American Firsts

Important Firsts in American History

1587:  Virginia Dare:  First child born in the American Colonies

1624: Richard Cornish: First man tried and hanged for sodomy (Virginia Colony)

1647: Margaret Brent: First American woman to demand the right to vote

1649: Mary Hammon and Goodwife Norman: First American women convicted of lesbian activity. They were charged with "lewd behavior upon a bed." (Massachusetts Colony)

1650: Anne Bradstreet:   First published American female writer

1762: Ann Smith Franklin: First female newspaper editor

1768: Wentworth Chaswell: First known African American to be elected to public office: town constable in Newmarket, New Hampshire.

1773: Phillis Wheatley: First known African-American woman to publish a book: (Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral)

1776: Margaret Corbin: First woman to assume the role of soldier in the American Revolution and receive a pension for it

1784: Hannah Wilkinson Slater: First American woman granted a patent

1785: Rev. Lemuel Haynes: First African American ordained as a Christian minister in the United States. He was ordained in the Congregational Church, which became the United Church of Christ

1789: John Jay: First Chief Justice

1789: Frederick Muhlenberg: First Speaker of the House of Representatives

1789: Edmund Randolph: First Attorney General.

1789: George Washington: First and only President to be elected with a unanimous vote

1789: Martha Washington:  First Lady

1798: Benjamin Stoddert:  First Secretary of the Navy

1801: Thomas Jefferson:  First President to be inaugurated in Washington D.C.

1808: Jane Aitken: First American woman to print the Bible in English

1812: Lucy Brewer: First American woman to join the United States Marine Corps.

1821: Thomas L. Jennings: First African American to hold a patent for a dry-cleaning process

1823: Alexander Twilight: First African American to receive a degree from an American college (Middlebury College)

1827: Rev. Peter Williams Jr.:  First African-American owned-and-operated newspaper: Freedom's Journal, founded in New York City

1836: Alexander Twilight: First African American elected to serve in a state legislature (Vermont)

1837: Mary Lyon:  Founded the first women's college in the U.S.

1837: Dr. James McCune Smith: First formally trained African-American medical doctor. He was from New York City educated at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and returned to practice in New York

1841: William Henry Harrison:  First President to die in office.

1845: Macon Allen: First African American licensed to practice law

1846: Sarah Bagley: First woman in America to become a telegraph operator.

1849: Elizabeth Blackwell:  First female to receive medical degree 

1853: Antoinette Brown Blackwell:  First American female ordained a minister

1854: James Augustine Healy: First African-American Roman Catholic priest

1861: William Cooper Nell: First African-American US Federal Government civil servant

1863: William Carney: First African-American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor

1863: Bishop Daniel Payne: First African-American President of a college (Wilberforce University)[

1865: Mary Walker: First and only woman to receive the Medal of Honor

1865: John Stewart Rock: First African-American attorney admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court

1865: Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall: First African American to be commissioned as captain in the Regular U.S. Army

1865: Mary Surratt: First woman hanged by the Federal Government; she was hanged for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the murder of President Abraham Lincoln

1866: Cathay Williams: First African-American female enlistee in the U.S. Army

1866: Sarah Jane Woodson Early: First African-American woman to serve as a professor at Xenia, Ohio's Wilberforce University hired her to teach Latin and English

1866: David Glasgow Farragut: First admiral, rear admiral, and vice admiral in the U.S. Navy

1866: Mary Walker: First woman in America to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1867: Lucy Hobbs Taylor:  First woman to become a certified dentist

1867: Martin Oates: First recorded arrest pertaining to ugly laws (San Francisco, California.) Oates was a former Union soldier during the American Civil War.

1868: Pierre Caliste Landry: First African-American Mayor (Donaldsonville, Louisiana)

1869: Ebenezer D. Bassett:  First African-American diplomat

1869: Arabella Mansfield:  First female lawyer

1869: Fanny Jackson Coppin:  First African-American female school Principal (Institute for Colored Youth)

1870: Jefferson Long: First African-American elected to U.S. House of Representatives

1870: Hiram Revels:  First African-American Senator

1870: Richard Theodore Greener: First African American to graduate from Harvard College

1870: Esther Hobart Morris: First woman in America to serve as Justice of the Peace

1872: Victoria Woodhull: First woman to run for President of the U.S.

1872: Frederick Douglass: First African-American nominee for Vice President of the United States by the Equal Rights Party.

1874: Herbert Hoover:  First President to be born on U.S. soil

1876: Louise Blanchard Bethune: First woman to work as a professional architect in America

1877: Henry Ossian Flipper:  First African-American graduate of West Point and first African-American commissioned officer in the U.S. Military

1877: Helen Magill White: First woman in America to earn the Ph.D. degree.

1878: Sergeant Horatio J. Homer: First African-American police officer in Boston, Massachusetts

1879: Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood: First female lawyer to plead a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1879: Mary Mahoney: First African-American female nurse

1884: Moses Fleetwood Walker: First African-American major league baseball player

1887: Susanna M. Salter:  First woman elected as Mayor

1888: Judy W. Reed: First African-American woman to hold a patent for an improved dough kneader, Washington, D.C.

1890: Louise Blanchard Bethune:  First American female architect

1891: Louis Henry Sullivan:   First American architect to build a skyscraper

1892: Myra Bradwell: First female lawyer in the U.S.

1895: Mary Fields: First African-American woman to work for the United States Postal Service

1901: Booker T. Washington: First African American invited to dine at the White House

1904: May Sutton Brandy: First American woman to win at Wimbledon

1904: George Poage: First African American to participate in the Olympic Games, and first to win a medal (two bronze medals)

1910: Alice Wells: First policewoman in the U.S.

1910: Florence Lawrence: America's first movie star

1911: Harriet Quimby: First woman to fly across the English Channel

1914: Eugene Jacques Bullard: First African-American Military Pilot

1916: Louis D. Brandeis: First Jewish member of the U.S. Supreme Court

1916: Jeannette Rankin: First woman elected to U.S. Congress

1917: Loretta Perfectus Walsh: First woman to enlist in the United States Navy

1919: James Wormley Jones: First African-American special agent for the FBI

1920: Lucy Slowe: First African-American woman to win a major sports title in the U.S.

1920: Marie Luhring: First woman in America to become an automotive engineer

1921: Bessie Coleman:  First African-American female pilot.

 1921: Margaret Gorman:  First Miss America.

1924: Clifton Reginald Wharton, Sr.:  First African-American diplomat to become an Ambassador

1926: Gertrude Ederle:  First American woman to swim the English Channel.

1927: Al Jolson: First to star in the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer

1928: Janet Gaynor: First winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress.

1928: Minnie Buckingham Harper:  First African-American woman to serve in a state legislature (West Virginia)

1930: Ellen Church:  First female flight attendant.

1930: Sinclair Lewis: First American recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature

1931: Jane Addams: First American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

1932: Hattie Caraway: First female United States Senator

1932: Amelia Earhart: First woman to fly transatlantic solo

1933: Franklin Roosevelt: First disabled US President

1933: Frances Perkins: First woman to be included in the U.S. Presidential Cabinet.

1934: Lettie Pate Whitehead: First American woman to be on Coca-Cola's board of directors.

1936: Wallis Warfield Simpson: Was the first Woman of the Year in the Time magazine.

1939: Ethel Waters: First African American to star in her own television program: The Ethel Waters Show, on NBC

1940: Hattie McDaniel: First African-American to win an Academy Award, and to be honored with a U.S. postage stamp

1940: Booker T. Washington: First African American to be portrayed on a U.S. postage stamp

1941: Josh White: First African American to give a White House Command Performance

1943: Edith Ellen Greenwood: First woman to receive the Soldier's Medal.

1944: Cordelia E Cook: First woman to receive both the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

1946: Frances Xavier Cabrini: First American canonized by the Roman Catholic church as a saint

1947: Jackie Robinson: First African-American Major League Baseball player of the modern era (Brooklyn Dodgers)

1948: Esther McGowin Blake: First woman in the U.S. Air Force.

1949: Gwendolyn Brooks: First African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize

1949: Eugenie Anderson: First woman to be a United States Ambassador,

1949: Wesley Brown: First African-American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy

1950: Ralph Bunche:  First African American to win Nobel Peace Prize

1950: Henry Hay: Created the Mattachine Society, the first gay men’s rights organization

1953: Jacqueline Cochrane: First woman to have flown a bomber across the Atlantic

1953: Tenley Albright: First American female skater to win an Winter Olympics gold medal

1954: Dorothy Dandridge: First African-American woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress: (Carmen Jones)

1955: Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon: Founded The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in San Francisco. First national lesbian political and social organization in the United States

1955: Marian Anderson: First African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera

1957: Althea Gibson: First African-American to win a Wimbledon singles title

1958: William O'Ree:  First African-American hockey player in the NHL

1958: Ruth Carol Taylor: First African-American woman to become a flight attendant

1958: Clifton R Wharton, Jr.:  First African-American US foreign minister

1959: Hiram L. Fong: First Chinese-American in the U.S. Senate

1959: Daniel K. Inouye: First Japanese-American in the U.S. House of Representatives

1960: Harry Belafonte: First African-American performer to win an Emmy Award

1960: Rev. Clennon King: First African-American U.S. Presidential candidate on the Independent Afro-American party

1960: Ruby Bridges: First African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South

1961: John F. Kennedy: First Roman Catholic President of the US

1962: Roy Claxton Acuff: First living inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame

1962: John Glenn: First U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth

1962: Edward Roberts: Successfully sued to gain admission to the University of California, Berkeley, making him the first student with severe disabilities to attend that school.

1963:Martin Luther King Jr.: First African American named as Time magazine's Man of the Year

1963: Charles V. Bush: First African American to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy

1963: Sarah T. Hughes: First and only woman to swear in the President of the United States President of the United States

1964: Jerrie Mock: First woman to fly solo around the world

1964: David Harris: First African-American pilot for a major commercial airline (American Airlines)

1964: Sidney Poitier: First African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor

1965: Patricia R Harris: First African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet

1966: Robert C. Weaver: First African-American to hold a cabinet-level position in the U.S.

1967: Thurgood Marshall: First African-American to become a Supreme Court judge

1967: Muriel Siebert: First woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange

1967: Carl Stokes: First African-American to be elected Mayor of a major city

1967: Craig Rodwell: Opened Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors.

1968: Shirley Chisholm: First African-American woman elected to the House of Representatives

1968: Riley L. Pitts: First African-American commissioned officer awarded the Medal of Honor

1969: Neil Armstrong: First man to walk on the moon

1970: Judith Heumann: Founded Disabled in Action in New York City. A number of chapters were also started in various other American cities. It is committed to ending discrimination against people with disabilities through litigation and demonstrations.

1970: Elizabeth P. Hoisington: First female Brigadier General in the Armed Forces

1970: Patricia Palinkas: First woman to play professionally in an American football game

1971: Bella Savitsky Abzug: First Jewish woman in Congress

1971: Jim Morris: First openly gay IFBB professional bodybuilder

1972: Bernice Gera: First female umpire in professional baseball

1972: Jean Westwood: First female chair of the Democratic National Committee

1974: Richard Milhous Nixon: First and the only U.S. President to resign from office

1974  Kathy Kozachenko: First openly gay or lesbian candidate to win public office in the US (won a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan, city council for the Human Rights Party)

1974: Susan Sygall and Deborah Kaplan: Founded The Disabled Women's Coalition at the University of California, Berkeley

1974: Wade Black: Founded The Atlantis Community of Denver, Colorado, who relocated adults with severe disabilities from nursing homes to apartments.

1974: Ronald Mace: Founded Barrier Free Environments which advocated for accessibility in American buildings and products

1975: George Carlin: First host of Saturday Night Live

1975: Ella Grasso: First female Governor

1975: Daniel James Jr.: First African-American four-star general

1976: Sarah Caldwell: First female conductor at the Metropolitan Opera

1976: Emily Howell Warner: First woman to become an American airline captain

1977: Bette Davis: First woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute

1977: Janet Guthrie: First woman to qualify and race at the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500

1977: Harvey Milk:  First acknowledged homosexual elected to high local office

1977: Ellen Barrett: First openly lesbian priest ordained by the Episcopal Church of the US (serving the Diocese of New York)

1977: Max Cleland: Appointed head of the U.S. Veterans Administration. He was the first severely disabled person and the youngest person to fill that position

1979: Susan B. Anthony: First woman in America depicted on a coin

1979: Stephen Lachs: First openly gay Judge appointed in the United States (Los Angeles County Superior Court)

1981: Sandra Day O'Connor: First woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court

1983: Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr.:  First African-American in space

1983: Elizabeth Dole: First female U.S. Secretary of a branch of the U.S. Military

1983: Sally Kristen Ride: First woman in space

1983: Vanessa Williams:  First African-American Miss America

1984: Geraldine Ferraro: First female Vice Presidential candidate

1984: Kathryn Sullivan: First American woman to walk in space

1985: Libby Riddles: First woman to win the Iditarod

1985: Penny Harrington: First woman Police Chief of a major city

1986: Oprah Winfrey: First African-American woman to own her own television production company

1987: Aretha Franklin: First woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

1987: Barney Frank: First U.S. congressman to come out as gay of his own volition.

1988: Gertrude Belle Elion: First woman to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

1988: Penny Marshall: First woman film director whose film earned more than USD 100 million at the box office

1988: Dr. I. King Jordan: First Deaf President of  Gallaudet University after the Deaf President Now student demonstration in Washington, D.C.

1990: Antonia Novello: First woman to be named Surgeon General of the U.S.

1990: Douglas Wilder: First elected African-American Governor (Virginia)

1992: Mae Carol Jemison: First African-American woman in space

1993: Carol Elizabeth Moseley-Braun:  First African-American U.S. Senator for the Democratic Party

1993: Janet Reno: First woman to serve as Attorney General.

1993: Sheila Widnall: First female Secretary of the Air Force.

1996: Sandra Jensen: First person with Down Syndrome to receive a heart-lung transplant at Stanford University School of Medicine in California after first being denied because of her disability,

1996: Madeleine Albright: First female  Secretary of State of the US

1997: Claudia Kennedy: First female US Army three-star General

1999: Eileen Collins: First female astronaut to command a space shuttle mission

1999: James Hormel: First openly gay United States Ambassador

2000: Hillary Rodham Clinton: First former First Lady ever elected to national office

2000: Colin Powell:  First African-American Secretary of State

2002: Halle Berry: First African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress

2002: Vonetta Flowers: First African-American woman to win a gold at the Winter Olympics

2003: Gene Robinson: First and openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church in U.S.

2004: James McGreevey: then Governor of New Jersey, came out as gay, thus becoming the first openly gay State Governor in United States history. He resigned soon after.

2005: Condoleezza Rice: First female African-American Secretary of State.

2007: Tony Dungy: First African-American coach to win the Super Bowl

2007: Keith Ellison: First Muslim member of the U.S. Congress

2007: Drew Gilpin Faust: First female President of Harvard University

2008: Ann Dunwoody: First female four-star General in the United States Military.

2008: Sarah Palin: First Republican woman to be nominated for Vice President

2009: Barack Hussein Obama Jr.: First African-American U.S. President

2009: Michelle Obama: First African-American U.S. First Lady

2009: Susan Rice: First African-American female United States Ambassador to the United Nations

2009: Alysa Stanton:  First African-American female Rabbi

2009: Jared Polis: First male U.S. Congressperson to be openly gay when first elected to office

2011: Angella Reid: First female White House Chief Usher

2012: Fred Karger: First openly gay Presidential candidate for a major political party (Republican Party)

2013: Harvey Milk: First openly LGBT political official to be featured on an American postage stamp

2014: Lauryn Williams: First American woman to win a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.

2016: Dr. Carla Hayden: First African-American Librarian of Congress

2019: Pete Buttigieg: First openly gay Democratic Presidential candidate

https://historyplex.com/famous-firsts-in-american-history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_firsts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lesbian,_gay,_bisexual,_or_transgender_firsts_by_year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_women%27s_firsts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_disability_rights_in_the_United_States