October 26, 1959

1959Paul Farmer, American anthropologist and physician (died 2022)^[†]

Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical anthropologist and physician. Farmer held an MD and PhD from Harvard University, where he was a University Professor and the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty to improve equitable access to health care. He was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

1959Evo Morales, Bolivian soldier and politician, 80th President of Bolivia^[†]

Juan Evo Morales Ayma is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from its indigenous population, his administration worked towards the implementation of left-wing policies, focusing on the legal protections and socioeconomic conditions of Bolivia's previously marginalized indigenous population and combating the political influence of the United States and resource-extracting multinational corporations. Ideologically a socialist, he led the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party from 1998 to 2024.