Women Who Have Made History




Note: Click on the picture to go to the original source of the image AND to find further information on the amazing woman.


1490 BC Queen Hatshepsut- Crowned herself King.

1200 BC Fu Hao- consort to emperor Wu Ding, she was an esteemed warrior who led military expeditions.

600 BC Ishtar, Goddess of Love- from the Assyrian Empire, was believed to be so powerful that they sent her statue to Egypt to help an ailing king.

300 BC Dana or Danu- Chief Goddess of Ancient Ireland, mother of the People of Dana who were a tribe of divine beings. In later times they were demoted to mere fairies.

39 Trung Trac and Trung Nhi- two Vietnamese sisters who lead the first revolt in Southeast Asia against China.

50 Maria the Jewess- Establishes alchemy. She is also known as Maria Prophetissa and Miriam the Prophetess.

593 Suiko- is the first Japanese empress to receive recognition from China. During her 35 year reign, Buddhism took root.

7th Century Mayans use a 260 day calendar based on the length of a woman's gestation period.

612 Lady Zac-Kuk- ascended the throne of the Mayan Empire at Palenque in the Yucatan.

11th Century Lady Murasaki Shikibu- Wrote the earliest novel on record.

1034 Zoe- Byzantine empress who poisoned her husband, Romanus III and then married epileptic Michael IV Paphiagonian.

1040 Lady Godiva- rode naked through the streets of Coventry to convince her husband to abolish the heavy taxes that oppressed the citizens.

1405 Christine de Pisan- wrote The Book of the City of the Ladies in attempt to record the history of women.

1456 Joan of Arc was aquitted.

1542 Catherine Howard- was executed for committing adultery. She was the fifth wife of Henry VIII.

1553 Lady Jane Grey- was queen of England for 13 days before being beheaded.

1553 Mary I- (aka Bloody Mary) became queen of England.

1559 Elizabeth I- Crowned queen of England.
Elizabeth


1647 A "witch" was executed for the first time in the United States.

1650 Anne Bradstreet- First published poet in American History.

1678 Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia- First woman to receive a doctorate. She received this degree in Philosophy at the University of Padua.

1773 Phillis Wheatley- First African-American to publish a book.

1784 Marie Thible- First woman to fly in a hot-air balloon.

1793 Charlotte Corday- murdered Jean Paul Marat (French revolutionary) in his bath.

1793 Marie Antoinette- was beheaded.
marie


1793 Catherine Lidfield Greene- Proposed the idea of the Cotton Gin,financed it, and made the final changes in it. Eli Whitney received all the credit.

1825 Hannah Lord Montague- Made the first detachable shirt collar.

1833 Prudence Crandall (a white woman)- was arrested for running an academy for African-American females.

1837 The first women's only college was opened in the US: Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts.

1846 Sarah Bagley- First woman telegrapher.

1847 Charlotte Bronte's book Jane Eyre was published.

1849 Harriet Tubman- Escaped from slavery in Maryland.

1849 Elizabeth Blackwell- first US woman to earn her medical degree.


1850 The first women's medical school opened-the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania

1851 Sojourner Truth- At the Women's Rights Convention in Ohio,gave her "Ain't I a Woman" speech.

1858 Saint Bernadette of Lourdes- Was the first to have visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, Frances. This lead to the building of a shrine.

1861 Sally Tompkins-- Only commissioned female officer in the Confederate Army.

1862 Julia Ward Howe- Her poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic"was published in the Atlantic Monthly.

1866 Lucy Hobbs- First woman to graduate from dental school.

1867 Emily Greene Balch- First woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton- First woman to testify before Congress.

1869 Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote.

1869 The American Women Suffrage Association was organized in Cleveland.

1869 Amy Bradley- First woman to supervise a public school system.

1870 Ada H. Kepley- First woman to graduate from an American law school.

1870 The Young Women's Christian Association was founded.

1872 Victoria Woodhull- First woman nominated to be president by the National Equal Rights party.

1872 Susan B. Anthony- was fined $100 for trying to vote in a presidential election.

1873 First women's prison run by women opened at the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls

1875 Edna Kanouse- gave birth to the first quintuplets in America. Sadly, all five boys died shortly after.

1879 Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood- First woman lawyer admitted to appearbefore the US Supreme Court.

1881 Clara Barton- Founded the American Red Cross.
Clara


1885 Mary Gartside- First person to undergo a successful appendectomy.

1887 Susanna Medora Salter- First woman to be elected mayor of a US city (Argonia, Kansas).

1888 Edith Eleanor McLean- First baby placed in an incubator.

1889 Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane)- went around the world in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes.

1890 Alice Sanger- First female White House Staffer.

1891 Irene Coit- First woman admitted to Yale University.

1893 New Zealand was the first country to allow all the women citizens to vote.

1896 Martha Hughes Cannon- first female senator (Utah)



1900 Carry Nation- Smashed her first bar.

1901 Anna Taylor- first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live.

1902 Martha Washington- First woman to appear on a US stamp.

1904 A woman was arrested for smoking a cigarette

1908 The First Mother's Day was observed.

1909 The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was founded.

1910 Alice Stebbins Wells-- World's first woman police officer was appointed to the Los Angeles Police Department.

1910 Mabel Bacon- First woman to take place in a power boat race.

1911 Marie Curie- Won her second Nobel Prize for her work with radioactive elements.

1912 Harriet Quimby- First woman to fly a plane across the English Channel.

1912 Juliette Gordon Low- Founded the Girl Guides (later the Girl Scouts) in Savannah, Georgia.

1913 The National Woman's Party was formed.

1913 Mary Phelps Jacob- patented the first modern elastic bra.

1913 Rose O'Neill- Became a millionaire for designing the Kewpie Doll.

1916 Jeannette Rankin (Montana)- was the first woman elected to Congress.

1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic.

1919 Lady Nancy Astor- First woman to take a seat in the British House of Commons.
Lady Astor


1920 The League of Women Voters was created.

1921 The American Birth Control League was formed. Comprised of the National Birth Control League and the Voluntary Parenthood League.

1921 Bessie Coleman- First American woman to earn her international pilot's license.

1924 Nellie Taylor Ross- first female governor (Wyoming).

1930 Ruth Nichols- First woman pilot of a transcontinental flight.

1931 Jane Addams- first woman co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1931 Jackie Mitchell- First woman to sign with a pro-baseball club, struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in one game.

1932 Hattie W. Carraway- First woman elected to the US Senate.

1932 Amelia Earhart- First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1933 Minnie D. Craig- First woman elected to be the speaker for a state house of representatives.

1934 Annette Emilie, Marie, Yvonne Dionne, and Cecile- were the first surviving quintuplets born.

1935 Karoline Mikkelson- First woman to set foot on Antartica.

1936 Barbara Hanley- First female mayor of Webbwood, Ontario(Canada).

1937 Amelia Earhart- disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world.

1938 Pearl Buck- First American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1940 Nylons were first sold in the United States.

1942 WACS (Women's Auxiliary Army Corps) was institued.

1942 Leah Fox- First woman to receive the Purple Heart.

1943 The Women's Marine Corp was created.

1944 Black women were allowed by the US Navy to join the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service- WAVES.

1946 Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini- Canonized by the Catholic Church. She is the first American saint.

1948 The first female American naval officers were sworn in.

1948 Margaret Chase Smith-- Was elected to the Senate becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of congress.

1949 Eugenie Anderson- first female US ambassador. She became ambassador to Denmark.

1949 Conchita Cintron- First American woman to become a bullfighter in Spain.

1950 Mother Teresa- founded the Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India.

1951 Ethel Rosenberg- and her husband were convicted of spying. They were sentenced to death. She is the only woman to be executed during peacetime.

1952 Christine Jorgenson- First person to have a sex-change operation.

1952 The first human birth was televised in Denver, Colorado.

1953 Jacqueline Cochran- First woman to break the sound barrier.

1955 Rosa Parks- Refuses to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama bus.

1956 Josephine Bay- First woman to head a firm that was part of the New York Stock Exchange.

1960 Sirima Bandaranaike- World's first woman Prime Minister. She was PM of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

1960 Queen Elizabeth II- was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1962 Edith Spurlock Sampson- Sworn in as the first female BlackAmerican judge.

1963 Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova- First woman in space.

1964 Jerrie Mock- First woman to fly solo around the world.

1964 Kitty Genovese- was stabbed to death while 38 of her neighbors in Queens, New York ignored her cries.

1966 Indira Gandhi- was elected as India's third prime minister.

1967 Muriel Siebert- First woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

1968 Peggy Fleming- First American woman to win an Olympicgold medal in women's figure skating.

1968 Shirley Chishom- first black woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

1969 Grace Brewster Murray Hopper- First person to receive the Man of the Year award from the Data Processing Management Association.

1971 Washington state was the first state to ban sex discrimination.

1971 Fran Phipps- First woman to reach the North Pole.

1971 Lucinda Franks- First woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

1972 Jean Westwood- First woman chosen to lead the US Democratic Party's National Commitee.

1972 The first female FBI agents were sworn in.

1974 Golda Meir- Resigned as Prime Minister of Israel.

1975 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme- sentenced to life in prison for theattempted assassination of US President Gerald Ford.

1975 The US Coast Guard Academy first allowed women to enroll.

1975 Sara Jane Moore- attempted to assassinate US President Gerald Ford in San Francisco, California.

1976 Sarah Caldwell- First woman to conduct at New York's Metropolitan Opera House.

1976 The Episcopalian Church in the US approved the ordination of female priests and bishops.

1977 Mary Shane- First female play-by-play baseball announcer on TV.

1978 Naomi Uemura- First person to reach the North Pole alone (over land).

1978 Harriet Tubman- Became the first African American woman on a US Stamp.

1978 The Susan B. Anthony dollar was first stamped by the Philadelphia Mint. She is the first woman on a US coin.

1978 Dianne Feinstein- First female mayor of San Francisco,California.

1978 Mary Clarke- First female major general in the US Air Force.

1979 Margaret Thatcher- First woman elected Prime Minister of England.

1979 Jane M. Byrne- First woman elected mayor of Chicago.

1980 Elenor Conn- First person to fly in a hot air balloonover the North Pole.

1981 Neva Rockefeller- First woman ordered to pay her husband alimony.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor- was sworn in as the first female Supreme Court Justice.

1983 Sally Ride- First American woman in space.

1983 Samantha Smith- was invited to the USSR by leader Yuri Andropov.He invited her after he received her letter about her fear of nuclear war.

1983 Tamara McKinney- First American woman skier to win the World Cup overall championship.

1983 Elizabeth H. Dole- Sworn in as the first female Secretary of Transportation.

1983 Vanessa Williams- Became the first black Miss America.

1984 Geraldine Ferraro- First woman nominated to run for US Vice-President.

1984 Dr. Kathy Sullivan- First American woman to walk in space.

1984 Indira Ghandi- was assassinated in her New Delhi home by 3 of her bodyguards.

1984 Baby Fae- At 15 days old a baboon heart was transplanted into her. She died 3 weeks later of kidney failure.

1985 Martina Navratilova- Won 100 tournaments. She is one of 3 professional tennis players who have accomplished this.

1985 Mary Lund- First woman to have the Jarvik VII artificial heartimplanted.

1985 Wilma Mankiller- Became Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

1986 Davina Thompson- had the first heart, lung, liver transplant.

1987 Aretha Franklin- First female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1988 Benazir Bhutto- First woman elected to govern a Muslim nation.


1988 Rev. Barbara C. Harris- first woman elected Bishop of an Episcopal Church

1990 Violeta Chamorro- was sworn in as president of Nicaragua after defeating Daniel Ortega.

1990 Nancy Cruzan- Was granted the right to have her feeding tube removed. She died 12 days later.

1991 Grace Brewster Murray Hopper- First individual to receive the US Medal of Technology.

1991 Nadine Strossen- Elected first female president of the ACLU.

1991 Aung San Suu Kyi- won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was held under house arrest for 2 years by Burmese military rulers.
Aung San Suu Kyi


1991 Edith Cresson- Elected France's first female Prime Minister.

1992 Carol Moseley Braun- first black female senator (Illinois).

1993 Marge Schott- Suspended (one year) as owner of the Cincinnati Reds. She was suspended for her use of racial slurs.

1993 Toni Morrison- Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1994 Shannon Faulkner- First woman to attend The Citadel, an all-male military school in South Carolina.

1994 Heather Whitestone- Became first Miss America with a disability.She is deaf.
heather


1995 Eileen Collins- First woman to fly a space shuttle. She piloted the Discovery.

1995 The America3 was the first all female crew to win an America's Cup race.

1996 The Anglican Church in the Caribbean (Jamaica) ordained its first 4 women priests.

1996 Karrie Webb- won the LPGA Championship and earned more than $1 million dollars during that season.
Karrie


1997 Susie Maroney- First woman to swim from Cuba to Florida in 24 and a half hours.

1997 Madeleine Albright- First woman Secretary of State.

1998 Women's Ice Hockey is first played as an Olympic sport.

1998 Karla Faye Tucker- First woman to be executed in Texas since 1863.


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Tori Amos- Little Earthquakes from Pele is the midi source.