June

June Highlights in US Women’s History

June 1, 1993 – Connie Chung becomes the second woman to co-anchor the evening news, 17 years after Barbara Walters became the first in 1976
June 9, 1949 – Georgia Neese Clark confirmed as the first woman treasurer of the United States
June 10, 1963 – Equal Pay Act enacted: “To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.” (PL 88-38)
June 11, 1913 – Women in Illinois celebrate passage of a state woman suffrage bill allowing women to vote in presidential elections
June 17, 1873 – Susan B. Anthony’s trial starts for illegally voting in Rochester, New York, on November 5, 1872
June 19, 1865, Junteenth National Independence Day, the day of the final order to enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.
June 20, 1921 – Alice Robertson (R-Oklahoma) becomes the first woman to chair the House of Representatives
June 21, 1997 – The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) plays its first game
June 23, 1972 – Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is signed by President Nixon, one of the most important legislation initiatives passed for women and girls since women won the vote in 1920. This legislation guarantees equal access and equal opportunity for female and male students in almost all aspects of our educational systems
June 25, 1903 – Marie Curie defends her doctoral thesis on radioactive substances at Université de la Sorbonne in Paris, becoming the first woman in France to receive a doctoral degree

June Birthdays

June 2, 1907 (1998) – Dorothy West, writer, novelist during the Harlem Renaissance
June 3, 1924 (1991) – Colleen Dewhurst, actress, winner of 4 Emmy Awards, 2 Tony Awards, 2 Obie Awards, and 2 Gemini awards
June 3, 1916 (1995) – Gloria Martin, socialist, feminist organizer who began Shakespeare & Martin Booksellers
June 3, 1919 (1989) – Elizabeth Koontz, first African-American president of the National Education Association
June 7, 1910 (1990) – Marion Wolcott, documentary photographer during the Great Depression
June 7, 1909 (1994) – Jessica Tandy, award-winning actress, from A Streetcar Named Desire (play, 1948) to Driving Miss Daisy (film, 1989)
June 7, 1917 (2000) – Gwendolyn Brooks, poet, first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1950)
June 8, 1900 (1981) – Estelle Griswold, birth control advocate and pioneer, defendant in the Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut which legalized contraception for married couples in 1965
June 8, 1903 (1996) – Jessie Bernard, feminist critic and author
June 9, 1896 (1994) – Catherine Shouse, philanthropist and political activist, benefactor of the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts
June 9, 1921 (1993) – Phyllis Wallace, economist, first African-American woman full professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, pioneer in the study of sex and race discrimination in the workplace
June 11, 1880 (1973) – Jeannette Rankin, first woman elected to Congress; pacifist and suffragist
June 12, 1892 (1982) – Djuna Barnes, artist and journalist, author of Nightwood
June 12, 1899 (1994) – Anni Albers, textile artist and printmaker, had the first textile art show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1949
June 14, 1811 (1896) – Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
June 14, 1952 (2016) – Pat Summitt, former coach of Tennessee’s Women’s Basketball team, scored the most wins in NCAA history for both men’s and women’s teams
June 15, 1901 (1993) – Ruth Cowan, journalist, one of the first women military correspondents, president of the Women’s National Press Club
June 15, 1916 (1989) – Olga Erteszek, Polish immigrant, established the Olga Company in 1960, maker of women’s undergarments, one of the first companies to offer employee profit sharing
June 15, 1920 (1994) – Amy Clampitt, poet and author, her first poem was published when she was 58 years old
June 16, 1892 (1972) – Jennie Grossinger, highly successful hotel proprietor, managed Grossinger’s in the Catskills, the first resort to use artificial snow (1952)
June 16, 1895 (1990) – India Edwards, political activist in the Democratic Party, served as Vice Chairman of the DNC from 1950 to 1956
June 16, 1902 (1992) – Barbara McClintock, biologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1983)
June 16, 1915 (1990) – Lucy Davidowicz, Polish refugee, one of the foremost historians of the
June 17, 1865 (1915) – Susan La Flesche Picotte, first Native American physician (1889)
June 17, 1908 (1989) – Trude Weiss-Rosmarin, editor, writer, co-founder of the School of the Jewish Woman (1933), publisher of the Jewish Spectator (1936)
June 18, 1913 (1991) – Sylvia Porter, finance columnist and author
June 19, 1888 (1984) – Hilda Worthington Smith, labor educator and social worker, first Director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921)
June 20, 1905 (1984) – Lillian Hellman, playwright, credits include The Children’s Hour (1934), The Little Foxes (1939) and Toys in the Attic (1960); blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952
June 21, 1912 (1989) – Mary McCarthy, author and critic, her novel The Group remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years
June 22, 1906 (1993) – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, aviator and author of North to the Orient (1935) and Listen! The Wind (1938)
June 22, 1909 (2006) – Katherine Dunham, dancer and choreographer, combined African movement and classical ballet
June 22, 1929 (1990) – Rose Kushner, journalist, challenged the practice of radical mastectomy in the 1970s
June 23, 1905 (1983) – Mary Livingstone, radio comedian, Jack Benny’s wife (1927) and showbiz partner (1932-1958)
June 23, 1921 (2010) – Jeanne M. Holm, first Air Force Major General (1973)
June 23, 1940 (1994) – Wilma Rudolph, athlete, first woman runner to win 3 gold medals in a single Olympics
June 24, 1893 (1983) – Suzanne LaFollette, journalist, author, and editor, radical libertarian feminist, served as managing editor of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s National Review (1955-1959)
June 26, 1902 (1989) – Antonia Brico, conductor and pianist, the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic (1938)
June 26, 1911 (1956) – Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, athlete, outstanding in basketball, track, swimming, golf, and billiards
June 26, 1922 (1982) – Carolyn Sherif, social psychologist, pioneer researcher in group psychology, self-system, and gender identity
June 27, 1880 (1968) – Helen Keller, advocate for the disabled, writer and lecturer
June 28, 1946 (1989) – Gilda Radner, comedian, and original cast member of Saturday Night Live
June 29, 1858 (1932) – Julia Lathrop, social reformer in the area of education, social policy, and children’s welfare. The first woman ever to head a United States federal bureau when she served as director of the United States Children’s Bureau (1912-1922)
June 29, 1897 (1992) – Kazue Togasaki, physician who pioneered a place in medicine for women of Japanese ancestry and was one of the few physicians allowed to practice medicine in the Japanese Interment Camps during World War II
June 29, 1900 (1997) – Margaret Storrs Grierson, archivist, professor, founder and first director of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College which she molded into a women’s history archive
June 30, 1883 (1970) – Dorothy Tilly, civil rights reformer, devoted her life to reforming southern race relations
June 30, 1899 (2001) – Margaret Byrd Rawson, educator and researcher, identified and treated reading disorders including dyslexia
June 30, 1903 (1999) – Glenna Collett Vare, first U.S. Women’s Golf Champion (1922)
June 30, 1917 (2010) – Lena Horne, singer, first African American woman to sign long-term Hollywood contract, fought for contracts guaranteeing African Americans could attend her shows

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