IN 1961…..Grace Bumbry walked onto Germany’s most sacred opera stage and was booed for being Black….and she had not sang a note yet…..then she opened her mouth and history changed…..the boos stopped….the theater wept…..and the ovation lasted over thirty minutes….her talent did what hatred could not…..Grace Bumbry did not ask to belong….she proved she did.
CHING SHIH…..controlled 40,000 pirates…..and 300 ships off the Chinese coast….the imperial navy, Portuguese fleet and the British warships….all failed to defeat her….she retired undefeated….and died wealthy at the age of 96.
10-CENTURY BAGHDAD SCHOLAR…..Sutayta-al-Mahamali….was a legal expert and mathematician revered for her genius…..she didn’t just study math….she mastered and taught complex algebraic equations involving intricate inheritance laws….her work provided practical solutions for dividing estates…..according to Islamic principles….while tackling problems that European mathematicians wouldn’t systematize for centuries…..Sutayta was an often overlooked woman…..during the Islamis Golden Age.
PERSIAN KING AGHA MOHAMMAD KHAN….ordered the execution of two servants for being too loud….and since it was a holy day….he postponed their execution by one day….and made the servants return to their duties…..they murdered the king in his sleep that night.
THOUGH OFTEN OVERSHADOWED…..Queen Berenguela was one of medieval Europe’s most powerful women….she shrewdly abdicated the throne of Castle….directly to her son, Ferdinand III….to avoid a civil war….her masterstroke was then engineering his ascent to the throne of León….permanently unifying the two kingdoms into the cornerstone of modern Spain….this brilliant political maneuver secured her legacy….as a kingmaker and a foundational figure of the Spanish nation.
IN OCTOBER 1917….Salvation Army volunteers near the French front lines….lacked ovens to bake cakes for the U.S. troops….Helen Purviance and Margaret Sheldon….improvised by frying dough in soldiers steel helmets using lard….these “Doughnut Girls” soon served thousands daily….boosting morale and launching a sweet legacy.
BORN IN 1792…..Margaret Ann Neve lived through one of the most dramatic periods in human history…..she arrived before electricity, railways, photography and modern science….and lived long enough to witness all of them…..residing on the island of Guernsey…..she experienced the aftermath of the French Revolution….the rise of the Industrial Society…..and the dawn of the Modern Age….in 1903 she passed away at 110…..becoming history’s second fully validated “Supercentenarian.”
SABIHA GÖKCEN…..is listed by the Guinness Book of World records as the world’s first female fighter pilot…..having enrolled in a Turkish aviation academy in 1936….at 23-year-old….she was Turkey’s first female combat pilot and has the honor of an airport in her name in Istanbul…..throughout her career in the Turkish Air Force…..she flew more than 22 different types of aircraft for more than 8,000 hours of flight time…..her name noe appears on airline tickets, passports and travel itineraries worldwide….making her the only woman pilot in history….to have a major airport named after her.