Women's History Calendar

September Highlights in US Women's History

  • Sept 4, 1963 - Harvard Business School starts accepting women
  • Sept 12, 1910 - Alice Stebbins Wells, a former social worker becomes the first woman police office in US (Los Angeles, CA)
  • Sept 14, 1964 - Helen Keller receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom along with 4 other women including Dr. Lena Edwards, Lynn Fontanne, Dr. Helen Taussig, and Leontyne Price
  • Sept 14, 1975 - Elizabeth Ann Seton is canonized. She is the first American-born saint. Founded the first U.S. Order of Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
  • Sept 20, 1973 - Billie Jean King defeats Bobby "No broad can beat me" Riggs in battle of the sexes tennis match.
  • Sept 25, 1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice in the court's 191-year history
  • Sept 26, 1971 - Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-New York) announces she will enter the Democratic presidential primaries
  • Sept 26, 1973 - Capt. Lorraine Potter, an American Baptist minister, is the first woman U.S. Air Force chaplain Sept 29, 1988 - Stacy Allison becomes first U.S. woman (and 7th woman) to reach summit of Mt. Everest

September Birthdays

  • Sept 1, 1933 - Ann Richards, first woman elected governor in Texas (1990)
  • Sept 2, 1948 (1986) - Christa McAuliffe, NH teacher selected in 1985 to be the first citizen in space; died aboard Challenger
  • Sept 3, 1920 (1966) - Marguerite Higgins, first woman to win Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Correspondence (1951) for coverage of Korean War where she was the only woman correspondent
  • Sept 6, 1860 (1935) - Jane Addams, founder of Hull House in Chicago, first major settlement house. First American woman to receive Nobel Peace Price (1931); Co-founder American Civil Liberties Union (1920)
  • Sept 8, 1859 (1918) - Mary M. Kimball Kehew, organizer and founder, Union for Industrial Progress; first president, National Women's Trade Union League, 1903
  • Sept 14, 1830 (1910) - Emily Edson Briggs, first woman White House correspondent during Lincoln's administration. First president Women's National Press Assn. (1882)
  • Sept 14, 1879 (1966) - Margaret Sanger, pioneer in birth control and sex education
  • Sept 18, 1905 (1993) - Agnes De Mille, dancer, choreographer, pioneer of the American Ballet Theater
  • Sept 20, 1946 - Judith Baca, Latina visual artist and muralist; community activist.
  • Sept 23, 1863 (1954) - Mary Church Terrell, First president, National Assn. of Colored Women, picketed in Washington DC for suffrage and desegregation
  • Sept 23, 1838 (1927) - Victoria Woodhull, feminist, first woman candidate for US President (1872); with sister, first women to be members of the NY Stock Exchange (1870s)