Timeline of Women
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History: www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/oakl-ann.htm
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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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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,
Crimean War 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)(HN, 5/12/99)
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,
first woman to get an MD from a U.S. medical school, was born in
Bristol, England.
(HN, 2/3/99)(ON, SC, p.11)(MC, 2/3/02)
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)
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 Jun 11, Dame Millicent
Garrett Fawcett, leader of English women's movement, was born.
(SC, 6/11/02)
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, the 1st woman to receive medical degree, graduated
at the top of her class from the medical school of Hobart College in
Geneva, N.Y.
(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, Woman's Medical
College of Pennsylvania opened as the 1st female medical school. [see
1848, Oct 12, 1850]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1850 Apr 16, Marie [Gresholtz]
Tussaud (89), Swiss-born maker of wax figures, died.
(MC, 4/16/02)
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 Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened.
[see 1848, Mar 11, 1850]
(MC, 10/12/01)
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)
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)
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 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 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 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, Finland became the
1st European country to give women the right to vote. [see Mar 7, 1906]
(MC, 3/15/02)
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)
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, Elizabeth Blackwell
(89), 1st woman physician, died.
(MC, 5/31/02)
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 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 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)
1911 California voters granted
women the right to vote in state and local elections. It was the 6th
state of the union to pass suffrage.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A10)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.E1)
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 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 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)
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.
(MC, 4/3/02)
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 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 granted
women 30 and over the right to vote.
(MC, 2/6/02)
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 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 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 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 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 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)
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 Feb 27, Female suffrage was
granted in Egypt.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1956 Apr 1, Libby Riddles, dogsled
racer: 1st woman to win Iditarod (1985), was born.
(MC, 4/1/02)
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)
1957 Sep 1, Gloria Estefan, singer
(Miami Sound Machine-Conga, 1-2-3), was born in Cuba.
(SC, 9/1/02)
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 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 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 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 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, 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)
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 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)
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 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)
1996-2001 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 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)
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)
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)
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), 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.
(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/19/09)(AP, 8/24/09)
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)
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)
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