today in women's herstory

[niyad]

March 20
This Day in Women's History


1469: Cecily of York born: third daughter born to Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV of England; her first marriage was annulled by Henry VII (Henry Tudor) when he became king. Henry had declared he would marry Cecily if her elder sister Henry VII had declared that he would marry Cecily on gaining the throne if her elder sister, Elizabeth of York, did not survive; Henry married Elizabeth and then had Cecily married to his mother's half-brother

1809: Mary Bateman, a servant girl, thief and fortune teller, was executed for murder; she was charged with selling a pudding laced with poison that she claimed was a medicine and magic potion to ward off evil spirits

1825: Cornelia Ann Phillips Spencer born

1845: Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell born

1849: Maria Longworth Nichols Storer born: artist, businesswoman

1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin

1869: Amelia Bingham born

1879: Maud Menten born: physician and scientist who contributed her name to the biochemical formula called the Michaelis-Menten equation

1896: Hazel Stiebling born: scientist; researched value of Vitamin D

1899: Martha M. Place was the first woman executed in the United States by electrocution; she was sentenced for murdering her stepdaughter

1915: Sister Rosetta Tharpe born: gospel singer who influenced early rock and roll, called "the original soul sister"

1918: Marian McPartland born: jazz pianist and longtime host of a National Public Radio show, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

1920: Pamela Churchill Harriman: English-born socialite and American diplomat, married to Randolph Churchill (son of Winston Churchill), Leland Hayward and Averell Harriman; she raised money for the Democratic Party and was named United States Ambassador to France by President Bill Clinton in 1993

1954: Liana Kanelli born: journalist and Member of the Greek Parliament (2000 - )

1956: Catherine Ashton born: politician and Life Peer, appointed Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Queen's Privy Council in 2007

1956: Anne Donahue born: politician, member of the Vermont House of Representatives

1958: Holly Hunter born: actress, won Academy Award for Best Actress for The Piano

1959: Holly Roach born: science writer

1961: Sara Wheeler born: travel writer

1985: Libby Riddles won the 1,135 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the first woman to win

1991: In Automobile Workers vs. Johnson Controls, the United States Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the exclusion of women from jobs where exposure to lead might harm the fetus unless the women could prove they were medically infertile; the decision was unanimous; the court noted that men were not subjected to similar requirements, though exposure by men to lead was also known to be harmful to reproduction.

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/03calendar/a/0320calendar.htm