#OnThisDay, 18 Mar 2012, Berta Soler and dozens of other 'Ladies in White' activists are arrested for demanding the release of political prisoners in Cuba.

#OnThisDay, 18 Mar 1979, the first National Black Women’s Conference started in Brixton, London, arranged by the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD). Over 300 women attended.

OWAAD was founded by Stella Dadzie and Olive Morris in 1978 to bring a black feminist perspective to political action.

Morris died in July 1979 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In 2024, she was recognised for her work with a blue plaque.

“Once, with hand-grenades in my shopping bag, I travelled in a train so full that I had to stand against a German NCO.”

#OnThisDay, 18 Mar 1943, Francine Agazarian arrives in Nazi-occupied France to be a courier in the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French Resistance.

#OnThisDay, 17 Mar 1964, Joan Merriam Smith set off from Oakland airport in California in an attempt to fly solo around the world. She followed Amelia Earhart’s easterly route from 1937 as far as New Guinea where Earhart had vanished.

Merriam Smith arrived back in Oakland on 12 May 1964, the first pilot to successfully make a solo circumnavigation by the equatorial route.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenPilots #AmericanHistory #WomensHistoryMonth

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#OnThisDay in 1750, Caroline Herschel was born in Germany.

A talented singer and astronomer, she lived in Bath for several years and will feature in my next book!

#OnThisDay, March 16, in 1945, America began a two-day campaign of firebombing Kobe, Japan (depicted in Grave of the Fireflies, 1988, Studio Ghibli)

Happy 9th anniversary to the first Mastodon post!

Via https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/110985808809440467

För fem år sedan stängde #Norge gränsen på grund av rädslan för #covid19:

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/varmland/bommar-och-traktordack-sa-sag-det-ut-nar-norge-stangde-gransen

#OnThisDay, 16 Mar 1876, Rose Harland and Nelly Saunders step into the ring at Harry Hill's bar for the first all-woman boxing match in the USA.

No illustration of Rose and Nelly, so here's a poster for the bar.

#WomenInHistory #WomensHistoryMonth #History #ThisGirlCan #AmericanHistory #Histodons
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Today in 1952, 73 years ago: in Cilaos (Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean) there is the most abundant rain in 24 hours (since the scientific record is kept): 1870 mm.

#OnThisDay, 15 Mar 1927, the inaugural women's boat race between Oxford and Cambridge takes place on the Isis.

In 2015, the women’s race was finally held on the same day, and over the same course, as the men’s race.

Watch silent newsreel of the 1927 race here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J6kqhJGOWI

More: http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2015/03/women-making-waves-newton-womens-oxford.html

On this date in 1781, William and Caroline Herschel discovered a new “comet”, which turned out to be the planet now known as Uranus. It was the first new planet to be discovered since ancient times. And William Herschel wanted to call it Georgium Sidius (George’s Star) after his patron King George III of England. The things scientists contemplate to get funding…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus

#OnThisDay, 14 Mar 2018, Angela Merkel is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany for the fourth time. #WomenInPolitics

Today in 1943, 82 years ago: The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.

#OnThisDay, 13 Mar 1990, Ertha Pascal-Trouillot became the provisional president of Haiti. She was the first woman to hold the role.

She stabilised the country for long enough for it to hold a free and fair election.

“I accepted the position in the name of Haitian women. I did it as a service to my country. I did it with love and determination.”

Today in 1947, 78 years ago: the Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to eradicate communism.

#OnThisDay, March 12, 538 AD, Ostrogothic king Witigis ended his year-long siege of Rome and retreated, conceding the city to Byzantine general Belisarius. The siege decimated the city's population, and defeat broke the power of the Goths (depicted in Kampf um Rom, 1968)

It was on this day 36 years ago when @timbl submitted his proposal to CERN for an "information management system", precursor to the World Wide Web.

"In the proposal, Berners-Lee modestly spoke of wanting to use hypertext, a.k.a. links, to help CERN deal with information storage issues.

[...]

His boss’s response?

“Vague, but exciting.”"

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/12/18260709/30th-anniversary-world-wide-web-google-doodle-history

#OnThisDay, 12 Mar 1994, the first 32 women are ordained as priests in the Church of England. Angela Berners-Wilson was the very first.

Fem år sedan Norge stängde ned i dag. Jag minns att jag hörde beskedet om att först Osloskolorna stängde och sedan att hela landet stängde på radio hos tandläkaren.