Hatshepsut

Pharaoh of Egypt
Lived: c. 1500 - c. 1450 BC

§ Background:
Hatshepsut was born the daughter of King Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose. She became Queen when her father died and her husband (and half-brother) Thutmose II became Pharaoh. She and Thutmose II had a daughter together, but no son, and Thutmose II declared a son he had with a palace concubine to be his heir and successor. Thutmose II died in his early thirties while his son was still a child, and in her early teens Hatshepsut became the young pharaoh's regent, and thus ruler of all Egypt.
§ Apparently, Hatshepsut liked the job and decided that she wanted to keep it. Declaring that the gods had appointed her as her husband's successor, she declared herself "King of Upper and Lower Egypt" and began wearing all of the trappings of a King, including a false beard. She didn't kill her husband's son, and some evidence suggests that they became co-rulers, Thutmose III in charge of the military, while Hatshepsut concentrated upon improving Egypt's commerce and infrastructure, and upon religious matters.
§ Hatshepsut is known to have greatly expanded Egypt's commerce with Asia, Nubia and Libya, and she sent expeditions to far-off places that Egypt had never traded with before. She repaired many of Egypt's temples and secular buildings that had been severely damaged by invasion in years past. She constructed many obelisks and statues, and a striking mortuary building for herself and her father.
§ Hatshepsut died sometime around 1450 BC, apparently of natural causes.