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- In 1847, Maria
Mitchell discovered a comet, launching her career as an astronomer.
In 1865, she became professor of astronomy and director of the college
observatory at Vassar, where she taught for 23 years. She was the first
woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Science and, in 1873,
she founded the Association for the Advancement of Women.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ma74.htm
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- Henrietta Swan
Leavitt devised a method to measure the distances of stars from
the Earth with stars in other galaxies. This was of great importance
in the measurement of astronomical distances. Her photographic measurements
were accepted among astronomers of the world, and it was known as the
Harvard Standard. She later discovered 1,777 variable stars in the Magellanic
Clouds which are small galaxies next to the Milky Way. She earned a
B.A. from Radcliffe College in 1892, and worked at the Harvard Observatory.
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~cwp/nblimages/leavitb1.1.gif
http://cannon.sfsu.edu/~gmarcy/cswa/history/leavitt.html
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- September 26, 1910,
Bessica Raiche made a solo flight using an aircraft she and her
husband François built. The Aeronautical Society of America identified
her as the First Woman Aviator in the United States. She went on to
earn a degree and practice medicine. http://www.lihistory.com/specpio/air2.htm
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- In 1911, eight
years after Orville Wright's first successful flight, Harriet Quimby
became the first American woman to earn a pilot's license. A year later,
she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She was
very popular, and a newspaper described her flight clothes as, "Miss
Harriet Quimby's plum-colored satin costume... has a blouse and knickerbockers
with a monk hood attached. The knickerbockers have inside seams closed
by rows of buttons which when unfastened convert the knickers into a
walking skirt... Miss Quimby wears high top leather boots." http://www.harrietquimby.org/html/bio.html
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- August 13, 1911,
Mathilde Moisant followed the family tradition by receiving her
pilot's license and joining the Moisant International Aviators.
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- In 1914, Georgia
"Tiny" Broadwick became the first female parachute jumper.
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- In 1923, Marion
Hart was the first woman to graduate with a chemical engineering
degree from MIT. Later she earned a graduate degree in geology. In 1946,
at the age of 54, she learned to fly. In 1954, the life-long pioneer
flew her light plane across the Atlantic Ocean.
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- In 1913, Katherine
Stinson established a flying business with her mother. In 1915,
she became the first woman to fly loop-to-loop.
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