DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

​Ronan Farrow
December 19, 1987 to Present

By all accounts a child prodigy, Farrow received a degree from Bard’s College at the age of fifteen and studied law at Yale Law School at the age of sixteen. After that he attended Oxford University to study international relations. During President Obama’s first administration Farrow served as one of his foreign policy advisors and during his time he established the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues. His work mostly focused on the needs of women and children in third world countries, most notable Sudan. On top of his work within the government he is also a notable reporter whose focus again was on human rights and foreign policy. For his efforts he was awarded ‘Refugees International’s McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award’ and the ‘Cronkite Award.’

Lola Van Wagenen
December 1938 to Present

 An activist and historian Van Wagmen is one of the co-founders of Consumer Action Now (CAN) and has led many movements trying to gain more funding for American History. She is also an environmentalist and a women's rights advocate. She has spent much of her adult life advocating for the education for others and using CAN as a tool for this education. Her main goal was to teach others how their actions affected the world around them. Her interest in the environment was what shaped her interest in both her studies and her activism. Moreover, Van Wagenen has produced several documentaries including Miss America in 2002. Currently Van Wagenen is working on the production of Lowell Thomas: The American Storyteller

Liu Xiaobo
​December 28 1955 to July 31, 2017

An outspoken activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 (still unclaimed). Xiaobo earned the prize while under detention (by the Chinese government) even being separated from his wife by force. Xiaobo has been placed in prison, placed under house arrest, and even just detained for periods of time. Xiaobo has attracted the Chinese government’s ire by his outspoken nature and harsh opinions of the one-party state. In this regard, the Chinese government has done what it could to silence him. However, nothing has stopped him from speaking his peace had published Charter 8 declaring the Chinese government restore human rights among other things. As of 2010 the manifesto has gained 10,000 signatures in support. He died in the First Hospital of China Medical University on July 31, 2017 from complications due to liver cancer. His death had stirred up controversy since the Chinese government is known to have treated him and his wife poorly.