August Women's History Highlights and Birthdays
August 26, 2011, is the 91st Anniversary of women in the United States winning the right to vote. To ensure that the nation would remember and celebrate this historic event, Congresswoman Bella Abzug successfully championed a Congressional Resolution in 1971. Since that time, events are held throughout the country on August 26th to honor the 72-year, non-violent Woman Suffrage campaign that won US women's right to vote, and to recognize the need for women's continuing efforts toward full equality.
August 6, 1965:
Voting Rights Act outlaws the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used
to prevent African Americans from voting. Suffrage is finally fully extended to
African American women.
August 8, 1969: Executive order 11478 issued by President
Nixon requires each federal department and agency to establish and maintain an
affirmative action program of equal employment opportunity for civilian
employees and applicants
August 9, 1995: Roberta Cooper Ramo becomes the first woman to
hold the office of president of the American Bar Association.
August 10, 1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg is sworn in as the second
woman and 107th Justice to serve on the US Supreme Court.
August 12, 1972: Wendy Rue founds the National Association for
Female Executives (NAFE), the largest businesswomen's organization in the US.
August 14, 1986: Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper retires from
active duty in the US Navy. A pioneering computer scientist and inventor of the
computer language COBOL, she was the oldest officer still on active duty at the
time of her retirement.
August 23, 1902: Fanny Farmer opens the "School of Cookery" in
Boston, MA.
August 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment of the US Constitution is
ratified granting women the right to vote.
August 26, 1970: Betty Friedan leads a nationwide protest
called the Women's Strike for Equality in New York City on the fiftieth
anniversary of women's suffrage.
August 26, 1971: The first "Women's Equality Day," instituted
by Bella Abzug, is established by Presidential Proclamation and reaffirmed
annually.
August 28, 1963: More than 250,000 gather for a march on
Washington, DC, and listen to Ma rtin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have a Dream"
speech.
August 30, 1984: Judith A. Resnick is the second US woman in
space, traveling on the maiden flight of the space shuttle "Discovery."
August Birthdays
August 1, 1818 (1889):
Maria Mitchell, astronomer and professor, was the first woman elected to both
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical
Society.
August 3, 1905 (1995): Maggie Kuhn, senior rights activist,
founded the Gray Panthers.
August 6, 1886 (1916): Inez Milhollan d Boissevain was a
lawyer and suffrage leader. Dramatically gowned in white and riding a huge
white horse, she lead a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, during Woodrow
Wilson's inauguration.
August 7, 1890 (1964): Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, labor
organizer, helped found the ACLU in 1920.
August 12, 1859 (1929): Katharine Lee Bates, poet, wrote
"America the Beautiful."
August 13, 1818 (1893): Lucy Stone, suffragist and supporter
of rights for women and African Americans, boldly kept her own name when she
married.
August 14, 1952: Debbie Meyer, swimming champion, was the
first female triple Olympic gold medalist in individual races.
August 19, 1814 (1904): Mary Ellen Pleasant, entrepreneur,
called "Mother of Civil Rights in California," successfully sued a trolley line
when refused service because of her color.
August 23, 1944: Dr. Antonia C. Novello was the first woman
and first Latina Surgeon General (1990-1993) of the US.
August 25, 1927 (2003): Althea Gibson, tennis and golf
champion, was the first African American to compete and win the US Open and
Wimbledon, and the first African American member of the Ladies Pro Golf
Association. < br />August 28, 1774 (1921): Elizabeth Seton
was the first American-born Roman Catholic Saint, canonized 1975.
August 30, 1876 (1952): Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill, a member of
the Mohawk nation, was one of the first Native American physicians in the US.