Eggplant.place

1y

#OnThisDay, 18 Aug 1920, women in the US gain the right to vote when the 19th amendment is ratified by Tennessee, the 36th state to ratify it.

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

Alice Paul standing on a balcony with a flag showing a star for each state that has ratified the amendment. A group of women stand below it. Everyone is white.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OnThisDay, 24 Aug 1896, an unknown woman cyclist has a beer at the bar in New Jersey - making headlines in the New York Times.

Chapeau!

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

Newsclipping. Headline: She drank her ale at the bar. Subheading: Girl Cyclist in Rahway Amazed Loungers in Chamberlain's. Story then tells how the woman ordered and drank a beer straight from the bottle whilst standing at the bar, to the amazement of the men in there.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OnThisDay, 25 Aug 1932, Amelia Earhart successfully lands in Newark, New Jersey, to become the first woman to fly solo across the USA.

Earhart records a series of first flights by a woman, before disappearing during an attempt to fly around the world in 1937.

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

ALT

Edited 1y ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

321d

#OnThisDay, 24 Oct 1901, American Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first *person* to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

The cat did *not* do the stunt with her.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Annie Edson Taylor being helped ashore along a plank, having survived the falls. She is a white woman in a blouse and skirts.

ALT

Annie Edson Taylor standing with the barrel "Queen of the Mist". She is a white woman in large skirts, and is only a few inches taller than the barrel. A small white cat is sitting on top of the barrel.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

334d

#OnThisDay, 11 Oct 1922, Alaska P Davidson becomes the first woman to be an FBI Special Agent. She was employed to focus on the trafficking of women across state lines.

J Edgar Hoover requests her resignation, along with her colleagues Jessie Duckstein and Lenore Houston, in 1924. The FBI does not appoint another woman as a Special Agent until 1972.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons
1/2

photo of Alaska P Davidson. She is a white woman with dark hair in a bun.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

324d

“Had she been a man she would have become Prime Minister.“

#OnThisDay, 21 Oct 1958, Stella Isaacs (Baroness Swanborough) becomes the first woman to take a seat in the UK House of Lords.

She campaigned tirelessly for the rights of refugee children.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #histodons

Stella Isaacs in the uniform of the WVS she helped found. She is a white woman with light or silver hair and she's looking thrilled about something.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

323d

Love is like an itchin' in my heart...

#OnThisDay, 22 Oct 1966, The Supremes become the first all-woman group to get to no 1 in the US Billboard album charts with The Supremes A' Go-Go.

Listen to their version of Get Ready: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD_7_MhgHhc

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #AmericanHistory #PopHistory #Histodons

Cover of the album, showing the members of the Supremes dancing

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

318d

#OnThisDay, 27 Oct 1967, the Abortion Act gains royal assent. It allows women in the UK – except for Northern Ireland - to legally have an abortion on a range of medical grounds but stops short of making abortion legal.

It came into effect in April 1968 everywhere except Northern Ireland: NI passed their own act in 2020.

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

Six women holding up signs that together read "no return to back street abortion"

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

317d

#OnThisDay, 28 Oct 1908, Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox unfurl a banner and then chain themselves to the grille in the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons, London, demanding votes for women.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Histodons
1/2

Dramatic newspaper illustration of Muriel Matters being taken away along with the trellis she had chained herself to. She is white, as are all the dudes in tailcoats trying to tell her off.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

66d

#OnThisDay, 5 July 1957, Althea Gibson becomes the first Black person to win a #Wimbledon Singles tennis trophy.

Blogpost by Moira from 2019:
https://illustratedwomeninhistory.com/althea-gibson/

Newsreel: https://youtu.be/2EJCqBsh2Dk?t=1m15s

Listen to her being interviewed here (dead bird link)
https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1412427791396659204

#BlackHistory #TennisHistory #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Althea Gibson holding the rosewater bowl and a bouquet of flowers. She's looking thrilled.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

39d

#OnThisDay, 1 Aug 1786, Caroline Herschel discovers comet C/1786 P1, becoming one of the first women to find one (and have it named after her). Her brother was appointed court astronomer to King George III. When Caroline took a government salary for helping him she became the first woman to be paid for her astronomical work.

This week, 2025, Prof Michele Dougherty became the first woman to be Astronomer Royal.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM #Histodons

engraved illustration of Catherine Herschel. She is an older white woman in a most excellent bonnet. She is giving the engraver the side eye.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

285d

#OnThisDay, 28 Nov 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers the existence of pulsars.

Not included in the 1974 Nobel prize for the discovery, Bell received a £3m prize for her work in 2018. She's used it to set up a foundation to improve the diversity in STEM.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM #Histodons

Jocelyn Bell Burnell in the 1960s, in front of a radio telescope. she is a white woman with dark hair, wearing a sensible duffle coat given how cold it must have been out there.

ALT

Jocelyn Bell Burnell in the 2010s. She is a white woman with dark grey hair.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

283d

“The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.”

#OnThisDay, 1 Dec 1955, Rosa Parks does *not* give up her seat on the bus for a white passenger, and is arrested. Her refusal is a key moment in the American civil rights movement.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons
1/3

Mugshot of Rosa Parks after her arrest. She is a black woman with glasses.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

252d

It's ALIVE!

#OnThisDay, 1 Jan 1818, Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' was published anonymously. Her gothic novel was also one of the first science-fiction novels.

#ReadMoreWomen #LiteraryWomen
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

painting of Mary Shelley by Rothwell. It shows a white woman with sloping shoulders, dark hair and gold glasses

ALT

Frontispiece of Frankenstein’s first edition without any author’s name on it.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

161d

#OnThisDay, 2 Apr 1917, Jeanette Rankin is sworn in, becoming the first woman to sit in the US Congress.

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

Jeanette Rankin standing in front of the dome of the US Capitol on a windy day. She is a white woman with dark hair.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

237d

#OnThisDay, 16 Jan 1970, Dilma Rousseff, a member of the Brazilian guerrilla movement against the military government, was arrested. She was labelled the “Joan of Arc” of the movement.

In 2011 she became the first woman to be president of Brazil.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

Black and white photo of Dilma Rousseff at her military court hearing. The judges in the background are hiding their faces with their hands.

ALT

Edited 236d ago

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

257d

#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

1/2

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

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

224d

#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.

ALT

Edited 224d ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

223d

#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

1/2

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

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

198d

#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.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

170d

#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

1/2

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

ALT

Edited 169d ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

207d

#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.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

175d

#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.

ALT

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

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

143d

#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.

ALT

Edited 142d ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

124d

#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.

ALT

Edited 123d ago

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original