Born on April 17

A Navarrese Jesuit and co-founder of the Society of Jesus alongside Ignatius of Loyola, he was the first great Christian missionary in Asia. He evangelized India and Japan, and died at the gates of China in 1552.

First wife of Paul Verlaine, whom she married in 1870 at the age of sixteen. The dedicatee of the collection La Bonne Chanson, she saw her marriage shattered by the poet's alcoholism and his affair with Arthur Rimbaud.

Danish writer (1885-1962), author of *Out of Africa*, an autobiographical account of her life in Kenya. She ran a coffee plantation in British East Africa for seventeen years and wrote under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the first woman to become head of government in the world, elected Prime Minister of Ceylon in 1960. The widow of assassinated Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, she succeeded him as leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and served in the role three times.

Senegalese writer (1929-1981), author of *So Long a Letter* (1979), the first African novel to win the Noma Award. Her work explores the condition of women in Africa and denounces the inequalities inherent in polygamous marriage.

British sailor born in 1946, famous for her solo Atlantic crossings in the 1970s. After her sporting career, she became a successful novelist, notably in the thriller and saga genres.