7 incredible women from history (you may not have known)

History is littered with female figures ahead of their time, whose actions have helped to change the course of history and which, however, are not widely known.

That is why today we bring you the stories of 7 incredible women in history who broke the mold, they marked a milestone in their time and of which surely you had not heard of.

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7 incredible women in history you did not know

We present to you some of the most incredible women in history whose feats will amaze you.

1. Krystyna Skarbek

One of the most incredible women in history was the Polish aristocrat and spy Krystyna Skarbek, one of the longest-serving British spy agents during the war. It is said that she was Churchill's favorite spy and that she served as the inspiration for some of the characters in the novels of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.

And is not for less. Her heroic deeds were as dangerous as they were daring. She crossed the border of occupied Poland skiing in the dead of winter to spread anti-Nazi propaganda. She also escaped death numerous times after being captured by the enemy, one of them biting her own tongue to pretend she was suffering from tuberculosis.

Although one of her most impressive feats was during one of her missions in France in 1944, where she managed to convince by radio an entire enemy battalion to lay down their arms and flee from the town that was occupying. Her actions earned her the French iron cross and various decorationsher, but she sadly she was stabbed to death in 1952 by a man whom she had rejected her approaches.

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2. Margaret Bourke-White

Another of the most incredible women in history was not in such danger, but she also stood out in times of war. Photographer Margaret Bourke-White was the first woman to be a war correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones. She was also the first woman to get a Life magazine cover and the first foreign photographer allowed to capture images of the Soviet Union in 1930.

To take pictures of her, he did not hesitate to perform feats such as climbing to the top of the Chrysler Building, the tallest in the world at the time, to place your camera dangerously on one of the gargoyles that stick out. This adventurous character earned him some of the best reports photos of the Second World War or the protests in India promoted by Ghandi. Some of the most iconic photographs in history are his work.

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3. Ada Lovelace

Not everyone knows it, but computer programming is in part due to the work done in the mid-nineteenth century by one of the most incredible women in history, Ada Lovelace.

This British mathematician and poet she perfected the design of Charles Babbage's creation, an analytical machine that ran programs and performed calculations. Ada collaborated with Babbage in improving her machine by developing a set of instructions, which would be fed into the machine with the use of punched cards.

This system of punched cards will be basic later for the development of modern computers. Among her notes they also found a series of numerical codes that she created for the operation of the machine, which would become the first algorithm ever created to be processed by a machine. It is because of that Ada is considered the first programmer in history.

4. Hedy Lamarr

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, known as Hedy Lamarr, was an Austrian-born actress nicknamed "the most beautiful woman in the world" and she famous for being the first woman to appear completely naked in a commercial film and to fake an orgasm in the big screen. However, few know that she is also one of the most incredible women in history and much more than a pretty face.

She dropped out of engineering studies to be an actress and achieved some success, but her career was cut short. when she was forced to marry an arms industry magnate who kept her in her house for several years. During her seclusion, he took the opportunity to finish his engineering studies and obtained, thanks to the contacts of her husband, valuable information about the Nazi regime, which he would later yield to the government of USA.

In 1937 she managed to escape from home and ended up escaping to the United States, where she achieved success as an actress in Hollywood. However, what makes her an incredible woman in her story went more unnoticed. Lamarr combined her work as an actress with the development of military technologies that could help fight the Nazi regime, from which she had information about its military development.

In this way, she was how she patented together with George Antheil a secret communication system, designed to be able to launch guided missiles without being detected by the enemy. This invention allows the transmission of information wirelessly by broadband and over long distances, and years later it served to create what we know as WIFI technology.

5. Policarpa Salavarrieta

Apolonia Salavarrieta Ríos, better known as Policarpa or La Pola, was a heroine of the Colombian independence revolution she and a representative character of the resistance during the Spanish reconquest of Colombia. At just 14 years old, she already actively participated in revolts and popular uprisings.

But it was not until later that this young seamstress became a spy for the independence movement and an important figure within the patriot Creole army. She was arrested and sentenced to death at the age of 22, and both her courage and the speech she gave before being shot inspired the population to maintain her resistance.

It became a symbol and is one of the most prominent historical female figures in Latin America. On the anniversary of her death, Colombian Women's Day is celebrated.

6. Khutulun

One of the most incredible women in the history of Asia was this warrior of the Mongol Empire, daughter of one of the most important rulers of Central Asia.

Khutulun was an excellent warrior and she became the right hand of her father, both in battle and in receiving advice to rule. In addition to displaying great prowess as a horseman and archery, qualities common to the women of that society, Khutulun was an extraordinary fighter in the field. bökh, Mongolian traditional wrestling. So much so that she managed to free herself from marrying her suitors thanks to her skill.

Her father asked her to find a husband, a request that she accepted under one condition: she would only marry the man who managed to defeat her in a wrestling match. In order to face her, her suitors had to pay 100 horses, and it is said that she ended up gathering a total of 10,000 horses.

Marco Polo wrote about her, and the mythical figure of her inspired the character of Turandot, represented in works as mythical as those of Friedrich Schiller or the opera version of Giacomo Puccini.

7. Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut is considered the second confirmed female pharaoh in history, she is also one of the most powerful and successful in the history of Egypt. Her reign lasted more than 20 years, between 1490 and 1468 BC, she being the woman who ruled the longest in the “Two Lands”.

Hatshepsut became queen at age 12, when she married her half-brother Tuthmosis II. She then ruled her reign until she was taken over by her stepson Tuthmosis III. However, even with his coming to power officially, she continued to rule

Such was her authority that she, at 7 years of regency, assumed the title and powers of a pharaoh. To finish confirming her dominance, she had the symbols of a pharaoh included in all representations of her, including the false beard.

Despite being one of the most incredible and powerful women in the history of Egypt, went unnoticed for a long time, since her successor, Tuthmosis III, tried to erase her from history to make her power more legitimate.

Some historians consider that Hatshepsut's plans were to start a female-only dynasty, naming her only daughter, Neferura, as his successor. However she is she died young and Hatshepsut's power was fading.

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