January 23

Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821. As a young woman, she submitted an application to the medical school at Geneva College, in Geneva, New York, a school not known for accepting women to its programs. For some reason the registrar and faculty asked the student body to vote on Blackwell’s application. The students, believing the application to be a joke, voted to allow her admission to the school. As it turned out, the joke was on the students because on the 23rd in 1849, Blackwell received her medical degree, becoming the first woman licensed to practice in the United States.