Akron is the cradle of the rubber industry in the United States, home of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous and current site of the leading edge of polymer engineering and research. Akron's history has been one of adaptation, of seeing opportunity and developing a response, all of which has led to the community becoming an industrial power. The city balances a long tradition of manufacturing and transportation businesses with fine cultural tastes. Akron has given the U.S. a century of automotive tires, plastics, oatmeal, roundballer LeBron James, rocker Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, New Wave band Devo, and the All–American Soap Box Derby—a true show of the city's diversity.