Complete Index

Brittany Cantazaro is NY Waterway’s first female ferry captain and helped rescue passengers on the US Airways flight that crashed in the Hudson River.

Pamela Jelimo became the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic track and field gold medal with her 800-meter win (in the time of 1:54.87) in Beijing.

Driving for the team Andretti Green Racing in Motegi, Japan, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win on the IndyCar circuit.

In 2008, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska became the first Republican woman in U.S. history to be nominated for vice president.

In March 2008, Fahmida Mirza became the first female National Assembly speaker in Pakistan’s 60-year history with the support of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

In November 2008, Ann Dunwoody became the first female four-star general in the United States military. Her promotion has been described as breaking “the brass ceiling” of the armed forces.

On November 16, 2008, Col. Stephanie Dawson was named commander of the 369th Sustainment Brigade, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, a National Guard unit renowned for its remarkable service during World War I.

Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire’s first female governor, became the state’s first female senator in November, beating Republican incumbent John Sununu by 7 percent.

In November, 32-year-old Rashida Tlaib won 44 percent of the vote in an eight-way Democratic primary contest for a seat in the Michigan state legislature.

Celebrating two firsts in May, Dutch clinical geneticist Dr. Marjolein Kriek, 34, of Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in the Netherlands, became the first woman and the first European to have her complete DNA sequence determined.

In November 2008, Beverly Perdue was elected the first female governor of North Carolina proving that, in her own words, she was "gutsy enough to make it all happen.”

For more than 100 years, since the position was established, the governor-general of Australia has always been a man. On September 5, 2008, Quentin Bryce changed all that.

Capping a trailblazing career, Cammi Granato became the first woman inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame at a 2008 ceremony in Colorado.

In 2008, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman to hold a spot as a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus in every state, and the first woman to win a presidential primary.

On April 19, 2008, Peggy Whitson completed a tour as the first female commander of the International Space Station. A veteran NASA astronaut, Whitson oversaw the station’s first expansion in six years.

Dara Torres is the first U.S. swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games. At 41 years old, she’s also the oldest Olympian of either sex to medal in swimming, picking up three silvers at Beijing 2008.

After the 2008 election, New Hampshire became the first state with a female-majority legislative house. Thirteen members of the 24-seat chamber are women.

A Japanese team drafted 16-year-old Eri Yoshida in November, making her the first  woman to play baseball with the men in Japan.

Carol Landry is the first woman to become a member of the International Executive Board of the United Steelworkers union. Landry, a union activist, was appointed International Vice President by unanimous vote.