Paralyzed by cerebral palsy, Christy Brown was only able to move his left foot. His anger at being treated as mindless and being dismissed by almost everyone around him because of this condition drove him to express himself in art and writing. Brown, born to a poor family on this date in 1932 in Dublin, Ireland, was the 10th of 22 children. He fought his disabilities and poverty to become an accomplished poet, painter and writer. The extraordinary life of Brown was chronicled in his book "My Left Foot" in 1954. The book was made into a movie of the same name in 1989. Brown choked to death while eating dinner in 1981. He was 49.

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