Jimmy Doolittle

James H. ('Jimmy') Doolittle was one of America's most famous aviation pioneers, especially in the years between the two world wars, and one of the outstanding flyers of the twentieth century. He had a distinguished record during WW2 in the United States Army Air Force, reaching the rank of Lt-General.

This early photograph with his mother Rosa and the family cat was taken in Nome, Alaska, where the family lived for a time, and dates from around 1908. Doolittle died in 1993 aged 96. A good biography can be found at Wikipedia.

The photo is used by kind permission of the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, and may not be copied.

Alekhine had a cat . . .

Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946) was a highly regarded chess grand master and also wrote widely about chess. Born in Moscow, he became a naturalised Frenchman in 1927, shortly before the world championships that year. He became the fourth world chess champion (more information about Alekhine at Wikipedia).

Alekhine had a cat which, of course, he named Chess. He used to get the cat to walk over the board before he played games. One of his opponents, subsequently defeated, was quoted as saying, 'When I saw that damn cat I knew I was in trouble!'