What do you think of when you picture the American Revolution? Paul Revere and his midnight ride? What about pirates? Are you envisioning Blackbeard with a terrifying scowl and crew of swashbuckling, sword carrying scalawags? What if I told you that Mr. Revere’s midnight ride was outdone by a sixteen-year-old girl who covered nearly forty miles the same night? And Blackbeard had nothing on one of the most fearsome and successful band of pirates to ever sail the seven seas, a band of pirates led by a woman? The history books are full of the tales of great men who helped shape our world into what it is today, but they left out some pretty important women whose contributions were just as significant. Here are their stories.

1. Victoria Woodhull-The Woman Who Would Be President

In today’s world, the idea of a little girl dreaming of one day becoming the President of the United States isn’t really considered that out there, but in the late 1800s, the concept would have been right up there with aliens and electric cars. There are a plethora of reasons why this chick deserves to be on this list. The fact that she ran for president in 1872, a whole twenty years before the 19th Amendment was ratified and women were granted the right to vote, is only one of them. Woodhull was a suffragette through and through. She believed in equality for all, regardless of race or gender. She even selected Fredrick Douglass as her running mate.

The heart and soul of her platform was a society free a government that makes laws which interfere with the rights of any individual, man or woman, black or white, “to pursue happiness as they may choose.”

2. Ada Lovelace-Inventor of Computer Programming

Engineering, mathematics, and computer programming is a predominantly male-dominated environment, which is ironic considering the first programmer was actually a female. Ada was the daughter of the famed poet, Lord Byron, though the two of them practically had no relationship. Her mother’s marriage to the poet was a difficult one. As a result, Ada was thrown into mathematical and scientific studies at a very young age. Though this was an unusual upbringing for aristocratic girls during that time period, her mother was desperate that her daughter not develop her father’s moody and unpredictable temperament. When Ada was a teenager, she found a mentor in Charles Babbage, known as the father of the computer. Babbage developed plans for an analytical machine and was interviewed by an Italian engineer who wrote an article on Babbage’s work. She was then asked to translate the article into English. She did so, but added a few pages of notes of her own.

In her notes, Ada described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping that computer programs use today. Ada also offered up other forward-thinking concepts in the article. For her work, Ada is often considered to be the first computer programmer.

3. Alice Coachman-The African American Gold Medalist

Born in Georgia in 1923, Coachman faced many challenges in the segregated South. She was unable to use public gyms or other training facilities but she didn't let that stop her. She trained barefoot on dirt roads and playgrounds and joined her high school track team where her talents were fostered and encouraged by the boys’ track coach. At age 16, Coachman was awarded a scholarship to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. There she broke the high school and collegiate records for the high jump, and she did it all barefoot. She qualified for the 1948 London Olympics despite a previous back injury and completely obliterated her competition with another record-breaking 5’6 jump and was awarded the Olympic Gold Medal.

She was the first woman of color in the world to win an Olympic Gold Medal and was awarded the medal by Britain’s King George VI, the father of modern Queen Elizabeth. Her record would not be broken until two Olympiads later.

4. Sybil Ludington-The Teenager Who Outrode Paul Revere

In 1777, the town of Danbury, Connecticut was attacked by British soldiers. During the attack, a rider was sent out to ask for aid. He rode to the home of Colonel Ludington, leader of the local regiment located in Dutchess County, New York. The Colonel was happy to offer help, but his men had dispersed for planting season. The Colonel asked his barely sixteen-year-old daughter, Sybil, to ride out and warn the men of the coming danger and to urge them to come back and fight. Sybil rode all night, covering a whopping forty miles (in case you’re wondering Revere’s ride is estimated at a little over 21 miles) and her efforts paid off. Nearly the entire regiment was back by daybreak and ready to aid Danbury.

After the battle at Danbury, George Washington went to the Ludington home to personally thank Sybil for her help. After the war, Ludington married a Catskill lawyer named Edward Ogden; they had one son. She died in 1839. Although Ludington never gained the widespread fame that Paul Revere did in America’s history, she was honored with a stamp by the Postal Service in 1975. There is a statue of her by Lake Gleneida in Carmel, New York, and there are historical markers tracing the route of her ride through Putnam County.

5. Christina-The King of Sweden

During the 17th century, a little girl who was raised as a prince had the misfortune of inheriting the throne at a very young age. Christina was six years old when her father passed away and her country was in the middle of one of the most brutal and long-lasting wars in history: the 30 Years War. Though she wouldn’t take the throne until the age of 18, things could have turned out very differently for Christina. She was surrounded by men and encouraged to marry and raise children like any other aristocratic woman of her time, but Christina vehemently opposed marriage and motherhood. She wasn’t going to give her throne to a husband and let him rule in her stead. She was brilliant, assertive, and an extremely capable politician. She conducted council meetings in her early teens, manipulated the men around her expertly, and strove for peace in Sweden at any cost but her influence didn’t stop there.

Apart from her political expertise, Christina is known as one of the most brilliant and intellectual women of her time. She had an unquenchable thirst for education and a passion for music, art and alchemy. Rising each morning at dawn, she studied under French philosopher René Descartes and a number of renowned foreign writers, musicians and scholars. Under her rule, the first Swedish newspaper and country-wide school ordinance were established.

6. Ching Shih-The Pirate Lord

In 1801, pirate Zheng Yi, commander of the infamous “Red Flag Fleet”, was stricken at the beauty of a prostitute who worked on a floating brothel in Canton. He ordered his men to attack and bring the beauty to him. Ching Shih agreed to be Yi’s wife but she wanted to assurances that she would be respected and treated as an equal. Yi agreed and the two of them married and began to run the Red Flag Fleet together. During their six years of marriage, Shih helped her husband expand their fleet from 200 ships to, eventually, more than 1700 ships. Together with Wu Shi ‘er, Shih and her husband formed the Cantonese Pirate Coalition. When her husband died in 1807, Shih took charge, forming her own miniature empire.

Ching Shih was a strict and regimented pirate lord. She focused much on business and military strategy. She even went to great lengths to form an “ad hoc” government under which her pirates were bound to and protected by laws and taxes. Any plunder that was seized had to first be presented to the fleet and registered before it could be distributed. Whichever ship captured the loot was entitled to retain 20% of its value, while the remaining 80% was placed into the fleet’s collective fund.