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June 5

This Day in Women's History

By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com

    1646: Elena Cornaro Piscopia born (mathematician and prodigy)

    1654: Queen Christina of Sweden abdicated her throne

    1832: Kaahumanu died (ruler of Hawaii)

    1836: Miriam Leslie born (editor, publisher)

    1851: First installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin published (author: Harriet Beecher Stowe)

    1866: Sophie Bell Wright born (educator, relief worker)

    1867: Anna Beach Pratt born (social worker, educator, connected with the New York School of Philanthropy)

    1880: Myra Maybelle Shirley marries Sam Starr (she later was known as Belle Starr)

    1884: Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett born

    1887: Ruth Fulton Benedict born (anthropologist)

    1929: Margaret Drabble born (writer)

    1947: Laurie Anderson born (performance artist, writer, composer)

    1973: Doris A. Davis elected mayor of Compton, California - the first African American woman mayor of a major city

Quote for Today

    The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.

    -- Ruth Benedict

    Home is not contained within the four walls of an individual home. Home is the community. The city full of people is the family. The public school is the real nursery. And badly do the home and the family and the nursery need their mother.

    -- Rheta Childe Dorr, 1910

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This Day in Women's History Calendar © 1999-2006 Jone Johnson Lewis.

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