1

Blue jay

Image: Mark Olsen

The blue jay is a beautiful bird with –as its name suggests– striking blue plumage. It also has white feather details and a sort of black "collar" on its neck. But it is not just a pretty face; it also has wonderful abilities.

Blue jays are excellent mimics . They can imitate the calls of other birds, especially hawks, in order to frighten and scare away predators. Nature is wise!

In addition, these birds that live in family groups have a great memory . Blue jays have been seen storing nuts far from where they originally found them and then returning to those locations later without much effort.

2

Bald eagle

Image: Mathew Schwartz

As one of America's most iconic symbols, the bald eagle makes an imposing impression just with its presence. It is one of the largest birds in the world, with a wingspan ranging from 6 to 7.5 feet and weighing between 3 and 6.5 pounds.

One of its most outstanding traits is its vision , considered by many experts to be 4 to 5 times sharper than human eyesight. This bird has such precise vision that it can spot its prey from several miles away while flying!

In addition to that, its hunting skills are exceptional. Bald eagles rarely fail to catch a snack, thanks to their large and powerful talons. Their prey can be quite large, as their grip strength can reach 400 pounds per square inch.

3

Pronghorn antelope

Image: David Thielen

Despite its common name, the pronghorn is not an antelope. In fact, it belongs to another family called Antilocapridae , exclusive to North America. Yes, they only exist here!

Pronghorns have several characteristics that make them unique, including their iconic horns . First off, pronghorns shed their horns every year (because who doesn't want to renew their outfit?). And, unlike many other species, it's not just the males that have horns; the females do too.

But here's its best feature: the pronghorn is nothing less than the fastest land animal in America, capable of reaching speeds of over 50 mph. And that's not all; this animal can sustain its speed for very long distances. A true runner!

4

American alligator

Image: Joshua J. Cotten

The American alligator can measure between 13 and 15 feet long and weigh more than 900 pounds, making it one of the largest reptiles in the USA.

But its size is not the only thing that impresses. The American alligator, which inhabits the southeastern United States, has one of the fiercest and most powerful bites in the entire animal kingdom, reaching 2,980 pounds of pressure per square inch. Just picture that destructive power!

Biting so hard must have negative consequences for the teeth, right? True. But this is not a problem for the American alligator, as this reptile has the ability to regenerate its lost teeth more than 50 times in its lifetime!

5

Barn owl

Image: Bob Brewer

The barn owl is one of the several owl species found in America. Its most characteristic feature is its heart-shaped face. This distinctive quality is not only cute, but it also serves a purpose: it directs sound into the bird's ear cavities. The barn owl has exceptional hearing , allowing it to detect the smallest prey in the dark.

On the other hand, one of the most striking features of owls is their ability to rotate their heads about 180 degrees and, in some cases, even more. If you found The Exorcist disturbing, you don't want to watch videos of owls rotating their heads!

6

Wood frog

Image: Richie Bettencourt

The wood frog is a small amphibian native to the northeastern states, famous for the dark markings around its eyes. These markings are like a mask that extends, much like when someone's makeup smudges.

But this frog's appearance is not the only thing that distinguishes it. It also has an incredible skill: the ability to withstand freezing temperatures. And that's not all; during the winter, their bodies can actually freeze solid and then thaw out in the spring without sustaining serious damage. Amazing!

Although it is not Captain America, this ability allows the wood frog to adapt very well to temperatures as low as -10°F for several weeks.

7

Flying squirrel

Image: Saori Oya

Have you ever dreamed of flying through the sky like a superhero? Who wouldn't want that? There is a squirrel that has this advantage, which is why it is commonly called the flying squirrel.

Despite its funny name, the flying squirrel doesn't actually fly but glides through the trees. Even so, watching this small mammal deploy a membrane between its limbs to glide with great precision from the heights is impressive. In addition, they can perfectly regulate speed and direction during their ride through the air.

Have you ever seen one of these creatures?

8

Gila monster

Image: David Clode

There is only one venomous lizard in the U.S., and that title goes to the great Gila monster.

This lizard, naturally found in the southwestern regions of our country, has unique abilities that set it apart from other animals. The "monster" in its name is no coincidence: this lizard has a fearsome bite , capable of injecting painful venom. The Gila monster's venom is delivered through grooves in its teeth, something extremely rare for a lizard.

And there's more. This animal can go several months without eating! This is due to its slow metabolism , which allows it to survive even when food is scarce.

9

Eastern diamondback rattlesnake

Image: Leah Storme

The eastern diamondback rattlesnake is one of the largest rattlesnakes that inhabit our country, reaching 6 feet in length and weighing around 10 pounds. Its characteristic diamond-shaped pattern on its back is what gives it its iconic name.

Besides having one of the most potent venoms among rattlesnakes, this snake has another important advantage. The diamondback rattlesnake has thermo-detecting pits. But what is that? They are tiny orifices located between its eyes and nose, which allow it to detect the temperature of its warm-blooded prey even in the deepest darkness.

10

American beaver

Image: Tim Umphreys

Beavers are amazing animals. These rodents that inhabit freshwater environments are like the architects of the animal world. They have impressive building skills, with dams being their primary type of construction.

The dams that beavers build with sticks, logs, stones, mud, and other materials from nature are designed to protect their community and lodges. Beavers' lodges are perfectly engineered, featuring underwater entrances that keep them isolated and safe, just like a natural bunker!

They are also excellent swimmers . They have an affinity for water and use it in very creative ways. For example, they slap their flat tails against the water's surface to alert their families when danger is near.

1

Meryl Streep

Image: Montclair Film, CC BY 2.0

We’ll begin with a modern icon. Since her start in stage plays in 1975, Meryl Streep has completely risen to stardom, to the point of being considered by many as the very best actress of her generation.

Streep holds the distinct honor of being the most nominated actress for an Academy Award in history, with 21 nominations and 3 wins. Some of her most memorable performances include Sophie's Choice , Kramer vs. Kramer , and The Bridges of Madison County .

2

Marilyn Monroe

Image: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0

What more can be said about the "Blonde Bombshell" that hasn’t been said before? Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe is definitively one of America’s most famous pop icons. There’s a good reason why legendary pop artist Andy Warhol decided to immortalize her with a series of paintings: Marilyn not only perfectly encapsulates Hollywood in the '50s but also serves as a great representation of how the world sees the American dream.

Monroe’s first on-screen appearance dates back to 1947, when she briefly appeared as a waitress. Nobody knew that this small role would be followed by an extremely profitable career, which included classics like Some Like It Hot , The Seven Year Itch , and The Misfits .

3

Grace Kelly

Image: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0

Many of the actresses on this list are considered Hollywood royalty, but only Grace Kelly holds the honor of being an actual princess. However, while her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco was truly a spectacular moment, we shouldn’t overlook the incredible career of this amazingly talented actress.

After a number of small roles, Kelly first achieved stardom with her performance in John Ford's 1953 film Mogambo , for which she was nominated for her first Academy Award. That being said, perhaps her most iconic roles are the numerous Hitchcock films she appeared in, including such classics as Dial M for Murder , Rear Window , and To Catch a Thief .

4

Judy Garland

Image: Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0

Sometimes actresses and actors are typecast after a particularly amazing role: Carrie Fisher will always be Princess Leia, Anthony Hopkins will always be Hannibal Lecter, and Judy Garland will always be remembered as the brave Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz . And while this role truly cemented Garland as an undisputed American icon, there’s so much more to this amazing actress's career.

Garland’s incredible voice and acting chops skyrocketed her to fame from an early age. One year before portraying Dorothy, she starred alongside Mickey Rooney in the 1938 film Love Finds Andy Hardy . As an adult, she received Oscar nominations for such iconic films as A Star Is Born and Judgment at Nuremberg .

5

Elizabeth Taylor

Image: photo by Alan Light, CC BY 2.0

If there’s one thing that you probably remember about Elizabeth Taylor , it’s those hauntingly beautiful eyes of hers: They were a gorgeous blue that almost seemed to shift into a unique shade of violet under the right light. Regardless, this amazing American actress is still remembered as one of Hollywood’s most iconic legends.

Elizabeth Taylor’s many acting roles are too many to count, so we’ll leave you with a few of our favorites: two film adaptations of Tennessee Williams’ plays, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer , and her performance as the Queen of the Nile herself in the 1961 film Cleopatra .

6

Katharine Hepburn

Image: Volha Kudzina

Throughout her nearly sixty-year career, Katharine Hepburn amassed an impressive number of awards and accolades. Critics and fans alike adored the outspokenness, independence, and freedom that she brought to her characters. It seems only natural that her amazing talent earned her 4 Academy Awards for Best Actress, a record she holds to this day.

Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Hepburn started acting during her college years. After a very successful run on Broadway, she gained international fame after Hollywood discovered her. Her third film, Morning Glory , earned Hepburn her very first Academy Award.

7

Ginger Rogers

Image: Kyle Head

It should go without saying that all the actresses on this list have multiple talents, including singing and dancing. However, it would be a safe bet to state that Ginger Rogers , Fred Astaire’s most beloved dance partner, is the very best dancer on this list (which is definitely saying something).

Born in Independence, Missouri, but raised in Kansas City, Rogers began her career in a vaudeville act at the age of 14. In the 1930s, she met her perfect partner in crime, Fred Astaire. From 1933 to 1939, the duo starred in 9 iconic films, which completely revolutionized the Hollywood musical genre.

8

Julia Roberts

Image: David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0

Julia Roberts became an instantly recognizable icon in the ‘90s, starring in such classics as Steel Magnolias , Pretty Woman , and My Best Friend’s Wedding . However, it wasn’t until the start of the new millennium that she earned her first well-deserved Academy Award, when she played the paralegal-turned-environmental activist in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich .

Nowadays, Roberts continues to shine on the silver screen. The 21st century saw her starring in films like Ocean's Eleven and Eat Pray Love . Not only that, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2014 for her performance in the 2014 TV film The Normal Heart .

9

Whoopi Goldberg

Image: Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0

Caryn Elaine Johnson, known to the world as Whoopi Goldberg , is undeniably a jack of all trades. She is an Academy Award-winning actress, received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor for her work as a comedian, and is also a TV personality who entertains millions of American homes every day.

Whoopi first rose to prominence for her wonderful performance in Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film The Color Purple , for which she received a Golden Globe for Best Actress. That first recognition was quickly followed by a myriad of awards, including an Academy Award for Ghost and an Emmy for hosting the TV show The View .

10

Rita Hayworth

Image: photo by Alan Light, CC BY 2.0

Just like Judy Garland, many people know Rita Hayworth as "Gilda," a nickname she earned after starring in the titular 1946 film. However, there’s so much more this actress contributed to Hollywood throughout her spectacular career, so we decided to honor her life and work with this final entry.

Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, Rita was already a professional dancer by age 12, performing on stage with her father, who was also a dancer. By the time she was in her early 20s, she had already taken the world by storm, becoming one of the most profitable actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

1

Harrison Ford

Image: Chris Nguyen

The face of Indiana Jones was born in 1942 in the Windy City. A Boy Scout from Illinois , he attended school in the suburbs before moving to Wisconsin for college and later to California to pursue acting. There, he became a self-taught professional carpenter to support his family. Everything changed for him when writer and director George Lucas took a liking to him and started including him in small roles in his films. Lucas finally gave him a leading role as Han Solo in his space opera, Star Wars (1977).

Ford is one of the most recognizable actors in the world. His long career includes critically acclaimed performances in films like Blade Runner (1982), The Fugitive (1993), and Witness (1985), for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor .

2

Walt Disney

Image: Charlottees

Yes, the father of Mickey Mouse was born far from California’s Disneyland. Walt Disney was born in 1901 in the Hermosa neighborhood of Chicago. He grew up in the city until his family moved to Missouri when he was a young boy, but he later returned to study at the then-called Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (now the School of the Art Institute of Chicago). In 1956, Disney purchased his birth home in Chicago with the intention of restoring it, though his plans for the house were never fully realized.

Of course, the founder of The Walt Disney Company was an imaginative mind who led projects that revolutionized the film industry . His endeavors pioneered the introduction of synchronized sound in animation, the production of full-length animated films, and, most notably, the creation of Disneyland, the world’s first theme park of its kind.

3

Bob Fosse

Image: Pixabay

Bob Fosse was one of the most celebrated choreographers and directors in both Broadway and film history. He was born in 1927 on the North Side of Chicago and grew up in the Ravenswood neighborhood. A revolutionary creator who brought a signature Chicago-jazz style to musical theater, Fosse had been exposed to the city’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes, which were popular in the 1930s and 1940s and attended many dance studios in the city during his youth.

His experience as a performer in Chicago probably influenced the recurring theme of showbiz’s dark side , evident in musicals like Cabaret , Chicago , and Sweet Charity , which he directed and choreographed. He also won an Academy Award for Best Director for the film Cabaret and is the only person to have ever won an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy in the same year (1973).

4

Quincy Jones

Image: sam99929

Quincy Delight Jones Jr., one of the most influential musicians of modern times, was born on the South Side of Chicago , a rich cultural hub in the city. Though his family moved from Chicago when he was 10, it was in the city that he was first exposed to musical neighbors and the culture of religious singing. Later, as a teen, he picked up a trumpet and thus began his incredible musical career.

Quincy Jones is most famous for producing Michael Jackson’s albums , not least of which is Thriller , the best-selling album of all time. He’s also known for his work as a film and TV producer, creating the music for iconic films like The Color Purple and The Wiz , as well as TV shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air . In 1985, he produced and conducted the charity single "We Are the World" to fight famine in Africa. Jones has won 28 Grammy Awards.

5

Ray Bradbury

Image: Vanessa Sezini

Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and The Martian Chronicles (1950), was also a Chicagoland native. He was born in Waukegan , about 35 miles north of Chicago, in 1920. Despite leaving Chicago early in life, his childhood in Waukegan is reflected in some of his work, particularly in scenes depicting small-town America—nostalgic, yet sometimes eerie.

Bradbury managed to weave Waukegan repeatedly into his fiction by transforming it into his imagined Green Town, Illinois . This fictional town serves as the setting for his semiautobiographical trilogy consisting of Dandelion Wine , Something Wicked This Way Comes , and Farewell Summer , and it appears in several of his short stories. Most of the narrations set in Green Town evoke summer scenes led by children in a small town at the beginning of the century.

6

Bill Murray

Image: Blake Guidry

The famous comedic actor Bill Murray was born in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago. He grew up nearby, attending Loyola Academy, and in the early '70s, he was invited by his brother Brian to join the improvisational comedy troupe The Second City . This helped launch the career of a talented comedic writer and actor, known for his roles in Saturday Night Live , which he joined in 1977, as well as films like Ghostbusters (1984), Groundhog Day (1993), and Lost in Translation (2003).

Murray is a devoted fan of several Chicago sports teams, including the Chicago Cubs , the Bears, and the Bulls . In the '80s, he served as a guest commentator for a Cubs game, and he was famously emotional in 2016 when the Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year drought.

7

Michelle (Robinson) Obama

Image: Sonder Quest

Michelle Obama, née Robinson, was born in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. She grew up in a working-class family and attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, a prestigious public school in Chicago, where she excelled academically. She later went on to study at Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago to work at a law firm, where she met future President Barack Obama.

While she is most famous for being First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, before having that role she held several positions in Chicago’s public service . For instance, she served as an assistant commissioner for the city mayor and she directed the city’s office for Public Allies, a leadership development organization. She also worked at the University of Chicago and at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

8

Robin Williams

Image: V

The late and beloved actor Robin Williams was originally from the Lake View neighborhood of Chicago, where he was born in 1951. He spent his childhood in the North Shore, where his father was a senior executive at Ford until the family relocated to Michigan. Williams's legendary quick wit and his knack for improvisation and making people laugh landed him one of his first gigs, a TV commercial for Illinois Bell, shown in the Chicago area, in which he already showcased his talent for goofy voices. He also made guest appearances at the Second City stage where he performed memorable improvisational acts.

Williams had an incredible ability to jump from character to character in an instant, and he soon won the hearts of the audience as both a comedic and dramatic actor in films like Aladdin (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and Good Will Hunting (1997).

9

Ernest Hemingway

Image: Dan Price

Another writer from the suburbs of Chicago was Ernest Hemingway, born in 1899 in Oak Park. He spent his early years in this upper-middle-class neighborhood. Though he left Chicago as a young man, the Hemingway Birthplace Museum in Oak Park still stands as a tribute to his legacy, and the area honors him with numerous literary festivals and events every year.

During his childhood, he spent summer days in the woods and lakes of Northern Michigan, experiences that likely forged his love for nature and adventure, which are reflected in many of his works. Hemingway is best known for his timeless contributions to American literature, including The Old Man and the Sea (1952) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

10

Betty White

Image: Day_Photo

The "Golden Girl," Betty Marion White, was born in Oak Park, just like Hemingway. Even though she was still a toddler when her family moved to California, and she was considered a national treasure, she liked to remind people that her roots were at Oak Park , which made fans from the area very happy.

The village had prepared to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17, 2022, but sadly, the star passed away just weeks before. Oak Park then proceeded to celebrate her life and career at an event that gathered hundreds of fans despite the freezing weather. White held the Guinness World Record for the longest TV career by an entertainer, starred in iconic shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls , and was also a pioneering female producer behind the camera.