October 17

Happy Birthday, Mae C. Jemison!

On this day in 1956, Mae C. Jemison, the first African American woman astronaut, was born. Jemison earned college degrees in chemical engineering, African American studies, and medicine.

She worked as a doctor in the Peace Corps and in California before being accepted as one of 15 new NASA astronauts in 1987. In 1992 she became the first African American woman to travel in space.