Women peacemakers born today

1791 Lydia Sigourney born Norwich, CT (d. 1865). Popular American "poet laureate of peace"; internationalist; supported abolition of slavery.
1813 Mary Grew born Hartford, CT (d. 1895). Leading Garrisonian nonviolent abolitionist woman public speaker and editor; delegate to World's Anti-Slavery Convention London 1840; feminist; 23 years president of Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association; 34 years Secretary of Female Anti-Slavery Society; opposed Mexican War; opposed talk of war over Oregon; saw Civil War caused by "Slave Power" in spite of 30 years efforts of abolitionists to end slavery peacefully.
1878 Anne Marie Petersen born Roskilde, Denmark (d. 1951). Danish missionary teacher, close co-worker and critic of Gandhi; founded her own ashram Seva Mandir and girl's school Porto Novo, Tamil Nadu 1921.
1882 Sara Bard Field born Cincinnati, OH (d. 1974). Pacifist poet; suffragist leader; Christian Socialist who spent early years in Burma; opposed nuclear weapons.
1944 Sai’da Nusseibeh born Jenin, Palestine. Muslim Palestinian leads effort to create dialog between Jews and Palestinians; founded Jewish Arab Dialogue and Education in Europe (JADE)in early 1970s.

Women's peacemaking on this day

1875 Helena Blavatsky founded Theosophical Society, New York.
1891 Bertha von Suttner made an appeal for peace in the pages of the Neue Freie Presse, leading to the founding of the Austrian Peace Society.
1935 Women's Unarmed Uprising against War Swedish peace protest Stockholm.
1939 Sophie Scholl asked conscientious objection pledge against war.
1973 Helvi Sipila appointed head of International Womens Year.
1983 German Women for Peace formed a human chain linking the Russian and American embassies.
1992 Sister Elizabeth Walters sentenced for Easter protest against nuclear weapons.
1997 Four Greenham women acquitted for cutting Aldermaston fence 1996.
2002 Lucinda Marshall issued Feminist Peace Network’s Statement of Conscience: A Feminist Vision For Peace. "We declare our right to live free from aggression and violence. . . We repudiate warlords and praise peacemakers."
2006 Opening of the Women’s Peace Coalition conference on “UN Security Council Resolution 1325 – Women, Peace and Security,” Struga, Macedonia. “Not in Our Name! Always disobedient to the militarists, warriors, heroes, patriots. . . ”
2014 Women of the No to War, No to NATO network condemned NATO as it held its summit in Newport, Wales. "As women of the No to War, No to NATO international action network we join in wholehearted condemnation of NATO as an aggressive, expansionist, nuclear armed military alliance."