THOSE WHO DARED

Why do we break the rules?

We break rules for any number of reasons...

“Those Who Dared” is a tribute to people who had the courage to risk everything - their reputations, their futures, even their lives - to improve the human condition. Who chose to challenge the norms for the advancement and/or benefit of humanity, who "pushed the envelope" to test social rules, and who just wanted to do the right thing regardless of the consequences.

These 60 rule breakers came from all walks of life - social activists, painters, singers, musicians, actors, poets, writers, scientists, astronauts, politicians, journalists, and even royalty. They brought about social reform, fought to defend their country, demanded equal rights for women, indigenous peoples, minorities, people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Their discoveries led to advancements in medicine, science, and space travel. They warned us about climate change. They advocated for animal welfare, and influenced cultural change through art, music, and fashion.

These are my 60 who broke the rules.*

ALAN MATHISON TURING (1912 – 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science.

During World War II, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Britain's codebreaking centre that produced Ultra intelligence. He led Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. Turing devised techniques for speeding the breaking of German ciphers, including improvements to the pre-war Polish bomba method, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. He played a crucial role in cracking intercepted messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Axis powers in the Battle of the Atlantic and other engagements.

After the war, Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory, where he designed the Automatic Computing Engine, one of the first designs for a stored-program computer. In 1948, Turing joined Max Newman's Computing Machine Laboratory at the University of Manchester, where he contributed to the development of early Manchester computers and became interested in mathematical biology. Turing wrote on the chemical basis of morphogenesis and predicted oscillating chemical reactions such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, first observed in the 1960s. Despite these accomplishments, he was never fully recognised during his lifetime because much of his work was covered by the Official Secrets Act.

In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts. He accepted hormone treatment, a procedure commonly referred to as chemical castration, as an alternative to prison. Turing died on 7 June 1954, aged 41, from cyanide poisoning. An inquest determined his death as suicide, but the evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning. Following a campaign in 2009, British prime minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology for "the appalling way [Turing] was treated". Queen Elizabeth II granted a pardon in 2013. The term "Alan Turing law" is used informally to refer to a 2017 law in the UK that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

Turing left an extensive legacy in mathematics and computing which has become widely recognised with statues and many things named after him, including an annual award for computing innovation. His portrait appears on the Bank of England £50 note, first released on 23 June 2021 to coincide with his birthday. The audience vote in a 2019 BBC series named Turing the greatest scientist of the 20th century.

ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879 – 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation".

He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effects.

In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Horrified by the Nazi persecution of his fellow Jews, he decided to remain in the US, and was granted American citizenship in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending that the US begin similar research, later carried out as the Manhattan Project.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER (1875 – 1965) was a German polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.

As a Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the historical Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary.

The keynote of Schweitzer's personal philosophy, which he considered to be his greatest contribution to mankind, was the idea of Reverence for Life (Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben). He thought that Western civilization was decaying because it had abandoned affirmation of life as its ethical foundation. Schweitzer received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy which was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné with the $33,000 prize money.

From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. In 1957 and 1958, he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo, which were published in "Peace or Atomic War".

In 1955, he was made an honorary member of the Order of Merit (OM) by Queen Elizabeth II. He was also a chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.

ANNELIES MARIE FRANK (1929 – c.1945) was a German-born Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim. She gained worldwide notability posthumously for keeping a diary documenting her life in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. In the diary, she regularly described her family's everyday life in their hiding place in a secret annex in Amsterdam from 1942 until their arrest in 1944.

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929. In 1934, when she was four-and-a-half, Frank and her family moved to Amsterdam after Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party was elected to govern Germany. By May 1940, her family were trapped in Amsterdam due to Germany's occupation. Frank lost her German citizenship in 1941 and became stateless. Despite spending most of her life in the Netherlands and being a de facto Dutch national, she never officially became a Dutch citizen. As persecution of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in a secret annex concealed behind a bookcase in the building where Frank's father, Otto Frank, worked. The family were arrested two years later by the Gestapo, on 4 August 1944.

Following their arrest, the Franks were transported to concentration camps. On November 1, 1944, Anne and her sister Margot were transferred from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died (presumably of typhus) a few months later. The Red Cross estimated that they died in March 1945, with Dutch authorities setting 31 March as the official date. Later research has alternatively suggested that they may have died in February or early March.

Otto Frank, the only Holocaust survivor in the family, returned to Amsterdam after World War II to find that Anne's diary had been saved by his secretaries, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Moved by his daughter's repeated wishes to be an author, Otto Frank published her diary in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch version and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl and has since been translated into over 70 languages. With the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne became one of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. One of the world's best-known books, Anne's diary is the basis for several plays and films.

ARTEMESIA GENTILESCHI (1593 – 1654) was a 17th-century Italian Baroque painter known for her dramatic history paintings, powerful depictions of biblical and mythological heroines, and mastery of light and shadow. As a pioneering female artist, she was the first woman accepted into Florence's fine arts academy and achieved major international success during her lifetime.

Artemsia studied painting with her father, respected painter Orazio Gentileschi and his friend the landscape painter Agostino Tassi.

In 1611 Gentileschi was raped by Tassi, and, when he did not fulfill his promise to marry her, in 1612 Orazio Gentileschi brought him to trial. During that event Artemisia Gentileschi was forced, under torture, to give evidence of her rape. Tassi was found guilty and was exiled from Rome, but the sentence was never enforced.

While in Florence Gentileschi began to develop her own distinct style, specializing in history painting which depicted scenes from the Bible, history, and mythology giving female subjects raw agency, emotion, and strength.

A few of her most famous paintings depict the biblical story of Judith, a young Jewish widow who saves her besieged city of Bethulia from an Assyrian army by beheading its general, Holofernes. Gentileschi made at least five paintings of the story, three showing Judith and her maidservant, traditionally called Abra, with the decapitated head (1618–19, c. 1623–25, and 1639/40). These stagings only suggest the violence the women have undertaken. Two other variations, Judith Slaying Holofernes (c. 1612–13) and Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1620), depict the actual decapitation portraying the women in more-aggressive poses, with their sleeves rolled up for the terrible task. Abra is holding down the drunken Holofernes while Judith is gripping the hair on his head with her left hand and confidently cutting through his neck with his own sword. Blood surges from Holofernes’ laceration showing the blood splattering onto Judith’s fine dress and soaking the bedsheets.

For centuries the work was thought crude, perhaps because of the perceived theatricality of the blood but more probably because of the decidedly unladylike, though realistic, depiction of two women committing murder. 

ARTHUR C. CLARKE CBE FRAS (1917 – 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.

Clarke was an avid populariser of space travel, a futurist of distinguished ability, and an avid populariser of space travel. In 1934, while still a teenager, he joined the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). In 1945, he proposed a satellite communication system using geostationary orbits. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize, a UNESCO award for popularising science.

Clarke's science and science fiction writings earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His science fiction writings in particular earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which, along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre. For many years, science fiction had a "Big Three", comprising Clarke and American writers Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.

Clarke's most famous book is 2001: Space Odessy and he co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film. It is widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time.

2001: A Space Odyssey is an epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, who co-wrote the screenplay with Clarke. Its plot was inspired by several short stories optioned from Clarke, primarily The Sentinel and Encounter in the Dawn.

The film is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of spaceflight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous themes. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

AUGUSTA ADA KING, Countess of Lovelace (1815 – 1852), also known as Ada Lovelace, was an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She was the first to recognise the machine had applications beyond pure calculation. Lovelace is often considered the first computer programmer.

Although often ill in childhood, Lovelace pursued her studies assiduously. Lovelace's educational and social exploits brought her into contact with scientists such as Andrew Crosse, Charles Babbage, David Brewster, Charles Wheatstone and Michael Faraday, and the author Charles Dickens, contacts which she used to further her education.

At age 18, Lovelace's mathematical talents led her to a long working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage. She was particularly interested in Babbage's work on the analytical engine.

Though Babbage's analytical engine was never constructed and did not influence the invention of electronic computers, it has been recognised as a Turing-complete general-purpose computer, which anticipated the essential features of a modern electronic computer. Babbage is therefore known as the "father of computers," and Lovelace is credited with several computing "firsts" for her collaboration with him. Lovelace translated an article by the military engineer Luigi Menabrea about the analytical engine, supplementing it with seven long explanatory notes describing a method of using the machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers which is often called the first published computer program.

She developed a vision of the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching. Lovelace was the first to point out the possibility of encoding information besides mere arithmetical figures, such as music, and manipulating it with such a machine. Her mindset of "poetical science" led her to ask questions about the analytical engine, examining how individuals and society relate to technology as a collaborative tool.

Ada is widely commemorated, including in the names of a programming language, roads, buildings and institutes, as well as programmes, lectures and courses. There are plaques, statues, paintings, literary and non-fiction works about her.

THE BEATLES were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the most influential band in popular music and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form.

The core trio of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, together since 1958, went through a succession of drummers before inviting Starr to join them in 1962. Manager Brian Epstein moulded them into a professional act, and producer George Martin developed their recordings, greatly expanding their domestic success after they signed with EMI and achieved their first hit, "Love Me Do", in late 1962. As their popularity grew into the intense fan frenzy dubbed "Beatlemania", the band acquired the nickname "the Fab Four". By early 1964, the Beatles were international stars and had achieved unprecedented levels of critical and commercial success. They became a leading force in Britain's cultural resurgence, ushering in the British Invasion of the United States pop market. They soon made their film debut with A Hard Day's Night (1964).

As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

The band received many accolades, including eight Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, 1988, and each principal member was individually inducted between 1994 and 2015. In 2004 and 2011, the group topped Rolling Stone's lists of the greatest artists in history. Time magazine named them among the 20th century's 100 most important people.

BOB DYLAN (1941) born Robert Allen Zimmerman is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 69-year career. With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians.

Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

Dylan's 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home, was a huge leap, featuring his first recordings with electric instrument. The first single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", owed much to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business", its free-association lyrics described as harking back to the energy of beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and hip-hop.

In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power".

Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2012. President Barack Obama, presenting Dylan with the award, said "There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music."

CARL RAY (1943 - 1978) Cree artist, illustrator, editor and art teacher born in Sandy Lake, ON. Ray was known for his innovative paintings in the Woodlands style and was a founding member of the Indian Group of Seven.

After leaving a residential school in McIntosh at age 15 when his father died, Ray worked as a trapper, logger and goldminer to make his living. He began to paint during this time; he has been described as a self-taught painter.

Ray left Sandy Lake to work at the Red Lake mines. He contracted tuberculosis, eventually recovering in the Fort William sanatorium. He used painting as a form of occupational therapy. Ray returned to Sandy Lake in 1966.

In his early career, Carl Ray became friend and apprentice to Ojibwe artist Norval Morrisseau, often credited as the creator of the Woodlands School of art. The Woodlands style of art depicts traditional Indigenous legends as well as the relationships between people, animals and the supernatural. It is for these reasons that Woodlands art is also sometimes called Legend Painting or Medicine Painting. Though Woodlands artists do not paint in a uniform style, they are known for creating pieces characterized by bright colours and black form lines. They also have a unique X-ray style of painting, often showing the organs and internal energy lines of an animal or mythical figure.

In 1972, three Woodlands school artists —Jackson Beardy, Alex Janvier and Daphne Odjig— were part of a ground-breaking exhibition entitled Treaty Numbers 23, 287, 1171 that was on display in Winnipeg. The numbers in the exhibition’s title referred to the artists’ respective band numbers, assigned after certain treaties had been signed between their First Nations and the Canadian government.

In 1973, following the success of the exhibition, the artists, along with Carl Ray, Norval Morrisseau, Eddy Cobiness and Joseph Sanchez, formed the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., also known as the Indian Group of Seven.

As a founding member of the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., Ray’s visibility in the Canadian art scene increased.

Carl Ray died after being stabbed during a fight in Sioux Lookout in 1978. He was 35 years old. His work has influenced Indigenous art in Canada and can be found in the collections of various galleries and museums across the country.

CHIEF DAN GEORGE (1899 – 1981) was a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band whose Indian reserve is located on Burrard Inlet in the southeast area of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He also was an actor, musician, poet and author. The Chief's best-known written work is My Heart Soars.

He also was an actor, musician, poet and author. The Chief's best-known written work is “My Heart Soars”. As an actor, he is best remembered for portraying Old Lodge Skins opposite Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and for his role in The Outlaw Josey Wales, as Lone Watie, opposite Clint Eastwood.

During his acting career, he worked to promote better understanding by non-aboriginals of the First Nations people. His soliloquy, “Lament for Confederation”, an indictment of the appropriation of native territory by European colonialism, was performed at the City of Vancouver's celebration of the Canadian Centennial in 1967. This speech is credited with escalating native political activism in Canada and touching off widespread pro-native sentiment among non-natives.

DAVID TAKAYOSHI SUZUKI CC, OBC, (1936) geneticist, broadcaster, environmental activist, born in Vancouver, BC. A Japanese Canadian, David Suzuki was interned with his family during the Second World War. He later became one of Canada’s most popular scientists and media personalities.

He is best known as the host of the longest-running science show on television, CBC’s "The Nature of Things", and for his work as an environmental activist.

Some point to the CBC special "A Planet for the Taking" as the moment when Suzuki's activism intensified. In the eight-part series, which aired in 1985, Suzuki travelled the world, examining humans’ relationship to the Earth. In 1990, he established the David Suzuki Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes solutions to environmental problems. This cemented his place as one of Canada’s most recognizable and vocal environmentalists.

Suzuki has received ACTRA’s John Drainie Award for broadcasting excellence and the Canadian Screen Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. A Companion of the Order of Canada, he has also received the Order of British Columbia and been inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

DIANA SPENCER (1961 – 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her enduring popularity.

Diana was born into the British nobility and grew up close to the royal family, living at Park House on their Sandringham estate. In 1981, while working as a nursery teacher's assistant, she became engaged to Charles, Prince of Wales. Their wedding took place in 1981making her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana's marriage to Charles suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. They separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. The couple divorced in 1996.

As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of the Queen and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her beauty, style, charm, and for her unconventional approach to charity work. She became known for her involvement in two particular campaigns: one involved the social attitudes towards and the acceptance of AIDS patients, the other for the international removal of landmines, promoted through the International Red Cross. She also raised awareness and advocated for ways to help people affected by cancer and mental illness. Diana's charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the public collapse of her marriage.

In August 1997, Diana died after a car crash in Paris; the incident led to extensive public mourning and global media attention. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing due to gross negligence by a driver and the paparazzi pursuing her as found in Operation Paget, an investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Her legacy has had a significant impact on the royal family and British society.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884 – 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest serving first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms as president from 1933 to 1945.

Roosevelt was a member of the prominent and wealthy Roosevelt and Livingston families and a niece of President Theodore Roosevelt. She married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905The Roosevelts' marriage became complicated after Eleanor discovered her husband's affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer, in 1918. After that, both partners started to keep independent agendas, and Eleanor joined the Women's Trade Union League and became active in the New York state Democratic Party. Roosevelt helped persuade her husband to stay in politics after he was stricken with a paralytic illness in 1921.

After Franklin's election as governor of New York in 1928, and throughout the Franklin's four terms as present, Roosevelt redefined the role of First Lady, serving in the White House from 1933 to 1945. She acted as the "eyes and ears" for the president by traveling across the country and reporting on public needs. She held exclusive press conferences for women journalists to help secure their jobs in major news outlets. She Wrote a popular daily newspaper column called "My Day" to share her views.

Roosevelt campaigned openly for racial justice and anti-lynching laws. She resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939 after they barred Black singer Marian Anderson from performing, arranging instead for Anderson's famous open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Roosevelt was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations General Assembly by President Harry S. Truman in 1945. She chaired the UN Human Rights Commission and led the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and she was given a standing ovation by the assembly upon their adoption of the declaration.

President Harry S. Truman called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

ELIJAH HARPER OM, (1949 - 2013) Oji-Cree politician, consultant, policy analyst who is best known for the role he played in scuttling the Meech Lake Accord, for which he was named the Canadian Press newsmaker of the year in 1990. Harper also served as the Minister for Northern Affairs. From 1993 to 1997 he represented the riding of Churchill in the federal parliament.

Like many Indigenous children of his generation, he was forcibly removed from his family at a young age and sent to residential schools. IIn the early 1970's, Harper attended the University of Manitoba, but he left to became a community development worker and researcher for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood. Harper later served as a program analyst for the Department of Northern Affairs until his election as Chief of the Red Sucker Lake Indian Band (now Red Sucker Lake First Nation) in 1978.

Harper entered provincial politics in 1981 when he ran for election as MLA for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the riding of Rupertsland. Harper joined the Cabinet in 1986 as minister without portfolio responsible for Native Affairs. A few months later he became minister of Northern Affairs for Manitoba.

In 1990, Harper rose to national prominence for his opposition to the Meech Lake Accord. Harper initiated procedural delays in the Manitoba legislature that threatened to extend the vote beyond 23 June 1990, the deadline established for the accord. The Manitoba premier, Gary Filmon, needed all MLAs to approve the procedure for ratifying the accord. Eight separate times Harper refused to give his consent, on the grounds that First Nations had not been consulted or recognized in the constitutional discussions around the Meech Lake Accord. When the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba adjourned on 22 June, it had not voted on the accord. Clyde Wells, in response to Harper's initiative, refused to take a vote in Newfoundland and Labrador, arguing that the situation in Manitoba made it irrelevant. As a result, the deadline passed and the accord collapsed. Harper made news stories across the country, and the Canadian Press voted him

Elijah Harper entered federal politics in 1993 when he was elected as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Churchill. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for that riding until 1997. In 1999 he was appointed a commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission. He continued to support initiatives to improve the lives of First Nations peoples and was involved in humanitarian and charitable causes abroad.

ELIZABETH FRY (1780 – 1845) was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the treatment of prisoners, especially female inmates, and as such has been called the "Angel of Prisons". Fry kept extensive diaries, in which she wrote explicitly of the need to protect female prisoners from rape and sexual abuse. Today, the Elizabeth Fry Society offers practical, supportive programs and services for women and gender-diverse people who have been or may become involved in the criminal justice system

ELVIS PRESLEY (1935 – 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Presley's energetic and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.

Presley is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold an estimated 500 million records worldwide. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been posthumously inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

THE FAMOUS FIVE also known as The Valiant Five and initially as The Alberta Five, were five prominent Canadian suffragists who advocated for women and children: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy, and Irene Parlby. On August 27, 1927, they petitioned the federal government of Canada to refer the issue of the eligibility of women to be senator to the Supreme Court of Canada. This petition was the foundation of the Persons Case, a leading constitutional decision. Although most Canadian women had the vote in federal elections and all provinces but Quebec by 1927, the case was part of a larger drive for political equality. This was the first step towards equality for women in Canada and was the start to the first wave of feminism.

FREDDIE MERCURY (1946 – 1991) was a British singer and songwriter who achieved global fame as the lead vocalist and pianist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, he is known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury defied the conventions of a rock frontman with his theatrical style, influencing the artistic direction of Queen.

Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. He continued to record with Queen, and was posthumously featured on their final album, Made in Heaven (1995). In 1991, the day after publicly announcing his diagnosis, he died from complications of the disease at the age of 45. In 1992, a concert in tribute to him was held at Wembley Stadium, in benefit of AIDS awareness.

FRIDA KAHLO (1907 – 1954) s renowned as a Mexican painter celebrated for her raw, autobiographical self-portraits exploring identity, pain, gender, and postcolonialism. She is famous for blending realism with surrealism, showcasing Mexican culture, and for her defiant, feminist, and LGBTQI persona.

Kahlo suffered for the rest of her life from a bus accident in her youth, in which several passengers were killed. Frida was impaled by an iron handrail that went through her pelvis. The handrail was removed which was incredibly painful for Kahlo. She later described the injury as "the way a sword pierces a bull". She spent much of her life in hospitals and undergoing surgery, much of it performed by quacks who Kahlo believed could restore her back to where she had been before the accident.

In 1929, she painted "The Bus", alluding to her accident: visible are the passengers sitting on benches as well as the man in the blue overalls who removed the piece of handrail that pierced her body and another passenger, holding what could be a bag of gold dust which was scattered over Frida's naked body during the crash.

Her 1940 self-portrait titled The Dream (The Bed) holds the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever auctioned at $54.7 million. The painting shows Kahlo asleep in a wooden bed that appears to float among clouds, wrapped in vines and leaves, while a papier-mâché skeleton wired with sticks of dynamite lies on the canopy above her. Commentators have connected the imagery to Kahlo's chronic pain and long periods of enforced bed rest following her near-fatal bus accident in her youth, and to her preoccupation with the line between sleep and death.

GALILEO DI VINCENZO BONAIUTI DE' GALILEI (1564 – 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science.

According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo probably bears more of the responsibility for the birth of modern science than anybody else, and Albert Einstein called him the father of modern science. In a foreword to “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”, Einstein wrote: "The leitmotif I recognize in Galileo's work is the passionate fight against any kind of dogma based on authority. Only experience and careful reflection are accepted by him as criteria of truth.

GEORGE ORWELL (1903 – 1950) born Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both authoritarian communism and fascism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime".

In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE (1887 – 1986) was an American modernist painter and draftswoman whose career spanned seven decades and whose work remained largely independent of major art movements. Called the "Mother of American modernism", O'Keeffe gained international recognition for her paintings of natural forms, particularly flowers, hills and desert-inspired landscapes, which were often drawn from and related to places and environments in which she lived.

In 1922, journalist Paul Rosenfeld commented "[the] Essence of very womanhood permeates her pictures", citing her use of color and shapes as metaphors for the female body. This same article also describes her paintings in a sexual manner. O'Keeffe, most famous for her depiction of flowers, made about 200 flower paintings, which by the mid-1920s were large-scale depictions of flowers, as if seen through a magnifying lens, such as Oriental Poppies and several Red Canna paintings. She painted her first large-scale flower painting, Petunia, No. 2, in 1924 and it was first exhibited in 1925. Making magnified depictions of objects created a sense of awe and emotional intensity.

GLORIA STEINEM (1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Also in 1972, Steinem became the first woman to speak at the National Press Club.

Steinem was a columnist for New York magazine, and co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation," which brought her national attention and positioned her as a feminist leader. In 1971, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus which provides training and support for women who seek elected and appointed offices in government. Also in 1971, she co-founded the Women's Action Alliance which, until 1997, provided support to a network of feminist activists and worked to advance feminist causes and legislation. In the 1990s, Steinem helped establish Take Our Daughters to Work Day, an occasion for young girls to learn about future career opportunities.[8] In 2005, Steinem, Jane Fonda, and Robin Morgan co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that "works to make women visible and powerful in the media."

HARVEY MILK (1930 – 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California he led the gay rights movement  in battles against anti-gay initiatives. Milk was elected city supervisor in 1977 after San Francisco began to choose neighborhood representatives rather than city-wide ones.

During Milk's almost eleven months in office, he sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing, and employment. The supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11–1, and Mayor George Moscone  signed it into law.

On November 27, 1978, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor who cast the sole vote against Milk's bill.

Despite his short political career, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the LGBTQ community. In 2002, Milk was called "the most famous and most significant openly LGBTQ official ever elected in the United States". Anne Kronenberg, his final campaign manager, wrote of him: "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us." Milk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

HELEN ADAMS KELLER (1880 – 1968) was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University. In 1904, at the age of 24, Keller graduated from Radcliffe as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, becoming the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree[

Keller was also a prolific author, writing 14 books and hundreds of speeches and essays on topics ranging from animals to Mahatma Gandhi. Keller campaigned for those with disabilities and for women's suffrage, labor rights, and world peace. In 1909, she joined the Socialist Party of America (SPA). She was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

HENRY WELLS (1805 – 1878) was an American businessman important in the history of both the American Express Company and Wells Fargo & Company. Wells worked as a freight agent before joining the express business. His companies, which were the predecessors of American Express and Wells Fargo, competed with the United States Post Office by carrying mail at less than the government rate.

Wells was the founder of Wells College in Aurora, New York. Established in 1868 as Wells Seminary, a women's college in pursuit of promoting higher education for women, a goal which he called "the dream of my life".

In 1875, Wells stated in an address that he founded the college with the hope it would "always be conducted on truly Christian principles". On March 28, 1868, the college was incorporated by the New York State Legislature for the purpose of "promoting the higher education of young women in literature, science and the arts". In 1870, the seminary's name was changed to Wells College. Over its first ten years, the college's enrollment grew from 34 to 170 students.

JACKIE ROOSEVELT ROBINSON (1919 – 1972) was an American professional baseball player who was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers signing Robinson heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.

He was better known for football than he was for baseball, becoming a star with the UCLA Bruins football team. Following his college career, Robinson was drafted for service during World War II, but was court-martialed for refusing to sit at the back of a segregated Army bus, eventually being honorably discharged. Afterwards, he signed with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues, where he caught the eye of Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who thought he would be the perfect candidate for breaking the MLB color line.

During his 10-year MLB career, Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, was an All-Star for six consecutive seasons from 1949 through 1954, and won the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first Black player so honored. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Series championship. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 in his first year of eligibility.

Robinson's character, his use of nonviolence, and his talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation that had then marked many other aspects of American life. He influenced the culture of and contributed significantly to the civil rights movement. Robinson also was the first Black television analyst in MLB and the first Black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full o'Nuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, a Black American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York.

After his death in 1972, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his achievements on and off the field.

In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number, 42, across all Major League teams; he was the first professional athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears the number 42.

JAMES LEO EGAN (1921 – 2000) was a Canadian LGBT rights activist known for his role in the landmark Supreme Court of Canada case Egan v. Canada. He is considered Canada's first prominent LGBT activist, due to his initial period of activism from 1949 to 1964.

Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Egan realized he was gay at a young age. He met John Norris "Jack" Nesbit, his lifelong partner, in 1948.

Egan is known for his prolific letter writing. He wrote hundreds of letters, articles, and op-ed pieces to magazines and newspapers advocating equal rights for and criticizing inaccurate portrayals of lesbian and gay people, and to politicians, advocating for fairer treatment of lesbians and gays under the law.

His first real success in writing came in November–December 1951, when his seven-part series “Aspects of Homosexuality” was published in the Toronto tabloid True News Times (TNT). No longer just writing letters of complaint, Egan now had a platform to publish overviews of same-sex desire through history, legal and scientific aspects of homosexuality, and the need for more tolerance — all of which was heavily influenced by his reading. Egan intended to counter what he considered outright lies and distortions in the press, and to challenge what he called “the conspiracy of silence” surrounding the truth about homosexuality. This represented a key moment in the history of gay journalism in Canada: the first published long articles written from a gay point of view.

He was also one of the first openly gay politicians to serve in Canada. Egan is best remembered for a court challenge he and his partner, Jack Nesbit, launched against the spousal allowance benefit under the Old Age Security Act in 1988. The court ruled against Egan on the issue of spousal benefits, finding that the restriction of such benefits to heterosexual couples was a justified infringement because the core purpose of such benefits was to provide financial support to women who had spent their lives raising children rather than in paid employment — however, they ruled unanimously to include sexual orientation as a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The latter ruling was seen as a significant victory for LGBT rights in Canada despite the loss on the benefits issue itself, setting the stage for later successes in the courts.

DAME JANE GOODALL (1934 – 2025) was an English primatologist and anthropologist. She transformed our understanding of animal intelligence and emotion. Regarded as a pioneer in primate ethology, and described by many publications as "the world's preeminent chimpanzee expert", she was best known for more than six decades of field research on the social and family life of wild chimpanzees in the Kasakela chimpanzee community at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania.

In 1958, Louis Leakey, the famed Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier. Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960 Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called the Trimates. She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety. Goodall credits her mother with encouraging her to pursue a career in primatology, a male-dominated field at the time. Goodall said that women were not accepted in the field when she started her research in the late 1950s. As of 2019 the field of primatology is made up almost evenly of men and women, in part thanks to the trailblazing work of Goodall and her encouragement of young women to join the field.

Goodall's research at Gombe Stream challenged two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians.

Goodall set herself apart from convention by naming the animals in her studies of primates instead of assigning each a number. Numbering was a nearly universal practice at the time and was thought to be important in avoiding emotional attachment to the subject being studied and thus losing objectivity. Setting herself apart from other researchers also led her to develop a close bond with the chimpanzees and to become the only human ever accepted into chimpanzee society.

In 1977 Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she was a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats.

Among her many awards, in 2022 Goodall received the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication for her long-term study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees.

In April 2023, Goodall was awarded as Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in a ceremony in The Hague, the Netherlands.[118][119]

In January 2025 Goodall was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Joe Biden.

In December 2025, PETA posthumously gave her their "Person of the Year" award, commemorating her "legacy of kindness.

 JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960 – 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement.

Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al Diaz, writing enigmatic epigrams all over Manhattan, particularly in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side where disco, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop culture. By the early 1980s, his paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. At 22, he became one of the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his artwork in 1992.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER (1952) is an iconic French fashion designer known as the "enfant terrible" of fashion for his unconventional, avant-garde designs. He revolutionized the industry with gender-fluid styles, corsets, sailor stripes (marinières), and pop-culture influences, notably creating Madonna’s cone bra.

JOHN MILTON CAGE Jr. (1912 – 1992) was an American composer, artist, and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.

KATHRN HEPBURN (1907 – 2003) was an American actress whose career as a leading lady on stage and screen spanned six decades. Known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, she cultivated a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly played strong-willed, sophisticated women.

With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn came to epitomize the "modern woman" in 20th-century America and influenced changing popular perceptions of women. In 1999, she was named the greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.

LAURA SECORD (1775 – 1868) was a Canadian woman involved in the War of 1812. She is known for having walked 20 miles (32 km) out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada.

The story of Laura Secord has taken on mythic overtones in Canada. Her tale has been the subject of books, plays, and poetry, often with many embellishments. Since her death, Canada has bestowed honours on her, including schools named after her, monuments, a museum, a memorial stamp and coin, and a statue at the Valiants Memorial in the Canadian capital.

LÉA ROBACK (1903 – 2000) was a Canadian trade union organizer, social activist, pacifist, and feminist. She campaigned against exclusion, violence, racism, and injustice. A polyglot and suffragist, she was a pioneer of feminism in Quebec.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, on Guilbault Street in 1903, the second of nine children, she was the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants. Her father was a tailor who, along with his wife, Fanny, ran a general store. They were the only Jews in Beauport, the town in which Roback grew up. She spoke Yiddish at home, French with Beauport locals, and English at school. 

In 1929, she went to Berlin to visit her brother Henri, a medical student. She learned the German language, took university courses, and taught English to pay for her classes. She also visited England and Italy, developing a strong commitment to Communism. On May 1, 1929, during her time in Berlin, Roback joined the Communist Party of Germany. She felt seduced by the socialists, but she believed they did not put their words into action, hence she shifted her support to Marxism-Leninism. In her 1988 interview with Nicole Lacelle, Roback said that it was during that period that she gained genuine political consciousness.

In the fall of 1932, with the Nazi Party steadily gaining power, Roback, a Jew, foreigner, and communist, was left to return to Montreal on the advice of her professors, whereupon she joined the Communist Party of Canada. She participated in the organization of the unemployed, which was led by Norman Bethune. She also worked at the Young Women's Hebrew Association. In 1935, she established the first Marxist bookshop in Montreal, Modern Book Shop, on Bleury Street.

With Thérèse Casgrain, Roback fought for woman's suffrage in Quebec in 1936. ŧhe same year, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union dispatched Rose Pesotta, a veteran union organizer from New York, to establish the ILGWU in Montreal. She was aided by Roback, and she ultimately helped organize 5,000 garment workers, who had been on a three-week strike in 1937.

Roback helped unionize RCA Victor in 1941, where she remained until 1951. She won the first union contract for women in 1943 but did not want to become a union representative or climb up the union power structure.

In 1960, she became a member and played an active role in the organization "Voice of Women" (La Voix des Femmes in Montreal) alongside Madeleine Parent, Thérèse Casgrain, and Simonne Monet-Chartrand. She denounced the Vietnam War and apartheid in South Africa, campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and was a proponent of free access to a quality education. A feminist, she fought to obtain the right to vote for the right to abortion and access to contraception. Roback also fought for the residents of Saint-Henri to receive decent housing.

At the age of 83 and in the pouring rain, she participated in the women's march for pay equity. In 1985, she became an honorary member of the Canadian Institute for Research on Women. She died in Côte-des-Neiges in 2000, becoming a Knight (Chevalier) of the National Order of Quebec in the same year.

In September 2023, Roback was one of three Quebec feminists and trade unionists, along with Madeleine Parent and Simonne Monet-Chartrand, honoured by Canada Post with a postage stamp.

LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452 – 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology.

Leonardo is widely regarded as a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal,[4] and his collective works contributed to the development of European art to an extent rivalled only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.

LOUIE RIEL (1844 – 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Metis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first prime minister John A. Macdonald. Riel fought to defend Métis rights and identity as the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence.

MADONNA LOUISE CICCONE (1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Queen of Pop", she is known for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation. Her works incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes and have generated both controversy and critical acclaim.

Madonna has had a significant socio-cultural impact across both the 20th and 21st centuries and is often deemed one of the greatest musicians of all time.

Her second album's title track, "Like a Virgin", was selected as its lead single. It was her first number one on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for six consecutive weeks. "Like a Virgin" attracted the attention of conservative organizations, who complained that the song and its accompanying video promoted premarital sex and undermined family values; moralists sought to have the song and video banned.

Madonna attracted significant media attention for her performance of the song at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Dressed in a wedding gown and white gloves, she appeared atop a large wedding cake before moving across the stage in a provocative manner.[59] MTV News later described the performance as one of the most iconic in pop music history.

MOHANDAS KARAMCHANG GANDHI (1869 – 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.

Gandhi grew up in a home steeped in religion, and he took for granted religious tolerance and the doctrine of ahimsa (noninjury to all living beings). He studied law in England from 1888 to 1891, and in 1893 he took a job with an Indian firm in South Africa. There he became an effective advocate for Indian rights.

In 1906 he first put into action satyagraha, his technique of nonviolent resistance. His success in South Africa gave him an international reputation, and in 1915 he returned to India and within a few years became the leader of a nationwide struggle for Indian home rule. By 1920 Gandhi commanded influence hitherto unattained by any political leader in India.

He refashioned the Indian National Congress into an effective political instrument of Indian nationalism and undertook major campaigns of nonviolent resistance in 1920–22, 1930–34 (including his momentous march to the sea to collect salt to protest a government monopoly), and 1940–42. In the 1930s he also campaigned to end discrimination against India’s lower caste “untouchables” and concentrated on educating rural India and promoting cottage industry.

India achieved dominion status in 1947, but the partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan was a great disappointment to Gandhi, who had long worked for Hindu-Muslim unity. In September 1947 he ended rioting in Calcutta (Kolkata) by fasting. Known as the Mahatma (“Great-Souled”), Gandhi had won the affection and loyalty of millions.

In January 1948 he was shot and killed by a young Hindu fanatic.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI (1997) a Pakistani female education activist, and producer of film and television. She is the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, receiving the Peace Prize in 2014 at age 17, and is the second Pakistani and the only Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize.

Yousafzai is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native district, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. On 9 October 2012, while on a bus in Swat District after taking an exam, Yousafzai and two other girls were shot by a Taliban gunman in an assassination attempt targeting her for her activism; the gunman fled the scene. She was struck in the head by a bullet and remained unconscious and in critical condition at the Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology, but her condition later improved enough for her to be transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support.

MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887 – 1968) was a French American artist who played a key role in the development of the avant-garde movement in the US and in New York City. Duchamp was the first artist to elevate a toilet to the status of an art form. By the time of World War I, he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists (such as Henri Matisse) as "retinal," intended only to please the eye. Instead, he wanted to use art to serve the mind. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and George Braque, as one of the three artists who helped to establish the post-industrial perspective in art history, and his work is considered the progenitor of Conceptual Art.

MICHAEL ANDREW FOX (1961) known professionally as Michael J. Fox is a Canadian and American actor and activist. In 1998, Fox disclosed his 1991 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). He became an advocate for people living with Parkinson's disease and for finding a cure and founded The Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to help fund research.

MOTHER TERESA Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (1910 – 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and a Catholic saint.

Born in Skopje, then part of the Ottoman Empire, she was raised in a devoutly Catholic family. At the age of 18, she moved to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto and later to India, where she lived most of her life and carried out her missionary work.

In 1950, Mother Teresa established the Missionaries of Charity, a religious congregation that was initially dedicated to serving "the poorest of the poor" in the slums of Calcutta. Over the decades, the congregation grew to operate in over 133 countries, as of 2012, with more than 4,500 nuns managing homes for those dying from HIV/AIDS, leprosy, and tuberculosis, as well as running soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, orphanages, and schools. Members of the order take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and also profess a fourth vow: to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor."

Mother Teresa received several honours, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

Her authorized biography, written by Navin Chawla, was published in 1992.

On 4 September 2016, she was canonised by the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

OSCAR PETERSON (1925 – 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso considered to be one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and was informally known in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing"

OSKAR SCHINDLER (1908 – 1974) was a German industrialist and humanitarian who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Hologause by employment them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories in German-occupied Poland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Mavia. Using names provided by a Jewish Ghetto police officer named Marcel Goldberg, Amon Göth, SS Captain Mietek Pemper's secretrary, complied and typed the list of 1,200 Jews who travelled to Schindler's factory in Brünnlitz in October 1944. Schindler continued to bribe SS officials to prevent his workers' execution until the end of the Second World War in Europe in May 1956, by which time he had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers.

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839 – 1906) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century and formed the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and early 20th-century Cubism.

Cézanne arrived at a new pictorial language through intense examination of Impressionist forms of expression. He altered conventional approaches to perspective and broke established rules of academic art by emphasizing the underlying structure of objects in a composition and the formal qualities of art.

His paintings initially provoked incomprehension and ridicule in contemporary art criticism. Until the late 1890s, it was mainly fellow artists such as Camille Pissarro and the art dealer and gallery owner Ambroise Vollard who discovered Cézanne's work. In 1895, Vollard opened Cézanne's first solo exhibition in his Paris gallery, which led to a broader examination his work. Both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all".

PAULINE JOHNSON (1861 – 1913) also known by her Mohawk stage name Tekahionwake, was a Canadian poet, author, and performer who was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Johnson's poetry was published in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. She was among a generation of widely read writers who began to define Canadian literature. She was a key figure in the construction of the field as an institution and has made an indelible mark on Indigenous women's literature and theater.

Johnson’s father was a hereditary Mohawk chief, and her mother was an English immigrant. Her early life was shaped by differing systems of identity. Under Canadian law (at the time), the Johnson children were considered Mohawk and wards of the Crown. However, in Mohawk society, identity and clan membership were passed through the mother. As a result, Johnson and her siblings did not belong to a Mohawk clan and were excluded from some aspects of community and ceremonial life. (Despite that) as a writer and performer, Johnson was a central figure in literary and performance history of Indigenous women in Canada.

Of her importance, Mohawk writer Beth Brant wrote "Pauline Johnson's physical body died in 1913, but her spirit still communicates to us who are Native women writers. She walked the writing path clearing the brush for us to follow”.

ROBERTA BONDAR (1945) is a Canadian astronaut, neurologist and consultant. She is Canada's first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space.

After more than a decade as head of an international space medicine research team collaborating with NASA, Bondar became a consultant and speaker in the business, scientific, and medical communities.

Roberta Bondar has received many honours including appointment as a Companion of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Flight Medal, over 28 honorary degrees, induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, the International Women's Forum Hall of Fame and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

RUTH GINSBURG (1933 – 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder.

Affectionately called “R.B.G.” by her supporters, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has inspired generations of women to break gender barriers. Even after facing gender discrimination as she pursued her academic goals, Ginsburg forged ahead and became the second woman - after Sandra Day O'Connor, and first Jewish woman--to serve on the Supreme Court.

A fierce advocate for gender equality, and a pop culture icon, as a lawyer, she argued landmark gender discrimination cases, and as a justice, she became known for her powerful, principled dissents, challenging inequalities and advocating for women's rights.

SALLY RIDE (1951 – 2012) was the first American woman to fly into space. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space.

After her death, A "National Tribute to Sally Ride" was held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 2013, and President Barack Obama announced that Ride would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

She is the first astronaut known to have been LGBTQ, a fact that she hid until her death, when her obituary identified Tam O'Shaughnessy as her partner of 27 years.

SOPHIE MAGDALENA SCHOLL (1921 – 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.

Raised in a politically engaged family, Scholl initially joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the female branch of the Hitler Youth, but later became critical of the Nazi regime. Influenced by philosophy, theology, and the writings of Theodor Haecker, she became involved in passive resistance efforts alongside her brother, Hans, and fellow students. The White Rose distributed leaflets calling for opposition to the Nazi state, citing ethical and philosophical arguments against its policies. In February 1943, after being caught distributing leaflets at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, she and her brother Hans were arrested by the Gestapo, interrogated, and convicted of high treason. They were sentenced to death and executed by guillotine.

After her death, copies of the final White Rose leaflet were air-dropped over Germany by the Allies. In the decades following her death, numerous schools, streets, and memorials have been named in her and her brother's honor for their role in anti-Nazi resistance. Her story has been depicted in several films, books, and other media, including the Oscar nominated film “Sophie Scholl – The Final Days”.

STANLEY VOLLANT CM CQ MSC (1965) is the first Indigenous surgeon trained in Quebec. Vollant pursued his secondary and post-secondary education in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec before obtaining a MD diploma from Université de Montréal in 1989. He then completed his training in 1994 with a specialization in general surgery. In 1994, Vollant became the first aboriginal surgeon born in Québec, Canada. In 1996, he received a National Aboriginal Role Model Award from the Governor General.

He was appointed to the board of directors of the Québec Medical Association in 1998, and became its president in 2001, holding that position until 2005. Vollant is the first Indigenous person to head a North American medical association.

In his personal life, Vollant was going through some extremely painful experiences. After two marital breakups, unable to see his children as often as he wanted, he sank into a depression that brought him to the verge of suicide. Despite his fragile mental health, he travelled to New Zealand on business and there reconnected with the energy of the Earth by running along the rim of a volcano. This experience made him decide to walk the fabled pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 2008. One night, as he slept on the outskirts of the city of Astoria after two eventful weeks on the road, he had a prophetic dream in which his grandfather Xavier asked him to undertake a walk to bring Indigenous communities closer together.

In 2010, he began his 6,000 km walk, Innu Meshkenu (My Innu Path), to encourage reconciliation and mutual understanding among Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.

In 2016, Vollant founded The Path of Thousand Dreams. The mission of this foundation is "To inspire and support First Nations, Métis and Inuit to make their own journey of a thousand dreams through the development of their full mental, spiritual, physical and emotional potential.

Vollant was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2022, "for his visionary leadership in ethical governance and corporate responsibility, and for his transformative advocacy of collaborative philanthropy."

STEPHEN WILLIAM HAWKING (1942 – 2018) was an English theoretical astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.

Hawking was born in Oxford into a family of physicians. In 1959, at the age of 17, he began his university education at University College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in physics. In 1962, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where, in 1966, he obtained his PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology. In 1963, at age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that gradually, over decades, paralysed him. After the loss of his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device, initially through use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle.

Hawking's scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. By the late 1970s the discovery was widely accepted as a major breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He supported the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He also introduced the notion of a micro black hole.

Hawking achieved commercial success with several works of popular science in which he discussed his theories and cosmology in general. His book "A Brief History of Time" appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

SUSAN B. ANTHONY (1820 – 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality; she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

During the Civil War Antony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the Women's Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. After the war, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans.

When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was harshly ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. Public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime, however. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 one dollar coin.

TERRY FOX (1958 – 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, having had one leg amputated due to cancer, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$1 billion has been raised in his name through the Terry Fox Research Institute as of February 2026.

Fox was the youngest person named a Companion of the Order of Canada and won the 1980 Lou Marsh Award as the nation's top sportsman. Considered a national hero, he has had many buildings, statues, roads, and parks named in his honour across the country.

THOMAS GEORGE PRINCE (Sgt.), Military Medal (1915 – 1977) was an Indigenous Canadian war hero and the most decorated soldier in the First Special Service Force or Devil's Brigade, an elite American Canadian commando unit, during World War II.

He is Canada's most decorated First Nations soldier, serving in World War II and the Korean War. Prince was one of only three Canadians to receive both the Canadian Military Medal and the American Silver Star during World War II.

Prince's military deeds as a scout and as a forward combatant were unique and of major strategic importance. He has been described as "perhaps Canada's greatest soldier".

Prince was descended from chiefs of the Peguis First Nation (Saulteux or Ojibwe). Prince's grandfather had negotiated treaty rights in Manitoba with representatives of The Crown. Prince himself would also represent First Nations concerns in Ottawa as Chairman of both the Manitoba Indian Association (currently Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) and the First Nations of Canada national delegation. He advocated for the abolition of the governing Indian Act in Canada and proposed respect for the traditional Crown treaties as the basis of First Nations rights.

TOMMY DOUGLAS (1904 – 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist minister, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He left federal politics to become leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and then the seventh Premier of Saskatchewan. His government introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program.

Douglas was awarded many honorary degrees, and a foundation was named for him and his political mentor M. J. Coldwell in 1971. In 1981, he was invested into the Order of Canada, and he became a member of Canada's privy council in 1984.

VIOLA IRENE DESMOND (1914 – 1965) was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent. In 1946, she challenged racial segregation at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, by refusing to leave a whites-only area of the Roseland Theatre. For this, she was convicted of a minor tax violation for the one-cent tax difference between the seat that she had paid for and the seat that she used, which was more expensive. Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.

In 2010, Viola Desmond was granted a posthumous free pardon, the first to be granted in Canada. A free pardon deems the person granted the pardon to have never committed the offence and cancels any consequence resulting from the conviction, such as fines, prohibitions or forfeitures. However, it was not until 2021 that the government repaid the $26 (worth $368 CAD as of 2021) fine to her estate in the form of a $1,000 scholarship that adjusted the amount to reflect the time value of money. The Crown-in-Right-of-Nova Scotia also apologized for prosecuting her for tax evasion and acknowledged she was rightfully resisting racial discrimination.

In late 2018, Desmond became the first Canadian-born woman to appear alone on a Canadian bank note—a $10 bill. Desmond was also named a National Historic Person in 2018.

YURI ALEKSEYEVICH GAGARIN (1934 – 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first person to journey into outer space during the first successful crewed spaceflight. He was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR. Travelling on Vostok 1, Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. The flight took 108 minutes.

By achieving this major milestone for the Soviet Union amidst the Space Race, he became an international celebrity and earned numerous accolades, including his country's highest distinction: Hero of the Soviet Union.

Following his spaceflight, Gagarin became the deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which was later named after him. He was also elected as a deputy of the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities, the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet respectively.

* Biographical information obtained from Canadian Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia.