While history is a rich environment full of diverse stories, so many unsung hero’s are left out of the commentary. It is important to uncover those untold narratives that have shaped the world we know today. These forgotten stories shed light on some valuable figures that are not taught in our history classes. We should recognize their accomplishments and their contributions to history.

Actress and inventor, Hedy Lamarr, worked to create a communication method to help send coded messages during WWII. This method was eventually used by the US Navy and was part of the journey to invent Wi-Fi. Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014, according to the National Women’s History Museum.

In the 1950’s, an African American woman and tobacco farmer, Henrietta Lacks, was diagnosed with a terminal disease. At the age of 31 she devastatingly passed away; her death however came with a great discovery for medical science. After studying her cervical cancer, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, it was found that her cells were unusual, they were unlike the other cells of cancer patients because instead of dying they were multiplying. Lacks’ cells were used to save millions of lives by contributing to the development of the polio vaccine, cancer treatments and the HPV vaccine.

In 1964, Patsy Mink was the first woman of color to be elected to the House of Representatives. She served a total of 12 terms (24 years). It took over 170 years from when the House of Representatives was established for a woman of color to be elected. Mink was a second-generation Japanese immigrant who completed her undergraduate degree in education and went on the earn a law degree. In 1972, she co-authored the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act, later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in 2002, the year of her death.