Born: July 10, 1846, Röcken, near Lützen,Prussia [Germany]Died: Nov 8, 1935, Weimar, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach [Germany] Elisabeth was the sister of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who became his guardian and literary executor.An early believer in the superiority of the Teutonic races, she married an anti-Semitic agitator, Bernhard Förster. In the 1880s, they went to Paraguay and […]
Born: March 30, 1863, Hartford, Conn., U.S.Died: Feb 26, 1930, Newton, Massachusetts Calkins was a philosopher, psychologist, and educator, the first American woman to attain distinction in these fields of study.Calkins grew up mainly in Buffalo, New York, and moved with her family to Newton, Massachusetts, in 1880. She graduated from Smith College in 1885,
Born: AD 45, Anling, Gufang [now Xianyang,Shaanxi province], ChinaDied: c. 115, China Ban Zhao was a renowned Chinese scholar and historian of the Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty.The daughter of a prominent family, Ban Zhao married at age 14, but her husband died while she was still young. She never remarried, devoting herself instead to literature
Flourished AD 430-485 Asclepigenia was a Greek philosopher of the Neo-Platonist school, teacher and lecturer.After the death of her father, Plutarchus, Asclepigenia was active in perpetuating the eastern version of Platonism, in cooperation with her brother, Hiero. Upon the succession of Proclus as head of the school at Athens, Asclepigenia instructed him in the philosophies
Born: October 14, 1906, Hannover, GermanyDied: December 4, 1975, New York, U.S. Hannah Arendt was a German-born American political scientist, noted for her writings on totalitarianism.Arendt was born in Hannover, on October 14, 1906. After studies at three universities, she received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Heidelberg at the age of 22. In
Born: May 16, 1718, Milan, Habsburg crown land[now in Italy] Died: January 9, 1799, MilanAgnesi was an Italian mathematician and philosopher, considered to be the first woman in the Western world to have achieved a reputation in mathematics. Agnesi was the eldest child of a wealthy silk merchant who provided her with the best tutors
Born: July 19, 1921, New York, U.S. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow is an American medical physicist and Nobel Prize winner, who helped to develop the testing technique known as the radioimmunoassay. Yalow was born in New York City in 1921 and obtained a doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois in 1945. She taught at
Born: Sept 11, 1847, Waltham, Mass., U.S.Died: Jan 20, 1921, WalthamWhitney was an American astronomer who built Vassar College’s research program in astronomy into one of the nation’s finest. Whitney graduated from public high school in 1863 and entered Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, with advanced standing in 1865. She immediately came under the influence
Born: March 6, 1937, Maslennikovo, Russia, U.S.S.R. Valentina Tereshkova Soviet cosmonaut and parachutist, the first woman to fly in space. Tereshkova flew aboard Vostok 6 from June 16 to June 19, 1963.Tereshkova was born to a peasant family in the Yaroslavl’ region of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Yaroslavl’ is now part
Born: Oct 15, 1880, Edinburgh, ScotlandDied: Oct 2, 1958, near Dorking, Surrey, Engand Stopes was an advocate of birth control who, in 1921, founded the United Kingdom’s first instructional clinic for contraception. Although her clinical work, writings, and speeches evoked violent opposition, especially from Roman Catholics, she greatly influenced the Church of England’s gradual relaxation
Born: Sept 19, 1915, Cobalt, Ont., CanadaDied: Aug 18, 1980, Los Angeles, California, U.S. Stern was a Canadian-born American pathologist, noted for her work on the stages of a cell’s progression from a normal to a cancerous state.Stern received her medical degree from the University of Toronto (1939) and the following year went to the
Born: c. 1786, probably near present-dayLemhi, Idaho, U.S.Died: Dec 20, 1812, Fort Manuel,on the Missouri River, Dakota Territory Sacagawea or Sacajawea was a Shoshone Native American woman, who served as an interpreter and guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 and 1806. Sacagawea was probably born in present-day Idaho. She was captured by
Born: May 26, 1951, Encino, California, U.S. Sally Kristen Ride is a U.S. astronaut, who in 1983 became the first woman in the American space programme to take part in an orbital mission. Ride obtained a B.S. in physics and a B.A. in English from Stanford University in 1973 and earned a Ph.D. in physics
Born: Oct 20, 1942, Magdeburg, Germany Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard German geneticist and Nobel Prize winner, was born in Magdeburg, Germany. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Tübingen, Germany in 1973. From 1978 to 1980, she teamed up with American geneticist Eric F. Wieschaus at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, where
Born: March 23, 1882, Erlangen, GermanyDied: April 14, 1935, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S. Emmy Noether (Amalie) was a German mathematician, noted for her work in abstract algebra. Born of a mathematical family, she audited university courses because at that time women were not allowed to attend German universities; nevertheless she was granted a Ph.D. in