r/GreatestWomen

Harriet Tubman (c.1822-1913): Born into bondage, beaten and brutalized, she not only escaped but returned time and again into the belly of the Southern beast to rescue and guide to freedom scores of the enslaved. During the Civil War she served the cause of freedom as a scout behind enemy lines, providing priceless intelligence to the Union army. She is widely credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States for her role during the 1863 raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people. Frederick Douglass: “I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.”

Josephine Baker (1906-1975): A school dropout at 12, married twice before she was 16, through sheer talent she rose from the mean streets of St. Louis to Broadway via Harlem and then took the Folies Bergère in Paris by storm. Working for Allied intelligence and the Resistance during World War II, she continued the fight for desegregation and civil rights all her life – she was the only official female speaker by the side of Dr. King at the 1963 March on Washington.

Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000): The entertainment industry that was her forte would cast her as the definition of beauty and brains. An immigrant who became a big star in Hollywood opposite Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert and Spencer Tracy, she co-invented a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes during World War II using frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology foundational to modern Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962): Dubbed the “First Lady of the World” by President Harry S. Truman in recognition of her life-long commitment to human rights. She was born into privilege, but her society wedding to Franklin Roosevelt resulted in a complicated marriage (six children; having to remain a partner throughout his infidelity and disability; often separate lives) that ultimately elevated her to the most active and influential First Lady in U.S. history. An informal ambassador for her husband throughout America during the Great Depression and internationally during World War II she continued to crisscross the globe advocating for her causes for many years afterwards, playing a critical role in the formation and mission statement of the United Nations.

Anthony was a Quaker who became a suffragette in the mid 19th century and also became the state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Anthony was born in 1820 in Massachusetts. She helped collect 400,000 signatures for her anti-slavery petition. After the Civil War she began the American Equal Rights Association. She wanted equal rights for black people and women.

Anthony befriended a lady called Elizabeth Cady Stanton and they became suffragettes together. She spent more time with her than anyone else; possibly even her own husband. Anthony often babysat Stanton's children while she worked. She funded the National Women's Suffrage Association 1869. They fought for voting rights, divorce laws and property rights. Anthony once voted in an election in 1872 when it was illegal for women to do so. She was arrested, put on trial but refused to pay the $100 fine which was a lot of money back then. This brought women's suffrage to national attention.

Elizabeth Stanton, Matilda Gage and Kda Harper worked together on a document called History of Women's Suffrage. Anthony pitched in too and did some editing. They did this to preserve the history of feminism.

Anthony was the biggest face of the feminist movement. She said, "There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers."

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During the Japanese raids of Korea that lasted from 1592 to ‘98, Ota was orphaned and brought to Japan when she was just 14. The Japanese general Konishi Yukinaga, or Shogun in Japanese, was a devout Christian and he raised her in his home with his Christian wife. Julia was her baptismal name and Ota was the Japanese name that was given to her.

When Christianity was made illegal in Japan in 1612, Ota refused to renounce her faith, saying she would rather shave her head to renounce a connection to Japan and the world. She was banished to an island along with a few other Christian women from the Shogun’s household. In the islands of Izu, in Izu-Oshima and Nii Jii-Jima, she was loved wherever she went for her kindness, charity and Christian faith. One day she was pardoned by a Shogunite but she still faced some persecution in Japanese society.

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Her name was Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and she was a famous American outlaw who travelled across Central America with a gang called the Barrow Gang committing bank robberies, kidnapping and murder wherever they went. Their crimes were written in the newspaper. She and Clyde were public enemies in the public enemy era between 1931 and ‘34. Several movies and even a musical has been made about her and her boyfriend.

Bonnie was born in 1910 in a place called Rowena. Before she became an outlaw she loved writing poetry. She wrote a poem called The Story of Bonnie and Clyde which is about how she wanted the two of them to be remembered. Before she was with Clyde she actually married another criminal called Roy Thornton. The guy spent too much time in prison and their relationship quickly dissolved. Bonnie never legally divorced him and she was still wearing her wedding ring when she died. She ran off with Clyde and the Barrow Gang and the two outlaws never stepped foot inside a prison.

One time in 1933 the couple were camping somewhere in Iowa when police officers surrounded them. There was a shoot out that became known as the Dexfield Park shootout but Bonnie and Clyde made it out alive just without many of their possessions. Investigators found some footage of the event with the two of them posing with their guns and pretending to smoke cigars. This is one of the things that cemented the legendary image of the Burrow Gang.

In 1934 they were ambushed again on the Louisiana Highway 154. This police posse was led by a retired cop called Frank Harner. Bonnie and Clyde killed 9 cops and three civilians in that fight before they were both eventually shot.

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Ursula was born in 1929 in Berkeley, California. She is known as a science fiction writer but has said that she’d rather be known as an American novelist. Her two greatest works are Tales of Earthsea and the Left Hand or Darkness. The Left Hand of Darkness earned her the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. She was the first woman to get those awards. She has written over 20 novels and over 100 short stories.

Ursula’s parents Aldred L. Kroeber and Theodora Kroeber, were anthropologists. Her father was a pioneering anthropologist and her mother studied Native American culture. Their home was frequently visited by scholars and Indigenous guests so Ursula saw a wide range of cultures as a child.

Ursula took a trip to France to study French literature, there she met her husband Charles Le Guin and they got married in 1953. They lived in Portland together and raised three children.

Her whole life she was interested in philosophy, literature, culture, religion and had a deep respect for Tao Te Ching. She loved the Taoist ideas about balance, humility and living in harmony with the natural world. She lived to be 88 years old and died in Port.land in 2018.

For anyone with an interest in history, myself included, there is little doubt that they have heard of the "Great Man Theory." As its name suggests, it is an approach to history that focuses on the achievements and legacies of extraordinary individuals who shaped the course of the world—whether they were conquerors, inventors, reformers, or spiritual leaders.

Although this theory is far from the only way of interpreting history and has attracted considerable criticism, it is easy to understand why many find it convincing. Throughout the centuries, remarkable individuals have transformed the world in ways few could have imagined. Figures such as Augustus and Napoleon permanently altered the course of history through their leadership and ambition.

Yet there is one individual who belongs comfortably among them.

Like Augustus, she ruled over a vast empire stretching across the globe. Like Napoleon, she gave her name to an entire era, one defined by its own politics, culture, architecture, and even fashion. But unlike either of them, she was a woman—arguably the most powerful and influential woman ever to walk the Earth.

Allow me to introduce Alexandrina Victoria of Hanover, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ruler of an empire upon which the sun famously never set, and later Empress of India.

This is the first part of her fascinating—yet often deeply complicated—life story, one that would leave a profound mark on the lives of millions.

Before we can understand Victoria herself, however, we must first examine the fragile state of the British royal family at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

At the time, the United Kingdom had been ruled for nearly sixty years by King George III. He is perhaps best remembered as the monarch who lost Britain's American colonies and, later in life, tragically lost his own mind.

George III and Queen Charlotte had a remarkably large family, producing numerous sons. Yet for most of their lives, only their eldest son had managed to produce a legitimate grandchild: Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Charlotte's tragic life deserves a story of its own. For now, however, all that matters is that in 1817 she died during childbirth.

Her death plunged Britain into a succession crisis.

Suddenly, George III's remaining unmarried sons found themselves under immense pressure to abandon their bachelor lifestyles, end their relationships with long-time mistresses, and marry suitable royal brides in the hope of producing heirs to secure the future of the British monarchy.

One of these princes was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the king's fourth son. In 1818 he married the widowed Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and from this rather hurried union, Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace on 24 May 1819.

At birth, Victoria stood fifth in the line of succession, behind her father and three uncles. Yet fate intervened with astonishing speed.

In January 1820, when Victoria was only eight months old, her father died of pneumonia. Just six days later, her grandfather, George III, also passed away at the age of eighty-one. The Crown therefore passed to Victoria's uncle, who became King George IV, although he had effectively ruled Britain as Prince Regent for many years.

As the years passed, Victoria's chances of one day becoming queen steadily increased. Following the death of her uncle, Prince Frederick, Duke of York, in 1827, she became second in line to the throne. Naturally, her upbringing suddenly became a matter of national importance.

As one might expect, responsibility for the young princess's education fell largely to her widowed mother, the Duchess of Kent.

Before long, however, the Duchess formed a close partnership with Sir John Conroy, an ambitious British officer of Irish origin who had previously served as comptroller to Victoria's late father. A comptroller, in simple terms, was an official responsible for managing finances and household accounts.

Thanks largely to his close relationship with the Duchess, Conroy remained a permanent fixture within the Kent household. Their intimacy became the subject of widespread gossip, with many believing they had become lovers. Even the Duke of Wellington reportedly accepted the rumour as fact. Some went even further, claiming that Conroy was Victoria's biological father.

Victoria herself always rejected these allegations, and modern historians overwhelmingly dismiss them as little more than malicious court gossip. Nevertheless, according to Wellington—who later served as Prime Minister—the young princess had once surprised her mother and Conroy engaged in what he delicately described as "some familiarities." He is thought to have learned this through one of Victoria's relatives. Meanwhile, Victoria's governess, Baroness Lehzen, allegedly repeated similar rumours to one of the Duchess's ladies-in-waiting, who was eventually dismissed after confronting her mistress.

Whether an affair truly existed remains impossible to prove.

What is certain, however, is that Conroy and the Duchess sought to exercise complete control over the young princess.

Together they devised what later became known as the Kensington System, an extraordinarily restrictive method of raising the future queen. Every aspect of Victoria's daily life was carefully controlled. She was discouraged from forming friendships, constantly supervised, and rarely allowed even a moment of privacy.

According to contemporary accounts, Victoria "was not allowed to be alone, to walk downstairs without holding the hand of an adult, or to play with other children without a guardian." She was even required to share a bedroom with her mother until she reached adulthood.

Among the few companions she was allowed to see regularly was Conroy's daughter, Victoire, whom Victoria suspected acted as her father's eyes and ears. Another was the previously mentioned Baroness Lehzen.

Lehzen soon became the single most important figure in Victoria's childhood, earning the princess's complete trust and affection. Victoria later wrote that the Baroness was "most unceasing & indefatigable in her great care of me." Unsurprisingly, this close bond deeply frustrated both the Duchess and Conroy, who repeatedly attempted to remove Lehzen from the household—without success.

Yet the people Victoria loved most during these lonely years were her half-siblings, Karl and Feodora von Leiningen. They were the Duchess's children from her previous marriage and had moved to London alongside their mother before Victoria's birth. Like Victoria, they experienced the suffocating restrictions of the Kensington System and came to resent it. Fortunately for them, being considerably older, they were able to escape its control much sooner.

The political situation changed once again in 1830.

King George IV died and was succeeded by his younger brother, the Duke of Clarence, who ascended the throne as King William IV. Because William had no legitimate surviving children, and another of his brothers had already died, Victoria became heir presumptive to the British throne.

For the Duchess of Kent and John Conroy, this only strengthened their determination to maintain control over the future queen.

Their hopes rested upon the Regency Act of 1830, which stipulated that should Victoria inherit the throne before reaching adulthood, her mother would serve as regent. All they needed was for King William IV to die before his niece turned eighteen.

Fortunately for Victoria, fate had other plans.

William IV and his wife, Queen Adelaide, developed a genuine affection for their niece, treating her almost as the daughter they never had. They almost certainly would have spent much more time with her had the Duchess not done everything possible to prevent it.

Deeply mistrusted by much of the royal family, the Duchess became increasingly fearful of losing her influence. She therefore continued isolating Victoria from her relatives while discouraging any meaningful relationship with the King and Queen.

By now, however, Victoria was approaching adulthood—and she had grown to despise the suffocating system under which she had been raised.

Although William himself had accepted the possibility of a regency, he famously declared during a banquet in 1836:

«"My life may be spared for nine months longer... I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the exercise of the Royal authority to the personal authority of that young lady, heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she would be placed."»

According to those present, Victoria was moved to tears upon hearing her uncle's heartfelt words. Moments such as these ensured that she remembered William IV with genuine affection throughout her life.

Fortunately for the King, he lived just long enough to see his niece celebrate her eighteenth birthday. With Victoria now legally an adult, the need for a regency disappeared altogether.

Having secured the succession, William IV died at Windsor Castle on 20 June 1837.

At just eighteen years of age, Victoria ascended the throne with the royal style:

«"By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith."»

Yet the young queen now faced responsibilities unlike anything she had ever known.

How would her reign unfold? What political storms awaited her? And how would a young woman, raised under one of the most restrictive childhoods imaginable, come to rule the largest empire on Earth?

Those questions will be answered in Part Two.

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In the late 1950’s a drug was released in Britain called thalidomide. It was created to treat morning sickness but an American scientist called Frances Oldham Kelsey said no to the drug. No, they shouldn't let American women use this. They had to do further research, look into it more, there wasn't enough evidence that it was safe. This turned out to be a smart move cause thalidomide ended up causing serious birth defects in British women. Because of her prudence she received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from John F Kennedy.

Kelsey was born in 1914 on Cobble Hill, British Columbia in Canada. She later moved to America where she did her graduate studies eventually becoming a citizen and working for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. When she got older she went back to live in Canada to be close to her family. She lived to be 101 years old.

Yaa Asantewaa (1840 - 1921) was the queen mother of the Ashanti / Asante empire, now Ghana. She was nominated by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase, the ruler of the empire. She is best known for leading what is now known as the war of the golden stool. It actually amounted to a war of resistance against the British colonials.

The golden stool was (and still is) a sacred object for the Ashanti people, a symbol of the divine blessing on their ruler. No one sat on it or used it as a throne but it signified the empire itself. When her bother died, Yaa nominated her grandson as was her right but the British governor exiled him to Seychelles. She then became the regent of her brother's traditional domain.

But then the governor demanded the golden stool itself as a move to usurp the empire. This could not be allowed under any circumstances. No foreigner could have the sacred stool, so Yaa gathered the regent kings and said that the sacred object was only money for the white man but she wouldn't pay them a dime. She said if they couldn't fight this, they should exchange their loincloth for her underwear.

All the regional kings then chose her as their leader, a first for any woman. From March 1900, the rebellion laid siege to the British fort at Kumasi under her lead. The fort still stands today as a Military Museum. Eventually the Gold Coast governor sent a force of 1400 to quell the rebellion. During the fighting, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and fifteen of her closest advisers were captured and exiled to Seychelles. By then, 2000 Asante and 1000 British were dead.

After this the Asante empire was annexed and it became a British protectorate. But when they demanded the golden stool, the real one was hidden and a copy was handed over. Some 20 years later a group of black railway workers discovered and vandalized the real stool, after which they were all judged and executed by the Asante. At this point the British realized what the Asante could do for it and gave up their quest for the sacred object.

Nana Yaa Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles on 17 October 1921. Three years after her death, King Prempeh I and the other remaining members of the exiled Asante court were allowed to return. King Prempeh I ensured that the remains of Yaa Asantewaa and the other exiled royals were returned for a proper royal burial. The sacred stool is still used as a symbol to coronate Asante kings and Yaa Asantewaa is highly venerated as the leader who stood up and led the entire nation against white colonials.

Mildred Fay Jefferson was a pioneering physician, educator, and public advocate best known as the first Black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and one of the earliest female surgeons in the United States. A gifted student from childhood, she broke major racial and gender barriers in medicine. Jefferson became especially prominent for her leadership in the anti-abortion movement, where she stood firm on her conviction that every human life deserved protection and that medicine should be ordered toward healing rather than destruction. Whether one agrees with all of her views or not, she is remembered as a trailblazer whose courage, eloquence, and persistence made her an influential figure in American medical and ethical history.

>I will not accept the proposition that the doctor should relinquish the role of healer to become the new social executioner. It is unconscionably unfair that the victim selected on which to test this social remedy of expendable lives is the most defenseless member of the human family—the unborn child, who cannot escape, cannot riot in the streets, and cannot vote.

I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live.

─ Dr. Mildred F. Jefferson

TLDR: check there second and third photos for a brief version.

Context: revolutionaries are usually seen by ruling powers as anarchists and even terrorists. However, given the racism and exploitation of the erstwhile colonial regime, armed struggle was inevitable. People know Gandhi from India but such figures as this young girl are forgotten.

Pritilata Waddedar (originally Dasgupta), 1911 - 1932 was a close associate of the revolutionary Surjya Sen. She was born in undivided Bengal, in Chittagong. This archived photo seems to be her only surviving one. I have written about her ideal - Laxmibai, the queen of Jhansi, earlier in this sub.

She was bright and her parents gave her the best possible education. She was schooled in Dr. Khastagir Government Girls' School in Chittagong, where her imagination was fired by the Rani of Jhansi's life story. She graduated school in 1928 and went on to the Eden College in Dacca (Dhaka) where she topped the Dhaka board in the Intermediate exams.

She then graduated from Bethune college in Calcutta (Kolkata), but her revolutionary ideas caused Calcutta University to withhold her degree, which was awarded posthumously only in 2012. After graduation she returned to her native Chittagong.

She started working as a teacher in the local English medium school and also joined the independence movement. That's when Surjya Sen heard of her and wanted her to join their group. She met him in their camp, where there was opposition to recruiting women from a prominent associate of Sen, but Sen had the final say because women could safely operate as arms couriers without making the colonial police suspicious.

Sen and his group decided to take out Craig, the Chittagong Inspector General. The job was given to two men but they shot an Indian, the superintendent of police in Chandpur by mistake. They were both arrested in 1930 end and sent to the colonial Alipore Jail in Calcutta, awaiting their sentence of death by hanging. Pritilata was in Calcutta at the time and met them in jail.

In 1932 Sen planned a strike on the Pahartali European Club which sported a sign "Dogs and Indians not allowed". For this operation, Pritilata was the chosen leader. She dressed as a Sikh man for the operation. They first set fire to the building which had 40 people inside, Indian servers and some European police officers who were armed.

As they started shooting at the building, the police shot back. Pritilata took a non-fatal bullet wound in trying to provide cover to her fellows but couldn't escape herself. In order to evade capture, she swallowed a cyanide capsule that she had with her as an emergency escape. She was just 21 and undefeated in death.

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Coleman was the first African American woman to get a pilot license. She was born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas. Her parents were sharecroppers, people who live on land and pay up some of their crops, and she grew up in a large family. The tenth child in a family of 15. But only 9 of the children lived to be adults. Her schooling was interrupted so that she could help bring in cotton harvest.

While living with her brothers in Chicago in 1915, she would hear stories in a barber shop about flying during the first world war. She was happily captured. She was 23 at the time. Because African Americans, Native Americans and women were not allowed to learn how to pilot in America she saved up her money to go to France for flight school. She accomplished this 5 years after hearing the stories.

She learned how to speak French so she could communicate with her instructors. She studied before she traveled and continued to learn when she was there. Her instructors were impressed by her quick learning.

She returned to America in 1922 and became a stunt pilot. (They used to call those barnstormers.) She performed figure eights in the air and dives and loops. The crowd called her Queen Bess. So she's known as Bessie Coleman.

She would refuse to perform at the shows that had segregated entrances for blacks. She dreamed that she might one day start a piloting school in America so that black people could learn to fly like her without leaving the country. She said, "The air is the only place free from prejudice.”

Coleman went to Florida in 1926. She purchased an aircraft that was not in the best shape. Her family told her that flying the ship was probably unsafe. But she didn't listen. She flew with her mechanic William D. Wills. Ten minutes into the flight the plane took a nose dive and then it started spinning. Coleman was thrown out of the plane. She plummeted to the ground and died. The plane burst into flames.

10,000 people mourned her death in Chicago. They were led by a civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells.

After Lafayette drafted and Abbe Sieyes finished writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 Olympe wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen as a response.

She was a playwright who was happy about the French revolution but didn't like that women were not getting equal rights in the new France. Her paper challenged male authority and highlighted a list of female concerns that would later be known as feminist concerns.

She was against the execution of King Louis and she wrote a play called L'Esclavage des Noirs which means The Slavery of Black People, where she condemned the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the French colonies. She also wrote Le Philosophe corrigé which means The Reformed Philosopher which is a comedy that mocks pretentious people.

You all know about how Parks refused to stand up for a white man on the bus in Alabama after she paid for it. About the situation she said, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was too tired. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” When she was arrested there was a Montgomery bus boycott which lasted for 381 days. After that time the laws that wanted her to move were eventually seen as unconstitutional. This happened after the Browder v. Gayle which might not be fresh in your mind.

I'm going to tell you about the rest of her life.

Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She lived under Jim Crow segregation. Her mom was a teacher and her father was a carpenter. She was born in Tuskegee but she grew up in her father's house Abbeville. When her family arrived the house was crowded and her dad was rarely ever home because of his work. Carpenters have to travel a lot.

Parks was baptized when she was 2 at the African Methodist Episcopal church. Sadly churches had to be segregated too. Parks spent a lot of time with her grandparents and their farm. They raised chickens and cows and grew pecan and walnut trees. Her mother was away often and that's where she had to be.

Parks started working at age 6 on a plantation of Moses Hudson where they paid black children 50c a day to pick cotton. When she was older than 10 she learned how to quilt from her mother.

The place she grew up in backwards Alabama was full of racism, violence and segregation. This was a world where black and white people had to be divided in healthcare, in church, in public transport, in banks and even on burial grounds. The Ku Klux Klan was intensifying. Parks heard about a lot of black people being found dead.

When she was 18 Parks met her future husband Raymond Parks. He was 28 at the time. He convinced her to take a ride out with him. Owning a car was very rare for black men in Alabama. Parks said that Raymond was the first real activist she had ever met. They got married and lived together in a multi-tenant house.

After they got married, Parks and Ray got involved in the Scottsboro boys case. 9 black teenagers were accused of raping two white woman. They were all sentenced to death (except for the youngest one who was 13.).The couple began spreading awareness about the case and tried to secure fair trials. Parks once said, "Each person must live their life as a model for others.” And she did.

Parks became a member of the NAACP. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. A hefty title but still did great work. She joined when she saw an old classmate of hers in a photo from a meeting. She became the secretary of the group apparently because she was the only woman there and that allowed them to be more secret. She also said she was too timid to say no.

You'll be happy to know that Parks lived a good long life. She died at 92 of natural causes. And when she died, she became the first woman in American history to lie in honour at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., a ceremony reserved for people of exceptional national significance.

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After years of working as an assistant professor and then later a lawyer, Barbara learned about how genetics is used to find the biological parents of an adopted child. She thought to herself that this forensics would be very useful in the court of law. She was one of the first people to realize genetic genealogy could be used this way. She pioneered what became known as investigative genetic genealogy.

Venter was born in 1948 in Auckland, New Zealand. When she was 20 she moved to America and gained citizenship. While she was in America a serial killer and rapist they called him the Golden State Killer because he lived in California. They had his DNA but it didn't match anyone in the database.

That's when Venter steps in in 2018 and suggests that we find people related to the killer. By looking at various family trees they eventually narrowed down the list of possibilities until there was a single likely suspect: Joseph James DeAngelo.

DeAngelo’s last victim was killed in 1986. Venter solved a crime that had been unsolved for decades. She did not receive any reward, except some recognition.

Noor Inayat Khan was the daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi preacher, professor and musician from Baroda, India. Inayat's maternal grandmother was Qasim Bibi, a daughter of Mysore's ruler Tipu Sultan.

Noor would be born in Russia as the eldest of Inayat's four children. Her mother was an American named Ameena Begum (Ora Ray Baker) who had converted to Islam.

Growing up in England and later in France, Noor was described by family members as quite, sensitive and dreamy. As a child she played several instruments including the Saraswati Veena (learning from her father) and spoke of seeing fairies. Her father was a follower of Gandhian philosophy and ingrained a sense of humanity and tolerance in Noor's mind. She established herself as a Children's author, likely inspired by her mother and by her own active imagination, writing a retelling of the Jataka Tales as well as her own stories.

Following the German invasion of France in 1940, Noor would take responsibility of her family and flee to England. She became a part of the French resistance against Nazi Germany.

In 1942, while serving in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Noor was shocked to learn of the cruelties that Jews faced in the Nazi regime. She soon applied to become a Special Operations Executive for the Allied powers.

Noor's instructors soon noticed that while she was hardworking, her gentle disposition made her a weak candidate for her task. She was described as Childlike, Clumsy and terrified of weapons. One mock interrogation left her so overwhelmed and scared that she nearly lost her voice, making her instructor sarcastically comment that she "was not overburdened with brains".

Despite the criticism, she became the first female wireless operator to be sent into Nazi occupied France in 1943. Within 10 days of her arrival in France, the Germans had infiltrated into the network she was part of, and captured several prominent operators. Hundreds of these agents were lost to the Nazis and Noor soon found herself as the only operator in Paris. Despite being told to return to safety in England by her superiors, she chose to remain in Paris and continue her work. She spent the next four months fully knowing that the Gestapo was getting closer to her day by day, while reporting information back to England.

When captured and brutally tortured by the Germans for 11 months continuously, she defied all expectations by not giving them a single piece of information. She lied at every chance she got at the face of extreme pain, even as the Nazis impersonated her using her notebook. When she was executed in September 13, 1944, her final words were "liberté".

Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross and the Croix de Guerre avec étoile de vermeil.

She is thought to have said "I wish some Indians would win high military distinction in this war. If one or two could do something in the Allied service which was very brave and which everybody admired it would help to make a bridge between the English people and the Indians."

Sources:

Noor Inayat Khan, Britannica

BBC Entry

On This Day, June 25, 1678, Italian philosopher Elena Cornaro Piscopia made history by becoming the first woman in the world to receive an academic degree from a university.

She was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree by the University of Padua in Italy, making her one of the most remarkable scholars of her era.

Originally, Elena sought a degree in theology. However, due to opposition from church authorities who believed women should not study theology, her tutors successfully petitioned for her to be awarded a doctorate in philosophy instead.

The degree was conferred in Padua Cathedral in the presence of university officials, professors, students, Venetian senators, and distinguished guests from several Italian universities, including Bologna, Perugia, Rome, and Naples.

Elena's achievement was so extraordinary that the cathedral was filled beyond capacity with spectators eager to witness the historic event.

Widely regarded as one of the most educated women in Italy, Elena was fluent in seven languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, French, and Arabic.

Her intellectual talents became evident at an early age. By the time she was a teenager, she had already gained a reputation as a gifted scholar and philosopher.

Born on June 5, 1646, in Venice, Elena devoted the final years of her life to study, charity, and helping the poor.

She died of tuberculosis on July 26, 1684, at the age of 38.

More than three centuries later, on June 5, 2019, Google honored her legacy with a special Google Doodle celebrating her life and achievements.

At a time when women were rarely allowed into higher education, Elena Cornaro Piscopia changed history forever.

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Since only men could be monarchs they called her the King of Poland (rex Polonaise) in order to make it clear that Jadwiga was the sole monarch and not just someone’s consort. She was either born in 1373 or ‘74. She was also known as Hedwig. She was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and his wife Elizabeth of Bosnia. She was born in the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, Buda. Her grandmothers were both Polish princesses and she had the most Polish blood out of everyone in the royal family. She was a devout Catholic.

She was betrothed to William of William of Austria as a child. But most historians agree that their marriage was never finalized. Later Polish nobles decided that Jadwiga should marry Władysław II Jagiełło instead. She married him in 1383 and the Polish-Lithuanian union became one of Europe's most powerful states.

When her father died in 1382, he had no sons and the Polish nobles did not want to be governed directly from Hungary so they made Jadwiga the ruling monarch.

As Queen she supported education. She donated her wealth to restore and expand Jagiellonian University which became a leader in education after her death. She funded hospitals and churches and her marriage to Władysław led to the spread of Christianity in Lithuania.

After her death, she was made a Catholic saint, canonised in 1997.