After Dinner Speakers: Mohammed Ali, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vangelis

Mohammed Ali has undoubtedly been a fixture in world culture since the 1960's. Seizing the gold medal at the Olympics in 1960, battling George Foreman in "The Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire, and going head to head with Joe Frazier in "The Thrilla in Manila" in the Philippines, were highlights of a career that earned Ali the status of world icon. Since his retirement in 1981, Ali has engaged in many humanitarian endeavors, including a 1990 journey to Iraq to negotiate the release of 15 hostages. In the last twenty years Ali's cultural status has hardly diminished: three billion television viewers around the world watched him open the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.