Mildred Burke, professional wrestler

Born in 1915, Mildred Burke was working as a stenographer when she first became interested in wrestling at the age of 18.

She constantly nagged local wrestling promoter Billy Wolfe to train her, until he finally told one of his wrestlers to body slam her so she'd leave him alone.

Mildred body slammed the wrestler instead, and Wolfe immediately began training her. They later married.

Throughout the 1930s Mildred wrestled 200 men and lost to only one of them. In 1937 she defeated Clara Mortenson for the Women's World Championship.

Mildred was billed at 157cm (5 ft 2) and 63kg (138lbs).

Following her divorce from Wolfe in 1952 due to his consistent womanizing, Mildred's career was in free fall as Wolfe used his influence with the National Wrestling Alliance to lock her out of professional wrestling. Mildred fought him in court and lost, but many female wrestlers remained loyal to her and refused to wrestle for Wolfe.

During the 1950s Mildred created the World Women's Wrestling Association and defended her title as WWWA champion until retiring in 1956.

During her retirement years Mildred ran a women's wrestling school in Encino, California. Some of her pupils went on to become champion wrestlers, including Rhonda Sing and Bertha Faye.

Mildred died from a stroke in 1989. She was posthumously inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002, and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.