“Theodore Roosevelt was even quoted saying, ‘I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice.’ He loved his daughter dearly and spoke of how much he loved her spirit often. She shared his sense of adventure and of fun, which they bonded over.” —Lalalace1640 Marsha P. Johnson was a drag queen and gay rights activist who played a pivotal role in the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which was a key event in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. The “P.” in her name stands for “Pay It No Mind.” You can learn more about her life and achievements in the 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, which is streaming on Netflix. According to her entry on the National Women’s History Museum website, Anna May Wong was the “first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.” She was only 17 when she was cast as a lead actor for the first time, in the 1922 silent film The Toll of the Sea. In addition to her work in Hollywood, Wong acted in Europe and on Broadway. (Pictured is an etching of a 19th-century Chinese pirate ship.) Strangely, this one is exactly what it sounds like: In 1932, the Australian military attempted to cull Western Australia’s emu population, since the birds kept eating crops. And the emus, uh, won. The commander of the anti-emu forces, Major G.P.W. Meredith, was quoted by Australian Geographic as having said of his noble adversaries, “They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks.” Lucy Maud Montgomery was a prolific writer whose best-known work was the Anne of Green Gables series, while Hans Christian Andersen wrote a bunch of famous fairytales, including The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and Thumbelina, amongst others.
