You've probably heard of Helen Keller before. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in 1880, and at 19 months old she became blind and deaf after taking ill. When she was six, her parents hired a teacher named Anne Sullivan to bring the world to Helen. The moment when she made the connection between the finger-spelled letters "W-A-T-E-R" and the water flowing from the garden pump was immortalized in Keller's first autobiography The Story of My Life, as well as in the play The Miracle Worker.
But there is more to Helen Keller's story than what you may have learned in school. Below are eight less well-known facts about her.
1. Her mother was one of Robert E. Lee's cousins, which makes Helen one of Lee's first cousins once removed.
2. She is responsible for bringing the Akita dog breed to America. In 1935, she visited the Akita prefecture in Japan and asked about the story of Hachikō, the dog famous for staying loyal to his master even after his master's death. While in Japan, she told someone that she wanted her own Akita dog, and within a month the Japanese government had sent her one named Kamikaze-go.
Keller wrote in the Akita Journal: "If ever there was an angel in fur, it was Kamikaze. I know I shall never feel quite the same tenderness for any other pet. The Akita dog has all the qualities that appeal to me -- he is gentle, companionable and trusty."
3. She is a stroke survivor -- she had several strokes in 1961.
4. In 1964, she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work as a women's suffragist and workers' rights advocate. The medal is the highest honor the U.S. president can bestow on a civilian.
5. She wrote to eight Presidents of the United States -- Theodore Roosevelt through Lyndon B. Johnson -- and received replies from all of them. She wrote to them about various topics including suffrage, social justice and workers' rights. She even got to meet each president from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson in person.
6. She published 11 books in addition to The Story of My Life. Some of them are about her life after college, and others are more political.
7. She is one of the co-founders of the American Civil Liberties Union.
8. Since 1984, the week of June 27th (Keller's birthday) is known as Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week.
