Eggplant.place

1y

#OnThisDay, 16 June 2012, Liu Yang becomes the first Chinese woman to be an astronaut aboard Shenzhou 9.

Liu Yang in her white spacesuit without the helmet. There are Chinese children waving flags behind her.

1y

#OnThisDay, 26 Dec 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced their discovery of radium.

In 1903, Marie, Pierre and Henri Becquerel received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on radiation. Marie was the first woman to receive the award.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM #NobelWomen #Histodons

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posed photograph of Marie Curie in her lab holding a volumetric flask. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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#OnThisDay, 29 Jan 1891, Liliʻuokalani is sworn in as Queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

She is the first, and only, regnant queen of the country and is deposed in a coup in 1893 that was supported by the US marines.

#RegnantWomen #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Liliʻuokalani in London in 1888 where she was an official envoy of the Hawaiian king at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. She is a Hawaiian woman with dark hair, wearing a fashionably ornate day dress.

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#OnThisDay, 30 Jan 1913, Ida B Wells forms the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, Illinois, to give a voice to Black women who had been excluded by national suffrage organisations because of their race.

In March 1913, the club headed to Washington DC to take part in the national Women’s Suffrage Procession. They were told to march at the back, in a segregated section, so as not to upset white southern women.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons

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Ida B Wells in the 1920s. She is a Black woman with greying hair.

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#OnThisDay, 24 Feb 1968, Jocelyn Bell Burnell - along with her male supervisor and three other men - published a paper confirming the discovery of pulsars. She had built the array, picked up the signal and argued it was not an anomaly. Hewish received the Nobel prize for it in 1974: Bell Burnell did not.

In 2018 Bell Burnell received a £3m prize for her work. She's used it to set up a foundation to improve the diversity in STEM.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Photo of Jocelyn Bell Burnell in front of a radio telescope dish in the 1960s. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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#OnThisDay, 24 Mar 1944, Éliane Plewman is arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France after six months operating as a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance. A courier carried messages and equipment around their network.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #EuropeanHistory #SOE

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studio photo of Éliane Plewman in civvies. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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#OnThisDay, 15 Feb 1776, Hannah Cowley’s first play, The Runaway, opened at Drury Lane.

Cowley had written her play and sent it to David Garrick, Drury Lane’s manager, after sitting through a particularly rubbish play. Garrick cast a young Sarah Siddons in the lead.

Siddon’s character rails against the marriage vows: 'I won't hear of it, “love” one might manage that perhaps, but “honour, obey”!’

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons #BritishHistory

an engraving of Hannah Cowley. She is a white woman with a mass of dark hair.

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#OnThisDay, 20 Apr 1902, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie refine radium chlorine. The discovery leads to Marie being the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

The committee had planned to only award the Nobel to Pierre and Henri. Committee member and Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler alerted Pierre Curie to the plan. Pierre insisted Marie also receive the prize.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomenInSTEM #NobelWomen #Histodons

posed photograph of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in her lab holding a volumetric flask. She is a white woman with dark hair in a bun.

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Pierre and Marie outdoors with their bicycles, during their honeymoon.

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#OnThisDay, 19 March 1944, Yvonne Baseden parachutes into Nazi-occupied France as a Special Operations Executive radio operator. The British SOE supported the French resistance. Radio operators ran the greatest risk of discovery as their position could be triangulated when they were transmitting.

Baseden was captured and sent to Ravensbrück.

She was the subject of the first regular UK edition of This Is Your Life in 1955.

#WomenInHistory #WomensHistoryMonth #History #WorldWar2 #Histodons

Yvonne Baseden in her WAAF uniform. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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Yvonne Baseden on This Is Your Life with other members of the Special Operations Executive.

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Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded #OnThisDay, 8 February, 1587, on the orders of Elizabeth I of England – her first cousin once removed.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware…

—Marion Angus, “Alas! Poor Queen”
Published in TURN OF THE DAY (1931) – online via the National Library of Scotland

https://digital.nls.uk/works-by-selected-scottish-authors/archive/129159433?mode=fullsize

#Scottish #literature #history #poem #poetry #MaryQueenofScots #womenwriters #20thcentury

Alas! Poor Queen
Marion Angus

She was skilled in music and the dance
And the old arts of love
At the court of the poisoned rose
And the perfumed glove,
And gave her beautiful hand
To the pale Dauphin
A triple crown to win—
And she loved little dogs
And parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And a pigeon with a blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

Master John Knox was no friend to her ;
She spoke him soft and kind,
Her honeyed words were Satan’s lure
The unwary soul to bind.
“Good sir, doth a lissome shape
And a comely face
Offend your God His Grace
Whose Wisdom maketh these
Golden fishes of the Due de Guise?”

She rode through Liddesdale with a song ;
“Ye streams sae wondrous strang,
Oh, mak’ me a wrack as I come back
But spare me as I gang.”
While a hill-bird cried and cried
Like a spirit lost
By the grey storm-wind tost.

Consider the way she had to go,
Think of the hungry snare,
The net she herself had woven,
Aware or unaware,

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Of the dancing feet grown still,
The blinded eyes.—
Queens should be cold and wise,
And she loved little things,
Parrots
And red-legged partridges
And the golden fishes of the Due de Guise
And the pigeon with the blue ruff
She had from Monsieur d’Elboeuf.

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211d

#OnThisDay in 1990, Nelson Mandela walked free after 27 years of imprisonment for his fight against apartheid.

In this powerful interview from “Facing the Truth” with Bill Moyers, Mandela reflects on his life, the cost of resistance, and the difficult, necessary work of reconciliation.

Watch the full program in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-e4bfb61a54b

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210d

I met a young man in a floppy hat
who stopped and smiled; he too had charm.
“My finches,” he said, “you are watching my finches.”

—Edwin Morgan, “Darwin in the Galapagos (1835 AD)”
published in A BOOK OF LIVES (Carcanet, 2007)

Charles Darwin was born #OnThisDay, 12 February, 1809

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549188/a-book-of-lives/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #Darwin #CharlesDarwin #DarwinDay #evolution

Edwin Morgan
Darwin in the Galapagos (1835 AD)

It was a cool day for the equator
as I clambered whistling over the clinker.
Clouds had brought a shower across the shore.
Grey black scoured and pitted rocks
glistened, and so did an iguana
eyeing me lazily with its wet crest bristling.
I saw the drag-marks of a giant tortoise –
what a dogged message thrusting into the thicket!
And the air was bright with birds, well, bright and dark –
green, brown, yellow – little birds, finches
flirting their few inches, drenching the freshness
with a spray of chatter and chirm, with a charm
peculiar to these islands, these Incantadas

I met a young man in a floppy hat
who stopped and smiled; he too had charm.
“My finches,” he said, “you are watching my finches.”
We sat on an old stump, I cherish the moment.
A man both ingenuous and ingenious,
a genius indeed, enthusiastic, shy,
well no, not really shy, but modest,
that was a type I could talk to for ever.

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“These finches – all different,” he said.
“They have become separate species, and why is that?
They had some ancestor in Ecuador
but here their beaks have changed to match their food –
small seeds, big seeds, nectar, and do you know
there is one that makes a tool of cactus spines
to ferret grubs from tree-cracks? Oh
I can hardly sleep for excitement!
Nothing is immutable, life changes, we evolve.
Process is gorgeous, is it not!
Process is progress, don‘t you see!”

He taps my arm, his eyes shine. I agree.
Time breaks in great waves as we speak.
And look, a finch on the back of a tortoise
as if it had been listening
lifts its beak and begins a singing
so piercing it gives no end to that beginning.

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142d

#OnThisDay, 21 Apr 1944, the provisional government of France signs into law universal suffrage, granting women the vote.

#WomenInHistory #VotesForWomen

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#OnThisDay, 20 Apr 1902, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie refine radium chlorine. The discovery leads to Marie being the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

The Academy originally planned to award only Pierre and Henri Becquerel. Pierre insisted that Marie should also be included.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomenInSTEM #NobelWomen #Histodons

Maria Skłodowska-Curie in a posed photo in her lab. She's a white woman with dark hair, holding a glass flask and a metal or ceramic dish.

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#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Astronomy #WomenInSTEM #AmericanHistory #Histodons

Annie Jump Cannon sat at a desk. She is clearly not a fan of a clear desk policy as it's messy with papers and open drawers. She is a white woman with pale hair.

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"I've never worked so hard in my life than when I was US Treasurer. I knew I had to make good on behalf of American women."

#OnThisDay, 3 Jun 1949, Georgia Neese Clark Gray becomes the first woman to be Treasurer of the USA.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons

Photo of Georgia Neese Gray. she is a white woman with dark hair, wearing a tweed suit.

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#OnThisDay, 15 May 1946, Camilla Williams makes her operatic debut as Cio-Cio San with the New York City Opera. She is the first Black woman to sign a contract with a major US opera company.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #BlackHistory #Histodons

Camilla Williams as Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly, along with another singer. Both are dressed in kimonos.

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#OnThisDay, 16 May 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei reaches the summit of Everest. She is the first woman to make it to the peak of the world's highest mountain.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

A climber in a thick orange suit standing on the snow-capped top of Mount Everest and holding onto a Japanese flag.

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#OnThisDay, 18 May 1953, pilot Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AviationHistory #Histodons

A posed photo of Jackie Cochran sitting on the edge of her plane. She's a white woman with blonde hair and is rather implausibly wearing high heels. Breaking the sound barrier as a pilot? In these shoes? I don't think so.

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#OnThisDay, 10 Jun 1963, the US President signed the Equal Pay Act into law, witnessed by members of the American Association of University Women. [photo JFK Library]

Obviously, just because a law exists, doesn't mean pay is now equal.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons

John F Kennedy seated in the Oval office, holding a pen. Thirteen women are standing around him. Twelve are white, and one is black. Someone must have told a good joke as everyone is smiling or laughing.

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“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”

#OnThisDay, 19 May 1952, Lillian Hellman writes to the House of UnAmerican Activities refusing to testify against others.

In the 1940s, Hellman had been twice nominated for an Academy Award for her screenplays. As a result of refusing to testify about others to HUAC, she was blacklisted by Hollywood.

#HollywoodHistory #AmericanHistory #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Lillian Hellman in a posed photo with a manual typewriter as if writing her letter to HUAC. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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#OnThisDay, 3 Jun 1924, Alfonsina Strada crosses the finish line of the Giro d'Italia. She remains the only woman to have officially ridden a full length Grand Tour.

At one point she had been disqualified on time grounds but was allowed to continue without the option of prizes. She finished ahead of the lantern rouge (the last cyclist to finish).

This year's Giro d'Italia for women is 939km, compared to 3443km for the men's race.

#WomenInHistory #History #WomensHistory #Cycling #Histodons

studio postcard of Alfonsina Strada on her bike. She is a white woman with dark hair.

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“Have ye come far?”
“Only from America.”

#OnThisDay, 21 May 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman - and only the second person - to fly solo and without stops across the Atlantic.

She lands unexpectedly in Ireland. There’s some wonderful images of her here: https://joecampbellart.com/2015/03/12/amelia-earhart-in-ireland-solo-atlantic-crossing-may-21st-1932/

Watch newsreel of her taking off here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-itPeJOyzI

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AviationHistory @histodons #Histodons

Amelia Earhart sitting on the wheel of her small prop plane, posing for photos. She's a white woman with cropped hair and dressed in a flight suit.

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Alan Turing died by suicide on 7 June 1954. Turing was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 and given a choice between imprisonment and probation. His probation would be conditional on his agreement to undergo hormonal physical changes designed to reduce his libido. Turing's conviction led to the removal of his security clearance and barred him from continuing with his consultancy for GCHQ. He was denied entry into the United States after his conviction.

#AlanTuring #GayRights #OnThisDay

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#OnThisDay, 7 Jun 1968, 187 women working at the Ford car factory in Dagenham, UK, go on strike demanding recognition as skilled workers.

They are led by Rosie Boland and Lil O'Callaghan. After three weeks they win concessions as production had to be shut down. The strike was one of the triggers for the Equal Pay Act 1970 that made it illegal to pay women and men differently if they are doing the same job.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #BritishHistory #MadeInDagenham #Histodons

A group of the machinists, carrying banners calling for equal rights in pay and grading. They are all white women, and clearly it was a cool June that year as they are all wearing raincoats.

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onthisday