Today we honor Nellie Wynn Tayloe Ross, who was born on this date in 1876. Ross is remembered for her political achievements: in 1924, just before she turned 48, Ross became the first woman to be elected governor of a state. Nine years later, in 1933, Ross left her adopted state of Wyoming to assume what became a two-decade long directorship of the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C.

Ross was born the year Colorado joined the Union as our 38th state; she turned 14 in 1890, the year Wyoming became our 44th state, and 83 in 1959, when Hawaii became our newest state.

By the time our nation's first female governor died in 1977, at the age of 101, our country had experienced plenty of political and lexical changes. Can you guess which of her milestone years—1876, 1890, 1924, 1933, or 1977— coincided with the year the term centennial first appeared in print? The answer may surprise you. Like Nellie Ross herself, centennial was born in 1876, the year her country turned 100.