historical hotties

knitmeapony:

myfavoritebitches:

Valentina Tereshkova. A proletariat that worked in a textile factory and parachuted for funsies, this lady was one of the five chosen by the Soviet space program. She joined up with the USSR Air Force and then became a cosmonaut in the 1960s. In 1963, the Soviets decided to send her to space on the Vostok 6. She put the American space program to shame, logging more space hours than any American astronaut had at that time having spent three days (48 orbits) out of the atmosphere. At 26 she became the first and only fucking lady in space for nineteen years. Still alive and kickin’ at 74 in Russia, she has won pretty much all of the honors and has been elected to a bunch of committees.

Kurt Swinghammer’s album has a lot of tribute to her, and it’s quite amazing, too. http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1195185/a/Vostok+6.htm

temenuga:

 

In 1808, Napoleon, running out of scenic holiday destinations to invade, somehow totally forgot about his neighbor to the south, Spain. So that year he dispatched his troops, kicking off the Peninsular War.

Only 20 years old and working as a barmaid in the town of Valdepenas, Juana Galan was not expecting a surge of French soldiers to come storming through her village. But on June 6, that’s exactly what happened. At that time, most of the men were fighting Napoleon’s forces elsewhere in the nation. Juana, unfazed by things like rifles and Frenchmen and French riflemen, began organizing the women in her village to form a trap for the approaching army.

When the army arrived, Juana and her friends were ready. They dumped boiling water and oil on the French troops, which by all accounts will instantly take the fight out of pretty much anyone. Then Juana, armed with only a batan, beat back the heavily armed French cavalry with her squad of village women, almost none of whom were armed with guns.

The French retreated, giving up on capturing not just Juana’s town but the entire province of La Mancha, leading to ultimate Spanish victory. Today, she is seen in Spain as a national hero, a symbol of resistance, strength, patriotism, feminism and hitting shit with a stick.

(x) 

(Source: lady-eboshi)

Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Russian sniper during WWII. Not only was she gorgeous, she knew how to shoot Nazis dead, and we can all get behind that. Like she even took out snipers who had over 9000 500 kills! Then she went and got blown up by a bomb, but that didn’t stop her — she went on to teach sniping to other Soviet snipers.

Badass of the Week is an interesting site (uses a lot of dudebro speak, fair warning), and I like that he includes a lot of women in the mix. His site is how I learned of Caterina Sforza and of course Ms Pavlichenko. Because women who are badass are also incredibly sexy.

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour. Brilliant, beautiful, and brazen! She was the Royal Mistress of the King of France, Louis XV. Even his wife liked her, saying that if Louis had to have a mistress, at least it was Jeanne. 

(Thanks for the suggestion, craftastrophies! Remember, anyone can suggest any historical figure for my consideration ;) excluding Nazis, of course.)

lostsplendor:

Young Queen Victoria by Franz Xavier Winterhalter

A little about Queen Victoria: She was the daughter of George III’s fourth son, Prince Edward. Edward and King George died in the same year, 1820, but Victoria didn’t really take the throne until she turned 18 — this was because the other three brothers of Prince Edward died without issue. She was the first female monarch since Queen Anne, and was actually the first (excluding Empress Matilda) Queen Regnant to marry and have issue herself. (Mary died childless, even though she had several false pregnancies). 

Anyway, I saw this photo reblogged by craftastrophies, and I thought it would work well here, because she looked so beautiful in this portrait. Remember, submissions are very welcome!

This is Caterina Sforza. She was an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Milan, and she married some guy named Riario, who was connected to the Pope at the time. She later had to defend her castles from a different Pope; she also later refused to marry her son to Lucrezia Borgia, which you might guess didn’t make Alexander IV happy. 

Caterina didn’t put up with a lot of crap. Also, she may have been the model for the Mona Lisa, at least according to Dan Brown. I wouldn’t know, I’m not an Italian historian. But she does look a bit like ML.

Caterina also has a role in the Assassin’s Creed games, and is a minor character on The Borgias.

Anyway, please be submitting your own choices — ladies, men, all cultures, all times. This one comes courtesy of Candice. 

Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of two Kings and mother of 2 more.  This is her tomb effigy, but all the historical records note that she was incredibly beautiful. (I’m guessing her vast tracts of land helped too). She’s also one of my heroines, so I figured I’d start this blog with her.