Born: March 3rd, 1847

Died:  August 2, 1922

High of his life: He invented the telephone.  You know, that brilliant thing we all now carry around in our pockets and use to completely ignore the people we are currently out and about with. If it weren’t for Bell, we wouldn’t be able to text our friend to meet us, check-in to a restaurant on Foursquare, take a picture of our food on Instagram and post it on Facebook, and then write a mobile review on Yelp about it, all the while simultaneous avoiding phone calls from our ex. Brilliant, right? He’s also one of the founders of the National Geographic Society, which is the reason you now get to watch lions eating zebras on TV in fear and amazement.

Low of his life: He’s only known for invented the telephone. Probably because one of his other invention was the metal detector. And nobody likes going through one of those. It is anxiety inducing and causes you to run late for your flight at the airport. Thanks, Bell. He also died of complications of diabetes, which back in the 20s, was probably a pretty painful way to go.

Who sees him as a hero: Telemarketers, the TSA, Steve Jobs