Next, Filipino doctor Abelardo Aguilar, who co-discovered “Ilosone,” an anti-biotic better known by its scientific name “Erythromycin.”

They are followed by Marc Loinaz, a Filipino inventor from New Jersey, who first made the one-chip video camera; Edward Sanchez, a Mensa member, who bagged the grand prize in the first Philippine Search for Product excellence in Information Technology.

We all know that Thomas Edison invented the electric bulb, and the fluorescent lighting was thought of by Nicola Tesla. But the “fluorescent lamp” was invented by a Filipino, Agapito Flores.

Do you know that the personal physician of then US President Bill Clinton was a Filipino doctor? She is Eleanor “Connie” Concepcion Mariano, the youngest captain in the U.S. Navy, at the time.

Of course, many know that Carlos P. Romulo, as editor and publisher of The Philippines Herald, was the first Filipino and Asian to win the coveted Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper reports warning against Japan’s military plans to wage war in Asia and the Pacific in 1941. Oh, after the war, he became an ambassador to Washington and the United Nations, and got elected as the first Filipino and Asian to the prestigious post of president of the United Nations General Assembly. (The first two Filipino-Americans to garner the same Pulitzer Prize, 56 years later, were Alex Tizon and Byron Acohito, both of The Seattle Times.)

And now, let us recall the so-called world-class Filipino champions, starting with Eugene Torre, the first ever chess grandmaster who won the title at the Chess Olympiad in Nice, France in 1974. (Other Filipino chess players have become grandmasters, after Torre.)

So far, we have two Filipino beauties that have been crowned Miss Universe. Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Margie Moran in 1973. Many other beauties have won international awards like Gemma Cruz, daughter of the beauteous journalist Chitang Guerrero-Nakpil.

Anne Bayle of Manila became an international super model who modeled for major designers like Calvin Klein, Chanel, Christian Lacroix, Donna Karin, Gianni Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent.

Here are other interesting historical facts about the  Philippines and the foremost Filipino national hero Dr. Jose Rizal:

The University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu City is the oldest university not only in this country but in all Asia. It was founded in 1595, making it older than Harvard University in America. The University of Santo Tomas, established in 1611, is Asia?s second oldest university.

Filipinos were first introduced to the English language by the British who occupied Manila in 1762, and not by the Americans who eventually colonized this country after defeating the Spanish colonizers before the turn of the 20th century. Since then, the Philippines has become the world’s third largest English-speaking nation, next to the Britain and the United States.

When a distinguished British traveler-writer A. Henry Savage saw Mayon Volcano in Bicol in 1903, he was thrilled by the sight and wrote: “Mayon is the most beautiful mountain I have ever seen, the world-renowned Fujiyama (Mt. Fuji) of Japan sinks into perfect insignificance by comparison." Mayon is indeed the world’s “most perfect cone.”

Later on, after visiting our country, Honolulu journalist John Griffin wrote in part: “What’s still impressive to me about the Philippines is the friendliness of the people, their sense of humor."

And finally, do you know that Dr. Jose Rizal, our National Hero, could read and write at the age of 2, and he grew up to speak more than 20 languages, among others, English, German, French, Chinese, and Latin. And before he was executed by the Spaniards, his last words were: “Consummatum est!”

We Filipinos ought to be proud that we belong to a race of heroes, known and unknown.