VIDEO: 25 Top Female Journalists Honor Barbara Walters on Her Final THE VIEW

Television legend Barbara Walters will be honored today, FRIDAY, MAY 16, with her final co-host appearance on "The View" (11am-12 noon ET) and a two-hour Primetime special celebrating her life and legacy (9-11pm, ET).

On this morning's THE VIEW, in addition to surprise visits from Hilary Clinton and Michael Douglas, Oprah Winfrey stops by the show and does a landmark roll call of introducing 25 female journalists who were influenced by the legendary journalist. Check out the historic appearances below!

Barbara Walters has arguably interviewed more statesmen and stars than any other journalist in history. She is so well known that her name and a brief biography is listed in the American Heritage Dictionary.

In September 2004, after 25 years as co-host and chief correspondent of ABC News' "20/20," Ms. Walters left the show to begin a new phase in her career at the network. She remains an active member of the news division and network, substantially increasing the number of Primetime ABC News specials, in addition to her "Barbara Walters Specials." Ms. Walters joined ABC News in 1976 as the first woman to co-host the network news.

Through the years she has interviewed such world figures as Russia's Boris Yeltsin, China's Premier Jiang Zemin, Great Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Libya's Moammar Qadaffi and Iraq's President Sadaam Hussein. She was also the first American journalist to interview Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the first interview with President and Mrs. Bush following September 11.

At the other extreme, in 1999 Ms. Walters conducted the first interview with Monica Lewinsky, which became the highest-rated news program ever broadcast by a single network.

She has interviewed every American President and First Lady since Richard Nixon. She made journalism history by arranging the first joint interview with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat and Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin in November, 1977. Another of her "firsts" was an hour-long Primetime conversation with Cuban President Fidel Castro -- an interview which has been printed in half a dozen languages and shown all over the world.

Photo credit: ABC/ Ida Mae Astute

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