Throughout history, women have constantly contributed to the growth, flourishing, and discoveries of the human race. Yet, females tend to be underrepresented and discredited in history books and society. Despite International Women’s Day making waves in some parts of social media, many people still have no idea that March is Women’s History Month. In honor of this fantastic month, take the time to learn about spectacular women of the past and their little known achievements.

In the science field, Margaret Hamilton was an American 1960 MIT intern that developed much of the SAGE weather scanning project, which led her to become the lead software developer for the Apollo 11 mission at NASA. Hamilton had over 20 areas of expertise in the computer engineering field and programmed the software that detected the computer overload for Apollo 11 that ensured the success of the moon landing. Hamilton earned four awards for her work as a software engineer, including the largest amount of money ever awarded to an individual by NASA and a 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova, a Soviet Cosmonaut, became the first woman in space and spent 71 hours in orbit, exceeding the time spent in space spent by all U.S. astronauts combined at the time. Tereshkova successfully parachuted down to Earth at a staggering 20,000 feet after reentering the atmosphere and was awarded the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union Award after her mission.

In sports, Halet Çambel became the first Muslim woman to ever participate in the Olympics, competing in a foil fencing event in the 1938 games. Çambel was formally invited to meet Hitler after her match but refused to do so, continuing on with her life as a successful archeologist. Suzanne Lenglen was a French tennis player who is still credited as the best female tennis player of all time. Lenglen won 241 tennis titles and had a 98% match record of 341-7 with an 181 match winning streak, as well as two Olympic gold medals and one bronze in the 1920 games.

These ladies are just a few of the unknown warriors of the female past, but there are many more! Ida B. Wells, Audrey Hepburn, Gloria Steinem, Dorothy Pitman-Hughes, and countless other women have allowed girls today to live and embrace their life freely because of their dedication.