Paul Revere

Boston silversmith and engraver — and, at various points, a part-time dentist. His father anglicized the family name from the French Apollos Rivoire. He had 16 children across two marriages, which makes the chaos of the Midnight Ride feel even more remarkable.

The real ride was messier than the legend: he never finished it (a British patrol caught him outside Lexington; fellow rider Samuel Prescott completed it), and he never shouted "the British are coming" — colonists still considered themselves British. His copper firm later sheathed the dome of the Massachusetts State House. He lived at the Paul Revere House and is buried at Granary Burying Ground.