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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ

" We are born with one face, but - laughing or crying , wisely or unwisely- eventually we form our own "

Coco Chanel

HER NAME IS C...............

* C. V. Ward - Miss

..... FIRST woman member of a stock exchange with a trading floor - 10th June 1965 - Sheffield

* Cairine Wilson

..... in 1930 she became Canada's FIRST woman Senator

* Camelia Keegan

..... FIRST woman to Captain Penarth LTC in 1979

* Candelaria Figueredo

 born 1852 died 1913

 ..... FIRST woman to fight in the Cuban ranks in her country's attempts to achieve liberation from Spain. She joined at the age of 16 and in 1871 was taken prisoner

* Capper- Mrs

..... on 27th September 1909 she was the FIRST British woman passenger on an aeroplane in Britain

* Cara O'Sullivan

 ..... FIRST vocalist to win Ireland's Musician of the Future competition in 1990

* Carallyn Bowes

..... on 31st August 1976 she became the FIRST woman to run all the way across Canada. The 3841 miles from Halifax to Burnaby took her 133 days, she lost 15 pounds in weight and wore out 13 pairs of shoes

* Cardiss Collins

..... born 1931 in St Louis, Missouri she was the FIRST woman and FIRST black person to chair the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Manpower and Housing and from 1978-80 was the FIRST woman to chair the Congressional Black Caucus. She was also the FIRST woman and the FIRST black person to hold a Democratic leadership position in the House of Representatives when she was named whip-at-large.  She focused on issues that improved the welfare of her people and was the longest-serving black woman in Congress after serving for more than 17 years

* Carlotta Grisi

  born 1819 died 1899

 ..... Italian who was the FIRST to dance the title role of the ballet Giselle in 1841

* Carlotta Zambelli

  born 1875 died 1968

 ..... Italian who was the FIRST woman to enter the Legion d'Honneur for dance

* Carly Fiorina

..... American who was the FIRST woman to run one of the 30 companies that make up the Dow Jones index when made chief executive of the computer firm Hewlett-Packard in America in 1999

..... Spain's FIRST female defence minister, one of nine feminine ministers appointed in 2008 to the FIRST majority feminine government in Spain's history

* Carmen de Burgo Segui

 born c1870 died 1932

 ..... in 1909 she was the FIRST Spanish female war correspondent

* Carmen Joseph Dillon

  born 25th October 1908 died 2000

..... FIRST woman art director to work in British films, she created the sets for Laurence Olivier's Henry V and for Hamlet, which earned her an Oscar in 1948.  The task of an art director is to translate the director's two-dimensional conception of the story into three-dimensional reality. Her job also entailed managing a construction and props budget as well as ensuring that the smallest period detail was correct.  In 1938 she helped to design the sets and costumes for The Mikado, the FIRST film to be shot in Technicolor at the new Pinewood Studios

* Carmen Gronau

  neé Carmen Ida Joachim von Wogau

  born October 8th 1910 died 1999

..... FIRST woman director of Sotheby's, the auctioneers, and from 1958 head of the firm's Old Masters department

* Carmen Lawrence

..... in 1990 she was the FIRST woman Premier in Australia when elected by the West Australian Labour Caucus. She was also the FIRST directly elected President of the Australian Labor Party when she was elected in 2003 by the party members rather than at the National Convention

* Carmen Dell Orefice

..... FIRST high fashion pin up model and after sixty years has the longest career in fashion history

* Carol Edwards

..... one of the FIRST 32 women ordained at Bristol Cathedral into the Anglican Church in 1994

* Carol Frost

..... English woman, born in Manchester, who was the FIRST woman councillor and alderman of Alice Springs in October 1989

* Carol Graham

   born 1898 died 1989

..... FIRST general secretary of the Women's Fellowship in the United Church. She devoted herself to 36 years of missionary work in India and was founder of the Order of Sisters in the Church of South India in 1952. On her return to England she founded the Farncombe Community in England, a community which was an order of women dedicated to prayer and work for Christian unity

* Carol Harrison

..... FIRST woman to serve at the fire station in Kingsland, Hackney, London in May 1991 when she spent a year there on probation

* Carol and Sarah Hunt

..... FIRST twins to swim the English Channel together which they did on 8th March 1988 in a time of 9hrs and 28mins. They were aged 25 years, were teachers and came from Ripley In Derbyshire

* Carol Mutter

..... American who was the FIRST woman three-star General in the Marine's in July 1996. When she had joined the US Marine Corps thirty years earlier women were not allowed to be generals

* Carol Robson

..... FIRST British woman diplomat to be expelled from Moscow when she was among three Britons expelled. All denied charges of having been engaged in "improper activities"

* Carol Smithies

..... FIRST woman member of Manchester's Rucksack Club after it had been a men-only club for 88 years. She was later chosen to lead a camp on the bouldery summit of Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain

* Carol Sumner

..... FIRST woman 4 wheel driving instructor in Great Britain

* Carole Borlase

..... FIRST general manager of the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where she was responsible for running all the hospital's services including medicine and nursing

* Carole Carr

 born March 26th 1928 died 1997

..... FIRST girl to be invited to sing on television when the service resumed after WW2 and the FIRST singer to be seen on colour television when the BBC arranged a demo for both Houses of Parliament in 1957

* Carole Hersee

..... in 1967 at the age of eight years she became the model for the FIRST colour test card for the BBC. She was the daughter of the BBC engineer George Hersee and received a fee of £100. Her enjoyment of fame was short-lived and her image is seen less often today, owing to 24 hour broadcasting. She is now a theatrical costume-maker and lives in Suffolk with her family

* Carole Nash

..... FIRST woman President of the British Vintage Motorcycle Club and FIRST woman assistant secretary of the Federation Internationale des Vehicules Anciens

* Carolina Fantoni

..... Italian Countess for whom the FIRST typewriter worthy of the name was produced. It was made in 1808 by an Italian nobleman for his blind friend in an attempt to make her life easier. She appreciated the machine greatly and over a number of years the two exchanged letters. In 1908 it was revealed that the State Archives in the Italian town of Reggio Emilia contained 16 letters and a 15-page essay all typed by her on the machine. Other items, including sonnets, are still missing. From these letters it was learnt that the typed impression was made with the use of a sort of carbon paper. This was later replaced by an ink applicator

* Caroline

* Carolyn Kerby

 ..... FIRST female president of Manchester Law Society

* Carolyn Robson

..... FIRST woman President of Stockport Chamber of Commerce

* Carolyn Stait

..... FIRST ever female commander of a Naval base when she took charge of Scotland's largest military establishment HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane in June 2004

* Carrie Chapman Catt

 born 1859 died 1947

..... one of the FIRST women superintendents of schools in 1883. She was an American woman who worked steadily for women's suffrage, determined that the vote should be established by constitutional means. In 1905 she organized the National American Woman Suffrage Association and became its President in 1915 when it had a membership of 100,000. Two years later membership reached two million

* Carrie Brunham Kilgore

 born 1836

..... FIRST woman Barrister or Advocate when she graduated as Bachelor of Laws in 1883. She had registered as a law student in the State of Pennsylvania in 1870 but was refused admission to the University of Pennsylvania Law School the following year. In 1881 she won her battle to gain entry and two years later graduated. The following year she was admitted to the Delaware County Courts and the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court and then to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1890

* Carrie Morrison

..... FIRST woman solicitor in England. She lived at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London where she held a 'Poor Man's Surgery'.  When she married her husband c1930 they were married by Rev. Dr Maude Roydon, (P/L)

* Cassandra Jackman

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to beat a male squash player in the National League

* 'Cat' Counts

..... in 1984 she became the FIRST woman to die underground in the mines in America when she perished in an explosion which also killed six men

* Caterina Von Hemessen

  born 1528 died 1587

..... FIRST Flemish woman artist whose works are recorded. Her work consisted mainly of religious paintings and portraits such as the Portrait of a Lady (1551) which is now in a museum in Amsterdam

* Cath Tizard

  born 1931

..... FIRST woman Governor-General in New Zealand when she became the Queen's representative in Wellington in 1990 after seven colourful years as mayor of Auckland. She was a leading light in the country's Labour party , was given the Freedom of the City of London and made DBE

* Catharine of Aragon

 born 1485 died January 7th 1536

..... youngest child of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain who became the FIRST of the six wives of Henry V111 in 1509. At the time of their marriage she was already the widow of his elder brother and a dispensation from the Pope was sought before the marriage took place. When it later became clear that she could not produce a son he sought a divorce  so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. After six years of trying Henry finally revoked the Pope's jurisdiction on marriages in England .  She is also believed to the FIRST Royal woman to have played golf. The other five wives were Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr

* Catharine Hartley  and Fiona Thornewill

….. in January 2000 they became the FIRST British women to reach the South Pole after a 700-mile walk and in 2001 having reached the North Pole this made them the FIRST British women to reach both Poles and the FIRST women to walk to the magnetic North Pole.  Fiona and her husband Mike, who accompanied them as part of a nine-strong team, became the FIRST married couple to complete the walk successfully. In 2000 they were the FIRST couple to reach the South Pole and ended their two-month trek by renewing their wedding vows outside Amundsen-Scott Ice Station

* Catherine

* Cathrin Petty

..... on March 14th 1994 she became the FIRST woman to organise the Varsity Ball of Cambridge University's Rugby Blues

* Cathy Foster

..... in 1983/84 she was the FIRST woman selected for Great Britain in Olympic yachting

* Cathy O'Dowd

..... a South African mountaineer who, on May 29th 1999, became the FIRST woman to climb Mount Everest from both sides. On her first attempt on the North Ridge in 1998 she had to abandon the climb in order to help a dying American climber

* Cathy Rigby

  born 1952

..... FIRST American woman to win an individual medal in world competition in 1970

* Cathy Ross

..... FIRST ethnic communities development officer appointed by the Scout Association in 1991. Her job was to encourage parents and adult leaders from ethnic communities to join the 550,000-strong movement

* Catrin Finch

..... when issued with a royal warrant from the Prince of Wales she became the FIRST harpist to receive one in 130 years

* Cecilia Monge Teran de Erazo

..... a married Ecuadorian woman who was the FIRST woman to be ordained a Christian priest in Rome in 1996. She became a priest of the Anglican Communion at a ceremony at the Episcopal Church of St Paul's Within-the-Walls, the FIRST non-Roman Catholic church built inside the old city.  Her ordination represented a multiple challenge to the Vatican in that not only was she a woman but also because she was a convert from the Roman Catholic Church and she was married to an Anglican priest

* Cecilia Garrett

..... FIRST woman managing director of an independent radio station when appointed by Hereward Radio in 1979

* Cecilia Payne

born 1900

..... in 1925 she was awarded Harvard's FIRST ever PhD in astronomy - Cambridge, Massachusetts

* Cecile Walton

 born 1891 died 1956

..... Scottish woman who was the FIRST woman painter to receive the Royal Scottish Academy's prestigious Guthrie Award

* Cecilie Thoresen

..... FIRST woman student in Norway after women there were given the right to take the "artium" (university entrance) examination in 1882

* Cecille Evans

 ..... in 1921 when she insured her legs for £100,000 she was the FIRST actress to do so

* Celia Hall

..... Medical Editor of the Daily Telegraph who was named Medical Journalist of the Year in 1996 by the British Medical Association - the FIRST year that the BMA had given a journalist's award

* Chantal Williams

..... FIRST full-time woman teacher at Rugby School in its 420-year history. She took up the post as a modern languages teacher a year after the governors of the school decided against a plan to admit girl pupils from the age of 13. However ten years previously it was agreed that female students should be allowed in the sixth form

* Charlene Singh

..... sadly, in 2004, she became the FIRST person in America to die of CJD, the human form of mad cow disease

* Charlene Wellborn

..... American who was the FIRST woman to water ski barefoot. In 1948 the first two-tier water ski pyramids were by women

* Charlie Wheeler

 ..... the FIRST major non-white character in the US sitcom Friends

* Charlotte

* Chella Franklin

..... Weapons Engineer Officer who was the FIRST Wren to go to sea with the Royal Navy when she was posted to the Type 23 frigate Norfolk

* Cherie Blair

..... FIRST English Prime Minister's wife to be a working mother and FIRST serving Prime Minister's wife to give birth

* Cherry Lewis-Taylor

..... English skipper of the FIRST joint women's services sailing team to compete in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race

* Cherry Short

..... the Welsh Assembly's only black member and the FIRST woman to represent the Monmouth constituency - 1999

* Cheryl Miller

born 1964

..... African-American who was the FIRST woman to dunk a basketball in regulation play i.e to score by thrusting the ball downward through the basket. In 1986 the University of Southern California retired her number marking the FIRST time that a basketball player had been so honoured. This meant that the number she was assigned as a basketball player would never be used by anyone else

* Cheuk Mei-Hei

..... Chinese woman who on March 4th 1994 became the FIRST woman to be executed in Singapore for a drug offence when she was convicted of smuggling heroin

* Chien-Shiung Wu

 born 1912

..... FIRST woman to receive the Comstock Prize from the National Academy of Science. She was also the 7th woman in history to be appointed to the National Academy of Science and in 1976 she was given the US National Medal of Science and also holds honorary degrees from Princeton, Smith, Rutgers and Yale. Chien-Shiung is best known for disproving the theory of physics called 'the conversation of parity' in 1956 which stated that ' like atomic particles always act alike'. Her experiments proved that they did not but she was overlooked for her part in this work in the Nobel Prize of 1957 when her two colleagues ,men, received the award

* Chili Bouchier

  born 1909

..... Britain's FIRST international film star and star of the FIRST British talkie to win acclaim in the USA - Carnival (1931). She began her career at Harrods store in London in 1925  and in 1989 the British Film Institute stated that they were going to spend at least £30,000 to restore a copy of the film Carnival which earned her the affectionate Hollywood sobriquet of the ' Brunette Bombshell'  when it was shown over there

* Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy

..... FIRST black artist to paint a portrait of the Queen Elizabeth 11

* Chloe Gibson

  born May 18th 1899 died 1995

..... one of the FIRST women to direct pays for the BBC and also directed for the FIRST Irish broadcast. She was a notable influence on British and Irish television drama after the war and was head of drama with Irish television from 1961 until her retirement in 1974

* Chloe Marshall

..... teenage trainee beautician from Guildford, Surrey (UK) who became the FIRST size 16 to make it to the finals of the Miss England contest when crowned Miss Surrey in 2008

* Chris Evert

..... FIRST woman tennis player to win a $1m prize and FIRST to win four consecutive US Open Tennis Championships

* Christa McAuliffe

..... American who was the FIRST teacher and FIRST civilian to go into space. Tragically she was killed on January 28th 1986 when the Challenger space shuttle exploded and all on board were killed

* Christabel Pankhurst

  born September 22nd 1880 died 13th February 1958

..... she was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, English advocate of women's rights, and was the FIRST woman to receive a Bachelor of Law degree from Manchester Victoria University but her application for admission to Lincolns Inn was refused. It was this which caused her to throw herself whole-heartedly into her mother's campaign and persuaded her to found the Women's Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U.) In 1905 she was one of the FIRST women political prisoners in Britain with Annie Kenney after they had challenged Sir Edward Gray to state his politics on female suffrage. A demonstration followed outside the hall, they were arrested and refused to pay their fines. This was the beginning of the militant suffragette campaign. After the Second World War Christabel left England and settled in British Columbia where she became an evangelist of Fundamentalism and the Second Advent. In 1936 she was made a Dame of the British Empire

* Christiana of Spain - Queen

..... FIRST woman in the world to own a motor car and the FIRST member of  a European Royal family to do so when she ordered an electric Victoria from a company in London in July 1896

* Christiane Scrivener (French) and Vasso Papandreou (Greek)

..... FIRST two women appointed to the European Commission. Christiane was Minister of Consumer Affairs in France from 1976 to 1978 and was elected to the European Parliament in 1979. Vasso was the current Greek foreign trade minister

* Christina Baxter

..... FIRST law woman principal of St. John's Theological College in Nottingham in 1997. She was a leading Evangelical theologian and was aged 50 at the time. The college had 100 resident students and 2,000 correspondence students and was established in London in 1863, moving to Nottingham in 1970

* Christina Riggs

..... on May 3rd 2000 she became the FIRST woman to be executed in Arkansas in 150 years when put to death by injection for killing her two children

* Christina Stead

 born 1902 died 1983

..... FIRST winner of the Patrick White Literary Award in 1974

* Christine

* Chrystal MacMillan

 ..... born 1882 died 1937

..... one of the FIRST women graduates of Edinburgh University and in 1908 was the FIRST woman to address the House of Lords. Her appeal was for her right as a graduate to vote for the parliamentary candidates for the Scottish Universities seat. She was founder of the Open Door Council and was deeply involved in many causes regarding women's rights

* Chulabhorn Mahidol of Thailand - HRH Princess

..... youngest daughter of Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol Adulyadej, she has a doctorate in organic chemistry and was the FIRST Asian to be invited to join the U.K's Royal Society of Chemistry as an Honorary Fellow. She also has honorary doctoral degrees from more than half a dozen universities around the world. HRH is also founder of the Chulabhorn Research Institute and is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Mahidol University's Siriraj Hospital

* Chunxiu Zhou

  ..... on April 22nd 2007 she became the FIRST Chinese woman to win the London Marathon. Her time was 2 hours 30 mins 38 seconds

* Cicely Tyson

  born 1938

..... FIRST African-American woman to wear her hair natural on national television i.e. Afro hair style

* Cicely Delphine Williams

 born December 2nd 1893 died 1992

..... doctor who was the doyenne of paediatrics and child nutrition and was the FIRST to describe the medical condition known as 'Kwashiorkor', a Ga word meaning ' the deposed one'. This syndrome afflicted children who had been abruptly banished from the maternal breast by the arrival of a new baby and was first diagnosed among African children

* Cindy Crawford

..... FIRST supermodel to pose for Playboy magazine

* Cindy Truelove

..... FIRST Australian line dance instructor to be accredited to the NTA organization

* Cissie Charlton

  born November 11th 1912 died 1996

..... FIRST person to receive one of Esther Rantzen's "Hearts of Gold". She was the mother of Bobby and Jack Charlton who became the only brothers ever to play on the winning side in a World Cup Final in 1966 and it was through her enthusiasm  for football that influenced her four sons. Four of her brothers played football professionally as did one of her cousins, the great Jackie Milburn.  However she did not approve of women's football. At the game of 73 she was coaching the local school football team in her home town of Ashington to where she returned after her husband died

* Claire Burran

..... FIRST woman to row in the 278-year old Doggetts Coat and Badge Race on the Thames in 1992, a gruelling 4¾ mile stretch from London Bridge to Chelsea which is only open to barge watermen who have served an apprenticeship under their fathers. Claire had worked on the barges for five years before going into banking

* Claire Creffield

..... FIRST woman Prize Fellow of All Souls College ie FIRST via an exam but the 4th woman elected. She specialised in Marxist philosophy but said she was not a Marxist. Prize Fellowships ran for seven years and holders were provided with a room in the college, meals but not wine, and a modest stipend. At the time of her appointment it was stated that only one in five university academics were women (approx 1985)

* Claire Donegan

..... FIRST woman ever to qualify as a pilot in the Royal Navy when she received her 'wings' after completing her operational training along with four other pilots at the Culdrose naval base in Cornwall in 1998

* Claire Gibault

 ..... FIRST woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

* Claire Jerome

..... FIRST woman to ascend the Eiffel Tower

* Claire McCardell

 born 1905 died 1958

..... FIRST fashion designer voted annual 'Woman of Achievement' by the National Press Club in 1950. She created the 'separates' look including the stretch leotard and the tent dress and her wraparound housedress called the 'popover' made her a household name in the war years. She was also the FIRST designer to franchise her creations - jewellery, sunglasses etc

* Claire Oulton

..... FIRST woman head of department at Charterhouse School when she became history supremo in 1989

* Claire Tomalin

..... in 2003, with husband Michael Frayn, they became the FIRST husband and wife team to vie for the Whitbread Book Award. Claire won the £25,000 prize with her publication of Samuel Pepys - The Unequalled Self

* Claire Tomlinson

..... FIRST woman Polo Blue at Oxford University

* Clara Barton

  born 1821 died 1912

..... FIRST regularly appointed woman civil servant when appointed as a clerk in the Patents Office in America. She was the founder of one of New Jersey's FIRST 'free' or public schools but after a man was assigned over her she resigned in protest and took the job at the Patents Office. After teaching school in New Jersey she went to Washington DC in 1853 where at the outbreak of the Civil War she organised supply and nursing services for sick and wounded Union Troops. In 1864 she acted as superintendent of nurses under the authority of General Butler and after the war (1865 to 1869) was in charge of a government sponsored search for missing soldiers. During the Franco-Prussian war she was active in relief activities in association with the International Red Cross at Geneva. When she returned to the USA she undertook to establish an American Red Cross and it was through her efforts that a National Society of the Red Cross was organised in 1881 and she served as its FIRST president until 1904. She was active in relieving suffering caused by wars and disasters such as the Spanish-American war, the Boer war and the Galveston Flood of 1900. In 1884 she was responsible for the introduction of the ‘American Amendment’ at the Geneva International Conference specifying that in extreme peacetime emergencies the Red Cross should carry out humanitarian work similar to that assumed by it during any wars.  At the age of 77 she rode mule wagons as a nurse in the Spanish-American war, received numerous medals and honours and was acclaimed a war heroine

* Clara Ellen Butt

..... born February 1st 1872 died 1936

..... in 1902 she was the FIRST to sing Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory " and in 1916 "Spirit of England". From 1890 she studied at the Royal College of Music in London and made her debut there in 1892. However it was as a concert artist that she gained renown. In 1899 and 1913 she toured America and made a world tour with her husband delighting audiences with her performances of English ballads. "Sea Pictures" was written for her by Elgar and she became strongly identified with his music. Her performances for war charities earned her the DBE in 1920, the FIRST English musician to so appointed

* Clara Calamai

  born September 7th 1915 died 1998

..... Italian film star who was the FIRST leading lady of neo-realism, the influential movement that dominated world cinema in the early post-war years. She was chosen by the director Luchino Visconti for his first film in 1942 Ossessione, which is now universally acknowledged as the beginning of the new realist tradition in Italian cinema. She gave the film an earthy eroticism not encountered before in the cinema and it outraged Mussolini. The Italians had not paid any royalties to the novel's American author and because of this the film could not, when peace was restored, be shown overseas for many years. As a result of this her greatest work was largely unknown

* Clara Freeman

..... FIRST woman executive director at Marks and Spencer in 1967. Nine years earlier Baroness Young had been appointed its first female director but there had not been a female on its 18-member board.  She had been with the company for 21 years and her career had spanned buying and personnel

* Clara Furse

 ….. FIRST female chief executive of the 200 year old London Stock Exchange - January 2001

* Clara Rackham

    born 1875 died 1965

 ..... one of the FIRST women factory inspectors in 1915

* Clara Stuart

..... in 1952 she was the FIRST person ever granted a licence to operate a television set in a pub in the city of Salford whilst landlady of the Wellington Inn, New Bailey Street

* Clara A Swain

  born 1834 died 1910

..... American who founded the FIRST women's hospital in India in 1874 and was the FIRST female Western missionary doctor in India

* Clara Walkden

..... FIRST known sworn-in policewoman in the Greater Manchester area when she joined the Oldham Borough force on May 9th 1921. She was also one of the FIRST officers to have her own visiting card and served in office until 17th June 1940 when she was pensioned off due to ill-health

* Clara Zetkin

 born 1857 died 1933

..... celebrated Marxist law reformer, pacifist and political activist  who was one of the FIRST woman to train as a teacher in Leipzig

* Clare Boothe-Luce

  nee Brokaw

  born 1903

..... in New York, in 1943 she became the FIRST woman elected to Congress from Connecticut and in 1953 was the FIRST American woman Ambassador to Italy when appointed by President Eisenhower. Her early career was as a journalist on various magazines and during WW2 she was a foreign correspondent. Six years after her Italian appointment she was appointed to Brazil but resigned before taking up the post. In 1966 she was awarded the Hammarskjold Medal and was widely decorated in the USA and abroad

* Clare Clarke

..... from Gatley, near Stockport, Manchester, she is one of the FIRST patients in the UK to test the drug PXD101, which slows down the growth of cancer tumours

* Clare Francis

 born 1946

..... in 1976 she was the only woman to finish in the Royal Western Singlehanded Transatlantic Race out of a total of four women among the 125 taking part and was the FIRST woman skipper in the Whitbread Round the World Event (1977/78)

* Clare Frankl

..... FIRST woman tipped to become President of the Royal Institute of Architecture in 1996 in its 162-year history

* Clare Hollingworth

..... on 1st September 1939 she was the FIRST witness to German armour striking across the Polish border and awoke Graham C Greene in Warsaw to tell him that the Second World War had begun

* Clare Porter

 ..... FIRST woman President of Oughterard Golf Club in 1996

* Clare Smyth

 ..... FIRST female British chef to take the helm at a restaurant with 3 Michelin Stars, when she was hired by Gordon Ramsay for his restaurant in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea - 2007

* Clarice Lispector

 born 1917 died 1977

..... one of Latin America's FIRST major women writers

* Claudia Harris

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman Master Sommelier in 1984. The nearest English translation of the word "sommelier" is wine butler, although in smaller establishments the job often includes taking charge of the cellar as well

* Claudia Jones

..... founder and editor of the first newspaper for black people in Britain - the West Indian Gazette

* Claudia Kennedy

..... FIRST female three-star general in the history of the US army

* Claudia Poll

..... Costa Rican who won her country's FIRST ever gold medal which she earned for freestyle swimming in the 1996 Olympics

* Claudette Colbert

neé Claudette Lily Chauchoin

 born September 13th 1905 died July 1996

..... queen of 1930s Hollywood comedies who with Clark Gable were the FIRST co-stars to win Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars for the same picture - It Happened One Night in 1934. By 1938 her keen ability in business made her the highest paid star in Hollywood and her later films include Cleopatra, The Gilded Lily and She Married Her Boss. By 1950 however she had begun to lose her shine although critics still enjoyed her acting in both film and on stage. Her last stage performance was in 1987

* Claudie Andre-Deshays

..... FIRST French woman cosmonaut when she flew in the Russian Mir space station in 1996

* Clemence Rover

 born 1830 died 1902

..... provided the FIRST French translation of Charles Darwen's The Origin of the Species in 1862

* Cleo Sylvestre

 ..... one of the FIRST black British-born actresses to appear on television

* Cockran - Mrs W A

..... in 1889 she finally completed the FIRST power model dish washing machine which she had been developing over a period of ten years. Her husband kept her short of money during their married life but after his death she managed to raise enough from friends to help perfect her invention. Prior to this she had built various models for family and hotel use

* Cody - Mrs

..... on the 14th August 1909 she was the FIRST woman passenger on an aeroplane in Britain. Her husband was the American showman and inventor 'Colonel' Samuel Franklin Cody

* Coleen Morley

 born 1942

..... FIRST woman in Britain to umpire the game of cricket at League level when accepted by the Yorkshire League

* Collette Bailey

..... in 1993 she was the FIRST ever girl mascot for Manchester United football team

* Conchita Martinez

..... on 2nd July 1994 she became the FIRST Spanish woman to win at Wimbledon

* Connie Carpenter-Phinney

  born 1957

.... in 1984 she won the FIRST Olympic cycling medal for the USA since 1912

* Connie Leathart

  born 7th December 1903 died 1992

..... one of the FIRST 20 British women pilots to obtain the Royal Aero Club flying certificate

* Connie Randall

..... FIRST woman Assistant Secretary in charge of Insurance Services Planning at the ECGD in 1988. She was based at the department's Cardiff office which handled 80% of Britain's annual exports. She specialised in the aerospace industry and then moved to the strategic planning side

* Constance

* Corazon Aquino

..... on February 28th 1986 she became the FIRST woman Prime Minister in the Philippines. She was later the FIRST Philippine president not to seek a second term

* Cornelia Sorabji

 born 1866 died 1954

..... FIRST girl student at Decca College, Poona, FIRST woman in India to practice law and the FIRST woman to sit for the advanced exam, the Bachelor of Civil Law (India) after a special Congregational Decree was ordered in 1893 to allow her to sit. It was 30 years later before women were admitted to the English bar. Cornelia submitted a plan to the India Office for the protection of the legal rights of women in purdah who were wards of court and in 1904 she was appointed legal adviser on behalf of such women. she continued in this work until 1923 when she settled in Calcutta to practice as a barrister

* Criquette Head

..... FIRST woman to train a classic horse race winner in England when her horse Ma Biche won the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket

* Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

..... FIRST democratically elected woman president of Argentina

* Crystal Gayle

  neé Brenda Gail Webb

..... born in Kentucky, the eighth and last daughter of Ted and Clara Webb and sister of Loretta Lynn she was the FIRST female country artiste to sell over a 1m copies of an album, We Believe In Magic, and in 1979 was the FIRST country artiste to play in Communist China

* Cynthia Lynn Coffman

..... American who in 1989 became the FIRST woman to be sentenced to death in California since the state brought back capital punishment in 1977 when she was convicted of helping her lover, James Marlow, kill two young women in a five-day crime rampage

* Cynthia Longfield

 born August 16th 1896 died 1991

..... FIRST honorary member of the British Dragonfly Society, which she helped to found

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