List of 200 First Achievements by Men and Women in History

1–25: Science, Invention, and Discovery

1. Yuri Gagarin – First human in space, 1961, Soviet Union

2. Valentina Tereshkova – First woman in space, 1963, Soviet Union

3. Neil Armstrong – First man on the Moon, 1969, United States

4. Marie Curie – First woman to win a Nobel Prize, 1903, Physics (also won in Chemistry in 1911)

5. Alexander Fleming – First to discover penicillin, 1928, Scotland

6. Rosalind Franklin – First to capture DNA structure photograph (Photo 51), 1952, UK

7. Galileo Galilei – First to use a telescope for astronomy, 1609, Italy

8. Ada Lovelace – First computer programmer, 1843, UK

9. James Watson and Francis Crick – First to model DNA double helix, 1953

10. Mary Anning – First recognized female paleontologist, early 1800s, England

11. Katherine Johnson – First African-American woman to calculate NASA flight trajectories, 1960s

12. Benjamin Franklin – First to prove lightning is electricity with kite experiment, 1752

13. Tu Youyou – First Chinese woman to win Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2015

14. Edmond Halley – First to predict a comet’s return (Halley’s Comet), 1705

15. Hypatia of Alexandria – First female mathematician and philosopher in history, around 400 CE

16. Stephen Hawking – First to propose black hole radiation theory, 1974

17. Henrietta Lacks – First immortal human cell line sourced (HeLa cells), 1951

18. Chien-Shiung Wu – First to disprove conservation of parity in physics, 1956

19. Ibn al-Haytham – First to describe the scientific method, 10th century

20. Florence Nightingale – First to establish modern nursing, mid-1800s

21. Gertrude Elion – First to develop leukemia-fighting drugs, Nobel Prize 1988

22. Mary Leakey – First to discover early hominid footprints in Laetoli, 1978

23. Louis Pasteur – First to invent vaccines for rabies and anthrax, 1885

24. Margaret Hamilton – First woman to lead NASA software engineering team, Apollo 11, 1969

25. Benjamin Banneker – First African-American to publish an almanac, 1792

26–50: Politics, Leadership, Law, and Social Justice

26. Sirimavo Bandaranaike – First female prime minister in the world, Sri Lanka, 1960

27. Margaret Thatcher – First female prime minister of the UK, 1979

28. Angela Merkel – First female chancellor of Germany, 2005

29. Kamala Harris – First female vice president of the United States, 2021

30. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – First elected female head of state in Africa, Liberia, 2006

31. Hillary Clinton – First woman nominated for US president by a major party, 2016

32. Barack Obama – First African-American president of the United States, 2009

33. Jeannette Rankin – First woman elected to US Congress, 1916

34. Indira Gandhi – First and only female prime minister of India, 1966

35. Nancy Pelosi – First female Speaker of the US House of Representatives, 2007

36. Victoria Woodhull – First woman to run for US president, 1872

37. Kofi Annan – First Black African Secretary-General of the UN, 1997

38. Charles Curtis – First Native American vice president of the United States, 1929

39. Sandra Day O'Connor – First female US Supreme Court justice, 1981

40. Ruth Bader Ginsburg – First Jewish female justice on the US Supreme Court, 1993

41. Malala Yousafzai – Youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2014, Pakistan

42. Eleanor Roosevelt – First chairperson of the UN Human Rights Commission, 1946

43. Soong Mei-ling – First First Lady of China to address US Congress, 1943

44. Golda Meir – First female prime minister of Israel, 1969

45. Park Geun-hye – First female president of South Korea, 2013

46. Benazir Bhutto – First woman to lead a Muslim-majority nation, Pakistan, 1988

47. Geraldine Ferraro – First female vice presidential candidate for a major US party, 1984

48. Corazon Aquino – First female president of the Philippines, 1986

49. Michelle Bachelet – First female president of Chile, 2006

50. Ada Deer – First Native American woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1993

51–75: Exploration and Travel

51. Ferdinand Magellan – First to lead expedition that circumnavigated the globe, 1519–1522

52. Amelia Earhart – First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, 1932

53. Yuri Gagarin – First human to orbit the Earth, 1961

54. Sally Ride – First American woman in space, 1983

55. Valentina Tereshkova – First woman in space, 1963

56. Jacques Piccard & Don Walsh – First humans to reach the Mariana Trench, 1960

57. Buzz Aldrin – Second man on the Moon, 1969

58. Junko Tabei – First woman to climb Mount Everest, 1975

59. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay – First confirmed climbers to summit Everest, 1953

60. Matthew Henson – First African-American to reach the North Pole, 1909

61. Mae Jemison – First Black woman in space, 1992

62. Marco Polo – First European to document travels to China and Central Asia, 13th century

63. Nellie Bly – First woman to travel the world in 72 days, 1889

64. Gertrude Bell – First woman to map uncharted Arabian deserts, early 1900s

65. Annie Londonderry – First woman to bicycle around the world, 1894

66. Ellen MacArthur – Fastest solo circumnavigation by yacht, 2005

67. Bertrand Piccard – First non-stop balloon flight around the world, 1999

68. Ann Bancroft – First woman to reach both the North and South Poles, 1993

69. Helen Thayer – First woman to trek solo to the magnetic North Pole, 1988

70. Eileen Collins – First female space shuttle commander, 1999

71. Jessica Watson – Youngest person to sail solo non-stop around the world, 2009

72. Gertrude Ederle – First woman to swim across the English Channel, 1926

73. Jacques Cousteau – First to document underwater exploration widely, 1950s

74. Robert Ballard – First to locate wreck of the Titanic, 1985

75. Liu Yang – First Chinese woman in space, 2012

76–100: Exploration, Politics, Arts, Law, and Global Achievements

76. Junko Tabei – First woman to summit Mount Everest, 1975, Japan

77. Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh – First humans to reach the deepest point in the ocean (Challenger Deep), 1960

78. Jean Batten – First woman to fly solo from England to New Zealand, 1936, New Zealand

79. Sacagawea – First Indigenous woman to guide a U.S. expedition across the American West, 1804–1806

80. Mae Jemison – First African-American woman in space, 1992, United States

81. Bessie Coleman – First African-American woman pilot, 1921, United States

82. Emmeline Pankhurst – First leader of the British suffragette movement, early 1900s

83. Margaret Thatcher – First female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979

84. Angela Merkel – First female Chancellor of Germany, 2005

85. Sirimavo Bandaranaike – First woman elected as Prime Minister in the world, 1960, Sri Lanka

86. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – First female elected head of state in Africa, 2006, Liberia

87. Benazir Bhutto – First woman to head a Muslim-majority nation as Prime Minister, 1988, Pakistan

88. Indira Gandhi – First female Prime Minister of India, 1966

89. Hillary Clinton – First woman to win a major U.S. party nomination for president, 2016

90. Kamala Harris – First woman, first African-American, and first South Asian Vice President of the United States, 2021

91. Jeannette Rankin – First woman elected to the U.S. Congress, 1916

92. Sandra Day O'Connor – First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, 1981

93. Ruth Bader Ginsburg – First Jewish woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, 1993

94. Wu Zetian – First and only female emperor of China, Tang Dynasty, 690–705

95. Cleopatra VII – First female Pharaoh of Egypt in the Ptolemaic period, 51 BC

96. Sojourner Truth – First African-American woman to successfully sue for her son's freedom, 1828

97. Harriet Tubman – First African-American woman to lead an armed expedition in the U.S. Civil War, 1863

98. Bertha von Suttner – First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, 1905, Austria

99. Malala Yousafzai – Youngest Nobel laureate and first Pakistani female peace laureate, 2014

100. Leila Seth – First woman Chief Justice of a state High Court in India, 1991

101–125: Global Firsts in Sports, Science, Culture, and Innovation

101. Gerty Cori – First woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1947, United States

102. Maria Goeppert Mayer – First woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics after Marie Curie, 1963, Germany–United States

103. Valentina Tereshkova – First woman in space, 1963, Soviet Union

104. Eileen Collins – First female space shuttle commander, 1999, United States

105. Amelia Earhart – First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, 1932, United States

106. Kathrine Switzer – First woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, 1967, United States

107. Wilma Rudolph – First American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at a single Olympics, 1960

108. Nadia Comăneci – First gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics, 1976, Romania

109. Trudy Ederle – First woman to swim across the English Channel, 1926, United States

110. Gertrude Ederle – First woman to beat the men’s record for swimming the English Channel, 1926

111. Fanny Blankers-Koen – First woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympic Games, 1948, Netherlands

112. Billie Jean King – First woman to defeat a man in a nationally televised tennis match (Battle of the Sexes), 1973

113. Manon Rhéaume – First woman to play in an NHL game, 1992, Canada

114. Danica Patrick – First woman to win an IndyCar race, 2008, United States

115. Rachael Heyhoe Flint – First woman cricketer to play at Lord’s Cricket Ground, 1976, United Kingdom

116. Junko Tabei – First woman to climb the Seven Summits, 1992, Japan

117. Ada Lovelace – First computer programmer, 1840s, United Kingdom

118. Hedy Lamarr – Co-inventor of frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology, used in modern Wi-Fi, 1940s

119. Grace Hopper – First woman to develop the first compiler for a computer programming language, 1952

120. Radia Perlman – Invented the spanning-tree protocol, foundational for network bridges, 1985

121. Chien-Shiung Wu – First to conduct the Wu experiment, which disproved the conservation of parity, 1956, China–United States

122. Rosalind Franklin – Contributed first X-ray diffraction images of DNA, essential for discovery of the DNA double helix, 1952

123. Wangari Maathai – First African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, 2004, Kenya

124. Samantha Cristoforetti – First Italian woman in space, 2014

125. Ann Bancroft – First woman to reach both the North and South Poles, 1993, United States

126–150: Human Firsts in Exploration, Leadership, Arts, and Science

126. Mae Jemison – First African-American woman in space, 1992, United States

127. Jeanne Baret – First woman to circumnavigate the globe, disguised as a man, 1766–1769, France

128. Theresa Kachindamoto – First woman to annul child marriages as a tribal chief, Malawi

129. Marie Curie – First person to win two Nobel Prizes in different sciences (Physics and Chemistry), early 1900s, Poland–France

130. Ann E. Dunwoody – First woman in U.S. military history to become a four-star general, 2008

131. Kalpana Chawla – First woman of Indian origin in space, 1997

132. Fatima al-Fihri – Founded the world’s first degree-granting university, University of al-Qarawiyyin, 859 AD, Morocco

133. Rigoberta Menchú – First indigenous woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, 1992, Guatemala

134. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – First female elected head of state in Africa, President of Liberia, 2006

135. Michelle Bachelet – First female President of Chile, 2006

136. Corazon Aquino – First female President of the Philippines and in Asia, 1986

137. Sirimavo Bandaranaike – First woman in the world to become Prime Minister, 1960, Sri Lanka

138. Benazir Bhutto – First woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country, 1988, Pakistan

139. Margaret Thatcher – First female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979

140. Golda Meir – First and only female Prime Minister of Israel, 1969

141. Angela Merkel – First female Chancellor of Germany, 2005

142. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir – First woman in the world elected as president in a democratic election, 1980, Iceland

143. Tarana Burke – Founded the original #MeToo movement against sexual abuse, 2006, United States

144. Oprah Winfrey – First Black woman billionaire and pioneer media mogul, United States

145. Aretha Franklin – First woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1987, United States

146. Katharine Graham – First female CEO of a Fortune 500 company (The Washington Post Company), 1972

147. Shirin Ebadi – First Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, 2003, Iran

148. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova – First woman to go to space solo, 1963, Soviet Union

149. Harriet Tubman – First woman to lead an armed military operation in the U.S. Civil War, 1863

150. Susan B. Anthony – First American woman depicted on U.S. currency (dollar coin), 1979