Helen Keller was born on this day in 1880, some 133 years ago. If you don’t know the Helen Keller story, you can watch The Miracle Worker below, the 1962 film starring Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. You’ll learn about how Keller, at 19 months, contracted a disease — either scarlet fever or meningitis, it’s still not clear — that left her deaf and blind. You’ll also learn how Annie Sullivan, her beloved teacher, taught her to communicate by spelling words into her hand. Their relationship would last 49 years. And you’ll discover how Keller became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, en route to becoming an activist, author and overall source of inspiration. In the clip above, filmed roughly 83 years ago, Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan appear in the flesh. Captured in an old newsreel, Sullivan explains how Keller learned to talk and, in the final line, Helen movingly declares, “I am not dumb now!” Find more Helen Keller vintage footage below.
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