30 People You've Probably Never Heard About Illustrated To Highlight Their Accomplishments

She was an American inventor somethimes called "Woman Edison". When she was 12 she invented device that would automatically stop a machine if something got caught in it. It was soon used in mills. As a young woman she worked in a paper bag plant where she packed things into bags. At that time paper bags didn't have flat bottoms and it was very inconvenient so Margaret invented a bag folding machine. Her machine automatically folded and glued paper-bag bottoms. Unfortunately her idea was stolen by Charles Annan, who spied on her. In the court as his argument he said that no woman could design a machine like that but Margaret succesfully proved that the patent is hers and won. During her life she collected 26 patents and create more than 100 inventions, including a rotary engine, shoe-cutting machine and a dress and skirt shield. Her paper bag machine is using till this day! Remember that when you buy a paper bag for a Valentine's Day gift for your loved one today.

Ida Lewis was an American lightkeeper who was called "The Bravest Woman in America". She was a daughter of a lightkeeper who became very ill so Ida and her mother were busy taking care of the lighthouse and also other family members. Ida was only 12 years old when she made her first rescue by helping four men whose boat had capsized. When she was 15 she became the best swimmer in Newport. As the lighthouse was surrounded by the water, she rowed her sibilings to school every day. After her father (1873) and mother (1878) died she became an official lightkeeper. For some time Ida Lewis was the highest-paid lighthouse keeper in the nation. All because she saved many lives during her duty. Once she saved two soldiers from a sinking boat and year later she was given a medal for her heroism. She was the first woman to receive a gold Congressional medal for lifesaving. During her 54 years on Lime Rock, she is credited with saving 18 lives but unofficial record suggests that it could be much more. She was criticized for not being ladylike and told that rowing boats is not a job for a women. She said then: "None – but a donkey, would consider it "un-feminine", to save lives." She died at age 69 because of a stroke.

She was a great ballet dancer from Russia. Her ballet education was very difficult cause she had thin ankles, weak muscles and her feet were very rigid. Other students gave her hard time but she was so determined that she just kept learning and practising taking lessons from the best. She helped herself by putting a piece of wood into her shoes to strengthened them. At this time it was considered cheating but after all she became a precursor of a modern ballet shoes that are less painful for dancers. She was the first ballerina to travel the whole world with her dance performances. Sadly she found out that she has a life-threatening pneumonia and that she needs an operation that will forever end her career. She refused saying: "If I can't dance then I'd rather be dead." She died a couple of years later, 3 weeks before her 50th birthday.
Interesting fact: There is a cake named "Pavlova Dessert". It was created just for her when she asked for something light.

Peggy Whitson is an American biochemist doctor and NASA astronaut. She was the first female ISS Commander. She spent 376 days in space and still counting! She flies above our heads RIGHT NOW for the second time as a commander and is schedule to be back on May 2017. She is the oldest and most experienced woman astronaut who flew in space and also she is about to break the record of being 534 days in space which now belongs to Jeff Williams. Amazing woman!

She was a Polish nurse that saved 2500 Jewish children from Warsaw ghetto during II World War. Under the pretext of conducting inspections of sanitary conditions within the Ghetto, Sendler and her co-workers smuggled out babies and small children. She was arrested by Gestapo and tortured but she never gave any information. Her friend took a list of rescued children and hide it from Germans. She was recognize worldwide as a hero many years later. She was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize and met a lot of children that she has saved.

He was a French physician who invented the stethoscope. He studied the sounds made by the heart and lungs. Laënnec published the first seminal work on the use of listening to body sounds. He built stethoscope after watching some children playin with a wooden stick. One child was holding a stick next to ear and second one scratched the stick on the other side. The first stethoscope looked like a wooden tube. He was very devoted catholic so he was very happy that because of his invention there will be no face-boob touching when it comes to listening to woman's lungs and heart. He was also very kind and good hearted person that helped poor and did a lot of charity work. Ironically he died because of tuberculosis.

She was the longest living human verified. She lived 122 years and 164 days. It's an official verified and documented world record. Born in France she met Vincent Van Gogh at the age 13 at her uncle's store. She got married at the age of 21. Jeanne outlived her husband, daughter and a grandson. She was smoking almost all of her live and quitted cigarettes at age 117. Calment loved cycling and she rode a bike till her 100th birthday. This is how she was explaining her long life: "Always keep a smile. I attribute my long life to that. I believe I will die laughing. That's part of my program."

Henry Blogg was a lifeboatman from England. He saved 873 lives during his 53 years of service. He was given a lot of medals for his courage. He had a dog named Monte.

He was one of the most powerful daimyōs of the Sengoku period. Kenshin was very honourable warrior and also very wise and skillfull administrator. Many of his followers and others believed him to be the Avatar of Bishamonten, and called Kenshin "God of War". He has a long life enemy, Takeda Shingen. As they were both interested in chinese mythology, they were reffered as "The Tiger of Kai" (Shingen) and "The Dragon of Echigo" (Kenshin). Tiger and Dragon are eternal rivals in chinese beliefs. When Kenshin died at age 48 (probably because of a esophageal cancer), he left a poem (haiku): "Even a life-long prosperity is but one cup of sake; A life of forty-nine years is passed in a dream; I know not what life is, nor death. Year in year out-all but a dream. Both Heaven and Hell are left behind; I stand in the moonlit dawn, Free from clouds of attachment." After his dead there was a rumour that he was in fact a woman, because he never married and didn't have any children.

Born in Prussia, years later he was sentenced to prison for thefts, forgery and burglary. When he got out after 15 years he really wanted to settle down but as an ex-convict he met many difficulties. He was very frustrated so one day he bought a Prussian captain uniform, misled soldiers that he told to follow his orders. Then he went into City Hall, arrested Mayor of Köpenick and confiscated 4002 marks and 37 pfennigs. He ordered soldiers to take Mayor to Berlin for interrogation. He also bought soldiers sausages and beer and then he just dissapeared by changing into civilian clothes. He was arrested after some time but what he did was the greatest prank ever. Even the King of Prussia - Wilhelm II, was amused by this story and laughed to tears. Voigt has a statue in Köpenick and once a year there is a festival under his name. In 1931, German author Carl Zuckmayer wrote a play about the affair called "The Captain of Köpenick". This guy had balls of steel!

Rajini Thiranagama was a human rights activist and feminist born in Jaffna city in Sri Lanka. She had 3 sisters. When she studied medicine at University of Colombo she became involved in student politics. At this time she fell in love with her future husband. He was from a rural Sinhala Buddhist background so their marriage was a bit of controversy. They had two daughters. In the early 80's, when Rajini started to work as an intern medical doctor Jaffna was a battle zone in the early stages of a civil war. Inspired by her elder sister, Rajini became involved with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) organisation. She was very active member, fighting for human rights and also for her sister who was imprisoned in 1982. After some time she realised that Tamil Tigers are too violent and she couldn't stand that they were involved in many political assasinations. She changed her beliefs and started to criticize LTTE. She gained many evidence about Tamil Tigers brutality and she co-authored a book entitled "The Broken Palmyra". The book documents the violence in Jaffna in the 1980s. Few weeks after the book was published she was shot to dead on the street near her house when she was riding a bike. Killers were never captured but it is known that it was LTTE revenge assassination. In 2005 a movie titled "No more tears sister" was released. It's about Rajini's life and legacy. "One day some gun will silence me and it will not be held by an outsider but by the son born in the womb of this very society, from a woman with whom my history is shared."

Storm Thorgerson was a graphic designer and music video director. He was popularly associated with the leading music artist of the era, designing their single or album covers. Some such clients of his include Pink Floyd, Genesis, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and other major rock artists of the century. In his teenage years he attended the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys where the Pink Floyd founders Syd Barrett and Roger Waters were also enrolled in different years from his. Later he studied at the Royal College of Art where he studied Film and Television and received a Master of Arts degree in the subject. Thorgerson began his professional career with the foundation of graphic art group Hipgnosis, with his partner Aubrey Powell in 1968. The art group was concerned with designing music record covers. One of the most popular graphic works of Thorgerson includes his album cover for Pink Floyd’s album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It has been declared one of the best album covers of all times designed by him and drawn by George Hardie. After several years of battling the fatal disease, he eventually passed away in the spring of 2013, aging 69.

William "Billy" Bishop was a Canadian flying ace during WWI. As a child he was big trouble and no one believed he would accomplish anything. He was almost kicked off from military school for cheating but war prevented it. He was an amazing shooter because as a child he hunted for squirrels. He was miserable at taking off and landing though. One day he just flew on one man mission and unexpectedly discovered a German aerodrome. He shot 3 planes and came back to his base hiding from the enemy.

Frances Spence was a programmer and mathematician. She was born as a second of five daughters. Frances graduated from South Philadelphia High School for Girls in 1938 and joined Temple University. Soon she was awarded a scholarship to Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, which she accepted. She did a major in mathematics and a minor in physics. During the WWII, when men were fighting in the war, the US army was hiring women to calculate ballistic trajectories. In 1945, the Army decided to fund an experimental project – an all-electronic digital computer and six of the women ‘computers’ were selected to be its first programmers. Among these six was Frances Spence. The ENIAC was the first all-electronic digital computer, a huge machine of forty black 8-foot panels. The programmers had none of the programming tools of today and it was a challenge to make the ENIAC work. The six programmers had to physically conduct the ballistic program using 3000 switches and dozens of switches and digital trays to route the data and program pulses through the machine. In 1997, Frances was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, along with the other original ENIAC programmers. Their work paved the way for the electronic computers of the future, and their innovation kick-started the rise of electronic computing and computer programming in the Post-World War II era. The ENIAC team is the inspiration behind the award-winning 2013 documentary "The Computers".

Kalina Jędrusik was a Polish singer, actress and an absolute sex bomb. She was cat's lover and she was freak about them. Unfortunately she was also allergic to them and she died because of asthma complications. So literally her love killed her.

Agustina de Aragón was a Spanish heroine who defended Spain during the Spanish War of Independence, first as a civilian and later as a professional officer in the Spanish Army. Known as "the Spanish Joan of Arc,"she has been the subject of much folklore, mythology, and artwork, including sketches by Francisco de Goya and the poetry of Lord Byron. On June 15, 1808 Agustina, arrived on the ramparts with a basket of apples to feed the gunners, watched the nearby defenders fall to French bayonets. The Spanish troops broke ranks, having suffered heavy casualties, and abandoned their posts. With the French troops a few yards away, Agustina herself ran forward, loaded a cannon, and lit the fuse, shredding a wave of attackers at point blank range. The sight of a lone woman bravely manning the cannons inspired the fleeing Spanish troops and other volunteers to return and assist her. French gave up the assault on Zaragosa and abandoned their siege for a few short weeks. At the end, city surrended but Agustina's action became an inspiration to those opposing the French. Years later she was imprisoned and saw her son die at the hands of her French guards. She succesfully run away from prison and became a low-level rebel leader for the guerrilleros, helping to organise raids and attacks that harassed the French. After the war, she married a doctor and, late in life, she became a familiar sight in Zaragoza as a respectable old lady, wearing medals, who used to go for walks around the Portillo. Agustina de Aragón died at the age of 71 in Ceuta.

She was a Queen of England known as a "Good Queen". She represented House of a White Rose of York. She was the only queen that was daughter, sister, niece, wife, mother and grandmother of successive Kings of England. Did you know that the card Queen of Hearts actually shows Elisabeth of York? Elisabeth was a mother of Henry VIII Tudor... that little creep who liked to execute his wives. Yup! Parenting gone wrong with this one obviously. She gave birth to 8 children. Sadly most of them died very young. She gave generations of Tudors that fair ginger hair gene that we all know. 11th of February is also her day of death. She died on her 37 birthday after labour complications.

Harriet Bosse was a famous Swedish–Norwegian actress. She was born in a big family with 13 brothers and sisters. Her family owned two houses: in Sweden and in Norway. She started to travel alone between two countries when she was only 6 years old. When she was a child her two sisters - Alma and Dagmar, were actresses too which influenced Harriet's decisions about her future. Interesting fact: Alma's only son - Arne, was on Titanic and sadly tragically died at age of 18. Harriet was a third wife of August Strindberg - famous swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. He was stunned by her oriental and original beauty and fell in love with her. They got married when she was 23 and he was 52. She was his muse and he wrote a lot of play roles just for her. Their daughter Anne-Marie Hagelin died in 2007 (105 years old!). Bosse divorced Strindberg in 1912. During her life, Harriet Bosse was married three times and had 2 children.

Kurihara Harumi grew up watching her mother cooking carefully since she was little, she acquired cooking skills naturally without having to make much effort. In 1973, she married Reiji Kurihara, who was a TV newscaster at that time, and had a daughter and a son. After their marriage, they often had visitors from the TV industry in their home and Harumi used to serve them with her homemade cooking. One of them asked Harumi to work for a TV program and in 1983 for the first time she started to work as an assistant for a cooking TV show. She was soon invited to submit recipes and short articles to various magazines. This led to a television career in 1983, when she served as a production assistant on a cooking program. She moved on to host her own series of shows, but it was not until 1992, when she published her first cookbook, Gochisōsama ga, kikitakute (“I Want to Hear You Say Delicious”), that Kurihara emerged as a national icon. She wrote 20 best-selling cookbooks that featured a blend of traditional Japanese and Western recipes and she is called "Japanese Martha Stewart".

Zdzisław Beksiński was a Polish painter, photographer and sculptor, specializing in the field of dystopian surrealism. He was born in Sanok, finished architecture studies in Kraków. In 60's he was working as a designer in a bus company "Autosan" and he designed innovate buses and minibuses that were very popular in their time. At this time he was working on many artistic projects of his own. In 1977 he, his and wife and only son have moved to Warsaw. Beksiński was a great painter, his paintings are very disturbed, gloomy and surrealistic. They show scary dolls, skeletons, bones, weird worlds, spider webs etc. Altough his work was very grim, he was very kind. polite and cheerfull person, very intelligent with a keen sense of humour. He and his son - Tomasz, shared a love to music. Tomasz Beksiński was a 90's radio personality with his own night show where he broadcasted very dark, moody, deep music, progressive rock and classic rock. Zdzisław was very into recording his own life and he often was walking with a camera on. There is some footage of his private life on youtube. Unfortunately his life ended very tragically. In 1998 his wife - Zofia, died. Year later his son, who was in a deep depression for many years and tried to kill himself before, commited suicide. On 21th of February 2005 Zdzisław Beksiński was found dead with 17 stab wounds. He was murdered by a young man whom he knew for many years and the motive was money.