“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)

Sweet-toothed jet setters don't even need their passports for this worldwide tour, as they can travel around the world in 40 cakes. Some of the world's most famous landmarks and cultures have been created by some of the best bakers, as featured in this month's edition of Cake Masters magazine. Pictured here is “Japan”. (Photo by Mimi Cafe Union/Mercury Press/Caters News)

Dancers dressed as futuristic characters perform during a show at The Robot Restaurant on June 29, 2014 in Tokyo, Japan. The now famous Robot Restaurant opened two years ago in Kabukicho area of Shinjuku at an estimated cost of 10 million U.S. dollars. Performances are held three times a day and cater mostly to foreign tourists. The cabaret style shows include bikini clad futuristic dancers, performers dressed as robots and a host of large scale robots and vehicles controlled with remotes by stage hands dressed as Ninjas. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Claire Robertson from Scottish Ballet, poses dressed as the Good Snow Flake inside a life size snow globe on Buchanan Street during a promotion for Scottish Ballet’s festive production of The Nutcracker on November 20, 2012 in Glasgow, Scotland. The Nutcracker opens at the Theatre Royal on December the 8th, the production delves deep into the darker reaches of Hoffmann’s original tale in a fresh and vivid retelling of the famous Christmas story. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell)

Beryl Lipton, left, douses Matt Lee during the ice bucket challenge at Boston's Copley Square, Thursday, August 7, 2014 to raise funds and awareness for ALS. The idea is: pay up for charity or get doused. The fund-raising phenomenon is catching on fast, propelled by popular videos of the dunkers and the dunked – including famous athletes and entertainers – posted on social media sites. And the challenges are raising tens of thousands of dollars and immeasurable awareness for causes from ALS to breast cancer to a camp for kids who've lost a father to war. (Photo by Elise Amendola/AP Photo)

A piñata depicting TV celebrity Kim Kardashian is displayed outside a workshop in Reynosa December 6, 2014. Mexican artisan Dalton Ramirez, known in his neighborhood for creating pinatas which depict local politicians and people in the entertainment industry, jumped on the Kardashian bandwagon after the reality star was featured in a magazine showing her famous curves. The photographs in the magazine were shot by Jean-Paul Goude and recreated his iconic “Carolina Beaumont, New York, 1976”. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

Revellers enjoy the atmosphere during the opening day or “Chupinazo” of the San Fermin Running of the Bulls fiesta on July 6, 2015 in Pamplona, Spain. The annual Fiesta de San Fermin, made famous by the 1926 novel of US writer Ernest Hemmingway entitled “The Sun Also Rises”, involves the daily running of the bulls through the historic heart of Pamplona to the bull ring. (Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

The fin of a tuna is seen on display in the outer part of the Tsukiji fish market, the Jogai Shijo, in Tokyo January 4, 2015. The famous Tsukiji wholesale fish and seafood market, is scheduled to leave its fabled 80-year-old halls to move into bigger, more modern facilities next year ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The outer part of the market, the Jogai Shijo, that caters to the public will stay in its old place, but critics wonder about its chances for survival without the world's biggest fish trading place at its doorsteps. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)