300 Firsts

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Government



First black woman in US Seneate
Carol Elizabeth Modeley Braun, lllonois (1992)

First woman nominated for president of the US by a major political party
Margaret Chase Smith, Maine, at the republican national convention in San Francisco (1964)

World’s first woman prime minister
Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister of Sri Lanka. She is the first woman to be elected the head of state (1960)

First woman president in the world
Isabel Peron, Argentina (1974)

First democratically elected woman head if the state
Vigdls FinnbogadUttir, President of Iceland (1980

First woman prime minister of Israel
Golda Meir. She is the first Jewish woman prime minister (1964)

First woman president of the Philippines
Corazon Aquino. She is the first Philippine president not to seek a second term (1986)

First woman prime minister of Canada
Kim Campbell (1993)

First woman chancellor of Germany
Dr. Angela Merkel (2005)

First woman prime minister of India
Indira Gandhi (1996)

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Government



First woman president of Chile
Michelle Bachelet(2006)

First African elected woman head of state
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia(2005)

First woman Vice presidential nominee of a major US political party
Geraldine Ferraro (1984)

First woman to become president of UN general assembly
Vijayalakshmi Pandit (1953)

First woman US secretary of state
Madeleine Albright (1966)

Black woman to serve a US secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice (2005)

First woman to serve as US national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice (2001)

US first lady
Martha Washington (1789)

Britain’s first woman MP
Viscountess (Nancy) Astor, House of commons (1919 Nov 28)

First woman president of the Indian national congress
Annie Besant (1917)

[gracemini]

Government



First woman chief minister of a state in India
Sucheta Kripalini, Uttar Pradesh (1963-67)

First woman governor of a state in India
Srojini Naidu, united provinces (UP) (1947-49)

First woman speaker of the US house of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi (2007)

First woman deputy chairman of Indian Rajya Sabha
Violet Alva (1962-69)

First woman prime minister of Turkey
Tansu Ciller (1993 Jun 14)


Woman prime minister of Britain
Margaret Thatcher (1979 May o4)

First woman member of a US presidential cabinet
Frances Perkins, Secretary of labour under Franklin D. Roosevelt. (1933)

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Sports



First Asian city to host Olympics
Tokyo, Japan (1964)

First tour de France (road bicycle race) winner
Maurice Garin (1903)

First recognized boxing (fisticuffs) champion
Tim Hyer (1841)

World’s first chess champion
Wilhelm Steinitz (1886)

First golf club in the world
Honourable company of Edinburg Golfers (1744)

First footballer of the year
Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer. He was also the first European footballer to be knighted in 1965. (1948)

First man to run a mile under a minutes
British athlete Sir Roger Bannister. He established this record at lffley Road Track, Oxford in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds (1954)

First Indian Olympic team medal
Gold for Hockey. At Amsterdam beating the Netherlands (1928)

First Indian Olympic individual medal winner
K.D Jadhav, Bronze in wrestling at Helsinki (1952)

First athlete disqualified at the Olympics for drug us
Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall at the mexico summer Olympics (1968)

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Sports



The first cricket club
Cricket club founded in Hambeldon, a village in southern England (1750)

First Indian cricket tournament
The Bombay Triangular which late became the Bombay Quadrangular (1912)

First Indian cricket test match
Against England at Lord’s (1932)

First Indian cricket captain
CK Nayudu, for the tour of England (1932)

First Indian cricketer to score a century
Lala Amarnath, against England in South Bomaby. He was also independent India’s first test captain leading a tour of Australia in 1947-48 (1933)

First Indian cricketer to score a triple century
Virender Sehwag, against Pakistan at Multan(2004)

First Indian hat-trick in test cricket
Harbhajan Singh, against Australia (2001)

First Indian batsman to complete 10,000 runs
Sunil Gavaskar. He was first in the world to achieve this

First Indian Tennis Grand Slam title
Mahesh Bhupathi, partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki, in the mixed doubles category of the French Open (1997)

First Indian woman to appear in an olympic final
P.T Usha, Los angeles olympics (1984)

[gracemini]

Sports



First woman to win an Olympic gold medal
Charlotte Cooper, UK, Tennis singles (1900)

First professional woman bullfighter
Patrica McCormick (1952)

First American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics
Wilma Rudolph, Rome Olympics (1960 Sep 7)

First women’s Olympic marathon champion
Joan Benoit, Los Angels Summer Olympics (1984)

First Indian woman to win a round at a Grand Slam
Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italain Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the Australian Open (1998)

Indian woman in the third round (highest so far) of a tennis Grand Slam event
Sania Mirza, singles category of the Australian open (2005 Jan)

First woman black tennis player to win a singles title at Wimbledon
Althea Gibson (1957)

First woman chess grandmaster of India
S.Vijayalakshmi (2000)

First Indian woman to win a individual gold medal to win a Grand Slam
Maureen Catherne (“Little Mo”) Connolly (1953)

First Indian to win an individual Olympic gold
Abhinav Bindra (2008)

[gracemini]

Adventure



First man to fly solo non stop across the Atlantic
Charles Lindbergh(1927)

First person to fly faster than the speed of sound
Charles Elwood Chuck Yeagar, he flew a Bell X-1 rocket at 670 mph in level flight (1947)

First man to reach the South Pole
Roald AMun-dse, Norwegian explorer and team (1911)

First person to swim across the English channel
Mathew Webb(1875)

First person to cross AntarcticCircle
James Cook (1773)

First humans to fly
Marquis d’Arlandes and Pilatre de Rozier. In this first manned balloon flight in the world they were airborne in a hot-air balloon for 20 minutes in Paris at height of 3000 ft and traveled 7 miles (1783)

First balloonist to fly solo nonstop around the world
Steve Fossett, U.S. He launched from northern, West Australia, on June 19 and returned to Qeensland, Australia, after 14 days, 19hrs. He broke three balloon records along the way, fastest time around the world, longest distance flown solo, and longest time flown solo(2002)

First man to cross the Pacific Ocean in hot air balloon
Ben Abruzzo and team in the Double Eagle V (1981)

First people to sight the North Pole
Roald Amundsen and his sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth from the airship ‘Norge’ pioloted by Umberto Nobile (1926)

First people to reach the North Pole
Lt.Col.Joseph O. Fletcher and Lt.William P.Benedict landed their plane (1952)