2640 B.C.E.---Si Ling-Chi, empress of China, develops the process by which the thread is removed from the cocoon of the silk worm--she establishes silk cultivation and weaving industries.
2200-2101---Queen Semiramis of Babylonia links the royal palace with the Temple of Jupiter by a tunnel under the Euphrates--the first tunnel built below a river.
c.1570-1546---Queen Aahhotep I of Egypt helps to quell an uprising in Thebes, which helps to unite Egypt under one rule.
1374---Under the influence of his wife Nefertiti, Egyptian king Amenhotep IV introduces monotheism, establishing a new cult of the sun god Aten and opposing the priests of Amen.
1200---The poet, Phautasia, daughter of Nicanchus of Memphis in Egypt, writes poems on the Trojan War and Ulysses, from which Homer will copy the greater part of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
1200---Penthesilea, queen of the legendary Amazons and successor to Osythia, fights and is killed by Achilles at the siege of Troy. Pliny will say she invented the battle-ax.
650---Greek lyric poet Sappho of Lesbos leads women dedicated to the cult of Aphrodite. Fragments of 7 books of her poetry survive. A poetic meter, the "Sapphic," is named for her. She is much admired and copied in the ancient world and is recognized as one of the greatest poets of all time.
529---Tomyris, queen of the Massagetae, defeats the invading Cyrus the Great, ruler of the Persian Empire.
352---Artemisia II, queen of Caria, assumes the rule of the country in her own right following the death of her husband. Famed as a botanist and medical researcher, she is a powerful political leader, suppressing a revolt by the inhabitants of the island of Rhodes.
80---Chinese author and civil servant Liu Hsiang writes the first collection of biographies of women, Biographies of Famous Women.
51-30---Cleopatra of Egypt becomes co-ruler with her brother Ptolemy XIII, is deposed by him, is restored to the throne by Julius Caesar, bears Caesar a son and lives in Rome until his death, rules Egypt with her son Ptolemy XV, begins a love affair with Roman leader Mark Antony, and later kills herself with a snake, following the defeat of their forces by Rome.
10---Amanitere, queen of Meroe, and her husband King Natakamini, oversee the greatest building program known in ancient Meroe, including the restoration of the great temples of Amon in the principal cities of Meroe and Napata.
30 C.E.---Vietnamese sisters Trung Nhi and Trung Trac organize a revolution against their Chinese overlords, succeed in ejecting the Chinese, and rule as co-queens of an independent Vietnam from 30 to 42. That year, a massive Chinese force invades the country and they end up killing themselves. They are still venerated in temples in Vietnam in the 21st century.
40---Phoebe, a deaconess from Cenchrae, is the bearer of Paul's epistle to the Romans, and seems to have given financial support to the Christian community in Corinth.
50---Lucasta, a professional poisoner in Rome, is hired by Agrippina to poison Claudius and by Nero to poison Britannicus. She is put to death by Emperor Galba.
50---Mary the Jewess is an early alchemist working in Alexandria. She invents the water bath (the bain-marie), which is said to be named after her.
100---Beruyah is an influential first-century Talmudic scholar whose opinions on matters of the law are still respected by scholars in the 21st century.
200---Japanese empress Jingo-kogo is regent for 69 years, fighting off all challenges to her rule. She sends a vast fleet to invade Korea, which capitulates immediately and offers tribute.
248---23-year-old Vietnamese peasant Trieu Thi Tinh leads thousands in a revolt against the Chinese, committing suicide when the revolt fails.
270---Chinese calligrapher Wei Shuo writes a textbook for calligraphy called Diagram of the Battle Array of the Brush.
370---Mathematican, astronomer, and philosopher Hypatia of Egypt is one of the most popular and admired teachers in the Hellenistic world. She is the first woman to write on mathematical subjects.
380---Bedouin Queen Mavia's Saracen troops defeat a Roman army. She makes an honorable peace and marries her daughter to a Roman commander in chief.
390---Queen Prabhavati Gupta, regent over the Deccan region of India, introduces the Gupta culture of northern India to the Vakata Kingdom.
400---Hua Mu-Lan is the most famous of Chinese women warriors. Disguised as a man, she so impresses her commanding officer that he offers her his daughter in marriage. She is celebrated in plays and poetry.
590---Empress Suiko-Tenno begins her 36-year reign of Japan, marked by increased contact with Korea and China and by the encouragement of Buddhism.
632---Queen Sonduk rules Korea until 647 because the male line of the Silla dynasty has died out. She builds the first known observatory in the Far East, Ch'omsong-dae (Tower of the Moon and Stars), which lasts through the 20th century.
645---Al-Khansa and her daughter Amra write elegiac verses in Arabic.
655---Empress Wu Chao rules China for 50 years, 15 de facto and 35 de jure. The daughter of a general, she starts adult life as one of the emperor's concubines, marries the crown prince when he becomes emperor, takes over his administration, takes over China's longstanding war against Korea and wins by a victory at sea, survives many plots, and takes up various lovers and companions until her death at 80. Notorious for her favorites at court and for utter ruthlessness, she nevertheless rules extremely well, giving China decades of peace and prosperity, and leaving her grandson the wherewithal for a reign that will be a golden age and high point of T'ang dynasty poetry and art.
680---Empress Jito-tenno assumes a 19-year rule in Japan following the death of her husband. Her reign is marked by administrative reforms, agricultural development, and the encouragement of both the Buddhist and Shinto religions.
c.700---Chinese warrior Nieh Yin-niang is taught swordsmanship by a nun. She is a one-woman Robin Hood, aiding the weak and wreaking vengeance on criminals.
780---Irene, empress of the Byzantine Empire, suppresses iconoclasm and encourages the beginning of a great flowering of Byzantine religious art.
1000---Lady Muraski Shikibu composes The Tale of the Genji (Genji monogatari), considered the greatest single work in Japanese literature.
1030---Queen Gisela of Hungary commissions the gold and purple chasuble that becomes the coronation robe of Hungary.
1040---Lady Godiva, wife of Earl Leofric of Mercia, asks her husband to lighten Coventry's taxes. They make a deal: she will ride naked through the marketplace at midday and he will make good his promise. She does so, covered only by her long hair.
1080---Chinese poet Li Ch'ing-chao is the exponent of lyrical poems of irregular length known as tz'u, designed to be set to music.
1100---Welsh heroine Maude de Valerie rebels against the oppressive regime of King John and dies as his prisoner.
1100---Chana Bat Yoheved, daughter of the scholar Rashi (Rabbi Schlomo ben Isaac), teaches women Jewish law.
1120---Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of William of Aquitaine, holds and administers property equaling one-third of present-day France, participates in the Crusades, governs as royal regent, and marries the kings of England and France.
1152---St. Hildegard of Bingen embarks on a 10-year round of preaching tours in the Rhineland, an almost unheard-of activity for a woman.
1158---St. Hildegard of Bingen composes Symphonia Harmoniae Celestium Revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Revelations), 77 songs altogether. She and her sisters perform them at Rupertsburg.
1160---St. Hildegard of Bingen writes several works of natural science and medicine.
1200---French poet Marie de France is famous for her Breton lais, verse romances with Celtic, supernatural, and Arthurian elements. They are performed by itinerant singers before courtly audiences in France and England. Marie also writes beast fables based on Aesop--for those she is known as Ysopet (little Aesop).
1212---Clare of Assisi, the 18-year-old follower of St. Francis, founds the Order of Poor Clares. The Pope says they must live in enclosed cloisters, while mendicant friars are permitted to travel freely and beg for their sustenance.
1236---Raziy'yat-ud-din, daughter of Sultan Altamsh of the Delhi slave dynasty, is the first Muslim woman to rule on the Indian subcontinent.
1236---English embroiderer Mabel produces pearl-studded vestments for Henry III of England. Later she is commissioned to make "a standard of ruby samite well embroidered with gold and with images of the Virgin and St. John" for Westminster Abbey.
1300---Philippa of Hainaut, Edward III's queen, backs coal mining on her estates in England, establishing the fortunes of the northeastern ports in England.
1342---Marie de Saint Pole, the pious widow of the earl of Pembroke, founds Pembroke College in Cambridge, England.
1338---Agnes Dunbar, the countess of Dunbar and March and granddaughter of the Scottish King Robert the Bruce, is known as Black Agnes. She successfully defends her castle against a 5-month siege mounted by King Edward III of England, who is eager to annex Scotland.
1346---England's Queen Philippa of Hainaut raises troops to defeat the Scots who attack during the absence of King Edward III and his army.
1348---Joanna de Segni is famed for tending victims of the Black Death.
1350---Philippa of Hainaut supports the wool industry in Norwich and fosters trading links between England and her native Flanders.
1360---Elsbeth Stegel is the first important Swiss female poet. She composes Lives of the Sisters in the Convent of Toss, one of the finest works of mystical literature of the period.
c.1366---Alice Perrers, the wife of courtier William de Windsor and in service to Queen Philippa of Hainaut, becomes Edward III's mistress, wielding great influence over him.
1376---Alice Perrers interferes in the proceedings of the courts of law to secure sentences in favor of her friends, or of those who had purchased her favor. In response, the Good Parliament forbids all women from practicing in the law courts and forces her expulsion from the court. Returning the following year, the year of Edward's death, she will gain, despite another sentence of banishment, some favor and much wealth at the court of Richard II.
1426---Joan of Arc begins to experience visions and voices, which urge her to join the French forces fighting the English.
1429---With Joan of Arc at its head, the French army raises the English siege around Orleans. Joan stands by the dauphin as he is crowned Charles VII of France.
1431---After her capture by the English in May 1430, Joan of Arc is tried by an ecclesiastical court and burned at the stake in Rouen for heresy.
1465---Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville are the founders and benefactresses of Queens College in Cambridge, England.
1455---Joan of Arc's verdict as a heretic is overturned and she is completely rehabilitated by the Roman Catholic Church.
1486---British noblewoman Juliana Berners is the author of what may be the first book by a woman to appear in print, Book of St. Albans.
1490---Properzia de' Rossi is cited by Gorgio Vasari as the first woman sculptor-- she is celebrated for her complex sculptures.
