Retrobituaries - Trivia, Quizzes, and Brain Teasers | Mental Floss

Madam C.J. Walker, the First Self-Made Female Millionaire in the U.S.

Photo Illustration by Lucy Quintanilla. Badge: Gift of Dr. Patricia Heaston; Tin: Gift from Dawn Simon Spears and Alvin Spears, Sr.; Sign, Photograph of Walker Agents: Gift of A’Lelia Bundles / Madam Walker Family Archives. All from the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Background/photo border, iStock

Madam C.J. Walker, the First Self-Made Female Millionaire in the U.S.

Lady Death: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the Greatest Female Sniper of All Time

Soviet sniper Lyudmila Pavlyuchenko

Lady Death: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the Greatest Female Sniper of All Time

Mary Frith, 17th-Century London's Smoking, Thieving, Foul-Mouthed "Roaring Girl"

Wellcome Collection // CC BY 4.0

Mary Frith, 17th-Century London's Smoking, Thieving, Foul-Mouthed "Roaring Girl"

Madelyn Pugh Davis, the “Girl Writer” Behind I Love Lucy

YouTube

Madelyn Pugh Davis, the “Girl Writer” Behind I Love Lucy

Bernarr Macfadden: Bodybuilder, Publisher, and Eccentric Prophet of Physical Culture

The History Collection/Alamy Stock Photo

Sushruta, Ancient Indian Surgeon and Father of the Nose Job

Wellcome Collection // CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

John Tradescant, Royal Gardener and Forefather of the Natural History Museum

Portrait of John Tradescant the Elder, attributed to Cornelis de Neve

Virginia Apgar, the Woman Whose Name Saves Newborns

March of Dimes/Library of Congress via Wikimedia // Public Domain

Laura de Force Gordon, Pioneering Newspaper Publisher, Lawyer, and Suffragist

Photo Illustration Mental Floss. Portrait: Paul Fearn, Alamy. Background images: iStock

Caroline Weldon, 19th Century Indigenous Rights Advocate and Sitting Bull's Secretary

The only known photograph of Caroline Weldon (seated), taken in 1915 with her friend Aline Estoppey

Christine Granville, World War II Special Agent

Christine Granville circa 1950

Emily Warren Roebling, the Woman Who Helped Build the Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Museum, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

Leon Ray Livingston, America's Most Famous Hobo

Photo illustration by Lucy Quintanilla, Mental Floss. Trains, iStock. Portrait, Project Gutenberg // Public Domain

Elizebeth Friedman, America's Unsung Wartime Codebreaker

Courtesy of the George C. Marshall Library, Lexington, Virginia

Walter Jackson Freeman, Father of the Lobotomy

A pair of Watts-Freeman lobotomy instruments circa 1950

Haruo Nakajima, the Original Actor Beneath the Godzilla Suit

Haruo Nakajima (second from left) during the filming of Godzilla Raids Again (1955).