First (acting) female president: Edith Wilson (1919-1921). After Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919, she had matters of state brought to her attention and maneuvered things so that the vice president didn’t take charge.
First major-party African American candidate for president: Shirley Chisholm, 1972. She received 152 first-ballot votes at the 1972 Democratic National Convention.
First female Vice Presidential candidate representing a major American political party: Geraldine Ferraro (Democratic Party, 1984).
First woman to run for President: Victoria Woodhull (1872), a suffragist, spiritualist, and she and her sister were the first female Wall Street stockbrokers. She spent election day in jail.
