WOW2: June's Women Trailblazers and Events in Our History - 2017

Welcome to WOW2!

WOW2 is a monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. Here, we learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books, and also mark moments in women’s history.

This Week in the War on Women will post a little later, so be sure to go there next and catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines: www.dailykos.com/...

June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

In 2000, President Bill Clinton proclaimed the first “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month,” to commemorate the uprising on June 28,1969, at NYC’s Stonewall Inn that became the catalyst for the modern LGTBQ civil rights movement in America. In 2016, President Obama designated the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park in Greenwich Village as the Stonewall National Monument.

Sadly, this is also the month we must remember the horrific mass shooting last year at the Pulse nightclub, in which 49 people lost their lives. But 2017 is the first year of Orlando United, a One Orlando Alliance event, which brought  Orlando’s LGBTQ+ ‘Acts of Love and Kindness’ movement together with the governments of the City of Orlando and Orange County of Florida for quite a day of commemorative events and fundraising. Stronger together.

June is also a very busy month in Women’s History. Some people think WOW2 is “too long,” but it’s meant as a record of all the forgotten women who pushed against the restrictions imposed on them, who made it easier for those of us who’ve come after them. So WOW2 will continue to grow.

Remember, you don’t have to read every word — just let your eyes travel down the page until something interests you. Even if you only look at the pictures, and read a few of the quotes, you will undoubtedly learn something that’s new to you!

If there are young girls (and boys) in your life, show them the women and events on their birthday. You never know what might inspire them to reach higher and go farther. There are a lot more colors in the crayon box than pink and lavender!

June’s Women Trailblazers and Events in Our History

• June 1, 1310 – Marguerite Porète, French mystic, burned at the stake for heresy in Paris, after a lengthy trial, when she refused to recant her beliefs or remove her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, from circulation. She was condemned for saying that, in the state of contemplative love of God, the soul has no need of Masses or intercession by priests or even prayer.Her book was also suspect because it was written in Old French instead of Latin.

• June 1, 1660– Mary Dyer, one of four executed Quakers known as the Boston Martyrs, hanged after repeatedly returning to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to protest the banning by Puritans of Quakers for their ‘heretical’ beliefs.

• June 1, 1797– Abby Hadassah Smith born, suffragist, and women’s property rights advocate, subject of Abby Smith and her Cows written by her sister Julia Evelina Smith. The Town of Glastonbury raised taxes on the Smith sisters and two other widows, but  their male neighbors’ property values had not risen, so the sisters refused to pay the taxes without being granted a right to vote in town meetings. Seven of Abby’s cows were seized and sold for taxes (January 1874). When she protested this seizure of property, 15 acres of her pastureland were also seized for delinquent taxes (June 1874). The sisters took the town to court and ultimately won their case.

• June 1, 1868 – Annie MacKinnon Fitch born, mathematician, Ph.D.,Cornell University (1894), dissertation: "Concomitant Binary Forms in Terms of the Roots." Wells College Professor of Mathematics, elected to American Mathematical Society (1897). "It seems to me worthwhile that some women are intelligent about things mathematical even if their own accomplishments are not great." Also member of American Association for  Advancement of Science and League of Women Voters.

• June 1, 1928 – Alberta Daisy Schenck Adams born, civil rights activist for equality of indigenous peoples before Alaska statehood. Instrumental in passage of the Alaska Civil Rights Act passed by the Territorial Legislature 10 years before the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision.

• June 1, 1993– Connie Chung becomes the second woman to co-anchor the evening news, 17 years after Barbara Walters became the first in 1976

• June 1, 2015– Ameenah Gurib-Fakim designated first woman president of Mauritius

• June 2, 1816 – Grace Aguilar born, British author of Jewish history and religion, novelist, known for her works The Spirit of Judaism and The Women of Israel 

• June 2, 1899– Lotte Reiniger born, German animator/director, silhouette animation pioneer, The Adventures of Prince Achmed and The Magic Flute 

• June 2, 1907 – Dorothy West born, Harlem Renaissance author, The Living is Easy

• June 2, 1913– Barbara Pym born, British author, Fellow of Royal Society of Literature, wrote social comedies like Excellent Women and A Glass of Blessings 

• June 2, 1953 – Elizabeth II crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey, beginning the longest reign of a British queen

• June 2, 1978– Yi So-yeon born, scientist, first Korean woman astronaut in space

• June 3, 1879–Alla Nazimova born, Ukrainian-American actress, producer-screenwriter, credited with the phrase ‘sewing circle’ as a discreet code for lesbianism, she had affairs with Actor-Theatre Producer Eva Le Gallienne, film director Dorothy Arzner, and novelist-playwright Mercedes de Acosta

• June 3, 1916 – Gloria Martin born, socialist, feminist organizer who began Shakespeare & Martin Booksellers

• June 3, 1919 – Elizabeth Koontz born, first African-American president of the National Education Association and Director of the U.S. Women’s Bureau (1969-73)

• June 3, 1924 – Colleen Dewhurst born, actress, winner of 4 Emmy Awards, 2 Tony Awards, 2 Obie Awards, and 2 Gemini awards. President of Actors’ Equity Association (1985-91)

• June 3, 1972– Sally Jane Priesand becomes the first woman ordained by a U.S. rabbinical seminary

• June 4, 1784 – Eight months after the first manned balloon flight, Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon. Her flight with M. Fleurant covers four kilometers in 45 minutes, and reaches an estimated altitude of 1,500 meters. She is dressed as the goddess Minerva, and fed the firebox to keep them aloft

• June 4, 1866– Miina Sillanpää born, Finnish journalist and politician, Finland’s first woman minister, prominent in the workers’ movement

• June 4, 1881– Natalya Goncharova born, Russian modernist painter-sculptor-stage designer; co-founder of artistic groups Jack of Diamonds and Donkey’s Tail 

• June 4, 1913– Emily Davison, militant suffragette, runs on to the track during the Epsom Derby, attempting to grab the bridle of King George V’s horse, Anmer. She is trampled, never regains consciousness and dies a few days later.

• June 4, 1917– Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for Biography for their work about their mother Julia Ward Howe.

• June 4, 1919– U.S. Congress finally approves 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification.

• June 4, 1934– Dame Daphne Sheldrick born, Kenyan author and conservation activist, known for work raising orphan elephants and reintroducing them into the wild.

• June 4, 1966 – Svenlana Jitomirskaya born in Ukraine, mathematician, awarded Satter Prize (2005) by American Mathematical Society for pioneering work on non-perturbative quasiperiodic localization.
• June 4, 1972–Angela Davis is found not guilty of all charges of kidnapping, conspiracy and murder.

• June 5, 1660–Sarah Churchill born, married John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, but is an influential figure in her own right, through her close friendship and support of Queen Anne before 1711, and later, her inheritance as a widow which made her one of the richest women in Europe

• June 5, 1836– Miriam Leslie born, author, publisher and suffragist. When her husband died (1880), he left his publishing company to her, but it was $300,000 in the red, and his will was contested. She took over the business, reorganized, appointing herself president. The circulation of the Popular Monthly increased 200,000 in four months under her management. She had her name legally changed to Frank Leslie in June 1881 because of the ongoing legal battles. Most of her estate she bequeathed to Carrie Chapman Catt, to be used for the cause of women’s suffrage.
• June 5, 1851– First installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published in The National Era an abolitionist newspaper.

• June 5, 1887– Ruth Fulton Benedict born, anthropologist and folklorist, President of the American Anthropological Association, member of the American Folklore Society. Wrote Patterns of Culture, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and "The Races of Mankind," a WWII pamphlet for the troops showing racism wasn’t grounded in scientific reality.

• June 5, 1915– Denmark amends its constitution to allow women to vote

• June 5, 1949– Orapin Chaiyakan becomes first woman elected to Thailand’s Parliament.

• June 5, 1963 – Lois Browne-Evans is elected as a Member of the Bermuda Colonial Parliament, the first black female elected, during the first election in Bermuda in which non-property owners could vote; also first Bermuda woman called to the bar. June 5 is now celebrated as Dame Lois Browne-Evans Day in Bermuda

• June 6, 1654 –Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and converts to Catholicism

• June 6, 1826– Sarah Parker Remond born, African-American abolitionist, lecturer, American Anti-Slavery Society agent in England during the Civil War, gathered support for anti-slavery cause and for the Union Army, later moved to Italy and became a physician.

• June 6, 1841– Eliza Orzeszkowa born, Polish author and Nobel Prize nominee, worked  to improve social conditions in Poland

• June 6, 1898– Dame Ninette de Valois born, Irish dancer/choreographer/director, founder of The Royal Ballet, and the Royal Ballet School in Great Britain

• June 6, 1925 – Maxine Kumin born, American poet and author, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1981-82)

• June 6, 1939– Marian Wright Edelman born, lawyer and activist, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund

• June 7, 1831– Amelia Edwards born, British journalist, author and Egyptologist, known for her book A Thousand Miles up the Nile which she wrote and illustrated

• June 7, 1843–Susan Elizabeth Blow born, American pioneer in kindergarten education
• June 7, 1861– Alice Moore Hubbard born, feminist, educator and author; Justinian and Theodora and Woman’s Work.

• June 7, 1896– Vivien Kellems born, industrialist/inventor, lecturer, political activist, co-inventor of cable grip to pull and relieve strain on electrical cables. Advocate of voting reform, Equal Rights Amendment, and abolishing income tax

• June 7, 1899– Carrie Nation, believing she was called by God, destroyed Dobson’s Saloon in Kiowa, Kansas with “smashers,” rocks wrapped in paper. A leader in the prohibition movement, she and other women smashed saloons with hatchets, in many “hatchetations” 

• June 7, 1909– Virginia Apgar born, anesthesiologist, developed the Apgar score to assess the health of newborns, increasing infant survival rates. Pioneer in anesthesiology,  helped to raise the respect for the discipline; she warned use of some anesthetics during childbirth negatively affected infants. Also helped refocus March of Dimes organization from polio to birth defects.

• June 7, 1910 – Marion Wolcott born, documentary photographer for the Farm Securities Administration during the Great Depression

• June 7, 1909– Jessica Tandy born, award-winning actress, who appeared in over 100 stage productions and 60 films, from the 1920s to the 1990s, including “A Streetcar Named Desire” (play, 1948) and “Driving Miss Daisy” (film, 1989)

• June 7, 1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks born, poet, first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1950), and the first black woman to be named a Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry (1985—86)

• June 7, 1954 – Louise Erdrich born, Ojibwe novelist/poet/children's book author, enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, a band of Anishinaabe  (aka Ojibwe and Chippewa)

• June 7, 1968– Women sewing machinists at Ford Motor Company Limited’s Dagenham plant in London go out on strike. Their actions were a contributing factor to the passage of the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1970.

• June 8, 1858 – Charlotte Angas Scott born, mathematician, one of first English women to obtain a doctorate in mathematics. Thanks to rigorous home schooling, won scholarship (1876) to Hitchin College, first English college to offer a post secondary program. Competed in “Tripos” final examinations (1880) offered at Cambridge. Mastery of Tripos exams qualified her to receive a bachelor's degree with honors, previously only awarded to male Cambridge students. Ranked 8^th in test scores, but not allowed at awards ceremony, solely because she was fermale. Undeterred, got Bachelor of Science degree (1882), then doctorate (1885), both with First Class ratings, from University of London – Cambridge didn’t award degrees to women until 1948. Her snubbing led to eligibility of all resident Cambridge women to take examinations and have their names announced publicly with the men. Taught at Bryn Mawr, establishing their undergraduate and graduate programs in mathematics. Published An Introductory Account of Certain Modern Ideas and Methods in Plane Analytical Geometry (1894), still widely used. First and only woman on inaugural Council of American Mathematical Society (1894), became CAMS VP in 1905.

• June 8, 1860 – Alicia Stott born, Irish-English mathematician known for her models of three-dimensional geometic figures, coined "polytope” for a convex solid in four (or more) dimensions

• June 8, 1900 – Estelle Griswold born, birth control advocate and pioneer, defendant in the Supreme Court case “Griswold v. Connecticut” which legalized contraception for married couples in 1965

• June 8, 1903 – Jessie Bernard born, sociologist, feminist critic and author of The Paradox of the Happy Marriage (1971), and The Female World (1981)

• June 8, 1903 –Marguerite Yourcenar born in Belgium, French novelist and essayist, Memoirs of Hadrian, winner of the Prix Femina and the Erasmus Prize, the first woman elected to the Académie française, in 1980. The Yourcenar Prize is named in her honor.

• June 8, 1929– Margaret Bondfield appointed Minister of Labour, first woman Cabinet minister in the U.K.

• June 8, 1949 –Helen Keller and Dorothy Parker are among many prominent people named in an FBI report as members of the Communist Party

• June 8, 1953 – U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. Inc., a lawsuit spearheaded by Mary Church Terrell against a segregated restaurant in Washington DC, that its policy of segregation is illegal, upholding laws passed in the District of Columbia in 1872 and 1873 prohibiting segregation in public places, which, though not enforced for decades, are still on the books in 1953

• June 9, 1836 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson born, first woman to complete medical qualifying exams and first woman physician in Great Britain (1870). After an 1859 lecture by Elizabeth Blackwell on “Medicine as a Profession for Ladies,” entered training as a surgical nurse – the only woman in the class, she was banned from full participation in the operating room. Rejected by medical schools, finally admitted for private study for an apothecary license, fought to take the exam and get a license. Society of Apothecaries then amended their regulations so no more women could be licensed. Opened a dispensary in London for women and children in 1866. Retired from practice to Aldeburgh, elected its mayor (1908), first Englishwoman to hold that office.

• June 9, 1843 – Bertha von Suttner born, Austrian novelist and pacifist; first woman to be solely awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1905)

• June 9, 1861–Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke served in the Civil War as a Union hospital nurse and administrator from June 9, 1861 to March 20, 1865, working in a total of nineteen battles, establishing 300 field hospitals; after the war, she was a tireless advocate for veterans, and became a lawyer to help them and their families with legal problems, including getting their pensions.

• June 9, 1896 – Catherine Shouse born, philanthropist and political activist, benefactor of Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts

• June 9, 1909 –Alice Huyler Ramsey, 22-year-old housewife from Hackensack, New Jersey, becomes the 1st woman to drive across the US, in a Maxwell 30, drives 3,800 miles from Manhattan to San Francisco in 59 days

• June 9, 1921– Phyllis Wallace born, economist, first African-American woman full professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, pioneer in the study of sex and race discrimination in the workplace

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  June 9, 1931 – Phoebe Burnett Snetsinger born, birder and amateur ornithologist. After receiving a "terminal cancer" diagnosis, she became famous for her birding life list of 8,398 species (out of about 10,000 in the world) before her death, a world record for the time, often traveling to remote areas, some in politically unstable countries. Her copious field notes included distinctive subspecies.She was killed  in 1999, not by cancer, but when the vehicle overturned while she was traveling in Madagascar. Her memoir, Birding on Borrowed Time, was published posthumously (2003).

• June 9, 1949– Georgia Neese Clark confirmed as first woman U.S. treasurer.

• June 10, 1692– Bridget Bishop, first person hanged in the Salem Massachusetts witch trials.

• June 10, 1822 – Lydia White Shattuck born, botanist, naturalist, and chemist, graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary (1851), became a faculty member there where she remained until her retirement in 1888, just a few months before her death. She taught many science and math topics, including algebra, geometry, physiology, physics, astronomy and natural philosophy. She was internationally known as a botanist.

• June 10, 1854–Sarah Grand, born Frances Bellenden Clarke, Irish feminist author whose novels and other writings promote the ideal of the ‘New Woman’ who wants an education and the ability to be self-supporting, who will not stay in an oppressive marriage; she writes about the double standard, condemning women for promiscuity which is tacitly accepted in men; as a student, she is expelled from the Royal Naval School in Twickenham for organizing protests against the Contagious Diseases Act, which persecutes prostitutes as infected women, and sole cause of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, subjecting them to inspection of their genitals and being locked in hospital wards

• June 10, 1922– Judy Garland born, singer-actress, recipient of Academy and Grammy Awards for lifetime achievement, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, A Star is Born (1954 version), Judgment at Nuremberg 

• June 10, 1963 – Equal Pay Act enacted: “To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.”

• June 10, 1965 – Susanne Albers born, German computer scientist and academic

• June 10, 1972 – Radmilla Šekerinska born, Macedonian politician, Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia (first in 2004 and then in 2006)

• June 11, 1847— Millicent Fawcett born, English academic and woman suffrage leader 

• June 11, 1860– Mary Jane Rathbun born, zoologist; working at Smithsonian Institution, she described more than a thousand new species, specializing in crustaceans

• June 11, 1880– Jeannette Rankin born, politician, peace and women’s rights activist, first woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives, voted in Congress against declaration of war for both WWI and WWII, casting the only vote against WWII.

• June 11, 1913– Women in Illinois celebrate passage of a state woman suffrage bill allowing women to vote in presidential elections

• June 11, 1962– Vivian Malone, with fellow student James Hood, enroll in the University of Alabama as the first African American students at the school. Enrolling as a junior, Malone became the school’s first African American graduate in 1963.

• June 11, 1978–The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) is founded

• June 11, 1987–Diane Abbott is elected as the first female black MP in Great Britain

• June 12, 1802–Harriet Martineau born, English sociologist and author, known as the first female sociologist and for the feminist perspective

• June 12, 1892 –Djuna Barnes born, artist and journalist, author of “Nightwood”

• June 12, 1899– Anni Albers born, textile artist and printmaker, had  first textile art show at  Museum of Modern Art (1949)

• June 12, 1908–Marina Semyonova born, Russian ballet dancer, first Soviet-trained prima ballerina, named a People’s Artist of the USSR

• June 12, 1912–Eva Crane born, earned a doctorate in nuclear physics, but abandoned physics to become an expert on bees as a researcher, historian, archivist, editor and author; founder of the International Bee Research Association (1949)

• June 12, 1922–Margherita Hack born, Italian astrophysicist and author, administrator of the Trieste Astronomical Observatory, member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics

• June 12, 1924–Grete Dollitz born in Germany, American classical guitarist, educator, and radio host; author of story of her family’s experiences as immigrants

• June 12, 1929 –Anne Frank born, Dutch author and WWII Holocaust victim; The Diary of Anne Frank

• June 12, 1929 –Brigid Brophy born, British author, critic, social reformer and animal rights activist; Hackenfeller’s Ape and Mozart the Dramatist

• June 12, 1930 –Barbara Harris born, American minister and Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion

• June 12, 1948– The Women’s Armed Services Integration Act is signed into law allowing women to serve as regular members of the United States armed forces. Prior to this they could only serve during times of war.

• June 12, 1967 –Mildred and Richard Loving are each sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other, a violation of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, because she is black and he is white. They bring suit, and the U.S. Supreme Court makes a unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia that the Virginia law is unconstitutional, ending all race-based restriction on marriage in the U.S.

• June 12 is Little League Girls Baseball Day – In the spring of 1950, 13-year-old “Tubby” Johnston signs up to tryout for the King’s Diary Team of the Knights of Columbus League in New York. “Tubby” makes the team, but then confesses to the coach that “he” is really Katherine Johnston, who had talked her mother into cutting off her braids, and then dressed like a boy for the tryouts. The coach said, “You know, we don’t have rules for girls and you’re really good so we’d like to have you on the team.” She played that entire season. But then the Little League organization instituted the “Tubby Rule,” banning girls from the league. The “Tubby Rule” stays on the books until 1974, when the National Organization for Women (NOW) backs Maria Pepe in a discrimination lawsuit in which the New Jersey Superior Court decides that Little League must allow girls to tryout. 

  The June 12 date is perplexing — It’s day the Baseball Hall of Fame was dedicated in Cooperstown, but not the date that their Women in Baseball exhibit opened, and isn’t a date mentioned in either the Johnston or Pepe stories. The closest I could find was in this Sports Illustrated article:  www.si.com/…  It mentions that Katherine Johnston Massar wrote a letter in June, 1974, to “...Little League vice president Robert H. Stirrat and sent him newspaper clippings from The Corning Leader in Corning, N.Y., that detailed her 1950 season with the Kings Dairy team. In his reply Stirrat acknowledged Massar as the first, but her accomplishment wasn't announced publicly. Twenty-five years later, when Massar noticed the media celebrating the anniversary of Pepe's court victory, she contacted Little League again. Officials found her original 1974 letter in a filing cabinet.”

• June 13, 1752– Fanny Burney born, aka Madame d’Arblay, English author and playwright, known for her journals and diaries, novels Evelina, Cecilia and Camilla, as well as a first person account of undergoing a mastectomy without anesthesia

• June 13, 1859–Christine Terhune Herrick born, American author and journalist, noted contributor to Harper’s Bazaar

• June 13, 1879–Lois Weber born, American silent film director, actress, screenwriter, and producer; an important and prolific director of the silent film era; pioneer of the split screen technique in her 1913 film Suspense; early experimenter with sound; first woman to direct a full-length feature film, The Merchant of Venice (1914); in 1917, the first woman director to own a film studio, Lois Weber Productions (1917-1921), and the only woman member of the Motion Picture Directions Association (later became the Director’s Guild of America)

• June 13, 1881–Mary Antin born, American author and immigration rights activist, known for her autobiography The Promised Land about her life in Czarist Russia, immigration and assimilation into American culture

• June 13, 1893— Dorothy L. Sayers born, British author, poet and playwright; Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels

• June 13, 1937– Eleanor Holmes Norton born, politician, delegate to U.S.Congress from the District of Columbia, first female chair of Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (1971)

• June 13, 2012 – Women’s rights activist Manal al Sharif, writes a letter, signed by hundreds, urging Saudi King Abdullah to grant women the right to drive.

• June 14, 1623– The first breach-of-promise lawsuit: Reverend Greville Pooley of the Virginia Colony files against Cicely Phippen Bailey Jordan. Her first husband had died of malaria in 1620, and she re-married, to Samuel Jordan. When Jordan dies, she is pregnant with his child.  With women in short supply in the colony, Pooley only waits four days after Samuel’s death before he proposes to her. Cicely agrees, but on condition that the engagement be kept secret until after the baby is born.  Pooley however begins bragging that they are soon to be married, and an angry Cicely breaks off the engagement. Pooley eventually withdraws his suit

• June 14, 1811 – Harriet Beecher Stowe born, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a huge best-seller: 1.5 million copies are sold in its first year

• June 14, 1839–Alice Fisher born in England, pioneer in American nursing, whose tenure as a superintendent at the Philadelphia General Hospital dramatically improved the standard of care; she also started the hospital’s nursing school

• June 14, 1904–Margaret Bourke-White born, American photographer and journalist, war correspondent, photographed the first cover for LIFE magazine

• June 14, 1907– Norway grants middle class women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

• June 14, 1938– Author- Illustrator Dorothy Lathrop wins the first Caldecott Medal, for her illustrations for Animals of the Bible, A Picture Book, awarded by the children’s division of the American Library Association (ALA)

• June 14, 1952– Pat Summitt born, coached Tennessee’s Women’s Basketball team, scored most wins in NCAA history for both men’s and women’s teams

• June 15, 1648– Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston, becoming the first person executed for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

• June 15, 1876–Margaret Abbott born, American golfer and Olympic medalist, first American woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

• June 15, 1887–Malvina Hoffman born, American artist and author; her monumental bronze sculpture series, “The Races of Mankind,” is commissioned in 1930 by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History

• June 15, 1901– Ruth Cowan born, journalist, one of the first women military correspondents, president of the Women’s National Press Club

• June 15, 1914–Hilda Terry born, American cartoonist; comic strip Teena; first woman to join the National Cartoonists Society

• June 15, 1916– Olga Erteszek born, Polish immigrant, established the Olga Company in 1960, maker of women’s undergarments, one of the first companies to offer employee profit sharing

• June 15, 1920 – Amy Clampitt born, poet and author, her first poem was published when she was 58 years old, first book of poetry The Kingfisher (1983) at age 63

• June 15, 1921– Bessie Coleman receives her pilot’s license after graduating from  the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first American of any race or gender to earn an international license.

• June 15, 1945–Miriam Defensor Santiago born, Filipino judge and politician; as a senator of the Philippines, in 1995 she authors a record number of bills and laws; in 2012, she becomes the first Filipina and first Asian from a developing country to be elected as adjudge of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, but is forced to resign when she is diagnosed with lung cancer; in 2016, joins the Advisory Council of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), an intergovernmental body that promotes the rule of law

• June 15, 1953–Ana Castillo born, Mexican-American author, poet, editor, playwright and scholar, recipient of an American Book Award and a Carl Sandburg Award, and the first Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University

• June 16,1738–Mary Katherine Goddard born, American publisher and first postmistress, first to print the Declaration of Independence 

• June 16, 1892 – Jennie Grossinger born in Galicia, came to America at age 8, highly successful hotelier and philanthropist, ran the family’s elegant resort, Grossinger’s, in the Catskills, the first resort to use artificial snow (1952), It circumvented the anti-Jewish restrictive covenants.

• June 16, 1895 – India Edwards born, Democratic Party political activist, served as Vice Chairman of the DNC from 1950 to 1956

• June 16, 1899–Helen Francesca Traubel born, American dramatic soprano, known for her Wagnerian roles especially Brünnhilde and Isolde

• June 16, 1902 – Barbara McClintock born, biologist, pioneer in cytogenetics field, discovered transposons, ‘jumping genes,’ awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983

• June 16, 1915 – Lucy Davidowicz born, Polish refugee, historian, prominent scholar of Jewish history and the Holocaust

• June 16, 1915– Foundation of the British Women’s Institute (the W.I.), the largest U.K. women’s volunteer organization.

• June 16, 1917 –Katharine Graham born, American publisher, led her family’s newspaper, The Washington Post, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her memoir Personal History

• June 16, 1920 –Isabelle Holland born, Swiss-American author, known for books for both adults and children; two of her novels were made into movies, Bump in the Night and The Man Without a Face

• June 16, 1938– Joyce Carol Oates born, American author; 1969 National Book Award for them

• June 16, 1963– Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkovane becomes the first woman in space when she pilots Vostok 6.

• June 16, 2016 – Jo Cox, Labour Member of British Parliament, known for her work on women's issues, is assassinated after leaving a meeting with constituents.

• June 17, 1865 – Susan La Flesche Picotte born, of the Omaha tribe, first Native American physician (1889), fought tuberculosis and alcoholism on the reservation, campaigned for land rights and a reservation hospital (1913), later named for her

• June 17, 1873– Susan B. Anthony’s trial starts for illegally voting in Rochester, New York on November 5, 1872

• June 17, 1908 –Trude Weiss-Rosmarin born, editor, writer, co-founder of the School of the Jewish Woman (1933), publisher of the “Jewish Spectator” (1936)

• June 17, 2015–Loretta Lynch is sworn in as Attorney General of the United States. She was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and used a Bible which once belonged to Frederick Douglass.

• June 18, 1862 –Carolyn Wells born, American author and poet; light verse and limericks 

• June 18, 1873– United States v. Susan B. Anthony: Susan B. Anthony, stalwart suffragist, is on trial for voting in the 1872 presidential election. Her position is that the 14^th Amendment, intended to give male former slaves U.S. citizenship, including the right to vote, should also apply to women, because it says, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Since it says all ‘citizens’ and all ‘persons’ and does not specify gender, she contends it should apply to female citizens and persons as well. The Rochester Union and Advertiser editorialized: “Citizenship no more carries the right to vote that it carries the power to fly to the moon…” Susan B. Anthony and 7 or 8 other women had registered and cast their ballots, after she threatened to sue the election inspectors if they refused to allow the women to vote. A Rochester Democrat named Sylvester Lewis files a complaint charging Anthony with registering and voting illegally. U.S. Commissioner William C. Storrs, acting on his complaint, issues a warrant for her arrest, for violating section 19 of an act of Congress called the Enforcement Act, which carries a maximum penalty of $500 or three years imprisonment. Anthony is arrested. Prior to her trial, she and her supporters write hundreds of letters, and she goes on tour in Monroe County NY, making a speech called “Is it a Crime for a Citizen of the United States to Vote?” which causes such a stir that the prosecutor is able to get a change of venue to Ontario County, where Anthony promptly begins another speaking tour.  On the day of the trial, the courtroom is filled to capacity. When her attorney calls her to the witness stand, the district attorney’s objection that “She is not a competent as a witness on her own behalf” is sustained by the judge. Immediately after the two-hour closing argument of defense council, the judge takes a paper out of his pocket, and reads, “The Fourteenth Amendment gives no right to a woman to vote, and the voting by Miss Anthony was in violation of the law. Assuming that Miss Anthony believed she had a right to vote, that fact constitutes no defense if in truth she had not the right. She voluntarily gave a vote which was illegal, and thus is subject to the penalty of the law. Upon this evidence I suppose there is no question for the jury and that the jury should be directed to find a verdict of guilty.” So the jury is not allowed to decide the case. Her attorney argues for a new trial on the grounds that Anthony has been denied a trial by jury, but the judge denies the motion. Before sentencing, the judge asks, “Does the prisoner have anything to say why sentence shall not be pronounced?” To which Anthony responds, “Yes, your honor, I have many things to say; for in your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled underfoot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor’s verdict, doomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form of government.” The judge interrupts, “The Court cannot listen to a rehearsal of arguments the prisoner’s counsel has already consumed three hours in presenting.” But Anthony persists, even as the judge pounds his gavel and repeatedly orders her to sit down, until she has said everything she intended to say, then sits down, only to be told to rise for sentencing. She is fined $100 and the cost of the prosecution. Anthony refuses to pay even “a dollar of the unjust penalty.” The judge, in a move to preclude any appeal to a higher court, responds, “Madam, the Court will not order you committed until the fine is paid.” American women have to fight another 47 years before the 19^th Amendment is ratified, recognizing us as citizens and persons with the right to vote

• June 18, 1913 – Sylvia Porter born, economist, New York Post syndicated finance columnist and author, Money and You (1949)

• June 18, 1928 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. She is a passenger in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz with Lou Gordon as mechanic.

• June 18, 1983– Sally Ride becomes the first American woman astronaut as a crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

• June 18, 1983– Mona Mahmudnizhad, a 17-year-old Iranian Bahá’í, is the youngest of 10 Bahá’í women sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran because of their Bahá’í Faith. The official charges against Mahmudnizhad range from “misleading children and youth” because she taught children expelled from school for their beliefs, to being a “Zionist” because the Bahá’í World Centre is located in Israel

• June 18, 2013–Russia passes a law banning same-sex couples, singles, and unmarried couples from countries where same-sex marriage is legal from adopting Russian children. Single Russians may adopt, but adopting couples must be married. In 2012, Russia had banned all adoptions by Americans; an estimated 600,000 Russian orphans remained in their care system in 2013

• June 19, 1856–Elisabeth Marbury born, pioneering American theatrical and literary agent whose clients included Oscar Wilde, James M. Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, Edmond Rostand, dancers Vernon and Irene Castle, and children’s author Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

• June 19, 1885– Adela Pankhurst born, British suffragette, daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, head of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU); but after she moved to Australia in 1913, she broke with her mother’s policy of supporting the WWI British war effort, and made anti-war and anti-conscription speeches

• June 19, 1888 – Hilda Worthington Smith born, labor educator and social worker, first Director of Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921)

• June 19, 1940– Shirley Muldowney born, race car driver, first woman to receive a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) license to drive a Top Fuel dragster, won NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980, and 1982, becoming first person to win two and then three Top Fuel titles.

• June 19, 1945–Aung San Suu Kyi born, Burmese/Myanmar politician and activist, Chair of National League for Democracy, recipient of Rafto Prize, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, and the Nobel Peace Prize

• June 19, 1953– Ethel Rosenberg and her husband executed for treason, Sing Sing, NY

• June 19, 2015–International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, commemorating the adoption in 2008 of Resolution 1820, “to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, including by ending impunity and by ensuring the protection of civilians, in particular women and girls, during and after armed conflicts, in accordance with the obligations States have undertaken under international humanitarian law and international human rights law”

• June 20, 1837– Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne. She would reign for 63 years and 7 months

• June 20, 1893– Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother. No one else is charged with the crime

• June 20, 1895–Carolyn Willard Baldwin receives the first ever PhD in Science awarded to a woman by an American university, from Cornell University, graduating third in her class; Baldwin had previously been the first woman to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Mechanics at the University of California

• June 20, 1897–Elisabeth Hauptmann born, German writer, co-author of The Threepenny Opera

• June 20, 1905 – Lillian Hellman born, playwright “The Children’s Hour”(1934), “The Little Foxes” (1939) and “Toys in the Attic” (1960); blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952

• June 20, 1911–Gail Patrick born, American actor and executive producer, noted for producing the Perry Mason television series

• June 20, 1914–Zelda Schneersohn Mishkovsky born, Israeli poet; awarded the Brenner Prize, the Bialik Prize for Literature, and the Wertheim Prize

• June 20, 1917–Helena Rasiowa born, Polish mathematician, her work on algebraic logic continues to be highly influential; during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, her family’s home and all its contents, including all her notes and the only copy of her Master’s thesis were burned; she rewrote the thesis, and got her Masters in 1945, then her Doctorate in 1950

• June 20, 1921– Alice Robertson (R-Oklahoma) becomes first woman to chair the House of Representatives

• June 20, 1930–Magdalena Abakanowicz born, Polish sculptor, fiber artist and educator

• June 20, 2016– Virginia Raggi is elected as Rome’s first female Mayor (and youngest at age 37)

• June 21, 1734 – Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave in New France, is put to death, convicted of setting a fire that destroyed much of Old Montreal. Today there is no consensus on her guilt or innocence, but her testimony provides valuable insight into the condition of slavery in Canada at the time.

• June 21, 1883– Daisy Turner born, American storyteller, noted for oral recording of her family history traced back to Africa and England; at age 103, she’s featured in Ken Burns’Civil War documentary reciting a poem

• June 21, 1912 – Mary McCarthy born, author and critic, her novel “The Group” remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years

• June 21, 1931–Margaret Heckler born, American politician, member of the United States House of Representatives, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Ambassador to Ireland

• June 21, 1947– Shirin Ebadi born, Iranian lawyer, judge, and human rights activist, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize

• June 21,1953–Benazir Bhutto born, Pakistani stateswoman and politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms

•  June 21, 1957– Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada’s first woman Cabinet Minister.
• June 21, 1997 – Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) plays its first game

• June 21, 2001– Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is the first Hispanic woman to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp

• June 22, 1813– Laura Secord walks 20 miles to warn Canadian troops of an impending American attack. Canada was aligned with Great Britain in the War of 1812.

• June 22, 1869–Caroline O’Day born, American politician, third woman and first female Democrat, elected to Congress from New York (1935-1943); co-sponsor of Wagner-O’Day Act, predecessor to the expanded Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act, requiring all federal agencies to purchase specified supplies and services from nonprofit agencies employing people with significant disabilities, such as blindness, since 2006 called AbilityOne

• June 22, 1906 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh born, author, Gift From the Sea, Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead, first American woman to earn a first-class glider pilot’s license (1930), married to Charles Lindbergh

• June 22, 1909 – Katherine Dunhamborn, dancer and choreographer, combined African movement and classical ballet

• June 22, 1929 – Rose Kushner born, journalist, challenged practice of radical mastectomy in the 1970s

• June 22, 1933–Dianne Feinstein, American politician, San Francisco Mayor (1978-1988); U. S. Senator (D-CA, 1992 to present); first and only woman to chair Senate Rules Committee (2007–2009) and the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009- 2015)

• June 22, 1939–Ada E. Yonath born, Israeli scientist and crystallographer; pioneering work on structure of the ribosome was rewarded by a 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2009 shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz ; director of Center for Biomolecular Structure at the Weizmann Institute of Science

• June 23,1826– Anne McDowell born, editor, journalist, publisher of Woman’s Advocate

• June 23, 1889–Anna Akhmatova born, pseudonym for Russian poet Anna Andreyevna Gorenko, one of the most acclaimed writers in Russian literature, noted for remaining in the Soviet Union and writing about the terrors of living under Stalinism

• June 23, 1918–Madeleine Parent born, Canadian labour leader and feminist, advocate for aboriginal rights, known for work in establishing the Canadian Textile and Chemical Union and the Confederation of Canadian Unions

• June 23, 1921 – Jeanne M. Holm born, first Air Force Major General (1973)

• June 23, 1940– Wilma Rudolph born, track and field athlete, first woman runner to win 3 gold medals in a single Olympics (Rome 1960)

• June 23, 1960– The U.S. Food and Drug Administrationapproves use of Searle’s combined oral contraceptive pill, Enovid, for use as a contraceptive. It was previously approved for treatment of menstrual disorders in 1957.

• June 23, 1972– Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is signed by President Nixon, one of the most important legislation initiatives passed for women and girls since women won the vote in 1920. Title IX guarantees equal access and equal opportunity for females and males in almost all aspects of our educational systems

• June 24, 1831–Rebecca Harding Davis born, American author and journalist; advocate for marginalized groups in society including blacks, Native Americans, women, immigrants and the working class; author of novella, Life in the Iron Mills

• June 24, 1867 – Ruth Randall Edström born, American peace activist, women’s rights advocate and teacher

• June 24, 1880 –Agnes Nestor born, American labor leader, politician, suffragist and social reformer, known for her roles in the International Glove Workers Union and the Women’s Trade Union League

• June 24, 1893– Suzanne LaFollette born. journalist, author, Concerning Women (1926) editor, radical libertarian feminist, managing editor of The Freeman (1950-53) and The National Review (1955-59)

• June 24,1912 – Mary Wesley born, best-selling English novelist, whose family did not approve of her books. Her brother called what she wrote "filth" and her sister strongly objected to The Camomile Lawn, claiming that some of the characters were based on their parents. Wesley identified the appalling grandparents in Harnessing Peacocks as the nearest she came to a portrait of her parents

• June 24, 1914 –Pearl Witherington born, British secret agent, fought in occupied France as a Special Operations Executive member, a leader in a guerrilla band of French resistance fighters; recommended for the Military Cross, but denied it because she was a woman.

• June 24, 1916 –Mary Pickford signs a 2-year million dollar contract as an independent producer-performer with Paramount Pictures, which also entitled her to a cut of her films’ profits, the first million dollar contract in Hollywood history, making Pickford Tinseltown’s highest paid star.

• June 24, 1918–Mildred Ladner Thompson born, American journalist, one of the first women reporters at The Wall Street Journal

• June 24, 1941–Julia Kristeva born in Bulgaria, French psychoanalyst, sociologist, philosopher, author, feminist and human rights activist; founder of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize

• June 24, 2010–Julia Gillard becomes Australia’s first female Prime Minister

• June 25, 1678– Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua.

• June 25, 1903– Madame Marie Curie announces her discovery of radium

• June 25, 1910– The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”. The ambiguous language of “immorality” allowed it to be used to criminalize consensual sexual behavior  (amended since to apply to transport for the purpose of prostitution or illegal sexual acts.)

• June 25, 1923– Dorothy Gilman born, author, Mrs. Pollifax mystery series

• June 25, 1947–The Diary of Anne Frank is published.

• June 25, 1954– Sonia Sotomayor born, lawyer and judge, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

• June 25, 1993– Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

• June 25, 1993– Tansu Çiller took office as the first woman Prime Minister of Turkey

• June 26, 1767 –Sarah Pierce born, American educator, founder of the Litchfield Female Academy, one of the oldest schools for girls in U.S., famous attendees include Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

• June 26, 1893 –Dorothy Fuldheim born, American journalist and commentator, radio and television host, considered the first woman to anchor a television news broadcast, conducted interviews with Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler prior to WWII

• June 26, 1902 – Antonia Brico born, Dutch-American conductor, first woman to conduct Berlin Philharmonic (1930) and N.Y. Philharmonic (1938). Founder-conductor of the Women’s Symphony Orchestra (1934-39). When male musicians were admitted, it became the Brico Symphony Orchestra. Principle conductor of Boulder Philharmonic (1958-63).

• June 26, 1911 – “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias born, multi-talented athlete, outstanding in basketball, track and field, swimming, golf, and billiards, winner of 10 major women’s golf championships.

• June 26, 1922 – Carolyn Sherif born, social psychologist, pioneer researcher in group psychology, self-system, and gender identity

• June 26, 1946 – Candace Pert born, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist, known for discovering the opiate receptor in the brain 

• June 26, 1948– Shirley Jackson’s now-classic short story “The Lottery” is published in The New Yorker magazine causing cancelled subscriptions and prompting hate mail.

• June 27, 1693 –"The Ladies' Mercury" published by John Dunton in London, the first women's magazine. It contained a "question and answer" column that became known as a "problem page"

•  June 27, 1880 – Helen Keller born blind and deaf, advocate for the disabled, lecturer and author, Three Days to See

• June 27, 1924 – Lena Jones Wade Springs, women’s rights activist, becomes first woman placed in nomination for U.S. Vice President at 1924 Democratic National Convention, where she was serving as chair of the convention’s Credentials Committee.

• June 28, 1778 – Mary "Molly Pitcher" Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carried water to soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth. Legend says she took her husband's place at his gun after he was overcome with heat.

• June 28, 1876 –Clara Maass, American nurse, served as a contract nurse for the United States Army during the Spanish-American War and in the Philippines; she then went to Cuba to assist in the research into yellow fever, where she volunteered to be infected, and died.

• June 28, 1891 – Esther Forbes born, American author and historian, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Paul Revere and the World He Lived In and the Newbery Award for Johnny Tremain

• June 28, 1946 – Gilda Radner born, comedian, original cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” the Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai founded in her memory.

• June 28, 1969 – The Stonewall Rebellion, sparked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, NYC, which led to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the U.S. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago on the Stonewall anniversary. The Stonewall is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.

• June 28, 1976 – The first women entered the U.S. Air Force Academy.

• June 28, 2000 – U.S. Supreme Court declared a Nebraska law outlawing "partial birth abortions" was unconstitutional. 30 other states had similar laws at the time.

• June 29, 1893 –Helen Elna Hokinson born, American cartoonist, created 68 covers and over 1800 cartoons while on the staff of The New Yorker 

• June 29, 1897– Kazue Togasaki born, survivor of 1906 San Francisco earthquake, physician who pioneered a place in American medicine for women of Japanese ancestry, one of the few physicians ( general practitioner and obstetrician) allowed to practice medicine in the Japanese Interment Camps during World War II

• June 29, 1900 – Margaret Grierson born, archivist, professor, founder and first director of Sophia Smith Collection, a women’s history archive, at Smith College.

• June 29, 1929 –Oriana Fallaci born, Italian journalist and author, known for her coverage of war and revolution and her book Interview with History containing interviews with many world leaders 

• June 29, 1974– Isabel Perón is sworn in as first female President of Argentina, after the death of her husband, Juan Peron, and serves from 1974 to March, 1976.

• June 30, 1883 – Dorothy Tilly born, civil rights activist, worked to reform southern race relations

• June 30, 1899 – Margaret Byrd Rawson born, educator and researcher, identified and treated reading disorders including dyslexia

• June 30, 1903 – Glenna Collett Vare born, first U.S. Women’s Golf Champion (1922). Since 1953, the Vare Trophy has been awarded to the LPGA golfer with the lowest average strokes per round in professional tour events.

•  June 30, 1917 – Lena Horne born, singer. actress, civil rights activist, first African American woman to sign long-term Hollywood contract, fought for contractual guarantees that African Americans could attend her shows, Worked with Eleanor Roosevelt for passage of anti-lynching laws. During WWII, U.S. Army refused to allow integrated audiences, so she appeared before a mixed audience of black U.S. soldiers and white German POWs. Seeing black soldiers had been seated in the back rows, she walked off the stage to where the black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her. Blacklisted in 1950s for her affiliations with “communist-backed” groups. She was at an NAACP rally with Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, just days before Evers was assassinated. She spoke and performed on behalf of the NAACP, SNCC, and the National Council of Negro Women.

• June 30, 1936– Assia Djebar born, pseudonym of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, Algerian author, translator, feminist and filmmaker, one of North Africa’s most influential writers, 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, (for body of work), Yourcenar Prize, and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade

• June 30, 1940– Patricia “Pat” Schroeder born, American politician, first woman to represent Colorado in U.S. House of Representatives, serving 12 terms. First woman to serve on the House Armed Services Committee. A tireless advocate on work-family issues, she was a prime mover behind the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the 1985 Military Family Act.

• June 30, 1966– 20 women packed into Betty Friedan’s hotel room in Washington D.C. during the Conference of Commissions on the Status of Women. Friedan wrote N.O.W. on a paper napkin, and they formed the National Organization for Women, with an initial budget of $135.