Born on May 7

French author, politician and pamphleteer (1748–1793), Olympe de Gouges campaigned for women's rights and the abolition of slavery during the French Revolution. She wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791, a founding document of feminism.

German composer, pianist, and conductor (1833–1897), Brahms is one of the towering figures of musical Romanticism. He is celebrated for his four symphonies, his German Requiem, and his chamber music of remarkable formal rigor.

Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, symphonies

Russian and later Soviet mathematician, one of the founders of modern topology. A professor at Moscow University, he left a deep mark on the Soviet school of mathematics in the 20th century.

Gary Cooper (1901-1961) was one of the leading actors of classical Hollywood cinema. The embodiment of the upright, taciturn American hero, he left his mark on the western and the melodrama before winning two Academy Awards for Best Actor.

Eva Perón, wife of Argentine president Juan Perón, became one of the most influential political figures in Latin America. A symbol of the descamisados (shirtless ones), she fought for workers' and women's rights, notably securing women's suffrage in Argentina in 1947.

Thomas Piketty is a French economist born in 1971, a specialist in economic inequality and wealth distribution. A director of studies at the EHESS and a professor at the Paris School of Economics, he is renowned worldwide for his work on capital and inequality.