Series race. Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, event. Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to win a NHRA championship, in the Top Fuel category. Barbara McClintock was the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and since she was American, she was the first American woman to do so. Juanita M. Kreps became the first woman to serve as Secretary of Commerce; she served under President Jimmy Carter. 1978 January 25 - Muriel Humphrey Brown was the first and only former Second Lady of the United States to serve in the U.S. Congress; she appointed by the state governor to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate to succeed her late husband, making her the first woman to hold that office. Marcia Frederick, at the age of fifteen, was the first woman in America to win World gold in gymnastics. Mary E. Clarke was the first woman to achieve the rank of major general in the United States Army. Nancy Teeters became the first woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. 1979 Susan B. Anthony was the first woman in America depicted on a coin. August 3 - Patricia Roberts Harris became the first woman and first person of color to serve multiple posts in a presidential cabinet; she appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Secretary of Health and Human Services serving under President Jimmy Carter. November 30 - Shirley Hufstedler became the first woman to serve as Secretary of Education; she served under President Jimmy Carter. 1980s 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman to serve as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and as such the first woman ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. 1982 Karen N. Horn became the first woman ever to serve as president of any of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, and as such the first woman to serve as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Leah Lowenstein was the first woman dean of a co-educational medical school in the United States. 1983 Elizabeth Dole became the first woman to serve as Secretary of Transportation; she served under President Ronald Reagan. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. Vanessa L. Williams was the first African-American winner of the Miss America pageant (Miss America 1984). Linda Foust was