Hashem Akbari was born on August 13, 1949, in Iran.

He is an Iranian-American professor of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. He received his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and became a U.S. citizen in 1991. In 2009, he joined Concordia University, where he founded a comprehensive laboratory to measure solar spectral reflectance and thermal emittance of common construction materials. Prior to joining Concordia University, he was a senior scientist and the leader of the Heat Island Group at the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) at the University of California (from 1983 to 2009). In 1985, he founded the Urban Heat Island (UHI) group, where he worked in the areas of heat-island quantification, mitigation, and novel techniques in the analysis of energy use in buildings and industry in the United States and abroad. He contributed to the development of several international standards and was the author of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (2007 Nobel Peace Prize). Akbari is one of the founding organizers of the Global Cool Cities Alliance (vice Chairman of the Board, Technical committee chair), the Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) (Ex-Officio Board Member, International Committee Chair), and the European Cool Roof Council (ECPR) (Ex-Officio Board Member).

Ambrose Akinmusire was born on May 1, 1982, in Oakland, California.

He is an American avant-garde jazz composer and trumpeter. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Southern California (M.A.) and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles. In 2007, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition and the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. The same year, he released his debut recording, Prelude... to Cora (Fresh Sound New Talent label). He moved to New York City and began performing with Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran. He participated in Moran's innovative multimedia concert event, "In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall, 1957." He caught the attention of Bruce Lundvall, then President of Blue Note Records and made his debut on the Blue Note label in 2011 with the album When the Heart Emerges Glistening. His third album, "The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint," was released in 2014. The album "Origami Harvest" was included in The New York Times' Best Jazz of 2018. His sixth studio album, "On the Tender Spot of Every Calloused Moment" (2020), received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Akinmusire received the 2014 North Sea Jazz Festival's Paul Acket Award, the Doris Duke Artist, and the Doris Duke Impact Awards.

Toshiko Akiyoshi was born on December 12, 1929, in Liaoyang, Manchuria, China.

She is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. In 1952, during a tour of Japan, pianist Oscar Peterson discovered her playing in a club on the Ginza. In 1953, she recorded her first album with Peterson's rhythm section: Herb Ellis on guitar, Ray Brown on double bass, and J. C. Heard on drums. The album was released with the title “Toshiko's Piano” in the U.S. and “Amazing Toshiko Akiyoshi” in Japan. In the 1950s, he studied jazz at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. In 1998, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music from Berklee, then known as the Berklee College of Music. Akiyoshi’s Japanese heritage is distinctly present in her music and sets her compositions apart from other jazz musicians. She received many awards, e.g., Jazz Album of the Year: Long Yellow Road, Stereo Review (1976), NEA Jazz Master (2007) and multiple Grammy nominations (1976-1994). Akiyoshi also received the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, 2004.

The Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. While it originally set out to ship passengers and fishing products, the Alaska Steamship Company began shipping mining equipment, dog sleds, and cattle at the outbreak of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The company was purchased by the Alaska Syndicate and merged with the Northwestern Steamship Company in 1909. It retained its name, and the fleet expanded to 18 ships. During World War II, the government took over the company's ships. After the end of the war, the company struggled to compete with the new Alaska Highway for passengers and freight. It discontinued passenger service altogether in 1954 and shut down operations in 1971.

Dame Emma Albani, stage name of Marie-Louise-Cécile-Emma Lajeunesse, soprano (b at Chambly, Canada E 1 Nov 1847; d at London, Eng 3 Apr 1930). Her parents were her teachers in Chambly, Plattsburgh and Montréal, where she gave her first concert in 1856. She was to become the first Canadian-born artist to distinguish herself in the international world of opera, oratorio and concert singing. After studies in Paris and Milan, she made her opera debut at Messina, Italy, as Oscar in Un Ballo in maschera (1869), but her first real triumph came soon after, as Amina in La Sonnambula. This was to be her debut role in London (1872), Paris (1872) and New York (1874). Though attached to Covent Garden, London, she steadily pursued her international career in many countries. In 1891-1892 she sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. By the time she retired from the opera stage in 1896, she had sung 43 leading roles. She made about a dozen enthusiastically received Canadian tours, 1883-1906.
Source: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dame-emma-albani

A. Albers was an American naturalist and illustrator of the naturalists’ publications in Ohio in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.