March 7
/Women peacemakers born today
1889 Lula Vollmer born Keyser, NC (d. 1955). Broadway actress and playwright. Appalachian folk play “Sun-up” (1923) promotes nonviolence.
1911 Gertrud Lutz Fankhauser born Rechthalten, Fribourg, Switzerland (d. 1995). Swiss humanitarian. Helped rescue over 60,000 Jews in Hungary, 1942-45. Served as first head of UNICEF Poland, 1949-51; UNICEF Brazil, 1951-65; Turkey, 1965-66.
1924 Jo Bristah born Moulmein, Burma (d. 2011). Daughter of missionaries. Founded the second American peace studio, the Swords into Plowshares (SIP) Peace Center, Detroit, 1985.
1925 Trude Unruh born Essen, Germany. Co-founder of the Green Party, supporting the environment, human rights, a nuclear-free Europe, and friendship with East Germany, 1978. Member of German Parliament, representing the Grey Panther Party, 1987-90.
1971 Rachel Weisz born London, England. British actress. Supporter of World Food Program.
1998 Amanda Gorman born Los Angeles, California. American poet and activist whose work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology.
Women's peacemaking on this day
1870 First Women’s Suffrage Demonstration in Massachusetts, by Grimké sisters during a snowstorm in Hyde Park.
1962 Women’s Day for Peace celebrated in United Kingdom by peace organization Voice of Women, organized by Judith Cook.
1965 First Selma March, taking inspiration from the actions of Diane Nash.
1996 500 Guatemalan women marched on the National Palace in protest of violence against women.
2006 In Maputo, Mozambique, Spanish Vice President Maria Teresa Fernández De La Vega addressed International Women’s Day first forum "Spain-Africa: Women for a better world."
2011 75 Boston women protested at Massachusetts State House. "BRING OUR WAR $$ HOME"
2017 Susan Crane, Allison McGilivray, and Mary Jane Parrine were arrested for blocking gate to submarine base with sign “ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS”, Bangor, WA.