By Darrius Frazier

March 1

In 1692, the Salem Witch Hunt begins at the Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba, an enslaved woman from the Barbados, are charged with the illegal practice of witchcraft (Editors, 2021).  The ensuring witch trial which lasted until May 1693, witnessed that out of 200 people accused of being witches; thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging, including fourteen women and five men; one man, Giles Corey, was killed by pressing for refusing to plea; and at least five people died while awaiting sentencing in jails (Snyder, 2001).

In 1978, Women’s History Week is first observed in Sonoma County, California. (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 1987, the U.S. Congress passes a resolution designating March as Women’s History Month. (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 2

In 1903, the Martha Washington Hotel opens in New York City, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 2022, the Lake Land Lady Lakers will host the Spoon River College Lady Snappers at 6:00 PM at the Laker Fieldhouse for a post-season match-up (Lake Land College, 2022).

March 3

In 1887, Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months. Under Sullivan’s tutelage, Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed “the miracle worker,” remained Keller’s interpreter and constant companion until the older woman’s death in 1936 (Editors, History.com, 2021).

In 1913, Women’s Suffrage Parade was held in Washington, DC, where over 8000 women gathered to demand a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 4

In 1917, Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) took her seat as the first female member of Congress as a member of the House of Representatives (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 1933, Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the United States Cabinet (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 5

In 2022, the Lake Land’s Lady Lakers Softball team will host the Shawnee Community College Lady Saints in their home opener.  The home opener will be a double-header with first pitch at NOON and the second game at either 2:00 PM or thirty minutes following the conclusion of the first game.  The home opener is pending the outcome of the weather (Athletics, 2022).

March 6

In 1986, Georgia O’Keeffe, the artist who gained worldwide fame for her austere minimalist paintings of the American southwest, dies in Santa Fe at the age of 98 (Editors, Georgia O’Keeffe dies, 2020).

March 7

In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director, for her movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004. Prior to Bigelow, only three women had been nominated for a best director Oscar: Lina Wertmueller for 1975’s “Seven Beauties,” Jane Campion for 1993’s “The Piano” and Sofia Coppola for 2003’s “Lost in Translation” (Editors, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar, 2021).

March 8

In 1917, in the midst of World War I, International Women’s Day was established as a result of protests in the U.S. and Europe to honor and fight for the political rights for working women (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 2014, National Catholic Sisters Week was established to raise awareness of the contributions of Catholic sisters (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 9

In 1959, the Barbie doll makes its debut at the American Toy Fair in New York City.  Since 1959, over one billion dolls in the Barbie family have been sold around the world (Editors, The Barbie doll makes its debut, 2021).

March 10

In 1997, the fledgling Warner Brothers (WB) television network airs the inaugural episode of what will become its first bona-fide hit show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though ratings peaked during the second and third seasons, the show was consistently well reviewed by critics throughout its six-and-a-half-year run.  Buffy’s success helped establish the network as a staple among teenage and young adult TV viewers. After 2001, Buffy moved to the WB’s competitor, United Paramount Network (UPN) (Editors, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” premieres on the WB, 2021).

March 11

In 2003, the backlash of the Dixie Chicks, among one of the famous all-female country music bands, begins as a result of their public criticism of U.S. President, George W. Bush, against the preparation of the United States’ second war against Iraq (Editors, The Dixie Chicks backlash begins, 2021).  The backlash, mainly consisting of country music bands and listeners who were mostly conservative and support the policies of the Bush administration, was immense.  The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by thousands of country radio stations, received death threats, and were criticized by other country musicians. The backlash damaged sales of the Dixie Chicks’ music and concert tickets and caused them to lose corporate sponsorship (Campbell, 2003).

Also in 2003, 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart is finally found in Sandy, Utah, nine months after being abducted from her family’s home. Her alleged kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell, a drifter who the Smarts had briefly employed at their house, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were charged with the kidnapping, as well as burglary and sexual assault.  The kidnappers were eventually sentenced to federal prison with Mitchell currently serving a life sentence (Networks, 2021).

March 12

In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls together in Savannah, Georgia, for the first-ever Girl Scout meeting (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 1993, Janet Reno is sworn in as the first woman U.S. Attorney General (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 13

In 1986, Susan Butcher won the first of 3 straight and 4 total Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races in Alaska (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 2020, shortly after midnight, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician, is shot and killed by police in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment after officers busted through her door with a battering ram.  Following Taylor’s death and subsequent national protests, no-knock warrants were banned in Louisville in an ordinance known as “Breonna’s Law.” The city also agreed to pay her family a historic $12 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit settlement (Editors, Breonna Taylor is killed by police in botched raid, 2021).

March 14

In 1913, the Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C. took place, where more than 8,000 women gathered to demand a constitutional amendment guaranteeing their right to vote (Merinuk, 2022).

March 15

In 1977, civil rights leader and veteran Mississippi voter rights worker, Fannie Lou Hamer died in Mound Bayou, Mississippi at age 59 (Black History Today , 2022).

March 16

In 1970, Motown soul singer, Tammi Terrell, died of complications from the malignant brain tumor that caused her October 1967 collapse onstage during a live performance at Virginia’s Hampden-Sydney College.  Terrell and Marvin Gaye enjoyed a string of four straight hits with some of the greatest love songs ever recorded at Motown Records (Editors, Motown soul singer Tammi Terrell dies, 2019).

March 17

In 1910, Camp Fire Girls is established as the first interracial, non-sectarian American organization for girls (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 1917, Loretta Perfectus Walsh became the first woman to join the navy and the first woman to officially join the military in a role other than a nurse (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 18

In 1999, three women, Carole Sund, Juli Sund and Silvina Pelosso, were murdered at the Yosemite National Park in California.  Carole’s and Silvina’s remains were found in the trunk in a charred rental car.  Juli Sund’s body was found thirty miles away a week after the car was found.  Cary Stayner eventually plead guilty to the three murders along with a murder of another woman, Joie Ruth Armstrong, and was sentenced to death (Editors, Three women are murdered at Yosemite, 2021).

March 19

In 1999, law enforcement officials discover the charred bodies of forty-two-year-old Carol Sund and sixteen-year-old Silvina Pelosso in the trunk of their burned-out rental car, a day after the vehicle was located in a remote area several hours from Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner, a handyman at the lodge where the women were last seen a month before, later confessed to their murders as well as those of two other women and was sentenced to death (Editors, Bodies found in Yosemite serial killer case, 2021).

March 20

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published and becomes the best-selling book of the 19th century (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 21

In 1986, Debi Thomas becomes first African American woman to win the World Figure Skating Championship (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 22

In 1893, the first women’s college basketball game is played at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. With each made basket counting as one point and the game lasting two 15-minute halves, a sophomore class team prevails over a freshmen team, 5-4 (Editors, First women’s college basketball game played, 2021).

In 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification.  The Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex (Editors, Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress, 2021).

March 23

In 1917, Virginia Woolf establishes the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

In 2011, actress Elizabeth Taylor, who appeared in more than 50 films, won two Academy Awards and was synonymous with Hollywood glamour, dies of complications from congestive heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital at age 79 (Editors, Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79, 2021).

March 24

In 1603, after 44 years of rule, Queen Elizabeth I of England dies, and King James VI of Scotland ascends to the throne, uniting England and Scotland under a single British monarch (Editors, Queen Elizabeth I dies, 2020).

In 1996, Shannon Lucid became the first female U.S. astronaut to live in a space station when she transferred to the Russian space station, Mir, from the U.S. space shuttle, Atlantis, for a planned five-month stay.  Her 188-day sojourn aboard Mir set a new space endurance record for an American and a world endurance record for a woman (Editors, Astronaut Shannon Lucid enters Mir space station, 2020).

March 25

Gloria Steinem, women’s rights activist and journalist, founding editor of Ms. Magazine, helped found National Women’s Political Caucus, the Women’s Action Alliance, and the Coalition of Labor Union Women, was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1934 (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

Lillian E. Fishburne, the first African-American female to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, was born in Rockville, Maryland in 1949 (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 26

Virginia (Toni) Caraballo, who supported activism in behalf of women’s issues, active in National Organization for Women (1968-87) and co-authored the Feminist Chronicles 1953-1993, was born in Queens, New York in 1926 (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman in the U.S. Supreme Court when she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was born in El Paso, Texas in 1930 (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to become the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007, was born Nancy Patricia D’Alessandro in Baltimore in 1940 to an Italian-American family (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 27

Effa Louise Manley, co-owner and manager with husband Abe of the Negro League baseball team the Brooklyn Eagles (1935-46), supported integration with the NAACP, worked hard to get Negro League players included in the Baseball Hall of Fame, was born in 1897 in Philadelphia (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

Sarah Lois Vaughan, world renown jazz singer and pianist known as the “Divine One,” was born in 1924, in Newark, New Jersey (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 28

Clara Lemlich Shavelson, a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine, labor activist, suffragist, and consumer advocate, a leader of the Uprising of 20,000, a labor strike of shirtwaist workers in New York’s garment industry in 1909, was born in 1886.

March 29

Pearl Mae Bailey, jazz and blues singer, won amateur contests in Harlem and Philadelphia when she was 22, sang with Cab Calloway in 1945, starred in movies, goodwill ambassador for United Nations in 1979, was born in 1918 in Newport News, Virginia (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 30

Dr. Charlotte Johnson Baker, the first woman physician to practice medicine in San Diego, California, practiced obstetrics and gynecology at St. Joseph’s Hospital was born in 1855 in Newburyport, Massachusetts (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

March 31

In 1776, Abigail Adams writes to her husband, John Adams, urging him and the other members of the Continental Congress not to forget about the nation’s women when fighting for America’s independence from Great Britain (March Highlights in US Women’s History, 2021).

 

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