Jacobus Kapteijn
Dutch astronomer born in 1851. Extensively studied the Milky Way & discovered evidence for galactic rotation.
David Bowie
English singer-songwriter & actor known for his innovation, influence, & hits incl. “Space Oddity” & “Fame”.
Mao Zedong
Chinese communist revolutionary & founding father & ruler of the People’s Republic of China (1949-76).
Kit Carson
American frontiersman & Army officer born in 1809. Symbol of colonial expansion & Native American genocide.
Louis Braille
French educator & inventor of a system of reading & writing for the blind or visually impaired, born in 1809.
Martin Niemoller
German theologian & pastor best known for his widely quoted anti-Nazi poem “First they came …”.
Marlene Dietrich
German American actor & singer who starred in classic Hollywood films incl. Morocco, Shanghai Express, & Desire.
Ouida
English novelist born in 1839. Best known for her novels Under Two Flags and A Dog of Flanders.
Guy Debord
French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, & founder of a Letterist faction & the Situationist International.
Jack London
American novelist, journalist, & social activist known for his novels Call of the Wild and White Fang.