Significant People and Why We Remember Them

Your teacher matters to you. A person in a history book may matter to many people. To understand why, look at the difference that person made.

Ask about the difference

A significant person made a big difference to a community or many people. The change often lasted a long time. Try these four questions:

1. What did the person do?
2. What changed because of it?
3. Who did it affect, and how many people?
4. Did the change last a long time?

Louis Braille was a blind teenager in France. He made a code of raised dots for reading and writing. Blind people could feel the dots with their fingers. They could read more quickly and write for themselves. People around the world still use braille about 200 years later.

Famous and significant

Famous means that many people know your name. A popular singer may be famous. To decide their importance in history, you still ask what changed because of them.

Some significant people got little credit for their work. Mary Anning found important fossils in England in the early 1800s. Fossil experts knew about her. Yet scientists often used her finds without giving her full credit. Being overlooked did not erase her discoveries.

People near you can matter too

An Elder may keep a community's stories and language alive. A nurse may start a town's first clinic. You can learn about them through local records and older people's memories.

Being rich, powerful, or from long ago is not enough. Children can make a difference too. Malala Yousafzai began speaking up for girls' schooling as a child.

Significance is not always a reason to celebrate. Historians also study rulers who caused great harm. Learning about their actions helps us understand what went wrong.

People can disagree about whom to honor. Support your choice with reasons about the difference the person made.

A scientist, a nurse, and a storyteller do different work. Each can make a difference. Significant people come from every inhabited continent: every continent where people live.

Many kinds of work

• Scientists and inventors: Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays. Marie Curie studied rays from rocks and discovered new elements.
• Helpers and healers: Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole cared for sick and wounded soldiers.
• People working for fairness: Nelson Mandela opposed unfair laws in South Africa. Malala Yousafzai spoke up for girls in Pakistan.
• Explorers and astronauts: Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963.
• Leaders: Mansa Musa ruled Mali in Africa in the 1300s.
• Writers and artists: Hans Christian Andersen, from Denmark, wrote “The Ugly Duckling.” Gabriela Mistral was a poet and teacher from Chile. She worked to improve schools. In 1945, she became the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Put the places on your map

In Africa, meet Wangari Maathai in Kenya and Mandela in South Africa. In Asia, meet Malala in Pakistan and Tenzing Norgay in the Himalaya mountains. In Europe, meet Braille in France and Curie, born in Poland, who worked in France.

North America and the Caribbean include Harriet Tubman, the Wright brothers, and Neil Armstrong in the United States, and Seacole in Jamaica. South America includes Mistral in Chile. In Oceania, meet Edmund Hillary from New Zealand.

People often worked together. Hillary and Tenzing reached the top of Mount Everest together in 1953. Marie Curie worked with Pierre Curie. Wilbur and Orville Wright built their airplane as a team.

Long ago was not all one time

Mansa Musa ruled about 700 years ago. Nightingale lived about 500 years after him. Both lived long ago, but they never met.

Birth years help you put lives in order. Start with the smallest year: Seacole, 1805; Braille, 1809; Nightingale, 1820; Curie, 1867; Mandela, 1918; Malala, 1997.

The recent past is within the memories of people alive today. Some significant people are still alive. Others lived before your grandparents were born.

Think about what life allowed people to do. In 1854, Nightingale traveled to war by ship. Homes had no telephones or electric lights, and letters could take weeks. Most doctors had not yet learned how germs cause many illnesses.

Where did the person grow up? What problem did they face? A life story connects these details with the work they later did.

Who tells the story?

A biography is a true life story told or written by someone else. An autobiography is a life story written by the person whose life it is. Mary Seacole wrote her autobiography in 1857. Malala told her own story in “I Am Malala” in 2013.

Both kinds of book describe real people. You can still check what the writer says against other clues. Someone writing about their own life chooses which memories to share.

Build a beginning, middle, and end

The beginning tells when and where someone was born. It also tells about their childhood. The middle explains problems, choices, and important actions. The end tells what happened later and how the person is remembered.

Follow Louis Braille's life:

1. Beginning: He was born in 1809 near Paris, France. He hurt an eye at age 3. By age 5, he was blind in both eyes.
2. Middle: At age 10, he went to a school for blind children in Paris. Its few books had large raised letters. Feeling each letter took a long time. At age 15, he finished a code using six raised dots.
3. End: He became a teacher at the school. Students used his code during his life. He died in 1852. France officially accepted his code in 1854.

His childhood helps explain his later work. He knew how hard reading could be. That experience gave him a reason to find a better way.

Keep facts and opinions apart

A fact can be checked. “Braille was born in 1809” is a fact. An opinion tells what someone thinks. “He was the cleverest boy in France” is an opinion. It does not tell us how that claim was measured or checked.

Use time words to guide your reader: “First,” “Then,” “Later,” and “After that.” Use past-tense words for events that happened: “He went to school.” “He made a code.”

A biography can describe someone who is alive. Its last part tells about their later life so far. Malala told her story at age 16. A book does not have to wait until a person has died.

If you tell only the most famous action, the reader misses the life around it. Include the childhood, the problem, the action, and what happened afterward.

A book may mention an important event before describing a childhood. A timeline puts those events back into time order. The earliest event goes on the left.

Make the timeline

Choose the main events. Write the year beside each event. Put the years in order, smallest first. Draw a line, then place the events along it. Leave more space for longer gaps if your line uses an even time scale.

Here are four main events from Florence Nightingale's life:

Read from top to bottom: birth, hospital work, school, death. Scutari is now part of Istanbul in Turkey.

Work out an age

Subtract the birth year from the event year. For Nightingale's nursing school:

She was about 40. You can split the gap: 1820 to 1850 is 30 years. Another 10 years reaches 1860. Together, that makes 40 years.

If you know only the years, say about. A birthday might not have happened yet in the event year. With a full birth date and event date, you can check that too.

Louis Braille finished his code in 1824. He was born in 1809:

He was about 15 when he finished it.

Years between and years ago

To find the gap between any two events, subtract the earlier year from the later year. For how long ago, use the year you are counting from. In 2026, the Wright brothers' 1903 flight was:

That is 123 years before 2026. Naming the later year keeps the answer clear when someone reads it another year.

Dates can have different levels of detail

Harriet Tubman's exact birthday was not recorded. Historians say she was born around 1822. “Around” tells you that the year is not exact.

A century is 100 years. The 1800s run from 1800 through 1899. Braille, Seacole, and Nightingale were all born in the 1800s.

Check the years before placing an event. The order in a book, or the order you hear facts, may differ from the order in which things happened.

How do we know what someone did long ago? We look for sources: things that give clues about the past. A source can help answer one question and leave another unanswered.

Match your question to a source

A photograph can show clothes, faces, and places. It cannot show someone's private thoughts. A letter may tell you what the writer thought. It tells only what they chose to write.

Nightingale left thousands of letters. Seacole wrote her own life story. Armstrong's Moon walk was filmed and shown on television in 1969. Different kinds of clues help us learn about each life.

For Mansa Musa, there are no photographs. He lived centuries before cameras. Writers described him, and a map made in 1375 shows him holding gold. A drawn picture also shows choices made by its maker.

Collect someone's memories

For the recent past, you can speak to someone who remembers the person. Prepare a question such as, “What did she do for our town?” Listen carefully. Write down the answer, or record it with permission. Retell it in your own words and keep the speaker's name with it.

Ask another person or look for a record too. Memories can miss details. Several sources can give you a fuller picture.

Check a story that sounds familiar

A legend is a traditional story passed on over time. It may mix real events with made-up details. A story's popularity does not tell you which details happened.

You may hear that an apple hit Isaac Newton's head. Newton told a friend that seeing an apple fall made him wonder why things fall. The friend wrote down that conversation. His account does not mention a bump on the head. The falling apple has support; the bump was added to the story.

Nightingale's lamp has support from her own time. People described her checking soldiers at night with a lamp. This is why she became known as “the Lady with the Lamp.”

For each clue, ask who made it and how they knew. Then check whether other evidence agrees. Old sources can contain mistakes too. A film about a real life may add scenes, so look beyond the film when you check an important event.

Saying what a person did is a start. To explain their difference, show what life was like before and what changed afterward.

Follow the change

Use three parts: before → action → after. Then say who was helped. Follow Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery:

• Before: Doctors could not see bones inside a living body without cutting through the skin.
• Action: In Germany in November 1895, Röntgen discovered invisible rays. These could pass through materials such as paper, wood, and skin.
• After: Doctors could make pictures of bones inside the body. They could find broken bones and objects stuck inside people.

He called the rays x-rays. The letter “x” stood for something unknown. A few weeks later, he made a picture of his wife's hand. It showed her bones and her ring. Within months, doctors were using the discovery.

The people helped were patients with illnesses and injuries. You can join the action and change: “Because Röntgen discovered x-rays, doctors could see broken bones without an operation.”

He let others use his discovery without charging for permission. In 1901, he won the first Nobel Prize in Physics. Today, x-rays help in hospitals and at the dentist. Scanners also use them to look inside bags at airports.

A different way to read

Before Braille's code, blind children had few books. Their large raised letters were slow to read by touch. His six-dot code made reading quicker and let people write for themselves. Braille is used in many languages. You may find it on signs, elevator buttons, and medicine boxes.

“Made a code” names his action. “People could read and write more easily” names the change. Keep both parts in your explanation.

Remember the helpers

Nightingale found the Scutari hospital dirty and crowded in 1854. She and her nurses cleaned wards, washed bedding, and arranged better food. Government experts also repaired drains and the water supply. Far fewer soldiers died after these changes. Her nursing school later helped train more nurses.

Big changes can take time. Braille's students used his code while he was alive. France accepted it officially in 1854, two years after his death. The Wright brothers tested gliders for years before their powered flight.

Two people may do similar things for different reasons. To understand a choice, look at what the person said, wrote, and did.

Reasons and values

A reason, or motive, explains why someone acted. A value is something they care about, such as fairness or kindness. Their words and actions give you evidence for these ideas.

Braille was blind and found his school's books hard to read. His experience helps explain his wish to improve reading. You can say, “I think he wanted blind children to read more easily because he knew the difficulty himself.”

Caring for trees and people

Wangari Maathai grew up in Kenya. Later, she saw trees disappearing and streams drying up. Women had to walk far to collect firewood. She cared about nature and the families who depended on it.

In 1977, she started the Green Belt Movement. Women received a small payment for each young tree that grew. Many people joined the work, and tens of millions of trees were planted. In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Her actions link two concerns: protecting nature and helping families. Saying only “She liked trees” leaves out the people she wanted to help.

Speaking up for school

Malala Yousafzai grew up in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Her father ran a school. When a group stopped girls from attending school, she spoke out on the radio and in writing. She began speaking up at age 11.

People who wanted to silence her badly hurt her in 2012. She recovered and kept speaking. Her words and actions show that she valued every child's chance to learn.

Curiosity and determination

Curiosity is wanting to find things out. Röntgen kept testing a strange glow. Marie Curie investigated rays from rocks. She and Pierre Curie discovered polonium and radium. Polonium was named after Poland, her home country.

Determination means keeping going when something is hard. The Wright brothers changed designs after failed glider tests. Mandela kept working for equal rights despite 27 years in prison.

A person can have more than one reason. Seacole cared for soldiers and ran a business selling supplies. Both belong in her story. Avoid guessing that someone acted just to become famous. Point to their words or actions. You can admire their work while knowing they were real people who sometimes made mistakes.

Rules can be unfair. They may treat people worse because of skin color, where their families come from, or whether they are girls or boys. People have worked together to change such rules.

Enslaved and free

An enslaved person was treated as property. They were forced to work without pay and could be bought and sold. They could not choose to leave. Children could be taken away from their parents.

A free person was not owned by anyone. They had many more choices about work and where to live. Free Black people in the United States still faced unfair rules. Freedom from being owned did not mean every rule was fair.

We say “enslaved person” because enslavement was done to a person. It was not who that person was.

Harriet Tubman helped people escape

Tubman was born enslaved in Maryland around 1822. In 1849, she escaped to Philadelphia, where slavery was against the law. She returned secretly about 13 times and led about 70 people to freedom, including relatives.

She traveled at night and used places where people could hide safely. These helpers and safe houses formed part of the Underground Railroad. Its name describes a secret network. It was not a train running underground.

Tubman risked being caught and enslaved again. Her courage helped others, but she did not end slavery alone. Many people resisted slavery. In the United States, it ended in 1865 after a long war.

Nelson Mandela opposed apartheid

In South Africa, apartheid laws separated people by skin color. Black South Africans had far fewer rights. They were denied a vote in the country's national elections.

Mandela opposed these laws and spent 27 years in prison. He was released in 1990 and worked toward peace. In 1994, South Africa held its first election open to adults of every race. Mandela became its first Black president.

Many South Africans and people in other countries worked for change. The story belongs to them too.

Fairness can start nearby

People acted by speaking, writing, marching, helping others escape, and voting. Malala spoke up for girls' schooling while she was a child. You can include a child who is left out. If someone is being treated badly, speak up and tell an adult you trust. People still work for fairness today.

To compare two lives, look for what was alike and what was different. Choose details that help explain the people's work and choices.

Ask matching questions

Ask each person the same questions: Where did they grow up? What did they do? What problems did they face? Who helped? How are they remembered? Put the answers side by side.

Compare Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole. Both nursed British soldiers during the Crimean War in the 1850s. Both worked hard in difficult conditions. Both have statues in London.

Seacole's hotel sold food and supplies. Her work included both business and caring for people. Nightingale led nurses; her team worked within a much larger hospital.

Sort the facts in circles

A Venn diagram has two overlapping circles. Label one “Nightingale” and the other “Seacole.” Put facts about just one woman in her own outer part. Put facts about both in the overlap.

“Born in Jamaica” goes in Seacole's part. “Born in Italy” goes in Nightingale's part. “Nursed soldiers in the Crimean War” belongs in the middle.

Write a linked sentence

Use both, but, or while to connect the two lives:

“Both Nightingale and Seacole cared for soldiers.”

“Nightingale led a hospital nursing team, while Seacole ran a hotel and shop near the fighting.”

Two separate lists leave the comparison for your reader to work out. A linked sentence shows the shared point or difference directly.

Your conclusion says what the facts show. For example: “Both helped soldiers, but they reached the war in different ways. Seacole paid her own way after being turned down.” You do not need to choose a winner to understand the two lives.

A short flight and a journey to the Moon seem very different. Comparing them shows how flying changed, and what the people involved shared.

Start with the earlier flight

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright flew an airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. He and his brother Wilbur had built and tested it. Mechanic Charlie Taylor built its engine.

Orville's first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, about 37 meters. Later that day, Wilbur flew for 59 seconds. These were the first sustained, controlled, powered flights in an airplane carrying a person.

Move forward to the Moon

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon. He traveled on Apollo 11 with Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. Thousands of people worked on the Apollo program.

Armstrong carried small pieces of the Wright brothers' airplane. They honored the earlier flying achievement. The year gap was:

Only 66 years separated these two events.

All three were Americans interested in flying. Each achievement depended on the tools and knowledge available then.

Use the right time for your comparison

The Wrights' 12-second flight was a major step in 1903. Comparing it only with a modern long flight misses what they achieved. Ask, “What could people do before this?”

Time also shaped chances. Women could not attend Warsaw's university when Marie Curie wanted to study there. She saved money and moved to Paris. By 1963, rockets could carry people into space, making Tereshkova's spaceflight possible.

Some work stays similar while its tools change. Nurses in 1854 and today both care for sick people. Today's nurses use training, machines, and medicines unavailable then. Men and women cared for sick people in both times.

You can compare school lives too. Braille went to boarding school at age 10 and read large raised letters. Compare those facts with where you learn and how you read.

A person's name may be on a school, a street, or a prize. A picture may appear on money or a stamp. These choices show whom people want to remember.

Read a memorial

A memorial is something made to help people remember a person or event. A statue is a figure, often made from stone or metal. A plaque is a sign fixed to a wall. It may tell you who lived or worked in a building.

Treat a memorial as a source. Ask:

• Who is shown or named?
• What do its words tell you?
• When was it made?
• Who chose to make it, and why then?

The person's dates and the memorial's date can be far apart. A later memorial tells you about the person's life and about the people choosing to honor them.

Two statues made much later

Mary Seacole died in 1881. Her statue outside St Thomas' Hospital in London was unveiled in 2016. People campaigned and collected money for about 12 years. The gap after her death was:

That is 135 years. It is recognized as Britain's first public statue honoring a named Black woman.

Mary Anning died in 1847. A statue of her was unveiled in Lyme Regis, England, in 2022:

The idea began with a schoolgirl, Evie Swire. She asked why Anning had no statue. Many people helped raise money. A child helped bring a forgotten story into view.

Names can carry a story

Braille is named after Louis Braille. The element curium remembers Marie and Pierre Curie. Roentgenium remembers Röntgen. In several languages, x-rays are called Röntgen rays. The Nobel Prizes are named after Alfred Nobel, who left money to fund them.

New Zealand's five-dollar bill has shown Edmund Hillary since 1992. South Africa began issuing bills showing Nelson Mandela in 2012. A picture on money puts a chosen person into everyday life.

Books, films, museums, songs, stamps, and special days can remember people too. A statue shows a chosen view, not a whole life. Check more sources to find out about someone's actions. For a street name, first find out whom or what it names: it may refer to a place or family.

Your birthday comes around each year. It is an anniversary: the same date returning in a later year. Anniversaries can mark births, deaths, and important actions.

Find the number of years

Armstrong first walked on the Moon in 1969. To find its anniversary in 2019, subtract the event year:

On the matching date in 2019, people marked the 50th anniversary. You can check by adding the gap back:

The first anniversary is one year after the event. The event year itself is the starting point, not the first anniversary.

Find a future anniversary year

Mandela was born in 1918. To find the year of his 100th birthday anniversary, add 100:

A centennial is a 100th anniversary. A bicentennial is a 200th anniversary. Nightingale was born in 1820, so 2020 marked her bicentennial. The World Health Organization named 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

A day can connect with a person's work

On World Braille Day, people learn about braille and blind people's lives. On International Nurses Day, they thank nurses. On Mandela Day, people are invited to spend 67 minutes helping others. This remembers his 67 years of work for change.

A special day need not close schools or workplaces. Some countries also have national holidays honoring people. You can ask which local days remember a life and what happened on the date.

Some anniversaries recall sad events. People may gather quietly, listen to stories, or learn how to prevent harm. Match the way of remembering to the event and the people affected.

People remember others to give thanks, learn, and find ideas for helping. Remembering unfair times can also help people notice harm and work against it.

Look for people left out

For a long time, many history books centered kings, rich men, and soldiers. Women, poor people, enslaved people, and people of color were often left out. Some people's stories were never written down.

These are sometimes called hidden or unheard histories. Historians look for sources that bring them into view. A name missing from your book may still belong to someone who changed many lives.

Mary Seacole was praised by soldiers and newspapers in the 1850s. A large festival raised money for her in 1857. After her death, she was overlooked for many years. Her autobiography helped later readers learn about her again.

Look at credit and teamwork

Mary Anning found important fossils in Lyme Regis, starting at about age 12. Scientists used her finds, but she often received too little credit. She could not join the Geological Society of London because it did not accept women during her lifetime. Its first women members were elected in 1919.

Anning's work was important before she received fair recognition. Later honors did not create her discoveries; they helped more people learn about them.

Helpers can also disappear from a story. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached Everest's top together in 1953. Tenzing's climbing skill was just as important. Yet many accounts gave more attention to Hillary. Remembering both gives a fuller account of the climb.

Choose with reasons

Imagine choosing someone for a school display. Start with what they did, what changed, who it affected, and whether the change lasted. Then connect your choice to the evidence.

“I choose Wangari Maathai because her movement helped people plant millions of trees and protect nature.” This gives a reason someone else can discuss. “I like her name” does not explain her work.

Listen to other people's reasons. You may choose different people while both giving thoughtful answers.

What communities honor can change. People may learn that someone on a statue caused serious harm, such as buying and selling enslaved people. A community may keep it with a fuller sign, move it to a museum, or choose another way to tell the story. Learning more can change both the stories told and the people included.