History
Famous women
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Famous women A-Z
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Mary Anning
Mary Anning (1799–1847) was an English fossil-hunter and self-taught palaeontologist who was once described as "the greatest fossilist the world ever knew". Her discoveries, most...
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Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) was an American social reformer who played a key role in the women’s suffrage movement (the campaign to win the right to vote) in the USA during...
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) is a human rights activist who has become an international symbol of peaceful protest in the face of political oppression. Winner of the Nobel Peace...
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Edith Cavell
Edith Cavell (1865–1915) was an English nurse who, during World War I, cared for wounded soldiers of both sides at the hospital where she was working in Brussels. She helped...
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Emily Davison
Emily Davison (1872–1913) was an English suffragette who was fatally injured at the Epsom Derby in 1913 when she stepped out on to the racetrack and collided with King George...
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Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) was an American aviator who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Much celebrated during her lifetime, Amelia...
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Millicent Fawcett
Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847–1929) was a leading campaigner for equal rights for women in Britain. A political leader and writer, she led the biggest suffrage organization...
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Anne Frank
Anne Frank (1929–45) was a young German Jewish girl whose account of being forced to go into hiding with her family during World War II has since become a classic of war...
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Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Fry (1780–1845) was an English Quaker who dedicated much of her adult life to helping those in need. A compassionate and brave campaigner, she became well known for her...
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Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Goodall (born 1934) is an English primatologist (an expert on primates). She is best known for her 45-year study of the lives of chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
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Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson (1918–2020) was an African American mathematician who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She performed the accurate...
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Helen Keller
A childhood illness left American Helen Keller (1880–1968) blind and deaf. With the help of a remarkable teacher, Anne Sullivan, Helen overcame her disabilities to lead an...
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Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) was an English nurse who worked to improve the quality of medical care for British soldiers during the Crimean War (1853–56). Her work there...
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Mother Teresa
Blessed Mother Teresa (1910–97) was a Roman Catholic nun who founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. She had moved to Kolkata (previously known as Calcutta)...
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Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg (born 2003) is a Swedish student and climate activist. Aged 15, she began the School Strike for Climate movement in August 2018 with her solo Skolstrejk för...
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Harriet Tubman
American anti-slavery and women's rights' campaigner Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) escaped slavery to become one of the leading abolitionists in the time before the American Civil...
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Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) is a Pakistani activist who from an early age spoke out publicly against the activities of the Taliban as they tried to suppress girls’ education in...
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