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She was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867. She moved to Paris where she met her husband, Pierre Curie. Together they discovered the elements polonium and radium. After Pierre’s death, she continued her scientific work and went on to become the first female Head of Laboratory at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She was the first person ever to win two Nobel Peace Prizes: the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Peace Prize for Chemistry in 1911.

She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. She began the modern civil rights movement after refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955. She was arrested and fined. Later on she boycotted the city’s bus company. Finally her actions caused the Supreme Court to put out a law against racial segregation on public transportation. Later on she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize.

She was born in Florence, Italy, in 1820. In 1854, after reading many reports about the poor treatment of sick and injured soldiers in the Crimean War, she travelled to Crimea to see it for herself and discovered the hospitals were crowded and dirty. She used her knowledge of maths and statistics to show the British government that providing better conditions for sick and injured soldiers would help them win the war. She helped create modern nursing techniques.

She was born in 1910 in Skopje (Macedonia). She became a nun in 1937 and in 1950 founded the Missionaries of Charity congregation. They ran hospices, orphanages and charity centres and she devoted her whole life to caring for the poor, the disabled, the sick and the homeless. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Maria Montessori was born in Ancona, Italy, in 1870. She was the first woman to become a physician in Italy. She worked with mentally handicapped children, figuring out the best methods to interact with them. In 1907 Maria set up “Children’s Houses” for young children where she applied her teaching method which proved to be very successful for children of all ages. This method came to be called the Montessori method and is currently widely used in schools in both Europe and North America.