The selection of 2008's Top 10 CNN Heroes was made by a Blue Ribbon Panel of distinguished leaders and humanitarians. All of our judges are themselves heroes to others through their continuing commitment to public service.
For 63 years, Martin Vogel longed for information about how his only brother -- his best friend and a fellow U.S. soldier -- died in World War II.
Grammy Award winners Alicia Keys and John Legend will perform at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," airing on Thanksgiving on CNN.
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis knows how important education is for youth, but what feeds their minds and souls, he says, often lies beyond traditional classroom walls.
Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon has a long-documented career in public advocacy, but as she describes it, those efforts have been "self-serving."
"My total sentence was 55 years -- for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute," recalls Carolyn LeCroy.
In a year marked by massive flooding, deadly tornadoes and blazing wildfires, Tad Skylar Agoglia has never been needed more. This week, he's on the scene in Iowa.
Online dating site eHarmony will create a service for same-sex matching in a settlement of a 2005 complaint that the company's failure to offer such a service was discriminatory.
The selection of 2008's Top 10 CNN Heroes was made by a Blue Ribbon Panel of distinguished leaders and humanitarians. All of our judges are themselves heroes to others through their continuing commitment to public service.
For 63 years, Martin Vogel longed for information about how his only brother -- his best friend and a fellow U.S. soldier -- died in World War II.
Grammy Award winners Alicia Keys and John Legend will perform at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," airing on Thanksgiving on CNN.
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis knows how important education is for youth, but what feeds their minds and souls, he says, often lies beyond traditional classroom walls.
Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon has a long-documented career in public advocacy, but as she describes it, those efforts have been "self-serving."
"My total sentence was 55 years -- for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute," recalls Carolyn LeCroy.
In a year marked by massive flooding, deadly tornadoes and blazing wildfires, Tad Skylar Agoglia has never been needed more. This week, he's on the scene in Iowa.
Online dating site eHarmony will create a service for same-sex matching in a settlement of a 2005 complaint that the company's failure to offer such a service was discriminatory.
Bonnie Rabin is fond of saying that divorce lawyers are a bit like liquor stores. They're busiest in the really good times, and the really bad.
Anthony Acevedo thumbs through the worn, yellowed pages of his diary emblazoned with the words "A Wartime Log" on its cover. It's a catalog of deaths and atrocities he says were carried out on U.S. soldiers held by Nazis at a slave labor camp during World War II -- a largely forgotten legacy of the war.
The people you admire have heroes too. As CNN Heroes continues, we've asked celebrities to share the spotlight with remarkable people who are making a difference.
When does asking an ex-spouse for a favor cross the line?
When does asking an ex-spouse for a favor cross the line?
The Obama family may be a couple months away from moving into the White House, but dog advocates already are trying to capitalize on the Obamas' search for a puppy to join them there.
Goldendoodle? Bernese Mountain Dog? Irish wolfhound? Chihuahua?
A 90-year-old who says she's the woman being kissed by a sailor in Times Square in one of World War II's most famous photographs reunited in town with the Navy on Sunday -- days before she is to serve as grand marshal of the city's Veterans Day parade.
Memories of salvaging and stealing to avoid going hungry are part of the legacy of the Great Depression. Some iReporters say they can't help but look at the current economy and feel the past holds lessons for the present.
It seems every other day brings news of waves of selling by nervous investors. But for every seller, there has to be a buyer. So who's buying stocks when so many people are selling?
Iron gates from the Yaddo artist colony, with the Yaddo logo and its muscular, musical "Y" spelled out in script, have been installed inside the New York Public Library for a four-month exhibit, allowing you to imagine the same rustic grounds entered by James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein and so many others.
Strange things seem to happen when Grant Wilson enters a room.
Election tension is boiling over; it seems like everyone from the office blowhard to the person in front of you at the post office is spouting off opinions that make your blood boil. But what happens when the one disagreeing with you shares your bedroom?
Behind every good war are many good women. Using their feminine (and in at least one case masculine) wiles, the following five spies would make James Bond proud.
Don't you just hate the type of person who smugly informs you, "I don't watch TV," like that's something to be proud of? They think they're so great with all their fancy book learning.
For any mom who's ever felt frazzled, overwhelmed or rushed, Oprah says this show is for you. "It's your wake-up call to slow down," she says. "What happened to my guest today could so easily happen to any of you."
For more than 20 years, actress Christina Applegate has kept audiences laughing.
This stretch of rolling dairy country has long been Milton Hershey's turf, where he first found success making chocolate more than a century ago and earned a name synonymous with chocolate in America.
Oprah has always said that mothers have the most difficult job on earth, and actress Jenny McCarthy is one mom who has never backed down from a challenge.
For Liz McCartney, selection as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2008 could not have come at a better time.
Faced with a nationwide financial crisis, a volatile stock market and rising unemployment and inflation rates, many Americans are making changes in their personal spending habits.
As some of the world's largest banks teetered on financial demise, college seniors and recent alums had more on their minds than what it meant for their financial aid and student loans.
Teachers and parents in Dallas, Texas, are angry about new grading policies that they say are dumbing down the district and pushing students through the system who haven't earned it.
Rich Franklin used to spend his days teaching math to high school students. Today, he spends his evenings in an octagon-shaped cage grounding and pounding fighters into submission in front of thousands of screaming fans.
Historical Background: Presidential debates are a product of the television era. In 1960, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy met in the first general election presidential debate, which was viewed by about 70 million people.
Harvard University is the country's oldest, wealthiest and most selective university. Now it's back on top of the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, claiming sole possession of the No. 1 spot for the first time in 12 years.
A lot of college students feel pressured to binge drink, says University of California, Berkeley, student Joseph Bui.
Carolyn Dennis, mother of a 5-year-old, initially wasn't too keen on Utah's decision to move her to a four-day workweek.
Pop superstar Madonna reaches a major milestone Saturday. She's turning 50.
Pop superstar Madonna reaches a major milestone Saturday. She's turning 50.
Can a four-day work week exist at a 24-hour news operation?
Life coach Gail Blanke went to acting school to learn to improvise in any situation. Turns out the tricks that actors use on stage can help you score a date, land a job -- or just make any conversation more engaging
Eyes are on Beijing, China, for the Summer Games, with an estimated 4 billion people expected to tune in to watch the world's top athletes seek the ultimate recognition: an Olympic gold medal.
Brandi Robinson hoped for a beautiful outdoor wedding in the hills of Central Pennsylvania. Mother Nature had other plans.
Nine companies have agreed to pay a total of $355,000 in fines for failing to tell the government some of their children's clothing had hood and neck drawstrings, which are prohibited because they've caused dozens of strangulation deaths over the years.
So you hear about a 41-year-old swimmer making the Olympics eight years after retiring and two years after giving birth. You immediately think:
When you hear the name "Indiana Jones," you think of an archaeologist carrying an idol and dodging a giant boulder. When you hear about "Dow Jones," you might wonder if it's up or down that day. However, in this case, Indiana and Dow Jones are siblings, 12 and 7 years old, respectively.
Jeff Hornagold loved being a UPS driver.
"It's the magic of dogs."
"The thought that I can reach out and permanently improve someone's life for the better is addictive," says Dave Schweidenback.
In a small independently owned coffee shop on the corner of one of Atlanta's urban pockets, a group of would-be poets come together at open mic night for an evening of poetry and rhymes.
Forty years after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN took an unprecendented look at the state of black America in "CNN Presents: Black in America. The success, struggle, pain and pride.
It took Diane Pickel Plappert six months to tell a counselor that she had been raped while on duty in Iraq. While time passed, the former Navy nurse disconnected from her children, and her life slowly unraveled.
New appliances and vacation packages aren't unusual giveaways in the housing slump, but one woman is taking the unorthodox step of throwing in a car with the purchase of her home.
Bent over or sitting at a table, gripping a ballpoint pen, marker or crayon, Frank Calloway spends his days turning visions from his youth into lively murals -- and at 112 years old, the images of his childhood are a window to another time.
The following is a list of local and national organizations and programs designed to address many of the issues raised in "CNN Presents: Black in America" and "CNN & Essence: Reclaiming the Dream." Some of the people or guests featured in the programs are involved in some of these organizations.
San Quentin Prison sits like a fortress along the bay just north of San Francisco. It is bordered by some of the most expensive residential real estate in the country. But at the edge of this scenic peninsula, 5,400 inmates are locked up.
There were 56 men who put quill to parchment during the Summer of Independence in 1776.
A South Carolina woman's whimsical approach to food is helping her crack the insular world of cooking contests with such novel dishes as pecan-encrusted oysters over asiago cheese grits.
If Russell Jackson has his way, any child who needs medical care but lacks the transportation to get there will have a safe and reliable alternative.
More than a dozen people, some wearing orange protective gear, pulled rakes and shovels from a dingy shopping cart and started working on a parched patch of land along a busy off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway.
After surviving a near-fatal accident, Richard Olson recalls the doctor telling him, "You may never walk again."
Novel nicknames are one thing, but Michelle Dudley deeply resents the one her husband's buddies have given her: "Jason's Whatever."
The Cyrus family is ready to rock and always on a roll at its new L.A. home. Kick back and chill out with Billy Ray, Miley and the entire guitar-crazy clan.
Michael and Sharon thought the photos from their wedding were lost forever.
With foreclosures and bankruptcy affecting millions of homeowners, CNN's Larry King on Tuesday talked to several experts in the real estate industry to get advice on handling the mortgage meltdown.
When Katy Milane was asked to be in her college roommate's August 2007 wedding, she expected the bridesmaid dress to be simple and sporty, just like the bride's taste in clothes.
Misha Di Bono zips around town in her Infiniti sport-utility vehicle, breezy and unconcerned about the price of gas.
America's two largest hot dog makers are waging a wiener war as grills fire up this summer, hoping to win over customers and secure the No. 1 spot atop the stagnating frank market.
The TV no longer sits on a moving box, but she's still using filing cabinets as end tables. Desiree Jacobsen graduated from college years ago, so why does her apartment resemble a dorm room? It's hard to save for the finer things when you've had to shell out money to be in five weddings in one year, three times as maid of honor.
Atlanta's East Lake community was a rough place to grow up in 1989, when murder, gangs, poverty, teen pregnancy and drug problems were common.
