This Day…

1935 – Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, plays a pivotal role as the architect behind the Social Security Act, which was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1920 – Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment. This met the three-fourths majority needed to make the amendment part of the U.S. Constitution, finally granting American women the right to vote.

1918 – Opha May Johnson became the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. Enlisting as a reservist during World War I, she and over 300 women who followed her filled critical administrative and clerical roles, freeing up male Marines for combat deployment.

1941 – Elizabeth Holtzman, youngest woman elected to U.S. Congress, (D-NY, 1973-81), first woman District Attorney in New York City

August 10, 1945 – Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt published a profound post-WWII “My Day” newspaper column about the promise of a better world.

1962 – Marilyn Monroe, 36, was found dead in her Los Angeles home; her death was ruled a probable suicide from “acute barbiturate poisoning.”

August 17, 1893  – Mae West, iconic actress and sex symbol, started in Vaudeville, starred in plays, movies, radio, and television

1911 – Harriet Quimby became the first American woman to earn an official pilot’s license (License #37) from the Aero Club of America.

1940 – Patricia Schroeder, U.S. Representative from Colorado (1973-1997), first woman to serve in U.S. Congress from Colorado, first woman on the House Armed Services Committee, promoted the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (1997-2008)

1879 – Lucy Burns, suffragist, formed National Woman’s Party with Alice Paul, picketed the White House for women suffrage and arrested 6 times