, shot to death in an attempted robbery.

Chicago woman whose dramatic escape from a New York hotel during the 9/11 attacks was told in a television documentary, leading to a poignant reunion with her rescuers.

German billionaire commits suicide after his business empire begins to collapse in the worldwide financial crisis.

Author and former Iowa farm wife who hounded the U.S. military to find the truth about her son's death in Vietnam.

The father of Terri Schiavo, who became a national symbol in a closely watched right-to-die case.

Garden Grove High football player died during a game.

South African health minister whose AIDS denial and failure to provide treatment is blamed for more than 300,000 unnecessary deaths.

New York-based journalist whose family tragedy helped lead to changes in the number of hours medical residents work.

ONE OF A KIND

Atlanta centenarian lauded by President Obama in his 2008 election night speech.

Longtime caretaker of the Doheny Mansion.

Collected pop-culture and dime-store merchandise in his home.

Typed the English version of the German surrender document ending World War II and then messaged London to announce the accord had been signed.

Woman known as the "Eagle Lady" who gained national acclaim for feeding the hundreds of eagles at her Alaska home.

Farmer and perennial candidate who tried to get "None of the Above" on Louisiana's ballot by legally adding it to his name.

Crossword puzzle constructor for the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers.

Resident authority on Big Sur

OVERCAME AN OBSTACLE

Jewish boxer who survived Auschwitz by fighting and whose story was made into the 1989 film "Triumph of the Spirit."

Chemist who overcame both religious and sexual prejudice to make major contributions in applying physics to problems of biology.

An Indian classical singer who battled caste and gender prejudices to establish a career that spanned more than seven decades.

Equestrian won two Olympic silver medals despite being paralyzed below the knee by polio.

USC football recruit paralyzed in car accident became scholar, coach.

Drag-racing pioneer who continued to innovate in the sport after polio paralyzed him from the chest down at 20.

Bishop in Chinas underground church who was imprisoned for more than 28 years under the communists.

Irish poet and novelist who refused to let cerebral palsy get in the way of his writing.

Federal judge had been sent to World War II relocation camp as a youth.

Former Assemblyman and Oxnard mayor was held in internment camp during World War II.

Holocaust survivor who spent three years in Nazi death camps and regularly lectured about the horrors he witnessed.