837: Major Annie Fox The First Female Recipient of the United States’ Combat Purple Heart Born: 4 August 1893, Pubnico, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, Canada Died: 20 January 1987, San Francisco, California, United States of America Full Name: Annie Gayton Fox Annie served as the head nurse at Pearl Harbor, that fateful December day. She…
823: Dr. Oluwo Adedunmola What, Like Its Hard or Something? Born: c.1992, Nigeria Also Known As: Dr. Dedun Oluwo finished medical school while running four businesses before the age of twenty-four. Her story went semi-viral on the internet, and for good reason. Oluwo calls herself the Doctorpreneur. She didn’t have to repeat a single course…
“I don’t wear men’s clothes, I wear my own clothes.” 822: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker The Only Woman to Ever Receive the Medal of Honor (United States) Born: 26 November 1832, Oswego, New York, United States of America Died: 21 February 1919, Oswego, New York, United States of America Mary was an abolitionist, women’s rights…
“I have been thought mad—ridiculed and abused; but it is out of the power of man to change my way of thinking upon any subject.” 820: Hester Stanhope The Queen of the East Born: 12 March 1776, Chevening, Kent, England (Present-day United Kingdom) Died: 13 June 1839, Djoun, Ottoman Empire (Present-day Joun, Lebanon) Hester became…
“Every scientist dreams of doing something that can help the world.” 796: Tu Youyou Pharmaceutical Chemist Born: 30 December 1930, Zhejiang Ningbo, China Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2015. She is the chief scientist at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (where she has worked since 1965). Youyou pioneered a…
“It’s going to be hard work whether you think it’s fun or not, so you might as well have fun while you’re doing the hard work.” 795: Dr. Carol Greider Molecular Biologist Born: 15 April 1961, San Diego, California, United States of America Full Name: Carolyn Widney Greider Carol won the Nobel Prize in Physiology…
“I don’t care what they say about me. I know my work is good.” 786: Mary Higby Schweitzer Paleontologist Who Made an Astonishing Discovery Born: c.1955, Montana, United States of America Mary discovered blood vessels and structures that looked like whole cells inside a 68-million-year-old t-rex fossil. Mary has also found organic material in a…
“In these days of great trouble and unrest, it is good to have something outside our own planet, something fine and distant and comforting to troubled minds. Let people look to the stars for comfort.” 779: Annie Jump Cannon Astronomer and Categorizer of the Stars Born: 11 December 1863, Dover, Delaware, United States of America…
775: Gertrude Bell The Queen of the Desert Born: 14 July 1868, Washington, England, United Kingdom Died: 12 July 1926, Baghdad, Iraq Gertrude helped map Iraq for the British government while simultaneously helping found the modern version of the country in the aftermath of World War I. Gertrude grew up in a well to do…
“What a wonderful revolution! In 1861 the Southern papers were full of advertisements for ‘slaves,’ but now, despite all the hindrances and ‘race problems,’ my people are striving to attain the full standard of all other races born free in the sight of God, and in a number of instances have succeeded. Justice we ask–to…