Born on June 22

An American director, screenwriter, and producer of Austro-Hungarian origin, Billy Wilder is one of the major figures of classic Hollywood cinema. A master of both comedy and film noir, he directed masterpieces such as *Sunset Boulevard*, *Some Like It Hot*, and *The Apartment*.

Israeli crystallographer and molecular biologist, Ada Yonath elucidated the three-dimensional structure of the ribosome, the cellular machinery responsible for protein synthesis. She received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009, the first woman to do so in 45 years.

Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006) was a pioneering American novelist of Afro-feminist science fiction. The first Black woman to establish herself in this genre, she explored race, gender, power, and identity through committed speculative narratives.

Wangechi Mutu is a Kenyan-American visual artist born in 1972 in Nairobi. She is famous for her monumental collages, sculptures, and installations that explore the Black female body, post-colonialism, and African identity.