Erika Eiffel, nÃ©e LaBrie, is a US citizen of Italian descent. She has also lived in Japan during the early stages of her career in world-class archery, and trained as an offiâ¦cer in the US military until her career was cut short by a serious sexual assault when she famously defended herself with a Japanese training sword.
First universities in the Western Hemisphere. The first universities in the Western Hemisphere were established by the Spaniards: the University of Santo Domingo (1538) in what is now the Dominican Republic and the University of MichoacÃ¡n (1539) in Mexico.
Winona became the site of the first normal school west of the Mississippi in 1858 with the establishment of Winona Normal School (now Winona State University). This was the beginning of Winona's tradition as a center of higher education. Saint Mary's College (now Saint Mary's University) was founded as a private Catholic school in 1912.