Posted on June 27, 2021
This is an update of my post published on June 27, 2010:
Born in Alabama on this day in 1880, Helen Keller became blind and deaf while she was just a baby, due to an illness. Since she was unable to see or hear, she didn't learn to talk. Thanks to her remarkable teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller learned to communicate by touch in sign language. She learned to read and write in Braille, and later she learned to speak. Eventually she learned five languages!
From those difficult childhood beginnings, would you have guessed that Keller's Wikipedia bio would list her as a college grad (Radcliffe College, which is part of Harvard University), the author of 14 books, an activist (working on causes as varied as rights for those with disabilities, women's suffrage, labor rights, and world peace), and a lecturer who traveled to 35 nations in the world? Wow!
Keller was a supporter of the NAACP and one of the original members of the ACLU; she wrote an autobiography and has been the subject of movies and plays. Her birthplace in Alabama is a museum, her birthday is celebrated in Pennsylvania, she is a member of both the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame and the Alabama Writers' Hall of Fame, and she appears on the Alabama state quarter!
When I was checking to see if Helen Keller really said the quotes attributed to her, I noticed some huge raves from some really important peeps:
U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill called Keller "the greatest woman of our age." Albert Einstein told her "I have been a great admirer of you always."
Ultra-famous author Mark Twain said TO Keller, "I am charmed with your book - enchanted!" And Twain said ABOUT Keller that she was on of the two greatest characters in the 19th Century - alongside Napoleon Bonaparte! He went on, "Napoleon tried to conquer the world by physical force and failed. Helen tried to conquer the world by power of mind — and succeeded!"
Also on this date:
Anniversary of the British invasion of Buenos Aires
Mathematician Augustus DeMorgan's birthday
"Happy Birthday to You” Day
Djibouti's Independence Day
National Sunglasses Day
Anniversary of first solo trip around the world
(Last Sunday in June)
(Last Sunday in June)
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