Groundbreaker Biographies
4 total works
Orville and Wilbur Wright: Pioneers of the Age of Flight
by Diane Dakers
Published 26 September 2016
Throughout his life, basketball superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson has met both challenges and opportunities with leadership. Dubbed "Magic," Johnson blazed a spectacular career with the Lakers as point guard alongside center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His epic rivalry with Celtics’ forward Larry Bird marked a legendary era in the NBA. Magic’s announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV and was retiring from basketball shocked the public but succeeded in putting a familiar and much-admired face on a disease that was then shrouded in fear and prejudice. Since then, Magic Johnson has worked as an advocate for the prevention of HIV and the still-incurable disease AIDS.
Amelia Earhart: Pioneering Aviator and Force for Women's Rights
by Diane Dakers
Published 15 March 2016
Dian Fossey was known as a highly respected primatologist—a scientist who studies apes and other primates—and a fiercely devoted champion of their safety and preservation. Fossey had made powerful enemies because of her opposition to poaching, and in 1985, she was found murdered in her cabin in Rwanda. The case remains unsolved to this day, but her intense love for this endangered species helped create a legacy that survives in the work of others to this day.