U.S. history class teaches us some of the basic milestones in American history – the first president, the first man to walk on the moon, and the first transcontinental railroad. These are all important, of course. Yet, there are plenty of other notable firsts that the textbooks left out, and these events tell more of the story than you’d ever expect. Let’s look at 19 surprising firsts in U.S. History that really should be taught in schools.
#1: First American Woman to Run for President: Victoria Woodhull (1872)
Victoria Woodhull was a woman ahead of her time. Together with her sister, she was one of Wall Street’s first female stockbrokers. In 1870, she began publishing a weekly newspaper that expounded free love, social reform, and women’s rights. Woodhull became the first woman to run for President of the United States in 1872 as a candidate for the Equal Rights Party and selected Frederick Douglass as her running mate.
