Novelist & essayist Toni Morrison won the 1993 Nobel Prize in #Literature for "who in novels characterized by visionary force & poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." She won the 1988 #Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved. She died #OTD in 2019. #LitSky #BookSky

Susan Butcher was the first person to win 3 consecutive #Iditarod races & first to win 4 times in 5 races (1986-1988, 1990). #Alaska honored her with Susan Butcher Day, the first Saturday in March coinciding with the traditional start of the Iditarod. She died #OTD in 2006 at age 51.

Dr. Laurie Leshin became the first female director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president of Caltech in 2022. A geochemist & planetary scientist, she is the University Professor for Space Futures at Arizona State University. She was born #OTD in 1966. #WomenInSTEM #geochemistry

Computer scientist Frances Allen was a pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. + 1st woman to win the Turing Award + Her research directly shaped compiler design, code optimization & automatic parallel processing Born #OTD in 1932 & died #OTD in 2020. #WomenInSTEM #CompSci

Scottish activist Flora Drummond was a fearless operational leader of the British militant suffragette movement. Nicknamed "The General," she famously marshaled massive #WomensRights parades thru London & Edinburgh on horseback & wearing a military-style uniform. She was born #OTD in 1878.

Rosalind Miles also looked at this about 25 years ago in “Who Cooked the Last Supper?” A great read!

Who Cooked the Last Supper? by Rosalind Miles: 9780609806951 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Who Cooked the Last Supper? overturns the phallusy of history and gives voice to the untold history of the world: the contributions of millions of unsung women. Men dominate history because men write...

penguinrandomhouse.com

Historian of science Margaret Rossiter (d #OTD in 2025) coined the term #MatildaEffect (1993). Named after suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage, the Matilda Effect describes a systemic bias where women's scientific achievements are ignored, minimized, or directly attributed to their male colleagues. 1/3

Ophthalmologist Dr. Agatha Aboe led the medical campaign in Ghana to eliminate trachoma (leading infectious cause of preventable blindness globally). It worked. Ghana became the 1st country in sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate the disease, 2018. Now she's helping other countries do it. #WomenInSTEM

#OTD in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympic Games, Jackie Joyner-Kersee won the gold medal in the heptathlon, becoming the first person in history to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the multi-event sport. She is widely considered one of the greatest female athletes of all time. #WomenInSport #champion

Thank you for your work as a shipyard welder during #WWII --for being one of the “Rosie the Riveters” -- and for spending your final years telling your story each Friday at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historical Park. Goodnight & godspeed, Jeanne Gibson.🕯️

Beloved ‘Rosie’ Jeanne Gibson dies at 100

“One less welding torch shines today,” said National Parks volunteer Tammy Brumley, affectionately known as the Rosie Wrangler.

mercurynews.com

Isabel Allende: famous for her use of #MagicalRealism, a literary style that weaves myth, magic & the supernatural into realistic, historically accurate narratives. >77MM books sold in >40 languages, one of the world's most widely read Spanish-language authors. Born #OTD in 1942. #LitSky #BookSky

Paris Pişmiş: 1st professional astronomer in Mexico. + Academic founder of #astrophysics & instrumental to astronomy becoming a professional academic discipline (#Mexico) + Established the 1st formal #astronomy & astrophysics curricula at UNAM Died #OTD in 1999. #WomenInSTEM #WomenAstronomersDay!🔭

Photojournalist Gerda Taro was the first female war photographer to be killed covering the front lines of combat. Her work documenting the Spanish Civil War fundamentally altered the standards of modern war photojournalism. Born #OTD in 1910. Her legacy was largely erased by history until... 1/2🧵

Helen Sawyer Hogg: one of the most prominent & celebrated astronomers of the 20th century. She revolutionized our understanding of the universe through her foundational research on globular clusters--massive, spherical groupings of closely packed stars orbiting the core of our galaxy. #WomenInSTEM🧵

Maria Mitchell was the first professional female astronomer in the US.🔭 * First American to discover a new comet, 1847 ☄️ * First woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences & the American Assoc for the Advancement of Science She was born #OTD in 1818. #WomenInSTEM #astronomy

Chemist Stephanie Kwolek invented Kevlar in 1965. In a 40+ year career, her work in polymer chemistry ultimately revolutionized personal body armor, industrial engineering & space exploration. Fourth woman inducted, National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1994. She was born #OTD in 1923. #WomenInSTEM

Evonne Goolagong Cawley (b. #OTD in 1951) broke systemic barriers as one of the most prominent #Indigenous Australian athletes in history. #tennis + 14 Grand Slam titles (1971-1980) + World No. 1 ranking, 1976 + First mother to win Wimbledon in the Open Era, 1980 #WomenInSport

Pediatrician Dr. Mildred Stahlman revolutionized the care of premature infants (incl a miniature iron lung). She spent her career at #Vanderbilt U. Med Center & is credited w/ establishing the world's first modern Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Born #OTD in 1922. #WomenInSTEM #MedSky (1/3)🧵

What a great photo. Now that's a vibe. Maybe every year instead of "resolutions" (I don't usually make resolutions anyway) I should print a photo of a woman from history from whom I want to capture a bit of her ineffable spirit. Maybe next year is Year of Oceanographic Cartographer Marie Tharp.

Admirable Women@admirablewomen.bsky.social · 6d ago

Geologist & oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp (born #OTD in 1920) mapped the N. Atlantic seafloor in 1957 & the entire global #ocean floor by 1977. Her work revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and helped validate continental drift, transforming modern earth science. #WomenInSTEM #Cartography 1/2

Geologist & oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp (born #OTD in 1920) mapped the N. Atlantic seafloor in 1957 & the entire global #ocean floor by 1977. Her work revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and helped validate continental drift, transforming modern earth science. #WomenInSTEM #Cartography 1/2

English novelist & poet Emily Brontë was born #OTD in 1818. She authored the 19th-century Gothic masterpiece Wuthering Heights (1847) under her male pen name Ellis Bell. It was her only work of #fiction before she tragically died of tuberculosis a year later at the age of 30. #LitSky #BookSky

July 30 is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. 70% of human trafficking victims are women and girls. Learn more: endht.org #EndHumanTrafficking💙

French virologist Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi was born #OTD in 1947. She performed fundamental work in the identification of HIV as the cause of AIDS & shared the 2008 #Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of HIV. #WomenInSTEM #MedSKy #SciSky

Dr. Dorothy Hansine Andersen first identified & named cystic fibrosis in 1938. She was also at the forefront of developing diagnostic tests & treatment for CF. Her breakthrough shifted #pediatric medicine as kids w/CF were historically being misdiagnosed with celiac disease. #WomenInSTEM #MedSky

Composer Nancy Van de Vate (d. #OTD in 2023) founded the International League of Women Composers (1975) in response to/combat systemic gender discrimination. She saw women composers routinely overlooked for performances, recordings & academic opportunities compared to their male peers. #music

British chemist Dr. Dorothy Hodgkin won the 1964 #Nobel Prize in #Chemistry for using X-ray crystallography to "see" the 3D structures of complex molecules. After 35 years of work, she solved the incredibly complex structure of insulin, 1969. She died #OTD in 1994. #WomenInSTEM

Beatrix Potter--English writer, illustrator, natural scientist--was born #OTD in 1866. With >250 million copies sold, she is one of the best-selling authors of all time. Her most famous book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘵, remains one of the best-selling books in history. #BookSky #LitSky #literature

Hepatologist & vaccinologist Professor Ellie Barnes (Oxford) is at the forefront of global efforts to develop a preventative T-cell #HepatitisC vaccine--one of the hardest challenges in vaccinology. It's #WorldHepatitisDay #WomenInSTEM

American suffragist Lucy Burns was born #OTD in 1879. Burns founded the Nat'l Women’s Party with Alice Paul. While studying in the #UK, she joined the militant suffragettes. She played a key role advocating for the 19th Amendment that granted American women the right to vote. #history #suffrage

Mathematician & geodeist Dr. Irene Fischer helped guide NASA to the moon. Joining the US Army Map Service in 1952, she unified centuries of broken data to calculate the Earth’s precise size/shape. Her calculations allowed NASA to safely program Apollo moon landing trajectories. #WomenInSTEM (1/3)🧵