Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss., Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Historian Stephen Ambrose, author of numerous books on World War II, American presidents and America's early westward expansion, died early Sunday in a Bay St. Louis hospital of lung cancer, reports said. He was 66. Ambrose had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Advertisement Ambrose was raised in Whitewater, Wisc. Originally a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin, he turned to history after he attended a class on American historical figures on the advice of his student adviser and becoming fascinated with the subject. His first book, the biography of a Civil War general, caught the eye of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who later asked him to edit his papers. Among Ambrose's works are a multi-volumed biographies of Eisenhower and President Richard Nixon. His World War II works have become classics -- "D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II," which was based on recollections of soldiers who took part in the Normandy invasion, and "Band of Brothers," which was made into a television mini-series.
