Ellen Browning Scripps was born in London, England, one of six children. In 1844, after her mother died and her father’s bookbinding shop failed, the family moved to the US, settling in Rushville, Illinois. There, her father re-married and had four more children. Scripps was an avid reader from an early age and received her education at local private schools and seminars. In 1855, at 19, she gained a teaching certificate and taught for a year before attending Knox College in Galesburg, IL, studying science and mathematics. After graduating with honors, Scripps returned to Rushville and taught in a one-room schoolhouse. In 1867, 31 years old Scripps joined her half-brother, James E. Scripps, in Detroit and invested her saving in his new newspaper, The Detroit Evening News. She worked there as a proofreader and began to write a daily column titled Matters and Things, expressing her progressive thinking and opinions about the news and daily events. During the 1870s and 1880s, more of her brothers joined the enterprise, forming various partnerships that created America’s largest chain of newspapers, which included the St. Louis Chronicle, The Cincinnati Post, and The Cleveland Press. As a shareholder, Scripps had a pivotal role in securing the company. Her financial devices often saved the company. She kept investing in her brothers’ growing chain of newspapers, which includes dozens of local newspapers, such as the Kansas City Star, The Los Angeles Record, The San Francisco News, The Seattle Star, The Portland News, and The Tacoma Times. These newspapers were all working-men oriented, pitching to the miners, cannery, and dock workers. As the business expanded, Scripps became a wealthy woman, and while leaving modestly, she put her fortune aside as “a trust for the benefit of humanity.” In 1890, she and her brother E.W. bought land in San Diego, where she established the Miramar Ranch. In 1897, at 61, Scripps moved to a cottage in La Jolla, became involved with various movements and progressive causes, and co-founded the La Jolla Woman’s Club. At the time, she began to reap the benefit of her investments and used her fortune for extensive philanthropy work. She donated to causes close to her heart, like research, science, and education, mainly for women. She also promoted wildlife preservation, donating to organizations such as Scripps College, the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, the San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Natural History Museum. In the last three decades of her life, Scripps donated more than $2 million, which today is approximately $39,722,000. Although her generosity drew public attention, Scripps avoided publicizing her philanthropy work and stayed away from the spotlights. She died a few weeks before her 96th birthday. Read more...

Beatriz de Luna was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to an exiled Spanish-Jewish family who was forced to convert to Christianity during the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal in 1497. At 18, she married her uncle, Francisco Mendes, a wealthy and successful trader. Ten years later, he died, leaving her half of his fortune and their daughter Ana. Soon after, she fled Portugal to escape the Portuguese Inquisition to Antwerp, in nowadays Belgium, joining her husband’s brother and business partner, Diogo. She took her late husband’s place in the family business, overseeing the expansion of the Mendes commercial empire, which included partnerships across Europe and the Middle East and loans to the monarchs of Germany, Portugal, England, and Turkey. In 1542, Diogo died, leaving her the control of the business and one of the richest women in Europe. Her enormous wealth allowed her to influence kings and church representatives and protect fellow converted Jews by establishing an escape network for Crypto-Jews to flee Spain and Portugal to Greece and the Ottoman Empire and save hundreds of Jews. Two years later, she moved to the Republic of Venice. Although Jews were not forbidden to practice their religion in Venice, they lived in ghettos, and she had to practice Judaism in secret while publicly presenting herself as Catholic. She successfully ran the family business, adding more trading products, such as textiles and grain. In 1549, Ercole II, Duke of Este, invited her to relocate her enterprise to the city of Ferrara. There, for the first time in her life, she openly practiced Judaism, adopted the Hebrew marital surname of her daughter, Nasi, and became known as Doña Gracia Nasi. She was active in the Sephardic community in Ferrara, using her fortune to promote literacy and printing, and initiated and benefactor the publication of the Ferrara Bible –the Ladino version of the Hebrew Bible. By the early 1550s, the approach toward Jews in Italy was increasingly hostile, and in 1533, Doña Gracia moved to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, where Jews were welcome. She dedicated her time and wealth to benefit the Jewish relief, aiding fugitives from the Iberian Peninsula, supporting rabbinic scholars, and building synagogues, yeshivas, schools, and hospitals throughout the empire. She also established her own printing business, becoming the first woman printer and publisher in the Ottoman Empire and the first Jewish woman to do so. In 1558, 390 years before Israel was officially established, Doña Gracia leased land in Tiberius, then under the rule of the Ottomans and nowadays a city in the north of Israel. Her purpose was to rehabilitate the area, make it available for Jewish refugees to settle in the Holy land, and turn it into a center of Jewish trade and learning. She intended to live in the city but died before her dream was realized. She was 59 years old. Read more...

María Eva Duarte de Perón was born in Los Toldos, Argentina. Her parents were not married, and her father had another family. Her legal and societal status as an illegitimate child followed her in her life. Her mother struggled financially, and the situation worsened after her father died in a car accident when she was seven years old. In 1930, the family moved to Junín, where she developed her love for the stage. She began to perform in various community theater productions and aspired to become an actress. At 15, she ran away from home to Buenos Aires to pursue her dream. Soon after her arrival, she joined a theater company and landed numerous radio parts. In 1937, at 18, she had her film debut and later acted in a series of B-movies. In 1942, she signed a five-year contract to participate in a radio program called Great Women of History to voice prominent historical women, such as Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great. By the age of 23, she was the highest-paid radio actress in the nation, earning six thousand pesos a month. This year, she co-founded the Argentine Radio Syndicate, a union of broadcast performers, and was elected its president. In 1944, she was invited by the Secretary of Labor, Juan Perón, to a benefit gala to support the victims of an earthquake that occurred in San Juan. From the moment they met, they were unseparated, establishing their marriage a year later. She was 24, and he was 49. In 1946, her husband, who gained political power and support from the public, especially after being arrested by his political opponents, decided to run for president. She was a leading figure in her husband’s campaign, using her radio program to dramatize his accomplishments and traveling with him throughout the country. Her approachable attitude toward the people and empathy for the working class increased his popularity when he was elected president. Perón did not hold an official position in the government, but she was the de facto minister of health and labor, which allowed her to increase the wages of workers’ unions. She used her position as the first lady to advocate for various causes, improving the living conditions of the poor and women’s suffrage. Thanks to her effort, Argentinian women were granted equal political rights and universal suffrage in 1947. Two years later, she founded the Female Peronist Party, the first large female political party in the country. Perón also founded and headed the Eva Perón Foundation. Supported by the government, unions, and private businesses, the foundation established thousands of schools, hospitals, elderly housing, and orphanages. In 1950, 31 years old Perón was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. Despite her health condition, she continued to be active in both philanthropy and politics, and in 1951 she was chosen by her husband to run for vice president. The opposition from the military and upper-class citizens led her to decline her candidacy. Despite the various medical procedures she went through, her cancer has spread, and she died at the age of 33. Three years after her death, Perón’s husband got overthrown from the presidency, and her embalmed body was stolen and hidden in Italy under the name “María Maggi.” Sixteen years later, her body was exhumed and sent to her husband’s exile home in Spain. In 1973, he returned to Argentina, serving as president until his death a year later. His third wife, Isabel Perón, returned Evita Perón’s body to Argentina and displayed it beside her husband. Later, her remains were reburied in the Duarte family crypt. Read more...

MacKenzie Scott Tuttle was born in San Francisco, California. Growing up, she loved to read and write stories, and at the age of 6, she wrote a 142-page book titled The Book Worm. After graduating high school, Scott attended Princeton University, studying English under Nobel prize Laureate Toni Morrison, later working as her research assistant. In 1992, at the age of 22, she worked at the hedge fund company D.E Shaw in NYC, where she met Jeff Bezos. The couple married in 1993, and the following year, they moved to Seattle, where her husband started the online marketing website Amazon.com with Scott by his side. She was one of Amazon’s first employees, working on its business plan, accounts, orders, and negotiating its first shipping contract. When the success took off, Scott became less involved in the business and focused on her children and literary career. In 2005, at 35, she published her first novel, The Testing of Luther Albright. Los Angeles Times named it the book of the year, and she received the American Book Award. In 2013, she published her second novel, Traps. Later that year, she founded the anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution, where she serves as executive director. In 2019, at the age of 49, Scott and her husband separated. As part of the divorce deal, she received 25% of Amazon stock, worth $35.6 billion, and became the third richest woman in the United States. In that same year, she signed a Giving Pledge, in which she promised to donate at least half of her wealth over her lifetime. In 2020, Scott gave $5.8 billion to 500 non-profit organizations that promote causes close to her heart, including LGBTQ+ equality, racial equality, climate change, and Covid-19 relief. In 2021, she gave $2.7 billion to more than 280 organizations. In her action, Scott is changing the world of philanthropy, not only by the sum of money she is donating and the frequency she is giving it but also by her no-strings-attached philosophy. This system enables the organizations to use the funds according to their needs, with no restrictions, and by supporting hundreds of different causes and organizations, not a handful of steady ones. Read more...

Diana Frances Spencer was born at Park House near Sandringham, England, to an aristocratic family. For several generations, her family was close to the British royal family, and as a child, she used to play with Queen Elizabeth II’s sons, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. At 7, her parents divorced, and she lived with her father. In her early years, Diana was home-schooled, and later she attended Silfield Private School and then the Riddlesworth Hall School for girls and West Heath Girls’ School. At 16, she studied a semester at the Institut Alpin Videmanette in Switzerland. On her return to England, she settled in London, working in various low-paying jobs, including a dance instructor, nanny, kindergarten assistant, cleaning lady, and a hostess at parties. In 1977, 17 years old Diana met 29 years old Charles, Prince of Wales, who was dating her older sister at the time. A few months later, they began dating. Their relationship got the approval of the royal family as well as the public, who adored her beauty, shy demeanor, and fashion style. They got engaged in early 1981, and on July 29th, 1981, they married in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a fairy tale wedding broadcasted and viewed by hundreds of millions worldwide. After the wedding, now with the title of Princess of Wales, Diana took on herself a wide range of royal duties. She went with The Prince of Wales on various royal tours, became a patron of more than 100 charities, and used her fame and the attention of the press to aid and promote causes that were closed to her heart, such as cancer, homelessness, and AIDS. She also channeled her fashionista statues to increase the profile of British designers. In 1982, at the age of 21, Diana had her first child, Prince William, followed by Prince Harry two years later. She wanted her sons to know the world outside the palace, and she often brought them with her on visits to hospitals, orphanages, and homeless shelters. She also took them on public transportation and to eat at fast-food restaurants. Diana became known as the People’s Princess for her compassion, accessibility, and personal warmth. From the beginning, her marriage to Prince Charles suffered many difficulties and infidelities on both sides, and throughout the years, the couple became estranged. During this time, she struggled with postnatal depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and the pressure of being chased constantly by the media, especially the paparazzi. By the early 90s, it became apparent that the royal couple was no longer together, and in 1992 they formally separated. The divorce got finalized in 1996. Despite losing the title of “Her Royal Highness,” the public still refers to her as a princess. After the divorce, Diana resigned from most of her patronages but maintained a public figure and continued the philanthropic and charity work. She served as an International Red Cross VIP volunteer and led a high-profile campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of leftover landmines in Angola. In 1997, Diana began a public relationship with the Egyptian heir Dodi Fayed. While attempting to escape a trail of paparazzi that followed them on the streets of Paris, Diana, Fayed, and their driver Henri Paul, had been killed in a car accident. She was 36 years old. Read more...

Sheila Crump was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Illinois. She found her love for music at an early age, becoming an accomplished violinist by 9. In 1970, at the age of 21, she received her B.A. in music performance and education from the University of Illinois and moved to Washington, DC, with her first husband, Robert Johnson. There, she worked as a violin instructor at a private school and gave private violin lessons to supplement her income. Within four years, her private lessens business grew, and when she had 100 students, she left her position at school and founded a youth orchestra called Young Strings in Action, which performed both in the US and abroad. In 1980, Johnson and her husband founded Black Entertainment Television (BET), a cable network that approached African American viewers. She closed her music business and became the network’s community relations manager and the producer of teenagers’ talk shows. By the late 1990s, BET took a raunchy direction, and Johnson became concerned about its sexually explicit content and how it portrays and influences young women. In 1999, she began to pursue other business opportunities and sold BET to Viacom for an overall sum of $3 billion, making her, at the age of 53, the first black woman billionaire in the US. In 2005, Johnson married William T. Newman, Jr., divorcing her first husband three years earlier. She purchased a 350-acre estate in Middleburg, Virginia, and built the Salamander Inn & Spa, founding Salamander Hospitality LLC, a hotel resort and spa management firm. During this period, Johnson became the majority owner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, serving as its President and Managing Partner. A woman of varied interests, Johnson is also involved in the film industry. Since 2008, she has produced numerous films, all with humanitarian messages – Kicking It, A Powerful Noise, She Is the Matador, The Other City, and the critically acclaimed film The Butler. Throughout the years, Johnson spent much of her time and fortune on philanthropic work. She donated money to various institutes, including the United Negro College Fund, Howard University, and the Parsons School of Design. She founded the Sheila Crump Johnson Institute at the State University of New York to support the college community diversity and co-founded the WE Capital consortium to aid female-led enterprises. Johnson sits on the boards of many organizations; among them are the Americans for the Arts, the University of Illinois Foundation, the Curry School of Education, VH1’s Save the Music Foundation, and the Greater Washington Partnership. Read more...

The origin of Mary Ellen Pleasant is not clear. She claimed that she was born free in Philadelphia, while researchers believed she was born into slavery in Virginia or Georgia. Her mother disappeared when she was an infant and that she was raised in Philadelphia by free people of color named Williams. When Pleasant was about 6 years old, she worked as a domestic servant at the Hussey-Gardner family in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The Husseys were Quakers and abolitionists, and though Pleasant did not attend school, their son taught her how to read and write. In 1840, at the age of 26, Pleasant moved to Boston and worked as an apprentice for a tailor. There, she met her first husband, James Smith, an abolitionist who got her involved in the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to their freedom. When her husband died four years later, he left her an inheritance of thousands of dollars. At 34, she married John James Pleasants, a former slave who worked as a cook-seaman. In 1852, 38 years old Pleasant sailed to San Francisco, escaping from being captured for her abolitionist work. Her fair skin enabled her to pass as white, so to keep her identity and abolitionist work safe, she presented herself in public as a white woman, while the black community knew her as black. During the California Gold Rush, most migrants were men miners, and Pleasant seized the opportunity to establish a household services business. She opened laundries and boardinghouses, staffed mainly by African-American men and women; many were former slaves. She used to listen to her wealthy customers’ conversations and make successful investments based on the advice they gave one another. With the fortune she made, she expanded her business, opened a chain of restaurants, bought various properties in California and Canada, and co-founded the Bank of California. Upon her arrival to San Francisco, Pleasant became a prominent figure in the local Underground Railroad. As her wealth grew, she gave more to the abolitionist cause. She sponsored the founding of the Athenaeum Building – a library and meeting place for the black community, and established safe houses for slaves on the run, ensuring they have all their needs in San Francisco as well as on the road north. She paid for legal services for those who have been extradited to their former owners. Pleasant also helped women of any color with clothing and housing, providing them money and advice on how to dress and carry themselves in the unsafe streets of the early days of San Francisco. For her tireless efforts for her community, Pleasant became known as a “one-woman social agency” and was referred to as “Mother of civil rights in California.” After the Civil War, Pleasant began to identify herself as a woman of color. She stopped working as a housekeeper and dedicate all her time to civil rights activities. She established schools for the black community, housing for the newly free people, and fought against Jim Crow laws. In the 1870s, Pleasant developed a business partnership with a banker called Thomas Bell, which by 1875 gained them both a sum of $30 million (approximately $698,454,545 today). Pleasant spent her final years in a legal battle with Bell’s widow, who accused Pleasant of stealing money. The case was still not settled when Pleasant died at the age of 90. Read more...

Melinda French Gates was born in Dallas, Texas. She attended St. Monica Catholic School – the top student in her class. At 14, she was introduced to the Apple II, one of the first home computers, and became interested in computer games and programming languages. After high school, she studied at Ursuline Academy of Dallas, graduating valedictorian. Afterward, she attended Duke University, earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science and economics and then an MBA. At the age of 23, she began to work at Microsoft, first as a marketing manager and then as a general manager of information products, responsible for the development of multimedia and interactive products such as the movie guide Cinemania, the digital encyclopedia Encarta, and the travel booking websites Expedia. In 1987, the same year she started her new job, she met Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at a PC trade fair in NYC. The couple dated six years before they got married in 1994. Two years later, Gates left Microsoft to focus on her first newborn. In 2000, Gates and her husband combined three charitable organizations they established a few years earlier into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Their initial goal was to supply Microsoft products to libraries throughout the US to improve education, but over the years, she redefined the mission to address health issues and global poverty and divided the BMGF into three departments – global development, worldwide health, and community and education in the US. As co-chair of BMGF, Gates is in charge of improving the foundation’s strategies, results and setting new ways to execute its causes. Throughout the years, the BMGF had donated billions of dollars to improve various issues. Among these are – infectious disease control, family planning, agricultural development, and education. In addition to the foundation donations, the Gates donate millions of dollars from their personal wealth to other institutes, such as the Health Foundation, Duke’s Scholars Program, and the Seattle Children’s Hospital. For their philanthropic work, Gates and her husband received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. In 2015, Gates founded Pivotal Ventures, an independent investment and incubation company that focuses on the social progress of girls and women in the US. Throughout her career, Gates also served as a board member of various organizations, including Duke University’s Board of Trustees, the board of directors at Drugstore.com, and the Board of Directors of Graham Holdings. Read more...

Barbara Joan Streisand was born in Brooklyn, NY, to a Jewish family. When she was a year old, her father had died, and her mother had struggled financially, working as a low-paid bookkeeper. Streisand received her early education in Jewish institutes. She was a shy child, been rejected by other children because of her looks, and spending much of her time watching TV and going to the movies. At 13, while on vacation at the Catskills, Streisand and her mother, a soprano in her youth, recorded songs on tape. That was the first time that she thought of herself as an artist. In the following year, after watching her first Broadway play, The Diary of Anne Frank, she decided to become an actress. She began to explore the profession, reading plays, acting theories, and biographies of stage actresses. At 15, she got her first job in the business as backstage assistance at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. At 16, after graduating from Erasmus Hall High School with honors, Streisand moved by herself to the Theater District, sleeping with friends while trying to get roles on the stage. At 18, Streisand won a talent contest at the Lion nightclub and started to sing at clubs in the area. During that time, she began to develop her stage persona, creating emotional characters, working on her singing range, and speaking to the audience between songs. In 1962, after two years of performing in various nightclubs, Streisand landed her first role in a Broadway production, playing Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. It got her the first Tony nomination and her first husband, Elliott Gould. Their marriage lasted for 6 years, and they had a son together. Becoming an immediate sensation, Streisand made her first television appearance on The Tonight Show, and later on The Judy Garland Show and The Garry Moore Show, where she sang for the first time her signature song “Happy Days Are Here Again.” In 1963, Streisand released her first album, the Barbra Streisand Album, for which she won three Grammy Awards. In the following year, she returned to Broadway, playing Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, a role she played again in the movie adaption in 1968, receiving an Academy Award for her performance. During the 60s and 70s, Streisand established her status as a multi-talented performer, releasing a series of award-winning albums, such as Stoney End, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, and Guilty, while starring in various box-office hits, including Hello, Dolly!, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Way We Were, and A Star Is Born. In 1972, she founded the Barwood Films production, making her directorial debut in the movie Yentl in 1983, for which she became the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director. She continued to produce, direct and star in the films The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces. In 1985, Streisand released The Broadway Album, which reached No. 1 in the Billboard chart for three weeks, earning her quadruple platinum and her 8th Grammy award for Best Female Vocalist. Between 1986 – 1991 she released three more albums, including a four-disc box set, Just for the Record. For many years, Streisand avoided live performance, but in the 90s, she returned to the stage. Started as a two-night New Year’s event, her show turned into a multi-city tour with ticket prices reaching $1,500, making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history and earning her five Emmy awards. At the age of 55, after almost 10 years, Streisand released an album of new songs, titled Higher Ground, once again reaching the top of the Billboard chart and earning her two Grammy nominations. In 2004, after a leave of 8 years, Streisand returned to film acting in the movie Meet the Fockers. She continued to appear in various guest roles in many TV shows and TV specials, recording soundtracks and releasing singles and records, including her 2018 protest album, Walls. Streisand uses her fame and fortune to promote political and social causes, raising millions of dollars through live performances. She donated a building to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gifted $5 million to the Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and with the Streisand Foundation she founded in 1988, she contributed more than $16 million to organizations that promote the preservation of the environment, civil rights, women’s issues, civil liberties, and nuclear disarmament. Throughout her career, she has recorded 50 studio albums and 10 live records. She appeared in 19 films, directed 3 movies, and produced approximately 30 projects. She received 52 gold albums, 31 platinum albums, and 13 multi-platinum albums, becoming the most decorated recording artist in history. Read more...

Born Rachel Meghan Markle in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is African-American, and her father is Caucasian. When she was 6 years old, her parents got divorced. Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then the all-girl Immaculate Heart High School. At 18, Markle began to study theatre and international studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. In 2002, at 21, after earning her bachelor’s degree, she returned to LA to develop her acting career. As a biracial actress, Markle had difficulties getting roles, not being black enough for black roles and not white enough for white ones. To support herself financially, she taught bookbinding and worked as a calligrapher. Markel’s first TV appearance was as a nurse in the soap opera General Hospital. Then she landed guest roles in various TV shows, such as 90210, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami, as well as leading roles in movies, such as Random Encounters and Anti-Social. In 2011, at the age of 30, Markel had her big break in the TV show Suits, playing the role of Rachel Zane. At 33, Markle founded a lifestyle blog called The Tig, in which she wrote about fashion, food, traveling, beauty, and highlighting inspirational women. In 2016, at 35, Markle was appointed global ambassador for World Vision Canada. In this role, she traveled to Rwanda, promoting the Clean Water Campaign, and India, advocating for raising awareness for women’s issues, and debunking stigmatization regarding menstrual health. In June 2016, Markle was introduced to Prince Harry, a member of the British royal family, by a mutual friend, and soon they became a couple and got engaged in the following year. As a future member of the British royal family, Markle retired from acting and closed her blog. The wedding took place on May 19, 2018, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Afterward, Markle was given the title Duchess of Sussex and took on various royal duties. She served as vice president of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and as the patron of numerous charities and organizations, including London’s National Theatre, The Royal Foundation, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities. Using her fashionista status, Markle collaborated with British stores and fashion houses to launch the Smart Set capsule collection to raise money for the Smart Works charity. Markle and Prince Harry also established the Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which later was renamed Archewell Inc. On May 6, 2019, at the age of 38, Markle gave birth to her first son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, the 7th in line of succession to the British throne. In January 2020, after years of suffering public pressure, endless tabloid rumors, and scrutinizing, in addition to race issues raised by the royal members about her and her son, and with no support or protection from the crown, Markle and Prince Harry announced of their retirement from their royal duties and of their plan to become financially independent. Within six months, they settled in LA, where they continue to support and advocate for charities and organizations that promote social issues, such as mental health, women’s rights, animal welfare, and education access. Read more...