Birth Locations – Page 158 – The Exasperated Historian

7) Raoul Wallenberg

7) Raoul Wallenberg

He is credited with saving somewhere in the ballpark of 100,000 Hungarian Jews in six months.

Born: 4 August 1912, Lidingö, Sweden

Died: Possibly, 17 July 1947, Moscow, Soviet Union (Present-day Moscow, Russia)

During the second half of World War II Raoul was working as a diplomat for his native Sweden in Budapest, Hungary. He was specifically sent there to protect the remaining 200,000 Jews left in Budapest. Raoul was creative in how he saved lives. He issued passports and other forms of documentation, he created the International Ghetto of protected houses, and of course he saved people already condemned to death marches, forced labor camps, and prisoner transport trains. Sometimes he would even jump on top of the trains or run alongside them to hand out protective passes to Jews on the trains. He would then demand everyone with a protective pass be allowed to leave the train.

On January 17, 1945 Raoul disappears from the historical record after the Soviet Union occupied Budapest. In 2000, two different former Soviet officials stated that Raoul was held in Soviet prison and was executed in 1947 (or he became ill and died in prison), however no documentation currently exists to back up those claims and the Soviet officials stated that all the documentation surrounding Raoul's imprisonment and death were destroyed. Some testimonies even seem to indicate he lived into the 1980's.

Raoul's mother even contacted the Russian Ambassador to Sweden to try and get information on her son. Alexandra Kollontai told Raoul's mother not to worry, that her son was being well cared for and would return home soon.

In 1963, Yad Vashem awarded Raoul with the Righteous Among the Nations title and in 1981 the United States granted him with honorary citizenship. Canada and Israel followed soon after.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Secret Heroes of World War II by Eric Chalene

Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: From the Nazi Ghost Train and 'Tokyo Rose' to the day Los Angeles was Attacked by Phantom Fighters by Michael FitzGerald

Sources:

https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/raoul-wallenberg

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/raoul-wallenberg-3

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9529/raoul-wallenberg

7) Mileva Marić

Fun Fact, number seven is my favorite number so I reserved this spot just for her!!

Born: 19 December 1875, Serbian Controlled Ottoman Empire (Present-day Titel, Serbia)

Died: 4 August 1948, Zurich, Switzerland

Mileva was a mathematician and while nobody can definitively prove which pieces, she helped her husband (you know, that totally obscure scientist named Albert Einstein) with, she did significantly contribute to his earliest and most famous works. She allowed him to study at home and still pass his classes in university. Mileva received a top score of 5 while he received a 1 in physics, but he got a degree and she did not (because you know, reasons). She gave birth to their daughter Lieserl out of wedlock (the baby disappeared from all historical records soon after), but their two sons came after the wedding.

In their divorce settlement she was allowed the money won from his Nobel Prize, an income she later lived off of, and after everything she did for him, he treated her like crap (that's the short version of it but you can imagine).

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located in My Personal Library:

American Spirit Magazine Article "Einstein's Equal" by Emily McMackin Dye (May/June 2024 Edition)

Who Knew? Women in History: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman

Caught by Margaret Peterson Haddix. While technically a historical fiction series, the Missing are some of my favorite books of all time. They are Young Adult and the central them is this: all the missing children from history (see Lieserl above or think the Lindbergh baby) are not missing by mere coincidence--oh no, they were kidnapped by time travelers from the future who did irreparable damage to time itself. Now the kids must each travel back to their respective times and heal the damage done. Caught introduced me to Mileva, and I'll be forever grateful.

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8336494/mileva-einstein

https://www.biography.com/historical-figure/mileva-einstein-maric

http://haddixbooks.com/book/caught/

6) Marie Skłodowska Curie

6) Marie Skłodowska Curie

Yes, that's her real, full name, and no she never dropped it--Western Media did, #polishpride

(Quick note, I'm not Polish but if you need someone new to watch on YouTube I highly recommend the Meme Mom herself Karolina Żebrowska !)

Anyway, back to Marie

Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Russian Controlled Poland (Present-day Warsaw, Poland)

Died: 4 July 1934, Passy, France

Marie was a chemist who had a rudimentary education before eventually studying at the Sorbonne.

After meeting her husband (who worked at the Sorbonne) Marie succeeded him as Head of the Physics Laboratory there at the school. She earned her doctor of science degree in 1903. Marie became the first woman to become Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences after her husband’s tragic death. Her main study was in radium and during World War I she and her daughter worked as x-ray technicians. Marie is the only person to hold two Nobel Prizes in two different fields (chemistry and physics). Her journals are so radioactive you have to wear a protective suit to study them and she died from cancer because of her exposure to radium.

In 2024, the French government announced they were redesigning their 10, 20, and 50 cent Euro coins. The new coins will feature Marie, Simone Veil, and Josephine Baker. The coins will go into circulation beginning in the summer.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located in My Personal Library:

Who Was Marie Curie? By Megan Stine

How They Croaked by Kevin O'Malley

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

The Only Woman by Immy Humes

The Book of Awesome Women: Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes, and Female Firsts by Becca Anderson

Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed by Judy Pasternak

Sources:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240310-veil-baker-and-curie-acclaimed-women-to-appear-on-new-french-coins

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1613/marie-curie

6) August Landmesser

6) August Landmesser

If Only We Could All be This Brave

Born: 24 May 1910, Moorrege, German Empire (Present-day Moorrege, Germany)

Died: 14 October 1944, Yugoslavia (Present-day Croatia)

August was a man married to a Jewish woman--in Nazi Germany.

Today he is most remembered for the powerful photograph in which he refused to perform the Nazi Salute surrounded by a swarm of men who had no such objections. The picture was taken in 1936 at the shipyard where he worked.

August joined the Nazi Party in 1931 because he hoped it would help him land a better job but in 1935 he was expelled after becoming engaged to his future wife Irma Eckler. In 1937 he was found guilty of "dishonoring the race" because of his relationship with Irma but the next year he was successfully able to find himself acquitted for lack of evidence. By that point they had two children together. August was arrested again later in 1938 and was sent to Börgermoor Concentration Camp for two and a half years hard labor. In 1941 August was discharged from prison and then he was drafted in 1944. He was declared missing in action fighting in Croatia.

His wife Irma was among 14,000 killed at the Bernberg Euthanasia Center.

In 1949, they were both declared legally dead.

Their marriage was officially recognized by the Senate of Hamburg in 1951.

Their daughters would survive the war, but were separated and raised by different families. In 1991 their daughter Irene positively identified the man in the photograph as her father August.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2015/0701/What-happened-to-the-man-who-refused-to-give-a-Nazi-salute

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/148787673/august-landmesser

5) Nettie Stevens

Nettie Stevens Courtesy of the Carnegie Institute

5) Nettie Stevens

Geneticist Who Worked on the Theory of Sex Determination

Born: 7 July 1861, Cavendish, Vermont, United States of America

Died: 4 May 1912, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Geneticist and one of two scientists who theorized sex determination by chromosomes (the other was a guy and they discovered the idea at the same time independently).

She earned a master’s degree in biology from Stanford and a PhD in 1903. She became an assistant at the Carnegie Institute.

Nettie died from breast cancer.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

Sources:

http://www.dnaftb.org/9/bio.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22434181/nettie-maria-stevens

5) Bayard Rustin

Civil Rights Activist and LGBT+ Icon

Born: 17 March 1912, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Died: 24 August 1978, Manhattan, New York, United States of America

Civil Rights Icon who is now also remembered as an LGBT+ Icon.

He designed the March on Washington and many other Civil Rights activities with Martin Luther King Jr in the 1960's. Most Civil Rights leaders of the time were making front page news all the time but not so with Bayard. Besides the fact he was a semi-closeted gay man, he also had former ties to the Communist Party. He had a hard childhood as well, having no relationship with his father and being raised by his grandparents. His mother was sixteen when he was born and he assumed she was his sister for a long time.

In 2013 President Barrack Obama posthumously awarded Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Who, the What, and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History by Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt LaMothe

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/100-amazing-facts/who-designed-the-march-on-washington/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6137908/bayard-taylor-rustin

4) Paul Rusesabinga

4) Paul Rusesabinga

Human Rights Activist in his native Rwanda

Born: 15 June 1954, Ruanda-Urundi (Present-day Rwanda and Burundi)

Paul is a Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient for his heroic actions in saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide. He was able to do so because at the time (in 1994) he was the manager of a high end hotel in Rwanda. The genocide killed over 800,000 innocent people of the Tutsi and Hutu tribes in around 100 days. Among those saved were his own Tutsi wife and children. He has been called the "Rwandan Schindler" for his actions. The Hollywood Film Hotel Rwanda tells the heartbreaking story.

In the years since he has founded the HRRF (Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation) to provide comfort, support, assistance, and care to orphaned children and abused women who were hurt during the genocide.

In 2020, news broke that Paul was arrested and charged with terrorism, murder, and other high crimes in his native Rwanda. Paul had been living in Texas in the United States, but flew to Dubai in August of 2020. Paul's family believes he was kidnapped and taken to Rwanda against his will, and that the charges against him are not only false, but further proof of the tense political climate still present in Rwanda. Paul and his family are on opposing sides of the political aisle from the current president of Rwanda, and so his family believes Paul is simply the latest in a long line of political opponents to have been illegally arrested by the president.

Paul is set to stand trial on the 26th of January 2021. If he is found guilty, Paul is likely to be sentenced to a jail sentence that he will not survive.

As of the end of 2021, Paul is still being held in prison. His daughters and wife have now begun to beg various governments, including the United States and the United Kingdom, to intervene on behalf of Paul, but so far he remains in prison. His family can speak to him for five minutes over the phone once a week, with the Rwandan government listening in. They claim he has been in solitary confinement for three months and that his cell's mattress is littered with bed bugs.

He was eventually sentenced to a twenty-five year sentence on terrorism charges.

In March of 2023, Paul was released from prison and returned to the United States soon after. The Rwandan government had decided to commute his sentence and release him early. Eighteen other prisoners who were sentenced alongside Paul were also released.

Finally, a happy ending to a story!

Sources:

http://fordschool.umich.edu/events/2014/20-years-after-rwandan-genocide-paul-rusesabagina

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54147759

https://time.com/5924225/diplomats-family-push-for-release-of-detained-hotel-rwanda-hero/

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165886663/paul-rusesabagina-hotel-rwanda-hero-will-be-released-prison

4) Hertha Ayrton

4) Hertha Ayrton

Inventor and Electrical Engineer

Born: 28 April 1854, Portsea, United Kingdom

Died: 23 August 1923, Lancing, United Kingdom

Inventor and scientist who became the first woman to ever be proposed as a fellow to the Royal Society (in 1902). She was denied on the basis that she was a married woman and therefore had no legal status under British Law.

Hertha was awarded the Hughes Medal in 1906 becoming the first woman to ever be awarded it based entirely on her own merit. Her father died when she was little (and her mother was pregnant with the family’s eighth child) plunging them into poverty. Hertha was well educated though because her aunt and uncle owned a school in London. Although she should have been awarded a degree after finishing her studies in 1881 she wasn’t granted one because Cambridge didn’t give women degrees until 1948.

She would marry the man who taught her electricity and became stepmother to his four year old daughter before having a daughter of her own. Hertha and both her daughter and stepdaughter were ardent Suffragettes (with her biological daughter even getting arrested at one point for smashing windows for the cause). She was one of the first women to work with electricity and was good friends with Marie Curie. Hertha would register twenty-six patents in all; she would also invent a special fan used to help soldiers on the British Front of World War I fight off gas attacks.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

Sources:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/161799633/hertha-ayrton

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ayrton-hertha-marks

3) Specialist Fourth-Class Joseph LaPointe Jr

3: Specialist Fourth Class Joseph LaPointe Jr

Medal of Honor Recipient and Conscientious Objector

Born: 2 July 1948, Dayton, Ohio

Died: 2 June 1969, Vietnam

He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Vietnam.

Joseph enlisted as a Conscientious Objector in 1968 and served as a medic. When he was stationed in November he left behind his pregnant wife. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his brave actions in shielding and helping provide medical help to his comrades under heavy fire fighting.

Joseph was also awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://health.mil/Military-Health-Topics/Military-Medical-History/Military-Health-Medal-of-Honor-Recipients/Vietnam-Recipients/Sp4c-Joseph-Lapointe-Jr

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7862048/joseph-guy-lapointe

https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/2107

3) Ada, Countess of Lovelace

"The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves."

3) Ada, Countess of Lovelace

Computer Programmer Who Lived Nearly 100 Years Before Computers Were Actually Invented

Born: 10 December 1815, London, United Kingdom

Died: 27 November 1852, London, United Kingdom

Computer programmer and daughter of famed poet Lord Byron (Ada was his only legitimate child but her mother left her father weeks after Ada was born--Byron moved to Greece and died when Ada was eight with her never having seen him again).

Ada's mother insisted she was taught math and science by her tutors. Ada is known as one of the first computer programmers after she wrote extensive notes on the difference machine—which is considered one of the earliest computers—in the 1880’s.

Ada was married with three children and she passed away from uterine cancer after being put in dire financial straits from a gambling addiction.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Rejected Princess

Located In My Personal Library:
Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie

Uppity Women Speak Their Minds by Vicki León

Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky

Who Knew? Women in History: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman

The Book of Awesome Women: Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes, and Female Firsts by Becca Anderson

National Geographic History Magazine Article "Ada Lovelace, Programming Pioneer" by Katie Thornton (March/April 2022 Edition)

Sources:

https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/ada-lovelace

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6145300/augusta-ada-king

https://www.biography.com/scholar/ada-lovelace