The first woman is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Elected unanimously, Maria Mitchell became the first female member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An astronomer, she had discovered a telescopic comet during her observations on Nantucket, Massachusetts the previous October. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Joseph Nathan Kane, ed., Famous First Facts (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1981), 40.