Born on February 9

Regent of Japan under Empress Suiko (593–622), he promoted the spread of Buddhism and Confucianism, promulgated Japan's first constitution, and modernized the state by drawing on the Chinese model.

Mongol princess, daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan and wife of Tolui. Mother of four sons, including the emperors Möngke and Kublai Khan and the Ilkhan Hulagu, she exerted a decisive political influence on the succession of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century.

Natsume Sōseki is one of the greatest Japanese novelists of the Meiji era. A specialist in English literature, he portrays with irony and melancholy a Japanese society torn between tradition and Western modernization.

A French Communist journalist and member of parliament, Gabriel Péri vigorously opposed Nazism and fascism throughout the 1930s. Arrested by the Gestapo in May 1941, he was shot at Mont-Valérien on December 15, 1941, becoming one of the most iconic martyrs of the French Resistance.

French biologist and biochemist (1910–1976), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965. Together with François Jacob and André Lwoff, he discovered the mechanisms of genetic regulation, most notably the concept of the operon.

American singer-songwriter born in 1942, Carole King is one of the defining figures of rock and pop from the 1960s–1970s. Her album *Tapestry* (1971) remains one of the best-selling records in history.

An American NASA astronaut, Peggy Whitson is the woman who has spent the most time in space (665 cumulative days). She commanded the International Space Station on two separate occasions.