Welcome to WOW2!
WOW2 is a twice-monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. This edition covers women and events from September 16 through September 30.
This is an on-going, evolving project. So many women have been added to the lists over the past three years that even changing the posts from monthly to twice a month, the pages kept getting longer and more unwieldy – an astonishing and wonderful problem to have! So what you’re seeing on this Late September 2018 page are only the NEW people and events, or additional information, found since last year, and it’s just a fraction of the ‘big picture.’
To see the entire LATE SEPTEMBER list as of 2017, click HERE: www.dailykos.com/...
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For millions of women, this week has been grueling. The extraordinary courage shown by the many who have come forward with their stories, often that they’ve told to no one before now, and in particular Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony was traumatic but unwavering in that kangaroo court, surrounded by vile old white men who will stop at nothing to discredit her and her sworn statements. All so they can put a man who has lied repeatedly under oath with their complicity on the highest court in the land for decades to come. She spoke up for all of us, even under death threats and the lowest, most contemptible attempts at character assassination.
What kind of people choose to believe this man is the more credible witness? This man who has lied about his underage binge drinking, who claims now that he was a virgin in high school and college, but at the time bragged about his sexual prowess to roommates and acquaintances, this man who gave disingenuous answers to questions about what the nasty abbreviations and slang words in his yearbooks really meant. What kind of people? People who must have reasons of their own to deny that Dr. Ford has been telling her painful truth, at great cost.
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The purpose of WOW2 is to learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books, and to mark moments in women’s history. This week, whatever the outcome, is a week to honor a woman of achievement who has persisted in the face of overwhelming odds, and all those who have stood with her.
WOW2 also serves as a reference archive of women’s history. There are so many more phenomenal women than I ever dreamed of finding, and all too often their stories are almost unknown, even to feminists and scholars.
These trailblazers have a lot to teach us. I hope you will find reclaiming our past as much of an inspiration as I do.
This Week in the War on Women just posted, so be sure to go there next and catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines:
Late September’s Women Trailblazers and Events in Our History
Note: All images and audios are below the person or event to which they refer
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- September 16, 1861 – Miriam Benjamin born a free African American; graduated from Howard University law school and specialized in patent law; she was the second black woman inventor to receive a U.S. patent, for the Gong and Signal chair, used by hotel guests to signal a waiter or attendant that they wanted service; the system was later adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives to signal pages, and was a precursor of the signaling system used by passengers on airplanes to attract a flight attendant’s attention; her two brothers also held patents for inventions
- September 16, 1880 – Clara Ayres born, American nurse who joined the U.S. Army Corps during WWI; she and Helen Burnett Wood were the first two nurses to be killed in military service during the war, by accident on May 17, 1917, aboard the USS Mongolia heading for Europe, hit by shell fragments when one of the ship’s guns exploded during a drill
- September 16, 1916 – Marie Vieux-Chauvet born, Haitian novelist, poet and playwright; sometimes published under Marie Vieux; noted for her novels, Fille d’Haïti (Daughter of Haiti), La Danse sur le Volcan (Dance on the Volcano), Fonds des Nègres (Fund Negroes) and her trilogy, the posthumous winner of the 1986 Prix Deschamps: Amour, Colère, Folie (Love, Anger, Madness)
- September 16, 1921 – Ursula M. Franklin born in Germany, Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author, and educator who taught at the University of Toronto for more than 40 years. Author of The Real World of Technology
- September 16, 1942 – Susan L. Graham born, American computer scientist; Pehong Chen Distinguished Professor in Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley; research projects include Harmonia, a language-based framework for interactive software development, and Titanium, a Java-based parallel programming language, compiler and runtime system. She is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which awarded her the ICCC John von Neumann Medal in 2009
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September 16, 1948 – Julia Donaldson born, English author, playwright, songwriter and performer, best known for rhyming stories for children, including The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and Stick Man
- September 16, 1953 – Nancy Huston born, French Canadian novelist, essayist and translator, who translates her own work from French into English. Awarded the 1982 Prix Contrepoint for Les variations Goldberg (The Goldberg Variations)
- September 16, 1956 – Maggie Atkinson born, English educator; Children’s Commissioner for England (2010-2013)
- September 16, 1957 – Clara Furse born, Dutch-British financial executive, first woman Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange (2001-2009)
- September 16, 1961 – Annamária Szalai born, Hungarian journalist and politician; President of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (2010-2013); on the National Radio and Television Commission (2004-2009); Member of the National Assembly (1998-2004)
- September 16, 1971 – Amy Poehler born, American comedian, actress, director, producer and writer; Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation, Comedy Central; executive producer of Broad City and Difficult People; creator of The UCB Show
- September 16, 1976 – The Episcopal Church approves ordination of women as clergy
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- September 17, 1900 – Lena Frances Edwards born, African American physician; after graduating from Howard University Medical School in 1924, she married fellow medical school graduate Keith Madison, and they moved to Jersey City NJ, where she became speaker on public health and advocate for natural childbirth serving the European immigrant community, until joining the staff of Margaret Hague Hospital in 1931, but her race and gender prevented her from being admitted to residency in obstetrics and gynecology until 1945. In 1954, she began to teach obstetrics Howard University Medical School, and was the medical adviser to the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and chair of the Maternal Welfare Committee of the Washington DC Urban League. Edwards helped found Our Lady of Guadeloupe Maternity Clinic in Hereford Texas in 1960 to serve Mexican migrant worker families. After a heart attack in 1965, she returned to Washington, where she worked for federal agencies until she retired in 1970
- September 17, 1900 – Martha Ostenso born, Norwegian American novelist and screenwriter; her family immigrated from Norway to Canada, then moved to the American Midwest; Ostenso briefly attended the University of Manitoba, then left for New York City. She worked for a time as a social worker, but was involved in literary circles, and her first and best known novel, Wild Geese, was published in 1925, and became a best-seller. In 1931, she became an American citizen. She wrote numerous short stories, moved to Hollywood to write screenplays, and in all published 15 novels
- September 17, 1918 – Lea Gottlieb born in Hungary, Israeli fashion designer and co-founder of the Gottex Company; she and her husband emigrated to Israel in 1949, an opened a raincoat factory near Tel Aviv with money borrowed from family and friends. After months and months of no rain in Israel, she sold her wedding ring to buy fabric, and with a borrowed sewing machine started designing and making high-fashion beachwear and bathing suits, founding Gottex in 1956 – the company’s name is a combination of Gottlieb and textile, and it became the leading exporter of fashion swimwear to the U.S.
- September 17, 1947 – Tessa Jowell born, Baroness Jowell, British Labour politician and feminist; the driving force behind the right to request flexible working hours, architect of Sure Start, the early-years programme to give preschoolers a better start, and pioneered government summits about girls’ body image and the impact of the media; Lord Temporal member of the House of Lords (2015-2018); Minister for the Cabinet Office (2009-2010); Paymaster General (2007-2010); Minister for the Olympics (2005-2010); Minister for Women (2005-2006); Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood (1992-2015); After being diagnosed with brain cancer, she successfully campaigned for more funds for cancer treatments through the National Health Service. She died at age 70 in May 2018
- September 17, 1947 – Gail Carson Levine born, American young adult author, her first published book, Ella Enchanted, was a 1998 Newbery Honor Book; she worked for 27 years for New York state as a welfare administrator, helping people find jobs, but took a class in writing in 1987, and wrote manuscripts that were all rejected until 1996, when Ella Enchanted was accepted for publication. Her next novel, Dave at Night, was inspired by her father, who had grown up in an orphanage
- September 17, 1953 – Tamasin Day-Lewis born, English television chef, food critic, and author of cookbooks and food-related books
- September 17, 1953 – Rita Rudner born, American comedian and humor book author; co-author with her husband of the several screenplays, including the script for the film Peter’s Friends; she holds the record for the longest-running solo comedy show in Las Vegas
- September 17, 1968 – Cheryl Strayed born, American novelist, essayist and memorist; noted for her 2012 memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
- September 17, 1978 – Sheeri K. Cabral born, American database administrator and architect; a MySQL community contributor, and the first Oracle ACE Director for MySQL. Cabral was the keynote presenter for the 2009 MySQL User Conference & Expo, “How to be a Community Superhero,” and a three-time winner of the MySQL Community Award
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- September 18, 1587 – Francesca Caccini born, Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet and teacher, known by the nickname “La Cecchina”, one of the most well-known and influential female European composers in the period between Hildegard of Bingen and the 19th century. Her work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, considered the first opera composed by a woman
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- September 19, 1893 – All New Zealand women over age 21, including the Māori, are granted the right to vote by Royal Assent of the governor to the Electoral Act of 1893, the first independent country in modern times to enfranchise women. However, women were not allowed to run for office until 1920
- September 19, 1894 – Rachel Field born, American novelist, poet and children’s author; best known for Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, winner of the 1930 Newbery Award, and also named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, for books considered worthy of placement “on the same shelf” as Carroll’s Alice; Time Out of Mind won an inaugural National Book Award in 1935, for Most Distinguished Novel
- September 19, 1918 – Pablita Velarde born Tse Tsan (Tewa for ‘Golden Dawn’), American Santa Clara Pueblo ‘flat style’ painter; at age fourteen, she was one of the first female artists accepted to Dorothy Dunn’s Santa Fe Studio Art School. Velarde learned to prepare paints from natural pigments for her later work, which she called ‘earth paintings.’ She was commissioned in 1939 by the U.S. National Park Service, under a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), to depict scenes from Pueblo life for the Bandalier National Monument. In 1953, she was the first woman recipient of the Grand Purchase Award at the Philbrook Museum’s annual Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Painting, and in 1954, Velarde was among the twelve Native American artists and craftsmen honored by the government of France with the Palmes Académiques, the first foreign honors ever paid to Native American artists. She published Old Father the Story Teller,featuring six Tewa tribal stories, in 1960. Honored as a Santa Fe Living Treasure in 1988, and by the National Women’s Caucus for Art with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990
- September 19, 1930 – Bettye Lane born, American photojournalist who covered the American feminist movement, donating over 1700 images and her collection of ephemera, all documenting the women’s movement from the 196os to the 1980s, to the Schlesinger Library; some of her work is also preserved at the Library of Congress and the NY Public Library
- September 19, 1932 – Stefanie Zweig born, German Jewish writer and journalist; best known for her novel Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa), a bestseller in Germany, based on her early life in Kenya, where her family had fled to escape persecution by the Nazis
- September 19, 1940 – Zandra Rhodes born, English fashion designer, noted for her 1977 collection, a take on punk which she called Conceptual Chic, featuring beaded safety pins and dresses with holes; founded the Fashion and Textile Museum, which opened in London in 2003
- September 19, 1945 – Kate Adie born, English BBC television and radio journalist; as chief news correspondent for BBC News (1980-2003), she frequently covered war zones and terrorist attacks; since 2003, presents From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio
- September 19, 1947 – Tanith Lee born, prolific British scifi, horror and fantasy author of over 90 novels and 300 short stories; first woman to win the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Death’s Master in 1979, which is part of her Flat-Earth Cycle; won several World Fantasy Awards for Best Short Story; honored in 2009 with the World Horror Grand Master Award
- September 19, 1950 – Joan Lunden born, American television news correspondent and co-host of ABC’s Good Morning America (1980-1997)
- September 19, 1965 – Sunita Williams born, U.S. astronaut and Naval officer; assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expeditions 14 and 15, flight engineer on Expedition 32, and commander of Expedition 33
- September 19, 1966 – Soledad O’Brien born, American broadcast journalist and executive producer; anchor for the syndicated weekly program Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien; in 2013, she became the founder and chair of the Starfish Media Group
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- September 20, 1847 – Susanna Rubinstein born in the Ukraine, Austrian psychologist, noted for her study of the senses, and her 1878 work “Psychologisch-Asthetische Essays” (“Psychological-Aesthetic Essays”), considered a major contribution to the study of human emotions
- September 20, 1884 – The Equal Rights Party forms in San Francisco CA, nominating Belva Lockwood and Marietta Snow as the party’s candidates for President and Vice President, well before women could vote in most states
- September 20, 1890 – Linda M. Eenpalu born, Estonian politician and a leading women’s rights activist; first woman member of the National Constituent Assembly (1937) and the Second Chamber of the National Council (1938-1940); co-founder of the Estonian Female Student’s Society (1911), member of the central committee of the Estonian Women’s Club (1928-1940), and member of the National Economic Council (1935-1938); a librarian (1913-1920) and high school teacher (1920-1926). In 1940, when the Soviet Union annexed and occupied Estonia, her husband, Prime Minister Kaarel Eenpalu, was among the leading Estonian politicians who were arrested and deported to Russia, where he died in 1942 in a Soviet prison camp. She was arrested in 1941 and deported, with thousands of other Estonians, to Siberia, where she was held until 1956
- September 20, 1906 – Vera Faddeeva born, Soviet mathematician, a pioneer in the field of linear algebra. Her 1950 work, Computational methods of linear algebra, was translated into other languages, widely acclaimed and won a USSR State Prize
- September 20, 1929 – Anne Meara born, American actress, comedian, writer and playwright; she and her husband, Jerry Stiller, performed as the comedy team Stiller and Meara; she wrote the play, After-Play, and won a Writers Guild Award for The Other Woman. Meara was nominated for 4 Emmys and a Tony Award
- September 20, 1940 – Anna Pavord born, Welsh-English gardening expert and writer; correspondent for The Independent newspaper since 1986, associate editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine, contributor to The Observer newspaper, and to the magazines Country Life, Country Living and Elle Decoration. Author of a number of books, including The Curious Gardener, The Tulip, Landskipping, and The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants
- September 20, 1942 – Rose Francine Rogombé born, Gabonese Democratic Party politician; acting President of Gabon (June to October 2009) after the death of President Omar Bongo; President of the Senate and Senator from Lambaréné (2009)
- September 20, 1956 – Jennifer Tour Chayes born, American mathematician and computer scientist; Managing Director of Microsoft Research New England since 2008; known for work on phase transitions in discrete mathematics and computer science, structural and dynamical properties of self-engineered networks, and algorithmic game theory, as well as an expert in the modeling and analysis of dynamically growing graphs; holder of over 25 patents, and author of over 100 published papers; honored with the 2015 John von Neumann Lecture Prize by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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September 20, 1959 – Meral Okay born, Turkish film producer, screenwriter and actress; producer of the TV series Second Spring (1998-2001), and screenwriter for the historical soap opera, Muhteşem Yüzyil, based on the life of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
- September 20, 1960 – Deborah Roberts born, American television journalist; 20/20 correspondent (1995 to present), Dateline NBC (1991-1995)
- September 20, 1961 – Caroline Flint born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Don Valley since 1997; Minister for Public Health (2005-2007)
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- September 21, 1552 – Barbara Longhi born, Italian painter, admired as a portraitist during her lifetime, but many of her works are now lost or unattributed
- September 21, 1917 – Phyllis Nicolson born, British mathematician; notable for work on the Crank-Nicolson Method with John Crank, for numerically solving the heat equation and similar partial differential equations
- September 21, 1932 – Shirley Conran born, British novelist and journalist; author of Lace, which was on the New York Times best Seller list for 13 weeks; founder of Maths Action, an educational non-profit
- September 21, 1932 – Marjorie Fletcher born, Director of the British Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS – 1986-1988); she joined the WRNS in 1953, and served two tours in Malta; director of the naval staff college in 1979; first woman to become director of the naval staff duties division in the Ministry of Defense
- September 21, 1944 – Fannie Flagg born, American comedian, actress and author; noted for her 1987 best-selling novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, and her screenplay adaptation for the 1991 movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award
- September 21, 1946 – Rose Garrard born, English sculptor, multi-media artist and author; noted for sculptures and fountains, many installed in Malvern and other places in Worcestershire, her home county; she has also done much research and written books on the area’s history and the restoration of its local springs
- September 21, 1956 – Marta Kauffman born, American writer and TV producer; co-creator and co-executive producer with David Crane of the comedy series Friends (1994-2004), and co-creator with Howard J. Morris of Grace and Frankie since 2015
- September 21, 1965 – Johanna Vuoksenmaa born, Finnish director and screenwriter for television and film; noted for her feature films, Nousukausi (Upswing), and 21 Tapaa Pilata Avioliitto (21 ways to Ruin a Marriage)
- September 21, 1969 – Anne Burrell born, American chef, and host on the Food Network shows, Secrets Of a Restaurant Chef and Worst Cooks in America
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September 21,1970 – Samantha Power born in Ireland, American academic, war correspondent, author, diplomat and dedicated to atrocity prevention; During the Obama Administration, she was a Special Assistant to the President (2008) and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights on the National Security Council (2009-2013); the inaugural Chair of the Atrocities Prevention Board (2012), where she focused on UN reform, women’s and LGBT rights, religious freedom and religious minorities, refugees, human trafficking, human rights, and democracy. Appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2013-2017)
- September 21,1973 – Vanessa Grigoriadis born, American journalist of Greek descent; contributor to The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair; author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus
- September 21, 1986 – Lindsey Stirling born, American violinist, composer and performance artist; presents choreographed violin performances, live and as music videos on her YouTube channel (2007); in 2013, she teamed with the non-profit Atlanta Music Project to allow under-served children in Atlanta to learn and perform music in choirs and orchestras
September 21, 1996 – U.S. Congress passes the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA), prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriage, but allowing states to use their own definition, but not requiring them to recognize same-sex marriages granted under laws of other states
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- September 22, 1762 – Elizabeth Simcoe born in England, English artist and diarist; married John Graves Simcoe, and went with him to colonial Canada, where he was the first Lt. Governor of Upper Canada. She painted over 500 watercolours of the town of York, Upper Canada, and her diary is a valuable record of the life of early colonists in Ontario
- September 22, 1891 – Alma Thomas born, African-American Expressionist painter and art educator; part of the the Washington Color School, a visual art movement started in Washington DC; in 1924, she was the first graduate from Howard University’s Fine Arts Department; taught at Shaw Junior High School (1924-1960), where she started a community arts program. In 1934, she earned a Masters in Art Education from Columbia University
- September 22, 1931 – Fay Weldon born, English author, essayist, feminist and playwright; best known for her novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, and for writing the first episode of Upstairs, Downstairs. While studying psychology and economics at the University of St. Andrews in the early 1950s, she recalls taking classes with moral philosopher Malcolm Knox, who “spoke exclusively to the male students, maintaining that women were incapable of moral judgment or objectivity.”
- September 22, 1939 – Deborah Lavin born, South African historian and academic, working in the UK for most of her career; lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Witwatersrand; Senior Associate of St Antony’s College, Oxford. Principle of Trevelyan College at Durham University (1979-1995), and co-director of Durham’s Research Institute for the Study of Change (1980-1995); President of the Durham University Howland Trust (1995-1997); co-author of South African Memories: Scraps of History
- September 22, 1942 – Candida Lycett Green born, British author, columnist and the co-founder of the satirical magazine, Private Eye; many of her books are about the English countryside, including English Cottages and Unwrecked England
- September 22, 1947 – “Jane Doe” Norma McCorvey born, plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the banning of abortion by individual states was unconstitutional. In her 1994 autobiography, I Am Roe, she wrote about her sexual orientation and relationship with her long-time partner, Connie Gonzales. After becoming an Evangelical Christian, she expressed regrets for her part in Roe v. Wade, and became an anti-abortion activist
- September 22, 1953 – Ségolène Royal born, French Socialist politician; French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (2014-2017); President of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council (2004- 2014); Member of the National Assembly for Deux-Sévres (2002-2007); first woman in France nominated by a major party as a presidential candidate in 2007
- September 22, 1958 – Beth Catlin born, autistic savant; her hobby is making and sending birthday cards to people she has met. She is able to remember the names, birthdates and addresses of 3,834 people so far; no card has ever been returned for a mistaken address
- September 22, 1961 – Diane Lemieux born, French Canadian politician, lawyer and feminist; dubbed “the lioness of Bourget” — advocate for women’s rights and sexual assault victims. Member of the Assemblée nationale du Québec (Quebec National Assembly, 1998-2007); president of the Conseil du statut de la femme (Quebec Council for the Status of Women/CSF, 1996-1998); recipient of Québec’s 1991 Prix de la Justice award
- September 22, 1970 – Gladys Berejiklian born to Armenian immigrants, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and New South Wales Liberal Party Leader since 2017; Liberal Party Deputy Leader (2014-2017); Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Willoughby (2003-2017)
- September 22, 1971 – Elizabeth Bear born as Sarah Bear Wishnevsky, American speculative fiction author; 2005 John W. Campbell Best New Writer Award; 2006 Locus Award for Best First Novel, Hammered/Scardown/ Worldwired ; 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, “Tideline”; and 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for Shoggoths in Bloom
- September 22, 1971 – Gloria Borger born, American journalist, columnist and chief political analyst at CNN; previously an anchor at CNBC, and a correspondent for CBS News
- September 22, 1983 – U.S. Congress passes joint resolution acknowledging American Business Women’s Day in honor the founding of the Business Women’s Association (now the American Business Women’s Association) on September 22, 1949
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- September 23, 1740 – Empress Go-Sakuramachi born, the last of eight women to rule Japan as Empress regnant (1762-1771) according to the traditional order of succession
- September 23, 1853 – Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen, noted as a musician and composer; noted for Romanze in F Major for clarinet and piano; one of her music teachers was Johannes Brahms
- September 23, 1865 – Suzanne Valadon born, French painter and artists’ model; the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, in 1894. Her large oils exhibited at the Salon de la Nationale that year are among the earliest examples of a woman artist using the male as an object of desire. The first person to buy drawings from her was Edgar Degas, who introduced her to other collectors. Also notable for her studies of the female nude, portraits of women and landscapes
- September 23, 1907 – Anne Desclos born, French journalist and author, used pen-names Dominique Aury and Pauline Réage; author of Histoire d’O (The Story of O)
- September 23, 1917 – Asima Chatterjee, Indian organist chemist; first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science from an Indian university; noted for developing drugs and treatments for epilepsy, malaria and cancer
- September 23, 1942 – Sila María Calderón born, Puerto Rican Popular Democratic Party politician and public servant; first woman elected as Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (2001-2005); Mayor of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico (1996-2000); Secretary of State (1986-1988?), Chief of Staff (1985). She earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Puerto Rico in 1972
- September 23, 1946 – Genista McIntosh born, Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall; British arts consultant, theatre executive and Labour politician. After working in various positions at the Royal Shakespeare Company (1972-1990), she became Executive Director of the Royal National Theatre (1990-1996), then spent 5 months as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House (resigned due to ill health), and returned to the Royal National Theatre for 1997-2002. Made a Life Peer in 1999; gave her maiden speech in the House of Lords in November 1999
- September 23, 1946 – Anne Wheeler born, Canadian director, producer and screenwriter; she made her first film for the Film Board of Canada, 1981’s A War Story; 4-time nominee for the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction for her films Loyalties, Cowboys Don’t Cry, Bye Bye Blues and Suddenly Naked. Her television miniseries, The Sleep Room, won Gemini awards for best television film and best direction. Wheeler was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995
- September 23, 1949 – Floella Benjamin born in Trinidad, Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham; her father emigrated to the UK, then brought his children over in 1960 when she was 11 years old; Trinidadian-British TV presenter, actress, author, and founder and chief executive of Floella Benjamin Productions Ltd., which produced television programmes (1987-2014). As the chair of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), she was made an Officer of the British Empire in 2001. In 2008, she was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London. In 2010 she was appointed a Liberal Democrat Life Peer
- September 23, 1954 – Cherie Booth Blair born, British barrister and lecturer; became Queen’s Counsel in 1995, and a Recorder (permanent part-time judge) in 1999 in the County Court and Crown Court. She specialises in employment, discrimination and public law; she is married to Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister (1997- 2007)
- September 23, 1959 – Karen Pierce born, British diplomat; Permanent Representative of the UK to the United Nations since March 2018; British Ambassador to Kabul (2015-2016); UK Representative to the UN in Geneva (2012-2015); Foreign and Commonwealth Director for South Asia and Afghanistan (2009-2012); Acting President of the UN Security Council (2007-2008); Deputy Representative of the UK to the UN (2006-2009)
- September 23, 1962 – Deborah Orr born, Scottish journalist and columnist, has worked for City Limits, New Statesman, The Guardian and The Independent; she is a vocal critic of the National Health Service treatment of homeless and disadvantaged people, but blames much of it on inadequate funding, and also calls the prison service “a series of riots waiting to happen”
- September 23, 1964 – Katie Mitchell born, English theatre director; member of the theatre company Classics on a Shoestring; has mounted productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and staged operas for the Salzburg Festival and the Royal Opera House; former associate director of the Royal Court Theatre; appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2009
- September 23, 1967 – Hilary Andersson born, British journalist for the BBC since 1991; served as Lagos correspondent (1996-1999), Jerusalem Correspondent (1999-2001) and Africa correspondent (2001-2005)
- September 23,1999 – Celebrate Bisexuality Day is started at the International Lesbian and Gay Association conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, by U.S. activists from Maine, Florida and Texas
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- September 24, 1812 – Mary Ann Browne, British poet and writer of musical scores of the Romantic Era
- September 24, 1873 – María de las Mercedes Adam de Aróstegui born, Cuban composer and pianist who worked mostly in Spain, and often gave concerts with Pablo Casals
- September 24, 1914 – Esther Eng born, Cantonese-American film director; first woman director of Chinese-language films in the U.S., recognized as a pioneer who crossed boundaries of race, gender, language, and culture; at 19, she became a film producer when her father and his business partners formed a film production company; she began in 1936 as co-producer on the film Heartache, directed by Frank Tang. In 1937, she started directing with National Heroine, about a woman pilot fighting for her country, then Ten Thousand Lovers, Storm of Envy and It’s A Women’s World which had an all female cast showcasing 36 women in different professions, and Golden Gate Girl. After making several other films, she went into the restaurant business in New York in 1950. Most of her films have been lost, except for Golden Gate Girl and one other she co-directed, only shooting the exterior scenes
- September 24, 1916 – Ruth Leach Amonette born, American business executive and educator. In 1943, she became the first woman executive and first woman vice president at IBM, at the age of 27, one of the very few high-ranking women in corporate America. She had graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in political science in 1937. In 1939, she was hired to work at San Francisco’s Golden Gate International Exposition, demonstrating IBM typewriters. IBM then sent her for training in service system work, and she assigned to their Atlanta Georgia office. In 1940, she became a teacher for IBM’s Department of Education in Endicott New York, training women from all over the country in selling IBM products. Amonette was promoted to IBM Secretary of Education three months later. She became an IBM Vice President in 1943. In 1947, she contracted tuberculosis, and had to take a medical leave, but returned to work the same year. In addition to her work at IBM, she served on several boards, including the Camp Fire Girls, the New York Public Library, and the American Association of University Women. She retired in 1953 at the age of 37, and got married in 1954. She was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 1996. Her memoir, Among Equals, was published in 1999, the year that she died
- September 24, 1931 – Elizabeth Blackadder born, Scottish painter and printmaker; first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy, noted for still lifes and landscapes, and her very detailed later work, often featuring flowers and cats. Her artwork was selected for a Royal Mail stamp, and she appointed in 2001 as Her Majesty’s Painter and Limner in Scotland
- September 24, 1946 – Maria Teresa Ruiz born, Chilean astronomer; the first woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics at Princeton University, and the first Chilean woman to be awarded Chile’s National Prize for Exact Sciences, in 1997. Fellow of the Academy of Sciences since 1998
September 24, 1949 – Baleka Mbete born, South African politician; current Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa since 2014; Deputy President of South Africa (2008-2009); Chair of the African National Congress (ANC – 2007-2017); she was in exile from South Africa from 1976 to 1990, working for the ANC in other African countries. When she returned to South Africa, she was elected the secretary-general of the ANC Women’s League (1991-1993), then as an MP for the ANC in 1994, and appointed chair of te ANC parliamentary caucus (1995-1996), and was Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (1996-2004). Mbete also on Presidential Panel of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the ANC National Executive Committee, and the Pan-African Parliament
- September 24, 1962 – Nia Vardalos born in Canada, Canadian-American screenwriter, actress and producer of Greek descent; her biggest hit film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, was based on a one-woman play she wrote and starred in. She made her directorial debut with the independent feature film I Hate Valentine’s Day, and co-produced and starred in My Life in Ruins, the first U.S. production allowed to film at the Acropolis in Athens
- September 24, 1967 – Noreena Hertz born, English economist, academic, author and host of the British radio programme MegaHertz: London calling; since 2009, Professor and chair of Globalisation, Sustainability and Finance at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University; author of The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, IOU: The Debt Threat and Generation K
- September 24, 1969 – Shamim Sarif born in London to Indian parents who emigrated to the UK from South Africa; British novelist and filmmaker; author of novels The World Unseen, I Can’t Think Straight, and Despite the Falling Snow, also writing and directing their feature film adaptations; she is openly lesbian and describes I Can’t Think Straight as semi-auto biographical; in 2015 she and her long-time partner, producer Hanan Kattan, married at the Chelsea Registry Office
- September 24, 1985 – Eleanor Catton born in Canada, New Zealand novelist and short story writer; noted for The Rehearsal, which won a 2009 Orange Prize, and Luminaries, which won the high-profile Man Booker Prize(for best original English-language novel) in 2013, making her the youngest author, at age 28, ever to win the Booker
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- September 25, 1828 — Mutinous officers attempt to assassinate Simón Bolívar in Bogotá, but he is aided in escaping by his lover, Doña Manuela Sáenz, revolutionary and women’s rights activist
- September 25, 1844 – Sarah Bernhardt born, legendary French actress, manager, artistic director and star of the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris (1893-1899); first to impose a rule that ladies in the audience must remove their hats to avoid blocking the view of others
- September 25, 1906 – Phyllis Pearsall born, British portrait painter and mapmaker; she founded the Geographer’s A-Z Map Company in 1936, which produced popular detailed and indexed maps of London, because she frequently became lost when going to first appointments with new subjects. During WWII, selling maps was forbidden so she went to work for the Ministry of Information, and after the war, she had to have the new edition of A-Z maps printed in Amsterdam because of paper shortages in Great Britain. In 1966, she turned the Geographers’ A-Z Map Co. into a trust, ensuring it could never be bought out, and securing the future of the company and its employees. Through her donation of her shares to the trust, she was able to include her standards in the company’s statutes. She was active in the company, and painted prolifically, until her death from cancer in 1996, just a month before her 90th birthday
- September 25, 1937 – Mary Ellen Wilkes born, computer programmer, logic designer and attorney; she worked on the LINC computer in the 1960s, now considered the first minicomputer, and a forerunner to the PC. In 1972, she left the computer field to attend Harvard Law School, and became a trial lawyer in 1975, both in private practice and as head of the Economic Crime and Consumer Protection Division of the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. Wilkes taught in the Trial Advocacy Program at the Harvard Law School (1983-2011), and also was a judge for the school’s first- and second-year Ames (moot court) competition. In 2001, she became an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, primarily on cases involving computer science and information technology
- September 25, 1941 – Vivien Stern born, Baroness Stern of Vauxhall; crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords, appointed as a Life Peer in 1999; Secretary General of Penal Reform International (1989-2006); Director of NACRO, a national social justice charity in England and Wales (1977-1996); lecturer in education (1970-1977). Author of Bricks of Shame: Britain’s prisons, and a patron of the Prisoners’ Education Trust
- September 25, 1944 – Doris Okada Matsui born, American Democratic politician; U.S. Representative from California since March, 2005, originally elected to take her husband’s seat after his death from cancer in January, 2005. She was born in a WWII internment camp for Japanese Americans in Arizona, but her family returned to California after the war. Matsui was a volunteer for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, and then served on his transition team. She was appointed as deputy special assistant to the president and deputy director of public liaison (1993-1998), then to the board of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2000. She is pro-labor, pro-choice and pro-gay rights, and opposes any move to privatize Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid
- September 25, 1948 – Mimi Kennedy born, American actress and activist; best known for playing Dharma’s mother Abby on the TV sitcom Dharma & Greg; chair of the board of Progressive Democrats for America, a charter member of Artists United to Win Without War, and an advocate for human rights, the environment, and labor
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September 25, 1952 – bell hooks born as Gloria Jean Watkins, American author, feminist and social activist; she has published over 30 books addressing race, class, capitalism and gender; known for Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, and We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
- September 25, 1952 – Cherrie Moraga born, Chicana writer, poet, feminist activist, essayist and playwright; founding member of the social justice group La Red Xican Indigena, fighting for education, Indigenous and cultural rights; notable for This Bridge Called My Back (editor), and Heroes and Saints
- September 25, 1955 – Luanne Rice born, American novelist; noted for The Lemon Orchard, Little Night, The Silver Boat and Beach Girls
- September 25, 1964 – Rebecca Gablé born, German author of historical fiction and detective novels; Der König der purpurnen Stadt (The King of the Purple City)
- September 25, 1996 – The last of the Magdalene asylums closes in Ireland; after the discovery of a mass grave containing 155 corpses is discovered in 1993 on the grounds of one of the convents involved, a long investigation reveals abundant evidence of abusive practices; the Irish government issues a state apology in 2013, and sets up a ₤50 million compensation scheme for the survivors, to which the Catholic Church refuses to contribute
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- September 26, 1877 – Bertha De Vriese born, Belgian doctor. Girls in Belgium were not allowed even secondary education until 1864, and could not go on to higher education until 1876. In 1890, they were finally allowed to attend medical school, but only if they had a completion certificate for secondary schooling, or passed an equivalency test. De Vriese was home schooled, so she studied for and passed the equivalency test in 1893.
She was the first woman admitted to the medical school at Ghent University, first woman to do research there, and first woman to graduate, summa cum laude, with a diploma for medicine, obstetrics and gynecology in 1900. She was awarded 95 out of 100 points and a gold medal for a paper on blood vessels which she submitted for a university competition. After further studies abroad, she returned to Ghent in 1903, and applied for a position in the university’s lab, where she underwent a two-year training program as an assistant, and applied for an extension to complete her training, but was denied, in spite of glowing recommendations, ending her hopes for a career in research. After working in the pediatric ward at Ghent’s Bijloke Hospital, De Vriese opened a private pediatric clinic; she later became the Bijloke children’s ward director, and a public school medical inspector
- September 26, 1919 – Matilde Camus born, Spanish poet and non-fiction author, who wrote mainly about historical subjects
- September 26, 1946 – Louise “Weezie” Simonson born, American comic book writer and editor; honored with the Inkpot Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts in 1992
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September 26, 1949 – Minette Walters born, English crime and historical fiction author; noted for The Ice House, which won the 1992 John Creasey Award for best first novel from the Crime Writers’ Association, The Sculptress, which won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and The Scold’s Bride, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger
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September 26, 1961 – Marianne Mikko born, Estonian Social Democratic politician; Member of the Estonian Parliament since 2011, serving on the Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy; Member of the European Parliament (2004-2009), serving on the Committee on Culture and Education, and the Committee on Fisheries
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September 26, 2007 – The first World Contraception Day is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and numerous women’s health organizations, including Planned Parenthood
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- September 27, 1916 – Iyasu V is deposed as ruler of Ethiopia, and his aunt becomes Empress Zewditu, the first female head of an internationally recognized state in 20th century Africa, and the last Empress regnant to date
- September 27, 1939 – Carol Lynn Pearson born, American poet, author, screenwriter and playwright. A fourth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, she is best known for her memoir, Goodbye, I Love You, about her marriage to Gerald Neils Pearson, a gay man who died of AIDS. They were both devout Mormons, and he told her while they were engaged that he had engaged in sexual relationships with men, but had left that ‘phase’ of his life behind. Mormon authorities assured the couple that marriage would turn him into a heterosexual, but after 12 years of marriage and four children, they separated and then divorced in 1978. When he was being diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, he returned to live with his ex-wife and children, and she cared for him until his death. Since then, Pearson has been an unofficial spokesperson for acceptance of gay people by their Mormon families, and for a stronger leadership role for women in the Mormon community
- September 27, 1966 – Stephanie D. Wilson born, American aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut; second African American woman in space
- September 27, 1981 – Sophie Crumb born in the U.S., American-French comics artist who has lived most of her life in France since age 9. Best known for her Belly Button comix
- September 27, 1991 – The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocks, 7-7, on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court
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- September 28, 1852 – Isis Pogson born, British astronomer and meteorologist; in 1860, her father became director of the Madras Observatory in India, and his wife and three youngest of their 11 children went with him. Isis was eight. When her mother died in 1869, she took over running the household, but also became her father’s assistant, then in 1873 she was raised to the post of computer (originally, ‘computers’ were human mathematical calculators) with a salary of 150 rupees, about what a cook or coach-man would make. She worked there for 25 years, also serving as the meteorological superintendent and reporter for the Madras government from 1881 until the observatory was closed in 1898, and she was given a pension of 250 rupees. In 1902, she married a captain in the Merchant Navy, and thet moved back to England. Pogson was the first woman to be nominated for election in 1886 by her father as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (a few women had been made honorary fellows before this). He had to withdraw her nomination when two attorneys declared that female fellows were illegal under the provisions of the society’s royal charter dating from 1831, which always referred to fellows as he. She finally did become a fellow when Oxford professor H.H. Turner nominated her in 1920, five years after the society received a Supplemental Charter in 1915 which opened up fellowships to women
- September 28, 1890 – Florence Violet McKenzie born, ‘Mrs. Mac’ – Australia’s first woman engineer and lifelong advocate for technical education for women. McKensie set up her own electrical contracting business in 1918, then apprenticed herself to it, in order to meet the requirements for a Diploma in Electrical Engineering at Sydney Technical College. She was the first Australian woman to take out an amateur radio operator’s license in 1922 and started The Wireless Weekly the same year. Her Wireless Shop became renowned among Sydney’s radio hobbyists and experimenters. In 1934, she founded the Electrical Association for Women, and wrote the first “all-electric” cookbook in 1936. McKenzie was the founder of the Women’s Emergency Signaling Corps (WESC),. She campaigned successfully for some of her trainees to be accepted into the Navy. In 1941, fourteen members of her civilian WESC became the first recruits for wireless telegraphy in the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) at the Canberra Transmitting Station. Over the course of the war, over 3,000 women served in the WRANS. McKenzie trained countless men and women in wireless transmission and Morse Code during the war, and continued training men from the merchant navy, commercial airline pilots and anybody else who needed a “signaller’s ticket.” She ran the only school for wireless training in Sydney, and never charged tuition. She was appointed in 1950 as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work with WESC, and elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Navigation in 1957
- September 28, 1900 – Isabel Pell born, American who was awarded the French Légion d’honneur for her four years with the Maquis (rural resistance fighters, often in the mountains), using the name “Fredericka.” She was captured by Italian soldiers and interned at Puget-Theniers, but smuggled out information until she was released. She disguised herself as a peasant, and continued working with the Maquis. In 1944, she led a group of American soldiers trapped by the enemy in the town of Tanaron to safety
- September 28, 1937 – Alice Mahon born, British Labour Party MP for Halifax (1987-2005); trade unionist and member of the Socialist Campaign Group; activist for peace, women’s rights (especially abortion) and gay rights; resigned in 2009 from the Labour Party in protest of major changes in party policies, including shutting out dissenting voices within the party, Britain’s involvement in the disastrous “War on Terror” and the party breaking a campaign promise not to privatize the Royal Mail
- September 28, 1944 – Marcia Muller born, American mystery and thriller novelist; notable for her Sharon McCone private detective series. She was honored with the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master award in 2005
- September 28, 1947 – Rhonda Hughes born, American mathematician and academic; Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College since 2011; Chair of the Bryn Mawr Mathematics Department (1980-2011); co-founder of the EDGE Program (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education) in 1998, a mentoring program to assist women in transitioning into graduate studies in mathematical sciences
- September 28, 1950 – Christina Hoff Sommers born, controversial American author and philosopher, noted for her critique of contemporary feminism in such books as Who Stole Feminism?, in which she claims many feminists today are part of “victim feminism” with an “irrational” hostility to men, and an “inability to take seriously the possibility that the sexes are equal but different.”
- September 28, 1954 – Margot Wallström born, Swedish Social Democratic politician; Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2014; UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict (2010-2012); Vice President of the European Commission (2004-2010)
- September 28, 1955 – Mercy Manci born, South African Xhosa sangoma (traditional healers who are diviners – the herbalists are called inyanga) who was taught by her grandmother, and is an HIV activist. As a teenager, she was the victim of a bride kidnapping by a family who wanted to avoid the lengthy negotiations over the lobola (bride price). No longer a virgin, she could not go home, and the marriage became official when the kidnappers paid four cows. She has one daughter from this marriage. While her husband went to work in the mines, she studied nursing through a correspondence course. When he came home, her husband burned her books and destroyed the typewriter she bought. After he discovered she was taking contraceptives behind his back, he disowned her, to be sent back to her family, but she went to Johannesburg instead, and got a job as a Doctor’s assistant. She founded Nyangazeziswe (Healers of the Nation), an organisation dealing with African traditional healing and HIV. She gives workshops for other traditional healers in the Eastern Cape, but also internationally, focusing on preventing HIV by teaching how to use condoms and how HIV is transmitted
- September 28, 1956 – Martha Fandiño Pinilla born in Columbia with Columbian and Italian dual citizenship, mathematician and author, noted for her work analyzing mathematical learning problems and the effectiveness of teaching methods
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- September 29, 1882 – Lilias Armstrong born, English phonetician, reader at University College London, known for her work on English intonation, and pioneering studies of the phonetics and tone of Somali and Kikuyu; co-author with Ida C. Ward of Handbook of English Intonation, a classic which remained in print for over 50 years, and author of A Burmese Phonetic Reader, The Phonetic Structure of Somali and The Phonetic and Tonal Structure of Kikuyu
- September 29, 1955 – Ann Bancroft born, American author, wilderness instructor and explorer, teacher and public speaker; first woman to cross both the North and South Poles, and has been on a source-to-sea expedition on the Ganges River, and the first east-west crossing of Greenland. Bancroft is an openly gay advocate for LGBT rights. Inducted into the U.S. National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005
- September 29, 1961 – Julia Gillard born, Australian Labor Party politician, who served a difficult and tumultuous term as the first woman Prime Minister of Australia (2010-2013); the first Australian woman to hold the positions of Deputy Prime Minister, Prime Minister and leader of a major party; leader of the Labor Party (2010-2013); Deputy Prime Minister (2007-2010); member of the House of Representatives (1998-2007)
- September 29, 1961 – Stephanie Miller born, American comedian and host of the liberal talk radio program, The Stephanie Miller Show, since 2004
- September 29, 1989 – Fatima Lodhi born, Pakistani social activist against Colorism, the prejudice and discrimination against people with darker skin and viewing lighter skin as a standard of attractiveness, especially in women; she launched a campaign with the slogan 'Dark Is Divine' which has garnered international attention
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- September 30, 1929 – Carol Fenner born, American children’s author and illustrator; noted for Yolanda’s Genius, Gorilla-Gorilla and The Skates of Uncle Edward, which won an honor from the Coretta Scott King Awards
- September 30, 1929 – Leticia Ramos-Shahani born, Filipina diplomat, and politician; President Pro Tempore of the Senate (1993-1996); Philippines Senator (1987-1998); UN Assistant Secretary-General for Social and Humanitarian Affairs (1985-1987); Secretary-General of the 1985 World Conference on the UN Decade of Women in Nairobi Kenya; Philippine Ambassador to Australia (1981-1985)
September 30, 1950 – Laura Esquivel born, Mexican novelist, screenwriter and Morena Party politician; served in the Chamber of Deputies (2012-2018); author of the bestseller Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
- September 30, 1960 – Julia Adamson born in Canada, British musician, composer, and founder-manager of Invisiblegirl Records and Invisible Girl Music Publishing
- September 30, 1960 – Nicola Griffith born in England, British-American novelist, essayist and short story writer; her first novel, Ammonite, won the 1993 James Tiptree, Jr and Lambda Awards, and Slow River won the 1997 Nebula Award for best novel
- September 30, 1960 – Blanche Lincoln born, American Democratic politician; U.S. Senator from Arkansas (1999-2011); Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the first district of Arkansas (1993-1997)
- September 30, 1967 – Emmanuelle Houdart born in Switzerland, living in Paris, Swiss artist, illustrator, costume and textile designer, and author; contributor to French newspapers and magazines, including Libération and Le Monde
- September 30, 1981 – Cecelia Ahearn born, Irish novelist whose books have sold over 25 million copies; noted for P.S. I Love You, and Where Rainbows End, which won the 2005 Corine Award; she was the co-creator of the TV series Samantha Who?, which starred Christina Applegate (2007-2009)
- September 30, 1985 – Téa Obreht born in Serbia, spent her childhood in Cyprus and Egypt; her family immigrated to the U.S. in 1997; Serbian-American novelist and short story writer; her debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction
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SOURCES