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After 19 years, the last women leave the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

Grandmother Jennifer MurrayÌýis the first woman to fly solo round the world in a helicopter.

The Queen Mother celebrates her 100th birthday,Ìýthe first member of the Royal Family to reach her centenary.

Irene Zubaida Khan becomes the first woman, first Asian woman and first Muslim to guide the world's largest human rights organisation when she becomes Secretary General of the UK based, Amnesty International

Clara FurseÌýis the first female chief executive of the 200-year-old London Stock Exchange.

The Isle of Man government passes its first ever Sex Discrimination Bill, some thirty years after the UK.

Sheila Macdonald is the first woman to become an executor of a UK high street bank, the Co-operative.

Caroline HamiltonÌýand Ann DanielsÌýreach theÌýNorth Pole becoming the first all-female team to trek to both poles. They trekked to the South Pole in January 2000.Ìý

At Leicester Cathedral the Very Reverend Vivienne Francis Faull is the first woman priest in the UK to be installed as a provost, making her the most senior woman priest in the Church of England.

Baroness Amos wasÌýappointed Secretary of State for International DevelopmentÌýmaking her theÌýfirst black woman cabinet minister.

The Sexual Offences Act (2003) provides new legislation against abuse by people who work with children, and updates the laws of sexual abuse within families.

Professor Julia Polak receives a DBE for services to medicine in the new field of tissue engineering.

JK Rowling,Ìýcreator of the Harry Potter books, became the world's best paid author.

Margaret Simey, social reformer andÌýone of Liverpool's most formidable politicians, diesÌýaged 98.

are introduced by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Office to tackleÌýissues which affect women who flee their country.

The Very ReverendÌýJune Osborne becomes the Church of England's most senior woman priest after being appointed as Dean of Salisbury.

Kelly HolmesÌýbecomes the first British 800 metre runner to win an Olympic title since 1980 and theÌýfirst woman since 1964. SheÌýis also theÌýfirst British runner to win two gold medals since the 1920 Olympics.

Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Muta Maathai becomes the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Condoleezza RiceÌýbecomes the first female national security adviser to a US president.

Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail single-handed around the world and at 28 years old, the youngest person to receive a damehood.

AÌýsculptureÌýcelebrating theÌýdisabled artist, Alison Lapper, naked and 8½ months pregnant is displayed on theÌýFourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.

Andrea Levy's novel Small Island was chosenÌýas theÌýbest Orange Prize for Fiction winner over the 10 years that the Prize has been running.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes the world's first black female president, and Africa's first elected female leader when she won the Liberian elections.

Under the biggest overhaul of adoption laws in 30 years, unmarried and same-sex couples can now adopt children together for the first time more on adoption

The Civil Partnership Act (2004) brings same sex-couples similar legal rights to married couples.ÌýTwo women, Shannon Sickles and Grainne Close became the first British gay couple to exchange vows at Belfast City Hall, and England's firstÌýgay couple tie the knot in Brighton

The Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MPÌýis appointed Foreign Secretary, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

Shirley Ryder becomes the first female president of the National Association of Master Bakers - and at the age of 39 years, the youngest ever president.

TheÌýWhite Paper onÌýPensionsÌý aims to makeÌý7 percentÌýof women eligible for a full basic state pension by 2010 as opposed to 30 percentÌýnow.

Elizabeth Howard with her half-sister Keeley Hall become the first British children of a sperm donor father to meet each other face to face. They were born within two months of each other in 1972.

St Hilda's, the last all-women college at Oxford University, ends more than a century of tradition by voting to open its doors to men.

Michelle BacheletÌýis sworn in as Chile'sÌýfirst woman president.

Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic UnionÌýbecomes Germany's first woman chancellor.Ìý

Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker in the US Congress (in the House of Representatives).

Nineteen year old Private Michelle Norris, an Army medical officer, is the first woman to be awarded the Military Cross, one of the highest honours for gallantry in combat. She braved machine-gun fire from 200 insurgents to save the life of a wounded comrade in Southern Iraq.

Baroness Corston's Vulnerable Women in Prison Report is published. highlights the treatment of women offenders and calls for a radical new approach to dealing with vulnerable female criminals with 43 separate recommendations.

The Gender Equality Duty comes into force on April 1^st, which places a legal obligation on public authorities to eliminate unlawful gender discrimination and promote equality of opportunity between women and men.

Alexandra Hai wins her 10 year battle to become the first female gondolier in Venice.

Jacqui Oatley becomes ‘Match of the Day’s first female commentator.

Britain gets its first female ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Secretary, as is appointed to the Cabinet by Gordon Brown.

Moira Cameron is the first woman to serve as a Beefeater, breaking the 522 year male monopoly at the Tower of London.

Benazir Bhutto is assassinated two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani General Election.

Norway enforces gender legislation that requires all companies to have at least 40% women on their boards.

Geneticists of the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands announce that they had completed the first-ever DNA sequencing of a woman.

Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian-French human rights and women's rights activist and Green party candidate for the Colombian presidency, is released after six years of captivity by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Sarah Palin is selected as the Republican's vice-presidential candidate for the 2008 US election, the first Republican woman in this role.

is appointed Australia's Governor-General, the first woman to hold this post.

In November, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act comes into force in the UK to protect vulnerable women.

Two female veterans, Dorothy Hughes and Winifred Phillips, become the first women Chelsea Pensioners.

England Women's Cricketer Claire Taylor is the first woman to be named as one of the five cricketers of the year by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack at Lord's Cricket Ground.

is selected as the first female Poet Laureate, Britain's most prestigious poetry job, ending 400 years of male domination.

Able Seaman Class 1 Kate Nesbitt has becomes the first woman in the Royal Navy to be awarded the Military Cross and only the second in the Armed Forces. She repeatedly rushed forward to save colleagues while under attack from the Taliban.

Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economics, sharing the 2009 Nobel with Oliver E. Williamson. Both are Americans and both work in the new field of economic governance. Their work focused on how community institutions can prevent conflict.

In November it was announced that Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore would be part of the 2010 Red Arrow team - the first woman pilot to fly with the prestigious troop.