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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

"the prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history "

 Elizabeth Stanton

Her Name is Elizabeth

* Elizabeth ???

(surname not known)

..... FIRST woman to be filmed giving birth to a baby which was transmitted on the internet in 1998. Millions of people across the world were able to watch as the 40-year old mother of three gave birth

* Elizabeth Therese Marie Helen

born October 2001

..... daughter of Princess Mathilde of Belgium and the FIRST to benefit from a new law granting equal inheritance rights to male and female royals

* Elizabeth 1 - Queen

born September 7th 1533 died March 24th 1603

..... believed to be the FIRST to own a wristwatch. She was the daughter of Henry V111 and Anne Boleyn and on the death of her Catholic half-sister Mary in 1558 she became Queen of England and reigned until her death in 1603. She enforced the Protestant religion by law and England prospered under her reign. She never married although Parliament made many attempts to persuade her to do so although at one time she toyed with the idea of marrying Henry 111of France. Events associated with her reign are the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the establishment of the Church of England, the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587 and England gaining naval supremacy

* Elizabeth 11 - Queen

nee Elizabeth Alexandra Mary

born April 21st 1926

..... elder daughter of George V1 and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon she was educated privately and at the age of 16 assumed official duties. On the death of her father in 1952 she succeeded to the throne of Great Britain and Northern Ireland whilst she was on holiday in Kenya with her husband, her third cousin, Philip. The Queen has many FIRSTS beginning with her taking part in a pantomime when she was still a Princess and it was noted that this was the FIRST time an English Princess had been seen in tights. Others are as follows - FIRST reigning monarch to open the New Zealand parliament -FIRST monarch to be featured on Bank of England paper money - dialled the FIRST trunk call on the new d-i-y system - FIRST British monarch to visit a communist state when she went to Yugoslavia -FIRST British monarch to have a state visit with the Pope at the Vatican - FIRST woman ruler to be entertained by King Khalid of Saudi Arabia - FIRST British monarch to visit China on a state visit  - to visit South Africa since 1947 - to visit Russia, Poland and Prague - to address the U.S Congress - on July 31st 2002 she was the FIRST British monarch to visit a mosque. On November 19th 2007 she became the FIRST British monarch to have celebrated a diamond wedding anniversary

* Elizabeth

the Queen Mother

nee Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon

born August 4th 1900 died 2002

..... daughter of the Earl of Strathmore she was the FIRST commoner to marry into the British Royal family when she married Albert, Duke of York, second son of George V and Queen Mary.  When Edward V111 abdicated in 1936 Albert succeeded to the throne of England as King George V1 and she became Queen Consort. She was crowned with him in 1937. On his death in 1952 their daughter Elizabeth became Queen and the Queen Consort took the name of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. In 1923 she was the FIRST Royal bride to lay her wedding bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in 1927 she inaugurated the FIRST Canberra parliament in Australia and in 1939 was the FIRST reigning monarch to set foot in Canada. On October 21st 1948 she became the FIRST full female member of the University of Cambridge and was the FIRST female representative in the Senate House when she received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws. In 1979 she became the FIRST woman Lord Warden of the Cinque ports after 900 years of male domination of the office. She was the 160th warden. When she reached her 100th birthday in the year 2000 she became the FIRST centenarian in the history of British monarchy 

* Elizabeth Alington

 Lady Home of the Hirse

..... wife of Alec Home, Prime Minister of England who was the FIRST woman to be elected a Fellow at Eton College

* Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

born June 9th 1836 died December 17th 1917

..... on September 28th 1865 she qualified as a medical practitioner when she passed the Apothecaries Hall examination and in 1866 established a dispensary for women in London where she instituted medical courses for women. In 1870 she became the FIRST British woman doctor  when appointed as visiting physician to the East London Hospital and the FIRST woman to serve on the medical staff of any British hospital. On November 9th 1908 she became the FIRST woman Mayor in Britain when appointed Mayor of Aldeburgh, Suffolk

* Elizabeth Barry

..... recognised as the FIRST great English actress

* Elizabeth Blackwell

born February 3rd 1821 died May 31st 1910

..... born in England she emigrated to America with her parents in 1832 and on January 23rd 1849 became the FIRST woman in the world to qualify as a doctor. In 1857 she also opened the FIRST hospital with an all-woman staff in New York and in 1859 was the FIRST woman to register as a doctor in England. She settled in England in 1874 and was appointed to the Chair of Gynaecology at the newly founded London School of Medicine for Women.   "it is only when we have learned to recognise that God's law for the human body is as sacred as, nay, is one with God's law for the human soul, that we shall begin to understand the religion of health"

* Elizabeth Blatch

..... American who was the FIRST President of the National Women's Suffrage Association

* Elizabeth Butler-Sloss

born August 10th 1933

..... in 1988 was the FIRST woman to be appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal and in 1999 was elected FIRST woman President of the High Court Family Division

* Elizabeth Canham

..... FIRST British woman ordained as deaconess in the Church of England and the FIRST British woman to be ordained a priest in the American Episcopal Church. Women had been ordained as priests since 1976 in the Episcopal Church but the Church of England did not give such recognition. She had been serving as a curate at St David's Episcopal Church in New Jersey and was no longer a member of the Church of England

* Elizabeth Carew the Younger - Lady

..... the FIRST woman playwright whose Tragedie of Marian the faire Queene of Iewry was published in London in 1613

* Elizabeth Choulerton

..... FIRST girl head prefect at King Edward's School in Bath in 1997. The school was founded in 1552 and began to admit girls in 1986

* Elizabeth Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypole

Betsy Ross

..... in 1776 she finished sewing the FIRST American flag

* Elizabeth Cochrane

Nellie Bly

..... pioneering investigative journalist who completed an around-the-world trip on January 25th 1890 after 72 days 6 hours and 11 minutes - the FIRST person to do so in that time

* Elizabeth Coker

born 1915 died 1988

..... FIRST woman chairman of Essex County Council from 1971 to 1974 and FIRST woman chairman of the Association of County Councils from 1976 to 1979 the year in which she was appointed DBE. Her major contribution was in education and for many years she was a hardworking chairman of the Essex Education Committee and served on the executive of the Association of Education Committees.  She was also the FIRST woman Deputy Lieutenant for Essex in 1974

* Elizabeth Cosson

..... the FIRST woman to reach the rank of Brigadier in the Australian army

* Elizabeth Mary Cove

died June 11th 1906

..... FIRST woman hot air balloonist in England

* Elizabeth M. Creek, Marianne Andrews and Elizabeth Hills

..... FIRST women to graduate as Bachelors of Arts on 17th November 1880 from London University after it was empowered to grant degrees to women in 1878

* Elizabeth Dole

..... FIRST woman transportation secretary in the U.S when appointed by President Reagan becoming only the second woman in his cabinet. She was also the FIRST woman in charge of a branch of the armed forces when appointed to take charge of the Coastguard. Her transportation portfolio had a 28 million dollar budget with 102,000 employees

* Elizabeth Dorsett

..... American 13-year old who was the FIRST foreign head chorister at Wells Cathedral in 1995 breaking 800 years of choral tradition

* Elizabeth Earnshaw

..... FIRST woman referee for the Open Golf Tournament at St Andrews after 100 years of all-male dominance. However she was still denied membership of the Royal and Ancient which, since being given its royal title by King William 1V in 1834 remained a men-only club

* Elizabeth Eden

..... at the age of 65 years in 1992 she became the FIRST woman High Sheriff of Devon

* Elizabeth Elstob

born 1683 died 1756

..... FIRST person to study and become an expert on Anglo-Saxon history and language

* Elizabeth Esteve-Coll

..... FIRST woman director of a national arts collection when made director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1987. She had been chief librarian of the museum's National Art Library for the previous two years

* Elizabeth Andres Evatt

born 1933

..... Australian who was the FIRST woman to win the law medal at Sydney University Law School

* Elizabeth Firestone

..... American who was the FIRST woman composer for a Hollywood film when she scored the Robert Montgomery comedy Once More My Darling in 1947

* Elizabeth Forsdick

..... FIRST woman to officiate at an FA Cup match in its 110-year history when she acted as a "linesperson" in the third round qualifying match when Burgess Hill Town played Carshalton Athletic. At the time she was the only female Class One referee on the Football Association's books among a total of 5000. There were 143 women referees, some Class Two and the rest Class Three

* Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

born 1890 died 1964

..... FIRST National woman Chairman of the Communist Party in 1961 after she continued to work for them when she was released from prison in 1954 for conspiring to overthrow the American government

* Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

born September 29th 1810 died 1865

..... born in London she moved to Knutsford in Cheshire as a young girl and then to Manchester as a young bride. She was married to her husband, William Gaskell, for 60 years and was a devoted wife and mother of four. At the age of 38,  Mary Barton - A Tale of Manchester Life, was published and the book caused outrage with its exposé of the city's evils from the open sewers to child labour and raging unemployment. It was the FIRST ever 'factory novel'  and was a great success with the general public but unpopular with employers in Manchester, who felt that the picture she painted of them was unjust. She was encouraged by Dickens and wrote for his periodical Household Words. Her other well known novels are Ruth and North and South in which the industrial situation in Manchester was shown from both the workers and employers view. In 1857 she wrote the FIRST biography of her friend Charlotte Bronte.  In 1865 she collapsed and died and was buried in the grounds of Knutsford's 300-year-old Unitarian Chapel. The Gaskell Society was established in October 1985 and has several hundred members spread across the UK, Europe, America and Japan

* Elizabeth Gloster - Dame

..... High Court Judge who was the FIRST woman lawyer to break the £1million-a-year earnings ceiling

* Elizabeth Hill

..... FIRST woman committee member of Derbyshire County Cricket Club in January 1994 

* Elizabeth Hill

born 24th October 1900 died 1996

..... FIRST lecturer in Slavonik (Russian) at Cambridge in 1936 and from 1948-1968 was FIRST Professor of Slavonic Studies.  She was a highly effective teacher  and in 1946 had persuaded the War Office to send 200 men from the three services to Cambridge on an intensive Russian interpreters course.  From  the early 1950s until the end of National Service she was dealing with three intakes a year each comprising of 100 young men. She was appointed DBE in 1976

* Elizabeth Hodgkiss

..... in 1974 she was ordained at the Methodist Conference in Bristol and became Salford's FIRST woman Methodist minister

* Elizabeth Johnson

..... started the FIRST Sunday newspaper in Britain in 1779, the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor

* Elizabeth Lane

nee Elizabeth Kathleen Coulborn

born 1905 died 1988

..... who furthered the advancement of women in law not only by her example but by her appointment of women marshals and ushers in her courts. She achieved a series of firsts for women in the legal profession being the FIRST woman County Court judge on 8th October 1962, FIRST woman divorce commissioner, FIRST woman deputy chairman of the Inner London Sessions and on 12th August 1965 became the FIRST woman High Court judge in Britain. She became a barrister in 1940 when she was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple and made legal history in 1946 when she argued a murder appeal in the Lords

* Elizabeth Le Blond

born 1861 died 1934

..... FIRST President of the new Ladies Alpine Club in 1907 and the FIRST woman to lead guideless parties at this time. In 1882 she climbed Mont Blanc and the Grande Jorasses and in 1900 her ascent of Piz Palo with Lady Evelyn McDonnel was probably the FIRST women's rope. To make her climbs she wore a skirt over her breeches which she only removed on the higher slopes and she had a lady's maid to accompany her

* Elizabeth Lynn Linton

born 1822 died 1898

..... FIRST woman to be employed as a feature writer on a newspaper in England

* Elizabeth Lutyens

..... FIRST woman to compose for a British feature film when she scored for Penny and the Pownall Case starring Christopher Lee and Diana Dors in 1948

* Elizabeth Maconchy

born March 19th 1907 died 1994

..... FIRST woman to chair the Composers Guild in 1959 and FIRST woman to hold a seat on the BBC music panel. She was also the FIRST woman President of the Society for the Promotion for New Music. She composed an outstanding series of 12 string quartets and her work ranged from opera to piano pieces

* Elizabeth Mallett

..... on March 11th 1702 in London she released the FIRST issue of the world's FIRST ever daily newspaper, The Daily Courant

* Elizabeth McCombs

..... forty years after the vote was granted she became the FIRST woman to be elected to Parliament in New Zealand - September 13th 1933

* Elizabeth Meehan

..... FIRST woman Professor of Politics

* Elizabeth Mortimer

nee Joan Eugenie

born 2nd June 1912 died 1997

..... the FIRST Waaf to win a Military Medal and one of three to be awarded the medal at Biggin Hill during the summer of 1940. On August 18th 1940 she was manning the switchboard in the airfield armoury at Biggin Hill as a sergeant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force when a heavy raid began. Elizabeth stayed at her post despite extensive and accurate bombing. Before the All Clear sounded she picked up a bundle of red flags and ran all over the airfield marking each unexploded bomb so as to help returning Hurricane and Spitfire pilots to land safely. As she marked the danger spots a bomb exploded nearby, badly wounding her

* Elizabeth Hawkins Nelson

..... on 1st January 1988 she became the FIRST woman director of the Royal Bank of Scotland

* Elizabeth Ney

born 1833

..... German woman who was the FIRST woman to attend the Munich Art Academy. When she first applied for membership it was denied because it was said that there would be little work done by the male students with her there to distract them. However, after promising that she would leave the classes if the work of the other students was affected, she was finally given permission to enter. When she emigrated to America with her husband in later years she did little work for twenty years but in 1895 resumed her career when commissioned to do a statue for the Colombian Exposition in Chicago

* Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

born 1804 died 1894

..... opened the FIRST kindergarten in America in 1861 in Boston. A social reformer and educationalist, her home in Boston was the scene of the famous conversational classes of Margaret Fuller from 1839 to 1844 and her bookshop was a favourite meeting place of the Transcedental Club. In 1867 she went to Germany to see the Froebel schools in action and on her return lectured widely and from 1873-75 published the Kindergarten Messenger. After 1880 she also campaigned for American-Indian education, continued to write and taught in the Concord School of Philosophy

* Elizabeth Polwhele

..... in 1671 she was the writer of one of the FIRST works by a woman designed for the professional theatre

* Elizabeth Popovich

..... American who was the FIRST and only woman ever executed in Welland County Jail when Louis Nato died after being badly beaten and claiming that Elizabeth and her husband had done it. She worked in his store and had been his mistress for several years but was not married at the time of their affair

* Elizabeth Purdy

..... FIRST woman Administrative Officer in Nigeria, one of only 100 recruited to the colonial service. Her husband was Robert John Purdy CMG OBE who was a hero of the colonial service in Nigeria

* Elizabeth Raffald

born 1733 died April 19th 1781

.....  FIRST registry office for servants in Manchester was opened by her. She was the author of the FIRST English cookery book and the FIRST one ever published which was called The Experienced English Housekeeper  and in 1772 compiled and published the FIRST street and trade directory of Manchester and Salford (England). In 1770 she was landlady of the King's Head in Salford and under her regime the inn became a sort of superior hotel . It was the chief posting house and from here started the London stagecoach and the FIRST Masonic Lodge of which there is record in Lancashire met there.  In Salford she was called Lady Bountiful and daily gave food, clothing and simple medicines to the poor. She also took up the question of female education and established a normal school in which young ladies were grounded in all the attributes of the English gentlewoman

* Elizabeth Rehn

..... of the Swedish People's party who was the FIRST woman Defence Minister in the Western World in 1990. She proved so effective in the post that she was chosen again after the 1991 elections. She was not the only woman in Finland's non-Socialist coalition government as Finland took a clear first place on appointing women to high rank. It was the FIRST European country to grant women the right to vote in 1906 and the FIRST in the world where women were eligible for Parliament. New Zealand was the FIRST country in the world to give women the vote

* Elizabeth Robins

born 1865 died 1952

..... American who was the FIRST President of the Women Writer's Suffrage League from 1908 to 1912

* Elizabeth Sanderson-Haldane

born 1868 died 1937

..... in 1920 she was the FIRST woman Justice of the Peace in Scotland

* Elizabeth Ann Seton

born 28th August 1774 died January 4th 1821

 ..... FIRST native saint of the United States of America when canonised on 14th September 1975. Her father was a wealthy physician and the FIRST health officer of the city of New York. By the time she was 28 years old she was widowed and left with five children. She joined the Roman Catholic Church where she took vows and founded The American Sisters of Charity which was devoted to the poor and to teaching. When she was beatified and canonised one thousand nuns from her order were present  

* Elizabeth Cady Stanton

born November 12th 1815 died October 26th 1902

..... a pioneer of American feminism whose awareness of the wrongs of society in general and of women in particular prompted her to organize the FIRST women's rights convention in 1848 and who was the FIRST person to enumerate every major advance achieved for women in the last century and many of the reforms still on the agenda in this country (England). She was also the FIRST President of the National Women's Suffrage Association and campaigned for women's right to vote and for many other reforms. She was an abolitionist and editor of The Revolution, a militant feminist magazine, and also one of the editors of A History of Woman Suffrage (1881 to 1887)

* Elizabeth and Heather Steel

..... FIRST sisters to appear together on the circuit bench (Northern England) in 1991. They were among only 21 women out of 440 circuit judges and Elizabeth was the third woman out of the 21 solicitors to have been appointed to the circuit bench

* Elizabeth Symons

..... FIRST woman Deputy General Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation in 1988 following eleven years experience as an Assistant Secretary

* Elizabeth Taylor

nee Elizabeth Rosamund

born February 27th 1932

 ..... English born star and one of the great beauties of the screen she was the FIRST Hollywood star to receive $1m for a picture

* Elizabeth Thakery

..... in May 1787 she became the FIRST white woman to set foot in Australia after being given seven years transportation for stealing five handkerchiefs worth a shilling

* Elizabeth Susan Unger

..... American who was a graduate of the FIRST class to include women from the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, MD. While assigned to a naval base at Great Lakes, Il, near Chicago in 1988  she refused to obey a direct order by refusing to participate in the mandatory drug-testing when she would not comply with the rule that she supply a urine sample "under the direct observation" of another woman.  She claimed that it was demeaning and degrading and that it was an invasion of privacy

* Elizabeth Watson

..... American who was the FIRST woman in charge of a major police force in the U.S.A when nominated to run Houston's 4000-strong police department

* Elizabeth Lady Williams

..... FIRST woman High Sheriff in Britain when made High Sheriff of Dorset in 1979

* Elizabeth Winkworth

..... in 1988 she became the FIRST woman gamekeeper at Beaulieu in the New Forest

* Elizabeth Yarwood

 born 1901 died 1990

..... FIRST woman director of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1964. From 1938-1974 she was Labour member for Manchester City Council, an Alderman from 1955-74and Lord Mayor from 1967-68. In 1945 she was also a JP in Manchester and in 1974 was Deputy Lieutenant Lancs. In 1988 she was created a Dame

* Elizabeth Yates

..... on November 29th 1893 at Onehunga, New Zealand, she became the FIRST female mayor in the British empire

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