Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data and research to the present day.
Biography from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Also born on August 1
- Jason Momoa1979 · American actor
- Claudius10 BC · Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54
- Sam Mendes1965 · British filmmaker and stage director
- Abdullah of Saudi Arabia1924 · King of Saudi Arabia from 2005 to 2015
- Herman Melville1819 · American writer
- Bastian Schweinsteiger1984 · German footballer
- Yves Saint Laurent1936 · French fashion designer
- Coolio1963 · American rapper
Also born in 1920
- Pope John Paul II1920 · Head of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005
- Ravi Shankar1920 · Indian musician and sitar player
- Yul Brynner1920 · Russian and American actor
- Mickey Rooney1920 · American actor
- Toshiro Mifune1920 · Japanese actor
- Ray Bradbury1920 · American writer
- Charles Bukowski1920 · American writer
- Montgomery Clift1920 · American actor