May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month-a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).
Like most commemorative months, Asian/Pacific Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill. In June 1977, Reps. Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. Twelve years later, President George H.W. Bush signed an extension making the week-long celebration into a month-long celebration. In 1992, the official designation of May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
*Source: Library of Congress 
The Arts
I.M. Pei
Chinese-American Architect
I.M. Pei first achieved national attention in 1964, when he was chosen to design the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts. Since then, he has created some of the most distinguished buildings and public spaces of the 20th century.
Born Ieoh Ming Pei in Canton, China, he arrived in the United States in 1935, to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He continued his education at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, where he received his M.Arch. in 1946. Pei's "first major architectural challenge" was the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was selected as one of the 10 Best Buildings in America by the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. His other designs include the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris, the Bank of China Tower, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Some of Pei's numerous awards and honors include the Pritzker Prize (the architectural equivalent of the Nobel Prize), the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Business
Caterina Fake
Filipino-American Businesswoman & Entrepreneur
Fake was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, attended Choate Rosemary Hall, Smith College, and graduated from Vassar College in 1991. Fake is best known as the co-founder, with Stewart Butterfield, of Flickr, a photo-sharing service acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. Flickr was instrumental in the development of integrating web features such as social networking, community open APIs, tagging, and search algorithms that surfaced the best (or more interesting) content. Prior to founding Ludicorp, Fake was Art Director at Salon.com and was heavily involved in the development of online community, social software and personal publishing. She joined the board of directors of Creative Commons in August 2008.
Fake has won many awards, including BusinessWeek's Best Leaders of 2005, Forbes 2005 eGang, Fast Company's Fast 50, and Red Herring's 20 Entrepreneurs under 35. In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people. She sits on the board of Etsy and advises many startups and new businesses. At Yahoo! she ran the Technology Development group, known for its Hack Yahoo! program, a stimulus to innovation and creativity, and Brickhouse, a rapid development environment for new products. Fake resigned from Yahoo in 2008 and in March 2009 announced her new product, Hunch, a consumer web application designed to assist users with making decisions.
Fake lives in San Francisco, California.
Government
Norman Mineta
Japanese-American Politician
A distinguished public servant for five decades, Secretary Mineta was the first Asian Pacific American to serve in a Presidential Cabinet. Throughout his career, Mineta accomplished many other "firsts": In 1967, he became the first Asian Pacific American Member of the City Council of his hometown of San Jose, California. Just four years later, in 1971, he was elected Mayor of San Jose - the first Asian Pacific American Mayor of a major U.S. city. While serving in the Congress, Mineta founded the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and served as its first Chair.
President Clinton said of him, "he brings an in-depth understanding of American business and a strong sense of the needs of our high-tech economy. But he also has a deep concern for people, for the people in places who are not yet fully participating in this economy."
Secretary Mineta, a native of San Jose, California, most recently served as Vice President, Special Business Initiatives at Lockheed Martin Corporation. Mineta is a former Member of the United States House of Representatives and has a long and distinguished record of public service. He was first elected to Congress in 1974 to represent Silicon Valley. In 1993, Mineta became Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Once called the "Cal Ripken of politics," Mineta was admired and respected on Capitol Hill. He was known for his dedication to the people of his district, for consensus building among his colleagues and for forging public-private partnerships. During his tenure in Congress, Mineta's legislative and policy agenda was wide and varied, including major projects in the areas of economic development, science and technology policy, trade, transportation, the environment, intelligence, the budget and civil rights.
Secretary Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced into internment camps by the United States Government during the Second World War. They were uprooted from their home in San Jose and brought to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, near Cody, Wyoming.
During the 100th Congress, Mineta was the driving force behind passage of H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which officially apologized for and redressed the injustices endured by Japanese Americans during the War. In 1995, George Washington University awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Medal to Mineta for his contributions to the field of civil rights.
Secretary Mineta is married to Danealia Mineta. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Mineta Secretary of Transportation - making Mineta the first cabinet member to serve consecutive terms under presidents of different parties.
Science
David Ho
Chinese-American Scientist
Dr. David Ho has been a leader in the field of HIV/AIDS research for over a decade. The impact of his work on the viral dynamics of HIV changed the way HIV/AIDS is investigated and treated, and earned him Time Magazine's "Man of the Year" award in 1996.
In the early days of research, it was assumed that the HIV virus remained dormant for ten years before the outbreak of AIDS. Dr. Ho's work revealed that HIV is highly active from the moment of infection, replicating and mutating continuously. This discovery led to the replacement of single drug therapies with protease inhibitor and antiviral "cocktails."
Born in Taiwan, he moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of thirteen. In 1974, he graduated from the California Institute of Technology with a B.S. summa cum laude in physics. Switching to medical research, he earned his M.D. at Harvard Medical School in 1978. Dr. Ho currently serves as the scientific director and chief executive officer of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, the largest private HIV/AIDS research center in the world.
Sports
Natasha Kai
Pacific-American Soccer Star
Natasha Kai is an American soccer player who plays for Sky Blue FC of Women's Professional Soccer and the United States women's national soccer team. Kai is one of the most famous female athletes from Hawaii, where she starred at the University of Hawaii and was the Conference Player of the Year three times.
Kai started her first training camp with the full United States Women's National Soccer Team in February 2006. She made her full Women’s National Team debut at the 2006 Algarve Cup in Portugal, scoring in her first two games against Denmark and France, as a substitute. She became just the fourth player in U.S. WNT history to score in her first two caps. Kai scored four goals in her first seven WNT matches, including the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Japan on May 9, 2006. Kai became the first-ever player from Hawaii to play for the full Women’s National Team and to make a Women’s World Cup Team. In 2007, Kai played in seven games heading into the final pre-Women’s World Cup match, starting in four, and has two assists and one goal (in a 2-0 win over China at the Four Nations Tournament giving the USA the tournament title). She was one of the final three players chosen to the 2007 U.S. Women’s World Cup Team.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Kai scored the winning goal in overtime to lead the U.S. past Canada in the quarterfinal round.