Today in Women�s History

    Women's History - July 4th

1868 - Today, Henrietta Leavitt was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She attended Radcliffe College and took an interest in astronomy. She volunteered at the Harvard College Observatory and was later appointed to the permanent staff, directed by Charles Pickering. She became head of the photographic photometry department, which studied photo images of stars to determine their magnitude. She discovered more than 2,400 variable stars, which led to her most important contribution to the field: the cepheid variable period-luminosity relationship. By observing certain class of �cepheids� she discovered a direct correlation between the time it took a star to go from bright to dim to how bright it actually was. She, therefore, opened the way for astronomers, such as Edwin Hubble, to make their own groundbreaking discoveries.

Source: http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/~gmarcy/cswa/history/leavitt.html

Henrietta Leavitt

    Women's History - July 6th

1951 - Althea Gibson wins at Wimbledon today. She becomes the first African American player to play and win at Wimbledon. She won 11 major titles in the 1950s.

Source: http://www.altheagibson.com/biographical.htm


Althea Gibson

    Women's History - July 8th

1946 � Cynthia Gregory was born today in Los Angeles, California USA. She went on to become a prima ballerina . She performed lead roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Don Quixote, just to mention a few.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Gregory

    Women's History - July 10th

1804 � Emma Hale Smith was born today in Oakland, Pennsylvania. She went on to become the first president of the Relief Society of the Mormon Church.

Source: http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/people/emma_smith.html


    

Edited by morticia - 10-Jul-2006 at 11:31

Sparten wrote: "I had the honor of attending one of her lectures a few years back. Great lady"

That was truly an honor!

    Women's History - July 12th

1971: Kristi Yamaguchi born in California. She went on to become a gold medalist in women�s figure skating at the XVI Winter Olympics in Albertville, France in 1992.

Source: http://rc.yahoo.com/promotions/kristi/profile.html


Kristi Yamaguchi


Kristi Yamaguchi

    Women's History - July 14th

1862 - Florence Bascom was born today in Williamstown, Mass (USA) . She went on to become one of the first female geologists in the United States. Her fellow scientists thought she was the nation�s most important geologist for her work and studies in mineral crystals, metamorphic rocks, how mountains form and how rocks from mountains erode into sand.

Source: http://www.todayinsci.com/cgi-bin/indexpage.pl?http://www.todayinsci.com/B/Bascom_Florence/Bascom_Florence.htm


Florence Bascom

    Women's History - July 16th

1899 - Eunice Hunton Carter was born today. She was an African American lawyer who became the first black woman to be a district attorney in the state of New York. She was a consultant to the U.N.and International Council of Women, was vice-president of the National Council of Women U.S. YWCA; was a member of the U.S. National Council of Negro Women, and was a member of the American Association of University Women.
       
Source: http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1033/Crime_does_not_pay_ask_Eunice_Carter



Eunice Carter

    Women's History - July 18th

1867 - Margaret Tobin Brown was born today in Missouri (USA). She was later referred to as �Molly Brown�, made famous by the 1960s musical, �The Unsinkable Molly Brown�. She was a �Titanic� survivor and was recognized for her heroism in assisting other survivors and getting people to safety by receiving the French Legion of Honor in 1932. She headed the Titanic Survivors� Committee, which supported immigrants who had lost everything in the disaster.   She assisted in getting a memorial erected to the Titanic survivors in Washington, D.C. Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to testify in Congressional hearings about the sinking of the Titanic, so she published her account of the sinking in newspapers.

Source: http://www.mollybrownsummerhousehistory.org/margaret_brown.htm


Margaret Tobin Brown (Molly Brown)


Molly Brown

    Women's History - July 20th

1960 - Today, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected prime minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and becomes the first woman prime minister in history.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirimavo_Bandaranaike


Sirimavo Bandaranaike