lip top 10: days in history (or more appropriately, “herstory”)
Baroness Raymonde de Laroche, first licensed female pilot.
Happy International Women’s Day everyone! Having my column fall on this day sounds like a golden opportunity for a womanly theme, which almost makes it a shame that almost every column has some kind of womanly theme. I feel like I shot myself in the foot there. So, instead of a column listing achievements, I thought I’d do a ‘This Day in History’, based on women, of course. Mostly. Okay, seven are about women and three I just liked.
1. Beatrice of Castile is born (1293)
Beatrice was the Queen of Portugal through her marriage to King Afonso IV. I didn’t even know Portugal was once a Kingdom. Up until 1910, as a matter of fact.
2. Anne Bonny is born (1702)
Who? I hear you ask. She was a pirate! She captured ships, acquired treasure, pretty much got her bad-assery on to the max.
3. Queen Anne ascends the throne (1702)
Anne was the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702 until her death in 1714. During her reign, England and Scotland were united as Great Britain.
4. Susan B. Anthony argues for women’s voting rights (1884)
I know, I know, she wasn’t the only person to do that, but what makes this noteworthy is that she spoke before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. She was asking for an amendment to the constitution that allowed women to vote, arguing that only allowing men to vote was a disenfranchisement of U.S. citizens.
5. Baroness Raymonde de Laroche become the first licensed female pilot (1910)
This French woman also set a couple records in her time – an altitude record for flying at 4800 metres, and a distance record for flying 323km. In 1913 she won the Femina Cup for a non-stop long distance flight, which lasted over four hours. In an ironic twist of fate, her passion was also her downfall. In 1919 she was co-piloting an experimental aircraft which went into a dive and crashed, killing her.
6. First International Women’s Day (1911)
It was launched in Denmark by a German, Clara Zetkin. It filtered through Europe in the following years, but didn’t spread too far out of the continent until it was endorsed by the United Nations in 1977.
7. Hachiko dies (1935)
This is the first event that I just wanted to include for the sake of it. Hachiko was a Japanese dog renowned for his loyalty. For a period of about a year, Hachiko would meet his master every day at the train station after work, until the master died while at work. Every day for nine years Hachiko would wait at the train station for his master, arriving at the exact time the train was to pull in. There was a statue erected in his honour, and its remains are on display in the National Science Museum.
8. Phyllis M Daley is first black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign (1945)
Yeah, that’s actually all the information I have.
9. First radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is broadcast (1978)
…which is actually the first incarnation of the series. It came before the books. I had no idea.
10. It’s Revolution Day in Syria
This day celebrates the seizure of power by the Ba’ath party in 1963. They fight for Arab unity, aiming to unite all Arab nations as one state. Judging by recent events, I don’t think it’s going so well for them.
