* Laura Bassi

 born 1711 died 20th February 1778

..... Italian physicist who was the FIRST woman Professor of Physics in any University when she was appointed to the Chair of Physics at the University of Bologna in May 1732. She was born in Bologna and received a liberal education in the sciences and languages. In 1732 she earned a doctorate in philosophy and carried out experimental philosophy at the University of Bologna. She was outstanding in French, Latin, logic, metaphysics and natural philosophy and became a famous and popular teacher drawing students from all over Europe.  She also maintained a steady correspondence with the most well known intellectuals of Europe among them Voltaire whom she aided in gaining admittance to the Bolognese Academy of Science. The Senate of Bologna coined a medal in her honour which showed Minerva on the reverse. In her private life she was married to Dr Veratti, a physician and professor and together they had twelve children. In 1745 she was the only woman appointed as a member of an elite group of twenty five scholars who would present a scientific paper to the pope each year

* Laura Bramall

..... FIRST girl at the formerly all-boy Westbourne School in Sheffield in its 114-year history in 1996 when she joined 171 boy pupils

* Laura Dewey Bridgman

born 1829 died 1889

..... American who was the FIRST blind deaf mute to benefit from systematic education i.e. a kind of raised alphabet used at the Perkins School for the Blind

* Laura Bush

..... FIRST First Lady to take her husband's place in the weekly presidential radio address to the nation when she spoke about "Taliban Oppression of Women and Children in Afghanistan"

* Laura Davies

 born 1963

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST Briton to win the US Women's Open in 1987, FIRST professional golfer of either sex to win on 5 different tours in a calendar year in 1994, FIRST woman to appear on the short-list for the Barclaycard Telegraph Champion of British Sport Awards in 1997 and the FIRST woman to win the same tournament four times in a row - Standard Register Ping, Phoenix, Arizona (1997). In 2004 she became the FIRST woman to play in an Australasian or European men's tour event

* Laura Dillon

..... FIRST woman known to take testosterone to help her look like a man and in 1945 became the FIRST woman to become a man when she became Michael Dillon

* Laura Ann Fry

born 1857 died 1943

..... American who was the FIRST employee of the Rookwood Pottery Company in 1881

* Laura Garland

..... FIRST ever communications officer with the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1999

* Laura Gilpin

born 1891 died 1979

.....  American who made autochromes , the FIRST true colour photographic process to be widely and commercially available

* Laura Keene

born c1830 died 1873

..... English/American who was the FIRST woman theatre manager in America in 1856

* Laura Knight

born August 4th 1877 died July 7th 1970

..... English painter who was FIRST woman elected Royal Academician in 1936, a year before her husband, and in 1967 was the FIRST woman to be allowed to attend the annual member's banquet. Both she and her husband Harold were honoured by many artistic and academic organizations and her paintings can be seen in many public collections including the Royal Academy, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate and the British Museum. She was made a DBE in 1929

* Laura Lennox-Conyngham

..... one of the FIRST girl pupils at The King's School in Canterbury in its 1400-year history

* Laura Marham

..... author of Studies in the Psychology of Women, the FIRST book of its kind to be written by a woman concentrating on the social, not sexual, psychology of women

* Laura Woodcock

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to be made a Freeman of Epsom. She was a magistrate and Mayor of Epsom and came from Horwich in Lancashire. Her husband was George Woodcock, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress