1. Privateer Jeremiah O'Brien (1744-1818) was born in Maine and became a staunch supporter of the Revolutionary cause. On June 2, 1775, he led a raiding party, which included his four brothers, that seized the British warship "Margaretta" in Machias, Maine. The event took place five days before the Battle of Bunker Hill and is considered the first naval battle of the Revolution. O'Brien and his brother John was soon commissioned as privateers (ship captains authorized to seize enemy ships). 2. Michael J. O'Brien, born in Fermoy, Co. Cork, in 1869, arrived in America at the age of 20 and took a job with the Western Union Telegraph Co. The job (which he held for the next 46 hours!) required him to travel up and down the Atlantic Coast. Wherever he went, O'Brien poked around local libraries and archives, researching the history of the Irish and colonial America. Soon he began publishing his findings in the "Journal of the American Irish Historical Society" and continued doing so for more than 10 years. O'Brien was relentless and indefatigable, publishing countless articles and a dozen books, including "The Irish at Bunker Hill," "The Pioneer Irish in New England," and "A Hidden Phase of American History." To his end, his goal remained the same: to refute the nativist contention that the Irish had made no worthwhile contribution to American history. 3. Willis O'Brien (1886-1962) was born in Oakland, CA, and worked many jobs before finding his calling in film animation. Working as a cartoonist for a San Francisco newspaper, he started making sculptures in 1913. Soon, he began experimenting with rubber, allowing his models to move. O'Brien eventually found work with Thomas Edison's Biograph Company. His animated dinosaurs in "The Lost World" (1925) was a breakthrough moment in the history of film special effects. O'Brien's most famous work was his creation of King Kong for the 1933 film of the same name. O'Brien left a lasting impact on his field. His innovative techniques with miniatures were used for several decades. He also devised a rear-projection system that allowed live actors to appear in the mini-set. In 1950, the stop-animation techniques he developed earned him the first special Oscar awarded for special effects for his work on "Mighty Joe Young" (1949). O'Brien has been listed as among the 100-most! influential people in filmmaking history.