William Wilberforce:
helped end the slave trade in Great Britain in 1807.
Harriet Tubman:
Helped slaves escape to freedom in the 1800s on the Underground Railroad (which wasn’t really a railroad—it was a secret system of houses where slaves could hide as they moved to northern, free states).
Susan B. Anthony:
Spent her life telling people that boys and girls should be treated equally. In 1920, she helped women get the right to vote.
Rosa Parks:
In 1955 Rosa refused to give up her seat on a bus to a man with light colored skin. At the time, that was the law. She had to! But she didn’t. So Rosa went to jail. People stopped riding the bus and leaders eventually changed the laws.
Abraham Lincoln:
The Civil War didn’t start as a war over freeing the slaves. At first, the north was fighting to keep the Union together (because the southern states had said they didn’t want to be part of the country anymore). Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, two years after the Civil War started. That document freed the slaves.
Martin Luther King
Jr. was shoe shopping with his dad as a boy when the store owner said he would only help them in the back of the store. They left instead. Martin started to realize something needed to be done so people with different colored skin would be treated fairly.
Cai Lun:
Liked watching wasps make their nests from strips of bamboo. He tried to do something similar with old bark, rags and fishing nets. He mixed them, laid them in water and, POOF! He made paper!
Leonardo da Vinci:
Drew plans for machines that became real hundreds of years later, including a submarine, bicycle and helicopter!
Marie Curie:
When Marie Curie discovered the new element radium, she also discovered a way for doctor’s to see people’s bones—with X-rays!
Mahatma Gandhi:
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi walked 241 miles to the coast of India to get his own salt as a protest against Great Britain’s tax on salt. His actions helped people realize they could peacefully protest to become their own country.
Malala Yousafzai:
Loved learning. But in her country, girls weren’t allowed to go to school. She thought that was wrong. She spoke up and wrote about how important it was for girls to go to school too. In 2014 she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Johannes Gutenberg:
Lived at a time when hardly anyone could read books because they were so hard to copy by hand. In 1439, he decided to put metal letters in a block and use ink to print a page. He had made the first printing press!
Thomas Edison:
Tried and failed to get a lightbulb to work hundreds of times before he eventually got one to work!