“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”
#OnThisDay, 19 May 1952, Lillian Hellman writes to the House of UnAmerican Activities refusing to testify against others.
In the 1940s, Hellman had been twice nominated for an Academy Award for her screenplays. As a result of refusing to testify about others to HUAC, she was blacklisted by Hollywood.
Robertine Barry: Canada's Feminist Pioneer
Robertine Barry, writing under the name 'Françoise,' became one of Quebec’s first female journalists in the 1890s. A bold advocate for women's education and suffrage, she used her pen to champion social justice and amplify women's voices in public life. 
#Canada #WomensHistory #Quebec #RobertineBarry
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robertine-barry-francoise
#OnThisDay, 18 May 1991, cosmonaut Helen Sharman becomes the first British person in space.
#OnThisDay, 18 May 1953, pilot Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
#OnThisDay, 18 May 1893, Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia spoke at the Kotahitanga (Māori parliament) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She was the first woman to address the Kotahitanga, and called for Māori women to have the vote and to be members of the parliament.
![A visiting card by F W Mason with a photo of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia. She is a Māori woman in a dark fitted jacket with a pale bow at her neck. Her hair is in a plaited bun.
Image credit: Mason, Frederick W., photographer. [Copy of Portrait of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia]. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-NEG-C5101.](https://media.mstdn.social/media_attachments/files/114/526/126/151/443/372/original/cf6964fdd03cec18.webp "A visiting card by F W Mason with a photo of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia. She is a Māori woman in a dark fitted jacket with a pale bow at her neck. Her hair is in a plaited bun.
Image credit: Mason, Frederick W., photographer. [Copy of Portrait of Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia]. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira. PH-NEG-C5101.")
#OnThisDay, 17 May 1988, Dr Patricia Bath was awarded the first of her three patents on the methods and equipment for laser cataract removal.
17 May is Día das Letras Galegas (Galician Literature Day).
#OnThisDay, 17 May 1863, María Rosalía Rita de Castro's poetry is published. It’s the first publication by a single author in Galician for 400 years. The public holiday was introduced to celebrate the centenary of Rosalia de Castro's work.
#OnThisDay, 17 May 1841, Sarah Losh and her fellow trustees lay the foundation stone of Wreay Church. Sarah designed, funded and had the earliest Romanesque revival church in England built.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Architecture #Histodons
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#OnThisDay, 16 May 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei reaches the summit of Everest. She is the first woman to make it to the peak of the world's highest mountain.
#OnThisDay, 15 May 1991, Edith Cresson is appointed Prime Minister of France. She is the first woman to hold the post.
#OnThisDay, 15 May 1946, Camilla Williams makes her operatic debut as Cio-Cio San with the New York City Opera. She is the first Black woman to sign a contract with a major US opera company.
Read more: https://carvehername.org.uk/eight-famous-women-singers/
#OnThisDay, 14 May 1943, Vera Leigh returns to France to work as a courier for the British Special Operations Executive.
A fashion designer, Leigh had fled France in 1942 after running escape lines for Allied airmen.
After her return, Leigh carried documents and equipment such as guns and explosives around her network's area. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, she was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
“Mrs Dalloway is always giving parties to cover the silence.”
#OnThisDay, 14 May 1925, Virginia Woolf publishes Mrs Dalloway.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #LiteraryWomen #Histodons
(Affiliate link: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15351/9781784870867)
#OnThisDay, 13 May 1995, Alison Hargreaves becomes the first woman to scale Everest without supplemental oxygen or sherpa guides.
#OnThisDay, 12 May 1743, Maria Theresa Habsburg is crowned Queen of Bohemia and consolidates her position as the ruler of the Austrian empire. The Seven Year War was promoted by rival claims to the empire, and she worked to elevate her husband to be Holy Roman Emperor. After his death she co-ruled with her son.
She sponsored trials of smallpox inoculation, having lost three of her children to the disease.
#OnThisDay, 11 May 1978, Margaret Brewer becomes the first woman to reach the rank of General in the US Marines.
#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.
