(b. Oct. 18, 1929, Rivas, Nic.) Newspaper publisher and politician Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was Central America’s first woman president and served as leader of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. Violeta Barrios was born into a wealthy Nicaraguan family (her father was a cattle rancher). She received much of her early education in the U.S. […]
(b. Aug. 3, 1941, Jersey City, N.J., U.S.) Martha Stewart, an American entrepreneur and domestic lifestyle innovator, built a catering business into an international media and home furnishing corporation, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Raised in Nutley, N.J., Martha Helen Kostyra grew up in a Polish American household where the traditional arts of cooking, sewing,
(b. May 7, 1919, Los Toldos, Arg.-d. July 26, 1952, Buenos Aires) Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. During her husband’s first term as president (1946–52), she became a powerful though unofficial political leader, revered by the lower economic classes, who knew her as Evita. Eva Duarte (in
(b. July 19, 1921, New York, N.Y., U.S.) The American medical physicist Rosalyn Sussman Yalow was a joint recipient (with Andrew V. Schally and Roger Guillemin) of the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, awarded for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA), an extremely sensitive technique for measuring minute quantities of biologically active substances.
(b. Nov. 20, 1923, Springs, Transvaal, S.Af.) The South African novelist and short-story writer Nadine Gordimer examined the theme of exile and alienation in her works; she received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Gordimer was born into a privileged white middleclass family and began reading at an early age. By the age of
(b. April 21, 1926, London, Eng.) Elizabeth II reigned as the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from Feb. 6, 1952. Elizabeth II, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was the elder daughter of Albert, duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. As the child of a younger son of
(b. Nov. 19, 1917, Allahabad, India-d. Oct. 31, 1984, New Delhi) Indira Gandhi served as prime minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84). She was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Indira Priyadarshini Nehru was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She attended Visva-Bharati
(b. Aug. 6, 1911, Celoron, near Jamestown, N.Y., U.S.-d. April 26, 1989, Los Angeles, Calif.) The radio and motion-picture actress Lucille Ball (in full Lucille Désirée Ball) was a longtime comedy star of American television, best remembered for her classic television comedy series I Love Lucy. Ball determined at an early age to become an
(b. Dec. 11, 1863, Dover, Del., U.S.-d. April 13, 1941, Cambridge, Mass.) Annie Jump Cannon was an American astronomer who specialized in the classification of stellar spectra. Cannon was the oldest daughter of Wilson Cannon, a Delaware state senator, and Mary Jump. She studied physics and astronomy at Wellesley College, graduating in For several years
(b. July 1, 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk, Eng.-d. Aug. 31, 1997, Paris, France) One of the best-loved women of the 20th century was Diana, princess of Wales, the former consort (1981–96) of Charles, prince of Wales, and mother of the heir second in line to the British throne, Prince William of Wales. Diana Frances Spencer was