“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)

Weighing in at just under 6 pounds and at 22.6 inches long, the female pup arrived at Shedd in late October from Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, where she spent the first four weeks of her life being stabilized. The pup has been doing well since her arrival, receiving continual care behind the scenes of Shedd’s Abbott Oceanarium. Currently referred to as “Pup 681”, Shedd’s animal care and veterinarian teams are providing the continual, round-the-clock care she needs to thrive. Photos used with permisson from Shedd Aquarium. (Photo by Brenna Hernandez/AP Photo)

5-year-old Chinese girl Wang Anna prepares meals for her grandmother and great-grandmother at home in Zhuyuan village, Guizhou province, China on March 3, 2017. Chinese girl called Wang Anna, 5, takes care of her ill grandmother and 92-year-old great-grandmother on her own every day in a mountainous village in Zhima town, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou province. Her father went to jail before she was born and her mother remarried after gave birth to her. Although she is just five years old, she started to shoulder the responsibility to look after ill grandmother and elderly great-grandmother. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Laura Halford of Wales jumps during her hoop routine as she competes in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around final event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, July 25, 2014. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)

A Pakistani scavenger girl writes on a notebook she collected from a garbage, while another girl sits next to her in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Thousands of children pick recyclable items from waste dumping points to earn living for their poor families. (Photo by K. M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

Sandra, a 29-year-old orangutan at Buenos Aires' zoo, on May 20, 2015. Sandra got cleared to leave a Buenos Aires zoo that was her home for 20 years, after a court ruled she was entitled to more desirable living conditions. (Photo by Juan Mabromata/AFP Photo)

A student is assisted by teachers after she fell ill while marching in a parade celebrating Saint Peter's day in Lima, Peru, Monday, June 29, 2015. During the feast day of the Catholic saint, who is the patron saint of fishermen, coastal communities pay homage to St. Peter, whose statue is paraded to the sea and petitions are made to keep their vessels and all who work on them safe. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Yalena Leuliette, 7, of Greenbelt, Md., throws seeds from a cattail plant up in the air as she plays while visiting the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in northeast Washington, on Sunday, August 9, 2015. Leuliette visits the public garden with her parents a few times a year. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)