Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy (1756-1791)

a con artist whose scam fueled the French Revolution

Lady Flora Hastings (1806-1839)

bullied by the Queen of England for a pregnancy that never existed

Marie-Rose Astié de Valsayre (1846-1915)

fought for the right to wear trousers and also won a fencing duel

Maeda Matsu (1547-1617)

badass wife of a samurai with lot of influence

Virginia Dare (1587-????)

first English child born in America with an unknown fate

Kusumoto Ine (1827-1903)

first Japanese woman to witness the dissection of a human corpse

Chevalière d'Eon (1728-1810)

trans woman who was a badass diplomat, spy and soldier

Valeria Messalina (17/20-48)

if she had been a man, she would have been called ruthless

Lü Zhi (241 BC - 180 BC)

power hungry Chinese empress with a lot of blood on her hands

Marcus Licinius Crassus

founded the first fire brigade but not for noble reasons

Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1640-1701)

a king's little brother with a very decadent life

Ea-nasir (~ 1750 BC)

receiver of the oldest known written complaint

Alice Liddell (1854-1934)

the real Alice in Wonderland

Tsuda Umeko (1864-1929)

first female Japanese exchange student at the tender age of seven

Onfim (13th century)

a boy whose schoolwork is preserved for eternity

Joseph Bell (1837-1911)

the real Sherlock Holmes

Hans Hermann von Katte (1704-1730)

dared to love a king's son and died for his loyalty

Sophie Blanchard

badass aeronaut who made the sky her stage

Johan de Witt (1625-1672)

prime minister who was devoured by his citizens

Johann Georg Faust (1480-1541)

alchemist who died trying to create gold

Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle (1775-1809)

leader of the Hellish Brigade

Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)

also known as the Dragon of Echigo

Hongwu (1328-1398)

from beggar to founding emperor of the Ming dynasty

Louis Le Prince (1841-????)

shot the first movie, vanished like a ghost

Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum (~ 2400 BC)

twins or gay lovers?

Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras (1744-1790)

found three spelling mistakes on his own death warrant

Charles-Henri Sanson (1739-1806)

royal executioner who beheaded royalists and revolutionaries

Roxelana / Hürrem Sultan (1504-1558)

from slave to powerful Ottoman empress

Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

polyglot adventurer and also made the Kama Sutra well known

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806)

born into slavery to French general-in-chief