1700s
1715: Ann Teresa Mathews was the first woman to receive a patent (for cleaning and curing corn).
1775: Mary Katherine Goddard was the first woman postmaster.
1776/77: Betsy Ross was the first person to be a U.S. flagmaker.
1784: Hannah Adams was the first professional writer.
1800s
1812: Lucy Brewer was the first woman Marine.
1849: Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree.
1849: Amelia Jenks Bloomer was the publisher and editor of the first prominent women’s rights newspaper.
1850: Harriet Tubman was the first woman to run an underground railroad to help slaves escape.
1866: Lucy Hobbs was the first woman to graduate from dental school.
1869: Susan B. Anthony was co-founder of the first U.S. woman’s suffrage organization.
1869: Arabella Mansfield Babb was the first woman admitted to the bar.
1871: Frances Elizabeth Willard was the first woman to become a college president (Evanston College).
1872: Victoria Chaflin Woodhull was the first woman to be a presidential candidate.
1877: Helen Magill was the first woman to receive a doctorate degree (Boston University).
1879: Belva Ann Lockwood was the first woman to plead a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1881: Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross.
1887/96: Maud Booth was the co-founder of the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America.
1887: Suzanna Madora Salter was the first woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas).
1900s
1904: Mary McLeod Bethune was the first woman to establish a secondary school that became a four-year accredited college. In 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women.
1910: Blanche Scott was the first woman to fly an airplane.
1916: Jeannette Rankin was the first woman U.S. House Representative (Montana).
1917: Kate Gleason was the first woman president of a national bank.
1920: Florence E. Allen was the first woman judge.
1924: Hallie Ferguson was the first woman governor of a state (Texas).
1929: Katherine Bement Davis was the first person to conduct a national survey of sexual attitudes.
1931: Jane Addams was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
1932: Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1932: Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
1933: Ruth Bran Owen was the first woman foreign diplomat.
1935: Pearl S. Buck was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for literature.
1939: Hattie McDaniel was the first black person of any gender to win an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress in Gone With the Wind).
1941: Linda Darnell was the first woman to sell securities on the New York Curb Exchange.
1949: Conchita V. Cintron was the first U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain.
1949: Georgia Nesse Clark was the first woman treasurer of the United States.
1963: Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova from Russia was the first woman to fly in space (Vostok 6).
1967: Muriel Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
1968: Janice Lee York Romary was the first woman to carry the U.S. flag at the Olympic Games.
1978: Mary Clarke was the first woman promoted to general in the U.S. Army.
1978: Ella Grasso was the first woman governor to be re-elected (Connecticut).
1981: Sandra Day O’Conner was the first woman appointed associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
1983: Sally Kristen Ride was the first American woman to reach outer space.
1984: Joan Benoit (Samuelson) was the first woman to win an Olympic marathon.
1985: Penny Harrington was the first woman police chief of a major U.S. city (Portland, Oregon).
1986: Ann Bancroft was the first woman to walk to the North Pole.
1986: Christa McAuliffe was the first woman citizen passenger on a space mission.
1995: Lt. Col. Eileen Collins was the first American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle.
1997: Madeleine K. Albright was the first woman secretary of state and highest-ranking woman in the U.S. government.
2000s
2000: Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only first lady ever elected to the United States Senate.
2002: Halle Berry was the first black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar.
2007: Nancy Pelosi was the first woman to become speaker of the House.
Source: www.history.com
