FROM 1907-1957….ethnologist Frances Densmore recorded 2,000+ Native American songs…..across 30 nations….Mohegan medicine woman Gladys Tantaquidegeon…..documented herbs, prayers, and lifeways for eight decades….their notes and discs now support language revitalization and aided several tribes federal recognition….including Mohegan…..the Mohegan tribe has ancestral roots in southern Connecticut.

IN 1887…..Anna Connelly patented the first exterior iron balcony fire escape….this critical design connected building via a bridge….creating safer and continuous exit path and inspiring modern safety codes….her brilliant innovation forever changed urban architecture and saved countless lives….by providing a reliable means of escape during emergencies.

SARAH BOONE’S….1892 ironing board patent was a revolutionary narrow curved design….it was the first to effectively iron women’s fitted garments and sleeves without creases…..as one of the first Black women ever granted a patent….her clever collapsible wooden design solved real-world problems….while paving the way for the modern ironing board.

RENOWNED BRITISH MILITARY SURGEON…..James Barry…..was a pioneer in medicine with a career spanning more than 50 years…..upon his death in 1865….a nurse was preparing his body and discovered female anatomy and signs of childbirth…..revealing that James Barry….had been born Margaret Ann Bulkley.

THREE DAYS BEFORE D-DAY…..a 21-year-old Irish woman named Maureen Flavin took her hourly barometer reading and sent it to Dublin….she had no idea that this single data point….would be sent directly to the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe….to General Eisenhower himself….and by doing that, she prevented a disaster…..by delaying the invasion due to an incoming storm.

IN ANCIENT ATHENS….where women were forbidden to practice medicine…..the brilliant Agnodice cut her hair and disguised herself as a man to learn the art….when her true identity was discovered….she was put on trial….only to be passionately defended by the city’s wives whose lives she saved….leading to the legalization of female physicians.

SHE WAS THE FIRST PERSON…..to cross the Brooklyn Bridge in a carriage….but Emily Roebling wasn’t just a passenger…..after her husband fell ill….she took over the project for a decade….becoming America’s first female field engineer….and ensuring the iconic Brooklyn Bridge was completed.

IN 1900…..New York largely sidelined young readers….beginning in 1906…..Anne Carroll Moore built dedicated children’s rooms, trained Liberians and pushed open shelves and borrowing rights….by 1941 her NYPL (New York Public Library) program became a national model….and shaped reviewing standards that influenced which books reached children.

BETWEEN 1919 and 1924….Yankton Dakota writer-activist…..Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)…..lobbied Congress with the Society of American Indians for universal citizenship for Native people….on June 2, 1924….Congress passed the Snyder (Indian citizenship) Act….recognizing U.S. citizenship for nearly all Native Americans.

DURING WORLD WAR II…..Yukiko Sugihara (1913-2008) sat beside her husband Chiune in Lithuania…..hand copying thousands of visas by candlelight for Jewish families fleeing the Holocaust….her determination helped save more than 6,000 lives….here’s proof that heroism sometimes takes the form of….a woman’s steady hand and unwavering heart.

FROM 1960-61…..the new FDA medical officer Frances Oldham Kelsey….repeatedly refused U.S. approval of thalidomide for morning sickness….and demanded to see the fetal-safety data…..despite heavy lobbying by Richard Merrell….her stance kept the drug off the market and prevented thousands of the severe birth defects seen abroad….she earned a 1962 presidential award.

IN 1838….Henriette D’Angeville became the first woman to scale Mont Blanc….without a male aid…..she packed 18 bottles of wine, 26 roast chickens and a carrier pigeon…..her climbing clothes she designed herself…..corset, daring panties and a stylish hat…..when she reached the mountain summit….she had risen higher than any man before.

BORN IN RUSSIA-OCCUPIED POLAND…..and barred from attending universities because she was a woman….Marie Sklodowska Curie…..fought poverty, prejudice and personal tragedy to isolate radium….and coined the word “radioactivity”….she won two Nobel prizes in two different sciences….and turned her discovery into X-ray…..which turned out to be a lifesaver on the World War I battlefields.