Born on May 20

Hōnen was a Japanese Buddhist monk who founded the Pure Land school (Jōdo-shū). He taught that simply reciting the nembutsu, the invocation of Amida Buddha, was enough to achieve salvation, making the practice accessible to everyone.

A freed slave and Haitian military leader (1743–1803), Toussaint Louverture led the Haitian Revolution and abolished slavery in Saint-Domingue. An iconic figure in the fight for freedom, he transformed a slave colony into the first independent Black republic.

Norwegian novelist (1882–1949), Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. Famous for her medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter, she is one of the great voices of twentieth-century Scandinavian literature.

Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991) was a Cuban writer and anthropologist, a pioneer in the study of Afro-Cuban cultures. Her major work, El Monte, is a reference on the religions and traditions of African origin in Cuba.

James Stewart was one of the most popular actors of classic Hollywood cinema. An embodiment of the ordinary, upright American, he worked under the direction of Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) was an Israeli general and politician, famous for the black patch over his left eye. As Chief of Staff and later Minister of Defense, he embodied Israel's military victories during the Six-Day War (1967).