Born on July 12

American writer, philosopher, and naturalist, a figure of transcendentalism. He is famous for *Walden; or, Life in the Woods*, an account of his experience of solitary living in close contact with nature, and for his essay *Civil Disobedience*, a plea for individual resistance to the injustice of the State.

A major Chilean poet of the 20th century (1904–1973), Pablo Neruda is celebrated for his political commitment and wide-ranging poetic work, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971. A Communist activist and diplomat, he embodies the engaged intellectual in Latin America.

Lyudmila Pavlichenko is the deadliest sniper in history, credited with 309 confirmed kills on the Soviet-German front. Nicknamed “Lady Death,” she became a symbol of Soviet resistance and an international ambassador as early as 1942.

Thom Yorke, born in 1968, is a British musician, singer, guitarist and main songwriter of the rock band Radiohead, formed in 1985. His distinctive voice and experimental songwriting deeply shaped the alternative rock of the 1990s and 2000s.

Tayeb Salih (1929-2009) was a Sudanese writer in the Arabic language, regarded as one of the great voices of modern Arabic literature. His novel *Season of Migration to the North* (1966) is a major work on the encounter and clash between East and West.

Pakistani activist for girls' education