May in Women's History

Celebrate Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Asian-American History Month, and National Nurses’ Week.

May Highlights in US Women's History

May 1, 1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; named Library of Congress’s Consultant in Poetry (later called Poet Laureate) in 1985
May 5, 1938 - Dr. Dorothy H. Andersen presents results of her medical research identifying the disease cystic fibrosis at a meeting of the American Pediatric Assn.
May 8, 1914 - President Woodrow Wilson signs a Proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day
May 10, 1872 - Victoria Woodhull is nominated as the first woman candidate for U.S. president for the Equal Rights Party
May 12, 1968 - A 12-block Mother's Day march of "welfare mothers" is held in Washington, D.C., led by Coretta Scott King accompanied by Ethel Kennedy
May 21, 1932 - Amelia Earhart Putnam is the first woman to complete a solo transatlantic flight. She flew from Newfoundland to Ireland, a 2,026-mile trip, in just under 15 hours
May 21, 1973 - Lynn Genesko, a swimmer, receives the first athletic scholarship awarded to a woman (University of Miami)
May 29, 1977 - Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman to qualify for and complete the Indy 500

May Birthdays

May 1, 1830 (1930) - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, labor leader and organizer
May 3, 1898 (1987) - Septima Clark, educator; Civil Rights activist; called ”Grandmother of Civil Rights Movement”
May 3, 1912 (1995) - May Sarton, prolific writer and poet, professor
May 5, 1864 (1922) - Elizabeth Seaman, pen name "Nelly Bly", journalist; wrote expose of mental asylum (1887); set a record for circling the world in 72 days (1890)
May 11, 1875 (1912) - Harriet Quimby, first American woman licensed air pilot (1911), first woman to fly across the English Channel (1912)
May 11, 1894 (1991) - Martha Graham, modern dance innovator and choreographer
May 11, 1906 (1975) – Lt. Ethel Weed, military officer in the Women's Army Corp.; promoted women's rights and suffrage in Japan
May 15, 1937 - Madeline Albright, first woman to be U.S. Secretary of State (1997-2001)
May 19, 1930 (1965) - Lorraine Hansberry, first African American woman to produce a play on Broadway, “A Raisin in the Sun” (1959)
May 26, 1951 - Sally Ride, astrophysicist, first American woman astronaut
May 27, 1907 (1964) - Rachel Carson, scientist and environmentalist; wrote "Silent Spring" which became cornerstone of modern environmental protection movement
May 31, 1912 (1997) - Chien-Shiung Wu, renowned physicist; first woman elected President of American Physical Society in 1975, elected to National Academy of Science (1958), received National Medal of Science (1975)