Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois made history by becoming the first and only African-American woman elected to the United States Senate on Nov. 3, 1992, as well as being the only woman to be elected to the Senate from that state. She was also the first woman to defeat an incumbent senator in election, winning against Alan Dixon in the Democratic primary.

Braun was born in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She later received a political science degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972. Before being elected to the Senate, Braun served as the United State ambassador to New Zealand from 1999 to 2001, having been selected by President Bill Clinton.

She was a one-term senator, losing to Republican Peter Fitzgerald in her 1998 re-election race. She was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. In 2011, she became a candidate for mayor of Chicago, losing to Rahm Emanuel.

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(Photo: Reuters)