Helen Keller Life Events

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• 8 October 2007 - Helen Keller's Birth Place.
• 5 March 2008 -Researchers have located a rare unpublished photo of Helen Keller.

Here are a few important dates from Helen Keller's life:

• June 27, 1880 Helen Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her father, Captain Arthur Henley Keller was an officer in the Confederate Army. Her mother is Kate Adams Keller. (See photos from her birth place called Ivy Green)
  
• February 1882 After being struck by illness, at less than two years of age, Helen loses both her sight and hearing, possibly from scarlet fever.
• March 3, 1887 Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen letters by signing into her hand ("manual sign language").
• April 5, 1887 Anne makes the "miracle" breakthrough, teaching Helen that everything has a name by spelling W-A-T-E-R into Helen's hand as water flows over her palm.
• Fall 1889 Helen goes to Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, her first formal education.
• September 1900 Helen becomes a member of the freshmen class of 1904 at Radcliffe College.
• 1902 During her Junior Year at college, Helen writes The Story of My Life.
• June 28, 1904 Helen becomes the first deaf-blind individual to earn a college degree, graduating with honors from Radcliffe.
• April 1930 Helen, Anne, and Polly Thompson travel abroad for the first time, visiting Scotland, Ireland, and England for over six months. This trip is only the beginning of Helen's travels overseas -- she would eventually visit 39 countries!
• October 20, 1936 Helen's teacher Anne Sullivan Macy dies.
• 1961 Helen suffers a series of strokes.
• 1962 The movie The Miracle Worker is released in theaters depicting Helen's Life.
  
• September 1964 President Lyndon Johnson gives Helen the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
• June 1, 1968 Helen Keller dies in her sleep just shy of her 88th birthday in her home at Arcan Ridge.
• 2003 Helen Keller was featured on the Alabama State quarter.
• 2008 A rare unpublished photo of Helen taken at the age of eight is discovered.
  

Helen Keller Photo

Related Articles

• 8 October 2007 - Helen Keller's Birth Place.
• 24 March 2008 - Important events in Helen Keller's Life.
  

The Kansas City Star has reported that researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod and tucked inside a family album. See the full article.

We visited the birth place of Helen Keller during our travels last year.

Helen Keller's Life was popularized in the classic movie Miracle Worker. In the movie, 7-year old Helen Locked in a frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness since infancy. She has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch the only tool they have in common and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.

Helen Keller Birthplace

Related Articles

• 5 March 2008 -Researchers have located a rare unpublished photo of Helen Keller.
• 24 March 2008 - Important events in Helen Keller's Life
  

Today's adventure took the Pohick Clan to Tuscumbia, Alabama and the birthplace of Helen Keller. Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, activist and lecturer. She was the first deaf blind person to graduate from college. The story of how a remarkable teacher broke through the isolation the lack of language had imposed on the child, who blossomed as she learned to communicate, are staples of American folklore. What is less well known is how Keller's life developed after she completed her education: she became a radical campaigner for workers' rights and an advocate for many other progressive causes.

Here are some additional photos from our visit.

We were very excited to see Helen Keller's birth home having grown up watching the classic movie Miracle Worker. In the movie, 7-year old Helen Locked in a frightening, lonely world of silence and darkness since infancy. She has never seen the sky, heard her mother's voice or expressed her innermost feelings. Then Annie Sullivan, a 20-year-old teacher from Boston, arrives. Having just recently regained her own sight, the no-nonsense Annie reaches out to Helen through the power of touch the only tool they have in common and leads her bold pupil on a miraculous journey from fear and isolation to happiness and light.

Update (5 Mar 2008) - Researchers have located a rare unpublished photo of Helen Keller.