Who's on First? - Second Part Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shirley Chisholm

Educator and politician Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1968, she was the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. For seven terms, from 1969 to 1983, she represented the 12th congressional district in the House of Representatives.

As if that weren't enough, in 1972 she was the first woman to run for a presidential nomination for a major political party. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously.

Answer: Sally Ride

Although cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya preceded her, Sally Ride (1951-2012) was the first American woman in space. Sally was a physicist who joined NASA in 1978. She made her ground-breaking journey beginning on June 18, 1983, which made her the youngest American astronaut to travel in space, at the age of thirty-two. She later worked as a professor of physics at the University of California in San Diego, and served on the committees investigating the Challenger and Columbia disasters.

Answer: Bessie Coleman

We've all heard of Amelia Earhart but, long before her aeronautical feat, there was Bessie Coleman (1892-1926). On June 15, 1921, Bessie became the first woman of both African-American and Native-American descent to earn a pilot's license. Her life was like a movie plot, i.e., coming from a family of sharecroppers from Texas, educated in a segregated school, she attended Langston University. Since there were no flight training schools in the U.S. for women, she went to France. "Queen Bess" came back home and participated in dangerous air shows. Sadly, she died in 1926 when she was testing a new aircraft.

Answer: Sarah Breedlove

You may not have heard of Sarah Breedlove, but you may know her under the name Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919). Sarah Breedlove was orphaned at the age of seven. She became a a black entrepreneur, activist and philanthropist, long before Oprah Winfrey was even born. Breedlove started the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, named after her husband Charles Joseph Walker.

She made her fortune by developing and selling hair care products and cosmetics for black women, a previously untapped market.

She became the wealthiest, first self-made female businesswoman in America.

Answer: Marie Curie

Physicist and chemist Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867-1934) was born in Warsaw, Poland. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and, to date, the only woman to win the prize twice, and the only person to win in two different scientific disciplines! In 1903 Marie won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1911 she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She discovered two elements, i.e., Polonium (named after her birthplace, Poland) and radium. She was the one who coined the term radioactivity which, ironically, was the cause of her death.

Answer: Billie Jean King

In the male-dominated world of sports, professional tennis player Billie Jean Moffitt King was the first female to be named as Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsperson of the Year" in 1972 (formerly "Sportsman of the Year"). King was born in Long Beach, CA, in 1943.

In 1973, she participated in the much ballyhooed "Battle of the Sexes" against Bobby Riggs, in the feminist fight for recognition. She won, and the world was forever changed. Her career was legendary and, in 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Answer: Madeleine Albright

Diplomat and politician Madeleine Albright was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, and immigrated to the United States in 1948. Educated at Wellesley and Columbia, she wound up on the National Security Council, and then became U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997.

In 1997 she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to become the first woman Secretary of State, a position she held until Clinton left office in 2001. In May 2012, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Answer: Aretha Franklin

On April 20, 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was founded in New York City. It is located in Cleveland, Ohio and features some of the best and most influential musicians this country has to offer. Unfortunately, it took five more years to become co-ed. It was Aretha Franklin (1942-2018), in 1987, who was the first woman to break up the all-male club. Ms. Franklin was a singer, songwriter and activist who got her start singing at her father's church in Detroit, MI. Rightly called "The Queen of Soul, Aretha's hits, e.g., "Respect", "Chain of Fools" and "A Natural Woman", are still popular to this day.

Answer: Sandra Day O'Connor

It was not until 1981 that a woman finally became one of the previously all male justices on the Supreme Court of the United States. The woman in question was Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor was born in El Paso, TX in 1930. Stanford University educated, she became a judge and served as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate in Arizona.

She was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as Associate Justice, where she served until 2006. On August 12, 2009 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Answer: Oprah Winfrey

I could not make a quiz of this nature without including the amazing Oprah Winfrey. Orpah (not a typo) Gail Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1954. Rising from the ashes of a tragic childhood, Ms. Winfrey became a talk show host, an actress, a producer and a philanthropist. Her talk show from Chicago became the highest-rated TV show of its kind and ran in syndication from 1986 to 2011. The "Queen of All Media" achieved billionaire status in 2003, and she became the richest African American of the 20th century. Oh, and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.