Leaders
Catherine the Great was not Russian
Born a minor German princess, she took the Russian throne in a coup against her own husband and expanded the empire by around 200,000 square miles, founding the Hermitage collection.
More in Leaders
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing than to the pyramids
The Great Pyramid was already 2,500 years old when she was born, while only about 2,000 years separate her from Apollo 11. She also spoke around nine languages.
Egypt's female pharaoh was erased from history
Hatshepsut ruled for two decades and wore the ceremonial beard of kingship. Decades after her death her name was chiselled off monuments, and she was rediscovered only in the 19th century.
China had exactly one female emperor
Wu Zetian took the throne in her own name in 690 CE, the only woman in over two thousand years of Chinese history to do so. She ran the empire for nearly half a century.
Elizabeth I made not marrying a policy
Refusing every suitor kept England out of foreign entanglements and kept power in her own hands. She called herself married to her kingdom, and reigned 44 years.
A 22-year-old queen led her army in person
Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi fought in the 1857 uprising on horseback, reportedly with the reins in her teeth. British officers who fought her called her the most dangerous of all rebel leaders.
Queen Nzinga refused a chair, so she sat on a servant
Denied a seat in negotiations with the Portuguese governor of Angola, she had an attendant kneel as her throne to meet him as an equal. She fought Portugal for nearly thirty years.