Born on January 2

British general (1727–1759), James Wolfe is renowned for his decisive victory over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759. He died in combat on the very day of his victory, becoming a British national hero.

A French Carmelite nun who entered the Carmel of Lisieux at age 15, she developed a spirituality known as the 'Little Way,' accessible to everyone. Author of Story of a Soul, she was canonized in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.

Soviet avant-garde filmmaker (1896–1954), pioneer of documentary cinema and theorist of the "Cine-Eye." He revolutionized cinematic language with his Cine-Pravda newsreels and his masterpiece Man with a Movie Camera (1929).

An American computer scientist and engineer, Lynn Conway revolutionized integrated circuit design by co-developing VLSI design rules with Carver Mead. A pioneer of superscalar processor architecture, she also made history as a transgender woman who rebuilt a brilliant career after being fired from IBM.

An American long-distance swimmer, Lynne Cox set world records by crossing some of the coldest and most dangerous waters on Earth. She is best known for her 1987 crossing of the Bering Sea, swimming from Alaska to the USSR at the height of the Cold War.