Interesting Women in History (That You Probably Don't Know About)

In honor of International Women's Day, I would like to introduce you to half a dozen interesting women from history. Some are famous; some are not. Some are famous for something other than what makes them so interesting. But all of them left their mark on the world, and all of them are worth learning more about. 

Hedy Lamarr, Inventor (1914-2000)

You've probably heard of Hedy Lamarr. She was a well-known movie star in the 1940s. But she was so much more than an actress. Born in Austria, during World War II her first husband, a weapons manufacturer, often brought her to business meetings. The discussion was about electronic devices that could intercept and jam American radio frequencies. It occurred to Lamarr that it was possible to defeat such a device by rapidly changing frequencies in a pattern that was known only to the sender and the receiver. Lamarr actually worked on turning the concept into reality, joining forces with a composer named George Antheil. The pair designed and patented a working technology that used a piano roll to move among 88 frequencies, but when offered to the U.S. Navy, it was declined.

Eventually the technology resurfaced and was not only used during the Cuban missile crisis, but has become the basis of current technologies used in cordless and cell phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. 

For more information, check out these links:

Smithsonian Magazine

Forbes Magazine

Harriet Chalmers Adams, Journalist and Explorer (1875-1937)

Adams lived during a time when it was common for men to explore as-yet-unreached parts of the world, but it was unthinkable for a woman. As well as exploring the globe from South America to Siberia to North Africa and more, Adams was a writer and photographer for several magazines including National Geographic and Harper's, served as a journalist at the French front during World War I, and after joining Britain's Royal Geographic Society but being refused membership in the American Explorers Club due to her sex, she founded the Society of Women Geographers. 

For more information, check out these links:

Adventure Journal

National Geographic

Althea Gibson, Athlete (1927-2003)

Gibson made history in 1956 when she became the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title, going on to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals the following two years. Tennis coach Bob Ryland, who played professionally at the same time as Gibson, has said that Gibson could have beaten Martina Navratilova and both the Williams sisters. And as if breaking barriers in professional tennis wasn't enough, she went on to become the first Black woman to play on the Women's Professional Golf Tour.

In the 1970s, she followed up her career as a player in both sports by helping to provide sporting equipment to underprivileged youth as well as by running training clinics and outreach programs, and by coaching. 

For more information, check out these links:

Thoughtco article

NY Times

Ellen Ochoa, Astronaut & Engineer (1958-)

Ochoa earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford and joined NASA, specializing in optical systems. She has logged four space flights, including a mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, logging over 1,000 hours in space, and was the director of the Johnson Space Center. 

For more information, check out these links:

NASA bio

Scholastic.com

Sybil Ludington, Revolutionary (1861-1939)

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere." Sadly, no-one talks about the midnight ride of Sybil Ludington. Ludington's father was a New York militia officer who eventually became an aide to General George Washington. When Col. Ludington heard that the British were attacking Danbury CT, 15 miles away, 16-year-old Sybil took it upon herself to ride out and alert the countryside. She rode nearly 40 miles raising the alarm before returning safely home. The Danbury raid was successful, but the Patriots fought the British in nearby Ridgefield and succeeded in driving them back to Long Island Sound.

For more information, check out these links:

Encyclopedia Britannica

Battlefields.org

Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman (1924-2005)

The daughter of a father from Guyana and a mother from Barbados, Brooklyn-born Chisolm was the first African-American woman to serve in Congress and both the first woman and the first African American to seek the nomination of one of the two major political parties as President of the United States, using the motto "Unbought and Unbossed". A teacher and political activist, in 1964 she was elected the second African American in the New York legislature. Four years later she became a U.S. Congresswoman, eventually becoming the first Black woman and the second woman to serve on the House Rules Committee.   

For more information check out these links:

National Women's History Museum

Smithsonian Magazine