| Dates
in History
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June
Dates in Women's Herstory
brought
to you by Susan
Butruille
June
takes its name from the Roman goddess
Juno,
known to the Greeks as Hera, protector
of women and their sexuality and
marriage--hence, June is the month of
weddings. A competitive festival to Hera,
held every four years, was the
forerunner of the Olympics.
- June
4, 1920: The Woman Suffrage Amendment
passed Congress to
go to the states for ratification,
which barely passed on August 26,
1920.
- June
9: Vestalia, celebration of
purification and preparation of first
fruits, honoring Vesta, Roman goddess
of fire. In
their homes, barefoot Roman matrons
made offerings of food baked on their
own hearths. Vestal virgins, who
tended the sacred fires of Vesta in
her temple, made offerings of sacred
cakes called mola salsa, made from
first crops, then cleaned the temple.
First fruits festivals are universal
and still celebrated particularly
within indigenous communities.
- June
9: Rice transplanting festivals in
Japan. Women
honor the Shinto rice deity with
special songs and prayers as they
plant.
- June
10, 1833: Birth of Pauline Cushing,
actor and Union spy during the Civil
War.
- June
11, 1880: Birth of Jeannette Rankin of
Montana, first woman elected to
Congress, and
the only legislator to vote against US
entry in both World War and World War
II.
- June
14, 1811: Birth of Harriet Beecher
Stowe, author of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," which
caused an uproar over slavery.
- June
16, 1976: Seven hundred children were
murdered in
the Soweto Massacre in South Africa
for refusing to learn the language of
Afrikaans.
- June
16: Birth of geneticist Barbara
McClintock, whose
research in genetic transformation was
dismissed for decades by other, mostly
male, geneticists, who called her work
"crazy." At the age of 81,
McClintock won the Nobel Peace Prize
for her groundbreaking work.
- June
17, 1873: Susan B. Anthony was brought
to trial for voting "as a
citizen."
- June
17, 1865: Birth of Susan La Flesche
Picotte, first American Indian woman
to receive a medical degree, known
for her medical work and leadership
among her Omaha people.]
- June
18, 1983 Sally Ride becomes
America's first woman astronaut.
- June
19, 1945: Birth of Aung San Suu Kyi,
Burmese
opposition leader, human rights
activist, and winner of the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize.
-
June 20
Father's
Day Father's
Day Article
by Susan B.
- June
23, 1940: Birth of Wilma Rudolph, who
overcame childhood polio to win three
gold medals in track in the 1960
Olympics.
- June
25, 1881: Birth of suffragist and
pacifist Crystal Eastman, cofounder
of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) in 1920.
- June
26, 1914: Birth of Babe Didrickson
Zaharias--one of the greatest
athlete ever.
- June
27, 1880: Birth of Helen Keller, who
overcame blindness and deafness to
graduate from Radcliffe College, speak
three languages, and become a speaker,
an author and advocate for people with
disabilities.
- June
28, 1969: Beginning of the gay rights
movement when
gays fought back against police
harassment at the Stonewall Bar in
Greenwich Village, New York.
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