Women in Science
Who was the first U.S. teacher assigned by NASA to travel into space?
Christa McAuliffe. She had planned to teach lessons from space to children across America, but she was not able to complete the mission. Only 73 seconds after liftoff, Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart due to a faulty O-ring.
What 19th-century English author penned Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, among other works? Her novels focused on character, relationships, and marriage.
Jane Austen
Who was the first woman to host a late-night talk show?
Joan Rivers. Before hosting her own show, she served as a regular fill-in for Johnny Carson.
Who was the first female British prime minister?
Margaret Thatcher. Her nickname, the “Iron Lady,” originated as a slur in the Soviet press, but she took no offense to the name, and it stuck. She got along equally well with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
What early 20th-century fashion designer is famous for her “Little Black Dress (LBD),” trademark suits, and quilted leather handbags?
Coco Chanel. She learned to sew while living in an orphanage. The pink suit worn by Jackie Kennedy on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination wasn’t made by the House of Chanel—it was a knockoff. She was the only fashion designer to make Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the (20th) Century
In 1911, who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering radium and polonium?
Madame Marie Curie. She shared the prize with her husband and Henri Becquerel. She had previously won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1903. Her daughter was the second woman to win a Nobel Prize—for discovering artificial radioactivity.
What teen kept a diary, which became a best-selling book, about her experiences while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust?
Anne Frank. The book was The Diary of Anne Frank. In 1933, she and her parents fled from Germany to the Netherlands. In 1940, the Germans invaded the Netherlands, and in 1942, she began making entries into a diary her parents gave her as a gift. Anne Frank was 15 years old in 1945 when she and her sister contracted typhus and died within one day of each other in a concentration camp.
What style icon starred in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?
Answer: Audrey Hepburn. She insisted on wearing Givenchy fashions in her films.
What Roman Catholic saint is the patron saint of France?
Joan of Arc. She was only 19 years old when she was burned at the stake following her conviction of witchcraft.
What tennis player won “The Battle of the Sexes”?
Billie Jean King. The battle took place in 1973 with more than 30,000 fans in attendance. King beat Bobbie Riggs in three sets: 6–4, 6–3, and 6–3.
What did Mary Anderson invent that helps motorists when driving in rain and snow?
Windshield wipers. On a trip to New York, she rode on a streetcar during freezing rain. She noticed the driver lowered his window so he could see to drive. She received a patent in 1903 and a second patent in 1917, but she made no money from her inventions.
What British author became a first-time, hit novelist when she published her first Harry Potter novel?
J.K. Rowling. She was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her daughter, and she was on welfare when she wrote the first in a series of Harry Potter novels. She sold the first book for $4,000.
What talk show host beat Phil Donahue in the ratings in Chicago and built a media empire on her name brand?
Oprah Winfrey. Her booker revealed that it was impossible to get a celebrity for the first show because no one had heard of Oprah Winfrey.
What woman was the face of the suffragist movement?
Susan B. Anthony. She was arrested for voting illegally in 1872. Although she was the standard-bearer for the movement, women did not gain the right to vote until the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, more than a decade after her death.
What African American woman set off the Montgomery, Alabama, boycott in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat in the front of a segregated bus?
Rosa Parks. She was arrested for her defiance of the law. In 1929, she left school in 11th grade to care for her sick mother and grandmother, but she returned to school and earned her high school diploma 10 years later.
What African American woman is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America? She made her millionaire status by building her business through hair care products.
Madam C. J. Walker. She was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist.
Who was the first woman inducted into the Rock ’n’ Hall of Fame? Her hits include “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” and many others.
Aretha Franklin. She is the “Queen of Soul.” She performed at the inaugurations of three presidents and has received both the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Honors.
Who was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court?
Sandra Day O’Connor. President Ronald Reagan appointed her. She began serving as an associate justice in 1981 and remained on the court for 24 years.
Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?
Amelia Earhart. She was the 16th woman to earn a pilot’s license. She was also the first person to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Earhart attempted an around-the-world flight, but her plane disappeared, and she was legally declared dead in 1939.