DECEMBER


1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus, setting off civil rights protests	1923 Maria Callas was born, opera singer, called "La Divina"	1842 Ellen Swallow Richards was born, the first woman to graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and its first woman instructor	1865 Edith Cavell was born, English nurse, helped Allied soldiers escape during WWI, executed by the Germans	1822 Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz was born, educator, first president of Radcliffe College in 1894	1927 Patsy Mink was born, first Japanese-American woman in U.S. Congress in 1965	1941 First Lt. Annie Fox, army nurse, was the first service woman to directly receive the purple heart, for her actions during the bombing of Pearl Harbor
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
(exact date unknown) Fanny Cochrane Smith was born in Australia, made the only know recordings of Tasmanian Aboriginal song and speech in 1899 and 1903	1972 Helen Reddy's song "I Am Woman" rose to #1 on the Billboard record chart	1830 Emily Dickinson was born, great American poet	1863 Annie Jump Cannon was born, astronomer, developed system of classification of stars	1835 Sarah Ingersoll Cooper was born, educator, active in the kindergarten movement, opened the first free kindergarten west of the Rocky Mountains	1818 Mary Todd Lincoln was born, First Lady 1861 - 1865	1961 The President's Commission on the Status of Women was established to review and make recommendations about women's equality and discrimination
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
1913 Muriel Rukeyser was born, poet and writer	1775 Jane Austen was born, author of "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice"	1760 Deborah Sampson was born, fought in the Revolutionary Army disguised as a man	1888 Dame Gladys Cooper was born, actress, first acted in 1906, and her last film was "My Fair Lady" in 1964	1829 Jane Cunningham Croly was born, journalist, founded General Federation of Women's Clubs (1890), pen name Jennie June	1928 The Ethyl Barrymore Theater opened in New York, named after the actress	1767 Phillis Wheatley's first poem was published when she was 14 years old; first black woman to publish a poem
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
1880 Aline Bernstein was born, theater designer	1867 "Madam" C.J. Walker was born, cosmetics entrepreneur, first black woman self-made millionaire	1941 Helen Cassiani, army nurse 2nd Lt., received a commendation for her courageous actions during a Japanese air attack in Manila	1821 Clara Barton was born, founded the American Red Cross, teacher, acted as nurse on the Civil War battlefield	1954 Susan Butcher was born, 4-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race	1901 Marlene Dietrich was born in Germany, actress and singer	1894 Burnita Shelton Matthews was born, first woman federal district judge in 1949, served in Washington D.C.
29	30	31
1721 (circa) Madame de Pompadour was born, courtesan and mistress to King Louis XV of France	1889 Peggy Hull was born, journalist, first American woman to get press credentials from the U.S. War Dept., covered WWI and WWII	1878 (circa) Elizabeth Arden was born, cosmetics entrepreneur, known for always wearing pink