Benjamin Banneker — Astronomer · 1731–1806
They taught you the stars were charted by men in powdered wigs. They left out the free Black man who did it by candlelight.
Banneker taught himself astronomy from borrowed books, predicted a solar eclipse the experts got wrong, built one of America's first striking clocks by hand, and mailed his almanac to Thomas Jefferson — daring the author of "all men are created equal" to mean it.
Almanac published 1791. Predicted the eclipse of April 14, 1789.