Tin Pan Alley

In 1885 when a bunch of song publishers all moved into the same area of Manhattan (originally West 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue), they adopted the name Tin Pan Alley. The name was spawned because of the many musical instruments in the area all being played at the same time, causing a general ruckus down the street. The song writers/publishers created a majority of the popular american music in the later 19th - early 20th centuries. It's slow decline occurred between the 1930's-50's, when sheet music and eventually rock&roll took over american culture.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pan_alley

Pablo Neruda

Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, he took the pen name Pablo Neruda for his literary works, which were translated into dozens of different languages around the world. Born in Chile, the communist poet has been called the most read poet since Shakespeare, and Gabriel Marquez (see entry below) titled him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language".
His works covered a wide array of styles, touching on almost every subject in his career. He also read his work to the two largest crowds of any recorded poet in history (100,000 and 70,000).
He served as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party, but a warrant was issued for his arrest when Communism was outlawed a short while after. Escaping into Argentina, he lived there until he was able to return to Chile when then Socialist party weakened. Nominated for the Chilean Presidency shortly thereafter, he withdrew and gave his support to future president Salvadore Allende.
Ricardo Basoalto won the Nobel Prize in 1970, but died a few years later due to Heart Failure.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_neruda#Return_to_Chile_2
http://images.bestwebbuys.com/muze/books/51/0374299951.jpg

Jayne Mansfield

Actress/Playboy centerfold Jayne Mansfield was a short term movie star/sex symbol in the 1950's. Her first stage performance came in 1953 in a performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Her success as one of the era's many busty blonde bombshell actresses was short lived and died out even before her own early death at the age of 34. By the time she died, her stardom had diminished to small roles in low budget films as the fast moving hollywood crowd passed her by in favor of newer actors.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_Mansfield

One Hundred Years of Solitude

In 1967 Gabriel Marquez published (in spanish) One Hundred Years of Solitude, a novel following the "imaginary" town of Macondo, Colombia for one hundred years. Later on, he admitted that the town was actually based on the area he grew up in.
The story begins with the founding of Macondo, and follows through its early stages of political developement. As civil war breaks out, some of the villagers take on roles in the militia. With the absence of it's main leaders, Macondo quicky becomes a dictatorship. The overthrow of this government and subsequent peace treaty make up the next part of the story, followed by the settlement of foreigners into the town. The resulting story is considered Marquez's greatest work, and was published in English in 1970.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_hundred_years_of_solitude