07-01 TABLE of CONTENTS: DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTES Posted 1999 07-01 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS Event 07-01-1968: On this date, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court voided the Muncy Law that REQUIRED women to serve longer prison terms - often 2.5 times longer - than men who are convicted of the same crime. The successful appeal was handled by attorneys of the National Organization for Women. More recently, a number of states including New York and California have made studies ordered by their supreme courts and found that women are still sentenced to longer terms for the *same* crimes as men. The practice is said to be pervasive. (Paula C. Johnson provided this citation: Carolyn Engel Temin, Discriminatory Sentencing of Women Offenders: The Argument for ERA in a Nutshell, 11 Amer. Crim. L. Rev. 355 (1973).) B. 07-01-1776, Sophie Gay, French novelist who was said to live a notorious life which in those days when women's conduct was so structured that such an accusation could have been caused by anything from a romantic affair to wearing the wrong colored dress. B. 07-01-1804, George Sand, French novelist whose fame continues into the 21st century. Her first novel Indiana_ (1832) was somewhat autobiographical as she complains of social conventions that tie a woman to a husband and describes the joy when she abandons him and finds true love elsewhere. Her best novels were of life in the French countryside. She had a number of lovers including the Polish composer Fr‚d‚ric Chopin. B. 07-01-1814, Ade(\e) Parmentier Bayer, U.S. pioneer Catholic welfare worker. B. 07-01-1850, Florence Van Leer Nicholson Coates, U.S. poet chosen poet laureate of Pennsylvania. Event 07-01-1851: an Iowa law went into effect that barred women, white or black, or black men from becoming lawyers by using the term "any white male person." The "white male" term was replaced by "he or she" in 1870. Event 07-01-1857: Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, graduated three women as the first non-sectarian college to grant women equal degrees with men. Event 07-01-1872: An Illinois law went into effect that stated "no person shall be precluded or debarred from any occupation orbemployment (except military) on account of sex, provided that this act shall not be construed to affect the eligibility of any person to an elective office. Nothing in this act shall be construed as requiring any female to work on streets or roads, or serve on juries." It opened the door for women to become doctors and lawyers. B. 07-01-1876, Susan Keating Glaspell, U.S. novelist and playwright who won the 1930 Pulitzer prize for her play Allison's House. She wrote no further plays but continued to write novels that examined women's struggles with biology, conservative mores, and other influences on her freedom and happiness. Her early stories were steeped in the Iowa of her childhood and after the success of her first novel, she resettled in New York, married a wealthy home-town boy and lived and romped in Greenwich Village. The bulk of her noteworthy writing was done after his death in 1924. She remarried briefly. B. 07-01-1899, Doris Livesey Reynolds, English geologist B. 07-01-1903, Irna Phillips, U.S. radio script writer who developed the genre of the radio and TV soap opera. Starting with a ten-minute drama on a Chicago radio station (it tried to block her further progress), in 1932 she sold a similar program to the networks and the Queen of the Soaps was on her way. She wrote a dozen different shows and by 1943 she had five daily shows going at one time including the enduring Guiding Light, hiring a staff of writers for the daily scripting. When TV destroyed the careers of so many writers, IP moved easily into the format starting with Guiding Light (1952), As the World Turns (1956), and Days of Our Lives (1965), the most famous radio and TV soap operas of history. Her writing was superior and many have mourned the passing of her higher standards. B. 07-01-1904, Mary Calderone, U.S. physician and author, pioneer in sex education in schools; medical director of Planned Parenthood - World Population, and cofounder and medical director of Sex Information and Education Council of U.S. (SIECUS) which emphasizes educational material about sex for young people. She was noted as one of the 50 most influential women in America and received 12 honorary degress for her distinquished service to humanity. She wrote Manual of Family Planning and Contraceptive Practice. B. 07-01-1908, Este Lauder, learned sales at the family hardware store, was introduced to beauty products by her uncle, a skin specialist from whom she learned to manufacture and develop skin creams. She started by giving free demonstrations and a small gift to customers. As her business burgeoned, she divorced and later remarried her former husband who agreed to run the factory which produced the Lauder beauty products while she did the promotions, marketing, and sales. She personally opened all Lauder outlets and hired the staff which was to reflect her standards of physical attractiveness as well as a balanced personality. B. 07-01-1913, Jo Sinclair - U.S. novelist. Her first novel Wasteland won the $10,000 Harper & Brothers prize for the best study of an aspect of U.S. life. (Cleveland) Sinclair was the pen name of Ruth Seid, daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, and was raised in abject poverty. B. 07-01-1915, Jean Stafford, U.S. novelist and short story writer, won 1970 Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Stories. She was noted for character development. B. 07-01-1916, Olivia De Havilland, U.S. actor won Academy Awards for her work in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). However, she is probably best known for her role as Melanie in Gone With the Wind (1939). Her suit against a contract she had signed as a beginning actor broke the film studios lifetime monopoly on contract actors. It limited acting contracts to seven years (including suspensions). Her sister was Joan Fontaine (10-22-1917) who also won an Academy Award. The sisters were never friendly. B. 07-01-1931, Leslie Caron, French actor/dancer best known for her roles in An U.S. in Paris (1951), and Gigi (1958). She received Academy Award nominations for Lili (1953) and The L-Shaped Room (1963). Her dancing scene with Gene Kelly in An U.S. in Paris (1951) is one of the most replayed sequences in film history. B. 07-01-1934, Jean Marsh, British actor best known for her role in TV's long running PBS series Upstairs-Downstairs. B. 07-01-1941, Twyla Tharp, U.S. dancer and choreographer of tremendous ingenuity and talent. A major innovator in dance, TT combined tap, ballet, jazz, and social dancing in choreographing much acclaimed ballets, musical products, Broadway, and Hollywood films. She was much admired as a dancer. B. 07-01-1942, Genevieve Bujold, U.S. actor. A noted crafter of her art, she may be most known for the role she turned down, that of Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager in the long running Star Trek series. B. 07-01-1942 Karen Black, U.S. actor. B. 07-01-1948, Maria Cuevas, one of the founders of the National Women's History Project. Event 07-01-1954: the social security reform that allows women to retire and receive benefits at age 62 takes effect. Men still had to wait until 65 but that would be change shortly. B. 07-01-1958, Nancy Lieberman-Cline, U.S. basketball player who led her college team to two national titles, played on two U.S. Olympic teams, played on men's professional teams, organized women's leagues, and at 40 was an active player with the Women's National Basketball league. In 1999 she becomes the coach in the WNBA for the Detroit team. B. 07-01-1961, Kalpana Chawla, U.S. astronaut born in India. Her parents still reside in New Delhi. She, like all women astronauts, KC holds a Ph.D. B. 07-01-1961, Diane, Princess of Wales, who following her divorce from Britain's Prince Charles, became a worldwide spokesperson for many charities and causes including the banning of land mines and AIDS. She died tragically in an automobile accident and her funeral in 1998 was televised worldwide in an unprecedented wave of grief. She was hounded by the paparrazi and her death was fully attributed to them, as her brother said, "she was the most hunted woman on the face of this earth." B. 07-01-1967 Pamela Anderson, U.S. poster-girl for implants, Event 07-01-1970: New York City adopted a law that allowed abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. B. 07-01-1977 Liv Tyler - U.S. actor. If you haven't seen LT in Cookie's Fortune (1966) you have missed one of her greatest character roles. Event: 07-01-1984, the men of Liechtenstein become the last men in Europe to remove barriers which prevented women from voting. . | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR WEIL, SIMONE       "The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes."             --Simone Weil, The Need for Roots (1952). CLINTON, HILLARY RODHAM       "If you are under 25, you are an apathetic Generation X-er. If you are over 40, you are an indulgent baby boomer. If you are a liberal, you are a bleeding heart. If you are a conservative, you have no heart. If you are a Democratic president from Arkansas, you are accused of being all of the above depending on what day it is, and if you are the wife of the Democratic president from Arkansas, you have to worry about your hair a lot."             -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton discussing the subject "pigeonholing" during a college commencement speech, May, 1996. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |