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After four months and thirty-three lessons, Harriet decided to try for her license. Two judges from the Aero Club of America were her review board. To obtain a license she had to land her aircraft within one hundred feet of where she left the ground. On July 31, 1911, on her first test, she landed too far from the spot, but the next day she landed seven feet nine inches from the mark. Thus on August 1, 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first licensed woman aviator in the U.S., receiving Fédération Aéronautique Internationale certificate #37. She was the second woman in the world to receive a license, the Baroness Raymonde de la Roche of France having received hers in 1910.
  
Almost immediately Harriet was asked to join the Moisant International Aviators, an exhibition team, and on September 2, 1911, participated in a meet before 20,000 spectators on Staten Island. Later that month she entered a meet at the Nassau Boulevard airfield, during which she beat the celebrated French aviatrix, Hélène Dutrieu, in a cross-country race, winning $600.

The next month she went with the Moisant group to Mexico City to perform in the inauguration ceremonies for Pres. Francisco