Almanac

August 20 - September 2

Birthdays

August 20

• In 1896(?), Berta Gersten, actor. She began acting in the Yiddish Art Theatre. After it closed in the 1950s, she continued acting in "regular theater."
  
• In 1904, Rose Hum Lee, US sociologist. In 1956, she became the first woman of Chinese ancestry to chair a department at an American university (Roosevelt University, Chicago).
  

August 22

• In 1885, Helen Maud Cam. She was the first women to hold a full professorship at Harvard University, expert (medieval history).
  
• In 1893, Dorothy Parker, author, poet, and member of the Algonquin Round Table group (1958 Marjorie Peabody Award).
  

August 24

• In 1707, Selina Hastings, who assisted financially in the
  formation of Dartmouth and Princeton even though she, as a woman, could not attend either -- or any -- college.
  

August 25

• In 1927, Althea Gibson, the first black tennis champion in a major tournament.
  

August 26

• In 1874, Zona Gale, the first woman to have a play on
  Broadway and the first woman to win the Pulitzer (1921) for drama.
  
• In 1935, Geraldine Ferraro (Rep-D-NY), the first female major-party VP candidate.
  

August 27

• In 1910, Mother Teresa [Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu], (Nobel 1979).
  

August 28

• In 1774, Elizabeth Seton, first American-born canonized by
  the Roman Catholic Church.
  
• In 1831, Lucy Ware Webb Hayes, the first American woman to hold a college degree (Wesleyan Female
  College of Cincinnati).
  

August 29

• In 1815, Anna Ella Carroll, civil war writer (Reconstruction).
  
• In 1915, Ingrid Bergman, actor (Casablanca, Cactus Flower). She died on her 67th birthday.
  

August 30

• In 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author (Frankenstein).
  

August 31

• In 1870 Maria Montessori, educator. She developed a theory of teaching which emphasized a reinforcement of initiative, and a freedom of movement for the child.
  
• In 1936, Marva Collins, who founded the Westside
  Preparatory School (Chicago) that transforms so-called unteachable ghetto children into scholars.
  

September 2

• In 1838, Queen Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani, the first reigning queen of the Hawaiian islands and the last
  native sovereign to rule (1891-93).
  
• In 1916, Dorothy May Bundy-Cheney, winner of more than 141 US tennis titles.
  

Happenings

August 21

• In 1973, the re-run of the episode which had 47-year-old Maude (in the TV sitcom named for her) opting for an abortion did not have one single commercial sponsor even though it attracted 41% of the time share.
  

August 22

• In 1762, Ann Franklin became the first female US newspaper editor (Newport RI Mercury).
  
• In 1950, Althea Gibson became the first black competetor in a national tennis competition.
  

August 23

• In 1958, Marie Ashton completed playing the piano a female-record 133 hours.
  

August 24

• In 1932, the first transcontinental non-stop flight by a woman was completed by Amelia Earhart.
  

August 25

• In 1804, Alice Meynell became the first woman jockey (England).
  
• In 1901, Clara Maass, an army nurse, sacrificied her life to prove that the mosquito carries yellow fever.
  
• In 1920, Ethelda Bleibtrey was the first US woman to win in the Olympics.
  

August 26

• In 1920, the US Secretary of State received official
  notification that two-thirds of the states ratified the 19th
  Amendment and declared it the law of the land. "Women are no longer petitioners. We are no longer the wards of the nation, but free and equal citizens." (Carrie Chapman Catt)
  This day is officially known as Women's Equality Day.
  
• In 1973, 10-year-old Mary Boitano was the first woman to win the 6.8-mile Dipsea Race in Marin County, CA, beating a field of 1,500 runners.
  

August 28

• In 1917, 10 suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House.
  
• In 1957, two hundred and sixty five years later, Massachusetts governor Foster Furcolo signed a bill that reversed the convictions (and subsequent executions) of six women in the Salem Witchcraft trials of 1692.
  

August 29

• In 1974, 600 Catholic nuns adopted a resolution calling for
  the ordination of women priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
  

August 30

• In 1984, Judith A. Resnick, became the second US woman in space as part of the 6-person crew of Discovery's maiden flight. She died during her second trip into space when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded
  January 28, 1986.
  

August 31

• In 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls, a 42-year-old prostitute, was found stabbed to death in London, the first of Jack the Ripper's victims.
  
• In 1902, Mrs Adolph Landeburg rode a horse wearing a split skirt in the society spa of Saratoga, NY. It caused quite a scandal which died down quickly, partly because one writer said "Farm women have been riding astride as long as there have been horses."
  

September 1

• In 1836, Narcissa Whitman became the first white woman to cross the North American continent when a wagon train of Presbyterian missionaries, led by her husband, Dr. Marcus Whitman, reached the site of modern Walla Walla, WA.
  
• In 1878, Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator (in Boston, for $3 a day).
  
• In 1929, Ila Fox was licensed as Iowa's first woman pilot.