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Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. Her birthplace was Tuscumbia, Alabama.
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She was struck with "brain fever" and, because of it, she became blind, deaf, and mute.
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Anne Sullivan, her teacher, started to help Helen to communicate and, slowly, they were making progress. The first word Helen fully understood was "water."
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At the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston, she started to take speech classes.
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Starting in 1894, Helen Keller attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City until 1896.
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Helen attended a prepatory school for women called Cambridge School for Young Ladies in 1896.
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helen wrote the first volume of her autobiography called The Story of My Life while she was in college; it was published as a book in 1902.
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In 1904, Helen graduated college from Radcliff College.
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John Macy and Helen Keller got married in 1905. At that time, Macy was a teacher at Harvard, a social critic, and a prominent socialist.
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Starting in 1909, Helen wrote myriad articles about socialism and supported Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for president. She did this from 1909 to 1921.
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Helen joined the IWW in 1912.
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George Kessler and Helen Keller founded the Helen Keller International to fight the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition.
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Keller participated in the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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Keller became a member of this in 1924. She was part of numerous campaigns to raise awareness, money, and support for the blind.
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One of the various honors Keller received in recognition of her accomplishments during her lifetime was the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936.
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Beginning in 1946, she started to travel to 35 countries in five continents until 1957.
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She was appointed counselor on international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind. She starts by traveling to England, France, Greece, Italy, and Ireland for them.
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She went on the trip of her life, which was a five-month journey across Asia. Keller went on this 40,000-mile trek when she was at age 75.
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During this time, she started to suffer a series of strokes.
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In 1964, Helen was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the bountiful awards she got.
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One of the great honors Helen obtained was the honor of being elected to the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965.
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Sadly, Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968 in her home in Connecticut. She died in her sleep. This was a few weeks before her 88th birthday. She became a legacy.
