September Women's History Highlights and Birthdays
September Highlights in
US Women's History
Sept 12, 1910
- Alice Stebbins Wells, a former social worker, becomes the first woman police
officer with arrest powers in US (Los Angeles, CA)
Sept 14, 1964
- Helen Keller receives the Presidential
Medal of Freedom along with 4 other women: Dr. Lena Edwards, Lynn Fontainne, Dr.
Helen Taussig, and Leontyne Price
Sept 14, 1975
- Elizabeth Ann Seton is canonized. She is the first American-born saint, and
founded the first U.S. Order of Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph
Sept 20, 1973
- Billie Jean King defeats Bobby "No broad can beat me" Riggs in the battle of
the sexes tennis match
Sept 25, 1981
- Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice
Sept 26, 1971
- Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-New York) announces she will enter the Democratic
presidential primaries
Sept 26, 1973
- Capt. Lorraine Potter, an American Baptist minister, is the first woman U.S.
Air Force chaplain
Sept 29, 1988
- Stacy Allison becomes first U.S. woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest
September Birthdays
Sept 1, 1933 (2006)
- Ann Richards, second woman elected governor of Texas (1990)
Sept 2, 1948 (1986)
- Christa McAuliffe, NH teacher, selected in 1985 to be the first teacher in
space; died aboard space shuttle Challenger
Sept 3, 1920 (1966)
- Marguerite Higgins, first woman to win Pulitzer Prize for International
Reporting (1951) for coverage of the Korean War
Sept 6, 1860 (1935)
- Jane Addams, founder of Hull House in Chicago, first major settlement house.
First American woman to receive Nobel Peace Prize (1931); helped establish
American Civil Liberties Union (1920)
Sept 8, 1859 (1918)
- Mary M. Kimball Kehew, union organizer, cofounder of the Union for Industrial
Progress (1892); first president of National Women's Trade Union League (1903)
Sept 14, 1830 (1910)
- Emily Edson Briggs, first woman White House correspondent, during Lincoln's
administration; first president of Women's National Press Assn. (1882)
Sept 14, 1879 (1966)
- Margaret Sanger, pioneer in birth
control and sex education; founded predecessor to Planned Parenthood
Sept 18, 1905 (1993)
- Agnes De Mille, dancer, choreographer, pioneer of the American Ballet Theater
Sept 20, 1946
- Judith Baca, Latina visual artist and muralist; community activist.
Sept 23, 1863 (1954)
- Mary Church Terrell, first president of National Assn. of Colored Women
(1896); picketed in Washington DC for suffrage and desegregation
Sept 23, 1838 (1927)
- Victoria Woodhull, feminist, first woman candidate for U.S. President (1872)
for the Equal Rights Party; with sister, first women to be members of the NY
Stock Exchange (1870's)