Frank Lloyd Wright, the most famous and innovative architect of his generation, was born on this day in Richland Center, Wisconsin, the son of schoolteachers. Born Frank Lincoln Wright, he changed his middle name to Lloyd in support of his mother after his parents' acrimonious divorce. He studied at the University of Wisconsin and then took up design, finding work as a draftsman in Chicago. He went on to become the nation's leading architect, a force in the Prairie School of design, and a lifelong advocate for blending structures with the environment in which they stood. Frank Lloyd Wright died after a full, accomplished, and often chaotic life in Phoenix, Arizona in April 1959. (By John Osborne)