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Margareta von Ascheberg (1671 – 1753) was a Swedish land owner, noble and acting regiment colonel during the Great Northern War. #CelebratingWomen
She was the youngest child of Field Marshal Rutger von Ascheberg and Magdalena Eleonora Busseck. In 1691, she married colonel count Kjell Christopher Barnekow in Malmö.
As was the custom of the Swedish nobility as that time, she kept her name after marriage and style herself »Grevinnan Ascheberg» (Countess Ascheberg). The couple had four children.
Queen Nanny or Nanny (c. 1686 – c. 1755), was an 18th-century leader of the Jamaican Maroons. Much of what is known about her comes from oral history, as little textual evidence exists. #CelebratingWomen
She was born into the Asante people in what is today Ghana, and escaped from slavery after being transported to Jamaica.
Historical documents refer to her as the "rebels' old 'obeah' woman." Following some armed confrontations, colonial officials reached a settlement for peace.
Na Hangbe was the ruler of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, for a brief period before Agaja came to power in 1718. #CelebratingWomen
Little is known about her because her rule was largely erased from the official Dahomey history and much that is known is brought together by various different oral histories.
However, it is believed that she became the ruler of Dahomey upon the sudden death of King Akaba because his oldest son, Agbo Sassa, was not yet of age.
Hannah Snell (1723–1792) was a British woman who disguised herself as a man and became a soldier. #CelebratingWomen 
She was born in Worcester on 23 April 1723. Local contemporaries of hers claimed that she played a soldier even as a child.
In 1740, she moved to London and married a soldier, James Summers, on 18 January 1744. She named herself Bob Corrigan so she could fight alongside him.
Carin or Karin (Catharina) du Rietz (1766–1788) was a Swedish woman who became a soldier at the Royal guard in the guise of a man. She was the first woman to obtain such a position. #CelebratingWomen
The daughter of lieutenant Carl du Rietz and Eva Cronhjelm, she was described as a woman with the stunning intelligence of an Amazon, with power and courage, temperament and beauty, and a "mind of fire".
She ran away from home three times; the cause was thought to have been the strictness of her parents combined with the "reading of too many novels".
Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére (about 1802), known in history only as Marie-Jeanne, was a Haitian soldier. She served in the Haitian army during the Haitian Revolution. #CelebratingWomen
Lamartiniére served at the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in 1802. She fought in men's uniform and made a great impression with her fearlessness and courage. Lamartiniére is said to have boosted the morale of her colleagues with her bravery.
Her life after the independence is unknown. A contemporary source says that for a time, she was involved in a relationship with emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who admired her courage, and that she later married the officer Larose.
Perpetua was a Christian writer, put to death in Carthage during a persecution under Septimius Severus in AD 202-03. #CelebratingWomen
An autobiographical prose work is attributed to her, which includes a section in the first person, which purports to be Perpetua’s own account of her trial and time in prison before her execution.
This text gains particular significance as the earliest extant Christian literature written by a woman.
Ibtihaj Muhammad (born December 4, 1985) is an American sabre fencer, and a member of the United States fencing team. #CelebratingWomen
She is best known for being the first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics.
In individual sabre at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won her first qualifying round bout, and was defeated in the second round by Cécilia Berder of France.
Arachidamia (c. 340-241 BC) was a Spartan queen, wife of Eudamidas I, mother of Archidamus IV and Agesistrata, grandmother of Eudamidas II, great-grandmother and grandmother of Agis IV. #CelebratingWomen
The earliest accounts of her depict her leading Spartan women against Pyrrhus during his siege of Lacedaemon in the 3rd century BC.
In the face of Pyrrhus's invasion, the Spartan Gerousia considered sending the women to Crete for their safety. Arachidamia, speaking for the women, entered the Gerousia with sword in hand, and contested this, asking whether they were expected to survive the ruin of their city.
The Soong sisters were three Shanghainese (of Hainanese descent) Chinese women who were, along with their husbands, amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. #CelebratingWomen
They each played a major role in influencing their husbands, who, along with their own positions of power, ultimately changed the course of Chinese history.
Their father was American-educated Methodist minister Charlie Soong, who made a fortune in banking and printing. Their mother was Ni Kwei-tseng, whose mother, Lady Xu, was a descendant of Ming dynasty mathematician and Jesuit convert Xu Guangqi.
The Dahomey Amazons or Nonmiton, which means "our mothers," were an all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century. #CelebratingWomen
King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto.
Houegbadja's son King Agaja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) established a female bodyguard armed with muskets. European merchants recorded their presence.
Fe Villanueva del Mundo, (1911 – 2011) was a Filipino pediatrician, and founder of the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. #CelebratingWomen
The first woman admitted as a student of the Harvard Medical School, she obtained her place solely because the administrators of the Medical School (which did not at at time admit women) assumed she was a man.
Her pioneering work in pediatrics in the Philippines in an active medical practice that spanned 8 decades won her international recognition, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service in 1977.
Hatshepsut (Egyptian: "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. #CelebratingWomen
She was the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh, the first being Sobekneferu. (Various other women may have also ruled as pharaohs regnant or at least regents before Hatshepsut, as early as Neithhotep around 1600 years prior.)
Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. Officially, she ruled jointly with Thutmose III, who had ascended to the throne the previous year as a child of about two years old.
Kandake, often Latinised as Candace, was a queen of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, with its capital at Meroë. #CelebratingWomen
Bas-reliefs dated to about 170 B.C. reveal the queen, dressed in armour and wielding a spear in battle. She did not rule as queen regent or queen mother, but as a fully independent ruler. Her husband was her consort.
She is mentioned in the New Testament as Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, and in the Alexander romance as "Candace of Meroë".
Telesilla (510 BC) was an ancient Greek poet, native of Argos. She was a distinguished woman who was especially renowned for her poetry and for her leadership of Argos through a political and military crisis and subsequent re-building. #CelebratingWomen
When Cleomenes, king of Sparta, invaded the land of the Argives in 510 BC, he defeated and killed all the hoplites of Argos in the Battle of Sepeia, and massacred the survivors. Thus when Cleomenes led his troops to Argos there were no warriors left to defend it.
According to Pausanias, Telesilla stationed on the wall all the slaves and all the men normally exempt from military service owing to their youth or old age. Also, she collected the arms from sanctuaries and homes, armed the women and put them in battle position.
The Trưng sisters (AD 12 – AD 43) were Vietnamese military leaders who ruled for three years after rebelling in AD 40 against the first Chinese domination of Vietnam. They are regarded as national heroines of Vietnam. Their names were Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị.#CelebratingWomen
The sisters were born in Giao Chi, a commandery of the Han dynasty (and in modern Northern Vietnam). The exact dates of their births are unknown, but Trưng Trắc was older than Trưng Nhị.
Both died around AD 43 after a battle against an army led by Ma Yuan.
Cynane (Greek: killed 323 BC) was half-sister to Alexander the Great, and daughter of Philip II by Audata, an Illyrian princess.#CelebratingWomen
Audata trained her daughter in riding, hunting, and fighting in the Illyrian tradition. Her father gave her in marriage to her cousin Amyntas, by whom she had a daughter and by whose death she was left a widow in 336 BC.
In the following year Alexander promised her hand, as a reward for his services, to Langarus, king of the Agrianians, but the intended bridegroom became ill and died.
Onomaris was a Galatian leader, described in Tractatus De Mulieribus, and believed to have lived in the 4th century BC. #CelebratingWomen
Her people, suffering from scarcity and needing to flee their land, offered to obey anyone willing to lead them. When no man accepted the offer, Onomaris pooled their resources and led the emigration.
She crossed the Ister and ruled over the land after defeating the local inhabitants in battle.
Yuenü (Chinese: literally: "the Lady of Yue") was a swordswoman from the state of Yue, in the modern Chinese province of Zhejiang. She is also known as Aliao and Maiden of the Southern Forest. #CelebratingWomen
Yuenü lived during the reign of Goujian of Yue (496-465 BC). From a young age, she learned archery and how to use a sword by hunting with her father. The King of Yue planned to attack the state of Wu and when he heard about her skills, he invited her to court.
Her exposition on the art of the sword impressed the king, who decreed that her skills be in training his army and gave her the title Lady of Yue. The king appointed her to train his army officers, who in turn, instructed his army.
Xun Guan (AD 300) was an ancient Chinese female warrior who lived during the Jin dynasty. #CelebratingWomen
She was the daughter of Xun Song, the governor of Xiangyang, who in turn was descended from Xun Yu, an adviser to Han dynasty warlord Cao Cao.
In a revolt, the city was surrounded the city with soldiers attempting to invade and overthrow the governor. While defending the city, provisions declined to a point where more reinforcements were required to stave of the attack.
Amage (2nd century BC), was a Sarmatian queen. According to the writings of Polyaenus, she was the wife and co-ruler of the Sarmatian king Medosacus. They were from the coast of the Euxine Sea. #CelebratingWomen
Having observed that her husband was "totally given up to luxury", she took over the government, acting as a judge of causes, stationing garrisons, repulsing enemy invasions, and was such a successful leader that she became famous through all Scythia.
As a result of this fame, the people of the Tauric Chersonesus, having been harassed by a neighboring Scythian king, requested a treaty with her. As a result of the formation of this treaty, she wrote to the Scythian prince, requesting that he cease harassing the people.
Cartimandua (reigned 43 – 69) was a 1st-century queen of the Brigantes, a Celtic people living in what is now northern England. She came to power around the time of the Roman conquest of Britain, and formed a large tribal agglomeration that became loyal to Rome. #CelebratingWomen
Although she is first mentioned by Tacitus as in 51 CE, her rule over the Brigantes may have already been established when Claudius began the conquest of Britain in 43: she may have been one of the eleven "kings" who Claudius's triumphal arch says surrendered without a fight.
Being of "illustrious birth", according to Tacitus, Cartimandua probably inherited her power, as she appears to have ruled by right rather than through marriage. Surviving coinage supports this interpretation.
