A trailblazing member of Congress was inspired to champion Title IX because of her own experiences

A part-time teacher in Maryland kickstarted Title IX

When applying for a fill-time position at the University of Maryland, Bernice Sandler was told she "came on too strong" for a woman, leading her to research legal protections against gender discrimination. She found a 1967 Executive Order prohibiting federally funded institutions from discrimination and used it as the basis for a class action lawsuit that would eventually lead to Title IX.

Title IX was signed into law in 1972

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. In its five-plus decades, it's been credited with increasing the number of women enrolled in college and shaping the modern world of women’s sports.

Billie Jean King on playing tennis before Title IX

Before Title IX, tennis legend Billie Jean King not only had to deal with limited resources; she also had to deal with isolating experiences, like being excluded from team photos at Long Beach State and being told to "get lost" by male teammates. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The top 40 athletes of the Title IX era

Published to mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX's passage, this Sports Illustrated article ranks the top 40 athletes whose careers were significantly shaped by the 1972 law. It highlights pioneers who broke barriers and excelled post-Title IX, emphasizing their athletic achievements and cultural influence.

WNBA legend Sue Bird credits Title IX for her career

Few athletes are more decorated than Sue Bird, who’s won two NCAA championships, four WNBA titles, and five Olympic gold medals. In this interview, she explains how Title IX allowed her a successful career and why she believes the WNBA’s success is continuing to do the work that Title IX began.

Truth was the first Black woman honored with a bust in the US Capitol

Getting Truth's bust into the Capitol took a decade of campaigning by the National Congress of Black Women. The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2006.

'Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.'

-Frances Perkins (1880-1965), first female member of US Cabinet

Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space

Astronaut Mae Jemison describes her journey from space-loving girl in Chicago to astronaut looking down on Chicago and thinking about her younger self in this two-minute video. Physician, engineer, educator, entrepreneur and the first woman of color in the world to go into space, Dr. Jemison was a NASA astronaut for six years.

The story of America's first woman presidential candidate

This video guides us through the history of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president in the US. Despite the odds being against her, Woodhull experienced extraordinary success as a stockbroker, newspaper founder, and presidential candidate. Watch to learn more about her background, her revolutionary ideas, and her impact on 19th-century politics.

Jackie "Moms" Mabley was the first woman to headline solo at the Apollo Theater

The comic's act was based on a classic archetype: the fed-up mother who was going to tell it to you straight. She perfected her craft on the Chitlin Circuit, where she became a cultural icon in the Black community, and then had significant mainstream success starting in the 1960s.

Mary Cassatt carved space for women in the Impressionist movement

The painter was one of three women to exhibit with the French artists, and the only American. Cassatt broke ground by focusing on subjects largely ignored by the male-dominated art world, such as maternity and womanhood.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Kathrine Switzer was the first official female finisher in the Boston Marathon

A year after Bobbi Gibb’s unofficial finish, Kathrine Switzer registered under an androgynous name to avoid suspicion. Race officials unsuccessfully tried to remove her from the race while she was competing (pictured below), but she ultimately became the first woman to officially finish the race. In 1972, the Boston Marathon changed its rules to allow women to register.

A Nantucket woman helped build Macy’s

Margaret Getchell, an early Macy’s superintendent, was among the first female executives in the American retail industry. Getchell (who was distantly related to Macy’s founder RH Macy, although it’s unclear if the pair knew that when she was hired) helped shape Macy's as an early employee.

Wataru 'Wat' Misaka was the NBA's first player of color

Japanese-American Wataru "Wat" Misaka was a star basketball player for the University of Utah, claiming championships in 1944 and 1947 after serving during World War II. After stellar performances at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks drafted him.

Roosevelt joined the NAACP and campaigned for anti-lynching laws—even receiving a $25K bounty from the KKK

Eleanor Roosevelt joined the NAACP board, lobbied for a federal anti-lynching law, and pushed to integrate the Army Nurse Corps—often going beyond the support her husband was willing to give to racial justice efforts. Her advocacy made her a target: The Ku Klux Klan placed a $25,000 bounty on her head.

Madison initially opposed a bill of rights but embraced it for pragmatic reasons

James Madison initially argued that bills of rights were ineffective. However, a competitive House race against James Monroe and the need to win the support of anti-Federalists in ratifying the Constitution led him to support amendments in the First Congress.

Congress regrets discriminatory laws targeting Asian immigrants

In 2011, Congress expressed regrets about discriminatory laws that targeted Asian immigrants, such as the 1875 Page Act. Click here to read one of the twin bills and learn more about the laws in question.

It has historically been tough for minorities to rise through the ranks in investment banking

According to a Barron’s article, only about 1.3% of the $69T asset management business is managed by firms led by women or minorities—even if their performance is comparable to those led by white men.

1978: Thurgood Marshall, commencement address at the University of Virginia

"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on."

Congress plays baseball together in a bipartisan charity game dating back to 1909

First organized in 1909 by Rep. John Tener, a former pro baseball player, the Congressional Baseball Game pits Democrats against Republicans to raise money for charity—and offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at lawmakers mixing rivalry with camaraderie.

Musician Gladys Bentley defied gender norms during the Harlem Renaissance

The singer and pianist was known for performing in a white tuxedo, something out of the ordinary for a woman in the 1920s and '30s. She was also openly gay at a time when homosexuality was still widely considered taboo. In the late '50s, she claimed she'd undergone a medical treatment to awaken her "womanliness," which scholars believe was a reaction to the retrenched homophobic attitudes of the McCarthy Era.

How a Cleveland woman who slammed the door on police changed the Fourth Amendment

In 1957, a bomb exploded under the front porch of boxing promoter Don King in Cleveland. When police received a tip to search Dollree Mapp's home, she refused to let them in. Her case went to the Supreme Court, resulting in a ruling that barred illegally obtained evidence from state criminal trials.

The Red Power movement pushed back against poverty and broken treaty rights in the 1960s and 1970s

Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, Indigenous activists founded the American Indian Movement, a national advocacy organization, to protest excessive police violence and federal violations of treaty rights, drawing national attention to conditions on reservations.

Many female-founded companies were branded with the color 'millennial pink'

Many of the female-founded companies of the “girlboss era” in the mid-2010s had one thing in common: A certain light shade of pink was core to their brand book. The color—deemed “millennial pink”—was found on the packaging of makeup company Glossier, the walls and logos of coworking space The Wing, and the suitcases of luggage company Away.

Parton is famously apolitical

Unlike some of her contemporaries, Parton refrains from expressing her political opinions publicly or endorsing political candidates. President Donald Trump offered her the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice, but she declined both times. After Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) used Parton's song “9 to 5” at a campaign event, Parton’s team requested that Warren stop using it.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.