People who change the world aren't always who you expect. They're housewives, sisters and ordinary folks who believe in a better tomorrow.
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Rosa Parks
How she changed the world: She refused to give up her seat on a bus, sparking the Civil Rights Movement.
Tired from a full day’s work, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on Dec. 1, 1955, and became one of a few inspirational people who changed the world forever. When she refused to obey the driver’s order to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus so a white person could sit there, she was arrested for civil disobedience. Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed are recognized as pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Todd Beamer and the passengers of Flight 93
How they changed the world: They fought back against 9/11 terrorists, preventing further devastation.
When account manager Todd Beamer and the other passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 realized their plane had been seized by terrorists, they worked quickly and courageously to reclaim control. Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, but the passengers’ brave resistance galvanized America at its darkest moment since the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Mohamed Bouazizi
How he changed the world: His self-immolation sparked the Tunisian uprising and the Arab Spring.
Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi never had any dreams bigger than saving enough money to rent or buy a pickup truck, but he became one of the most notable historical figures who changed the world when he set himself on fire in December 2010. It was an act of desperation, making him a symbol of the suffering of all Tunisians.
Bouazizi’s decision changed history, inspiring the nationwide unrest that resulted in the overthrow of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Tunisian uprising, in turn, led to the Arab Spring movement that ultimately toppled regimes in Egypt and Libya. As is the case with other noteworthy people who changed the world, a single act of defiance set into motion a chain of events that altered the course of history.
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Candy Lightner
How she changed the world: She founded MADD, transforming laws and attitudes about drunk driving.
After her daughter’s death by a repeat DWI offender, Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 1980. MADD’s advocacy led to stricter U.S. drunk driving laws, saving countless lives.
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Tiananmen Tank Man
How he changed the world: He stood in front of Chinese tanks, symbolizing resistance to oppression.
We’ve all seen the powerful image of a man standing directly in front of a tank near Tiananmen Square in China. The photo was taken on June 6, 1989, the day after China’s bloody crackdown on student protesters. Though he’s one of the most interesting historical figures, he was never identified. Despite his anonymity, Tank Man has become an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to government oppression.
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Frank Wills
How he changed the world: His discovery of the Watergate break-in led to Richard Nixon’s resignation.
On June 17, 1972, security guard Frank Wills was making his midnight rounds at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C., when he noticed tape over the lock of a basement door. Thinking another worker had left it there accidentally, he removed it. Wills later found tape in the same place. He called the police, and the rest is history. Two years later, President Nixon resigned in disgrace over his involvement in the Watergate scandal and his attempts to cover it up, one of the biggest lies in history.
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Ryan White
How he changed the world: He raised awareness of the AIDS virus and challenged prevailing stigmas of the time.
Ryan White, a teen from Indiana, was a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. He passed away at 18, with family and Elton John by his bedside. Through his struggle with the disease, White became the new face of the epidemic, debunking the myth that AIDS afflicted only drug users and the sexually promiscuous. His fight for fair and equal treatment from his public school system helped expose the discrimination faced by AIDS patients and made him one of the inspirational people who changed the world.
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Lilly Ledbetter
How they changed the world: She fought for equal pay, leading to the Fair Pay Act.
Before feminism went mainstream and most people agreed women deserved to be paid fairly, this female pioneer fought tirelessly for equal pay. Upon retiring from Goodyear after nearly 20 years, Lilly Ledbetter sued the company in 1998 for paying her less over the years than her male co-workers.
The lawsuit climbed the judicial ladder until it reached the Supreme Court. Although the court did not rule in her favor, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg wrote a stirring dissent. Congress subsequently passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, changing federal law to better protect women in the workplace.
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Malala Yousafzai
How she changed the world: She fought for girls’ education, founding the Malala Fund.
Born in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai learned early on about the importance of education from her father, a teacher at a girls school. When the Taliban took control of her town in 2008, they prohibited girls from going to school. Yousafzai publicly spoke out against it and was shot on the left side of her head for standing up for what she believed in.
After months of recovery and moving to the United Kingdom with her family, she refused to hide in fear, instead using her voice to start the Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to ensuring every girl has the opportunity to go to school. At 17, she became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient, solidifying her achievement as an extraordinary kid who changed the world.
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Irena Sendler
How she changed the world: She saved 3,000 Jewish children from the Nazis.
When Nazi Germans invaded Warsaw in 1939, Polish social worker Irena Sendler, just 29 years old at the time, offered frightened Jews food and shelter. She even pretended to be a nurse to get inside the Warsaw Ghetto and helped free an estimated 3,000 Jewish children working with the underground organization Zegota. In 1943, she was arrested and tortured by the Nazis but refused to give up any information about the rescues.
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Lois Gibbs
How she changed the world: She exposed toxic waste dangers, leading to the EPA Superfund.
This 1970s housewife in Niagara Falls, New York, had two children with very rare illnesses. In fact, almost all her neighbors in what is now called the Love Canal neighborhood faced serious medical problems. After learning that they lived next to 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals and that no organization existed to address this problem, Lois Gibbs founded the Citizens’ Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, now known as the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.
Thanks to her, more than 800 families were evacuated, and the cleanup of Love Canal began. If it weren’t for Gibbs, there would be no U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund to clean toxic sites around the country.
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Agnes Baden-Powell
How she changed the world: She founded the Girl Guides, empowering girls globally.
Agnes Baden-Powell was the younger sister of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts Association. She helped establish the Girl Guides Association in the United Kingdom in 1910 after a group of girls attended the first Boy Scout rally, calling themselves Girl Scouts.
In the following years, Girl Guides appeared in other European countries, and Girl Scouting was established in the United States. Because of Baden-Powell’s efforts, girls around the world have the chance to grow physically, mentally and spiritually through the Scout movement. This became one of those rare moments that changed women’s history forever.
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Misty Copeland
How she changed the world: She became the first Black principal ballerina, redefining ballet.
Ballet originated in 16th-century France, and like most art forms at the time, it was reserved for the wealthy. Centuries later, Misty Copeland proved that ballet wasn’t reserved just for white dancers either.
Copeland began dancing at the late age of 13 and received her training from a local Boys & Girls Club. Though the odds were stacked against her—few professional ballerinas shared her race, body type or background—Copeland became the first African American principal ballet dancer (the highest role of a ballerina) at the American Ballet Theatre—the first in the company’s entire history. She has changed the way the world imagines ballerinas and opened the door for ballet dancers of all backgrounds.
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee
How they changed the world: He invented the World Wide Web, revolutionizing information access.
You’re able to read this article only because of the development of the World Wide Web in 1994 at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science. But whom do you have to thank for that? Tim Berners-Lee, at the time just an average British computer scientist.
In the late 1980s, he proposed a project that combined hypertext (the system that allows you to click on links and open other web pages) and the internet. His goal was to allow researchers a place to share information online so that others could see it at any time of the day.
The end result was the web that we know and rely on today, one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004, and the British Council named his invention the No. 1 moment that shaped the world.
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Sources:
- Irena Sendler: “In 1943, she was arrested and tortured by the Nazis but refused to give up any information about the rescues”
- National Women’s History Museum: “Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1995”
- The Nobel Prize: “Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for the right of every child to receive an education”
- Cornell Law School: “Lilly Ledbetter sued the company in 1998 for paying her less over the years than her male coworkers”
- The New York Times: “White became the new face of the epidemic”
Originally Published in Reader's Digest
