Women’s History Month: Famous Firsts
See below as www.nyliberty.com explores some of these famous firsts in women’s history, including historic moments in the history of women's basketball.
WOMEN'S HISTORY FIRSTS:
~ 1707 – Henrietta Johnston begins to work as a portrait artist in Charles Town (Charleston, SC). She is the first known professional artist in America.
~ 1792 – Suzanne Vaillande appears in The Bird Catcher, in New York, the first ballet presented in the U.S. She was the first woman to work as a choreographer and set designer in the United States.
~ 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell receives her MD degree from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY, becoming the first woman with a medical degree.
~ 1872 – Victoria Claflin Woodhull becomes the first woman presidential candidate in the United States when she is nominated by the National Radical Reformers.
~ 1920 – Women receive the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution.
~ 1926 – American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
~ 1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
~ 1967 – Althea Gibson is the first African – American tennis player to win a singles title at Wimbledon.
~ 1972 – The federal law, Title IX, is passed ensuring equal funding for both male and female sports in public schools.
~ 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor is appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan, making her its firsts woman justice.
~ 1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to be sent into space.
~ 1993 – Janet Reno becomes the first women U.S. attorney general. Toni Morrison is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature.
~ 1997 – Madeleine Albright is sworn in as the U.S. Secretary of State. She is the first woman in this position and the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. government.
~ 2000 – Hillary Clinton becomes the First Lady to be elected to public office, as U.S. Senator for New York.
~ 2005 – Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African – American female Secretary of State.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FIRSTS:
~ 1892 – Senda Berenson adapts basketball rules for women and introduces the game at Smith College in Massachusetts.
~ 1896 – The first intercollegiate game was played between Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, which Stanford won.
~ 1926 – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) sponsors the first ever national women’s basketball championship.
~ 1953 – USA Women’s Basketball team wins the gold in the first world championships.
~ 1955 – USA Women’s Basketball team played in first Pan American games basketball competition and won the gold medal.
~ 1971 – Five player full court game and 30 second clock becomes official in the women’s game.
~ 1977 – Lucy Harris became the first woman to be drafted by a NBA team, New Orleans Jazz.
~ 1978 – Carol Blazejowski named inaugural recipient of the Wade Trophy. The Wade Trophy, considered the heisman of women’s college basketball, is named after legendary three-time national champion Delta State University coach Lily Margaret Wade and honors the year’s best college basketball player.
~ 1982 – First NCAA National Championship is held in which Louisiana Tech is named champion.
~ 1984 – West Virginia’s Georgeann Wells registers the first dunk in women’s college basketball.
~ 1985 – Olympian Lynette Woodward becomes the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
~ 1986 – Nancy Lieberman becomes the first woman to play in a men’s professional league when she joins the USBL’s Springfield Fame.
~ 1995 – Rebecca Lobo is named Associated Press Female Athlete of the year.
~ 1996 – The American Basketball League (ABL) tips off its inaugural season.
~ 1997 – The inaugural Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) season begins.
~ 2001 – Southwest Missouri State's Jackie Stiles establishes a new NCAA Division 1 scoring mark.
