The media may focus on youthful celebrities, but these individuals—all over the age of 45—made the top news last year.

• Barack Obama – America’s first black President
• Angela Merckel – Germany’s first female Chancellor
• Leonard Abess – first bank CEO to take his profits and share them with his employees (including former employees)
• Jim Balsillie – co-CEO of RIM Technologies (maker of the Blackberry)
• Jennifer Stoddart – Canada’s Privacy Commissioner (who took on Facebook re complying with Canada’a privacy regulations and won)
• Willard Boyle and American George E. Smith – Nobel Prize winners in Physics for inventing the charge-coupled device (CCD) back in 1969 (which is the breakthrough technology that led to digital imaging)
• Brenda Milner – neuropsychologist awarded the international Balzan Prize for her research on how memory functions and how different parts of the brain interact
• Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger – successfully flew US Airlines Flight 1549 into the Hudson River, saving the lives of all passengers and crew
• Susan Boyle – internationally known singer for her appearance on Britain’s Got Talent
• Michael Jackson – the King of Pop