In 1947, eighteen-month-old Judith Heumann contracted polio, leaving her unable to walk. Throughout her life, she experienced unrelenting discrimination from every sector of society, including education, employment opportunities, politics, and law. But Heumann used it all as a catalyst to change how we think about people with disabilities and implement practical solutions.

In 1941, when the US entered World War II, many Japanese Americans, especially those living along the West Coast, were forced from their homes and businesses and imprisoned in camps in rural areas. Kuniko Terasawa, a Japanese widow, mother of two, and owner of the Japanese- language newspaper, The Utah Nippo, defied the odds. She convinced government authorities to allow her to continue publishing.

In 1856, pregnant with her first child and only nineteen, Mary Ann Patten took command of the merchant ship, Neptune’s Car, piloted it through the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, and brought the vessel safely into San Francisco harbor, while fending off a mutiny and nursing her sick husband. She is thought to be the first woman in the U.S. to captain a cargo ship.

Note: In case you missed it, the story of Lucy Stone was the most popular of 2025. If you’d like to reread or share it with others, here it is in full.

Lucy Stone was a pioneering abolitionist and suffragist in the mid-nineteenth century. The first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, she fought for racial and gender equality by generating support for amending the Constitution to give Black men the vote, and by laying the foundation for the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Margaret Brown was as unstoppable as she was unsinkable. Revered and reviled for her outspoken political activism, her fame catapulted to new heights when she helped to save others during the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. Brown was later mythologized in film and on stage as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Yet during her lifetime, she was never known as Molly, only as Maggie or Margaret. That said, Brown was an unstoppable force. An activist and philanthropist who focused on improving the lives of women and children, she was also a suffragist, actress, and a candidate for a seat in the U.S. Congress.

In 1692, tavern keeper and possible midwife Bridget Bishop wasn’t the first to be accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, but she has the distinction of being the first to die. Born Bridget Magnus in England in the mid-to-late 1630s, information about her is sparse and debatable. Much of what is known came from her neighbors’ testimonies at trial. She married three, possibly four times. Her first marriage took place in 1660, and she outlived her first and second husbands. The first died either before or shortly after she immigrated to the Massachusetts colony, where her infant child also died.

As a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s, Alice Marble rose from what she called the “pinch” of poverty to become an international athlete, author, activist, and spy. She helped to integrate the game of tennis, made athletic wear for women fashionable, and later coached the future greats of tennis, including Billy Jean King. She even had a minor role in a movie starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.

If you’ve heard the name Althea Gibson this month, there’s a good reason. August 25 marks the 75th anniversary of an historic event: the day that Gibson became the first African American to compete at the U.S. National Tennis Championship, now known as the U.S. Open.

In the Gilded Age of America, Emily Warren Roebling was a socialite, suffragist, builder, and businesswoman who managed the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge from 1869 until its completion in 1883. An engineering marvel, it was the largest suspension bridge in the world. Roebling was also an attorney and…

Lucy Stone was a pioneering abolitionist and suffragist in the mid-nineteenth century. The first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, she fought for racial and gender equality by generating support for amending the Constitution to give Black men the vote, and by laying the foundation for passage…