February 22

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1875 Mary Barbour born Kilbarchan, Scotland (d. 1958). Labor organizer; pacifist; birth control advocate for married women. Organized "Mrs. Barbour's Army," comprising tens of thousands of women in nonviolent rent strike in Glasgow, 1916; founded Scottish branch of International League and Women's Peace Crusade protesting World War I, 1916. Established the Women's Welfare and Advisory Clinic, Glasgow's first family planning center, 1925.

  • 1898 Thillaiyadi Valliammai born Thilliayadi, Tamilnadu, India (d. 1914). Satyagrahi martyr. Activist against South African apartheid policies. Arrested and sentenced to 3 months hard labor, 1913; died shortly after release on her 16th birthday.

  • 1900 Meridel Le Sueur born Murray, IA (d. 1996). Socialist; feminist; author and poet; defender of poor and Native Americans.

  • 1975 Drew Barrymore born Culver City, CA. American actress, producer, and director. World Food Program Ambassador against Hunger, 2007.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1297 St. Margaret of Cortona's feast day, the day of her death. Franciscan Tertiary who settled local quarrels and condemned militarism of Bishop of Arezzo.

  • 1899 Celebration of Alliance of Women for Peace, Paris.

  • 1914 Valliamah Moonsamy Mudaliar, first Satyagrahi martyr, died at the age of 16 from fever caught in Johannesburg jail where she was sentenced for her nonviolent protest of pass laws.

  • 1944 Kasturba Gandhi died of a heart attack while under British captivity.

  • 1943 In Munich, Sophie Scholl executed by Nazis for resistance.

  • 1955 First meeting of Golders Green, Vera Leff, Marion Clayton, Agnes Simpson and three others, leading to eventual founding of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

  • 1967 Barbara Garson’s anti-Vietnam play "MacBird!" opened in Berkeley, California.

  • 1983 Greenham Women swamped Newbury courthouse.

  • 1986 Phillippine People Power Revolution begins with civil disobedience in Manila.

  • 1995 Helen John sentenced to six months imprisonment for breaking 13 windows at RAF Menwith Hill base.

  • 2001 First conviction for war crime of sexual slavery: UN Tribunal Judge Florence Mumba convicted three Bosnian Serbs for crimes of mass rape committed at Foča, 1992.