Born on This Day: June 10

French painter whose realism challenged academic art and transformed depictions of labor and ordinary life.

American actor and singer who broke a major racial barrier as the first Black Academy Award winner.

American blues musician whose voice and recordings profoundly influenced electric blues and rock.

Canadian-American novelist whose intellectually rich fiction became central to postwar American literature.

British royal whose long public service and youth-award program had international institutional influence.

American singer and actor whose performances became enduring landmarks of musical film and popular culture.

American author and illustrator whose psychologically honest picture books transformed children’s literature.

American biologist whose studies of ants, biodiversity, and sociobiology transformed ecology and evolutionary science.