Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Kate Adams and newspaper editor and Confederate Army Captain, Arthur H. Keller. Helen lost her sight and hearing at 19 months, probably from scarlet fever or meningitis. As a child, she developed her own
sign language to communicate with her parents, then learned to lip-read by putting her fingers on the lips of the person to whom she was talking.
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| Helen Keller portrait, 1904. |
At the turn of the 20th century
blindness was a forbidden subject in women's magazines because so many cases were related to venereal disease. However after Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1904, she became a crusader for the handicapped.
A leftist political activist and women's suffragist, Keller ended up being investigated by the FBI most of her adult life.
A prolific author, she wrote 14 books and hundreds of speeches including her 1903 autobiography, The Story of My Life, detailing her early life and childhood education with radical teacher, Anne Sullivan.
For more June 27 anniversaries, including the patent for a pin-tumbler lock and key, the first man to sail single-handedly around the world, and the first identifiable case of the Ebola virus in humans check out
OnThatDay.
