Born on August 17

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was a Jamaican activist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). A theorist of Pan-Africanism and the “Back to Africa” movement, he was one of the most influential promoters of Black pride and Black nationalism in the early 20th century.

Margaret Hamilton is a pioneering American computer scientist and engineer in the field of software engineering. She led the team that developed the onboard navigation software for the Apollo missions, directly contributing to the 1969 Moon landing. She is considered one of the founders of software engineering as a discipline.

Patricia Grace (1937–) is a New Zealand Māori novelist and short story writer, a pioneer of Māori literature in English. She is the first Māori woman to publish a short story collection in English. Her work explores identity, culture, and the struggles of the Māori community.

American actor considered one of the greatest of his generation and a major figure of New Hollywood. Renowned for his total immersion in his roles, he left his mark on film history through his collaboration with Martin Scorsese. He is also a producer and co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison built one of the largest enterprise software empires in the world. A pioneer of relational databases, he is one of the wealthiest people on the planet.

Belgian-born physicist and mathematician, naturalized American, born in 1954. A pioneer of wavelet theory, her work revolutionized signal processing and image compression. First female president of the International Mathematical Union.