March 1

Women peacemakers born today

• 1774 Magdalene of Canossa born Verona, Italy (d. 1835). Catholic nun; advocate for the poor; nonviolent activist. Canonized by Catholic church, 1988.

• 1918 Marie Louise Berneri born Arezzo, Italy (d. 1949). Italian philosopher; writer and editor on anarchism; author of Journey Through Utopia.

• 1930 Kemi Ogunsanya born Lagos, Nigeria. Conflict prevention and mitigation adviser at African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD).

• 1946 Lijon Eknilang born Rongelap, Marshall Islands (d. 2012). International advocate against nuclear weapons; victim of hydrogen bomb testing; suffered eight miscarriages. Testified at World Court, 1995.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1912 Suffragists broke windows of London shops.

• 1915 Aletta Jacobs of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance published “A Call to Women of All Nations” in Jus Suffragii as an invitation to attend the Hague Women's Peace Congress, leading to the founding of WILPF.

• 1981 German Women for Peace organized against atomic weapons.

• 1982 First Greenham Common Protest. The protest movement later became exclusively female.

• 1987 Three women appointed Undersecretaries of UN: Nafis Sadik, head of UN Population Fund; Therese Paquet-Sevigny, head of UN public info (DPI); Margaret Anstee, head of UN office in Vienna.

• 1991 Women for Peace protested the militarism of Belgrad and Ljubjana.

• 1994 Benita Ferrero-Waldner appointed first female UN Chief of Protocol.

• 2001 Singer Joyce Katzberg and her daughter sentenced for antiwar protest at Newport Naval College.

• 2009 Melbourne Women in Black held protest against all forms of violence. "When it comes to war and violence, women are the voice of reason."

• 2012 Three women arrested in Glasgow for painting recruiting office windows with the phrase "No to War."

March 2

Women peacemakers born today

• 1897 Shidzue Kato born Tokyo, Japan (d. 2001). Leading Japanese feminist and birth control advocate. Imprisoned 1937; socialist member of Japanese Diet, 1946-74; worked for Japanese apology for WWII.

• 1930 Pat Arrowsmith born Leamington Spa, England. British author and poet. Peace activist with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; jailed 11 times, 1958-85. Organized first Aldermaston March, 1958; ran as peace candidate for Parliament, 1970, 1979.

• 1939 Desiree Bernard born Georgetown, Guyana. International lawyer. First female judge of Supreme Court of Guyana, 1980; first female Chief Justice of Guyana, 1996; appointed to Caribbean Court of Justice, 2005.

• 1945 Thoraya Obaid born Baghdad, Iraq. Saudi Arabian Director of UN Population Fund, 2001-10. Began first women’s development program in Western Asia, 1975.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1914 Hull House co-founder Ellen Gates Starr arrested in Chicago for protecting striking waitress.

• 1945 Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, at age 15.

• 1955 First Bus Boycott took place in Montgomery, Alabama; Claudette Colvin arrested for protest.

• 1989 Betsy Corner and Randy Kehler received IRS notice of seizure of their Colrain, MA house for tax refusal.

• 1998 Louise Fréchette of Canada appointed first UN Deputy Secretary General.

• 2012 Global Women’s Peace Initiative celebrated 10th anniversary Nairobi.

• 2012 In San José del Golfo, Guatemala, Estela Reyes parked her car along the road, blocking machinery from entering a new mining site and creating the La Puya roadblock, which would remain for two years.

March 3

Women peacemakers born today

• 1881 Dorothy Buxton born Ellesmere, Shropshire, England (d. 1963). British humanitarian; Christian Socialist; Quaker pacifist. WILPF founding member; denied exit to Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915.

• 1884 Rachel Crowdy-Thornhill born Paddington, London (d. 1964). Internationalist; poet. Highest ranking woman in League of Nations Secretariat, 1919-1932.

• 1893 Beatrice Wood born San Francisco, CA (d. 1998). “Mama of Dada.” American avant-garde artist and potter; theosophist.

• 1895 Gladdys Muir born MacPherson, KS (d. 1967). Taught the first Peace Studies course in America at Manchester College, 1947.

• 1904 Helen Morgan Brooks born Reading, PA (d. 1989). Quaker poet; activist.

• 1924 Ruth Hubbard born Vienna, Austria (d. 2016). Biochemistry professor at Harvard and Woods Hole Institute. Peace activist for over 40 years with husband George Wald, opposing Vietnam War and the arms race.

• 1939 Thérèse Paquet-Sévigny born Quebec, Canada. Canadian journalist. First female UN Undersecretary, for Public Information, 1987-91.

• 1974 Ada Colau born Barcelona, Spain. Catalan activist, social reformer & politician. Organized protest against Iraq War; led nonviolent protests against housing evictions. Elected mayor of Barcelona, 2015.

• 1982 Jessica Biel born Ely, MN. Actress. Climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to publicize UN Foundation’s Girl Up program and its focus on the global water crisis, 2010; paired with Shanoah Washington against gang violence at TeenNick HALO Awards, 2011; supporter of UN refugee program.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1913 50,00 women marched to the White House on the First Great March on Washington DC, led by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns.

• 1975 Martha Tranquilli freed after serving nine months imprisonment for tax refusal.

• 1991 One Million Signatures campaign for Moroccan women’s rights.

• 1998 Four female protesters arrested at Clyde Naval Base after one of the first international weapons inspections.

• 2003 As part of the Lysistrata Project, 1,029 theaters worldwide staged performances of the Greek play "Lysistrata" in protest of the American invasion of Iraq.

• 2004 Solidarity with Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (SOWFI) founded by Jennifer Fasulo.

• 2011 Aya Virginie Toure led 15,000 women in black peaceful protest against coup, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

• 2011 In Abobo, Cote d'Ivoire, seven women were killed in a women's protest against Gbagbo led by Sirah Drane.

• 2012 In Machu, Tibet, 20-year-old school student Tsering Kyi immolated herself. "We should do something for Tibet—life is meaningless if we don’t do something for Tibet."

• 2016 Assassination of indigenous organizer Berta Cáceres, La Esperanza, Intibuca, Honduras. “Let us wake up, humankind. . . Our Mother Earth, militarized, fenced-in, poisoned, a place where basic rights are systematically violated, demands that we take action.”

March 4

Women peacemakers born today

• 1815 Myrtilla Miner born Brookfield, NY (d. 1864). Pioneer of nonviolent resistance; abolitionist; educator. Founded first normal school for African-Americans in Washington DC in the face of threats to burn it down, 1851.

• 1875 Suze Groeneweg born Strijensas, South Holland (d. 1940). Dutch teacher and politician; suffragist leader; pacifist, anti-militarist, disarmament advocate. First woman in Dutch parliament, 1918; served 20 years as Socialist.

• 1932 Miriam Makeba born Johannesburg, South Africa (d. 2008). Singer; known as "the empress of African song"; awarded Hammarsköld Peace Prize, 1986; opposed Apartheid as exiled delegate to UN.

• 1941 Gillian Martin Sorensen born Columbus, OH. UN Foundation leader. UN Undersecretary for Information & Public Policy, 1993-97; UN Assistant Secretary for External Affairs, 1997-2003.

• 1954 Irina Ratushinskaya born Odessa, USSR. Dissident Russian poet; spent four years in labor camp.

• 1973 Berta Cáceres born La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras (d. 2016). Indigenous Lenca environmental activist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1917 Anti-war Representative Jeannette Rankin took office on Capitol Hill.

• 1917 1,000 women surrounded White House to call for suffrage during President Wilson's inauguration.

• 1919 As President Wilson delivered a speech promoting the League of Nations at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, 25 suffragists protested outside, burning transcripts of his speech for the hypocrisy of his words. Soldiers and police beat the protesters, and arrested six women, including Alice Paul and Doris Stevens.

• 1976 International Tribunal on War Crimes against Women convened in Brussels.

• 1989 Domestic violence advocate Lisa Bianco was murdered at the hands of her ex-husband.

• 1990 First Action of FOR Action for Compassion to bring nonviolence to gender relations on college campuses.

• 1992 Kenyan women set up protest at All Saints Cathedral Nairobi against government’s violence.

• 2012 At Tibet's Kirti monastery, 32-year-old widow Rinchen immolated herself. "We need freedom in Tibet."

March 5

Women peacemakers born today

• 1870 Rosa Luxemburg born Zamość, Poland (d. 1919). Anti-militarist; revolutionary. Early Marxist critic of Soviet bureaucracy; opposed World War I.

• 1882 Dora Marsden born Marsden, England (d. 1960). British feminist; suffragist; philosopher. Abused in prison for suffrage protests, 1910-11; opposed World War I.

• 1885 Tracy D. Mygatt born Brooklyn, NY (d. 1973). Poet and playwright; absolute pacifist. Organized Anti-Enlistment League, 1915; co-founded War Resisters League, 1923; delegate for Campaign for World Government, 1941-1973.

• 1910 Yun-Sook Mo born Wonsan, North Korea (d. 1990). Preeminent Korean woman poet, influenced by Tolstoy and Sarojini Naidu. South Korean representative to UN General Assembly, 1948.

• 1952 Alicia Barcena Ibarra born Mexico. Biologist and ecologist. Chief of Staff of UN Secretary General, 2006; UN Undersecretary for Management, 2007; first female head of Economic Commission for Latin America, 2008.

• 1954 Jasmina Tešanović born Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Serbian author, feminist , filmmaker who opposed Balkan wars; Women in Black; antiwar feminist; The Invisible Book, 1992; Diary of a Political Idiot re NATO bombing.

• 1955 Dee Margetts born Fremantle, Australia. Australian politician; anti-nuclear activist. Advocate for aboriginal rights. Coordinator for People for Nuclear Disarmament, 1988-91; Green Party Senator, 1993-99. Opposed US bases. Opposed Iraq and Afghan wars, partly because of civilian deaths.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1991 Greenham Victory: US withdrew last Cruise Missile from Greenham Common.

• 1992 Marie-Pierre Bovy organized International Fast Against Nuclear Tests across 13 nations for the Stop Essais Campaign.

• 2003 Catholic Workers Martha Scarborough, Catharine Morris, and Joyce Parkhurst arrested for Ash Wednesday blockade of street at Los Angeles Federal Building.

• 2014 Code Pink leader Medea Benjamin detained and deported from Cairo after Egyptian police broke her arm en route to women's conference in Gaza.

• 2015 14 women arrested at Maldives airport for appeal to release former president.

• 2015 In Jerusalem, 3,000 Women Wage Peace protesters circled the Knesset, demanding peace, chanting, "It’s reality, not a dream, women make peace."

March 6

Women peacemakers born today

• 1873 Elizabeth Fox Howard born Walthamstow, London, England (d. 1957). Quaker relief worker, author, poet, and impressionist artist. Led postwar reconciliation efforts with Germany. Served as hostess to Gandhi, London, 1931.

• 1882 Sarah Wambaugh born Cincinnati, OH (d. 1958). Internationalist; political scientist; professor at Wellesley College and Radcliffe College. Expert on plebiscites.

• 1942 Svetlana Gannushkina born Moscow. Russian mathematician; human rights activist. Peacekeeper in Karabakh War, aiding refugees' return, 1988.

• 1946 Ruth Russell born Australia. Co-chair of WILPF Australia; formed human shield during bombing of Baghdad, 2003.

• 1972 Marianne Thieme born Ede, Netherlands. Politician. Co-founded the Party for the Animals, seeking a society of sustainability and compassion, 2002; elected to Dutch House of Representatives, 2006.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1282 Princess and peacemaker Agnes of Bohemia, known as "the half-sister of St. Clare of Assisi" died.

• 1884 Susan B. Anthony and 100 suffragists called on President Arthur, demanding the vote for women.

• 1983 The Australian Women's Peace Picnic protested the arms race.

• 1983 Petra Kelly entered German parliament as leader of the Green Party.

• 1983 In Cosimo, Italy, following the condemnation of a female rape victim, the first women's march against violence took place.

• 2006 Cindy Sheehan and three other women arrested at UN headquarters in Iraq War protest.

• 2014 150 Nigerian women protested Boko Haram killings. “NO MORE! ENOUGH OF THE KILLINGS!"

• 2014 In Simferpol, Crimea, two members of FEMEN arrested for topless protest. "STOP PUTINS WAR"

• 2015 In Beijing, five women arrested for plan to protest domestic violence by appearing in blood-spattered white dresses.

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.

March 8

Women peacemakers born today

• 1863 Henriette “Henni” Forchhammer born Aalborg, Denmark 1863 (d. 1955). Danish linguist and internationalist; WILPF founding member. First woman to address League of Nations, 1920.

• 1864 Mathilda Wrede born Vaasa, Finland (d. 1928). “Friend of the Prisoners.” Finnish baroness; prison reform advocate. Co-founded pacifist group International Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1919.

• 1891 Katharine F. Lenroot born Superior, WI (d. 1982). Internationalist; child welfare expert. Head of US Children's Bureau; adviser to League of Nations on white slave traffic. Co-founded UNICEF, 1946; planned International Youth Charter, 1946.

• 1924 Addie L. Wyatt born Brookhaven, MS (d. 2012). Labor leader; civil rights advocate. Worked with Martin Luther King, Jr.; arrested in Selma, AL. Honored as one of the Women of the Year by Time magazine, 1975.

• 1944 Renate Winter born Vienna, Austria. International lawyer and judge; expert on juvenile rights. International judge on UN Mission in Kosovo, 2000-02. President of Special Court, Sierra Leone, 2008-10.

• 1950 Tsvetana Kamenova born Sofia, Bulgaria. Judge for the International War Crimes Tribunal Yugoslavia (ICTY), 2006-09.

Women's peacemaking on this day

International Women's Day

• 1868 In Geneva, Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin called for international women’s association.

• 1908 First International Women's Day.

• 1908 In New York City, women marked the first celebration of International Women's Day with a parade for suffrage.

• 1910 Clara Zetkin made the socialist declaration, "We choose life. . . not death."

• 1913 On the eve of World War I, women held peace rallies throughout Europe.

• 1915 In Oslo, Alexandra Kollontai organized women’s demonstration against war.

• 1917 Russian women's strike for "bread and peace" sparked the Russian Revolution.

• 1918 In Vienna, 3,000 Women demanded peace.

• 1946 In New York City, women's advocacy group The Congress of American Women (CAW) celebrated International Women’s Day for the first time.

• 1964 Australian women protested. “Save Our Children—Stop French Tests in the Pacific”

• 1965 The Soviet Union made this day a public holiday to celebrate the merits and accomplishments of women.

• 1966 Women in Australia protested Vietnam War.

• 1974 Australian women stormed Bidura women’s shelter to protest poor conditions, Sydney.

• 1975 United Nations first sponsored the annual event and declared 1975 as the International Women's Year.

• 1978 Actress Margaretta D’Arcy and 11 members of Women Against Imperialism arrested, Armagh, Ireland.

• 1979 In Tehran, 15,000 Iranian Women occupied the Palace of Justice.

• 1980 90 Canadian women’s groups supported Toronto march.

• 1981 At NATO’s Ramstein airbase, 3,000 Women staged a "die-in" protest against missiles.

• 1982 WILPF initiated their S.T.A.R. ("Stop the Arms Race") Campaign to protest weapons stockpiling.

• 1982 In France, Movement de Liberation des Femmes led a general strike.

• 1983 In Brussels, WILPF members presented one million signatures generated through the S.T.A.R. Campaign to NATO.

• 1983 Italian women blockaded the NATO Comiso Air Base in nonviolent protest.

• 1983 United under the cry of "Women demand peace," the first Congress of the Organization of Angolan Women took place at Luanda.

• 1984 British women passed out "peace pies" at the Bank of England, London.

• 1984 Peruvian women demonstrated against all forms of violence.

• 1984 150 Women picketed at the Presidio, San Francisco.

• 1985 European women circulated a petition for denuclearization.

• 1986 Asia Pacific Forum on Women founded.

• 1987 Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC) founded by indigenous Filipina women.

• 1989 400 Women erected Peace Tent, Tel Aviv.

• 1995 Belgrade Women in Black assaulted for carrying banner “Albanian Women are our Sisters.”

• 1995 Russian and Chechen women marched from Moscow to Grozny to protest the Chechen War.

• 1997 Announcement of Women’s Peace Petition to shift 5% of national military spending towards health, education & jobs.

• 2000 Theme for International Women's Day: "Women Uniting for Peace."

• 2001 Theme for International Women's Day: "Women & Peace: Women Managing Conflicts."

• 2003 25 women from Code Pink arrested at White House in Iraq War protest.

• 2003 “Our Life in Pieces” exhibition by Act Together: Women Against Sanctions and War on Iraq, London.

• 2006 Theme for International Women's Day: “Women in Politics,” celebrating the elections of the first female President of Chile, Michele Bachelet, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.

• 2007 Theme for International Women's Day: "Ending impunity for violence against women and girls."

• 2008 Theme for International Women's Day: “Investing in Women and Girls."

• 2009 Theme for International Women's Day: "Women and men united to end violence against women and girls." Around the world, 539 events under this theme take place.

• 2010 Join Me on the Bridge [to Peace] Campaign. Rwandan and Congolese women united on border bridge to celebrate peace.

• 2011 Around the world, 1759 events take place for International Women's Day, including a pro-woman march in Cairo.

• 2012 World March of Women: "We denounce the advance of militarisation around the world…"

• 2012 Ukrainian FEMEN activists detained in Sultanahmet Square for topless demonstration protesting violence against women.

• 2012 On Wall Street, Code Pink protested Bank of America with displays of pink bras and signs bearing the phrase "Bust Up The Banks."

• 2013 In Moscow, 17 women were arrested for carrying unapproved signs such as “Feminism is Liberation.”

• 2014 Theme for International Women's Day: “Equality for women is progress for all.”

• 2014 11 Palestinian women injured by Israeli troops in protest march at Qalandia checkpoint, Jerusalem.

• 2015 Theme for International Women's Day: "Empowering Women—Empowering Humanity—Picture It!"

• 2015 In Tunis, female politicians and civil leaders performed Serena Dandini's play about violence against women "Wounded to Death".

• 2017 Theme for International Women's Day: “Be Bold For Change.”

• 2017 “A World Without Women” strike; thirteen arrests in New York City; Tblisi, Georgia women held up pane of glass to symbolize glass ceiling.

• 2017 “Be Bold For Change” “A World Without Women” strike; 13 arrests in New York City.

• 2017 Planet 50/50 Gender Equality by 2030 launched by UN.

• 2019 Theme for International Women's Day: #BalanceforBetter.

March 9

Women peacemakers born today

• 1929 Arna Mer-Khamis born Rosh Pina, Galilee, Palestine (d. 1995). Jewish peacemaker. Founded In the Defence of Children under Occupation/Care and Learning, 1993. Received Right Livelihood Award for human rights work with refugee children, 1993.

• 1939 Heyde Maria Durán-de Lopez born Palmira, Colombia. Diplomat; peacemaker. Junior Minister for Shantytowns.

• 1948 Emma Bonino born Bra, Italy. Gandhian activist; president of nonviolent non-governmental organization Transnational Radicals. First European Commissioner for Health, 1995-99; Italian Minister of European Politics, 2006.

• 1951 Helen Zille born Johannesburg, South Africa. Journalist; politician. Exposed the circumstances of Steve Biko's murder. Active in the Black Sash End Conscription Campaign, 1983. Mayor of Capetown, 2006-09; Premier of Western Cape, 2009–present.

• 1970 Claudia López Hernández born Bogotá, Colombia. Colombian Senator 2014 Green Alliance advocate of peace and reconciliation; journalist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1906 Having been refused audience with the Prime Minister, suffragists broke into 10 Downing Street and were arrested.

• 1983 Comiso anti-nuclear protestors attacked by Italian police.

• 1996 Anti-Nuclear Tea Party: Lithuanian women ask for nuclear-free future in Ignalia region.

• 2015 At the UN, the Inter-Parliamentary Union held a discussion, “Countering Cyber Violence Against Women.”

March 10

Women peacemakers born today

• 1847 Kate Sheppard born Liverpool, England (d. 1934). Leader of world's first successful suffrage campaign, bringing voting rights to women of New Zealand, 1893.

• 1875 Eleanor May Moore born Victoria, Australia (d. 1949). Pacifist; WILPF leader. Founding member and international secretary of Sisterhood of International Peace, 1915; author of The Quest for Peace, 1949.

• 1897 Lillian Wald born Cincinnati, OH (d. 1940). Nurse and settlement founder. Founder and first president of American Union Against Militarism, 1914.

• 1898 Hazel Wolf born Victoria, Canada (d. 2000). Peace advocate; environmentalist; human rights activist. Communist party member unsuccessfully tried for deportation by INS, 1949-63.

• 1928 Silvia Tennenbaum born Frankfurt am Main, Germany. American author; Jewish critic of Israeli violence.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1985 In Seattle, dozens of women arrested in anti-Apartheid protest.

• 1990 Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge led an all-night peace vigil held by Natal Organization of Women at Mpumalanga, South Africa.

• 1992 Washington DC Catholic Worker Mary Berberich fined $1000 plus 3 years probation for pouring blood and spray-painting "500 Years of Genocide" on a statue of Christopher Columbus.

• 1992 Serb women resisted draft of their relatives, Tresnjevac.

• 1994 Helen Woodson poured red paint and cranberry juice on courthouse desk in anti-nuclear protest, for which she received a 51-month jail sentence. "What you will be doing today is setting the date for my next action, and I invite you to be there that day."

March 11

Women peacemakers born today

• 1878 Kathleen D’Olier Courtney born Gillingham, England (d. 1974). British suffragette. WILPF founding member. Chair of British WILPF, 1923-33. President of British UNA, 1949-51. Awarded UN Peace Medal, 1974.

• 1883 Greta Stendahl born Karlsborg, Sweden (d. 1968). Quaker pacifist, peace activist, and suffragist. Swedish pioneer of peace education. WILPF leader. President, Swedish schools Peace Association; leader of Nordic teachers' peace covenant. Co-founded first peace education society, whose purpose was "to promote the creation of the ethical and social spirit which must form the necessary basis for the relationship between peoples," 1916. Aided refugees during World War II.

• 1924 Margaret Ellen Traxler born St. Paul, MN (d. 2002). Prominent women’s rights activist; Catholic Sister of Notre Dame. At forefront of civil rights movement at Selma, AL, 1965.

• 1927 Freda Meissner-Blau born Dresden, Germany. Austrian anti-nuclear activist. Led successful civil disobedience effort to save Hainberg Forest, 1984. Founder of Austrian Green Party, 1987.

• 1941 Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold born Solothurn, Switzerland. Ethnologist; advocate for peace in Africa. Member of Swiss parliament and European Council. Her organization 1000 PeaceWomen, also known as PeaceWomen Across the Globe, nominated 1000 women for 2005 Nobel Peace Prize to highlight women's efforts in forging peace.

• 1945 Kada Hotić born Kuka Grad, Bosnia. Bosnian Muslim. Bosnian war survivor; husband, son, and brothers murdered in Srebrenica massacre, 1995. Co-founded Mothers of Srebrenica, 1995.

• 1955 Nina Hagen (née Catharina Hagen) born East Berlin, German Democratic Republic. German singer, songwriter, actress; “Godmother of Punk”; antiwar, anti-nuclear; active protest on Iraq War; funded Afghan relief with song of sadness.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1983 12 women arrested for blockade at Comiso.

• 2000 Soledad Alvear became first woman Foreign Minister of Chile.

• 2001 Seven women arrested Faslane Scotland for chaining themselves to a French frigate with banner “Women of the world unite for a world without war.”

• 2003 At Scotland's Leuchars Air Force Base, Ulla Rōder of Denmark damaged Tornado jet destined for Iraq War.

• 2003 In Lubbock, TX, biologist Elsa Sabath was arrested for refusal to leave federal building in nonviolent protest.

• 2004 Susan Lindauer arrested at Takoma Park, MD for alleged aid to Iraq.

• 2013 Members of Nobel Women's Initiative issued a call for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems AKA killer robots.

• 2015 Nurse Helen Schietinger interrupted Secretary of State John Kerry during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, holding sign, “There is No Military Solution.”

March 12

Women peacemakers born today

• 1879 Grace DeGraff born Thomson, IL (d. 1951). School principal. Traveled to Europe as founding member of WILPF, 1915; embarked on Henry Ford Peace Expedition, 1916.

• 1923 Clara Fraser born East Los Angeles, CA (d. 1998). Radical feminist, socialist, internationalist and opponent of all wars. Founded Radical Women (RW), 1967; opposed Israeli settlements and occupation of West Bank.

• 1929 Lupe Anguiano born La Junta, CO. Mexican-American civil rights activist; environmentalist; former nun. Performed nonviolent work with Cesar Chavez; opposed Iraq War as "senseless."

• 1929 Mary N. Brownell born Maryland County, Liberia. Liberian educator; crusader for peace, women’s rights, and democracy. Founded Liberian Women’s Initiative (LWI), 1994. Honored as Ambassador for Peace by the Interreligious and International Foundation for World Peace, 2006.

• 1947 Charmaine White Face (Zumila Wobaga) born Pine Ridge Reservation, SD. Oglala Sioux leader; biologist and journalist. Active participant in UN International Indigenous Rights Declaration, 2002. Fasted at Geneva Conference on Indigenous Rights, 2004. Joined 50-day Walk for a New Spring, 2015. Received 2007 Nuclear Free Future award for founding Defenders of the Black Hills, 2002; Giraffe Award for “sticking out her neck,” 2016.

• 1953 Naomi Shihab Nye born St. Louis, MO. Palestinian-American poet; songwriter; novelist.

• 1953 Glenda Wildschut born District Six, Cape Town, South Africa. Psychiatric nurse. Experienced in trauma of Apartheid; worked with WHO on trauma in war zones. Founded Cape Town's first trauma center, 1993. Commissioner of Truth & Reconciliation Commission, 1995.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1912 In Lawrence, MA, female textile workers led and won the Bread and Roses strike. James Oppenheim celebrated the event in verse:
  "As we come marching in the beauty of the day,
  A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
  Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
  For the people hear us singing "Bread and roses, bread and roses."

• 1933 Ruth Bryan Owen became America's first female ambassador, appointed US Minister to Denmark.

• 1959 One day after Tibet's National Uprising Day, thousands of Tibetan women held a nonviolent protest at Potala Palace, Lhasa to mark Women's Uprising Day.

• 1983 Women in Milan and Rome protest the Comiso base.

• 2003 Catholic Workers Catherine Morris and Martha Lewis protested the Iraq War at the Los Angeles Federal Building.

• 2011 International Women for Peace and Democracy created the Victoire Umuhoza Peace Prize, Montreal.

• 2012 In a continuing campaign of violence against women in politics, Bolivian councilor Juana Quispe was murdered in La Paz.

• 2017 UN human rights worker Zaida Catalán kidnapped and beheaded, DR Congo.

March 13

Women peacemakers born today

• 1927 Mahawa Bangoura Camara born Conakry, Guinea. Guinean representative to the UN. Ambassador to US, 1995; Guinean Foreign Minister, 2000-02.

• 1957 Patricia McKenna born Castleshane, Monaghan, Ireland. Irish internationalist politician. First Green Party delegate to European Parliament, 1994-2004. President of Europeans United for Democracy, 2010-present.

• 1958 Nancy Soderberg born San Turce, Puerto Rico. American diplomat. National Security Council, 1992-97; UN representative, 1997-2001. Advocate for human rights and peace in Ireland.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1904 Angela de Castro donated statue of Christ the Redeemer of the Andes on the Chile-Argentina border to celebrate peace between the two nations.

• 1945 In Montaubon, France, Pax Christi founded upon the ideas of Madame Dortel-Claudet.

• 2012 Women at the Peace Table – Asia Pacific, an assembly of 40 female peacemakers from the Asia Pacific region, met at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Kathmandu, Nepal.

• 2013 Kunchok Wangmo immolated herself to protest Chinese rule in the Dzoege region of Ngaba, eastern Tibet.

• 2013 Iraqi refugee Sundus Shaker Saleh filed suit against the Bush administration for war of aggression in Iraq.

• 2017 Yemeni women held sit-in at San’a UN office demanding peace.

March 14

Women peacemakers born today

• 1840 Ellen Robinson born Liverpool, England (d. 1912). Quaker schoolmistress; leading British peace activist. Opposed Boer War and British imperialism.

• 1843 Mariana W. Chapman born New York, NY (d. 1907). American pacifist leader; suffragist. Author of The Inherent Immorality of War, 1901.

• 1868 Emily Murphy born Cookstown, Ontario (d. 1933). Canadian jurist; lifelong pacifist; first woman judge in British empire. One of "Famous Five" women who won legal right of woman as a person, 1929.

• 1918 Zoia Horn born Odessa, Ukraine (d. 2014). American librarian jailed 21 days for refusing to divulge information about Harrisburg Seven antiwar protesters, 1972. Publicly opposed Patriot Act.

• 1946 Ivana Janů born Plazy, Czechoslovakia. International lawyer and judge. Convicted head of Bosnian Krajina region of war crimes, 1993; presided over Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY), 2001-04.

• 1951 Sharon A. Williams born Cardiff, Wales. Professor of international law; judge. Served as Canadian member of Permanent Court of Arbitration, 1991-97; presided over Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY), 2001-03.

• 1972 Irom Chanu Sharmila born Imphal, India. Nonviolent Gandhian disciple; human rights advocate; journalist; poet. Known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur." Began hunger strike to protest civilian deaths at the hands of the Indian military, 2000; due to hunger strike, has been repeatedly arrested for attempted suicide and force-fed via feeding tube.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1664 Margaret Fell, founder of the Quaker movement, was imprisoned for the first time, spending four years in Lancaster Castle. "We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity."

• 1917 1,000 women picketed the White House calling for a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage.

• 1983 In El Salvador, Marianella Garcia-Villas was assassinated for her investigation of human rights violations.

• 2003 Cathy Hoffman was arrested for protesting the Iraq War at the Boston Federal Building.

• 2012 Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito convicted Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of the war crime of recruiting child soldiers.

March 15

Women peacemakers born today

• 1838 Alice Cunningham Fletcher born Havana, Cuba (d. 1923). American anthropologist; Indian rights reformer; chronicler of Indian peacemaking. Convinced Congress to pass Omaha land allotment, 1882.

• 1868 Lida Gustava Heymann born Hamburg, Germany (d. 1943). German radical; feminist-pacifist; WILPF founding member. Co-founded the first German feminist society with her partner Anita Augspurg, 1902.

• 1890 Gertrud Kurz-Hohl born Lűtzenberg, Switzerland (d. 1972). "Mother of Refugees." Heroine of the Holocaust; founder and leader of Swiss refugee relief in World War II. Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize, 1961, 1962; awarded Albert Schweitzer Prize, 1965.

• 1900 Frances Partridge born London, England (d. 2004). British author; lifelong pacifist.

• 1919 Frances Crowe born Carthage, MO. Quaker; active protester into her 90s. Co-founded Traprock Peace Center, 1979. Arrested over 15 times for nonviolent protests, including 30-day sentence for 1984 Electric Boat protest.

• 1929 Krishna Ahooja-Patel born Amritsar, India. Canadian professor. International Labour Office, 1969-86; UN official, 1987-90; International president of WILPF, 2001-04.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1896 Maria Chéliga, Princess Gabrielle Wiszniewska and Camille Flammarion founded the League of Women for International Disarmament.

• 1907 Finland expanded to full universal suffrage in its elections and 19 women were elected to Parliament, marking the first time women were elected to office.

• 1918 Anasuya Sarabhai shared Gandhi’s fast for mill workers strike, Ahmedabad.

• 1942 Norwegian teachers arrested for refusing Nazi curriculum.

• 2012 Ten women arrested for democracy protest, Damascus.

• 2019 Worldwide student climate walkout inspired by Greta Thunberg. “We are the voiceless future of humanity. . . We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes.” 

March 16

Women peacemakers born today

• 1886 Ellen Starr Brinton born West Chester, PA (d. 1954). Quaker; internationalist; feminist; early leader of WILPF. Founded Swarthmore Peace Collection, 1935.

• 1891 Marcelle Capy born Cherbourg, France (d. 1962). French journalist and public speaker. Founded anti-war feminist weekly La Vague, 1916.

• 1933 Maya John Ingty born Assam, India. Indigenous Karbi peacemaker.

• 1945 Brenda Travis born McComb, MS. Civil rights activist; Joined SNCC, 1960. Arrested for walk-in, buying bus ticket and waiting for bus, 1961; jailed one month for trespassing. Arrested again when she tried to go back to school.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1919 Following the death of Hamidah Khalil by a British bullet, approximately 150-300 upper-class women, both Christian and Muslim, marched through the streets of Cairo in protest.

• 1965 Alice Herz immolated herself in protest against Vietnam War. "I choose the illuminating death of a Buddhist to protest against a great country trying to wipe out a small country with no reason."

• 1972 Librarian Zoia Horn refused to testify against antiwar activists, for which she was jailed 20 days.

• 1983 Comiso women protesters released and deported by Italian government.

• 1988 Helen Woodson protested nuclear weapons by walking out of Alderson Prison.

• 2003 Rachel Corrie killed by Israeli bulldozer at Rafah, Gaza. "I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me. . . to witness how awful we can allow the world to be."

• 2017 Jewish women Tamar Ze’evi and Tamar Alon arrested for sixth time for refusing military service and taking part in occupation.

March 17

Women peacemakers born today

• 1862 Martha Platt Falconer born Delaware, OH (d. 1941). Quaker social worker; advocate for homeless girls. Delegate to Paris International Conference on Social Work, 1928.

• 1873 Margaret Bondfield born Somerset, England (d. 1953). British suffragist and labor leader. One of the first women in Parliament, 1923; first woman in British Cabinet as Minister of Labor, 1929.

• 1884 Olive Pink born Hobart, Tasmania (d. 1975). Quaker; anthropologist; artist; defender of aboriginal rights.

• 1933 Myrlie Evers-Williams born Vicksburg, MS. Civil rights activist. Widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, slain in 1963; sought justice for his murder for over 30 years. Appointed first full-time chair of NAACP, 1995.

• 1955 Cynthia McKinney born Atlanta, GA. Six-term US Representative, 1993-2003, 2005-2007. Won 161,000 votes as Green Party presidential candidate, 2008.

• 1970 Jane Anyango born Nairobi, Kenya. “Woman of Peace”; Grassroots peacemaker; founded Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness 2007; member of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Reference commission 2012; ran Peace Through Action and Advocacy in 2013 elections; named Peace Ambassador by International Women Peace Group 2015; Kroc Institute WomanPeacemaker 2016.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1936 Women’s Peace Union’s constitutional amendment outlawing war came to Senate and House judiciary committees.

• 1989 Sister Amparo Escobedo, treasurer of nonviolent Serpaj Peru organization, killed in the Andes.

• 1997 3,000 Ethiopian Women marched to improve working conditions.

• 2003 In New York, Nobel Prize winner Mairead Corrigan arrested in St. Patrick’s Day protest against the Iraq War.

• 2003 Ellen Barfield and 50 others were arrested for marching on the Capitol with signs and photos of Iraqi civilians endangered by the upcoming invasion.

• 2012 In New York, Cecily McMillan arrested during Occupy protest for elbowing policeman’s eye when he grabbed her breast; later sentenced to three months (served 58 days).

March 18

Women peacemakers born today

• 1917 Rosemary Lynch born Phoenix, AZ (d. 2011). Franciscan nun; poet and storyteller. Founded Nevada Desert Experience, 1982; founded nonprofit organization Pace e Bene teaching nonviolence, 1989.

• 1929 Christa Wolf born Landsberg an der Warthe, Poland (d. 2011). Leading German writer; philosopher; feminist. Awarded Geschwister-Scholl Prize, 1987; co-founded International Culture of Peace, 1988.

• 1933 Unita Blackwell born Lula, MS. Civil rights leader; SNCC organizer; president of US-Chinese Peoples Friendship Association, 1976-83. Co-founded Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964; awarded MacArthur Genius grant, 1992.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1212 Clare of Assisi left home to take vow of poverty and found the Second Order of St. Francis, at Portuincula.

• 1871 1,000 Parisian women helped prevent the provisional government from firing upon its citizens, leading to the founding of the Paris Commune.

• 1896 Princess Wiszniewska founded International League of Women for Disarmament, Paris.

• 1906 French suffragists occupied Musée Social, Paris.

• 1970 Media Women and other feminist groups held sit-in at Ladies' Home Journal office, Manhattan.

• 1995 Russia blocked Mothers’ March of Compassion against Chechen War and arrested marchers.

• 2003 Cuba arrested 75 Ladies in White for nonviolent protest against political detentions.

• 2003 Elizabeth Wilmshurst resigned as legal adviser to the British Foreign Office in protest of the Iraq War. "Unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression."

• 2009 In New York, seven members of the Granny Peace Brigade were arrested for blocking US Military Recruitment Center with crime scene tape in an Iraq War protest.

• 2011 Ilse Ivana Velásquez Rodríguez was kiled in a teacher's strike, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

• 2015 In Washington DC, Code Pink held Spring Rising as a spring cleaning of war crimes. "We’ll dust away the cobwebs of war."

March 19

Women peacemakers born today

• 1859 Ellen Gates Starr born Laona, IL (d. 1940). Socialist; labor organizer; social worker; artist. Organizer of women’s strikes. Co-founded Hull House with Jane Addams, 1889.

• 1980 Linda N. Sarsour born Brooklyn, NY. Palestinian-American; co-chair Women’s March 2017; Executive Director Arab American Assn. of NY. 2011; arrested at Day Without a Woman protest 2017.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1563 The Peace of Amboise, negotiated by the Princess of Condé, was signed, ending the first French Wars of Religion.

• 1911 The First International Women’s Day was celebrated across central Europe.

• 1970 More than 100 women staged the Ladies' Home Journal Sit-In at the magazine's New York office, demanding editorial changes and fairer working conditions for female staffers.

• 1973 Ginetta Sagan issued Amnesty International's first Urgent Action, an appeal to locate economics professor Luiz Rossi, detained by Brazilian military and police with no explanation.

• 1980 WOZA women of Zimbabwe presented report “The Effects of Fighting Repression WITH LOVE.”

• 1989 Cypriot organization Women Walk Home crossed the Green Line, in protest of the military border which divides Cyprus east-to-west.

• 1994 Three women crashed the Steeplebush Gate at Menwith Hill base.

• 2003 Diplomat Ann Wright resigned from her US State Department position in protest of Iraq War.

• 2003 During bombing of Baghdad, Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness said, “I feel passionately prepared to insist that war is never an answer.”

• 2011 Ten imprisoned Syrian women began hunger strike, Duma Jail, Damascus.

• 2012 Barbara Dowling given 3-month jail sentence for defacing Dumbarton courthouse with political graffiti reading, "[T]his court does not uphold international law," in reference to the legal status of the Trident nuclear weapon system.

• 2016 Marisa Franco, founder of Mijente, was arrested for anti-Trump protest in which she blocked the road by locking her neck to a car, Tucson. “The greatest act of love we can show is to shut down hate where it rears its head.”

March 20

Women peacemakers born today

• 1872 Karin Michaëlis born Randers, Jutland, Denmark (d. 1950). “The Conscience of Europe.” Prominent Danish writer; radical feminist; pacifist. Worked in famine relief, Austria, World War I.

• 1915 Marie Runyon born Brevard, SC. Former New York state assemblyperson. As member of Granny Peace Brigade, arrested 20 times, including an attempt to enlist in protest of Iraq War, Times Square; acquitted, 2005.

• 1920 Andree Chedid born Cairo, Egypt. Lebanese-Egyptian poet and writer. Condemned the futility of war in her novel House without Roots.

• 1920 Pamela Churchill Harriman born Farnborough, England (d. 1997). First female American ambassador to France, 1993; first woman diplomat to receive Legion of Honor.

• 1936 Evelyn Fox Keller born New York, NY. MIT physicist; historian. Promoted Israeli evacuation of West Bank.

• 1937 Rosemarie Jackowski born Luzerne, PA. Advocacy journalist and teacher. As one of the “Bennington Twelve,” arrested for peaceful Iraq War protest, Bennington, VT, 2003; conviction overturned by state supreme court.

• 1956 Catherine Ashton born Upholland, Lancashire, England. British diplomat. Active leader in Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), 1977-83. As Leader of the House of Lords, gathered approval of Treaty of Lisbon, 2007.

• 1964 Natacha Atlas born Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Singer of Jewish/Muslim heritage. UN Goodwill Ambassador, 2001. Boycotted Israeli apartheid, 2011.

• 1969 Natalia Ghermova (née Snegur) born Chișnău, Moldova, USSR. Moldovan diplomat; official nominee for UN Secretary General 2016; Foreign Minister 2013-16; chief negotiator for joining European Union.

• 1985 Polina Zherebtsova born Grozny, Chechnya, USSR. Russian-Chechen diarist who chronicled the terror of three wars, including her wounding at age 14. Reported on war crimes; exiled, 2012.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1918 Rose Pastor Stokes's letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star criticizing US involvement in World War I resulted in her receiving ten-year prison term.

• 1919 In Cairo, Huda Sha’arawi led a major women’s demonstration.

• 2001 Susan B. Rodriguez sentenced to one year imprisonment for destroying computers used for nuclear war simulations.

• 2001 Caoimhe Butterly began 10-day hunger strike at Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to protest the decision allowing Afghanistan-bound American airplanes to refuel at Shannon Airport.

• 2003 Multiple protests against the invasion of Iraq. Lillian Willoughby was jailed one week for blocking Philadelphia courthouse. Rosemarie Jackowski was arrested for blocking an intersection in Bennington, VT. Three Code Pink members were arrested at a Senate office building.

• 2014 Led by a woman in bloodstained gown, 300 women marched from Maputo to the Mozambique parliament in protest of a colonial law legalizing marriage between accused rapists and their victims.