Timeline of Women
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Women’s
History:
www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/oakl-ann.htm
Women’s History: http://womenshistory.about.com
33000BC Av ivory carving dating
to about this time depicted a busty woman. It was found in 2008 in a
German cave and was unveiled in 2009 by archaeologists who believed
it to be the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving
found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman
with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.
(AP, 5/14/09)
c29/30AD Aug 28, John the Baptist was beheaded by
King Herod, perhaps at whim of Salome.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(MC, 8/28/01)
535 Apr 30, Amalaswintha, queen
of Ostrogoten, was murdered.
(MC, 4/30/02)
843 Apr 19, Judith, French
empress, 2nd wife of Louis de Vrome, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
867 Feb 11, Theodora, the
Saint, beauty queen, Byzantine Empress, died.
(MC, 2/11/02)
912 Egyptian singer Nehmes
Bastet died about this time. In 2012 Egyptian and Swiss
archaeologists reported a roughly 1,100 year-old tomb of a female
singer in the Valley of the Kings. It was the only tomb of a woman
not related to the ancient royal families ever found in the Valley
of the Kings. The singer's name, Nehmes Bastet, means she was
believed to be protected by the feline deity Bastet. At the time of
her death, Egypt was ruled by Libyan kings, but the high priests who
ruled Thebes were independent.
(AP, 1/15/12)
1057 Jul 10, Lady Godiva rode
naked on horseback throughout Coventry on a dare from her husband,
the Earl of Mercia, who abolished taxation in this year.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1204 Apr 1, Eleanor of
Aquitaine (81), wife of Louis VII and Henry II, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1317 Apr 20, Agnes van
Montepulciano, Italian mystic, saint, died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1384 Oct 16, The Polish
princess Hedwig was crowned King Jadwiga (d.1399) at age 10. She was
crowned as king to make it clear that she was a ruler, not a
consort.
(SFC, 6/9/97, p.A10)(SSFC, 10/2/11,
p.N4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadwiga_of_Poland)
1429 Apr 29, Joan of Arc led
French troops to victory over the English at Orleans during the
Hundred Years’ War. Legend has it that King Charles VII of France
had a suit of armor made for Joan at a cost of 100 war horses. In
1996 a suit of armor was found and proposed to be Joan’s armor.
(ATC, p.107) (SFC, 6/19/96, p.A10) (AP,
4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)
1429 May 7, English siege of
Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.
(HN, 5/7/98)
1431 May 30, Joan of Arc
(19), condemned as a heretic [as a witch], was burned at the stake
in Rouen, France. A silent movie of her life was made in 1927 by
Carl Theodor Dreyer.
(CFA, '96, p.46)WSJ, 1/23/96, p.A-12)(AP,
5/30/97)(HN, 5/30/98)
1451 Apr 22, Isabella I of
Castile, Queen of Spain (1479-1504), patron of Christopher Columbus,
was born in Madrigal, Spain.
(HN, 4/22/98)(AP, 4/22/01)(MC, 4/22/02)
1456 Jul 7, Joan of Arc was
acquitted, even though she had already been burnt at the stake on
May 30, 1431.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1465 Feb 11, Elizabeth of York,
consort of King Henry VII, was born in London.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1474 Dec 12, Isabella crowned
herself queen of Castilia & Aragon.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1476 Apr 26, Simonetta Vespucci
(b.~1453), nicknamed la bella Simonetta, died. She was an Italian
Renaissance noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of
Florence. She also is alleged to have been the mistress of Giuliano
de' Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent's younger brother. She was
renowned for being the greatest beauty of her age - certainly of the
city of Florence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simonetta_Vespucci)
1480 Apr 18, Lucretia Borgia
(d.1519), murderess, was born. Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara,
was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, and the sister and political
pawn of Cesare Borgia. She was also considered a patroness of the
arts.
(HN, 4/18/98)(WUD, 1994, p.171)
1485 Dec 16, Katherine of
Argon, first wife of Henry VIII, was born.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1503 Feb 11, Elizabeth of York,
Consort of King Henry VII, died on 38th birthday.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1504 Nov 26, Isabella I (53),
Catholic Queen of Castile and Aragon (1474-1504), patron of Columbus
died.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1515 Mar 28, Theresa of Avila
(d.1582), Teresa de Jesus (St. Theresa), Spanish Carmelite nun,
mystic writer, saint, was born. She initiated reforms in the Order.
She co-founded with John of the Cross (1542-1591) the Order of
Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites. "Untilled ground, however rich,
will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man." "To
wish to act like angels while we are still in this world is nothing
but folly."
(CU, 6/87)(WUD, 1994, p.769)(AP, 12/8/97)(AP,
7/5/98)(MC, 3/28/02)
1516 Feb 18, Mary Tudor, later
Queen Mary I of England (1553-1558) and popularly known as "Bloody
Mary," was born in Greenwich Palace.
(HN, 2/18/98)(AP, 2/18/98)
1531 May 31, "Women's Revolt"
in Amsterdam: wool house in churchyard.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1533 Jan 25, England's King
Henry VIII secretly married his second wife, Anne Boleyn (who later
gave birth to Elizabeth I).
(AP, 1/25/98)(HN, 1/25/99)
1533 Sep 7, Elizabeth I, Queen
of England, was born in Greenwich. She led her country during the
exploration of the New World and war with Spain which destroyed the
Spanish Armada. Elizabeth Tudor (d.1603), the daughter of Henry VIII
and Anne Boleyn, reigned as Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. She
went bald at age 29 due to smallpox.
(WUD, 1994, p.463)(SFC,10/18/97, p.E4)(AP,
9/7/97)(HN, 9/7/98)(MC, 9/7/01)
1534 Apr 20, Elizabeth Barton,
[St Magd van Kent], British prophet, died.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1534 Gratien du Pont, a French
poet, published a chessboard with 64 rhyming insults to females, one
for each square.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.76)
1536 May 19, Anne Boleyn, the
second wife of England's King Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower
Green after she was convicted of adultery and incest with her
brother, Lord Rochford, who was executed two days before. It was the
day before Henry VIII's marriage to Jane Seymour.
(AP, 5/19/97)(DTnet, 5/19/97)(HN, 5/19/99)
1542 Feb 13, Catherine Howard
(b.c1520), the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, was executed
for adultery.
(WUD, 1994, p.689)(AP, 2/13/98)
1542 Dec 7, Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scotland (1560-1587), was born. [see Dec 8]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1542 Dec 8, Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scotland (1542-67), was born. She became the Queen of England
when she was a week old, but was forced to abdicate her throne to
her son because she became a Catholic. She was executed for plotting
against Elizabeth I. [see Dec 7]
(HN, 12/8/00)
1554 Feb 12, Lady Jane Grey
(17), who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, the Queen
of England for thirteen days, was beheaded on Tower Hill.
(AP, 2/12/98)(HN, 2/12/99)
1558 John Knox authored "The
First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women."
He was referring to the governments of Mary Tudor in England and
Mary, Queen of the Scots.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.14)
1559 Jan 15, England's Queen
Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey and Lord Dudley soon
became her favorite.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.19)(AP, 1/15/98)
1587 Feb 1, Elizabeth I, Queen
of England, signed the Warrant of Execution for Mary Queen of Scots.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1587 Feb 8, Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scots (1560-67), was beheaded at age 44 in Fotheringhay Castle
for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I.
(HN, 2/8/99)(PCh, 1992, p.203)(MC, 2/8/02)
1589 Jan 5, Catherine de
Medici, Queen Mother of France, died at age 69.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(AP, 1/5/98)(MC, 1/5/02)
1591 Jul 20, Anne Hutchinson,
religious liberal who was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
for her views, was born.
(HN, 7/20/98)
1614 Apr 5, American Indian
princess Pocahontas married English Jamestown colonist John Rolfe in
Virginia. Their marriage brought a temporary peace between the
English settlers and the Algonquians. In 1616, the couple
sailed to England. The "Indian Princess" was popular with the
English gentry. Tragedy struck in March of 1617, went Pocahontas and
Rolfe prepared to sail back to Virginia, before they could leave
England, Pocahontas died reportedly from the wet English winter. She
was buried at the parish church of St. George in Gravesend, England.
(AP, 4/5/97)(HN, 5/5/97)(SFEC, 10/15/00,
p.T12)(MC, 4/5/02)
1617 Mar 21, Pocahontas
(Rebecca Rolfe) died of either small pox or pneumonia while in
England with her husband, John Rolfe.
(HN, 3/21/01)
1617 Aug 30, Rosa de Lima of
Peru became the first American saint to be canonized.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1626 Dec 8, Christina (d.1689),
queen of Sweden, was born. She negotiated the Peace of Westphalia,
ending the Thirty Years' War. "Fools are more to be feared than the
wicked. "Dignity is like a perfume; those who use it are scarcely
conscious of it."
(AP, 7/8/97)(AP, 1/14/99)(HN, 12/8/99)
1638 Mar 22, Religious
dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1647 May 27, In Salem,
Massachusetts, Achsah Young became the first recorded American woman
to be executed for being a "witch."
(AP, 5/27/97)(HN, 5/27/98)
1648 May 13, Margaret Jones of
Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be
hanged by the neck.
(HN, 5/13/99)
1665 Feb 6, Anne Stuart, queen
of England (1702-14), was born.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1675 Jan 31, Cornelia Dina
Olfaarts was found not guilty of witchcraft.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1678 Nov 28, England's King
Charles II accused his wife, Catherine of Braganza, of treason. Her
crime? She had yet to bear him children.
(DT net, 11/28/97)
1684 Feb 24, Catherine I,
Empress of Russia (1725-27), was born in Dorpat, Estonia. [see Apr
15]
(MC, 2/24/02)
1684 Apr 15, Catherine I,
empress of Russia (1725-1727), was born. [see Feb 24]
(HN, 4/15/98)(MC, 4/15/02)
1689 Apr 19, Christina, Queen
of Sweden (1644-54), died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1692 Mar 1, Sarah Goode, Sarah
Osborne and Tituba were arrested for the supposed practice of
witchcraft in Salem, Mass.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1693 Jun 27, The 1st woman's
magazine "The Ladies' Mercury" was published in London.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1694 Dec 28, Queen Mary II (32)
of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband,
King William III.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1717 May 13, Empress Maria
Theresa, wife of Napoleon, was born.
(HN, 5/13/98)
1721 Dec 29, Madam Jeanne
Poisson de Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, was born.
She was later blamed for France's defeat in the Seven Years' War.
(HN, 12/29/00)
1727 May 17, Catherine I,
Empress of Russia (1725-27), died.
(MC, 5/17/02)
1729 Apr 21, Catharina II, the
Great, writer, empress of Russia (1762-96), was born. [see May 2]
(MC, 4/21/02)
1729 May 2, Catherine the Great
(d.1796), (Catherine II), empress (czarina) of Russia (1762-1796),
was born. She succeeded her husband Peter III to the throne in 1762.
"I am one of the people who love the why of things." [see Apr 21]
(AP, 9/4/97)(HN, 5/2/99)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1731 Jun 2, Martha Dandridge,
the first First Lady of the United States, was born. Widow of Daniel
Park Custis, she married George Washington in 1759.
(HN, 6/2/00)
1733 May 12, Maria Theresa was
crowned queen of Bohemia in Prague.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1750 Mar 16, Caroline Lucretia
Herschel, 1st woman astronomer, was born in Hanover, Germany.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1750 Dec 17, Deborah Sampson,
was born. She fought in the American Revolution as a man under the
alias Robert Shurtleff.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1752 Jan 1, Betsy Ross
(Elizabeth Griscom Ross), flag maker who contributed to the design
of the American flag, was born.
(HN, 1/1/99)(MC, 1/1/02)
1752-1840 Fanny Burney, English writer. Her books
included "Evelina." In 1911 she underwent a mastectomy without
anesthesia. In 2001 Claire Harman authored the biography: "Fanny
Burney."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.M5)
1755 Jan 12, Tsarina Elisabeth
established the 1st Russian University.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1761 Dec 1, Madame Tussaud,
Swiss-born modeler in wax, was born. She founded the world-famous
exhibition in London's Baker Street. [see Dec 7]
(HN, 12/1/99)
1761 Dec 7, Madame Tussaud
[Marie Grosholtz], creator of the wax museum, was born. [see Dec 1]
(MC, 12/7/01)
1764 Feb 21, John Wilkes was
expelled from the English House of Commons for his "Essay on Women."
(MC, 2/21/02)
1767 Kitty Fisher, a prominent
British courtesan, died.
(Econ, 2/11/12,
p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Fisher)
1768 May 20, Dolley Madison,
first lady of President James Madison, was born. She was famous as a
Washington hostess while her husband was secretary of state and
president.
(HN, 5/20/99)
1769 Apr 22, Madame du Barry
became King Louis XV's "official" mistress.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1770 May 16, Marie Antoinette
(14), married the future King Louis XVI of France (15).
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 5/16/98)
1774 Aug 28, Mother Elizabeth
Ann Seton, the first American-born saint and the founder of the
Sisters of St. Joseph, was born in New York City. She was canonized
in 1975.
(AP, 8/28/97)(HN, 8/28/98)(RTH, 8/28/99)
1775 Feb 12, Louisa Adams, wife
of John Quincy Adams was born.
(HN, 2/12/98)
1775 Dec 16, Jane Austin
(d.1817), novelist, was born in Hampshire, England, as the 6th of 7
children [7th of 8]. Her work included "Sense and Sensibility"
(1811), "Pride and Prejudice" (1812), "Mansfield Park" (1814)
"Lady Susan" and "Emma" (1815). Her books "Persuasion" (1817) and
"Northanger Abbey" were published posthumously. "One does not love a
place the less for having suffered in it unless it has all been
suffering, nothing but suffering." Two biographies were published in
1997 with the same title: "Jane Austen: A Life," one by Calire
Tomalin and the other by David Nokes.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, BR p.10)(Hem., 5/97, p.102)(AP,
5/31/97)(SFEC, 11/9/97, BR p.4)(WSJ, 11/17/97, p.A24)(HN, 12/16/98)
1776 Mar 31, Abigail Adams
wrote to her husband John that women were "determined to foment a
rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence failed to
guarantee their rights.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1777 Mar 31, A young Abigail
Adams encouraged her husband John to give women voting privileges in
the new American government. She wrote to her husband on March 31,
1777, while he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention: "I
desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous to them
than were your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the
hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they
could. If particular care and attention are not paid to the ladies
we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves
bound to obey any laws in which we have no voice or representation."
Twenty years later her husband was a candidate in America’s first
real election.
(HNPD, 3/30/00)
1783 Mar 8, Hannah Hoes
Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren, was born.
(HN, 3/8/98)
c1786 Apr 6,
Sacagawea (also Sacajawea), American explorer, was born.
(HN, 4/6/01)
1787 Feb 23, Emma Hart Willard,
pioneer in higher education for women, was born.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1787 Nov 18, Sojourner Truth,
abolitionist and feminist, was born. [see Nov 19]
(MC, 11/18/01)
1789 Sep 1, Lady Marguerite
Blessington, beautiful English socialite and author, was born. She
wrote a biography of Lord Byron.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1790 Jul 3, In Paris the
Marquis of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1791 Mar 23, Etta Palm, a Dutch
champion of woman's rights, set up a group of women's clubs called
the Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1791 Sep 1, Lydia Sigourney, US
religious author (How to Be Happy), was born.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1792 Apr 1, Gronings feminist
Etta Palm demanded women's right to divorce.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft
(Godwin) wrote her essay "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." She
married Godwin in 1797 after learning that she was pregnant and died
in childbirth.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.28)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.84)
1793 Jan 3, Lucretia
Coffin Mott women’s rights activist, was born. She was a teacher,
minister, antislavery leader and founder of the 1st Women’s Rights
Convention.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/02)
1793 Dec 6, Marie Jeanne Becu,
Comtesse du Barry, flamboyant mistress of Louis XV, was guillotined
in Paris.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1794 Jan 14, Dr. Jessee Bennet
of Edom, Va., performed the 1st successful Cesarean section
operation on his wife.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1797 Nov 19, Sojourner Truth
(d.1883), abolitionist and women's rights advocate, was born.
"Religion without humanity is a poor human stuff." [see Nov 18]
(HN, 11/19/98)(AP, 10/29/00)
1798 Mar 13, Abigail Powers
Fillmore, First Lady, was born.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1800 Sep 6, Catherine Esther
Beecher, educator who promoted higher education for women, was born
in East Hampton, Long Island, NY.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1800 Mary Robinson (42/43),
writer, actress, courtesan and fashion icon, died. In 2005 Sarah
Gristwood authored “Perdita: Royal Mistress, Writer and Romantic.”
Paula Byrne authored Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, Scandalous
Life of Mary Robinson.”
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E2)
1802 Apr 4, Dorothea Dix,
American proponent of treatment of mental inmates, was born.
(HN, 4/4/98)
1804 May 16, Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody, founder of the first U.S. kindergarten, was born.
(HN, 5/16/98)
1805 Feb 11, Sixteen-year-old
Sacajawea, the Shoshoni guide for Lewis & Clark, gave birth to a
son, with Meriwether Lewis serving as midwife.
(HN, 2/11/99)
1806 Mar 6, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning (d.1861), English poet, was born in Durham, England. She
wrote "Sonnets from the Portuguese." "Since when was genius found
respectable?"
(AP, 3/6/98)(HN, 3/6/99)(AP, 8/12/99)
1809 May 5, Mary Kies was 1st
woman issued a US patent (weaving straw).
(MC, 5/5/02)
1809 Dec 16, Napoleon Bonaparte
was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French
Senate.
(AP, 12/16/97)
1810 May 23, Margaret Fuller
(d.1850), American social reformer, writer and critic, was born. She
was the first female journalist for the New York Tribune. "Man is
not made for society, but society is made for man. No institution
can be good which does not tend to improve the individual."
(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 5/23/99)
1812 Dec 20, Sacagawea,
Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark, died.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1813 Jan 29, Jane Austin
published "Pride and Prejudice," a blend of instruction and moral
entertainment.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1815 Nov 12, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, a social reformer and militant feminist, was born in
Johnstown, New York, and graduated from the Troy Female Seminary in
1832. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony and served as
president of the National Woman Suffrage Association. She died on
October 26, 1902. She said, "The male element is a destructive
force" in an address to the Women’s Suffrage Convention in
Washington, D.C. in 1868.
(AP, 11/12/97)(HNQ, 5/17/98)
1817 Jul 14, Madame de Stael
(51), writer and daughter of former French finance minister Jacques
Necker, died. In 2005 Maria Fairweather authored “Madame de Stael.”
(Econ, 3/19/05,
p.88)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/stael.htm)
1818 Aug 13, Suffragist Lucy
Stone, women's rights activist, founder of Woman's Journal, was born
in West Brookfield, Mass.
(HN 8/13/97)(HN, 8/13/98)
1819 Feb 9, Lydia E. Pinkham,
patent-medicine maker and entrepreneur, was born.
(HN, 2/9/01)
1819 Mar 26, Louise Otto,
German feminist author, was born.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1819 May 24, Victoria
Alexandrine, Queen Victoria (d.1901) was born in London. Her reign
(1836-1901) restored dignity to the British crown. She had nine
children. "Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles
that irritate my nerves."
(AP, 5/24/97)(HN, 5/24/99)(AP, 2/24/99)
1819 May 27, Julia Ward Howe,
writer of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," was born.
(HN, 5/27/99)
1819 Nov 22, George Eliot (Mary
Ann Evans), novelist who wrote "Adam Bede" and "Silas Marner," was
born.
(HN, 11/22/98)
1819 Hawaii’s King Kamehameha
II abolished the brutal kapu system of laws. Temples and sacred
sites associated with the system began to fall into disrepair. Queen
Kaahumanu, helped overturn the kapu belief system by sharing a meal
with Kamehameha II following the death of King Kamehameha.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.T8)(SSFC, 8/30/09, p.M5)
1820 Jan 20, Anne Clough,
promoter of higher education, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1820 Feb 15, American
suffragist Susan Brownell Anthony (d.1906) was born in Adams, Mass.
Her biography by Lynn Sherr was titled: "Failure Is Impossible."
(SFEC, 9/21/97, Par p.4)(AP, 2/15/98)(HN,
2/15/98)
1820 May 12, Florence
Nightingale (d.1910), Crimean War British nurse known as “Lady with
the Lamp,” was born in Florence, Italy. She is also known as the
founder of modern nursing.
(AP,
5/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale)
1821 Jan 4, Elizabeth Ann
Seton, the first native-born American saint, died in Emmitsburg, Md.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1821 Feb 3, Elizabeth Blackwell
(d.1910), first woman to get an MD from a U.S. medical school, was
born in Bristol, England.
(http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blackwellelizabeth/a/eliz_blackwell.htm)
1821 Jul 16, Mary Baker Eddy
(d.1910), founder of the Christian Science movement (1879), was
born.
(HN, 7/16/98)(WSJ, 9/26/03, p.W17)
1821 Dec 25, Clara Barton
(d.1912), the founder of the American Red Cross, was born in North
Oxford, Massachusetts. She worked as a volunteer nurse during the
Civil War, distributing food and medical supplies to troops and
earning herself the label "Angel of the Battlefield." She later
served alongside the International Red Cross in Europe--however, she
could not work directly with the organization because she was a
woman. In 1882 she formed an American branch of the Red Cross.
Barton lobbied for the Geneva Convention and she expanded the
mission of the Red Cross to include helping victims of peacetime
disasters. Clara Barton died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on
April 12, 1912, when she was 90 years old.
(HNPD, 12/26/98)(WUD, 1994 p.123)
1822 Dec 4, Frances Crabbe,
English feminist and founder of the Anti-Vivisection Society, was
born.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1827 Nov 26, Ellen Gould White,
founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, was born.
(HN, 11/26/00)
1829 Dec 4, Britain abolished
"suttee" in India. This was the practice of a widow burning herself
to death on her husband's funeral pyre.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1830 Dec 5, Christina Rossetti
(d.1894), poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away), was born in London. She
wrote devotional verse, curious fairy tales and category defying
poems. Her brothers, William Michael and Dante Gabriel, helped found
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose professed aim was to revive
the purity and vividness they admired in late medieval art. Her
story is told by Jan Marsh in "Christina Rosetti: A Writer’s Life."
"Better by far you should forget and smile, Than that you should
remember and be sad."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(AP, 12/11/98)(MC, 12/5/01)
1830 Dec 10, American poet
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Perhaps the
best-known woman poet in the United States today, Dickinson led a
rather secluded life. After studying at Amherst Academy and then for
one year at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, she lived with her
family and never married. The few friends that Emily Dickinson did
have received regular gifts of poetry and letters from her. Although
she wrote poetry constantly, she never seriously pursued publishing
her work. Only about 10 poems were published in her lifetime, and
those were submitted for publication without her permission. After
her death in 1886, more than 1,700 of her poems, which she had bound
together in bundles, were discovered and published.
(HNPD, 12/8/98)(HN, 12/10/98)
1832 Apr 19, Lucretia Rudolph,
President Garfield's first lady, was born.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1833 Mar 14, Lucy Hobbs Taylor,
first woman dentist, was born.
(HN, 3/14/98)
1833 Mar 16, Susan Hayhurst
became the first woman to graduate from a pharmacy college.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1837 Sep 6, The Oberlin
Collegiate Institute of Ohio went co-educational.
(AP, 9/6/97)(http://tinyurl.com/lcgnj)
1838 Mar 7, Soprano Jenny Lind
("the Swedish Nightingale") made her debut in Weber's opera Der
Freischultz.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1838 Sep 2, Lydia Kamekeha
Liliuokalani (d.1917), last sovereign before annexation of Hawaii by
the United States, was born. Lili’uokalani, the last monarch of
Hawaii (1891-1893). She composed Hawaii’s most famous song "Aloha
Oe."
(WSJ, 1/23/97, p.A12)(HN, 9/2/98)
1838 Sep 23, Victoria Chaflin
Woodhull (d.1927), American presidential candidate (1872), was born
into a family of charlatans in Ohio. Woodhull, a militant
suffragist, advocated free love and was Wall Street's first female
broker after attracting Cornelius Vanderbilt. She was the first
woman to address Congress. Her story is documented in “The Woman Who
Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull” by Lois
Beachy Underhill. In 1998 Mary Gabriel published "Notorious
Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored. In 1998 Barbara
Goldsmith published "Other Powers--The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism
and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull."
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-10)(SFEC, 2/22/98, BR
p.5)(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14)(HNPD, 4/28/00)
1840 Jul 25, Flora Adams
Darling, founded Daughters of American Revolution, was born.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1843 Feb 19, Adelina Patti,
opera soprano (Lucio), was born in Madrid, Spain.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1843 May 9, Belle Boyd,
Confederate spy, was born. She helped 'Stonewall' Jackson during his
Valley campaign.
(HN, 5/9/99)
1843 Jun 7, Susan Elizabeth
Blow, US pioneer in kindergarten education, was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1843 Margaret Fuller
(1810-1850), journalist and writer, authored a feminist tract
titled: “Women in the Nineteenth Century.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller)(SSFC, 1/29/12, p.F4)
1845 Mar 10, Hallie Quinn
Brown, American educator, women's rights leader, was born.
(HN, 3/10/01)
1846 Feb 21, Sarah G. Bagley
became the first female telegrapher, taking charge at the newly
opened telegraph office in Lowell, Mass.
(AP, 2/21/00)
1846 Nov 25, Carry Nation was
born Carry Amelia Moore in Kentucky. After her first husband died a
drunkard, she married David Nation and they moved to Medicine Lodge,
Kansas. There, she was elected president of the local chapter of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Even though Kansas was
technically a dry state, Medicine Lodge had seven saloons. When
Carry Nation's appeals to close the saloons were ignored, she took
matters into her own hands--she drove a buggy, full of bricks and
stones she had wrapped in newspapers, up to a saloon, smashed its
mirrors, glasses, bottles and windows, and said to the proprietor as
she left, "I have finished. God be with you." Nation repeated her
barroom attacks across the state and the country. One of her last
actions was at Washington's Union Depot, where she used three
hatchets that she called Faith, Hope and Charity. Nation, who was
arrested about 30 times for her saloon rampages, died in 1911.
(HNPD, 11/25/98)
1846 Sarah Josepha Hale,
editor of the influential Godey's Lady's Book, began a tireless
campaign to establish a national Thanksgiving holiday in November.
She was the editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine in Boston.
Her editorials in the magazine and letters to President Lincoln
urging the formal establishment of a national holiday of
Thanksgiving resulted in Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863, which
designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.
(HNPD, 11/26/98)
1847 Feb 3, Marie Duplessis
(b.1824), French courtesan, died. She was mistress to a number of
prominent and wealthy men, the inspiration for Marguerite Gautier,
and the main character of La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas
the younger, one of her lovers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Duplessis)
1847 Jun 11, Dame Millicent
Garrett Fawcett, leader of English women's movement, was born.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1847 Oct 16, Charlotte Bronte's
book "Jane Eyre" was published by Smith, Elder & Co. under the
pen name Currer Bell.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre)(http://tinyurl.com/84e3uwp)
1847 Dec 1, Julia Moore, poet,
was born.
(HN, 12/1/00)
1848 Feb 5, Belle Starr,
Western outlaw, was born.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1848 Jul 19, The first women’s
rights convention convened in Seneca Falls, New York. Organized by
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the two-day convention
discussed such topics as voting, property rights and divorce. It
launched the women’s suffrage movement. The convention issued a
"Declaration of Sentiments" based on the Declaration of
Independence. "The ideal newspaper woman has the keen zest for life
of a child, the cool courage of a man and the subtlety of a woman."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton made her first public speech at the Woman's
Rights Convention. After Cady Stanton was denied participation in an
anti-slavery convention and was told that women were
"constitutionally unfit for public and business meetings," she and
four other women, including abolitionist Lucretia Coffin Mott,
planned a convention to challenge that notion. They drafted a
"Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions," 11 resolutions calling
for equal rights for women, including the right to vote. After
lengthy debate, the document was amended and signed by 68 women and
32 men of the approximately 300 attendees, setting the American
women's rights movement in motion. Susan B. Anthony joined the
movement in 1852.
(HNPD, 7/19/98)(SFEC, 7/20/97, Par p.8)(SFEM,
6/28/98, p.30)(SFC, 7/6/98, p.D8)
1848 Samuel Gregory, a pioneer
in medical education for women, founded the Boston Female Medical
School. The school opened with an enrollment of 12 students. The
establishment merged 26 years later with the Boston University
School of Medicine, to form one of the first coed medical schools in
the world.
(HNQ, 12/27/02)
1849 Jan 23, English-born
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the 1st woman to receive an
American medical degree, graduated at the top of her class from the
medical school of Hobart College, Geneva, NY.
(http://campus.hws.edu/his/blackwell/biography.html)(ON, 4/03, p.2)
1849 Sep 1, Elizabeth Harrison,
US educator (Natal Congress of Parents and Teachers), was born.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1849 Nov 24, Frances Hodgson
Burnett, author, was born. Her work includes "Little Lord
Fauntleroy" and "The Secret Garden."
(HN, 11/24/00)
1849 Dec 6, Harriet Tubman
escaped from slavery in Maryland.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1849 Elizabeth Farnham, a
matron of New York’s Sing Sing prison, formed the California
Association of American Women to bring young women west to civilize
the frontier. The plan failed but Farnham did emigrate to the Santa
Cruz area and later oversaw the Stockton Insane Asylum. In 2004
JoAnn Levy authored “Unsettling the West: Eliza Farnham and
Georgiana Bruce Kirby in Frontier California.
(SSFC, 5/16/04, p.M4)
1850 Mar 11, The Pennsylvania
legislature passed an act to incorporate the Female Medical College
of Pennsylvania, the first regular medical school for women in
America.
(http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/pennsylvfem.htm)
1850 Apr 16, Marie [Gresholtz]
Tussaud (89), Swiss-born maker of wax figures, died.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1850 Jul 19, Margaret Fuller
(b.1810), America’s first foreign correspondent, died aboard the
Elizabeth, along with her husband and child, as the ship slammed
into a sandbar less than 100 yards from Fire Island, NY. In 2012
John Matteson authored “The Lives of Margaret Fuller.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller)(SSFC, 1/29/12, p.F4)
1850 Aug 23, The 1st national
women's rights convention convened in Worcester, Mass.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's
medical school, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened
to students.
(http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/pennsylvfem.htm)
1851 Feb 8, Kate (Katherine
O'Flaherty ) Chopin (d.1904), American novelist, short story writer,
was born. Her work included "The Awakening." She wrote tales of love
and passion that presented women testing the boundaries of social
convention. "There are some people who leave impressions not so
lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water."
(AP, 3/11/99)(SFEC, 11/14/99, BR p.5)(HN, 2/8/01)
1851 May 28, Freed slave and
abolitionist Sojourner Truth attended a national women's convention
in Akron, Ohio, where the female delegates were heckled by men in
the audience who claimed that men were superior to women. Frances
Gage, president of the convention, recorded Sojourner Truth's words
that day. "Dat man ober dar say dat women needs to be helped into
carriages and lifted ober ditches, and to hab de best place
everywhar. Nobody eber helps me into carriages, or ober mud-puddles,
or gibs me any best place! And ain't I a woman! Look at me! Look at
my arm! I have ploughed, and planted and gathered into barns, and no
man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat
as much as a man--when I could get it--and bear de lash as well! And
ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos'
all sold into slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief,
none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?" Sojourner Truth's
words, according to Gage, "turned the sneers and jeers of an excited
crowd into notes of respect and admiration."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1 p.6)(HN, 7/13/99)(MC, 5/28/02)
1851 Aug 3, Lady Isabella
Caroline Somerset, temperance leader, was born.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1852 Feb 11, The 1st British
public female toilet opened at Bedford Street in London.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1852 Mar 4, Lady (Isabella
Augusta) Gregory, Irish playwright, was born. She helped found the
Abbey Theatre.
(HN, 3/4/01)
1852 Mar 29, Ohio made it
illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a
day.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1852 May 1, Calamity [Martha]
Jane [Burke], frontier adventurer, Indian fighter, was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1852 Nov 27, Ada Lovelace
(b.1815), Lord Byron’s daughter and the inventor of computer
language, was bled to death by physicians at age 36. She had helped
Charles Babbage develop his "Analytical Engine," that performed
mathematical calculations through the use of punched cards. Her last
years were spent in a netherworld of addiction, gambling and
adultery and she died of cancer. In 2001 Benjamin Wooley authored
her biography: "The Bride of Science."
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.D7)(SFC, 4/30/98, p.E1)(WSJ,
1/19/00, p.W9)
1852 Dec 29, Emma Snodgrass was
arrested in Boston for wearing pants.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1853 Apr 2, Lucie de la Tour du
Pin (83), born as Henriette-Lucie Dillon and former lady-in-waiting
to Marie Antoinette, died Paris. Her memoir, “Journal of a Woman of
Fifty Years,” was not published until 1906. In 2009 Caroline
Moorhead authored “Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin
and the French Revolution.”
(Econ, 3/7/09, p.91)(http://tinyurl.com/co3xor)
1855 Feb 11, Josephine Marshall
Jewell Dodge, American educator, pioneer in the concept of day
nurseries for children, was born.
(HN, 2/11/01)
1857 Nov 5, Ida Tarbell,
muckraker, was born.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1858 Feb 11, Bernadette
Soubirous (14), a French miller’s daughter, claimed for the first
time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
(AP, 2/11/97)(HN, 1/11/02)
1858 Jul 14, Emmeline
Pankhurst, British suffragist and founder of the Women's Social and
Political Union, was born in Manchester, England.
(HN, 7/14/98)(AP, 7/14/08)
1858 Nov 20, Selma Lagerdorf,
Swedish novelist, was born. Her work included "The Story of Gosta
Berling."
(HN, 11/20/00)
1859 Jan 9, Carrie Lane Chapman
Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, was born.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1860 Mar 1, Suzanna Salter,
first female mayor, was born.
(HN, 3/1/98)
1860 May 15, Ellen Louise Axson
Wilson, first wife of President Woodrow Wilson, was born.
(HN, 5/15/98)
1860 Jul 19, Lizzie Borden,
teacher, famous 1892 murder suspect, was born.
(HN, 7/19/01)
1860 Aug 13, Annie Oakley
(d.1926), sharp-shooter and entertainer, was born in Darke County,
Ohio, as Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee (Mosey). She became a markswoman
and toured with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.
(WUD, 1994, p.992)(SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)(HN,
8/14/98)
1860 Sep 6, Jane Addams
(d.1935) was born. She is known for her work as a social reformer,
pacifist, and founder of Hull House in Chicago in 1889, and as the
first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931). “The
essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of one’s
self.” “You do not know what life means when all the difficulties
are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It
is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning.”
(AHD, 1971, p.15)(AP, 8/28/97)(HN, 9/6/98)(AP,
10/4/98)
1860 Florence Nightingale
(1820-1910) founded the Nightingale School and Home for Nurses in
London, the first secular institution in the world to train nurses.
(ON, 12/11, p.6)
1861 Apr 25, Women in New York
held a meeting out of which plans were made for the formation of the
Civil War related Women's Central Association of Relief. This led to
the formation of the Civil War Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of
the Red Cross.
(www.civilwarhome.com)
1861 Sep 9, Sally Louisa
Tompkins (b.1833) was commissioned as a Confederate captain of
cavalry. Born into a wealthy and altruistic family in coastal
Mathews County, Virginia, Tompkins was destined for a life of
philanthropy. After moving to Richmond, she spent much of her time
and a considerable portion of her fortune assisting causes she
considered worthy. With the onset of civil war, she labored on the
behalf of the South's wounded soldiers, and for this she became the
first and only woman to receive an officer's commission in the
Confederate army.
(HNQ, 5/17/01)
1861 Dec 4, Lillian Russell,
singer and actress, was born Helen Louise Leonard in Clinton, Iowa.
She performed in burlesque and light opera, debuting in Gilbert and
Sullivan's HMS Pinafore in 1879. Russell was praised for her
voluptuous beauty and was frequently photographed. Women everywhere
tried to emulate her plump physique by buying potions and corsets to
accentuate their curves. Although Russell was the ideal beauty of
her time, her 186-pound figure--which she kept by eating without
restraint--would be quite a departure from today's standard of
beauty. Russell later wrote a newspaper column on health, beauty and
love, and she died in 1922.
(HNPD, 12/3/98)
1862 Jan 24, Edith Wharton
(d.1937), U.S. novelist was born. Her novels included Age of
Innocence," House of Mirth," "Summer," and "Ethan Frome." She also
wrote books on home design. "There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it." "The essence of
taste is suitability. Divest the word of its prim and priggish
implications, and see how it expresses the mysterious demand of the
eye and mind for symmetry, harmony and order. "Eleanor Dwight wrote
her 1994 biography: "An Extraordinary Life."
(AP, 8/17/97)(WSJ, 12/9/97, p.A20)(AP,
1/11/98)(HN, 1/24/99)
1862 Feb 1, "The Battle Hymn of
the Republic" was first published in "Atlantic Monthly" as an
anonymous poem. The lyric was the work of Julia Ward Howe and was
based on chapter 63 of the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah. "The
Battle Hymn of the Republic" soon became the most popular Union
marching song of the Civil War and is still being sung and to the
tune of a song titled, "John Brown’s Body". Julia Ward Howe
(b.1819-1908) was an influential social reformer and wife of fellow
reformer and educator Samuel Gridley Howe. She was prominent in the
anti-slavery movement, woman‘s suffrage, prison reform and the
international peace movements. Julia Ward Howe was the first woman
elected to the American Academy of Fine Arts and Letters in 1908.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, said: "I honor the author of 'The Battle Hymn'
... she was born in the city of New York. I could well wish she were
a native of Massachusetts. We have no such poetess in New England."
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)(HNQ, 1/31/00,5/21/02)
1862 Mar 12, Jane Delano
(d.1919), nurse, teacher and founder of the American Red Cross, was
born in Montour Falls, New York. She helped the American Red Cross
Nursing Service to be recognized as the nursing reserve for the Army
and Navy.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Jane_Delano)
1862 May 15, General Benjamin
F. ("Beast") Butler decreed "Woman Order," that all captured women
in New Orleans were to be his whores.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 Aug 28, Confederate spy
Belle Boyd was released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1863 Mar 18, Confederate women
rioted in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the lack of flour and salt in
the South.
(HN, 3/18/00)
1863 Apr 2, In Richmond, Va., a
large crowd of hungry women from one of Richmond's working-class
neighborhoods demanded bread from Governor John Letcher. When the
governor did not respond favorably to the rioters' demands, the
women marched down Main Street, shouting "Bread" as they made their
way to the commissary, where they smashed store windows and grabbed
food and anything else they could get their hands on. Not until the
mob faced President Davis and his troops did the rampage end. Varina
Howell Davis wrote an account of the riots after her husbands death
in 1889.
(HNQ, 5/8/02)(AH, 6/02, p.24)
1864 Mar 1, Rebecca Lee was
born. She became the first black woman to receive an American
medical degree, from the New England Female Medical College in
Boston.
(AP, 3/1/00)(SC, 3/1/02)
1865 Mar 1, Anna Paulowna
Romanova (70), great monarch of Russia, died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1865 Apr 17, Mary Surratt was
arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1865 Jul 2, Lili Braun,
feminist, socialist writer (Im Schatten Titanen), was born in
Prussia.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1865
Nov 11, Dr. Mary Edward Walker, 1st Army female surgeon, was awarded
the Medal of Honor by Pres. Andrew Johnson for her work as a field
doctor, for outstanding service at the Battle of Bull Run, the
Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Atlanta, and as a Confederate
prisoner of war in Richmond, Va. Her medal was rescinded 1917 along
with 910 others, but restored by President Carter June 10, 1977.
(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E10)(HNQ,
3/12/02)(www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohciv2.htm)
1865 Dec 4, Edith Cavell,
English nurse who tended to friend and foe alike during World War I,
was born.
(HN, 12/4/98)
1865 Dec 20, Maude Gonne, Irish
nationalist (Irish Joan of Arc), was born.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
started practicing as Britain’s first female doctor. She qualified
via the Society of Apothecaries when medical schools refused to
admit her. She and 5 other women began studying for a degree course
from Cambridge in 1869. Cambridge did not let women graduate with
degrees until 1948, and was the last English university to do so. In
2009 Jane Robinson authored “Bluestockings: The Remarkable Story of
the First Women to Fight for an Education.”
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.73)
1866 Feb 21, Lucy B. Hobbs
became the first woman to graduate from a dental school, the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.
(AP, 2/21/98)
1866 Apr 1, US Congress
rejected presidential veto and gave all equal rights.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1867 May 5, Nellie Bly,
[Elizabeth Cochran Seaman], journalist, was born.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1867 May 20, British parliament
rejected John Stuart Mill’s law on women suffrage.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1867 Nov 7, Marie Curie
(d.1934), Polish-born French scientist, was born in Warsaw as Marya
Salomee Sklodowska. Her discoveries included polonium, radium, which
she isolated from pitchblende, and the radioactivity of thorium. She
was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 with her husband, and
in chemistry in 1911. "You cannot hope to build a better world
without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work
for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general
responsibility for all humanity."
(AHD, 1971, p.323)(AP, 10/26/98)(HN, 11/7/98)
1868 Emily and Elizabeth
Blackwell opened the world’s 1st medical school for women, the
Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary.”
(ON, 4/03, p.3)
1870 Feb 12, Women in the Utah
Territory gained the right to vote. However, that right was taken
away in 1887.
(AP, 2/12/07)
1870 Feb 14, Esther Morris
became the world’s first female justice of the peace.
(HN, 2/14/98)
1870 Mar 17, The Massachusetts
Legislature authorized the incorporation of Wellesley Female
Seminary. It later became Wellesley College.
(AP, 3/17/97)
1870 Apr 2, Victoria Claflin
Woodhull (1838-1927) became the first woman to run for president of
the United States when she announced her candidacy for the 1872
election, but she spent Election Day in jail for sending obscene
literature through the mail. Articulate and radical in her beliefs,
she boldly challenged convention in Victorian-era America. Victoria
and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, got their start as spiritual
advisors to financier Cornelius Vanderbilt. With his backing, the
sisters became the first women to open their own successful
brokerage firm. Woodhull was the first woman newspaper publisher, a
feminist and a militant suffragist, but most shocking to Victorian
sensibilities, she also advocated free love.
(HNPD, 4/28/99)
1870 Aug 31, Maria Montessori,
educator, was born. She founded the Montessori schools.
(HN, 8/31/00)
1870 Dec 25, Rosa Luxembourg,
founder of the German Communist Party, was born.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1871 In Australia Sister Mary
MacKillop (1842-1909) was briefly dismissed from the Roman Catholic
Church after her order of nuns exposed a pedophile priest. She and
47 other nuns were thrown onto the streets of Adelaide, relying on
the charity of friends to survive. In 2010 MacKillop was canonized
as Australia's first saint.
(AP,
10/15/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop)
1872 Mar 22, Illinois became
1st state to require sexual equality in employment.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1872 May 10, Victoria Woodhull
became the first woman nominated for U.S. president. Thomas Nast
depicted her as "Mrs. Satan." Woodhull adhered to a diet prescribed
by Sylvester Graham, known for his ginger-colored crackers.
Sylvester preached against demon rum and died at age 57 after
administering himself a medicinal treatment with considerable
liquor. Frederick Douglas, African-American statesman, was nominated
as vice president on the Equal Rights Party ticket.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, Par p.14-16)(SFC, 10/17/98,
p.E5)(HN, 5/10/98)(WSJ, 3/13/09, p.W2)
1872 Nov 5, Suffragist Susan B.
Anthony and a number of other women voted in Rochester, New York, in
the US general election. On Nov 18, 1872, she was arrested for
voting in the presidential election.
(ON, 8/09,
p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony)
1873 Jun 18, Suffragist Susan
B. Anthony (1815-1906) was fined $100 in Canandaigua, NY, for
attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election. The fine was
never paid [see Nov 5, 1872].
(AP, 6/18/97)(HN, 6/18/98)(ON, 12/09, p.4)
1873 Dec 7, Willa Cather,
American author famous for "O Pioneers" and "My Antonia," was born.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1874 Feb 3, Gertrude Stein
(d.1946), poet and novelist, was born. Her older brother, Michael,
managed the family business, which included San Francisco’s Market
Street railway line. Her parents were Daniel and Milly. Her
relationship with her brother, Leo (1872-1947), abruptly ended in
1914. Her work included "Three Lives," "G.M.P." and "Tender
Buttons." The 40-year relationship between Gertrude and Leo is told
by Brenda Wineapple in "Sister Brother, Gertrude and Leo Stein."
"Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose
their common sense." "It is awfully important to know what is and
what is not your business."
(SFEC, 8/11/96, DB, p.10)(AP, 12/27/97)(AP,
9/3/98)(HN, 2/3/99)
1874 Feb 9, Amy Lowell
(d.1925), poet, critic, was born. "Youth condemns; maturity
condones."
(AP, 11/25/00)(HN, 2/9/01)
1876 Dec 20, Hannah Omish (12)
was the youngest person ever hanged in US.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1877 Apr 30, Alice B. Toklas,
expatriate American, was born. She was associated with Gertrude
Stein, who wrote "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933).
(HN, 4/30/99)
1878 Feb 1, Hattie Caraway,
first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, was born.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1878 May 27, Isadora Duncan
(d.1927), US pioneer in modern dance and choreographer, was born in
San Francisco.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A8)(HN,
5/27/01)
1878 Sep 1, Emma M. Nutt became
the first female telephone operator in the United States, for the
Telephone Despatch Co. of Boston.
(AP, 9/1/03)
1879 Feb 15, President Hayes
signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/15/98)(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1879 Mar 3, Belva Ann Bennett
Lockwood became the 1st female lawyer heard by the US Supreme Court.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1879 May 19, Lady Nancy Astor,
Nancy Witcher Langhorne, was born. She was the first woman to sit in
the British House of Commons.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1879 Aug 29, Jeanne Jugan
(b.1792), a French nun, died. She had helped found the Little
Sisters of the Poor. In 2009 she was canonized as a saint of the
Catholic Church.
(AP,
10/11/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Jugan)
1880 Apr 10, Frances Perkins,
Labor secretary, first woman cabinet member in an American
Administration, was born.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1880 Jun 5, Wild woman of the
west Myra Maybelle Shirley married Sam Starr even though records
show she was already married to Bruce Younger.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1880 Jun 11, Jeannette Rankin,
Congresswoman from Montana, the first woman in Congress who also
voted against U.S. participation in both world wars, was born.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1880 Jun 27, Helen Adams Keller
(d. Jun 1, 1968 at 87) author, social reformer, educator, lecturer,
was born in Tuscumbia, Ala. She lost her sight and hearing at 19
months of age from scarlet fever. She received a college degree and
became an author (Let us Have Faith) and lecturer despite being
blind and deaf most of her life. Helen Keller died in Westport,
Connecticut. "No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is,
he feels that happiness is his indisputable right." "There is no
king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who
has not had a king among his."
(DTnet, 6/1/97)(AP, 11/17/97)(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR
p.3)(AP, 12/16/98)
1880 Jul, In the Battle of
Maiwand an Afghan woman named Malalai carried the Afghan flag
forward after the soldiers carrying the flag were killed by the
British. She becomes a heroine for her show of courage and valor.
The 1892 Kipling poem "Barracks Room Ballads" recalled the Battle of
Maiwand.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C8)
1880 Aug 31, Queen Wilhelmina
of Netherlands (d. Nov 28, 1962 at 82) was born. She reigned from
1890-1947.
(DTnet, 11/28/97)(YN, 8/31/99)
1880 Nov 11, Lucretia Mott, US
Quaker (1st Woman's Rights Convention), died.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1881 May 14, Mary Seacole
(b.1805), Jamaican nurse, died. She is best known for her efforts in
the Crimean War during the 1850s. She borrowed money to make the
4,000-mile (about 6500 km) journey by herself and distinguished
herself treating battlefield wounded, often nursing wounded soldiers
from both sides while under fire.
(AP, 4/19/10)
1881 May 21, Clara Barton
founded the American Red Cross.
(CFA, ‘96, p.46)(AP, 5/21/97)
1882 Jan 25, Virginia Woolf
(d.1941), English author, critic, was born. She was a member of the
intellectual circle known as the Bloomsbury Group and wrote "Mrs.
Dalloway" and "Orlando." "On the outskirts of every agony sits some
observant fellow who points." "I read the Book of Job last night, I
don’t think God comes out of it well." "The compensation of growing
old was simply this: that the passions remain as strong as ever, but
one has gained—at last! -- the power which adds the supreme flavor
to existence, the power of taking hold of experience, of turning it
round, slowly, in the light." In 1997 Panthea Reid published: "Art
and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf." In 1998 Mitchell Leaska
published: "Granite and Rainbow: The Life of Virginia Woolf."
(AP, 7/6/97)(IW 12/29/97)(AP, 1/18/98)(SFC,
5/25/98, p.E6)(HN, 1/25/99)
1882 Feb 28, Geraldine Farrar,
US soprano, actress (Story of American Singer), was born.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1882 Aug 28, Belle Benchley,
the first female zoo director in the world, who directed the
Zoological Gardens of San Diego, was born.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1883 Feb 16, "Ladies Home
Journal" began publishing.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1883 Jun 16, The New York
Gothams admitted both escorted and unescorted ladies to the baseball
park free in the 1st ladies’ day game against the Cleveland Spiders.
NY won, 5-2.
(HNQ, 12/21/01)(AP, 6/16/03)
1883 Lydia Estes Pinkham
(b.1819) died. She was in her mid-fifties when economic hardship
forced her and her family to begin selling bottles of a homemade
health remedy. Mrs. Pinkham's tonic, formulated from herbs and 20%
alcohol as a "solvent and preservative," was first sold in 1875 as a
cure for "female complaints."
(HNPD, 6/30/01)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1884 Mar 6, Over 100
suffragists, led by Susan B. Anthony, presented President Chester A.
Arthur with a demand that he voice support for female suffrage.
(HN, 3/6/99)
1884 Mar 12, Mississippi
established the first U.S. state college for women.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1884 Dec 2, Ruth Draper,
actress and writer, was born.
(HN, 12/2/00)
1885 Feb 13, Elizabeth Virginia
"Bess" Truman, 1st lady (1945-52), was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1886 May 15, Poet Emily
Dickinson (b.1830) died in Amherst, Mass., where she had lived in
seclusion for the previous 24 years. In 2001 Alfred Habegger
authored her biography: "My Wars Are laid Away in Books."
(AP, 5/15/97)(HN, 5/15/01)(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.W11)
1886 Nov 24, Margaret Anderson,
editor, was born. She founded "The Little Review."
(HN, 11/24/00)
1887 Feb 24, Mary Ellen Chase
(d.1973), New England writer, was born. "Suffering without
understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you
have at least the grain of an idea what it’s all for."
(AP, 6/23/97)(HN, 2/24/01)
1887 Mar 3, Anne Mansfield
Sullivan arrived at the Alabama home of Capt. and Mrs. Arthur H.
Keller to become the teacher of Helen, their blind and deaf
6-year-old daughter.
(AP, 3/3/00)
1887 Mar 7, Helen Parkhurst,
educator, was born. She developed a technique later known as the
Dalton Plan.
(HN, 3/7/01)
1887 Apr 4,
Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an
American community -- Argonia, Kan.
(AP, 4/4/97)
1887 Sep 25, Elizabeth Cochran
(1964-1922), under the pen name of Nellie Bly, managed to get
herself sent to the New York Women’s Lunatic Asylym on Blackwell’s
Island to do an undercover story of conditions there. She spent 10
days there a lawyer from the New York World obtained her release.
Her 2-part story for the recounted her experiences and led to
changes at the asylum.
(ON, 6/20/11, p.12)
1887 Nov 15, Marianne Moore,
poet (Pulitzer 1951, Collected Poems), was born in St. Louis.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1887 Nov 15, Georgia O’Keeffe
(d.1986), American painter, was born in Wisconsin. An
introduction to her work was published in 1997 ed. by Peter H.
Hassrick: "The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum."
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(HFA, ‘96, p.42)(SFC, 7/16/97,
p.E3)(SFEC, 9/7/97, BR p.9)
1887 Nov 19, Emma Lazarus (38),
US poet ("Give us your tired & poor"), died in NY.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1888 Mar 6, Louisa May Alcott
(55) died just hours after the burial of her father. Her novels
included "Little Women." In 1998 "Little Women" premiered in Houston
as an opera by Mark Adomo.
(HN, 3/6/01)(WSJ, 8/29/01, p.A12)(MC, 3/6/02)
1888 Apr 3, Gertrude Bridget
"Ma" Rainey, American singer, "the mother of the blues," was born.
(HN, 4/3/01)
1888 Dec 7, Joyce Cary
(d.1957), Irish-born novelist (The Horse's Mouth), was born. "It is
the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know --
and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows
everything."
(HN, 12/7/00)(AP, 1/30/99)
1889 Nov 14, Nellie Bly, the
pen name of journalist Elizabeth Cochran, sailed from New York to
begin her record-breaking 24,899-mile trip around the world--a
journey that would end on January 25, 1890. Cochran had become a
reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch at age 18 and adopted the pen
name "Nellie Bly" from a popular song by Stephen Foster. Her
six-month series of stories from Mexico attracted the attention of
Joseph Pulitzer and, in 1887, she went to work for Pulitzer's New
York World. Feigning insanity, Nellie once had herself committed to
the Blackwell's Island mental hospital and then wrote an expose that
brought about needed reforms. The around-the-world trip originated
in an attempt to beat the Jules Verne's fictional hero Phineas
Fogg's 80-day journey. Millions of people followed the adventures of
the plucky reporter through stories posted back to the World at
every stop. Tremendous celebrations greeted Nellie when she arrived
in New York. Her trip lasted 72 days, six hours and eleven
minutes--a record that would stand until the Graf Zeppelin circled
the globe in 20 days, four hours and fourteen minutes in 1929.
(AP, 11/14/97)(HNPD, 11/14/98)
1890 Jan 25, Reporter Nellie
Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World received a tumultuous
welcome home after she completed a round-the-world journey in 72
days, 6 hours, 11 minutes.
(AP, 1/25/00)
1890 Apr 7, Marjory Stoneman
Douglas, environmentalist (1st Lady of Everglades), was born.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1891 Nov 10, The 1st Woman's
Christian Temperance Union meeting was held in Boston.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1892 Feb 22, Edna St. Vincent
Millay, poet, was born.
(HN, 2/22/01)
1893 Jan 20, Bessy Colman,
first African American aviator, was born.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1893 Jan 24, Hawaii's Queen
Liliuokalani stepped down from the throne on, to avoid any bloodshed
and to pardon her supporters who had been jailed by the Provisional
Government, which had asked her to abdicate.
(HNQ, 1/25/01)
1894 May 11, Martha Graham,
choreographer (Appalachian Spring), was born in Allegheny, Penn.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1894 Dec 30, Amelia Jenks
Bloomer (76), suffragist, died in Council Bluffs, Iowa; she had
gained notoriety for wearing a short skirt and baggy trousers that
came to be known as "bloomers."
(MC, 12/30/01)(AP, 12/30/02)
1895 Apr 15, Josephine Blatt of
the US made a record hip-and-harness lift of 3564 lb.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1895 Marian Sarah Parker became
the 1st woman to acquire a Michigan degree in engineering as she
graduated from the Univ. of Michigan’s dept. of civil engineering.
(MT, Summer/04, p.6)
1896 Jan 7, Fanny Farmer
published her 1st cookbook.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1896 Maria Montessori (22)
graduated from the Univ. of Rome’s school of medicine, the 1st woman
to earn a medical degree in Italy.
(ON, 3/07, p.3)
1897 Feb 27, Miriam Anderson,
was born. She became a world renown opera singer and civil rights
pioneer, and is best remembered for singing "My Country Tis of Thee"
in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
(HN, 2/27/02)
1897 Dec 3, Kate O'Brien, Irish
writer (Without My Cloak), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1897 The suffragette movement
started in England as a peaceful protest. The movement turned
militant in 1903. Women in England won the right to vote in 1918.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.G7)
1898 May 3, Golda Mier
(d.1978), 4th Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974) and the first
woman PM, was born in Kiev, Ukraine. "Whether women are better than
men, I cannot say -- but I can say they are certainly no worse."
(AP, 5/11/97)(HN, 5/3/02)(MC, 5/3/02)
1899 Mar 20, Martha M. Place of
Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the
electric chair. She was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of
her stepdaughter.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1900 Jun 11, Belle Boyd
(b.1844), former Confederate spy, died in Wisconsin. Her 1865
autobiography was titled “Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Boyd)(http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/boyd1/menu.html)
1900 Nov 19, Anna Seghers,
[Netty Radvanyi-Reiling], German author (7th Cross), was born.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1900 Dec 2, John Hossack
(b.1841), an Iowa farmer and a prosperous citizen of Warren County,
was killed in his bed from two blows with an ax. His wife was
accused of the murder. In 1927 Susan Gaspell (1876-1948), American
novelist and playwright, authored “A Jury of Her Peers,” a short
story based on his murder trial.
(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.83)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Jury_of_Her_Peers)
1901 Jan 23, First female
intern was accepted at a Paris hospital.
(HN, 1/23/99)
1901 Jan 30, Women
Prohibitionists smashed 12 saloons in Kansas.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1901 Feb 10, Stella Adler,
actress and teacher, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1902 Feb 1, China's empress
Tzu-hsi forbade binding woman's feet.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1902 Feb 11, Police beat up
universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1902 Feb 19, Kay Boyle, short
story writer ("The White Horses of Vienna"), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1902 Aug 31, Mathilde Wesendonk
(73), German author and poetess, died.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1903 Feb 21, Anais Nin
(d.1977), novelist (Winter of Artifice, House of Incense), was born
in Paris: "People do not live in the present always, at one with it.
They live at all kinds of and manners of distance from it, as
difficult to measure as the course of planets. Fears and traumas
make their journeys slanted, peripheral, uneven, evasive."
(AP, 9/7/97)(MC, 2/21/02)
1903 Mar 2, The Martha
Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel
featured 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1903 Apr 10, Clare Boothe Luce,
U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, was born.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1903 Oct 10, Emmeline Pankhurst
(1858-1928), British suffragist, and her daughter Christabel (23)
founder the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
(ON, 10/2010,
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmeline_Pankhurst)
1903 Nov 19, Carrie Nation
attempted to address Senate.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1903 Dec 9, The Norwegian
parliament voted unanimously for female suffrage.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1903 Dec 10, The Nobel Prize
for physics was awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie and fellow
physicist Henri Becquerel for their work with radioactivity. Marie
Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, had coined the term
radioactivity. Working together after their marriage in 1895, the
Curies made several significant discoveries. They showed that the
elements uranium and thorium emitted radiation that Becquerel had
detected in uranium and had found to be similar to X-rays. They also
found that radioactivity caused particles to be electrically
charged, and they discovered two new elements, polonium and radium.
Their daughter Irène, later a famed scientist in her own
right, was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the synthesis of
new radioactive elements.
(HNPD, 12/10/98)
1904 Sep 1, Helen Keller with
the faithful help of teacher Annie Mansfield Sullivan, graduated cum
laude from Radcliffe College at age 24. This accomplishment was
particularly remarkable because Keller had lost both sight and
hearing at age 2 after contracting scarlet fever. Sullivan, who
broke through Helen’s childhood isolation to teach her Braille and
sign language, accompanied Helen to every class at Radcliffe,
spelling lectures and books into her hand. After graduation, Keller
embarked on a career of writing on behalf of woman suffrage,
socialism and the rights of the handicapped. Helen Keller died on
June 1, 1968, 32 years after the death of her beloved teacher, Annie
Sullivan.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, BR p.3)(HNPD, 9/3/98)
1904 Nov 28, Nancy Mitford,
English author (Love in a Cold Climate), was born. The eldest of 7
Mitford children was born to Lord and Lady Redesdale. In 2001 Mary
S. Lovell authored "The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family."
Jessica Mitford, author of "The American Way of Death" (1963) died
in 1996.
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.M1)(MC, 11/28/01)
1905 Feb 2, Ayn Rand (d.1982),
writer and social philosopher (Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead), was
born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work espoused the
political-economic philosophy of Objectivism, capitalism and what
she called "rational selfishness." She graduated from the University
of Leningrad in 1924 and moved to the United States in 1926,
becoming a citizen in 1931. In Objectivism, the individual alone and
his acts of self-interest are seen as the positive driving force of
society. Rand rejected ideologies of altruism and self-sacrifice.
Her novels "Fountainhead" (1943) and "Atlas Shrugged" (1957) and a
number of non-fiction works brought wide recognition to her and her
theories. Rand founded the journal The Objectivist in 1962. She died
in 1982. "Upper classes are a nation’s past; the middle class is its
future." "So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you
ever asked what is the root of money?"
(AP, 4/30/97)(AP, 5/13/98)(HNPD, 9/27/99)(MC,
2/2/02)
1905 Feb 25, Adele Davis,
nutritionist, was born.
(HN, 2/25/01)
1905 Mar 13, Margaretha Zelle
made her debut as the oriental dancer "Mata Hari," in Paris.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A16)(AP, 3/13/97)
1905 Aug 3, Maggie Kuhn, social
activist and founder of "The Gray Panthers," was born.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1906 Feb 17, Alice Lee
Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's irrepressible eldest
daughter, married Congressman Nicholas Longworth of Ohio in an
elaborate White House ceremony. Heedless of social convention,
Alice's behavior routinely shocked her family and friends. Once the
president, when confronted with another of Alice's escapades,
remarked, "I can do one of two things, I can run the country or
control Alice. I cannot do both." Nevertheless, the world public was
captivated with the first daughter, who seemed to embody the ideal
Gay Nineties woman. In spite of its promising beginning, Alice's
25-year marriage to Longworth was not a happy one, but Alice reigned
as the grande dame of Washington, D.C. society for another 50 years.
(HNPD, 2/16/99)
1906 Mar 7, Finland became the
first country to give women the right to vote, decreeing universal
suffrage for all citizens over 24, however, barring those persons
who were supported by the state. [see Mar 15, 1907]
(HN, 3/7/98)
1906 Mar 13, Susan B. Anthony
(b.1820), abolitionist and advocate of black suffrage as well as the
rights of women to vote, died at age 85. Eleanor Roosevelt suggested
that Susan B. Anthony should be added to the four faces of Mount
Rushmore. Eleanor Roosevelt later suggested that social
reformer and woman suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony should be
included with the images of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and
Theodore Roosevelt, but her suggestion was not accepted.
(AP, 3/13/99)(HNQ, 4/17/00)
1906 Dec 9, Grace Hopper,
mathematician and computer pioneer, was born.
(HN, 12/9/00)
1907 Feb 13, English
suffragettes stormed the British Parliament and 60 women were
arrested.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1907 Mar 15-1907 Mar 16,
Finland held elections and Finnish women became the first in the
world to attain full political rights.
(http://electionresources.org/fi/)
1907 May 12, Katherine Hepburn,
actress (The Philadelphia Story, The African Queen), was born in
Hartford, CT.
(HN, 5/12/01)(MC, 5/12/02)
1907 May 27, Rachel Carson
(d.1964), biologist and writer (Silent Spring, The Sea Around Us),
was born. "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder,
he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it,
rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world
we live in."
(AP, 12/29/98)(HN, 5/27/01)
1907 Jul 16, Barbara Stanwyck
(d.1990), Oscar winning actress, was born as Ruby Stevens.
(HN, 7/16/98)(MC, 7/16/02)
1907 Aug 30, Shirley Booth
(Thelma Booth Ford) was born in New York City. Booth was best known
from 1950s television as the zany maid Hazel. She won a Tony, an
Oscar, the Cannes Festival award and numerous critics' commendations
for her role as the slovenly Lola Delany in 'Come Back, Little
Sheba'. Booth went on to act in more films including 'The
Matchmaker' which was a precursor to the musical 'Hello
Dolly!'
(MC, 8/30/01)
1907 Florence Nightingale
(1820-1910) became the first woman to receive the British Order of
Merit.
(ON, 12/11, p.6)
1908 Jan 9, Simone de Beauvoir,
author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex), was born in France.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1908 Jan 21, New York City's
Board of Aldermen passed the Sullivan Ordinance that effectively
prohibited women from smoking in public. Two weeks later the measure
was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
(AP, 1/21/08)(http://tinyurl.com/2zvwkc)
1908 Mar 7, Cincinnati Mayor
Mark Breith stood before city council and announced that, "women are
not physically fit to operate automobiles."
(MC, 3/7/02)
1908 Mar 8, The House of
Commons, London, turned down the women's suffrage bill.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1908 Mar 23, Joan Crawford,
American actress, was born. She is best known for her role in
Mildred Pierce.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1908 Apr 5, Bette Davis
(d.1989), film actress (Jezebel, All About Eve), was born. "Love is
not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone -- but not
the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding."
(AP, 7/15/99)(HN, 4/5/01)
1908 May 10, The first Mother’s
Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, W.Va.,
and Philadelphia. In 1997 Anna Jarvis first proposed the idea that
all mothers wear a carnation on the 2nd Sunday of May.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)
1908 Jul 22,
Amy Vanderbilt (d.1974), American journalist, etiquette expert: "One
face to the world, another at home makes for misery."
(AP, 5/12/97)(HN, 7/22/02)
1909 Apr 13, Eudora Welty,
Southern writer (Delta Wedding, The Optimist's Daughter), was born
in Jackson, Miss. In 1998 Ann Waldron published "Eudora Welty: A
Writer’s Life."
(SFEC, 11/22/98, BR p.4)(SFEC, 12/6/98, BR
p.8)(HN, 4/13/01)
1909 Apr 30, Juliana, Queen of
the Netherlands, was born. She fled during the Nazi occupation and
abdicated in favor of her daughter Beatrix.
(HN, 4/30/99)
1909 Dec 19, U.S. socialist
women denounced suffrage as a movement of the middle class.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1910 Feb 19, Mary Mallon (aka
Typhoid Mary) was released from 4 years of quarantine on New York’s
North Brother Island. In 1914 she caused a typhus outbreak in the
Sloane Maternity Hospital. She was again arrested and returned to
North Brother Island where she died Nov 11, 1938.
(ON, 7/01, p.12)
1910 Mar 8, Baroness de Laroche
became the first women to obtain a pilot's license in France.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1910 Mar 17, The Camp Fire
Girls organization was formed in Lake Sebago, Maine. It was formally
presented to the public exactly two years later.
(AP, 3/17/97)(HN, 3/17/01)
1910 May 31, Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell (b.1821), the first American woman to become a doctor,
died. She and colleagues founded the New York Infirmary for Women
and Children (1857).
(http://womenshistory.about.com/od/blackwellelizabeth/a/eliz_blackwell.htm)
1910 Jun 25, The Mann Act was
passed in the US. It forbade transporting women across state lines
for immoral purposes.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1910 Sep 2, Alice Stebbins
Wells was admitted to the Los Angeles Police Force as the first
woman police officer to receive an appointment based on a civil
service exam.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1910 Aug 13, Florence
Nightingale (90), British nurse famous for her care of British
soldiers during the Crimean War, died. In 2004 Gillian Gill authored
“Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss
Florence Nightingale.” In 2008 Mark Bostridge authored Florence
Nightingale: The Making of an Icon.”
(HN, 8/13/98)(SSFC, 9/5/04, p.M3)(AP,
8/13/07)(WSJ, 10/21/08, p.A17)
1910 Nov 22, Amy Elizabeth
Thorpe, a Minnesota-born British spy known as "Cynthia" was born in
Minneapolis. She has been described as World War II's "Mata Hari."
Family and friends called her Betty. William Stephenson, who ran
Great Britain’s World War II intelligence activities in the Western
Hemisphere, would one day give her a code name--"Cynthia." She
reputedly was one of the most successful spies in history.
(HNQ, 3/14/01)
1910 Dec 3, Mary Baker Eddy,
founder of Christian Science, died.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1911 Feb 8, Elizabeth Bishop,
poet, was born.
(HN, 2/8/01)
1911 Feb 19, Merle Oberon, film
actress, was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1911 Mar 3, Jean Harlow
(Harlean Carpenter), actress (Platinum Blonde, Red Dust, Bombshell,
Dinner at Eight, China Seas, Libeled Lady), was born.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1911 Mar 8, International
Women's Day was established when American working women demonstrated
for their rights as workers and women.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A32)
1911 Apr 6, In San Francisco
the Police Board examined 9 Mission saloon keepers who were cited
for selling liquor to women decoys. Mission District Police Capt.
Henry Gleeson faced a possible charge of neglect of duty.
(SSFC, 4/3/11, DB p.46)
1911 Apr 30, Portugal approved
woman suffrage.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1911 Jun 9, Carry Amelia Moore
Gloyd Nation (b.1846), American temperance leader, died in
Leavenworth, Kansas. She was buried in the Belton City Cemetery,
Belton, Cass County, Missouri. Carry Nation was a social reformer,
saloon smasher and scourge of barkeepers and drinkers everywhere.
(www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry8.htm)
1911 Jul 16, Ginger Rogers
(d.1995), actress and dancer, was born as Virginia Katherine McMath.
(HN, 7/16/01)(MC, 7/16/02)
1911 Oct 10, California voters
approved amendments by Republican Gov. Hiram Johnson that included
the recall, initiative and referendum process as part of his
progressive reform package. Almost 2/3 of 178,115 voters affirmed
the amendments. Voters granted women the right to vote in state and
local elections. It was the 6th state of the union to pass suffrage.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A7)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SSFC,
8/3/03, p.D1)(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.E3) (SSFC, 10/10/04, p.E1)
1911 Oct 10, San Francisco
voters defeated an amendment on “Votes for Women” by some 12,000
votes. Charges of corruption and ballot abuse were cited. The
amendment passed state-wide.
(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.E1)(SSFC, 10/9/11, DB p.42)
1911 Nov 21, Suffragettes
stormed Parliament in London. All were arrested and all chose prison
terms.
(HN, 11/21/98)
1911 Dec 31, Helene Dutrieu won
the Femina aviation cup in Etampes. She set a distance record for
women at 158 miles.
(HN, 12/31/98)
1912 Jan 30, Barbara Tuchman,
U.S. historian best remembered for her book "The Guns of August,"
was born.
(HN, 1/30/99)
1912 Mar 1, Isabella Goodwin,
1st US woman detective, was appointed in NYC.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1912 Mar 12, Juliette Gordon
Low organized the Girl Guides, the first Girl Scouts troop in
America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah, Ga.
(AHD, p.225)(HFA, '96, p.26)(SFEC,11/30/97,
p.T5)(AP, 3/12/98)
1912 Mar 16, Thelma Catherine
Patricia Ryan Nixon, first lady (1968-75) to Richard Nixon, was born
in Ely, Nevada.
(HN, 3/16/01)(MC, 3/16/02)
1912 Mar 28, San Francisco
women began voting for the first time.
(SSFC, 3/25/12, DB p.42)
1912 Apr 12, Clara Barton
(b.1821), the founder of the American Red Cross, died at her home in
Glen Echo, Maryland at age 90.
(HNPD, 12/26/98)(MC, 4/12/02)
1912 May 4, More than ten
thousand women and about a thousand men marched down Fifth Avenue in
NYC to support woman's suffrage.
(NYT, 5/5/1912, p1)
1912 May 29, Curtis Publishing
fired 15 young women for dancing the "Turkey Trot" during their
lunch break.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1912 Jul 1, Drama critic
Harriet Quimby (b.1875) took a passenger up in her new
Blériot monoplane from Boston to fly over Dorchester Bay at
the Harvard-Boston Aviation Meet. As she descended for landing, the
plane went into a dive and, without seat belts, she and her
passenger were thrown out into the shallow water of the bay, where
they struck the muddy bottom and were crushed to death. Quimby was
the first American to receive a pilot's license (1911) and was the
first woman to solo across the English Channel (1912). Her interest
in flight was piqued at an aviation meet in 1910.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby)(HNPD, 7/31/98)(ON,
1/00, p.11)
1912 Nov 4, Arizona and Kansas
granted women the right to vote. Wisconsin voted against suffrage
for women.
(HN,
11/5/98)(http://library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/WER0124-12.html)
1912 Christine Frederick
authored “The New Housekeeping: Efficiency Studies in Home
Management,” in the Ladies Home Journal. She argued that servants
should get overtime and bonuses for mastering new tasks.
(http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/progress/text4/frederick.pdf)
1913 Jan 28, Pleasance Pendred,
an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU),
was arrested for taking part in a window breaking campaign mainly
targeting government offices around Westminster. Her pamphlet “Why
Women Teachers Break Windows” was first published circa 1912 by the
Woman’s Press. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) had
recently declared all out war against public and private property in
the United Kingdom. An orgy of vandalism followed.
(http://suffragettes.nls.uk/media/28977/project_1_4_1.pdf)(ON,
10/2010, p.8)
1913 Feb 6, Mary Douglas Nicol,
later archaeologist and paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, was born in
London. She met anthropologist Louis Leakey in 1933 and joined him
in Kenya.
(SFC, 12/10/96, p.A6)(HN, 2/6/01)
1913 Apr 3, British suffragette
Emily Pankhurst was sentenced to 3 years in jail. She protested with
hunger strikes and was released and re-arrested 9 times over a
period of 18 months under the Temporary Discharge of Prisoners for
Ill-Health Act.
(http://suffragettes.nls.uk/media/28977/project_1_4_1.pdf)(ON,
10/2010, p.8)
1913 Apr 7, The suffragists'
marched to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. By the second decade of
the 20th century, woman suffrage--women's right to vote--had become
an issue of national importance in America. The growth in the
numbers of American working women and the valuable contributions
women made in war production during World War I further increased
the suffragists' support. On August 20, 1919, the 19th Amendment to
the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote.
(HNPD, 4/7/99)
1913 May 7, British House of
Commons rejected women's right to vote.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1913 Jun 8, Emily Wilding
Davison (b.1872), a member of the Women's Social and Political Union
(WSPU), died from injuries 4 days earlier when she tried to block
the path of a racehorse owned by King George V. See link for video
of race.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wdavison.htm)
1913 Dec 1, Mary Martin,
American actress famous for her roles in "South Pacific" and "The
Sound of Music," was born.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1914 Mar 10, Suffragettes in
London damaged painter Rokeby's Venus of Velasquez.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1914 May 6, British House of
Lords rejected women suffrage.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1914 May 9, Pres. Wilson
proclaimed Mother's Day.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1914 Jun 26, Babe (Mildred)
Didrikson Zaharias (International Women's Sports Hall of Famer,
Olympic Hall of Famer, World Golf Hall of Famer, LPGA Hall of Famer,
National Track and Field Hall of Famer), was born in Port Arthur,
Texas.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Zaharias)
1914 The Int’l. Association of
Policewomen was formed. 25 US cities had policewomen.
(SFC, 6/25/04, p.F6)
1915 Jan 12, The U.S. House of
Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1915 May 12, Mary Kay Ash,
chairman of Mary Kay Cosmetics, was born.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1915 Jun 10, Girl Scouts were
founded. [see Mar 12, 1912]
(MC, 6/10/02)
1915 Oct 23, Tens of thousands
of women marched in NYC, demanding the right to vote.
(AP, 10/23/08)
1915 Dec 19, Edith Piaf,
internationally famous French cabaret singer, was born. She is best
remembered for her songs "La Vie en rose" and "Non, je ne regrette
rein."
(HN, 12/19/99)
1916 Feb 11, Emma Goldman was
arrested for lecturing on birth control.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1916 Feb 29, Dinah Shore,
actress and singer, was born. [see Mar 1, 1917]
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A1)
1917 Mar 1, Dinah Shore, singer
(See the USA in a Chevrolet), was born in Winchester, Ten. [see Feb
29, 1916]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1917 Mar 4, Republican Jeanette
Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the
House of Representatives.
(AP, 3/4/98)
1917 Mar 20, Dame Vera Lynn,
British songstress, was born. She sang "White Cliffs of Dover" and
"Lily Marlene" during World War II.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1917 Mar 28, The Women’s Army
Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded, these were Great Britain’s first
official service women.
(HN, 3/28/99)
1917 Apr 2, Jeannette Pickering
Rankin, a representative from Montana, was sworn in as the first
woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
(HN, 4/2/01)(MC, 4/2/02)
1917 Aug 28, 10 suffragists
were arrested as they picketed the White House.
(AP, 8/28/97)
1917 Nov 10, Forty-one US
suffragettes were arrested for picketing in front of the White
House.
(AP, 11/10/07)
1917 Nov 19, Indira Gandhi,
prime minister of India from 1967 to 1977 and 1978 to 1984, was
born. She was assassinated by her own guards.
(HN, 11/19/00)
1918 Jan 10, The US House of
Representatives passed women's suffrage. The 19th Amendment for
women's suffrage was also known as the Anthony Amendment in honor of
Susan B. Anthony.
(HN, 1/10/99)(SFC, 10/11/99, p.E12)
1918 Feb 6, Britain’s
Representation of the People Act, aka the Fourth Reform Act, granted
working class men in the armed forces the right to vote. Female
property owners over age 30 were also granted the right to vote.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_the_People_Act_1918)
1918 Mar 13, Women were
scheduled to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York due
to a shortage of men.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1918 Mar 29, Pearl Bailey
(d.1990), singer and actress, was born. "There is a way to look at
the past. Don’t hide from it. It will not catch you if you don’t
repeat it." "A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but
no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here
on earth is ever so alive."
(AP, 6/24/97)(AP, 6/12/98)(HN, 3/29/01)
1918 Jul 4, Ann Landers and
Abigail Van Buren, twin sisters who became famous columnists, were
born in Sioux City, Iowa, as Esther P. (Landers) and Pauline E.
(Abbie) Friedman. Their "advice" columns are syndicated in more than
1,000 newspapers. Esther Friedman died in 2002 at age 83.
(IB, 12/7/98)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A10)
1918 Jul 25, Annette Adams of
Calif. was sworn in as the 1st US woman district attorney.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1919 Jan 15, Rosa Luxemburg
(b.1870), Marxist revolutionary, was murdered.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1919 Feb 1, "There she is..."
The first Miss America was crowned on this day, not in Atlantic
City, but in New York City. Edith Hyde was not, the judges found, a
Miss. She was a Mrs. Mrs. Tod Robbins, the mother of two children.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1919 Apr 13, Madalyn Murray
O'Hair, American atheist (opposed prayer in school), was born.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1919 Apr 15, Jane Arminda
Delano (b.1862), founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service,
died in France while on a Red Cross mission and was buried there.
She was posthumously awarded the US Distinguished Service Medal, the
1st female recipient. In 1920 She was brought back to the U.S. and
re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery.
(www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jadelano.htm)
1919
Jun 14, The US Congress passed the 19th amendment granting suffrage
to American women.
(www.usconstitution.net/constamnotes.html#Am19)
1919 Jul 19, Raymonde de
Larouche (1882-1919), Franch actress and aviatrix, died in an plane
crash at Le Crotoy airport in France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymonde_de_Laroche)
1919 Sep 2, Marge Champion,
dancer (Marge & Gower Champion Show), was born in LA,
California.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1919 Nov 28, American-born Lady
Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
(DT net, 11/28/97)(HN, 11/28/98)
1919 Dec 1, Lady Astor was
sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1919 Nov 30, Women cast votes
for the first time in French legislative elections.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1919 Dec 1, Lady Astor was
sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
(AP, 12/1/00)
1920 Jan 5, GOP women demanded
equal representation at the Republican National Convention in June.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1920 Feb 8, Swiss men voted
against women's suffrage.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1920 Feb 13, Eileen Farrell,
opera soprano (Interrupted Melody), was born in Willimantic, Conn.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1920 Feb 14, The League of
Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maude
Wood Park.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 2/14/98)
1920 Feb 16, Patty Andrews,
vocalist (Andrews Sisters), was born in Minneapolis.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1920 Mar 20, Pamela Churchill
Harriman (d.1997) was born. She was later appointed by Pres. Clinton
as ambassador to France. In 1996 Sally Bedell Smith wrote her
biography: "Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E6)(SFC, 2/6/97, p.A14)
1920
Aug 18, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment
to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of all American
women to vote. This completed the three-quarters necessary to put
the amendment into effect. Aaron Sargent, who wrote the 19th
amendment, also built Grandmere's Inn in Nevada City. Carrie Chapman
Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, played a crucial role
in its passage. She also held some very racist views: she called the
ballots of proletarian voters "undesirable" and referred to Indians
as "savages." [see Aug 26, 1920]
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-3)(SFC, 6/9/96, p.B-11)(AP,
8/18/97)(HN, 8/18/01)
1920
Aug 26, US Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified
ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. The amendment had been
first introduced in Congress in 1878, setting in motion supporters
who demonstrated, lobbied, marched and spoke out for woman suffrage.
They were often met with venomous opposition. Early on, the two main
factions of the movement disagreed about how to achieve their goal,
but they ultimately united in 1890 to form the National American
Woman Suffrage Association and worked together to get the amendment
passed. By August 18, 1920, three-fourths of the United States had
agreed to the bill.
(AP, 8/26/97)(HNPD, 8/26/99)
1920 Sep 4, Maggie Higgins, the
first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1951) for international
reporting, for her work in Korean war zones, was born.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1920 Nov 2, Of the
sixty-eight women who signed the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca
Falls in 1848, only one, Charlotte Woodward Pierce (1830-1921),
lived to see that day.
(www.nps.gov/wori/biographies/woodward.htm)
1921 Feb 4, Betty Friedan,
writer, feminist, was born. She founded the National Organization of
Women in 1966.
(HN, 2/4/01)
1921 Mar 6, Police in Sunbury,
Penn., issued an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4
inches below the knee.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1921 Apr 8, Betty Bloomer Ford,
first lady to President Gerald Ford, was born.
(HN, 4/8/99)
1921 Sep 8, Margaret Gorman of
Washington, D.C., was crowned the first Miss America in Atlantic
City, N.J.
(AP, 9/8/97)(HN, 9/8/98)
1922 Jan 27, Elizabeth Cochran
(1864-1922), renowned American journalist who had written under the
pen name of Nellie Bly, died in NYC.
(ON, 6/20/11,
p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly)
1922 Feb 18, Helen Gurley
Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, was born.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1922 Nov 21, Rebecca L. Felton
of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S.
Senate.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1923 Feb 15, Yelena Bonner,
soviet dissident, wife of Andre Sakharov, was born in Moscow.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1923 Mar 2, In Italy, Mussolini
admitted that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time
was not right.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1923 Mar 14, Diane Arbus,
photographer, innovator, was born.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1923 Mar 24, Edna Jo Hunter,
expert on military families and prisoners of war, was born.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1923 May 28, US Attorney
General said it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1923 Dec 2, Maria M. Callas,
soprano (Carmen), was born in NYC.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1924 Feb 17, Margaret Truman,
pres. daughter, writer (Murder at FBI), singer, was born in Mo.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1924 Feb 20, Gloria Vanderbilt,
fashion designer, was born.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1924 Mar 10, The U.S. Supreme
Court upheld a New York state law forbidding late-night work for
women.
(HN, 3/10/98)
1924 Mar 27, Sarah Vaughan,
'the Divine One,' jazz singer, was born. She was famous for singing
"What a Difference a Day Makes."
(HN, 3/27/99)
1924 Apr 3, Doris Von
Kappelhoff [Doris Day], American singer and actress, was born in
Cincinnati, Oh.
(HN, 4/3/01)(MC, 4/3/02)
1924 Apr 4, Eva Marie Saint,
actress (Sandpiper, Loving, Exodus), was born in Newark, NJ.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1924 Aug 29, Dinah Washington,
singer, was born. She was known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem
Blues."
(HN, 8/29/00)
1924 Nov 30, Shirley Chisholm,
first African-American congresswoman, was born.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1925 Jan 5, Nellie Tayloe Ross
(1876-1977) of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in
the United States. She succeeded Frank E. Lucas, who had served as
acting governor after the death of Ross' husband, William B. Ross.
Ross took office as governor of Wyoming, just 16 days before
Miriam A. Ferguson became governor of Texas.
(AP,
1/5/08)(http://wyoarchives.state.wy.us/articles/rossbio.htm)
1925 Feb 11, Virginia E.
Johnson, doctor, sexologist (Masters & Johnson), was born.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1925 Nov 26, Linda Hunt,
actress (Bostonians, Eleni, Silverado), was born in Morristown, NJ.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1926 Jan 29, Violette Neatley
Anderson became the first African-American woman admitted to
practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.
(HN, 1/29/99)
1926 Jan 31, Jean Simmons,
actress (Thorn Birds, Guys and Dolls), was born in London, England.
(MC, 1/31/02)
1926 Jul 8, Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross, author, physician, educator, was born.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1926
Nov 3, Annie Oakley (b.1860), US sharp shooting star, died at
Greenville, Ohio. Chief Sitting Bull nicknamed her “Little Miss Sure
Shot” when she was a member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
(www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/oakl-ann.htm)
1927 Jan 17, Eartha Kitt,
singer, actress (Catwoman-Batman), was born.
(MC, 1/17/02)
1927 Jan 17, Juliette Gordon
Low (b.1860), founder of the Girl Scouts (1912), died in Savannah,
Georgia. In 2012 Stacy A. Cordery authored “Juliette Gordon Low: The
Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts.”
(SSFC, 3/18/12,
p.F4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliette_Gordon_Low)
1927 Feb 10, (Mary Violet)
Leontyne Price, opera singer, was born.
(HN, 2/10/01)
1927 Feb 21, Erma Bombeck,
author and humorist, was born. She became an American syndicated
columnist whose column "At Wit's End" humorously dealt with life as
a wife and mother. Her work included "The Grass is Always Greener
Over the Septic Tank."
(HN, 2/21/01)
1927 Apr 27, Coretta Scott
King, civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., was
born.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1927 Aug 29, Marion Williams,
gospel singer, was born.
(HN, 8/29/00)
1927 Sep 8, A woman arrived in
SF from China and claimed to be Gen. Chiang Kai-shek’s wife. The
Gen. declared that he had divorced his legal wife in 1921 and freed
2 concubines this year.
(SFC, 9/20/02, p.E6)
1927 Nov 29, Genevieve
Paddleford arrived as the 1st woman inmate at the new women’s
quarters at San Quentin Prison. She was serving 1 to 10 years for
stealing $600 worth of clothing.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.E9)
1927 The Supreme Court decision
of Buck vs. Bell supported a 1924 Virginia compulsory sterilization
bill and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes commented "three generations
of imbeciles are enough."
(NH, 7/02, p.12)
1928 Jan 12, Ruth Snyder became
the 1st woman to die in the electric chair.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1928 Apr 4, Maya Angelou,
American poet, was born.
(HN, 4/4/98)
1928 Apr 23, Shirley Temple
Black, child actress, was born. She sang "On the Good Ship Lollipop"
and later became and American ambassador.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1928 May 12, In Italy Mussolini
abolished women suffrage under a new law that restricted the
franchise to men 21 and over who pay syndicate rates or taxes or 100
lire.
(PCh, 1992, p.787)
1928 May 23, Rosemary Clooney
(d.2002), singer, was born in Maysville, Ky.
(HN, 5/23/01)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A20)
1928 Jun 14, British
suffragette Emily Pankhurst (b.1858) died.
(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/pankhurst_emmeline.shtml)
1928 Jun 17, Amelia Earhart
embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with
pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to
make the trip as a passenger.
(ON, 12/07, p.9)(AP, 6/17/08)
1928 Jul 2, Britain enacted
another Representation of the People Act granting women over 21 the
same rights as men. British women over age 30 had voted since 1918.
(Econ, 5/12/07,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_suffrage)(ON, 10/2010,
p.9)
1928 Jul 28, The Olympics
opened at Amsterdam. Track and field events opened for women for the
1st time despite objections from Pope Pius IX. Germany was allowed
to participate for the 1st time since WWI.
(SC, 7/28/02)(NG, 8/04, Geographica)(WSJ,
4/12/08, p.R2)
1928 Nov 20, Mrs. Glen Hyde
became the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow.
Her flat bottomed boat used sweep oars for maneuvering.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1928 Dec 12, Helen
Frankenthaler, abstract painter, was born.
(HN, 12/12/00)
1928 In the Olympic games
several women collapsed at the end of the 800-meter run. This led to
a 32-year ban on women running in Olympic races over 200 meters.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.F1)
1929 May 4, Audrey Hepburn
(Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Rusten), Belgian-born actress, was born.
She won an Oscar for her role Roman Holiday and later became a
Special Ambassador for UNICEF.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1929 Aug 18, The first
cross-country women's air derby began. Louise McPhetride Thaden won
first prize in the heavier-plane division, while Phoebe Fairgrave
Omlie finished first in the lighter-plane category.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1929 Nov 21, Marilyn French,
novelist and critic, was born. Her work includes "The Women's Room."
(HN, 11/21/00)
1929 Nov 30, Joan Ganz Cooney,
television executive, was born in Phoenix, Az. She founded the
Children's Television Workshop and was the mastermind behind "Sesame
Street."
(HN, 11/30/00)(MC, 11/30/01)
1929 Dec 6, Turkey introduced
female suffrage.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1930 Jan 15, Amelia Earhart set
an aviation record for women at 171 mph in a Lockheed Vega.
(HN, 1/15/99)
1930 Feb 27, Joanne Woodward,
actress, was born. Her films included "Rachel, Rachel" and "The
Three Faces of Eve."
(HN, 2/27/01)
1930 Mar 26, Sandra Day
O'Connor, first woman US Supreme Court Justice (1981- ), was born in
El Paso TX.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1930 May 15, Ellen Church, the
first airline stewardess, went on duty aboard an Oakland-to-Chicago
flight operated by Boeing Air Transport, a forerunner of United
Airlines.
(HN, 5/15/98)(AP, 5/15/07)
1930 May 24, Amy Johnson became
the first woman to fly from England to Australia.
(HN, 5/24/98)
1930 Jun 2, Sarah Dickson
became the 1st woman Presbyterian elder in US in Cincinnati.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1930 Dec 10, Lady aviator Ruth
Nichols set a new women's record for coast to coast flight,
traveling from Los Angeles to New York in 13 hours 22 minutes.
(NY Times, 11/12/1930, p.1)
1931 Feb 4, Isabel Peron,
[Maria Martinez], dancer, president of Argentina, was born.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1931 Feb 15, [Patricia] Claire
Bloom, actress (Charly, Look Back in Anger), was born in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1931 Feb 18, Toni Morrison,
Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The Bluest Eye,
Beloved), was born.
(AP, 2/18/01)
1931
Mar 18, Jackie Mitchell became the 2nd female in professional
baseball as she signed with the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Tennessee
Class AA minor league team. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington played one
game, pitching for Reading (PA) against Allentown.
(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1931 Apr 2, Virne "Jackie"
Mitchell became the 2nd woman to play for an all-male pro baseball
team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck
out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in
Chattanooga, Tennessee.
(HN,
4/2/01)(www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/mitchell.html)
1931 Dec 10, Jane Addams became
a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for her efforts as the
president of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom.
She was the first American woman so honored. She was also known for
her work as a social reformer and pacifist, and founded the Hull
House in Chicago. The co-recipient was Nicholas Murray Butler.
(HN, 9/6/98)(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A16)(AP, 12/10/06)
1931 Gertrude Vanderbilt
Whitney (d.1942) founded the Whitney Museum in her New York
Greenwich Village townhouse. In 2000 Flora Miller Biddle authored
"The Whitney Women and the Museum They Made."
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A44)
1932 Jan 12, Mrs. Hattie W.
Caraway (Ophelia Wyatt Caraway) a Democrat from Arkansas, became the
first woman elected to the US Senate.
(AP, 1/12/98)(MC, 1/12/02)
1932 Feb 18, Sonja Henie won
her 6th straight World Women's figure skating title.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1932 Feb 27, Elizabeth Taylor,
actress, was born. Her films included "Cleopatra" and "Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf?"
(SFC, 2/16/97, Par. p.22)(HN, 2/27/01)
1932 Dec 30, The USSR barred
food handouts for housewives under 36 years of age. They would now
have to work to eat.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1933 Jan 25, Corazon Aquino was
born. She defeated the corrupt Ferdinand Marcos to become the
President of the Philippines (1986-1992). Her husband had been
killed by Marcos’ gunmen.
(HN, 1/25/99)(MC, 1/25/02)
1933 Feb 13, Kim Novak,
actress, was born.
(HN, 2/13/01)
1934 Feb 24, Renata Scotto,
soprano (Violetta, La Traviata), was born in Savona, Italy.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1933 Feb 28, Francis Perkins
was appointed Secretary of Labor, the 1st female in cabinet.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1933 Mar 15, Ruth Bader
Ginsberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born.
(HN, 3/16/01)
1933 Apr 26, Carol Burnett,
comedian, actress (Annie, 4 Seasons), was born in San Antonio, Tx.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1933 Jul 1, German Nazi regime
decreed married women should not work.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1933 Sep 1, Ann Richards,
Gov-Tx., was born.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1934 Mar 25, Gloria Steinem,
political activist, editor, was born.
(HN, 3/25/01)
1934 Apr 3, Jane van
Lawick-Goodall, ethologist (studied African chimps, 1974 Walker
Prize), was born in London, England. She was a British
anthropologist, known for her work with African chimpanzees. In 2000
her autobiography "Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters,
The Early Years, 1934-1966," was edited by Dale Peterson.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.6)(SC,
3/4/02)(MC, 4/3/02)
1934 Apr 24, Shirley MacLaine,
actress, mystic (Irma la Douce), was born in Richmond, Va.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1934 Jul 4, "Madame" Marie
Curie-Sklodovska, Polish-born French chemist and Nobel Prize winner,
died in Paris of leukemia caused by her long exposure to radiation.
In 1937 Eve Curie authored "Madame Curie, a Biography."
(ON, 3/00,
p.2)(http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=madameCurie)
1934 Dec 5, Joan Didion,
essayist and novelist, was born. Her work includes "Slouching
Towards Bethlehem" and "Play it a it Lays."
(HN, 12/5/00)
1934 Women in Turkey were given
the right to vote and to jettison their veils.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.49)
1935 Jan 11, Aviator Amelia
Earhart began a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., becoming the
first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
(AP, 1/11/98)
1935 Feb 6, Turkey held its 1st
election that allowed women to vote.
(MC, 2/6/02)
1935 May 21, Jane Addams
(b.1860), a founder of ACLU (Nobel 1973), died. She was known for
her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House
in Chicago in 1889. She was the first American woman to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize (1931). In 2001 Jean Bethke Elshtain authored
"Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy" and edited "The
Jane Addams Reader."
(AHD, 1971, p.15)(HN, 9/6/98)(WSJ, 1/2/02,
p.A16)(MC, 5/21/02)
1935 Aug 26, Geraldine Ferraro,
(Rep-D-NY) 1st female dem VP candidate (1984), was born.
(MC, 8/26/02)
1935 Zora Neale Hurston
published her folk tale collection: Mules and Men." In 2001 the
collection was reprinted as "Every Tongue Got to Confess: negro Folk
Tales From the Gulf States."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.M1)
1936 Mar 22, May Britt, actress
(Young Lions), wife of Sammy Davis Jr., was born in Sweden.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1936 Mar 26, Mary Joyce ended a
1,000 mile trip by dog in Alaska.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1936 May 9, Glenda Jackson,
actress (Women in Love), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1936 Aug 31, Marva Collins,
innovative educator who started Chicago's one-room school, Westside
Preparatory, was born.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1936 Marjory B. Farquhar
(d.1999) became the first woman to climb the Higher Cathedral Spire
in Yosemite. Her oral history is on file at UC Berkeley.
(SFC, 1/25/99, p.A20)
1936 The Bendix Race title went
to Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes. A top event during the
period known as aviation's Golden Age, the flight took them 14 hours
and 55 minutes, and they won both the $4,500 first prize and the
$2,500 "consolation" money that had been offered to encourage women
to enter the contest. Since no one thought a woman could actually
come in first, the Bendix organizers called the $2,500 a
"consolation prize," an incentive for the first woman to cross the
finish line.
(HNQ, 5/31/02)
1937 Mar 6, Valentina
Nikolayeva-Tereshkova, Russian astronaut, was born. In 1963 she
became the first women to orbit the Earth on Vostok 6.
(HN, 3/6/99)(MC, 3/6/02)
1937 Mar 17, Amelia Earhart
took off from Oakland, Ca., in an attempt to become the first pilot
to fly around the globe at the equator.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.A8)
1937 Zora Neale Hurston
(1903-1960) wrote her novel: "Their Eyes were Watching God." It is
about a young black woman from Florida who survives a bad marriage
and finds true love with a younger man named Tea Cake. Cassette
recordings were made in 1991. She made some films during research
trips on life in the South in 1928 and 1929.
(SFC, 4/5/96, p.D-1)(SFC, 12/13/96, p.C8)
1938 Mar 18, NY 1st required
serological blood tests of pregnant women.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1938 Jun 16, Joyce Carol Oates,
American writer and university professor, was born. She wrote "Them"
and "Garden of Earthly Delights."
(HN, 6/16/99)
1938 Jul 20, Diana Rigg,
actress (Emma Peel-Avengers, Hospital), was born in Doncaster,
England.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1938 Jul 20, Natalie Wood
(d.1981), (From Here to Eternity, West Side Story, Splendor in
the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause), was born as Natasha
Nikolaevna Gurdin.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1938 Jul 21, Janet Reno, US
attorney general (1993-2001), was born.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1939 Jan 29, Germaine Greer,
feminist, author (Female Eunuch), was born in Melbourne, Australia.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1939 Feb 27, Nadezjda K.
Krupskaja (70), Russian revolutionary, wife of Lenin, died.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1939 Mar 21, Singer Kate Smith
recorded "God Bless America" for Victor Records. She introduced the
song on her radio program in 1938.
(HN, 3/21/98)(SFC, 12/28/99, p.C5)
1939 Dec 16, National Women’s
Party urged immediate congressional action on equal rights.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1940 Mar 14, Rita Tushingham,
actress (Green Eyes, Dr Zhivago), was born in Liverpool, England.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1940 Mar 26, Nancy Pelosi,
(Representative-Democrat-CA), was born.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1940 May 14, Emma Goldman,
anarchist revolutionary, author (Living My Life), died in Toronto
and was buried in Chicago. In 1974 Carol Bolt wrote a play on the
formative years of Emma titled: "Red Emma: Queen of the Anarchists."
In 1995 Ms. Bolt wrote a libretto based on the play for an opera
with music by Gary Kulesha. In 1961 Richard Drinnon authored "Rebel
In Paradise: A Biography of Emma Goldman." In 1971 Alex Shulman
authored "To the Barricades: The Anarchist Life of Emma Goldman."
(WSJ, 12/11/95, p.A-1)(ON, 4/00, p.5)(MC,
5/14/02)
1940 Sep 5, Raquel Welch, film
actress (Myra Breckenridge, 1,000,000 BC, 100 Rifles), was born in
Chicago, Ill.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1941 Feb 20, Buffy
Sainte-Marie, folksinger (Now That the Buffalo Are Gone), was born
in Maine.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1941 Mar 28, Novelist and
critic Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), born as Virginia Stephen, died in
Lewes, England. She feared a mental breakdown and threw herself into
the River Ouse near her home in Sussex. Her body was never found.
She was an English novelist, essayist and critic and wrote standing
up. In 1997 "Art and Affection, A Life of Virginia Woolf" was
published. In 1997 a biography by Hermione Lee was published.
(WUD, 1994, p.1643)(SFC, 6/23/96, zone 1
p.2)(SFEM, 1/12/97, BR p.7)(AP, 3/28/97)(SFEC, 6/22/97, BR p.8)(HN,
3/28/01)
1941 Sep 19, "Mama" Cass
Elliot, singer for the Mamas & Papas, was born as Ellen Naomi
Cohen.
(www.casselliot.com)
1941 Dec 5, Sister Elizabeth
Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis, polio, was approved.
(MC, 12/5/01)
c1941-1945 Russian women combat pilots were called
the "Night Witches" by the Germans they haunted during dark, scary
nights of World War II. The embattled skies of the Soviet Union
regularly saw women proving their worth in combat as bomber, night
bomber and even as fighter pilots.
(HNQ, 2/19/02)
1942 Mar 13, Julia Flikke of
the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1942 Mar 26, Erica Jong [Mann],
poet, novelist (Fear of Flying, How to Save Your Own Life), was born
in NYC.
(HN, 3/26/01)(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Apr 24, Barbra Streisand,
singer, actress, was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1942 May 14, The Women's
Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established.
(AP, 5/14/97)
1942 Jun 15, Xaviera Hollander,
[DeVries], celebrity "author" (Happy Hooker), was born in Surabaya,
Indonesia.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1942 Jul 10, Himmler ordered
the sterilization of all Jewish woman in Ravensbruck Camp.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1942 Jul 20, The first
detachment of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later known
as WACs, began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
(HN, 7/20/02)(AP, 7/20/02)
1942 Nov 19, Sharon Olds, poet,
was born. Her work included "The Dead and The Living" and "The
Gold Cell."
(HN, 11/19/00)
1942 Nov 23, US Coast Guard
Woman's Auxiliary (SPARS) was authorized.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1943 Jan 19, Janice Joplin
(d.1970), rock singer, was born.
(estate)
1943 Feb 13, The Marine Corps
began allowing women to enlist as reserves.
(www.mcleague.com/mdp/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=63)
1943 Feb, The Marine Corps
began allowing women to enlist as reserves.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.F1)
1943 Mar 26, Elsie S. Ott, US
army nurse, became the 1st woman to receive air medal.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1943 Jun 7, Nikki Giovanni,
poet (LHJ Woman of the Year 1973), was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1943 Jul 8, Faye Wattleton,
women's rights advocate, was born.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1944 Feb 9, Alice Walker,
Pulitzer prize winning author, was born. Her books include "The
Autobiography of Malcolm X" and "The Color Purple."
(HN, 2/9/99)
1944 Feb 26, Sue Dauser was
appointed the 1st female US navy captain of nurse corps.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1944 Mar 26, Diana Ross
[Earle], (Supremes, Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany), was born
Detroit, MI.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1944 May 21, Mary Bourke
Robinson, first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997), was born.
(HN, 5/21/01)
1944 Dec 20, The Women's Air
Force Service Pilots were deactivated. Before deactivation 1,074
WASPs logged 60 million miles flying for the U.S. Army Air Forces.
(HNPD, 2/25/99)
1945 Feb 9, [Maria] Mia Farrow,
actress (Rosemary's Baby, Purple Rose of Cairo, was born in LA.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1945 Dec 1, Bette Midler,
singer, actress (Do You Want to Dance?), was born in Patterson, NJ.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1945 Dec 22, Diane Sawyer,
newscaster (60 Minutes, ABC Prime Time), was born in Glasgow, Ky.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1946 Jan 19, Dolly Rebecca
Parton, country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5), was born in Sevierville,
Ten.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1946 Mar 12, Patricia Hampl,
poet and memoirist (A Romantic Education, Virgin Time), was born.
(HN, 3/12/01)
1946 Mar 12, Liza Minnelli,
actress and singer, was born. She was the daughter of actress Judy
Garland and director Vincente Minnelli.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 Par, p.22)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein
(72), US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France.
Her work included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room
Floor." She once said of Oakland, Ca.: "There is no there there."
Painter Francis Rose carved the headstone one her grave at the Pere
Lachaise cemetery. A biography of Stein by Linda Wagner-Martin was
published in 1996 titled "Favored Strangers. "
(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1 p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(MC,
7/27/02)
1948 Mar 10, Author Zelda
Fitzgerald died in a fire at Highland Hospital, NC. She was locked
in on the 3rd floor while undergoing insulin-induced coma therapy.
In 2001 Kendall Taylor authored "Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda
and Scott Fitzgerald, a Marriage."
(HN, 3/10/01)(SSFC, 9/23/01, DB p.61)
1948 Sep 2, Christa McAuliffe,
the first civilian passenger on a space mission, was born in Boston,
Mass. During that 1986 mission, she and the six other crew members
on the space shuttle Challenger perished in an explosion shortly
after launch.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1948 Sep 13, Republican
Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the U.S. Senate,
becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.
(AP, 9/13/97)
1949 Jan 20, Ivana Trump,
former wife of Donald Trump, was born.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1949 Mar 10, Nazi wartime
broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was
convicted in Washington D.C. of treason. She served 12 years in
prison.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1949 Mar 16, Bertha Knox
Gilkey, welfare and tenement rights for urban women, was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1949 Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates
became the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when
legislation was passed making the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps part
of the regular Army.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1949 Sep 13, The Ladies
Professional Golf Association of America was formed in New York City
with Patty Berg as its first president.
(AP, 9/13/97)
1950 Jan 29, Ann Jillian,
actress (Mr. Mom, Jennifer Slept Here), was born in Cambridge, Mass.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1950 Babe Didrikson Zaharias,
golfer, was named Woman Athlete of the Half-Century by AP.
(SFC, 5/21/03, p.A1)
1950 Martha M. Harper (b1857),
businesswoman, died. She helped develop the American franchise
system.
(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1951 Mar 16, Mary Louise
Bochnak, the patron saint of embattled nonprofit committee chairmen,
was born.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1951 May 26, Sally Ride, the
first American woman in space, was born in LA, Calif. She flew on
the Space Shuttle Challenger.
(HN, 5/26/99)(MC, 5/26/02)
1951 Nov 26, La Cicciolina,
[Ilona Staller], Italian MP, was born in Budapest, Hungary.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1952 Feb 8, Elizabeth was
formally proclaimed Queen of England following the Feb 6 death of
her father, King George VI. Elizabeth was crowned Jun 2, 1953.
(HN, 2/8/98)(WSJ, 2/13/02, p.A21)
1952 Feb 19, Amy Tan, novelist
(The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife), was born.
(HN, 2/19/01)
1952 Evita Peron (b.1919), the
first lady of Argentina, died of cancer at age 33. Her biography:
"Eva Peron" was written by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz. "Santa Evita" was a
(1996) novel by Tomas Eloy Martinez based on the fate of her corpse.
Eva wrote a little book "Mi Mensaje" (My Message, or In My Own
Words) that was unfinished and lost until 1987 and published in
English under the title "In My Own Words." "My Mission In Life" was
ghostwritten under Eva’s name by Manuel Penella de Silva.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, PM p. 8)(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR
p.1)(AP, 7/26/97)
1952 Aug 28, Rita Dove,
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was born.
(HN, 8/28/00)
1952 Hilda Krech (1913-2009)
collaborated with her mother, Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, to author
the best-selling “The Many Lives of Modern Woman,” an early
forerunner of the feminist movement’s literature.
(SFC, 10/16/09, p.D7)
1953 Mar 11, F.M. Adams became
the 1st US commissioned woman army doctor.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1953 Mar 18, Margaret L.
Augustine, project manager for Biosphere 2, was born in Buffalo, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1954 Jan 29, Oprah Winfrey,
actress, TV host (Color Purple, Oprah), was born in Mississippi.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1954 Feb 20, Patty Hearst,
famous kidnap hostage (Tanya), was born in SF.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1954 Jul 3, In Salem Mass.,
champion female athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
(1911-1956) won the US Women's Open. She had just come back from a
battle with cancer, yet won the event by 12 strokes.
(www.uswomensopen.com/2004/press/whatta-gal.html)
1955 Jul 13, Ruth Ellis, last
English woman (murderess), was executed by hanging. Ten days before
she had shot her husband, Ellis suffered a miscarriage after
Blakely, the baby's father, punched her in the stomach
(MC, 7/13/02)(AP, 9/16/03)
1955 Nov 5, Lady Idina
Sackville (b.1893), notorious daughter of the eighth Earl of De La
Warr, died of cancer. In 2009 Frances Osborne authored “The Bolter,”
an account of the “Woman Who Scandalized 1920's Society and Became
White Mischief's Infamous Seductress.”
(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.F3)
1956 Apr 1, Libby Riddles,
dogsled racer: 1st woman to win Iditarod (1985), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1956 Jun 23, Egyptians approved
a new constitution and elected Gamal Abdel Nasser as president. The
new constitution acknowledged the long struggle by women and for the
first time provided them with equal political rights.
(WUD, 1994,
p.1685)(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/875/eg4.htm)(AP, 6/23/97)
1956 Sep 27, Mildred E "Babe"
Didrikson Zaharias (b.1911), track and field gold medalist
(1932) and Hall of Fame golfer, died in Galveston, Texas. Six years
earlier the Associated Press had named her the Greatest Female
Athlete of the First Half of the 20th Century.
(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/2/)(AP,
9/27/06)
1956 West Virginia began
allowing women to serve on jury duty. The state had claimed that
courthouses lacked female toilets.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.60)
1957 Sep 1, Gloria Estefan,
singer (Miami Sound Machine-Conga, 1-2-3), was born in Cuba.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1957 Egypt became the first
country in the Arab world to elect a woman to parliament.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.29)
1958 Feb 19, Rebecca ("Becky")
Hoppe, founder of Soccer Moms of US, was born.
(MC, 2/19/02)
1959 May 23, Presbyterian
church accepted women preachers.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1959 Dec 18, Dorothy L. Sayers
(66), writer, died.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1960 Mar 6, The Swiss granted
women the right to vote in municipal elections.
(HN, 3/6/98)
1961 Jan 26, Janet G. Travell
became the 1st woman personal physician to the US President (JFK).
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 30, Dorothy Thompson
(b.1893), American journalist and radio broadcaster, died in Lisbon,
Portugal. In 1939 she was recognized by Time magazine as the second
most influential women in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt. In 2011
Susan Hertog authored “Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy
Thompson, New Women in Search of Love and War.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Thompson)(Econ, 12/31/11,
p.69)
1961 Apr 18, Pamella Bordes,
British parliament prostitute, was born in New Delhi, India.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1961 Jul 15, Spain accepted
equal rights for men and women.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1962 Feb 14, First lady
Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1962 Aug 5, Actress
Marilyn Monroe (36) was found dead in her Los Angeles home. Her
death was ruled a "probable suicide" from an overdose of sleeping
pills. Movie actress, model, singer, Judaism convert, RN: Norma Jean
Mortenson Baker; Joe DiMaggio's, then Arthur Miller's ex-wife. Her
films included "Some Like It Hot." In 1999 Barbara Leaming authored
the biography "Marilyn Monroe." In 1969 Fred Lawrence Guiles (d.2000
at 79) authored "Norma Jean: The Life of Marilyn Monroe."
(AP, 6/1/97)(DTnet, 6/1/97)(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR
p.9)(SFC, 8/1/00, p.B2)
1962 Helen Gurley Brown
authored "Sex and the Single Girl."
(NW, 6/23/03, p.65)
1963 Feb 11, Sylvia Plath (30),
American writer, committed suicide by gas in London after Ted Hughes
left her for another woman. Her autobiographical novel "The Bell
Jar" was published this year. She had been married to English poet
Ted Hughes (d.1998), who in 1998 published a 198 page book of verse
"Birthday Letters" based on their relationship. The woman for whom
Hughes left Plath committed suicide 5 years later. Plath’s 1981
"Collected Poems" won a Pulitzer Prize. The Plath book of poems
"Ariel" was published after her death. In 2000 her uncensored
diaries: "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath," were edited by
Karen V. Kukil.
(SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.C5)(SFEC,
3/26/00, p.A25)(SFEC, 11/12/00, BR p.1)
1963 Feb 16, 1st round-trip
swim of Straits of Messina, Italy, was made by Mary Revell of US.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1963 Mar 18, Vanessa L.
Williams, 1st black Miss America (1983), singer, was born in
Millwood, NY.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1963 The "Feminine Mystique" by
Betty Friedan (1921-2006) was published.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A21)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)
1964 Mar 13, Some 38 residents
of a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens failed to
respond to the cries of Kitty Genovese, 28, as she was being stabbed
to death.
(AP, 3/13/97)
1964 Apr 17, Jerrie Mock of
Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo airplane
flight around the world.
(AP, 4/17/97)(HN, 4/17/98)
1964 Aug 27, Gracie Allen,
comedian (Burns & Allen), died at 62.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1965 May 14, Frances Perkins
(83), US 1st female minister of Labor (1933-45), died.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1965 Oct 11, Dorothy Lange
(b.1895), American photographer, died in San Francisco. She is best
known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security
Administration (FSA). In 2009 Linda Gordon authored “Dorothy Lange:
A Life Beyond Limits.”
(SSFC, 11/8/09,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange)
1966 Jan 19, Indira Gandhi,
Nehru’s daughter, was elected the 3rd prime minister of India.
(SFEC, 8/3/97, p.A15)(AP, 1/19/98)(MC, 1/19/02)
1966 Feb 9, Sophie Tucker (79),
Russian-US singer, actress (My Yiddish Mama), died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1966 Mar 18, Hedda Hopper,
American gossip columnist (1890-1966). died. "Having only friends
would be dull anyway -- like eating eggs without salt."
(AP, 3/18/97)
1966 Jun 30, Betty Friedan
(1921-2006) and 27 other women and men founded the National
Organization for Woman and served as its 1st president (1966-1970).
Catherine S. East (1916-1996) persuaded Betty Friedan to found NOW.
(SFC, 8/20/96, p.A18)(Econ, 2/11/06,
p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan)
1966 Sep 6, Margaret Higgins
Sanger (b.1883), birth control advocate and founder of the
organization that became Planned Parenthood, died. In 1992 Ellen
Chesler authored “Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth
Control Movement in America. In 2011 Jean H. Baker authored
“Margaret Sanger: A Life of Passion.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.F1)
1966 Oct 29, The National
Organization for Women was formally organized during a conference in
Washington, D.C.
(AP, 10/29/07)
1966 Nov 20, Men in Zurich
voted against female suffrage.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1967 Mar 9, Svetlana Alliluyeva
(Allilueva), Josef Stalin's daughter defected to the U.S.
(HN, 3/9/98)(MC, 3/9/02)
1967 Jul 7, Vivian Leigh (53),
actress (Scarlet-Gone with the Wind), died.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1968 Feb 10, Peggy Fleming of
the United States won the gold medal in women's figure skating at
the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.
(AP, 2/10/97)
1968 Feb 23, Edna Ferber (80),
US author (Giant, Showboat), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1968 Sep 6, Feminists
protesting outside the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J.,
tossed articles including cosmetics, girdles and bras into a trash
can ostensibly for burning, although nothing was actually set on
fire. Miss Illinois Judith Ford won the pageant.
(AP, 9/7/08)
1968 Nov 5, Shirley Chisholm of
Brooklyn, New York, was the first black woman elected to serve in
the House of Representatives.
(HN, 11/5/98)
1968 Mary Daly (1928-2009),
Boston College professor and feminist theologian, authored “The
Church and the Second Sex.”
(SSFC, 1/10/10, p.C10)
1968 Barbara Liskov received a
doctorate from Stanford Univ. in computer science, the first such
degree ever awarded to a woman in the US. In 2009 she won the
$250,000 Turing computing award from the Association for Computing
Machinery for her work in organizing complex programs and efforts to
make software more resistant to errors and hacking.
(SFC, 3/13/09, p.C3)
1969 Apr 1, Helena Rubinstein
(89), US cosmetic manufacturer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1969 Apr 18, Melina Mercouri
established the Greek Aid Fund.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1969 Apr, In England Bernadette
Devlin (b.1947) of Northern Ireland became the youngest woman ever
elected to British Parliament. Her 1969 book, “The Price of My
Soul,” did much to publicize widespread discrimination against Roman
Catholics in Northern Ireland.
(SFEC, 3/23/97,
p.A15)(www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=6234)
1969 May 14, Abortion and
contraception was legalized in Canada.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1969 Leo Kanowitz (1926-2007),
UC Hastings law professor, authored “Women and the Law: The
Unfinished Revolution.”
(SFC, 1/1/08, p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/7povpw)
1970 Apr 26, Gypsy Rose Lee
(56), stripper, actress (Pruitts of S Hampton), died.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1970 May 2, Diane Crump became
the 1st woman jockey at Kentucky Derby.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1970 Susan Lydon (1943-2005)
authored the feminist essay “The Politics of Orgasm” in the Rolling
Stone rock magazine.
(SSFC, 7/24/05, p.A19)
1971 Feb 7, Switzerland voted
to introduce female suffrage at the federal but not the cantonal
level.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(AP, 2/7/01)
1971 Jul 1, The state of
Washington became the 1st US state to ban sex discrimination.
(http://amiannoying.com/(S(01543u55fxileom1lbr04z2u))/view.aspx?ID=6957)
1971 Jul 26, Diane Arbus
[Nemerov] (b.1923), photographer, committed suicide in NYC. In 1984
Patricia Bosworth authored: "Diane Arbus: A Biography." In 2011
William Todd Schultz authored “An Emergency in Slow Motion: The
Inner Life of Diane Arbus.”
(http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa110600c.htm)(Econ,
9/3/11, p.86)
1971 Aug 27, Margaret
Bourke-White (b.1904), US photographer, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Bourke-White)
1971 Sep 27, Pamela Churchill
Harriman (1920-1997), English-born socialite, married her former
lover and former New York Governor Averell Harriman (79). She was
the former wife (1939-1946) of Randolph Churchill, the son of
Winston Churchill. From 1993-1997 she served as the US ambassador to
France.
(SFC, 10/23/96,
p.E6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Harriman)
1971 Oct 12, The US House of
Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment with a vote of 354
yeas, 24 nays and 51 not voting. It failed to gain ratification
before the end of the deadline
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment)
1971 Nov 22, The US Supreme
Court struck down dozens of state laws that discriminated against
women when it ruled that an Idaho law violated the 14th Amendment
guarantee of equal protection in the case of Mary Maxine Reed.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A21)
1971 Nov 28, The Anglican
Bishop of Hong Kong ordained the first two women as priests.
(HN,
11/28/98)(http://trushare.com/Mascall%20Women%20Priests.htm)
1971 Dec, The Ms. magazine
first appeared as an insert in New York magazine. It was co-founded
by American feminist and activist Gloria Steinem and founding editor
Letty Cottin Pogrebin together with founding editors Patricia
Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, and Mary Peacock. The first
stand-alone issue appeared in January 1972 with funding from New
York editor Clay Felker.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._%28magazine%29)
1971 Elizabeth Janeway
(1913-2005) authored “Man’s World, Woman’s Place: A Study of Social
Mythology.”
(SFC, 1/17/05, p.B4)
1972 Jan 25, Shirley Chisholm,
the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress, announced
her candidacy for president as Democrat.
(HN, 1/25/01)
1972 Mar 22, The US Congress
passed the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution and sent it to
the states for ratification. The amendment died in 1982 when it fell
three states short of the 38, two-thirds, needed for approval.
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN,
3/22/97)(www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html)
1972 Apr 17, A handful of women
were first accepted as entrants to the Boston marathon.
(SFC, 3/10/00,
p.D8)(www.boston.com/marathon/history/1972.shtml)
1972
Jun 3, Sally J. Priesand (25) was ordained the 1st female US rabbi
by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati,
Ohio. Upon ordination Rabbi Pries accepted a position at Stephen
Wise Free Synagogue in NYC where she served for seven years, first
as Assistant Rabbi and then as Associate Rabbi. From 1979-1981, she
was Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Elizabeth, New Jersey and also served
as Chaplain at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital. Since 1981, she has
served as Rabbi of Monmouth Reform Temple in New Jersey.
(www.monmouth.com/~mrt/rabbi/bio.html)
1972 Jun 24, The song "I Am
Woman," by Helen Reddy, was released by Capitol Records.
(http://440.com/twtd/archives/jun24.html)
1972 Jul 1, Ms. Magazine
published its first regular issue. Ms. was launched as a "one-shot"
sample insert in New York Magazine in December 1971. The first
stand-alone issue appeared in January 1972.
(www.msmagazine.com/about.asp)
1972 Jul 17, The first women
since the 1920s were officially hired as special FBI
agents.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/p_women.html)
1972 Nov, Maryland ratified the
Equal Rights Amendment.
(SFC, 9/19/07, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/5bflsq)
1972 Dec 15, The Commonwealth
of Australia ordered equal pay for women.
(HN, 12/15/98)(http://tinyurl.com/5ry8re)
1972 Dr. Donna Allen (d.1999 at
78), critic, author, and labor activist, founded the Women's
Institute on Freedom of the Press.
(SFC, 7/27/99,
p.A17)(www.wifp.org/pcabout%20us.html)
1972 Walter C. Righter, an
Episcopal Bishop, broke a tie and voted in favor of ordaining women
in the Episcopal Church. In 1998 he published "A Pilgrim’s Way: The
Personal Story of the Episcopal Bishop Charged with Heresy for
Ordaining a Gay Man Who Was in a Committed Relationship."
(SFEC, 6/28/98, BR
p.9)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n9_v50/ai_n27531797)
1972 Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire, chartered in 1769, began admitting women.
(SFC, 2/11/99,
p.A3)(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Dartmouth+College)
1973 Jan 22, The Supreme Court
in a 7-2 ruling handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which
legalized abortion, using a trimester approach. The court ruled that
a woman's right to privacy encompasses her decision to terminate a
pregnancy. Norma McCorvey, the anonymous Jane Roe, revealed her
identity in 1989. She ended up having her 3rd baby that was the
initial focus of the issue.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/22/98)(SFC, 1/28/98,
p.E1)(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A15)(NW, 6/30/03, p.44)
1973 Jan 29, Emily Howell
Warner (b.1939) became the 1st woman pilot permanently employed by a
commercial airline. Her first flight as co-pilot was on the Frontier
Airlines DHC-6 Twin Otter August 1, 1974.
(SSFC, 12/14/03,
p.D2)(http://members.tripod.com/~LAMKINS/Emily_Howell_Warner.txt)
1973 Mar 1, In the Paumanok
Handicap at Aqueduct, Robyn Smith rode North Star to victory,
becoming the first woman jockey to win a stakes race.
(www.hickoksports.com/calendar/mar01.shtml)
1973 Mar 26, Ten newly elected
lady members entered the London Stock Exchange on the first working
day since their election took place. The decision to break a
time-honored tradition and introduce equality was announced on 1
February and ended years of campaigning by women in the financial
sector.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/26/newsid_2531000/2531145.stm)
1973 May 14, US Supreme court
approved equal rights to females in military.
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=411&invol=677)
1973 May 18, Jeannette Rankin
(b.1880) of Montana, the 1st US Congresswoman (1917-19, 41-43), died
in California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin)
1973 Nov 25, Albert DeSalvo,
Boston strangler, was stabbed to death in prison. DeSalvo, the
self-admitted Boston strangler, had been tried and convicted on
unrelated assaults. 13 women were killed in Boston between
1962-1964. DNA evidence was sought in 1999. Susan Kelly wrote a book
in 1995 on the Boston Strangler.
(SFC, 7/10/99,
p.A3)(www.us.imdb.com/name/nm1108915/)
1973 Mary Daly (1928-2009),
Boston College professor and feminist theologian, authored “Beyond
God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation.”
(SSFC, 1/10/10, p.C10)
1973 Hassan Turabi, Sudanese
scholar, authored "Women in Islam and Muslim Society."
(www.soundvision.com/Info/women/turabi.asp)
1974 Feb 2, Barbra Streisand
made her 1st #1 hit, "The Way We Were."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_100_number-one_hits_of_1974_(USA))
1974 Feb 9, US female Figure
Skating championship was won by Dorothy Hamill.
(http://espn.go.com/abcsports/wwos/milestones/1970s.html)
1974 Jul 29, The Episcopal
Church ordained female priests in Philadelphia.
(www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_42321_ENG_HTM.htm)
1974 Sep 20, Gail A. Cobb (24),
a member of the Metropolitan Police Force of Washington, D.C.,
became the first female police officer to be killed in the line of
duty. Cobb was murdered by a robbery suspect in an underground
garage in downtown Washington.
(http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1231,q,538639.asp)
1974 Sep 21, Jacqueline Susann
(b.1918), author, died of cancer. Her books included "Valley of the
Dolls" (1966). In 1987 Barbara Seaman authored Susann's biography:
"Lovely Me." In 2000 the film "Isn't She Great" starred Bette Midler
as Susann.
(SFC, 1/26/00,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Susann)
1974 Nov 5, Ella T. Grasso was
elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a
gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
(AP, 11/5/98)
1974 Molly Haskell (b.1939)
authored “From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of women in the
Movies.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Haskell)
1974 Anica Vesel Mander
(d.2002), Yugoslavian-born prof. of Women’s Studies, authored
"Feminism as Therapy."
(SFC, 6/22/02, p.A18)
1975 Feb 11, Margaret Thatcher
was elected leader of the Tory Party, the first woman to lead the
British Conservative Party. in England. She later became Prime
Minister and held office from 1979-1990. Her second volume of
memoirs is titled The Path to Power, (Harper-Collins, 1995) and
documents her rise to power.
(WSJ, 7/6/95, p. A-7)(HN, 2/11/99)
1975 Mar 8, The United Nations
began observing International Women's Day.
(www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/iwd/)
1975 May 16, Japanese climber
Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount
Everest.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1975 Nov 26, A federal jury in
Sacramento, Calif., found Lynette Fromme, a follower of Charles
Manson, guilty of trying to assassinate President Ford. [see Sep 5]
(HN, 11/26/98)(AP, 11/26/99)
1975 Dec 17, Lynette Fromme was
sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President
Ford.
(AP, 12/17/97)
1975 President Ford signed
legislation opening the service academies to women applicants.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Academy)
1975 The SF Police Academy
graduated a class that included 30 men and 30 women. A federal court
order had mandated opening the ranks to women.
(SSFC, 7/11/04, p.A16)
1976 Jan 14, "Bionic Woman,"
with Lindsay Wagner, debuted on ABC (later NBC).
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0073965/)
1976 Jan 15, Sara Jane Moore
was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of
President Ford in San Francisco.
(AP, 1/15/98)
1976 Jul 6, US Naval Academy
admitted women for the first time in its history with the induction
of 81 female midshipmen.
(www.usna.edu/VirtualTour/150years/1970.htm)
1976 Jul 7, The 1st female
cadets enrolled at the West Point Military Academy in NY.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5159)
1976 Jun 28, The first women
entered the U.S. Air Force Academy.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1976 Jul 6, US Naval Academy
admitted women for the first time in its history with the induction
of 81 female midshipmen.
(www.usna.edu/VirtualTour/150years/1970.htm)
1976 Jul 7, The 1st female
cadets enrolled at the West Point Military Academy in NY.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5159)
1976 Aug 14, Some 10,000
Northern Ireland women demonstrated for peace in Belfast.
(http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch76.htm)
1976 Sep 30, The US House of
Representatives passed the Hyde Amendment 207-167, with no
exceptions for health or life endangerment, even though a similar
but weaker measure had been voted down two years earlier. Henry Hyde
(1924-2007), freshman Congressman from Illinois, had sponsored the
amendment to cut federal funding for abortions by women on Medicaid.
(Econ, 4/23/05, p.32)(SFC, 11/30/07,
p.A6)(www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue42/Fried42.htm)
1976 Oct 4, Barbara Walters
made her debut as the first female nightly network news anchor. She
was hired by ABC-TV, and offered a then-unheard of million dollar a
year salary to co-anchor with veteran Harry Reasoner. But
Reasoner was not pleased with having her there. In addition to their
lack of chemistry, the network's ratings did not improve, and she
was replaced in mid-1978. She joined another ABC show, 20/20, where
she had much greater success.
(http://tinyurl.com/yj2yufw)(www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=99440)
1976 Nov 28, Rosalind Russell
(b.1907), film and stage actress, died in Beverly Hills, Ca.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Russell)
1977 Mar 2, Bette Davis
(1908-1989) became the 1st woman to receive Life Achievement Award.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/3_2/7/index.html)
1977 Mar 12, The Commission on
Judicial Appointments confirmed Rose Elizabeth Bird (40) as
California’s 25th chief justice and the 1st woman to sit on the
state’s Supreme Court. [see Mar 26]
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.G8)
1977 May 10, Patti Hearst was
sentenced to 5 years’ probation for her role in the Symbionese
Liberation Army (SLA) crime spree May 16-17, 1974. She still faced a
7-year sentence for armed robbery.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.G7)
1977 May 10, Actress Joan
Crawford (69) died in New York of liver cancer.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC,12/17/97, p.D6)
1977 May 29, Janet Guthrie
(b.1938) became the 1st woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500. Her
autobiography, "Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle," was
published in 2005.
(www.janetguthrie.com/biofr.htm)(www.nascar.com/2002/kyn/women/02/02/Guthrie/)
1978 Jan 16, NASA named 35
candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who
became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who
became America's first black astronaut in space. Six women, out of
some 3,000 original applicants, graduated from NASA's rigorous
training program to become the 1st female astronauts in the space
program.
(AP,
1/16/98)(www.astronautix.com/astrogrp/nas81978.htm)
1978 Feb 6, Muriel Humphrey
took the oath of office as a U. S. senator from Minnesota, filling
the seat of her late husband, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
(AP, 2/6/97)
1978 Feb 24, Louise Woodward,
nanny who killed Matthew Eappen, was born in Elton, England.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1978 Apr 25, The US Supreme
Court ruled pension plans can't require women to pay more.
(http://supreme.justia.com/us/435/702/)
1978 May 17, Women were
included in the White House honor guard for the first time as
President Carter welcomed Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda.
(AP, 5/17/08)
1978 Jul 9, Nearly 100,000
demonstrators marched on Wash DC for ERA.
(www.now.org/issues/economic/cea/history.html)
1978 Oct 29, The US Women’s
Army Corp (WAC) was deactivated.
(AH, 10/02,
p.14)(www.armywomen.org/wacHistory.shtml)
1978 Oct 31, The US Pregnancy
Discrimination Act was passed making it illegal to fire women for
being pregnant or having a child. It amended Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit sex discrimination on the basis of
pregnancy.
(Econ, 11/19/11, SR p.9)
1978 Oct, An all-woman team
climbed the 26,558-foot Mt. Annapurna. 2 women died in an accident 2
days after Irene Miller and Vera Komarkova reached the top.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.E3)
1978 Nov 15, Margaret Mead
(b.1901), American cultural anthropologist, died in NY. Her books
included “Coming of Age in Samoa.” In 1983 Derek Freeman authored
"Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an
Anthropological Myth," in which he challenged all of Mead’s major
findings.
(SFEC, 8/18/96, BR
p.7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead)
1978 Dec 4, San Francisco got
its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named
to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
(AP, 12/4/98)
1978 Dec 8, Golda Meir, prime
minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974, died in Jerusalem at age 80.
(AP, 12/8/97)
1978 Dec 13, The Philadelphia
Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into
circulation the following July. This was the 1st US coin to honor a
woman.
(AP, 12/13/97)(http://tinyurl.com/377b2l)
1979 Feb 27, Jane M. Byrne
confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor
Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. Byrne went
on to win the election.
(AP, 2/27/99)
1979 Apr 3, Democrat Jane M.
Byrne was elected as the 1st woman mayor of Chicago, defeating
Republican Wallace D. Johnson.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1979 Apr 3, In Belgium Wilfried
Achiel Emma Martens (b.1936) became prime minister for the 1st of 9
times.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfried_Martens)
1979 May 3,
Britain held general elections. Conservative Party leader Margaret
Thatcher was chosen to become Britain's first female prime minister
as the Tories ousted the incumbent Labor government in parliamentary
elections. In 2008 Claire Berlinski authored “There Is No
Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.”
(AP, 5/3/97)(HN, 5/3/98)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A19)
1979 May 4, Margaret Thatcher,
leader of the Conservative Party, was sworn in as Britain's first
female prime minister.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)
1979 Oct 25, In Michigan US
District Court Judge John Feikens, in Glover v. Johnson, ruled in
favor granting women prisoners a constitutional right to court
access and to parity in educational and vocational training. He
granted declaratory and injunctive relief to the plaintiffs,
holding: 1) that the educational and vocational programs offered to
women inmates were markedly poorer than those offered to male
inmates and this parity denied equal protection; 2) that the record
demonstrated the constitutional inadequacy of the assistance given
by the state to ensure the free exercise of the women inmates’ right
of access to the courts; and 3) that the state’s use of a county
jail as a temporary overflow facility was prohibited by the mandate
of the state legislature setting the minimum conditions of
confinement.
(LSA, Fall, 2007,
p.44)(http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/detail.php?id=767)
1979 Dec 5, Feminist Sonia
Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church because of
her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the
Constitution.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1979 Judy Chicago (b.1939)
published “The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage,” a milestone
of feminist art. It records 1,038 mythical and historical women of
Western civilization, especially honoring 39 of these with place
settings on a triangular banquet table 48' per side.
(SFC, 10/1/09, p.E5)(http://tinyurl.com/ycrxrch)
1979 Catherine MacKinnon
authored her path breaking "Sexual Harassment of Working Women."
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.M6)
1980 Apr 11, The Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission issued regulations specifically
prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by supervisors.
(AP, 4/11/97)
1980 Apr 30, Juliana
Z(1909-2004), Queen of the Netherlands, abdicated. Beatrix
Wilhelmina Armgard, was crowned queen of Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliana_of_the_Netherlands)
1980 May 21, Ensign Jean Marie
Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service
academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast
Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1980 Jul 18, A US Federal court
voided the Selective Service Act as it didn’t include women. The
issue was resolved on June 25, 1981, when the Supreme Court ruled in
Rostker v. Goldberg that “that Congress acted well within its
constitutional authority when it authorized the registration of men,
and not women.”
(www.american.edu/dgolash/rostker.htm)
1980 Nov 19, CBS TV banned
Calvin Klein's jean ad featuring Brooke Shields (b.1965).
(http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8554/)
1980 Nov 22, Actress Mae West
died in Hollywood at age 87.
(AP, 11/22/97)
1981 Jan 25, In China Jiang
Qing (1914-1991), Mao's widow, received a suspended death sentence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Qing)(http://tinyurl.com/3e5c2m)
1981 Mar 23, The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions,
parental notification when teen-age girls seek abortions. U.S.
Supreme Court upheld a law making statutory rape a crime for men but
not women.
(AP, 3/23/97)(HN, 3/23/98)
1981 May 17, Jeannette Ridlon
Piccard (b.1895), American teacher and 1st US woman free balloon
pilot, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Piccard)
1981 Nov 27, Lotte Lenya
(b.1898), Vienna-born singer, actress, wife of Kurt Weill (Three
Penny Opera, From Russia With Love), died of cancer in NY.
(www.kwf.org/pages/ll/llbio.html)
1981 Nov 29, Actress Natalie
Wood (b.1938) drowned off Santa Catalina, Calif. In 2001 Suzanne
Finstad authored "Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood." In 2004
Gavin Lambert authored "Natalie Wood: A Life."
(AP, 11/29/97)(SSFC, 7/22/01, DB p.62)(SSFC,
1/25/04, p.M2)
1981 Dec 28, Elizabeth Jordan
Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
(AP, 12/28/97)
1982 Mar 6, Ayn Rand (77),
author and founder of the Objectivist philosophy, died in NY. Her
novels included "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead." In 1987
Barbara Branden wrote the biography titled "The Passion of Ayn
Rand." In 1999 Nathaniel Branden published "My Years With Ayn Rand,"
an account of his 18-year relationship with Rand. In 1999 the US
Postal Service issued a 33 cent stamp in her honor.
(http://tinyurl.com/2nl7hk)(http://tinyurl.com/3a34t9)(SFEC,
8/18/96, PM p. 2)(SFC, 10/25/98, p.D8)
1983 Feb 4, Singer Karen
Carpenter died at age 32.
(AP, 2/4/97)
1983 Mar 6, In a case that drew
much notoriety, a woman in New Bedford, Mass., reported being
gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern; four men were later
convicted.
(AP, 3/6/98)
1984 Jan 10, Clara Peller
(1902-1987) 1st asked, "Where's the Beef?" as part of a TV ad.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where's_the_beef%3F)
1984 Feb 15, Ethel Merman (76),
singer, actress (Kid Million), died in her sleep.
(http://imdb.com/name/nm0581062/)
1984 Jul 3, The US Supreme
Court ruled that Jaycees may be forced to admit women as members.
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=468&invol=609)
1984 Jul 12, Democratic
presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced he had chosen
U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate;
Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major
party ticket.
(AP, 7/12/97)(HN, 7/12/98)
1984 Jul 25, Soviet cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She
carried out more than 3 hours of experiments outside the orbiting
space station Salyut 7.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1984 The private international
organization Sisterhood Is Global was founded to promote women’s
rights in conjunction with the publication of “Sisterhood is
Powerful” by Robin Morgan.
(SFC, 5/12/96,
p.A-12)(www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/inter/sisterhood.htm)
1985 Mar 3, The group, Women
Against Pornography awarded one of its dubious "Pig Awards" to
Huggies Diapers! The activists said that the diaper TV ads have
"crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_3)
1985 May 16, Margaret Hamilton
(b.1902), American film actress, died. She was best known for her
role as the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton)
1985 May 21, Patti Frustaci of
Riverside, Calif., who was expecting septuplets, gave birth to six
live babies, three of whom died in the following weeks.
(AP, 5/21/05)(http://tinyurl.com/ypm8k4)
1985 Dec 14, Wilma Mankiller
became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she
took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
(AP, 12/14/97)
1985 Dec 19, In Minneapolis,
Minnesota, Mary Lund became the first woman to receive a Jarvik VII
artificial heart. Lund received a human heart transplant 45 days
later; she died October 14, 1986.
(AP, 12/19/05)
1985 The Kemp-Kasten amendment
authorized the US Sec. of State to determine whether certain int’l.
programs receiving US funds are involved in programs that entail
coercive abortions or involuntary sterilizations.
(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A3)
1986 Mar 12, Susan Butcher won
the 1,158 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska.
(www.newmorningtv.tv/dailyalmanac_031204.jsp)
1986 Apr 24, Bessie Wallis
Warfield Simpson (b.6/19/1896), the Duchess of Windsor, for whom
King Edward VIII gave up the British throne, died in Paris at age
89. Wallis Simpson was King Edward VIII's wife. In the early 1950s
Simpson engaged in an affair with playboy Jimmy Donahue. In 2000
Christopher Wilson authored "Dancing with the Devil: The Windsors
and Jimmy Donahue."
(AP, 4/24/97)(SFC, 2/28/98, p.A5)(SFC, 1/4/01,
p.D10)
1986 Bram Dijkstra, Prof. of
comparative literature, published "Idols of Perversity." The book
described the archetypal good girl. In 1996 he published "Evil
Sisters: The Threat of Female Sexuality and the Cult of Manhood." It
was an exploration of the archetypal bad girl.
(SFEC, 10/20/96, BR, p.10)
1986 Naomi Sims (1948-2009)
authored “All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman.” Her 1968
cover shot on the Ladies’ Home Journal was a breakthrough for black
fashion models.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Sims)(SFC,
8/7/09, p.D5)
1986 The US Supreme Court ruled
that sexual harassment constituted a violation of women’s civil
rights.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.M6)
1986 Japan passed
equal-employment-opportunity legislation removing most legal
barriers to women in the workplace. Discrimination remained rampant.
(Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.8)
1987 Jan 3, The first
woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was ‘Lady Soul’:
Aretha Franklin (b.1942). Bill Haley was among the 14 others
inducted.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin)(http://tinyurl.com/mn5j6)
1987 Mar 18, Susan Butcher won
her second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, covering the
distance from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska, in 11 days, 2 hours, 5
minutes and 13 seconds.
(AP, 3/18/97)
1987 Mar 25, The Supreme Court
ruled employers may sometimes favor women and members of minority
groups over men and whites in hiring and promoting in order to
achieve better balance in the work force.
(AP, 3/25/97)
1987 May 14, Actress Rita
Hayworth died in New York at age 68. In 1983 James Hill (d.2001),
producer and former husband (1958-1961), authored "Rita Hayworth: A
Memoir."
(AP, 5/14/97)(SFC, 1/16/01, p.C4)
1987 Jul 8, Kiwanis Clubs voted
to admit women and ended its men-only tradition.
(www.tcfn.org/kiwanistci/about.html)
1987 Jul 18, Molly Yard was
elected the new president of the National Organization for Women,
succeeding Eleanor Smeal.
(AP, 7/18/97)
1988 Jan 28, The Supreme Court
of Canada struck down the nation's restrictive abortion law.
(AP, 1/28/98)
1988 Jan, Women in Black began
at the start of the Palestinian uprising, when about 30 Israeli
women gathered in the center of Jerusalem in silent protest, each
with a sign saying "Stop the Occupation." By the 1990-1991 Gulf War,
there were 30 vigils all over Israel.
(AP, 4/5/12)
1988 Nov 19, Shipping heiress
Christina Onassis (37) died in Buenos Aires of pulmonary edema. Her
4th marriage to Thierry Roussel had recently broken up.
(SFEC,11/16/97, Par p.2)(AP, 11/19/98)
1988 Nov 19, Benazir Bhutto was
elected Prime Minister.
(SFC, 1/30/97, p.A9)
1989 Feb 6, Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman died in Greenwich, Conn.,
at age 77.
(AP, 2/6/99)
1989 Feb 11, Reverend Barbara
C. Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the
Episcopal Church, in a ceremony held in Boston.
(AP, 2/11/99)
1989 Apr 26, Lucille Ball
(b.1911), Actress-comedian and star of I Love Lucy, died at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 77. She left
behind a manuscript that was published in 1996 titled "Love, Lucy."
"The tremendous drive and dedication necessary to succeed in any
field... often seems to be rooted in a disturbed childhood." In 1993
Tom Gilbert wrote :"The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz."
Lucille Ball was married to Gary Morton (d.1999 at 74) for 29 years.
In 2003 Stefan Kanfer authored "Ball of Fire: The Tumultuous Life
and Comic Art of Lucille Ball."
(SFC, 9/23/96, D1)(SFC, 4/1/99, p.C4)(AP,
4/26/99)(WSJ, 8/15/03, p.W10)
1989 Dec 6, In Canada 14 women
were shot to death at the University of Montreal's school of
engineering by Marc Lepine, who then took his own life.
(AP, 12/6/97)
1990 Jan 20, Actress Barbara
Stanwyck died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 82.
(AP, 1/20/00)
1990 Jan 25, Actress Ava
Gardner, star in 60 films, died in London at age 67. Her 3 husbands
included Mickey Rooney (1942-1943), Artie Shaw (1945-1946) and Frank
Sinatra (1951-1957).
(AP, 1/25/00)(SFEC, 3/12/00, Par p.2)
1990 Feb 1, Jane Novak
(b.1896), film actress (Ghost Town), died of stroke in Woodland
Hills, Ca. Her career began with silent films.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8755790)
1990 Mar 9, Dr. Antonia Novello
was sworn in as surgeon general, becoming the first woman and the
first Hispanic to hold the job.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1990 Apr 15, Actress Greta
Garbo died in New York City at age 84. In 1997 Karen Swenson
authored "Greta Garbo: A Life Apart." In 2000 the Rosenbach Museum
in Philadelphia opened 55 letters written by Garbo to her lesbian
friend Mercedes de Acosta (d.1968) between 1931-1959. Acosta was a
Spanish aristocrat turned Hollywood screenwriter.
(AP, 4/15/97)(SFEC, 4/16/00, p.A5)
1990 Apr 25, Violeta Barrios de
Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua for a six year
term, ending 11 years of leftist Sandinista rule.
(AP, 4/25/97)(HN, 4/25/98)
1990 May 17, The effective date
for pension rights for both men and women as ruled by a European
court in 1994.
(www.opas.org.uk/PensionRights/EqualTreatment/equalTreatment.htm)
1990 Nov 27, In Switzerland the
canton Appenzell Rhodes-Interieur was required to count women’s
votes by a decision of the Swiss Federal Tribunal. It was the last
Swiss state to finally give women the right to vote.
(Hem., 2/97, p.26)
1990 Nov 28, Margaret Thatcher
resigned as prime minister of Britain during an audience with Queen
Elizabeth II, who conferred the premiership on John Major.
(AP, 11/28/97)
1991 Feb 16, Tonya Harding won
the US female Figure Skating championship.
(http://tinyurl.com/qpcus)
1991 Feb 21, Dame Margot
Fonteyn (b.1919), ballerina (1st lady of British Ballet), died in
Panama City, Fl. In 2004 Meredith Daneman authored “Margot Fonteyn:
A Life.”
(AP, 2/21/01)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.)
1991 Mar 30, Patricia Bowman, a
resident of Jupiter, Florida, told authorities she’d been raped
hours earlier by William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Senator Edward
Kennedy, at the family’s Palm Beach estate. Smith was later
acquitted at trial.
(AP, 3/30/01)
1991 Jun 6, Sylvia Porter (77),
economist, author (Money Book), died.
(http://en.thinkexist.com/birthday/June_6/1_2.html)
1991 Jul 31, The US Senate
voted to allow women to fly combat aircraft.
(http://library.osu.edu/sites/archives/glenn/collection/senate/speeches3.htm)
1992 Feb 10, Bonnie Blair of
the United States won the women's 500-meter speed skating
competition at the Albertville Olympics.
(AP, 2/10/02)
1991 Sheila Isenberg authored
“Women Who Love Men Who Kill.”
(SFC, 9/28/09, p.C4)
1992 Mar 18, Leona Helmsley was
sentenced to 4 years for tax evasion.
(http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611F63B580C718EDDAA0894DA494D81)
1992 Apr 15, Hotel magnate
Leona Helmsley began serving a prison sentence for tax evasion. She
was released from prison after 18 months.
(AP, 4/15/97)
1992 Apr 22, The Supreme Court
heard arguments on Pennsylvania's restrictive abortion law. The
court upheld most of the law's provisions the following June, but
also reaffirmed a woman's basic right to an abortion.
(AP, 4/22/97)
1992 Apr 25, The Ms. Foundation
began its "Take Our Daughters to Work Day."
(SFC, 4/24/02, p.A1)
1992 May 6, Actress Marlene
Dietrich died at her Paris home at age 90.
(AP, 5/6/97)
1992 May 16, Actress Marlene
Dietrich, who had died in Paris at age 90, was buried in Berlin.
(AP, 5/16/97)
1992 Nov 11, The Anglican
Church and the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1992 Nov 22, A Washington Post
story 1st revealed claims by several women that Sen. Bob Packwood,
liberal Oregon Republican, had accosted them with unwanted touching
and kisses.
(www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20010716.asp#5)
1992 Nov 30, The U.S. Supreme
Court sustained women's basic right to abortion, voting 6-3 against
reviving a 1990 Guam law that would have prohibited nearly all such
procedures.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1992 Dec 10, Sen. Bob Packwood,
R-Ore., apologized for what he called "unwelcome and offensive"
actions toward women, but refused to resign.
(AP, 12/10/97)
1993 Jan 20, Audrey Hepburn,
actress died in Switzerland at age 63. The 8th biography of her life
was written by Barry Paris in 1996.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.C6) (AP, 1/20/98)
1993 Feb 27, Actress Lillian
Gish died in New York at age 99.
(AP, 2/27/98)
1993 Mar 9, Janet Reno sailed
through her confirmation hearing en route to becoming the nation's
first female attorney general.
(AP, 3/9/98)
1993 Mar 11, Janet Reno was
unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be attorney general.
(AP, 3/11/98)
1993 Apr 28, The first "Take
Our Daughters to Work Day," promoted by the New York City-based Ms.
Foundation, was held to boost self-esteem of girls with invitations
to a parent's workplace.
(AP, 4/28/98)
1993 Dec 25, In London, an
unidentified 59-year-old woman who'd been implanted with donated
eggs gave birth to twins in a case that sparked controversy.
(AP, 12/25/98)
1994 Jan 20, Shannon Faulkner
became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South
Carolina. She joined the cadet corps in August 1995, under court
order, but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress.
(AP, 1/20/99)
1994 Feb 10, Jeannie Flynn
(b.1966)), the first female combat pilot in the US Air Force,
finished flight training in the F-15.
(http://tinyurl.com/n5ehhg)(NPub, 2002, p.26)
1994 Feb 24, Entertainer Dinah
Shore died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 76.
(AP, 2/24/99)
1994 Mar 6, Melina Mercouri
(b.1920), Greek born actress turned politician, died of lung cancer
in New York City.
(AP, 3/6/99)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0580479/)
1994 Mar 7, The U.S. Navy
issued its first permanent orders assigning women to regular duty on
a combat ship -- in this case, the USS Eisenhower.
(AP, 3/7/99)
1994 Mar 12, The Anglican
Church of England ordained its first (33) women priests.
(AP, 3/12/98)(SFC, 5/19/00, p.D7)
1994 Mar 18, Zsa Zsa Gabor,
Hungarian-born actress, filed for bankruptcy.
(www.nndb.com/people/530/000025455/)
1994 Apr 19, The Supreme Court
outlawed the practice of excluding people from juries because of
their gender.
(AP, 4/19/99)
1994 Dec 30, John Salvi opened
fire at two abortion clinics in suburban Boston and killed 2 clinic
receptionists, Lee Ann Nichols and Shannon Lowney. He committed
suicide in prison on Nov 29, 1996. His conviction was voided in 1997
because he died before his appeal was heard.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A1,15)(SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A3)(AP,
12/30/99)
1994 In Malawi a ban on women
wearing pants ended following the end of the long dictatorship of
Kamuzu Banda.
(AFP, 1/18/12)
1995 Apr 9, Women’s rights
supporters rallied near the U.S. Capitol to protest violence against
women.
(AP, 4/9/00)
1995 Apr 13, A federal appeals
court opened the way for Shannon Faulkner to become the first woman
to undergo military training at The Citadel.
(AP, 4/13/00)
1995 Apr 25, Ginger Rogers,
show business legend died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.
(AP, 4/25/00)
1995 May 29, Margaret Chase
Smith (97), the first woman to serve in both the House and the
Senate (R-ME), died in Skowhegan, Maine.
(AP, 5/29/00)
1995 Aug 21, In Thailand Prince
Thitiphan Yugala (60) was poisoned by his new wife Chalasai Yugala
(23), aka Luk Pla (Baby fish). He died after 8 days and Luk Pla ran
off with Uthet Choopwa (19), a chestnut peddler. She had become his
lover at 14 and wife at 23. In 2002 she was sentenced to 6 years in
prison.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A2)
1995 Sep 4, The Fourth World
Conference on Women opened in Beijing with more than 4,750 delegates
from 181 countries.
(AP, 9/4/00)
1995 Nov 24, Voters in Ireland
narrowly ended a 70-year ban on divorce and approved a
constitutional amendment legalizing divorce and remarriage by
50.23%.
(SFC, 1/18/96, p.A8)(AP, 11/24/00)
1995 Monica Furlong (d.2003 at
72), Christian writer and feminist, authored her autobiography:
"Bird of Paradise."
(SFC, 2/3/03, p.B4)
1996 Jan 1, Some 100,000
Bangladeshi women rallied to protest Islamic clerics’ attacks on
female education and employment.
(AP, 1/1/01)
1996 Mar 3, Marguerite Duras,
French writer, died at age 81 in Paris. She was very prolific and
was best known for her novel "The Lover."
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)
1996 Mar 22, Shannon Lucid,
astronaut, went into space on the shuttle Atlantis. She transferred
to the Russian Mir space station and broke the US space endurance
record of 115 days on 7/15/96.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A7)(AP, 3/22/97)
1996 Apr 6, Actress Greer
Garson died in Dallas at age 92.
(SFC, 4/7/96, p.B-5)(AP, 4/6/97)
1996 Apr 22, Homemaker-humorist
Erma Bombeck died in San Francisco at age 69.
(AP, 4/22/97)
1996 May 28, In Indonesia Pres.
Suharto banned women from participating in beauty contests abroad.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 23, Jessica Mitford
(78), author of "The American Way of Death," died. The 1963 book was
an expose of the funeral industry in the US. Her attorney husband,
Robert Treuhaft, died in 2001. In 2001 Mary S. Lovell authored "The
Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family." In 2006 “Decca: The
Letters of Jessica,” edited by Peter Y. Sussman was published. In
2010 Leslie Brody authored “Irrepressible: The Life and Times of
Jessica Mitford.”
(SFC, 6/30/96, Z1 p.3)(SFC, 11/12/01,
p.A18)(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.M1)(SFC, 11/3/06, p.E9)(SSFC, 11/14/10, p.F7)
1996 Aug 24, Four women began
two days of academic orientation at The Citadel; they were the first
female cadets admitted to the South Carolina military school since
Shannon Faulkner.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1996 Nov 11, The Army reported
getting nearly 2,000 calls to a hot line set up after revelations of
a sex scandal at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Meanwhile,
a Pentagon official said the Army was ready to take action in
another case of alleged sexual misconduct at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
(AP, 11/11/97)
1996 Dec 9, Archaeologist and
anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Nairobi, Kenya at age 83.
(SFC, 12/10/96, p.A6)(AP, 12/9/97)
1996 Dec 10, On International
Human Rights Day, President Clinton urged the Senate to embrace a
17-year-old treaty barring abuses against women.
(AP, 12/10/97)
1996 Dec, Femmes Africa
Solidarite (FAS), founded by Bineta Diop (46) of Senegal, gained
official recognition as an international NGO.
(AP, 5/16/11)
1996-2001 In 2002 the Thailand-based Shan Human
Rights Foundation filed a report that Burma government military
forces raped at least 625 girls and women in Shan state over this
period in an effort to bring the area under control.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A16)
1997 Jan 12, Two recently
enrolled female cadets at The Citadel announced they were not
returning for the spring semester, citing harassment by male cadets.
(AP, 1/12/98)
1997 Jan 23, Cancer experts who
were supposed to settle a furious controversy over whether women
should start having mammograms at age 40 or 50 decided instead to
leave the decision up to patients.
(AP, 1/23/98)
1997 Jan 24, Publix Super
Markets, accused of relegating women to dead-end, low-paying jobs,
agreed to pay $81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1997 Jan 25, Astrologer Jeane
Dixon died in Washington, D.C., at age 79.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1997 Feb 3, The Army announced
that a retired female sergeant major had accused Sgt. Maj. Gene
McKinney of sexual assault and harassment. McKinney, who was accused
of sexual misconduct by six women, faced court-martial, but was
acquitted of 18 charges of pressuring enlisted women for sex. He
received a reprimand and reduction in rank.
(AP, 2/3/02)
1997 Mar 4, Brazil Senate
allowed women to wear slacks.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar 22, In Lausanne,
Switz., Tara Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, became the
youngest women's world figure skating champion.
(AP, 3/22/97)
1997 Mar 23, The American
Cancer Society recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age
40.
(AP, 3/23/98)
1997 May 12, Susie Maroney,
Australian swimmer, became the first woman to swim the 105 mile swim
from Cuba to Key West, Fla., in 24 hours and 31 min. AP says
118-mile distance in 24 1/2 hours
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/12/98)
1997 May 22, Kelly Flinn, the
Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted
a general discharge, thereby avoiding court-martial on charges of
lying, adultery and disobeying an order.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1997 May 31, Rosie Will Monroe
(77), aka Rosie the Riveter, died in Indiana. During WW II she
worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti,
Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the Air Force. She
appeared in films and poster used by the U.S. government to
encourage women to go to work in support of the war effort.
(www.yvonnesplace.net/news/rosemonroe.htm)
1997 Jul 21, The General
Convention of the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia voted to require
all Episcopal dioceses to ordain women.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A2)
1997 Nov 11, The EU high court
upheld hiring and promotional preferences for women.
(SFC,11/12/97, p.C2)
1997 Dec 10, Julia Butterfly
(23), nee Julia Hill, climbed into a redwood tree in Humboldt
County, Ca., on Pacific Lumber Co. property and remained there for
over 2 years. She named the tree Luna and in her meditations came up
with the equation: truth + hope = action + change. Julia ended her
protest Dec 18, 1999. A deal was reached to preserve Luna and a
200-foot buffer in exchange for a $50,000 payment to Pacific Lumber,
which would be donated to Humboldt State Univ. for scientific
research. In 2000 Hill published "The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a
Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods."
(SFEC, 12/6/98, Z1p.1)(KPFA, 12/9/99)(SFC,
12/18/99, p.A5)(SFC, 12/20/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 4/2/00, BR p.3)
1997 Dec 28, In Egypt the
Health Ministry banned government certified doctors and health
workers from performing female circumcision.
(SFC, 12/29/97, p.A7)
1997 Esther I. Madriz (d.2001
at 58) authored "Nothing Bad Happens to Good Girls," a critical
feminist work that looked at the fear of crime in women’s lives.
(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A23)
1998 Jan 12, Linda Tripp
provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped
conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica
Lewinsky.
(AP, 1/12/99)
1998 Mar 13, US Sergeant Major
Gene McKinney (47), once the Army's top enlisted man, was cleared on
18 of 19 charges brought against him by women who said he pressured
them for sex. He was convicted for obstruction of justice for trying
to persuade his chief accuser to lie. McKinney was reprimanded and
demoted by one rank.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/17/98, p.A1)(AP,
3/13/99)
1998 Mar 31, Former New York
Congresswoman Bella Abzug died at age 77.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1998 Apr 24, The American
Health for Women magazine reported that Seattle was the healthiest
city for women and that SF rated # 2 and Boston # 3.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A5)
1998 Apr 30, In Florida
lawmakers passed a bill that required girls under 18 to notify at
least one parent prior to an abortion.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A3)
1998 Apr 30, A study reported
in the New England Journal of medicine that RU-486, an abortion
pill, was 92% effective in causing abortions with 15 days without
surgery.
(SFC, 4/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 22, The women's
American Basketball League folded in the midst of its 3rd season.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Margot Magowan and Naomi
Wolf purchased 368 acres in upstate New York and founded the
Woodhull Institute to help women spur each other to success.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.E7)
1999 Jan 11, Hillary Clinton
unveiled a new silver commemorative dollar in honor of Dolly
Madison. The coin, designed by Tiffany, was the first to honor a
first lady but was not legal tender.
(SFC, 1/12/99, p.A3)
1999 Jan, Doris Haddock
(1910-2010) began walking from Pasadena to Washington, DC, in order
to “sweep the scoundrels away.” She arrived in Feb, 2000, becoming
known as “Granny D,” and later campaigned to persuade women to
register to vote.
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.95)
1999 Feb 8, Iris Murdoch,
English novelist, died at 79. Her husband, John Bayley, published
"Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch" in 1998. It was published in the US
as "Elegy for Iris."
(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A20)
1999 Mar 3, Monica Lewinsky, in
an ABC interview, the 20/20 TV show, timed to coincide with the
publication of her book, recounted for Barbara Walters some of the
fondest, as well as most painful, aspects of her relationship with
President Clinton.
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/3/00)
1999 Mar 5, A federal appeals
court in Virginia struck down the 1994 Violence Against Women Act
which let rape victims sue for civil-rights violations.
(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 5, Denmark's
parliament voted 81-27 to legalize prostitution, effective Jul 1.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A14)
1999 Mar 8, Women around the
world took part in ceremonies and protests marking Int'l. Women's
Day.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.B10)
1999 Jun 19, The USA beat
Denmark 3-0 on the opening day to the Women's World Cup in Giants
Stadium, New Jersey. 78,992 people watched in the largest ever
attendance at a woman's sporting event in the world to date.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_FIFA_Women's_World_Cup)
1999 Jul 23, After a 2 day
delay the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched from Cape Canaveral
aboard the shuttle Columbia led by Commander Eileen Collins, the
first woman to command a US space flight.
(SFC, 7/23/99, p.A3)(AP, 7/23/00)
1999 Dec 3, Tori Murden (36) of
the United States became the 1st woman to complete a rowboat
crossing of the Atlantic. Her 81-day, 7 hr. and 31 min. trip began
in the Canary Islands and finished at Fort-du-Bas in Guadeloupe.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A3)
1999 Ljubica Gunj became the
first woman in Venice, Italy, permitted to wait on customers at
tables on St. Mark’s Square.
(SFC, 5/14/07, p.A11)
2000 Jan 19, Actress Hedy
Lamarr died in Orlando, Fla., at age 86. Her career began with the
1933 Czechoslovakian film "Ecstasy."
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.A10,E1)
2000 Jan 27, In Egypt a new law
which expanded women's right to divorce passed the People's
Assembly. Travel freedoms were excised at the last minute.
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A15)(SFC, 9/28/01, p.D3)
2000 Feb 22, In Jordan a
15-year-old boy strangled his sister (14) in a "crime of honor"
because he considered her to have shamed his family. An autopsy
revealed that the girl was a virgin.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.D4)
2000 Feb 24, The state of Texas
executed Betty Lou Beets, 62, by injection for the 1983 murder of
her fifth husband. Governor George W. Bush refused to intervene. She
was the 2nd woman executed in Texas since the Civil War.
(SFC, 2/25/00, p.A3)(AP, 2/24/01)
2000 Mar 22, The federal
government agreed to pay a record $508 million to settle a sex
discrimination lawsuit filed by some 1,100 women at the now-defunct
US Information Agency in 1977. Another $23 million was for back pay,
interest and retirement benefits. It was the largest-ever settlement
of a federal sex discrimination case.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A1)(AP, 3/22/01)
2000 Apr 2, It was reported
that a Nov. 1999, 79-page CIA report: "International Trafficking in
Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of
Slavery," claimed 50,000 victims per year in the US.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, p.A3)
2000 Apr 8, Claire Trevor,
Hollywood actress, died at age 90 [91]. She had starred in over 60
films which included "Key Largo" (1948) and "The High and the
Mighty" (1954).
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C14)
2000 Apr 19, The new Oprah
Winfrey magazine "O" hit the newsstands.
(WSJ, 4/20/00, p.A24)
2000 May 2, Jockey Julie Krone
became the first female elected to thoroughbred racing’s hall of
fame.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 2, Former nurse
Christina Marie Riggs was executed by injection in Arkansas for
smothering her two young children.
(AP, 5/2/01)
2000 May 15, By a five-to-four
vote, the US Supreme Court threw out a key provision of the 1994
Violence Against Women Act, saying that rape victims could not sue
their attackers in federal court.
(AP, 5/15/01)
2000 May 22, In Israel the
Supreme Court ruled that women may read out load from the Torah and
wear a prayer shawl at the Western Wall. In 2003 the Supreme Court
rejected the rule.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A12)
2000 Sep 12, Hillary Rodham
became the first first lady to win an election as she claimed
victory in the New York Democratic Senate primary, defeating
little-known opponent Dr. Mark McMahon.
(AP, 9/12/01)
2000 Dec 3, Sandra Baldwin was
elected the first female president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
(AP, 12/3/01)
2001 Feb 7, Dale Evans (born as
Frances Octavia Smith), singer and wife of Roy Rogers, died at age
88. Her compositions included "Happy Trails" and "The Bible Tells Me
So."
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.C2)
2001 Feb 7, Anne Morrow
Lindbergh, wife of Charles Lindbergh, died at age 94. In 1955 she
authored "Gift From the Sea," a meditation on women’s lives in the
20th century. In 1999 Susan Hertog authored her biography "Anne
Morrow Lindbergh."
(WSJ, 11/29/99, p.A26)(SFC, 2/8/01, p.C2)
2001 Mar 15, Ann Sothern (92),
film and TV actress, died in Ketchum, Idaho. Her work included 64
movies and over 175 TV episodes.
(SFC, 3/17/01, p.A23)(AP, 3/15/02)
2001 Mar 21, The Supreme Court
ruled that hospitals cannot test pregnant women for drug use without
their consent.
(AP, 3/21/02)
2001 May 20, In Iran a woman
was stoned to death after her conviction for acting in pornographic
films was upheld by the Supreme Court.
(SFC, 5/22/01, p.A11)
2001 Jul 1, The National
Organization for Women announced in Philadelphia that delegates had
chosen Kim A. Gandy to be its new president, succeeding Patricia
Ireland.
(AP, 7/1/02)
2001 Jul 17, Katharine Graham,
Pulitzer Prize winner and publisher of the Washington Post, died at
age 84 in Boise, Idaho.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 27, Jane Greer, film
actress, died at age 76. Her close to 30 films included "Out of the
Past," a top noir prototype.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A15)
2001 Nov 22, Mary Kay Ash (83),
founder of the Mary Kay cosmetics firm, died in Dallas. By 2001 her
1963 sales force of 11 had grown to over 750,000 in 37 countries.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A29)
2001 In Pakistan Zafran Bibi
was sentenced to death by stoning for being raped by her husband’s
brother. She gave birth to a daughter and was confined to a solitary
cell in Kohat as her case pended appeal under Islamic law of hudood.
In 2002 her conviction was overturned.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 6/7/02, p.A13)
2002 Jan 15, Nancy Pelosi,
California Senator, began her position as Democratic whip.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 26, The Honduras
Congress elected Justice Vilma Cecilia Morales as the 1st woman to
head the Supreme Court.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A19)
2002 Feb 17, In Saudi Arabia a
man was sentenced to 6 years in prison and 4,750 lashes for having
sex with his wife’s sister. The woman, who did not consent, was
sentenced to 6 months and 65 lashes.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A10)
2002 Apr 1, The 1897 Michigan
law against swearing in front of women and children was declared
unconstitutional.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr 24, On the 10th
anniversary of "Take Our Daughters to Work Day," the Ms. Foundation
announced that boys would be included next year.
(SFC, 4/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr, The Saudi government
cracked down on factories producing women’s cloaks that violated
religious rules.
(SSFC, 5/5/02, p.A16)
2002 May 9, In Bahrain voters
cast ballots in elections for 50 municipal seats. Bahraini women
were allowed to vote and run for office for the 1st time, though
none were elected.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A20)
2002 May 14, It was reported
that the Jordanian court had recently granted the country’s 1st
divorce under a new law.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A13)
2002 May 16, A military court
convicted Toujan Faisal, Jordan’s 1st female lawmaker, of harming
the government’s reputation for an open letter accusing the PM of
financial wrongdoing. She was sentenced to 1 ½ years in
prison.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A20)
2002 Jun 22, In Meerwala,
Pakistan, a girl (18) was gang raped in the Punjab on orders from a
tribal council after her brother (11) was accused of socializing
with a higher-caste girl. Police sought the culprits.
(WSJ, 7/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 9, The Women’s Health
Initiative announced that estrogen-progestin pills, taken by
millions of women as a hormone replacement therapy, do more harm
than good.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 30, WNBA player Lisa
Leslie became the first woman to dunk in a professional game on a
breakaway in the first half of the Los Angeles Sparks' 82-73 loss to
the Miami Sol.
(AP, 7/30/03)
2002 Jul 9, The Women's Health
Initiative announced that estrogen-progestin pills, taken by
millions of women as a hormone replacement therapy, do more harm
than good.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 25, Some 5,000 women
came from all over Colombia, traveling hours by bus, all with one
message: They want an end to 38 years of civil war.
(AP, 7/25/02)
2002 Aug 10, Doris Wishman
(82), director of bad films, died in Coral Gables, Florida. Her
films included such works as "Bad Girls Go to Hell" and "Blaze Star
Goes Nudist."
(SFC, 8/20/02, p.A22)
2002 Sep 26, In Mexico Martha
Sahagun de Fox launched a conference of first ladies of the Americas
with a promise to forge creative answers to the problem of child
poverty.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Nov 14, In Panevezys,
Lithuania, LNK TV sponsored a Miss Captivity Pageant with 8
finalists from the local women’s prison. Kristina (21) won $1,150 in
the contest that was broadcast nationally the next day.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.K10)
2002 Nov, In south-eastern
Turkey Semse Allak, a pregnant woman, and Halil, her illicit love
(or rapist), were stoned to death for shaming their families in the
province of Mardin.
(Econ, 6/28/03, p.53)
2002 Dec 11, A Pakistan human
rights group said 461 women had been killed this year by family
members in so-called honor killings in Punjab and Sindh, up from 372
last year.
(SFC, 12/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Clara Bingham and Laura
Leedy Gansler authored "Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and
the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law."
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.M6)
2002 Sharon Lamb authored "the
Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do – Sex Play,
Aggression, and Their Guilt."
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.M1)
2002 Emily White authored "Fast
Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut."
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.M1)
2002 In Iran Shahla Jahed, who
had become what is known as a "temporary wife" of former soccer star
Nasser Mohammad Khani, was charged with stabbing his wife, Laleh
Saharkhizan, to death and convicted of murder in 2004 and again in
2009, after her appeal was denied. She was hanged on Dec 1, 2010.
(AP, 12/1/10)
2003 Mar 8, The first
Afghan radio station programmed solely for women began broadcasting
in Kabul. Daily broadcasts will increase to 2 hours next week and up
to 4 hours in several months.
(AP, 3/9/03)
2003 Jul 2, A group of 650
Kenyan women won the right to sue the British Ministry of Defense
for rapes by British soldiers that took place over a 26 year period
beginning in 1977.
(SFC, 7/3/03, p.A14)
2003 Oct 23, Soong May-ling
(b.1896), aka Madame Chiang Kai-shek, died in NYC. She became one of
the world's most famous women as she helped her husband fight the
Japanese during World War II and later the Chinese Communists. In
2009 Hannah Pakula authored “Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of
Modern China.”
(AP, 10/24/03)(SSFC, 12/27/09, Books,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_May-ling)
2003 Leonard Shlain authored
"Sex, Time & Power: How women's Sexuality Shaped Human
Evolution."
(SSFC, 8/17/03, p.M1)
2004 Apr 10, Rania al-Baz, a
popular Saudi TV host, was severely beaten by her husband. She
suffered 13 facial fractures that required 12 operations. She
allowed photos to be broadcast and opened discussions of ongoing
violence against women in Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 4/20/04, p.A6)
2004 Jun 13, Saudi Arabia held
a 3-day “national dialogue” in Medina on how women’s lives could be
improved. On Jun 15, recommendations (19) were given to Crown Prince
Abdullah.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.26)
2004 Jun, The Saudi parliament
passed legislation overturning a law banning girls and women from
participating in physical education and sports. In August the
ministry of education announced that it had no intention of honoring
the legislation.
(SFC, 8/26/04, p.B1)
2004 Dec 28, Susan Sontag (71),
writer, filmmaker and social critic, died of leukemia in NYC. Her 17
books included “Against Interpretation, and Other Essays.”
(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A1)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.77)
2004 Carmen bin Ladin authored
“Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia.” Carmen, the ex-wife
of Osama’s older brother Yeslam, grew up in Geneva.
(SFC, 7/29/04, p.D8)
2004 Dea Birkett authored “Off
the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travelers.”
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.75)
2004 Marilyn Yalom authored
“The Birth of the Chess Queen,” a look at how the power of the chess
queen reflects the evolution of female power in the Western world.
(SSFC, 5/2/04, p.M1)(Econ, 7/10/04, p.76)
2004 In Saudi Arabia women
until this year were legally required to conduct business through a
male agent.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.86)
2005 Apr 11, Andrea Dworkin
(58), feminist writer, died in Washington DC. Her books included
“Woman Hating” (1974).
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.B4)
2006 Feb 4, Betty Friedan (85),
feminist crusader and author of “The Feminine Mystique” (1963), died
at her home in Washington. In 1966 she co-founded the National
organization for Women (NOW).
(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A6)(Econ, 2/11/06, p.82)
2006 In India Sampat Pal (44)
formed the Pink Gang with a handful of women in northern Uttar
Pradesh state to forcefully address abuse, local injustice and
corruption. By 2009 thousands of women had joined the group and
trained themselves to wield bamboo batons.
(SSFC, 6/14/09, p.A6)
2007 Apr, A court in Venice,
Italy, allowed Alexandra Hai (40), a German of Algerian descent, to
operate a gondola, but only for the residents of one of the city’s
hotels. Her permit was opposed by the city’s male gondoliers.
(SFC, 5/14/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 16, The first summit
of women leaders opened in NYC. The two-day "International Women
Leaders Global Security Summit," opened under the co-chairmanship of
former Irish president Mary Robinson and former Canadian prime
minister Kim Campbell. At the close over 70 women leaders issued a
call for action on global warming, terrorism, poverty and women's
security. The women leadership initiative was launched in October
2006.
(AFP, 11/18/07)
2007 Rebiya Kadeer, prominent
Uighur exile, authored her memoir “Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic
Struggle for Peace with China.” The original German publication was
made available in English in 2009.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.77)
2007 James Smith, an English
professor at Boston College, authored "Ireland's Magdalene Laundries
and the Nation's Culture of Containment." The so-called Magdalene
Laundries, a network of 10 workhouses, operated in independent
Ireland from the 1920s to the mid-1990s. The Irish Human Rights
Commission later said that Ireland's civil authorities for decades
dumped women, often teenagers being punished for petty crimes or
becoming pregnant out of wedlock, into the so-called Magdalene
Laundries.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2007 In Kenya Pastor Jacob
Momposhi Samperu founded the Hope for the Maasai Girls center to
rescue girls from circumcision.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2008 Jan 21, In Saudi Arabia
the daily Al-Watan, which is deemed close to the Saudi government,
reported that the Interior Ministry issued a circular to hotels
asking them to accept lone women, as long as their information is
sent to a local police station.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Mar 8, Calls to end forced
marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International
Women's Day as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.
(AFP, 3/8/08)
2008 Aug 29, John McCain, on
his 72nd birthday, tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (44)
to be his vice presidential running mate.
(AP, 8/29/08)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 12, Dorothy Wiltse
Collins (b.1923), star pitcher in women’s professional baseball in
the 1940s, died in Fort Wayne, Indiana from a stroke. Pitching for
six seasons in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League,
created in 1943 to provide home front entertainment while many major
leaguers were off to war, Collins dazzled opposing batters. The
All-American league went out of business after the 1954 season. She
drew on her contacts to provide the Baseball Hall of Fame with
memorabilia from the league, spurring creation of its Women in
Baseball exhibit in 1988.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dottie_Wiltse_Collins)
2008 Sep 2, Iran sentenced four
female activists to six months in prison for writings demanding
equality for women. Sweden had awarded a human rights prize to
Parvin Ardalan, one of the activists, earlier this year.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 18, Rwanda became the
first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament,
according to provisional results announced at the close of a
four-day legislative vote.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Oct 27, A West African
court ordered Niger to pay compensation to Hadijatou Mani (24), who
was sold into slavery at age 12 and held for a decade. She had been
forced to work as a domestic servant and a sexual slave until 2005.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Nov 14, The US Army
promoted its first woman, Ann Dunwoody, to the rank of four-star
general.
(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 11, Bettie Page (85),
the 1950s secretary-turned-model, died. Her controversial
photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for
the 1960s sexual revolution.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 11, Esther Chavez, a
women's rights activist, was named the winner of Mexico's National
Human Rights Award. She first drew attention to the slayings of
young women in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez in the
early 1990s.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 14, Eva Habil (53)
became Egypt's first female mayor. The Christian lawyer, beat five
male candidates, including her younger brother, to become mayor of
the predominantly Coptic Christian town of Komboha in southern
Egypt.
(AFP, 12/14/08)
2008 Kiev university students
established Femen, a group whose main aims are to improve the role
of women in Ukraine's male-dominated, post-Soviet society. By 2010
it had become a small army of 300 mainly student activists ready to
peel off in public to support Ukrainian women's rights.
(Reuters, 11/15/10)
2009 Jan 24, In India a
right-wing Hindu nationalist group, outraged by what they viewed as
"obscene" behavior, stormed a fashionable bar in the southern city
of Mangalore and the assaulted female patrons. The Sri Ram Sena
(Lord Ram's Army) claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AFP, 1/31/09)
2009 Mar 22, A group of Saudi
clerics urged the kingdom's new information minister to ban women
from appearing on TV or in newspapers and magazines, making clear
that the country's hardline religious establishment is skeptical of
a new push toward moderation.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 May 14, A British
parliamentary report into human trafficking said more than 5,000
mostly women and children have been smuggled into Britain to work as
sex slaves and beggars.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 Apr 15, Hundreds of
Afghans swarmed a demonstration of more than 100 women protesting
against a new marriage law they say restricts wives' rights. The
women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the
two groups apart. A NATO soldier and 2 Afghan policemen were killed
in fresh violence. Taliban insurgents beheaded a government employee
on charges of spying for foreign forces in the Bala Murghab district
of Badghis province.
(AP, 4/15/09)(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 May 16, Kuwaitis voted in
the second parliamentary election in a year. 210 candidates for the
50-seat parliament included 16 women. Kuwaiti women won political
rights in 2005, and practiced them for the third time. Kuwait’s
population of about 3.4 million people included 2.3 million foreign
workers. Kuwaitis elected 4 women and rejected a number of Islamic
fundamentalist candidates.
(AP, 5/16/09)(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Sudan Sudanese
police arrested 13 women in a raid on a Khartoum cafe and flogged 10
of them in public for wearing trousers in violation of the country's
strict Islamic law. One of those arrested, journalist Lubna Hussein,
said she is challenging the charges, which can be punishable by up
to 40 lashes.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 20, In Malaysia
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno (32), a Muslim woman, was sentenced to
six lashes and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for having a beer in
a nightclub in Dec 2007. She would become the first woman in
Malaysia to be given the punishment under Islamic law. Her caning
was delayed on Aug 24 because of the holy month of Ramadan. On Mar
30, 2010, the state's sultan spared her the caning and instead
ordered her to do 3 weeks of community service.
(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/19/09)(AP, 8/24/09)(AP,
4/1/10)
2009 Jul 29, A Sudanese court
adjourned the case of Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, a woman journalist
facing 40 lashes for wearing "indecent" trousers. 10 women had
already been whipped on July 3 for similar offences against Islamic
law. "I wish to resign from the UN, I wish this court case to
continue," Hussein told a packed courtroom before the judge
adjourned the case to August 4.
(AFP, 7/29/09)
2009 Oct 6, The Hamas
government banned motorcycle riders from carrying women on the back
seat, the latest in the militants' virtue campaign in Gaza.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 20, Kuwait's highest
court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their
husband's approval, in the latest stride for women's rights in this
small oil-rich emirate. The landmark decision "freed" Kuwaiti women
from the 1962 law requiring their husband's signature to obtain a
passport.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 28, Germany's Lutheran
Church elected Margot Kaessmann (51), the first woman to lead the
nation's Protestants.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 28, Kuwait's highest
court ruled that women lawmakers are not obliged by law to wear the
headscarf, a blow to Muslim fundamentalists who want to fully impose
Islamic Sharia law in this small oil-rich state.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Dec 25, Mexican
authorities in the state of Chihuahua found the bullet-riddled
bodies of six members of the same family in a mountainous area.
Esther Chavez (73), a women's rights activist who first drew
attention to the brutal slayings of women in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez, died. She was the founder of Casa Amiga, a shelter
for female victims of violence in Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Egypt passed a law
allocating 64 seats out of 518 in the People’s Assembly to women.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.30)
2010 Jan 18, A group of 30
Mauritanian Muslim leaders issued a religious edict banning female
genital mutilation in the West African country. The leaders also
agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Feb 9, Authorities in
Malaysia caned three Muslim women for having extramarital sex,
making them the first women in the country to receive such
punishment under Islamic law. Each woman reportedly received between
four and six strokes of a rattan cane.
(AP, 2/17/10)
2010 Feb 15, Jeanne M. Holm,
the first woman to rise to the rank of general in the US Air Force
and the first woman to become a two-star general in any US armed
service, died in Annapolis, Md.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.C5)
2010 Mar 14, Egypt's
Constitutional Court backed the right of women judges to sit on the
bench in the state's administrative courts, despite opposition from
conservatives. The ruling was not "decisive" and debates within the
administrative courts could still continue along the
conservative-liberal fault line.
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Apr 3, In Portland, Maine,
about two dozen women drew a crowd of onlookers when they shed their
shirts and marched downtown to promote what they call
equal-opportunity public toplessness.
(AP, 4/5/10)
2010 Apr 12, Nebraska
Republican Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law a bill requiring
doctors to screen women for possible mental and physical problems
before performing abortions and a 2nd law that would ban abortions
after 20 weeks, based on the assertion that fetuses feel pain.
(SFC, 4/13/10, p.A4)
2010 Apr 16, In Iran cleric
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, the acting prayer leader of Tehran, said
women who wear immodest clothing and behave promiscuously are to
blame for earthquakes.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A4)
2010 Apr 27, In Nepal Oh
Eun-sun (44), a South Korean mountaineer, became the first woman to
scale the world's 14 highest mountains, crawling on all fours as she
reached the last summit. She reached the summit of Annapurna
13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum
II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 Apr 29, The US Navy said
the first US women allowed to serve aboard submarines will be
reporting for duty by 2012.
(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 3, In Senegal
lawmakers from 27 African countries gathered in Dakar for a two-day
conference to push for a UN ban on female genital mutilation as a
breach of human rights. Senegal hoped to eradicate the practice
completely by 2015.
(AFP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 10, President Barack
Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court,
pushing the former law school dean toward the pinnacle of her
profession and positioning the United States to have three women
justices for the first time in its history.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 24, In Trinidad and
Tobago attorney Kamla Persad-Bissessar (59) was elected as the first
female prime minister. Preliminary elections results indicated that
Persad-Bissessar and her five-party People's Partnership coalition
won 29 of 41 seats in parliament.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May, Malaysia's Islamic
Shariah courts appointed their first female judges. The news was not
made public until July.
(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, Iran's first
women-only bank branch opened, allowing women to manage their
finances without dealing with unrelated men, something likely to
appeal to religious families who oppose mingling between the sexes.
(Reuters, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, At the Vatican
groups that have long demanded that women be ordained Roman Catholic
priests took advantage of the Vatican's crisis over clerical sex
abuse to press their cause, demanding the Vatican open discussions
on letting women join the priesthood.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 16, Human Rights Watch
called on Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to ban the practice
of female genital mutilation, and said in a new report that the
majority of women in the self-ruled region undergo the medically
risky and emotionally painful procedure.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jul 12, The Church of
England national assembly decided that women should be allowed to
become bishops, making only minor concessions to theological
conservatives who have threatened to break away over the issue.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Aug 9, Bibi Aisha, a young
Afghan woman who said her nose and ears were sliced off last year to
punish her for running away from her violent husband, gained
worldwide attention when she appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
She was sent to Los Angeles over the summer for reconstructive
surgery. In November her father-in-law was arrested on charges of
disfiguring Aisha and of being part of a Taliban network in Uruzgan
province. The only suspect arrested in the case was released in
July, 2011.
(AP, 12/8/10)(SFC, 7/12/11, p.A2)
2010 Oct 25, In Egypt a planned
website, Harrasmap, will allow women to quickly report instances of
harassment via text message or Twitter, to be loaded onto a digital
map of Cairo to show hotspots and areas that might be dangerous for
women to walk alone. The data will be shared with activists, media,
and police. Cairo's online map will run off a platform called
Ushahidi, an open-source software first developed to report violence
in Kenya after 2008 elections there. Since then test models of it
have run in South Africa, Gaza and India.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 31, Saudi Arabia's top
government-sanctioned board of senior Islamic clerics endorsed a
fatwa that calls for a ban on female vendors because it violates the
kingdom's strict segregation of the sexes.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Nov 24, In India a local
official said the northern Lank village council in Uttar Pradesh
state has banned unmarried women from using cell phones for fear
they will arrange forbidden marriages that are often punished by
death.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Dec 9, Jordan appointed a
woman, Ihsan Barakat (46), as chief district attorney of the
country's capital, marking the first time a woman has held a top
prosecutor's post in the pro-American Arab kingdom.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 14, The US Coast Guard
named Rear. Adm. Sandra Stosz (50) to lead its academy at New
London, Conn., beginning next summer.
(SFC, 12/15/10, p.A16)
2010 Dec 26, Geraldine Doyle
(86), a Michigan factory worker used as the unwitting model for the
wartime Rosie the Riveter poster, died. The term "Rosie the Riveter"
stems from a 1942 song honoring the women who took over critical
factory jobs when American men went off to war. The inspirational
"We Can Do It!" poster was not widely seen until the 1980s when it
was embraced by the feminist movement as a potent symbol of women's
empowerment.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2010 Elizabeth Abbott authored
“Mistresses: A History of the Other Woman.”
(Econ, 12/18/10, p.164)
2010 Leila J. Rupp authored
“Sapphistries: A Global History of Love Between Women.”
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.F5)
2010 Kelly Valen authored
“Twisted Sisterhood: Unraveling the Dark Legacy of Female
Friendships.”
(SFC, 11/3/10, p.E1)
2010 In Saudi Arabia an
estimated 4 million women over the age of 20 were unmarried in the
country of 24.6 million. Many male guardians forcibly kept women
single, a practice known as "adhl." Saudi feminist Wajeha
al-Hawaidar described male guardianship as "a form of slavery."
(AP, 11/27/10)
2011 Jan 13, France's
parliament gave final approval to a law forcing large companies to
reserve at least 40 percent of their boardroom positions for women
within six years.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.11)(http://tinyurl.com/447vuoy)
2011 Jan 18, It was reported
that around 187,000 women in Turkey are in polygamous marriages even
though polygamy is illegal.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011 Feb 14, A group of
Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit challenging a civil law that
effectively stops women from keeping their surnames when they marry.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2011 Mar 1, The European Court
of Justice said insurers must stop setting prices based on gender,
in a move that could raise costs for women drivers, cut male
pensions, and prompt more legal challenges to insurance pricing
practices.
(Reuters, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 8, In Egypt a protest
by hundreds of women demanding equal rights and an end to sexual
harassment turned violent when crowds of men heckled and shoved the
demonstrators, telling them to go home where they belong.
(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 8, Palestinian women
took to the streets to call for unity and an end to the Israeli
occupation in a series of rallies called to mark International
Women's Day.
(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 8, Sudanese riot
police arrested more than 40 women minutes after they started a
protest against rape and rights abuses in the Khartoum suburb of
Omdurman.
(Reuters, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 9, In Egypt attackers,
said to be pro-Mubarak thugs, armed with knives and machetes waded
into hundreds of pro-democracy activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square,
as insecurity raged. Military authorities detained women in Tahrir
Square and forced 18 of them to undergo “virginity tests.”
(AFP, 3/9/11)(SFC, 6/1/11, p.A6)(SFC, 6/28/11,
p.A2)
2011 Mar 10, Human Rights Watch
issued a report saying "The enforcement of a compulsory Islamic
dress code on women in Chechnya violates their rights to private
life, personal autonomy, freedom of expression, and freedom of
religion, thought, and conscience."
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 May 10, Pakistani
lawmakers adopted tougher penalties for acid attacks in a step
towards eradicating a form of violence that can disfigure around 200
women a year. The lower house of parliament passed the amendment,
but the legislation needs to be formally rubber stamped by the
Senate.
(AFP, 5/11/11)
2011 May 11, In Istanbul 13
European countries signed a Council of Europe convention on
combating violence against women.
(Econ, 5/14/11,
p.68)(https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1785485&Site=DC)
2011 May 22, Saudi authorities
re-arrested activist Manal al-Sherif, who defied a ban on female
drivers. She was detained for several hours a day earlier by the
country's religious police and released after she signed a pledge
agreeing not to drive. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world
that bans women, both Saudi and foreign, from driving.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 28, Thousands of
people turned out for Australia's first "SlutWalk," protesting for
women to be able to wear whatever they like without fear of being
sexually assaulted. SlutWalk began in Canada in April after a
Toronto police official said that "women should avoid dressing like
sluts in order not to be victimized."
(AFP, 5/29/11)
2011 Jun 2,
The New York Times announced the appointment of Managing Editor Jill
Abramson to the position of Executive Editor, effective September
6th. She will become the first woman Executive Editor in the history
of the Times.
(Agence France Presse, 6/2/11)(Washington Post, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 2, In London
Nobel-winning writer V.S. Naipaul (78) faced criticism for saying he
does not regard any female authors as his equal, even famed novelist
Jane Austen, because they are "sentimental."
(AFP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 8, Turkey’s PM Erdogan
said he would scrap the ministry for women along with 7 other
cabinet jobs.
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.59)(http://tinyurl.com/3tw6omd)
2011 Jun 16, Malaysia opened an
investigation into allegations that two immigration officers forced
a pair of Singaporean women to do squats naked. The officers were
suspended.
(AFP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 18, Yelena Bonner
(b.1923), Russian rights activist and widow of Nobel Peace Prize
winner Andrei Sakharov, died in Boston.
(SFC, 6/20/11, p.C3)
2011 Jun 19, In Pakistan
Muhammad Riaz chopped off his wife’s nose before turning himself
over to the Khanpur police. Riaz, a resident of Choee village, said
he believed his wife, Ansar Bibi (22), was having an affair. Bibi
denied the allegation saying he did it because she is infertile.
Police later arrested the alleged boyfriend, Ashiq Hussain, from
Riaz’s house and registered separate cases against both men.
(www.muslimwomennews.com/)(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 20, The US Supreme
Court denied a sex discrimination suit on behalf of over 1 million
Wal-Mart employees saying they failed to pinpoint any company policy
that denied them equal pay of promotions.
(SFC, 6/21/11, p.A1)
2011 Jun 21, Iraqi Kurdistan
approved a draft law banning female genital mutilation by the
regional government. The Family Violence Bill has to be ratified by
the regional president, Massud Barzani.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jun 28, Saudi police
detained one woman while driving in Jiddah on the Red Sea coast.
Four other women accused of driving were later detained in the city.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jul 6, The EU Parliament
passed a resolution calling for EU-wide legislation stipulating that
at least 40% of seats on listed companies’ supervisory boards be
reserved for women by the year 2020.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.61)
2011 Jul 31, In India hundreds
of protesters took to the streets of New Delhi for India's first
"Slut Walk," to protest at an alarming rise in sexual assault cases
and the growing sense of insecurity among women.
(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 7, Nancy Wake (98),
Australia's greatest World War II heroine, died in London. She was a
prominent figure in the French Resistance.
(AFP, 8/8/11)(Econ, 8/13/11, p.82)
2011 Aug 20, In South Africa
some 2,000 women draped sexy lingerie over their street clothes and
marched through Cape Town, bringing the international "SlutWalks"
campaign against the notion that a woman's appearance can excuse
attacks to a country where rape is seen as a national crisis.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Sep 25, Saudi King
Abdullah announced that the nation's women will gain the right to
vote and run as candidates in local elections to be held in 2015 in
a major advancement for the rights of women in the deeply
conservative Muslim kingdom.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 26, Australia opened
frontline combat roles to women for the first time in its history
under a new policy allowing all military positions to be filled on
merit rather than gender.
(AFP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 27, In Saudi Arabia
Shaima Jastaina was sentenced to be lashed 10 times with a whip for
defying the kingdom’s prohibition on driving. King Abdullah quickly
overturned the court ruling.
(SFC, 9/28/11, p.A2)(SFC, 9/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said
increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex
of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in
China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Nov 24, Israeli women's
rights activists marched through Tel Aviv carrying black coffins to
raise awareness about domestic violence in Israel, which so far this
year has claimed 24 women's lives.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, The UN human
rights chief urged the Maldives to end the "degrading" practice of
flogging women found to have had sex outside marriage. The country
of 300,000 people forbids practicing religions other than Islam.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 30, The United Arab
Emirates announced that children of Emirati women married to
foreigners could apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving
closer to giving women the same nationality rights as men.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 1, Afghan Pres. Karzai
pardoned an Afghan woman (19) serving a 12-year sentence for having
sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative. Karzai said
she had agreed to marry her attacker. She had a child while in
prison and had previously refused a judge’s offer of freedom in
exchange for marrying the rapist.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 3, The London-based
Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported
that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for
bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in
2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Singapore
hundreds of people gathered at a park to protest sexual violence
against women as part of the global "SlutWalk" movement, in a rare
public demonstration in the tightly controlled city state.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 8, Britain’s Defense
Secretary Philip Hammond announced that women will be allowed to
serve on British navy submarines, with female officers taking up
roles from late 2013.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Liberia and Senegal
pledged to reform their laws so that women can confer citizenship on
their children. They were among at least 30 countries that let only
fathers pass their citizenship to children from marriages with a
foreigner.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, Mexico's navy said
the first woman has joined the ranks of its special forces.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Sylvia Ann Hewlett and
Ripa Rashid authored “Winning the War for Talent in Emerging
Markets: Why Women Are the Solution.”
(Econ, 8/27/11, p.58)
2012 Jan 20, In Malawi hundreds
of outraged girls and women, among them prominent politicians,
protested the recent public stripping of women of their miniskirts
and pants. Many wore pants or miniskirts and T-shirts emblazoned
with such slogans as: "Real men don't harass women." Men also took
part.
(AP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 23, British adventurer
Felicity Aston (34) finished her Antarctic crossing, becoming the
first woman to ski across the icy continent alone.
(AP, 1/23/12)
2012 Feb 10, Pres. Obama
offered a compromise that would allow women to obtain free
contraception, but would require them to obtain it directly from
their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control
because of religious beliefs.
(AP, 2/10/12)
2012 Feb, In Saudi Arabia a
royal order stipulated that women who drive should not be prosecuted
by the courts.
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.60)
2012 Mar 4, ProFlowers of San
Diego said it has suspended advertising on the Rush Limbaugh radio
show, becoming the 7th advertiser in recent days to do so, due to
his comments about Georgetown Univ. law student Sandra Fluke. He had
called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified in
support of health insurance that covers birth control for women.
(SFC, 3/5/12, p.A8)
2012 Mar 5, Singapore Minister
of State for Manpower Minister Tan Chuan Jin said a mandatory weekly
rest day would apply to maids whose work permits are issued or
renewed from January 1, 2013.
(AFP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 6, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai endorsed the Ulema Council's “code of conduct” document
issued March 3. It allows husbands to beat wives under certain
circumstances and encourages segregation of the sexes.
(AP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 27, Adrienne Rich
(b.1929), American feminist poet, died in her Santa Cruz, Ca., home
after a long struggle with rheumatoid arthritis.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A1)
2012 Mar 28, Human Rights Watch
said hundreds of Afghan women were languishing in prison for
so-called moral crimes, which included running away from home and
having sex outside marriage. The group estimated a total of 400
women were in prison and girls in juvenile detention facilities
having been accused or convicted of offences including "running
away", which is not a crime under the Afghan penal code.
(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Apr 5, Pope Benedict XVI
denounced priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy
and ordaining women, saying they were disobeying his authority to
try to impose their own ideas on the church.
(AP, 4/5/12)
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