Ada Lovelace (b. 1815, d. 1852)
Today is actually kind of mainstream, because Google did a doodle on her.
Ada Lovelace's fame comes from her status as the world's first computer programmer. Not the world's first female computer programmer. The world's first computer programmer.
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Ada Lovelace was the product of a very brief marriage between poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabelle Milbanke. Shortly after Ada was born, the two were separated, and Milbanke devoted herself to making sure that Ada did not become a poet like her father. She insisted heavily on keeping her away from poetic influences and building up her mathematical skills.
Her real achievements came after she made the acquaintance of Charles Babbage, the engineer who invented the world's first mechanical computer, which he called the Difference Engine. The two met at a party when Ada was only seventeen. Babbage showed her the invention-in-progress and she was fascinated by its potential.
Ada took a break from mathematics and logic to get married and have three children, but she came back in the 1840's in full force. An Italian mathematician had published a memoir in French about the Analytical Engine, Charles Babbage's next creation. Ada was enlisted to translate it into English, and as she did that, she added on notes with her own understandings and visions of the machine.
Ada Lovelace published the very first algorithm for a machine, but the most important contribution that she made was seeing past simple calculation and into real computation. Essentially, nobody else even thought about what computers would one day be able to do, while Ada Lovelace wasn't afraid of speculating. Notably, she predicted that computers would one day be able to compose elaborate pieces of music.
So it's fairly ironic that computer programming is such a boys club now when the first programmer was a woman. At least she's being recognized with today's Google Doodle, which is much more than can be said for the majority of women in history.
Nelly Sachs (b. 1891, d. 1970), Jewish German poet who wrote most notably about her experiences in Nazi Germany. In 1937 she was arrested and sent to a work camp, but she managed to escape to Sweden with her immediate family. In 1966, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature, earning the distinction of being the first Jewish woman ever to win any kind of Nobel Prize.
Cornelia Funke (b. 1958), best-selling German author of such children's novels as the Inkworld trilogy, The Thief Lord, and Dragon Rider. As a child, she wanted to become an astronaut, then a pilot, then just somebody who could make the world a better, less violent place. She began work as a children's illustrator, capitalizing on her natural talents, but soon started to feel the urge to write her own stories. Her fantasy novels achieved great success in their original German and even greater success once translated to English. More than five million copies of her books have been sold in the United States and her book Inkheart was made into a major motion picture in 2008.
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