Almanac

November 5 - November 11

Birthdays

November 5

• In 1834, Anna Harriette Leonowens, British writer best
  known as the governess employed by King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam for the instruction of his children. She was the inspiration for Anna and the King of Siam and The King and I.

November 7

• In 1867, Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie, discovered radium (two-time Nobel winner in 1903, 1911). She was the first female lecturer and professor at the Sorbonne. She had degrees in mathematics and physics.
  
• In 1943, Joni Mitchell, singer.
  

November 8

• In 1900, Margaret Mitchell, writer (Gone With the Wind).
  
• In 1907, Katherine Hepburn, actor, with Academy Awards for Morning Glory (1932), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). She was nominated eight
  more times for her work in such movies as The Philadelphia Story (1940), and The African Queen (1951). My favorite actor.

November 9

• In 1871, Florence Sabin, the first woman to teach at Johns
  Hopkins Medical College and the first female professor at a medical school. She was a key figure in the movement to change medical care from the cure of disease to the maintenance of health.
  
• In 1928, Anne Sexton Newton, poet, she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.
  
• In 1936, Mary Travers, folk singer (Peter, Paul & Mary).
  

Happenings

November 5

• In 1872, Susan B Anthony was fined $100 for trying to vote for Ulysses S Grant.
  
• In 1875, Susan B Anthony was arrested for attempting to vote.
  
• In 1974, Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, making her the first openly gay person to be elected to public office.
  

November 6

• In 1944, Hannah Senesh was executed by the Nazis.
  
• In 1990, in an unprecedented move that could have
  resulted in their imprisonment or execution by stoning, fifty Saudi Arabian women drove automobiles for about a half hour before being arrested. They were turned over to male relatives for "discipline."
  

November 7

• In 1916, Jeannette Rankin (Mont-R-Rep) became the first woman Representative.
  
• In 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt died at age 78 in NYC.
  
• In 1973, New Jersey became the first state to allow girls into the little league.
  

• In 1891, the first Woman's Christian Temperance Union meeting was held (in Boston).
  
• In 1993, the English Anglican Church voted to ordain women as priests.
  

• In 1865, Mary Edward Walker, the first Army female surgeon, was awarded Medal of Honor. It was later taken away and only recently reinstated.
  
  
  

For more information, check out Women of Achievement and Herstory.