July in Women's History


July Highlights in US Women's History

  • July 2, 1979 - The Susan B. Anthony dollar is released
  • July 2, 1937 - Amelia Earhart's plane is lost in the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.
  • July 2, 1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act; Title VII prohibits sex discrimination in employment 
  • July 4, 1876 - Suffragists crash the Centennial Celebration in Independence Hall to present the Vice President with the “Declaration of the Rights of Women” written by Matilda Joselyn Gage
  • July 6, 1957 - Althea Gibson is the first African American woman player to win a Wimbledon title in women's tennis singles
  • July 7, 1981 - President Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman Supreme Court Justice
  • July 12, 1984 - Representative Geraldine Ferraro (D-New York) is chosen as the first female to run for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic Party ticket with Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota)
  • July 14, 1917 - 16 women from the National Women's Party were arrested while picketing the White House demanding universal women's suffrage; they were charged with obstructing traffic
  • July 19-20, 1848 - The Seneca Falls Convention, the country's first women's rights convention, is held in Seneca Falls, New York
  • July 20, 1942 - The first class of Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) begins at Fort Des Moines, IA

July Birthdays

  • July 7, 1861 (1912) - Nettie Stevens, biologist, discovered X and Y sex chromosomes
  • July 8, 1926 (2004) - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, writer and lecturer, developed techniques for counseling the dying and their families
  • July 10, 1875 (1955) - Mary McLeod Bethune, educator, served as Minority Affairs Advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • July 16, 1821 (1910) - Mary Baker Eddy, founded the Church of Christ, Scientist
  • July 16, 1862 (1931) - Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist, crusader against lynching
  • July 12, 1856 (1913) - Louise Bethune, first woman architect in 1881
  • July 22, 1849 (1887) - Emma Lazarus, poet, wrote "The New Colossus," (1883), which was later inscribed on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"
  • July 23, 1844 (1929) - Harriet Strong, agriculturist; patented water storage dams
  • July 24, 1920 (1998) - Bella Abzug, lawyer, Congresswoman (D-New York), 1972-1976, political activist; initiated proposal for Women's Equality Day
  • July 28, 1879 (1966) - Lucy Burns, suffragist; formed National Woman’s Party with Alice Paul; picketed the White House for women suffrage and arrested 6 times
  • July 28, 1929 (1994) - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, First Lady, 1961-1963, photographer and book editor; established White House Historical Association
  • July 30, 1939 - Eleanor Smeal, women’s rights activist; publisher of Ms. Magazine for the Feminist Majority Foundation; president of National Organization for Women (NOW),1977-1982 and 1985 -1987