April 30

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1881 Heloise Brainerd born Wallingford, VT (d. 1969). Bilingual Latin American expert; semi-official envoy with Pan American Union, 1909-35.

  • 1899 Margaret Konantz (née Rogers) born Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (d. 1967). Canadian internationalist politician. As delegate to UN General Assembly Third Committee on Social Affairs, worked on resolution against racism, 1963; UN Assembly, 1965. Liberal member of Parliament, 1963-65. Chair of UNICEF Canada, 1965-67.

  • 1909 Juliana of the Netherlands born The Hague (d. 2004). Queen, 1948-1980. As queen, ended war in Dutch East Indies and granted Indonesia independence.

  • 1944 Jill Clayburgh born Manhattan, NY (d. 2010). Actress; co-founder Performers and Artists for Nuclear Disarmament (PAND) New York 1982.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1380 Death and traditional feast day of peacemaker St. Catherine of Siena.

  • 1899 In Chicago, Jane Addams delivered her first public antiwar speech, “Democracy and Militarism.”

  • 1915 Close of International Conference of Women at the Hague, with resolution to send women delegates to war leaders.

  • 1917 In Philadelphia, Anna Walton, Arabella Carter, and Lucy Biddle Lewis founded the American Friends Service Committee, with Rebecca Carter as first paid staff member.

  • 1945 Ravensbrűck Women's Concentration Camp liberated.

  • 1977 In Buenos Aires, the Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo began their first protest.

  • 1987 Led by Blanca Yàňez Berrias, 200 Chilean Woman stage a 10 minute relampago ("lightning action") sit-in against Pinochet Antofogasta.

  • 1998 Bougainville women had major role in Arawa Peace Agreement ending decade-long war.

  • 2003 Actress Alexandra Paul arrested in Los Angeles for second civil disobedience against Iraq War, bearing sign: "SHOCKing and AWEful."

  • 2008 1000 Peruvian women protested outside congress against high food prices.

  • 2009 Kenyan women declared 7-day sex strike against national violence.

  • 2012 Medea Benjamin removed from John Brennan’s speech on ethics of drone warfare at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC, saying, “I love the rule of law and I love my country. You are making us less safe by killing so many innocent people. Shame on you, John Brennan.”

  • 2014 Several hundred Nigerian women marched in rain to the capital city of Abuja to protest abduction of 275 girls.