January 5

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1807 Elizabeth Pease Nichol born Darlington, England (d. 1897). Quaker; suffragist; leading British abolitionist; Chartist. Criticized Britain's policy in India.

  • 1835 Olympia Brown born Prairie Ronde, MI (d. 1926). Universalist minister; suffragist; member of WILPF.

  • 1861 Mary “Maikki” Friberg born Kankaanpäå, Finland (d. 1927). Finnish feminist author, teacher, and peacemaker. One of first 19 women elected to Finnish Parliament, 1907. Co-founded Peace Union, 1920; founded Finnish WILPF, 1926.

  • 1878 Nelly Roussel born Paris, France (d. 1922). Anarchist; pacifist; free thinker. Spoke on birth control and population growth.

  • 1893 Sybil Morrison (d. 1994). Pacifist; feminist; lesbian; chair of British WILPF. Jailed 6 months for opposing war, 1940; released book entitled I Renounce War, 1962.

  • 1932 Raisa Gorbachev born Rubtsovsk, Siberia (d. 1999). Russian first lady, 1988-1991; delivered commencement speech at Wellesley College on women's role in society, 1990.

  • 1947 Saskia Sassen born The Hague, Netherlands. Dutch-American sociology professor and authority on globalization of cities.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1916 Helen Keller delivered a speech entitled "Strike Against War" at Carnegie Hall for the Women's Peace Party.

  • 1919 Re-arrested and sentenced 10 days for Watchfire protest, four suffragettes began fasting.

  • 1992 UNICEF pediatrician Dr. Martinka Pumplova murdered in Bosasa, Somalia.