April 30

George Washington inaugurated (1789); Aviator Bessie Coleman, first African American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license, dies (1926); Blues musician Muddy Waters dies (1983); World Wide Web launches into public domain by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee (1993).

Helen Keller

After becoming deaf and blind at age two, Helen Keller faced her challenges with a singular optimism and strength. She became a trailblazing advocate for disability rights, and the first person who was deaf and blind to earn a college degree in the United States. She graduated in 1904, at a time when women were significantly outnumbered by men in higher education, special education was in its infancy, and the disability rights movement was just beginning to pick up steam.

Keller’s mastery of multiple forms of communication, and lifelong activism on behalf of people with disabilities, women, Black people, and other socially sidelined groups, brought her international celebrity. She lectured throughout the U.S. and abroad, and authored 14 books, including a famous memoir published in 1905, The Story of My Life, which was translated into 50 languages and remains in print.

While Keller embraced the limelight, she did so in order to campaign for fair treatment and equal rights for everyone, regardless of gender, race, or disability. She supported the growth of several major U.S. institutions, including Helen Keller International, the ACLU, and the NAACP. She believed true happiness came from helping and working in partnership with others, aligning oneself with a higher purpose, and from within oneself.

Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama. When she was two years old, she became deaf and blind due to a fever. Her early childhood was reportedly filled with tantrums and disruptive behaviors. But when Keller was seven years old, her parents hired Anne Sullivan, a recent graduate from the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, to work with their daughter. Sullivan’s arrival and her persistent and creative instruction were a turning point in Keller’s life.

After initial struggles, a breakthrough occurred when Sullivan repeatedly ran water over one of Keller’s palms while finger spelling the word “water” into the other. After many tries, Keller was able to connect the tactile experience of flowing water with the letter signals.

After comprehending the sign for water, she was able to learn 30 more signs that same day. Working with Sullivan stoked her ambitions to pursue an education and learn to speak. Keller was eventually able to communicate through finger spelling, typing, Braille, touch-lip reading, and speech.

The friendship that developed between Keller and her mentor, Sullivan, spanned decades, and the pair lived together during different periods of their lives. Like Keller, Sullivan was a member of the disability community — she had vision impairments that increased as she aged.

During her teenage years and young adulthood, Keller painstakingly learned to speak in a way that could be understood by people who could hear. She went to multiple schools for people who were deaf and a preparatory school for women before setting her sights on a new goal: attending college.

Meanwhile, Keller’s advancements became publicly known and drew the attention of influential people including Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell, and Henry H. Rogers, an oil magnate who offered to pay Keller’s tuition for Radcliffe College. In 1899, when she passed her entrance exams, only 36% of college students were women.

Sullivan accompanied Keller at Radcliffe, interpreting in classes, until Keller graduated cum laude in 1904 at age 24. She was the first individual who was blind and deaf to earn a higher education degree in the U.S. Her autobiography, The Story of My Life, was published a year later in 1905 and was widely read.

After graduation, Keller set out to share what she had learned and to advocate for people with disabilities. From universities to the halls of Congress, she lectured and testified on her experiences in support of blind and deaf communities. She is considered an early pioneer of the disability rights movement, which began to pick up steam in the early 1900s.

Keller participated in numerous social movements of her era, including women's suffrage. In 1915, she cofounded Helen Keller International to address blindness and malnutrition around the world. She also helped found the ACLU and was an active member in the American Federation for the Blind, the Socialist Party, and other organizations. Despite being raised in the post-Reconstruction era South, she supported the recently founded NAACP advocating for civil rights for Black people.

Keller was an intrepid world traveler and activist. In 1946, she became the counselor of international relations for the American Foundation for Overseas Blind. During the next 11 years, she spread her message across five continents and 35 countries. For her efforts, Keller was awarded several honorary degrees and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her autobiography inspired the 1957 television drama The Miracle Worker, as well as a Broadway play and film of the same title.

Despite facing many challenges, Keller lived a life full of meaning and happiness before her death in 1968 at age 87. Sullivan died in 1936 at the age of 70, after becoming nearly blind. She spent much of her life by Keller’s side. Beginning with a single hand sign, the impact of these two women’s accomplishments rippled throughout the global disability rights community, and beyond. Through the words Keller worked so hard to impart, their story endures today as a beacon of hope and possibility.

April 29

Jazz legend Duke Ellington born (1899); Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson born (1933); Film director Alfred Hitchcock dies (1980); Los Angeles riots begin following acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King (1992); Prince William and Kate Middleton get married (2011).

April 27

Ferdinand Magellan dies (1521); Ralph Waldo Emerson dies (1882); Coretta Scott King born (1927); Nelson Mandela wins election to become first Black president of South Africa (1994); New York City’s Freedom Tower construction begins (2006).

April 26

John Wilkes Booth killed 12 days after assassinating President Lincoln (1865); Former first lady Melania Trump born (1970); The worst nuclear disaster in history occurs in Chernobyl (1986); Lucille Ball dies (1989); Deadliest tornado in history kills 1,300 in Bangladesh (1989).

April 25

Workers break ground on Suez Canal (1859); The US declares war on Spain to begin Spanish-American War (1898); Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald born (1917); Al Pacino born (1940); Singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte dies (2023).

April 24

US Library of Congress founded (1800); Easter Rising begins (1916); Barbra Streisand born (1942); Hubble Space Telescope is launched (1990); Estée Lauder dies (2004).

April 23

English playwright William Shakespeare dies (1616); Hollywood legend and diplomat Shirley Temple born (1928); American punk rock band Ramones release first album (1976); Workers’ rights leader Cesar Chavez dies (1993); The first video is uploaded on YouTube (2005).

April 22

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Ellen Glasgow born (1873); Earth Day first celebrated in the US (1970); Photographer Ansel Adams dies (1984); President Richard Nixon dies (1994); Former NFL football player Pat Tillman killed during the war in Afghanistan (2004). 

April 20

Thirteen people murdered in Columbine High School mass shooting (1999); Danica Patrick is first woman to win IndyCar race (2008); Dorothy Height, civil and women’s rights activist, dies (2010); Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes, killing 11 and starting monthslong oil spill (2010).

April 19

 Battles of Lexington and Concord begin the American Revolutionary War (1775); Charles Darwin dies (1882); Boston Marathon held for first time (1897); Actress Ashley Judd born (1968); Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 (1995).

April 18

Paul Revere makes famous ride during American Revolution (1775); Yankee Stadium opens (1923); Albert Einstein dies (1955); Conan O'Brien born (1963); Dick Clark dies (2012).

April 17

Benjamin Franklin dies (1790); Bay of Pigs Invasion begins in Cuba (1961); Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth (1970); Victoria Beckham born (1974); Former first lady Barbara Bush dies (2018).

April 16

Actor Charlie Chaplin born (1889); Harriet Quimby is first woman to fly across English Channel (1912); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar born (1947); Singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez born (1971); 32 die, 17 injured in Virginia Tech mass shooting (2007)

April 15

President Abraham Lincoln dies (1865); RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 (1912); Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier, becomes first Black major league baseball player (1947); Actress Emma Watson born (1990); Two bombs explode at Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring 264 (2013).

April 13

President Thomas Jefferson born (1743); New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art founded (1870); Author Eudora Welty born (1909); Sidney Poitier becomes first Black male to win best actor at Oscars (1964).

April 12

American Red Cross founder Clara Barton dies (1912); Franklin D. Roosevelt dies (1945); David Letterman born (1947); Yuri Gagarin becomes first person in space (1961); Boxing great Joe Louis dies (1981). 

April 11

Ethel Kennedy, philanthropist and widow of Bobby Kennedy, born (1928); Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed (1968); Apollo 13 launches (1970); American novelist Kurt Vonnegut dies (2007).

April 10

“The Great Gatsby” published (1925); Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta born (1930); Football personality John Madden born (1936); Paul McCartney leaves The Beatles (1970); Good Friday Agreement is signed (1998).

April 9

Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the Civil War (1865); Actor and activist Paul Robeson born (1898); Architect Frank Lloyd Wright dies (1959); Golfer and LPGA cofounder Marilynn Smith dies (2019).

April 8

Actress Robin Wright born (1966); Pablo Picasso dies (1973); Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s home run record (1974); Frank Robinson becomes first Black manager of a major league baseball team (1975); Margaret Thatcher dies (2013).

April 6

Renaissance artist Raphael born and died (1483, 1520); First modern Olympics opens in Athens (1896); Robert Peary claims to have become the first person to reach the North Pole (1909); The US declares war on Germany in World War I (1917); Country singer Tammy Wynette dies (1998).

April 5

Booker T. Washington born (1856); Actress Bette Davis born (1908); Actor Gregory Peck born (1916); Former Secretary of State Colin Powell born (1937); Kurt Cobain dies (1994).

April 4

Ninth US President William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, shortest presidency ever at just 31 days (1841); American poet and activist Maya Angelou born (1928); NATO is created (1949); Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated (1968).

April 3

American politician Boss Tweed born (1823); Actress Doris Day born (1922); Eddie Murphy born (1961); First mobile phone call is made (1973); Apple releases the first iPad (2010).

April 2

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen born (1805); Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code, dies (1872); Walter Chrysler, founder of American Chrysler Corp., born (1875); Singer Marvin Gaye born (1939); Actor Pedro Pascal born (1975).