January 25th

Born this day in 1933, Maria Corazon Aquino, one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century. Time magazine called her Woman of The Year in 1986. Her story as a world leader begins with a tragedy. Married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was a very strong critic of President Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator ruling over the Philippines. Senator Aquino returned from a three year exile in the United States and was assassinated in 1983.
An unlikely leader, Aquino stepped into the place of her husband. Becoming a leader against the Marcos regime. Marco tried to steal the election by calling Marshall law and declaring himself the winner. Aquino stood up and demanded justice and lead her country People Power Revolution in 1986. It brought the Marcos regime down and Aquino restored democracy to her country. It was not an easy road to follow but she did with compassion, intelligence and courage.

This is for the romantics. On this day in 1858 Princess Victoria (daughter of Queen Victoria) married the crown Prince of Prussia and as the Princess walked down the aisle, Mendelssohn's played the "Wedding March" for the first time. And a tradition was born.

On this day in 1851, Sojourner Truth addresses, the 1st Black Women's Rights Convention.

January 24th

Born this day in 1888, Hedwig "Vicki" Baum, who is considered the first contemporary "bestselling" author. While working in Berlin, Germany as an editor, Baum wrote and published her first novel, translated "People in a Hotel" published in 1929. It was a huge success. So much so, Baum was invited to Hollywood to adapt it into a screenplay.
Which it became the academy award winning film "Grand Hotel", yes that film. Greta Grabo says, "I want to be alone..." Baum wrote that famous line! She wrote more than fifty novels in her life time and ten of them were adapted into films.

Born this day in 1850, Mary Murfree or Charles Egbert Craddock. Murfree wrote novels and short stories based on Appalachia she grew up with in her childhood. Murfree choose to use a man's name as her pen, to be taken seriously. She wrote for the Atlantic Monthly for seven before revealing her true nature. Murfree's work is considered the first Appalachian literature written from a woman's point of view even if it began as a man's. I wonder....

January 23rd

On this day in 1870, one hundred and seventy three Blackfoot women and children were mascaraed in Montana by the United States Army.


Born this day in 1838, Marianne of Molokai. Mother Marianne, co-founded the first two Catholic Hospitals in the United States, from 1870-77. Which prepared Mother Marianne for a letter that changed Mother Marianne's life. King David Kalākaua, for her help in Honolulu, to work with those suffering from Hansen's disease, leprosy. Below is Mother Marianne's response:

I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen Ones, whose privilege it will be, to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders... I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned ‘lepers

And so in 1883 with six other sisters, they set sail for Hawaii. And Mother Marianne spent the rest of her life working with Islanders who suffered with leprosy. Even with her very close contact with those suffering with leprosy,Mother Marianne never contracted it. On May 5th 2005, Mother Marianne was beatified by Pope Benedict IV.

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January 22nd

Born this day in 1858, Beatrice Potter Webb, an economist, sociologist and an advocate for change for the poor and working class of Great Britain in the 19th and early 20th century. Webb's work is responsible for laws that helped change the conditions of the plight in the slums of the poor and working class. Beatrice married Sidney James Webb, who also shared in her vision of changing the conditions of the poor. Together, their research and publications educated and truly created a better world those whose economic needs that were so misunderstood. Webb's first published The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain before meeting her husband. The Webb's founded, "The London School of Economics and Political Science in 1895. Edith Abbott who took one of the Webb's classes titled it "Methods of Social Investigation". Together they also published The History of Trade Unionism and Industrial Democracy Beatrice Potter was a woman who was born to great wealth and privilege. But choose to use her means to make the Halls of Justice understand the problems of those with no voice at all. And we all deserve a voice and to make a better place for all.

On this day in 1881, Cleopatra's Needle was erected in New York CIty's Central Park.

January 21st

Born this day in 1804, Eliza Roxcy Snow Smith. As a young woman, Snow was a well regarded poet. She was baptized Mormon in 1835 and followed the Mormons across the United States finally settling in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1845, she married Joseph Smith,Jr. as a plural wife. But, after his assassination, Snow married Brigham Young, as a plural wife. This marriage was one of convenience since she was a Church leader in the Mormon faith. Joseph Smith remained her one true love.
Snow's poetry religious in nature, was set to music and is a staple in the Mormon Hymnal.

Born this day in 1853,Helen Hamilton Gardener. A provocative writer of her time, Gardener's work raised awareness of the social justice issues of the day. She wrote and published books, pamphlets, articles from 1885 to 1900. One of her more popular writingsSex In Brain 1888; it was a rebuttal to this statement by a prominent physician who declared "...women's brains were inferior to men's brains because they were smaller." In 1920, President Wilson appointed Gardener to United States Civil Service Commission, she was the first woman to hold a high office in the U.S. government.
From Men,Women, and Gods "Nothing gives me more pleasure, nothing gives greater promise for the future, than the fact that woman is achieving intellectual and physical liberty. It is refreshing to know that here, in our country, there are
thousands of women who think and express their own thoughts--who are thoroughly free and thoroughly conscientious--who have neither been narrowed nor corrupted by a heartless creed--who do not worship a being in heaven whom they would shudderingly loathe on earth. Women who do not stand before the altar of a cruel faith with downcast eyes of timid acquiescence, and pay to impudent authority the tribute of a thoughtless yes. They are no longer satisfied with being told. They examine for
themselves. They have ceased to be the prisoners of society--the satisfied serfs of husbands or the echoes of priests. They demand the rights that naturally belong to intelligent human beings. If wives, they wish to be the equals of husbands--if mothers, they wish to rear their children in the atmosphere of love, liberty and philosophy. They believe that woman can discharge all her duties without the aid of superstition,and preserve all that is true, pure and tender without sacrificing in
the temple of absurdity the convictions of the soul."

In 1908 New York outlawed smoking by women.

Another Snow was born this day in 1922. Jade Snow Wong. A ceramic artist and biographer. Her ceramic work was visionary capturing the pure lines of modernism in clay and enameling. Wong autobiography, Fifth Chinese Daughter was published in 1950.