Adventure & Exploration: First Woman To ...

• 1906 - E. Lillian Todd is the first woman to design and build an aircraft.


• 1908 - Edith Berg becomes the first woman to go up in an airplane. She was a passenger in the Wright Brother's Flyer in a demonstration in France.


• 1910 - On March 8, Frenchwoman Baroness Raymonde de Laroche passes her qualifying tests to become the first woman in the world to be issued a pilot's license.


• 1910 - Blanche Stuart Scott, 19, becomes the first woman to fly a plane solo in Hammondsport, NY on Sept. 2. Earlier that year she completes a cross-country trip in an Overland automobile with a woman journalist along to record the trip.


• 1911 - Harriet Quimby makes her professional aviator debut with a moonlight flight over Staten Island before a crowd of 20,000 spectators to become the first woman to make a night flight on Sept. 5. She later becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.


• 1928/1930 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, traveling from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Ireland in approximately 15 hours.


• 1929 - Florence "Pancho" Barnes becomes the first woman stunt pilot in movies.


• 1953 - Jacqueline Cochrane becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.


• 1964 - Jerrie Mock completes the trip Amelia Earhart attempted, becoming the first woman to fly around the world.


• 2000 - Jennifer Murray becomes the first woman to fly solo around the world in a helicopter.

• 1846 - Elizabeth Newcom enlists in Company D of the Missouri Volunteer Infantry as Bill Newcom for the Mexican War, making her possibly the first woman to serve in the military. She marches 600 miles from Missouri to winter camp at Pueblo, Colorado, before she is discovered to be a woman and discharged.


• 1866 - Women provide casualty care and nursing to Union and Confederate troops at field hospitals and on the Union Hospital Ship Red Rover. Women soldiers on both sides disguise themselves as men in order to serve. In 1866, Dr. Mary Walker receives the Medal of Honor. She is the only woman to receive the nation's highest military honor.


• 1914 - Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick, demonstrating air-jumping techniques to the US Army in San Diego, CA, pulled her release manually, becoming the first person to make an intentional free-fall parachute jump from an airplane on June 21.


• 1942 - Women Airforce Service Pilots become the first U.S. women pilots to fly military aircraft.


• 1943 - WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) become the first U.S. women navigators for the military.


• 1953 - Barbara O. Barnwell becomes the first female U.S. Marine to be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism after saving fellow Marines from drowning.


• 1955 - Private Esther Arditi became the first (and still only) female soldier to be awarded an Israeli Defense Forces decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service.


• 1967 - Barbara Dulinsky becomes the first female U.S. Marine to serve in a combat zone when her request to be sent to Vietnam is granted.


• 1970 - Anna Mae Hays becomes the first woman in U.S. military to be promoted to general officer rank. Elizabeth P. Hoisington is promoted the same day.


• 1971 - The first Air Force woman is promoted to brigadier general.


• 1974 - Barbara Allen Rainey becomes the first woman pilot in the U.S. military.


• 1978 - Margaret A. Brewer becomes the first woman to reach the rank of general in the U.S. Marine Corps.


• 1980 - The first classes with women graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy.

• 1808 - Marie Paradis becomes the first woman to ascend Mont Blanc.


• 1871- Lucy Walker is the first woman to summit the Matterhorn.


• 1906 - Australian Freda du Faur becomes the first woman to ascend Mt. Cook.


• 1908 - Suffragist and adventurer Annie Smith Peck became the first person Mount Nevado Huascarán. The 6648 m northern peak of the Huascarán was named Cumbre Aña Peck in her honor in 1928. In 1911, at the age of 61, she climbed Mt. Coropuna in Peru, placing a "Votes for Women" banner at the summit.


• 1975 - Japanese Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to climb Mt. Everest.


• 1988 - Lydia Bradey becomes the first female to complete a solo ascent of Mt. Everest without oxygen.


• 1995 - Alison Hargreaves is the first woman to completed an unassisted climb of Mt. Everest, but dies on descent from K2 summit.


• 1996 - Chantal Mauduit becomes the first woman to summit Lhotse solo.


• 1998 - Ginette Harrison becomes the first and only woman to summit Kanchenjunga. She dies in an avalanche on Dhaulagiri in 1999.

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