Sports have the ability to transform groups of strangers into a united community. In the celebratory spirit surrounding the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Sony and the World Photography Organisation present UNITED – a contest honouring the passion of football fans around the world. Seven inspirational photographers have been selected by Sony and WPO to capture the atmosphere and celebration of the World Cup across the globe. Photo: France – French fans cheering for their team. (Photo by Anthony Lepinay)

A model presents a creation by French designer Jean Paul Gaultier as part of his Spring/Summer 2015 women's ready-to-wear collection during Paris Fashion Week September 27, 2014. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

French actress Marie Cornillon wearing body paint and a headgear with bull horns, poses in front of the Nimes arena with a sign inscribed “Abolissons la corrida” (Abolish corrida bullfighting) as part of a protest by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) animal rights group to ban bullfighting in France, on November 16, 2022. (Photo by Pascal Guyot/AFP Photo)

French-British actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg arrives to attend a state dinner in honor of Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Chateau de Versailles (Versailles Palace) in Versailles, near Paris, on the first day of their State visit to France on September 20, 2023. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

Dancers from the Moulin Rouge troupe are reflected in a mirror as they prepare themselves prior to a press photo shoot at the National Theatre in Warsaw, on October 26, 2023. The famous cabaret will take part in the show “French Touch La Belle Vie” highlighting the Franco-Polish friendship. (Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP Photo)

Models showcase designs aboard fishing boats off Ngor Island during the 23rd Dakar Fashion Week, organized by Senegalese-French designer Adama N'Diaye, founder of the brand “Adama Paris”, on December 6, 2025, in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess” in anglophone nations.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre”.

Photo: American entertainer Josephine Baker in costume for her famous “banana dance”. Baker was an overnight sensation when she arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s. (Photo by Walery/Getty Images)

A French farmer leads her cow through the livestock area as preparations continue on the eve of the opening of the International Agricultural Show in Paris, France, February 26, 2016. The Paris Farm Show runs from February 27 to March 6, 2016. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)