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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1963 Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova- First woman in space.

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

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

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

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

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.

Still No Fields Medal

Fields Medal

The Fields Medal is considered to be the equivalent Nobel prize for mathematics. John Charles Fields (1863-1932), a Canadian mathematician, endowed funds in his will for an award for mathematical achievement and promise that would emphasize the international character of the mathematical endeavor. The first Fields Medal was awarded at the International Congress of Mathematics meeting in Oslo in 1936. Since 1950 the medal has been awarded every four years at the International Mathematical Congress to between 2 and 4 mathematicians. Although there is no specific age restriction in Fields' will, he did wish that the awards recognize both existing work and the promise of future achievement, so the medals have been restricted to mathematicians under the age of 40.

No woman mathematician has ever won a Fields Medal.

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

"Even in uniform Dr Mary Walker was controversial - she added trousers under her skirt, wore a man's uniform jacket and carried two pistols at all times."

-- Modified on 3/31/2004 10:37:42 PM

Women of history....I salute thee! (EOM)

Alla salute!

Also of note is Rosalind Franklin (1920-1957), whose X-ray diffraction work on the A and B fibers of DNA formed the basis of the Watson & Crick double-helix model.