August 28

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1662 Maria Aurora Konigsmarck born Stade, Sweden (d. 1728). Famous German courtesan/diplomat who rescued disappeared brother on mission to Courland 1702. Musician and Countess.

  • 1882 Lucy Jennings Dickinson born Winchester, NH (d. 1973). One of five US official women consultants at UN Charter conference San Francisco 1945; promoted UN as president of General Federation of Women's Clubs.

  • 1888 Evadne Price (née Eva Grace Price) born Merewether, NSW, Australia (d. 1985). Australian British writer. Under pseudonym of Helen Zenne Smith, published novel Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War antiwar novel based on memoir of Winifred Young, ambulance driver in WWI, 1930.

  • 1913 Rosamond Carr (née Halsey) born South Orange, NJ (d. 2006). Humanitarian. Returned to Rwanda after evacuation to found Imbabzi ("a place where you will find all the love a mother would give.") orphanage for 300 children after Rwanda genocide 1994.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1854 Fredrika Bremer's "Appeal to the Women of the World" against criminal war in London Times.

  • 1913 Peace Palace at The Hague dedicated by Queen Wilhelmina.

  • 1963 Mahalia Jackson called to Martin Luther King Jr. "Tell them about the dream!" at Lincoln Memorial.

  • 1976 Irish Peace People rallied 60,000 in Belfast and Dublin.

  • 1981 Greenham Women protested US base at Caerwent, Wales.

  • 2003 Eleventh International Conference of Women in Black, Marina di Massa, Italy. "Let us dare to make peace, let us disarm the world.”