Women's History Calendar

October Highlights in US Women's History

  • Oct 3, 1904 - Mary McLeod Bethune opens her first school for black students in Daytona Beach, FL
  • Oct 23, 1910 - Blanche Stuart Scott is the first woman pilot to make a public flight.
  • Oct 16, 1916 - Margaret Sanger opens the nation's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY
  • Oct 15, 1948 - Dr. Frances L. Willoughby is the first woman doctor in the regular U.S. Navy.
  • Oct 24, 1956 - Reverend Margaret Towner is the first woman ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
  • Oct 28, 1958 - Mary Roebling is the first woman director of a stock exchange (American Stock Exchange)
  • Oct 4, 1976 - Barbara Walters becomes first woman co-anchor of evening news (at ABC)
  • Oct 10, 1983 - Dr. Barbara McClintock receives Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovery of mobile genetic elements
  • Oct 11, 1984 - Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan is the first U.S. woman astronaut to "walk" in space during Challenger flight
  • Oct 4, 1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins Supreme Court as second woman and 107th justice.
  • Oct 8, 1993 - Toni Morrison becomes the first African-American woman and the first African-American, to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

October Birthdays

  • Oct 6, 1917 (1977) - Fannie Lou Hamer - Voting rights crusader
  • Oct 11, 1884 (1962) - Eleanor Roosevelt - Civil rights advocate; feminist; author; world diplomat; former First Lady
  • Oct 13, c.1754 (1832) - Mary Hays McCauley - "Molly Pitcher" of Battle of Monmouth, 1778; legendary heroine of the American Revolution
  • Oct 17, 1943 - Vilma Socorro Martinez - Lawyer; co-founded Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
  • Oct 18, 1956 - Martina Navratilova - Tennis champion; nine-time Wimbledon singles winner
  • Oct 23, 1906 - Gertrude Ederle - First woman to swim the English Channel, 1926
  • Oct 24, 1830 (1917) - Belva Lockwood - First woman admitted to practice law before Supreme Court, 1879; ran for office of US President 1884 and 1888.
  • Oct 26, 1911 (1972) - Mahalia Jackson - Gospel singer, sang at 1963 March on Washington
  • Oct 27, 1940 - Maxine Hong Kingston - Author of The Woman Warrior, an autobiography about the Chinese-American female experience
  • Oct 31, 1860 (1927) - Juliette Low - Founder and first president of Girl Scouts of the USA