Born: April 22, 1451, Madrigal de las Altas Torres, CastileDied: November 26, 1504, Medina del Campo, SpainIsabella I was the queen of Castile, called la Católica (“the Catholic”), and a sponsor of the voyages of Christopher Columbus. She was the daughter of John II of Castile and León by his second wife, Isabella of Portugal. […]
Born: c. 752, , AthensDied: Aug 9, 803, Lesbos Irene was a Byzantine empress, born of a humble family in Athens. In 769, she married Emperor Leo IV. After her husband’s death she ruled as regent during the minority of her son, Emperor Constantine VI. Irene desired supreme power. However; she contested the throne with
Born: 1157, Izu Province, JapanDied: Aug 16, 1225, KamakuraMasako was the wife of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-99), the first shogun, or military dictator, of Japan. She is said to have been largely responsible for Yoritomo’s success, and after his death she assumed great power.Masako fell in love with Yoritomo when he was exiled from the capital
Born: c. 248, Drepanon, Bithynia, Asia MinorDied: c. 328, Nicomedia; Western feast day August 18; Eastern feast day [with Constantine] May 21 Saint Helena was a concubine and possibly wife of the Roman emperor Constantius I, and mother of Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome. She was probably born in Drepanum, later called Helenopolis in
Hatshepsut (lived 15th Century BC), was an Egyptian ruler of the 18th Dynasty, daughter of Thutmose I. She married her half brother, Thutmose II, with whom she co-ruled Egypt until his death in 1479 BC. His successor, Thutmose III, a son by a concubine, was a child at the time and was married to Hatshepsut’s
Born: June 27, 1869, Kovno (now Kaunas),Lithuania, Russian EmpireDied: May 14, 1940, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Emma Goldman was Lithuanian-born anarchist, born in Kovno (now Kaunas, Lithuania). In 1885 she immigrated to the United States, where she became a leader of the anarchist movement, working in close association with the Polish-born anarchist Alexander Berkman. After attacking
Born: March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York, U.S. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an American jurist and professor of law, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court who has worked towards ending institutionalized discrimination against women. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1933. She attended Cornell University and the law schools
Died: 180 BC, ChinaGaohou was the first woman ruler of China, wife of Gaozu, the first emperor of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).After Gaozu’s death, his and Gaohou’s young son, the emperor Huidi (reigned 195-188 BC), ascended the throne. Gaohou, whose ambition had spurred her husband’s rise to power, acted as regent and seized
Born: November 19, 1917, Allahabad, IndiaDied: October 31, 1984, New Delhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician, who served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 to 1984. Gandhi’s controversial political career ended when she was assassinated by Sikh extremists.Gandhi was born Indira Priyadarshini Nehru in Allahabad, the only
Died: 597, ParisFredegund was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Frankish king of Soissons.Originally a servant, Fredegund became Chilperic’s mistress after he had murdered his wife and queen, Galswintha (c. 568). Galswintha, however, was also the sister of Brunhild, the wife of Chilperic’s half-brother Sigebert I, king of the eastern kingdom of Austrasia.
Born: April 15, 1930, Reykjavík, IcelandFinnbogadottir was a teacher, cultural figure and politician who served as president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. She was the first woman in the world to be elected head of state in a national election.Finnbogadóttir was born into a wealthy and well-connected family. Her mother chaired Iceland’s National Nurses
Born: April 21, 1926, London, England Flizabeth II, full name Elizabeth Alexandra Mary is the present queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland daughter of King George VI, born in London. In 1944, she served as a councillor of state while her father was on the war front in Italy. She married Prince Philip, Duke
Born: Sept 7, 1533, Greenwich, near London, EnglandDied: March 24, 1603, Richmond, Surrey Flizabeth I was the queen of England and Ireland daughter of Henry VIII, king of England, and of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was the last of the Tudor rulers of England. Although her legitimacy was questioned and never settled (because
Born: c. 1122Died: April 1, 1204, Fontevrault, Anjou, FranceEleanor of Aquitaine was the queen consort of France and queen consort of England born in France. She inherited the duchy of Aquitaine from her father in 1137, the same year in which she was married to Louis VII of France. She accompanied her husband on the
Born: 1947, Hamadan, Iran Ebadi was an Iranian lawyer, writer and teacher, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially those of women and children in Iran. She was the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive the award.Ebadi earned a law