Not only was Florence Nightingale the first to found training schools for nurses, she was also the first woman elected fellow of the Statistical Society because of her contribution to army statistics.

Although she was conscious of her calling at an early age, she found it difficult to break from her social circle and pursue a nursing career. Born to William Edward and Frances Nightingale (in Florence, Italy, hence her name) she was expected to fulfil the usual role of a wealthy young woman, making a good marriage and living a conventional life. But Florence had other ideas: as a child she enjoyed learning and developed an interest in social issues, visiting her local hospital and the homes of the sick.

Because her parents considered the profession inappropriate to a woman of Florence's standing, she was denied her wish to train as a nurse. However, in 1851 she finally had her way and trained first in Kaiserswerth and then Paris. Two years later she became superintendent of a hospital for invalid women in London.

She is best known for her work during the Crimean War where she organised a team of 38 nurses, substantially reducing the mortality rate by applying strict sanitary routines and discipline at the barracks hospital in Scutari. After the war she returned to England and with a fund of £50,000 established a training institution for nurses as St Thomas's and King's College hospitals.

Her theories, published in Notes on Nursing (1860), were widely influential and established practices still in existence today.

Florence Nightingale

Bessie Coleman, First African American Pilot

Born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas to a family of sharecroppers, Bessie Coleman grew up in poverty. Her father abandoned the family when she was nine, and her elder brothers soon left as well, leaving her mother with the four youngest of her thirteen children. While taking care of her younger sisters, Bessie completed all eight available years of primary education, excelling in math. She enrolled at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1910, but lack of funds forced her to leave after only one term.

Five years later, she left the South and moved to Chicago to join two of her brothers, Walter and John, where she worked as a beautician for several years. An avid reader, she learned about World War I pilots in the newspaper and became intrigued by the prospect of flying. As a black woman, she had no chance of acceptance at any American pilot school, so she moved to France in 1919 and enrolled at the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudon at Le Crotoy.

After returning briefly to the United States, she spent one more term in France practicing more advanced flying before finally settling back in her birth country. She did exhibition flying and gave lectures across the country from 1922 to 1926. While flying, she refused to perform unless the audiences were desegregated. She was test flying a new plane on April 30, 1926 when it malfunctioned, killing both her and the mechanic who was piloting it. Her career as the world's first African American pilot inspired many who followed..