April 1

Women peacemakers born today

• 1866 Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge born Lexington, KY (d. 1948). Lawyer and social worker; Hull House associate of Jane Addams; WILPF founding member. U.S. delegate of Pan American Conference, 1933; first woman PhD in political science.

• 1875 Frederika van Wulfften Palthe born Jogjakarta, Dutch East Indies (d. 1960). WILPF founding member. Accompanied Jane Addams on WILPF mission to warring governments in a bid to stop war, 1915.

• 1877 Aurelia Henry Reinhardt born San Francisco, CA (d. 1948). Pacifist; orator. President of Mills College, 1916-43. American Association of University Women (AAUW) representative to United Nations conference, San Francisco, 1945.

• 1896 Juliette Derricotte born Athens, GA (d. 1931). African-American internationalist educator; Dean of Women, Fisk University. Traveled the globe as representative of the World Student Christian Federation to promote peace and justice.

• 1940 Wangari Muta Maathai born Nyeri, Kenya (d. 2011). Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2004; founded Green Belt movement of women planting trees 1977; her Peace Trees campaign promoted community conflict resolution.

• 1962 Jenni Williams born Gwanda, Matabeteland, Zimbabwe. Co-founded nonviolent organization Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). Arrested over 40 times; imprisoned for protest against denial of food aid, Bulawayo, 2008. Awarded Ginetta Sagan Prize, 2012.

• 1974 Frida Berrigan born Baltimore, MD. Second generation woman peace activist, daughter of Elizabeth McAlister; opposed nuclear weapons, Iraq and Afghan wars.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1833 In Canterbury, CT, Prudence Crandall opened her school for 20 girls of color.

• 1974 May Picqueray put out first issue of pacifist magazine Le Réfractaire.

• 1983 Good Friday Picnic at Greenham Common. 190 women crossed the fence into the missile base; 70,000 formed a human chain of 60 miles to link Greenham, Aldermaston and Burghfield ordinance depot.

• 2003 On behalf of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), Leymah Gbowee issued a peace appeal via radio broadcast, sparking the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, bringing about the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.

• 2006 Sylvia Boyes and Helen John arrested at Menwith Hill protest.

April 2

Women peacemakers born today

• 1936 Julieta Casimiro born Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, Mexico. Mazatec leader. Member of International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.

• 1940 Carla Brooks Johnston born Rochester, NY (d. 2011). Civic reformer; professor of public policy; environmentalist. Led reform of Somerville, Massachusetts politics, 1966-72; co-founder and historian of Nuclear Freeze, 1980; mayor of Sanibel, Florida, 2005-07.

• 1943 Annalena Tonelli born Forli, Romagna, Italy (d. 2003). Italian aid worker. Brought the Wagalla Massacre to light; saved Somalis thought to be dead, 1984. Received Nansen Refugee Award, 2003.

• 1952 Christine Van Den Wyngaert born Antwerp, Belgium. Former singer and songwriter; professor of international law. Judge of World Court in arrest warrant case, 2000-02; judge of Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY), 2003-09; judge International Criminal Court, 2009-present. League of Human Rights prizewinner, 2006.

• 1955 Maha Chakri Sirindhorn born Bangkok, Thailand. Thai educator. Received Magsaysay Award, 1991; Indira Gandhi Peace Prize, 2004. UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, 2005.

• 1963 Phan Thi Kim Phuc born Trảng Bàng, Vietnam. Famed as 9-year-old fleeing bombs, 1972. UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, 1994. Founded foundation for child victims of war, 1997.

• 1971 Christine Buchholz (née Bruchköbel) born Hamburg, Germany. German peace activist. Co-founder of antiwar Left party; Leftist Member of Parliament, 2009. Opposed German arms exports and deployment of troops abroad.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1212 Blessed Agnes of Assisi joined the nonviolent peace community of St. Clare.

• 1917 Pacifist Jeannette Rankin took her seat in House of Representatives as first woman in the house.

• 1942 Joyce Allen was first woman brought before British tribunal on conscientious objection. "It's idiotic for a species to go to war. And from a Christian point of view there's no excuse for it. ‘Thou shalt not kill.’"

• 1971 Following a 10-day, 450-mile hike from Newton, MA, Louise Bruyn arrived at the Capitol to speak out against the Vietnam War. “Stop This War!”

• 1984 Major Eviction of Women from Greenham failed.

• 2002 In the West Bank town of Beit Jala, Australian Kate Edwards was shot and severely wounded by the Israeli army during a nonviolent protest by International Solidarity Movement.

April 3

Women peacemakers born today

• 1894 Dora Russell born Thornton Heath, Surrey (d. 1986). Co-founder of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); led Women's Peace Caravan to Moscow 1958; opposed conscription in World War I.

• 1903 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay born Mangalore, Karnataka, India (d. 1988). Gandhian freedom fighter and leader of arts and crafts revival; arrested for Salt march.

• 1903 Maniben Patel born Karamsad, Gujarat, India (d. 1990). Nonviolent freedom fighter, member of Gandhi's ashram. Postwar member of parliament.

• 1934 Jane Goodall born London, England. Primatologist and animal rights activist; Gandhi-King Award for nonviolence 2001; UN Messenger for Peace 2002; International Peace Award 1999.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1886 Lucy Parsons' article against lynching published in The Alarm.

• 1990 Susan B. Rodriguez arrested for using sledge on computers for nuclear research at San Leandro.

• 2000 FAS (Femmes Africa Solidarite) convened a workshop entitled “Linking HIV/AIDS to Women's Peace Advocacy,” Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

• 2004 Opening of Women Say No to NATO: No-to-NATO, No-to-War conference, Strassberg, through 5th.

• 2011 In Toronto, SlutWalk held its first march in response to a policeman's statement that, "women should avoid dressing like sluts."

April 4

Women peacemakers born today

• 1802 Dorothea Dix born Hampden, ME (d. 1887). American prison reformer, teacher and humanitarian; advocated care of the insane; superintendent of Union nurses in Civil War.

• 1870 Frida Perlen born Ludwigsburg, Baden, Germany (d. 1933). German pacifist, one of few German women leaders who opposed World War I; leader WILPF; cabled Kaiser to stop the war 1914; helped organize Hague women’s peace conference 1915, but passport was forbidden.

• 1872 Mary Ware Dennett born Worcester, MA (d. 1947). Art teacher; suffragist; socialist antiwar crusader. Secretary of American Union against Militarism, 1916; co-founder of radical anti-World War I People's Council, 1917. Convicted of obscenity for birth control literature, 1929.

• 1909 Verne Weed born Columbus, IN (d. 1986). Radical social worker; Hunter College professor; anti-Apartheid protester; headed Connecticut Children's Services. Along with Thomas Mann, Picasso, and Chagall, signed Stockholm Peace Appeal for absolute ban on nuclear weapons, 1950.

• 1928 Maya Angelou born St. Louis, MO (d. 2014). Poet; civil rights leader.

• 1929 Rosalie Bertell born Buffalo, NY. Anti-nuclear scientist; mathematician; nun. Awarded Right Livelihood Award, 1986; Sean MacBride Peace Prize, 2001.

• 1944 Magda Aelvoet born Steenokkerzeel, Flemish Brabant, Belgium. Belgian politician. Helped draft St. Michael's Accords, Belgian state reforms which made Belgium a fully federalized nation, 1993. Minister of State, 1995; member European Parliament, 1994-99.

• 1950 Christine Lahti born Birmingham, MI. Actress and film producer. Actively opposed Iraq War in Lysistrata Project, 2003; sent pink slip to White House, 2003; participated in Julia Ward Howe's Mothers Day against war, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1928 Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM) created, first international women’s organization.

• 1958 The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held the first Aldermaston March, with 5,000 anti-nuclear protesters traveling from Trafalgar Square to the British atomic center at Aldermaston.

• 1984 500 police failed to close Greenham camp.

• 2003 11 women arrested at Los Angeles federal building in clothesline of bloody children’s clothes put up by Women of Conscience and Global Women.

• 2004 Death of Casey Sheehan in Iraq caused Cindy Sheehan to start antiwar protests.

• 2006 Camp Casey Peace Day marking deaths of Casey Sheehan and Martin Luther King.

April 5

Women peacemakers born today

• 1921 Patricia Ford, Lady Fisher born North Down, Northern Ireland (d. 1996). First Irish woman member of British parliament; founded Women Caring Trust to rescue children from civil violence, 1972.

• 1944 Elizabeth Lira Kornfeld born Santiago, Chile. Professor of Psychology; worked with victims of torture Chile, Salvador 1992-96, Guatemala 1999-2001; promoted postwar political reconciliation in Latin America.

• 1981 Bahareh Hedayat born Tehran, Iran. Iranian feminist and student leader.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1955 Nagasaki survivor Kikue Ihara speech to English guildswomen led to formation of CND.

• 1958 First night of Aldermaston March spent in the rain at Hounslow.

• 1989 Aung San Suu Kyi faced six soldier assassins, told her supporters to stand aside, and walked up to them.

• 2013 The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders released the report Kinshasa Call to Action—Women Speak, Women Act for Peace!

April 6

Women peacemakers born today

• 1801 Eliza P. Gurney born Philadelphia, PA (d. 1881). Quaker minister and preacher of pacifism; opposed military service in Civil War but supported Lincoln; co-founded Earlham College, 1847.

• 1882 Rose Schneiderman born Saven, Russian Poland (d. 1979). Labor organizer and social reformer; Socialist and feminist. Established International Ladies Garment Union, 1913; International Congress of Working Women.

• 1906 Elsa Knight Thompson born Bonner’s Ferry, ID (d. 1983). Trailblazing antiwar broadcaster with Pacifica Radio/KPFA, 1957-1974. Produced programming on civil rights and the Vietnam War.

• 1926 Jeanne Martin Cisse born Kankan, Guinea. Diplomat. First woman to chair UN Security Council, 1972.

• 1935 Elisabeth Rehn born Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Minister of Equality Affairs, 1991. United Nations Special Representative for Human Rights, Bosnia, 1995. UN Under-Secretary, 1998, Author of Women, War and Peace, 2002.

• 1941 Greta Berlin born Detroit, MI. Peace activist for Palestine justice 1967; co-founder Free Gaza Movement 2006, Gaza Flotilla 2008, 2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1917 Jeannette Rankin voted against World War I. "I love my country, but I cannot vote for war."

• 1919 WILPF demonstration against food blockade of Germany, Trafalgar Square, London.

• 1958 First Easter Protest of CND at Aldermaston organized by Pat Arrowsmith.

• 2001 In the West Bank village of Dir Istya, two women were arrested for chaining themselves to olive trees scheduled for destruction by the Israeli army; two others arrested for blocking a bulldozer.

• 2010 Maasai women began nonviolent protest against land evictions in march from Ololosokwan to Loliondo, Tanzania.

• 2017 Women in Black remembered start of war in Bosnia on 25th anniversary Belgrad.

April 7

Women peacemakers born today

• 1803 Flora Tristan born Paris, France (d. 1844). French feminist pioneer and utopian Socialist. Advocate of women's leadership to bring about peace. She proposed "a law of love and union destined to end all conflict between men."

• 1860 Alice Pestana de Blanco (AKA Caïel) born Santarem, Portugal (d. 1929). Portuguese novelist, playwright, and poet; pacifist and feminist. Founded Portuguese League for Peace, 1899. National representative at the founding of the Women’s League for Disarmament, 1899. Delegate to Hague Conference, 1900.

• 1870 Anna Lindhagen born Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1941). Swedish Social Democrat politician; social reformer; suffragist. Founded Sweden's Women's Peace Society, 1898; delegate to Women's International Peace Congress, 1915.

• 1872 Marie Equi born New Bedford, MA (d. 1952). Pediatrician; openly lesbian; anarchist. Arrested with Margaret Sanger for distributing birth control information, 1916. Arrested and convicted of sedition for antiwar views, 1918.

• 1874 Charlotte Maxeke born Ramokgopa, Transvaal, South Africa (d. 1939). "The Mother of African Freedom." Pioneering opponent of pass laws, 1913; founded Bantu Women's League, 1918.

• 1889 Gabriela Mistral born Vicuña, Chile (d. 1957). Chilean poet and diplomat. Representative to League of Nations Intellectual Committee, 1926; Consul to Madrid during Spanish Civil War; co-founder of UNICEF.  Nobel Literature laureate, 1945.

• 1891 Martha May Eliot born Dorchester, MA (d. 1978). Pediatrician; pioneer in World Health. Only woman signer of World Health Organization charter, 1946. Promoter of international children's health; helped found UNICEF. Founded first US children's advocacy organization, 1959.

• 1922 Annemarie Schimmel born Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany (d. 2003). German orientalist scholar; Peace Prize of German Book Trade 1995 for her promotion of understanding of Islam; student of Sufi mysticism.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1913 Emmeline Pankhurst sentenced to 3 years prison for suffrage protest.

• 1933 Bertha Bracey founded the German Emergency Committee (GEC), which rescued thousands of Jews, London.

• 1969 Elizabeth McAlister wed Phil Berrigan, Bronx.

• 1987 UN issued first system-wide plan for women and development.

• 1992 Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn released from prison after serving 8 months of 30 month sentence for Gulf War conscientious objection.

• 2002 Marla Ruzicka protested civilians killed by US airstrikes Kabul.

• 2003 Three Dominican nuns convicted for damaging nuclear silo in Colorado.

• 2011 Human rights lawyer Ni Yulan arrested Beijing for disturbing the peace.

April 8

Women peacemakers born today

• 1903 Ilka Chase born New York, NY (d. 1978). American actress and novelist, Quaker pacifist.

• 1905 Helen Joseph born Easebourne, West Sussex, England (d. 1992). South African nonviolent anti-Apartheid protester. Led march of 20,000 women in protest against pass laws, Pretoria, 1956; first South African put under house arrest.

• 1922 Vivian Anderson Castleberry born Lindale, TX. Newspaper editor. Founded Peacemakers, 1987. Ran first International Women’s Peace Conference, 1988. Made citizen diplomat trips to Russia, 1984, 1986, 1987.

• 1928 Leah Rabin born Königsberg, E. Prussia (d. 2000). Israeli peace advocate after murder of her Nobel laureate husband, 1995.

• 1948 Danuta Hubner born Nisko, Poland. Polish economist. Executive Director UN European Commission for Econ., 2001; European Commissioner of Economic Policy, 2004-09; European Parliament, 2009.

• 1954 Louisa Hanoune born al-Shafiqa, Hegal, Algeria. As head of Workers Party, first woman to run for Algerian presidency, 2004. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1955 Barbara Kingsolver born Annapolis, MD. American author and biologist. Protested Vietnam War; self-exiled during Gulf War, 1990. Joined antiwar organization Not In Our Name, 2003. Published anti-colonialist novel The Poisonwood Bible based on her childhood experiences in the Congo, 1999.

• 1968 Tracy Grammer born Homestead, FL. American folk singer. Protested Iraq War and war toys.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1916 Sylvia Pankhurst organized London demonstration against conscription.

• 1945 World Security Month celebrated by National Council of Negro Women.

• 1992 French end nuclear testing as result of Marie-Pierre Bovy's Stop Essais campaign.

• 1993 Swedish Women in Black of Lund demonstrate in sympathy with Serbian women.

• 2009 Spanish teacher Audrey Schwankl dressed as Lady Liberty arrested in immigration protest.

• 2012 In Damascus, protester Rima Dali was arrested. "Stop the killing, so we can build a country for all Syrians."

• 2013 Three members of FEMEN protested nude against Vladimir Putin’s visit to Hanover.

• 2015 In Kardze, Tibet, Buddhist nun Yeshi Khando reportedly died of self-immolation protest.

April 9

Women peacemakers born today

• 1860 Emily Hobhouse born St. Ives, Cornwall (d. 1926). Leading opponent of Boer War; exposed British concentration camps in South Africa.

• 1884 Louise Olivereau born Douglas, WY (d. 1963). Stenographer and poet; pacifist; philosophical anarchist. Charged with espionage and sentenced to 10 years prison for counseling conscientious objectors to World War I; served 28 months, 1917.

• 1917 Irene Morgan Kirkaldy born Baltimore, MD (d. 2007). First person to defy bus segregation, Gloucester, VA, 1944; jailed and fined, but vindicated by US Supreme Court in Morgan v. Virginia 1946. Awarded Presidential Citizens Medal, 2001.

• 1941 Kredelle Petway born Camden, AL. Freedom Rider math student arrested at Jackson, Mississippi airport, 1961, jailed three days.

• 1967 Vaiba Kebeh Flomo born Margibi County, Liberia. Liberian peacemaker. Co-founded Christian Women Peace Initiative (CWPI), 2002. Organized large-scale nonviolent protests with Liberian Women Mass Action for Peace, 2003. Advised NGO Reconcile on peacebuilding, South Sudan, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 688 Death of St. Waltrude, Belgian altruist.

• 1609 Louise de Coligny helped secure the Treaty of Antwerp, forging a truce in Dutch War of Independence.

• 1993 Kathy Boylan arrested Newport News for Good Friday Ploughshares protest against nuclear submarine USS Tucson.

• 1995 Dorothy Brownold sentenced 3 years for Nuremberg protest at Concord, CA base.

April 10

Women peacemakers born today

• 1926 Johnnie Tillmon born Scott, AR (d. 1995). Organizer and welfare rights advocate. Co-founded first welfare rights group ANC Mothers Anonymous of Watts, 1963; founded National Welfare Rights Association (NWRA), 1967.

• 1928 Berit Ås (née Skarpaas) born Fredrikstad, Norway. Norwegian feminist politician; peace activist; started Women Strike for Peace Norway 1961; social psychology professor; parliament member 1973-7, founding Socialist Left party 1975; co-founded campaign "Women for Peace” 1980, a petition demanding end to nuclear arms race and using war industry to produce food for world's poor, got 500,000 signatures worldwide.

• 1930 Dolores Huerta born Dawson, NM. Woman leader and co-founder of nonviolent United Farm Workers, 1962. Organized successful national grape boycott. Inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame, 1993.

• 1936 Ardeth Platte born Westphalia, MI. Nonviolent Dominican nun who led "loving" nonviolent protests against war, militarism and nuclear weapons, leading to closing Wurtsmith AFB and Roberts AFB.

• 1958 Mona Juul born Steinkjer, Norway. Norwegian diplomat mediated successful Oslo Peace Accords on Middle East 1993; State Secretary Foreign Affairs 2000-1; Ambassador to Israel 2001-4; UN 2005-10, UK 2014.

• 1979 Rachel Corrie born Olympia, WA (d. 2003). Jewish-American activist with nonviolent International Solidarity Movement; killed in Gaza by Israeli bulldozer, 2003.

• 1984 Mandy Moore born Nashua, NH. Singer/songwriter; actress. UN Goodwill Ambassador against malaria; led campaign to get mosquito nets in Africa.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1955 Death of pacifist leader Jessie W. Hughan.

• 1971 The Jeannette Rankin Brigade of 8,000 women, led by 90-year-old Jeannette Rankin, marched on the Pentagon for nuclear disarmament.

• 1990 Molly Rush and Anne Montgomery of Ploughshares Eight exonerated by court for King of Prussia protest.

• 1995 Carol Bellamy, head of US Peace Corps appointed first woman head of UNICEF.

• 1998 Mo Mowlam signed Good Friday Peace Agreement, ending the Ulster civil war.

• 2008 Ukrainian "sextremist" protest group FEMEN founded in Kiev.

April 11

Women peacemakers born today

• 1492 Marguerite de Navarre (d. 1549). Peace queen and stateswoman; humanist scholar, poet, and playwright. Protected opponents in wars of religion; raised peacemaker daughter Jeanne d'Albret.

• 1865 Mary White Ovington born Brooklyn, NY (d. 1951). Unitarian Socialist opposed to World War I and US imperialism. Co-founder and first Secretary of NAACP, 1909.

• 1925 Viola Liuzzo born California, PA (d. 1965). Unitarian-Universalist civil rights activist. Shot dead by 4 KKK members as she was driving African-American protester near Selma.

• 1958 Luísa Dias Diogo born Mágoè, Tete, Mozambique. Economist; first woman Prime Minister of Mozambique, 2004.

• 1968 Clare Daly born Newbridge, Kildare, Ireland. Irish politician. Socialist Member of Parliament, 2011. Arrested for scaling Shannon fence to inspect US planes for illegal arms, 2014. Charged President Obama as hypocrite for supplying arms to Syrian rebels.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1916 Annie Besant established India Home Rule League.

• 1921 Women's Crusade for Peace called for by Carrie Chapman Catt at League of Women Voters convention, Cleveland.

• 1985 Anne Francis convicted for damaging Greenham fence; sentenced for two-year term, later reduced to six months.

• 1992 Lynne Chamberlain Gunther protest at UN against military taxes, asking UN sanctuary.

• 1995 Two Turkish women arrested for demanding in court “We want our sons!”, who had disappeared. Jailed one month, later starting “Saturday Mothers” movement.

• 2006 Pasos Peace museum founded by Nitza Milagros Escalante.

• 2011 Women’s uprising in Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico drove out armed forest thieves and corrupt politicians.

• 2014 Seven women arrested for drone protest ("Drones Kill Children") at Creech AFB, Nevada.

• 2016 Jodie Evans and Rachel Green arrested for Capitol sit-in opening Democracy Spring protest.

• 2017 86-year-old Louise Schneider spray-painted “MONEY FOR ARMS KILLS” on National Bank, Bern, Switzerland.

April 12

Women peacemakers born today

• 1891 Josephine Duveneck born Brookline, MA (d. 1978). Quaker pacifist. Early WILPF leader, 1922. Founded organic farm and social justice center Hidden Villa, Santa Cruz mountains, California, 1924.

• 1912 Jo Ann Robinson born Culloden, GA (d. 1992). English teacher. Credited by Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of first organizers of Montgomery bus boycott, as president of Women’s Political Council; proposed bus boycott, according to Rosa Parks.

• 1934 Yayori Matsui born Kyoto, Japan (d. 2002). Japanese journalist and women’s rights activist. Founded Asian Women in Solidarity, opposing sex tourism, 1976. Founded Violence Against Women in War Network, 1998. Sponsored Women's International War Crimes Trial, Tokyo, 2000.

• 1940 Miriam K. Were born Lugala, Kenya. Quaker; physician; public health official. WHO Representative, 1990-93; UN Population Fund Director, 1993-2000. First recipient of Noguchi Africa Prize, 2008.

• 1942 Gabrielle Kirk McDonald born St. Paul, MN. International lawyer; first woman judge of Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, Sept. 1993; War Crimes Tribunal President, 1997-99.

• 1948 Bosilijka Schedlich born Split, Yugoslavia. Croatian-German post-conflict healer. Founded Southeast European Cultural Center to help thousands to recover from trauma of Balkan war, Berlin, 1991. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1948 Sheila Sisulu born Johannesburg, South Africa. South African Ambassador to US, 1999-2003; Executive Director World Food Program, 2003.

• 1949 Lynn Gottlieb born Bethlehem, PA. Jewish Rabbi. Led Fellowship of Reconciliation peace initiatives; only rabbi in Cairo to support lifting Gaza blockade, 2010.

• 1950 Joyce Banda born Malemia, Malawi. Malawi Foreign Minister, 2006-09. As first woman president of Malawi, restored relations with EU, US, World Bank, 2012-14. Guarantor of Congo-M23 Peace, rejecting violence and ending long war in eastern Congo, 2013.

• 1963 Lydia Cacho Ribeiro born Mexico City, Mexico. Mexican journalist; feminist. Activist against violence towards women and girls.

• 1980 Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera born Kampala, Uganda. “Founding mother” of Ugandan LGBT civil rights movement, 1999. Awarded Ennals Human Rights Prize, 2011; Right Livelihood Award, 2015.

• 1980 Tep Vanny born Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Human rights activist. Jailed for peaceful protest, 2012. Received Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for her efforts to preserve Boeung Kak Lake in land conflict, 2013.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1930 Women's Peace Union backed by five nonviolent peace groups presented constitutional amendment to abolish war before Senate hearing.

• 1934 Through the efforts of Dorothy Detzer, Congress established the Nye Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry, investigating arms manufacturers' influence on American involvement in World War I.

• 1992 Lynne Gunther ended 24-hour fast at UN against taxes for war; arrested on $50,000 bail.

• 2012 Navy Commander Leah Bolger sentenced to 60 days jail (suspended) for disrupting Congress by demanding that Deficit Committee end wars.

April 13

Women peacemakers born today

• 1867 Emma Sproson born West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England (d. 1936). British suffragist, twice imprisoned for suffrage protests, 1907. Leader of nonviolent Women's Freedom League.

• 1869 Vida Goldstein born Portland, Victoria, Australia (d. 1949). Australian feminist and opponent of draft. First woman in English-speaking world to run for office, 1903; founding president of Women's Peace Army, opposing World War I and draft, 1915. WILPF founding member.

• 1914 Charlotte “Chet” E. Keyes (née Schachmann) (d. 1980). Peace activist & antiwar poet.

• 1947 Zaibun Siraj born Singapore. Human rights activist. Co-founded feminist Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), 1985.

• 1948 Sue Doughty born York, England. British Quaker; pacifist. Liberal Democratic member of Parliament, 2001-05.

• 1954 Virginia Gamba born San Martín, Argentina. Argentine professor, expert in disarmament; UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict 2017; UN Assistant Secretary for Chemical Weapons in Syria 2016; Director UN Disarmament 2012-4; Expert consultant on African Small Arms 2007-9; Director UN Inst. of Disarmament Research 1992-96.

• 1955 Irina Khakamada born Moscow. Economics professor; Russian liberal politician. Member of Duma, 1993-2003; Vice-Speaker of Duma, 2000-03. Received 4 million votes for president, 2004.

• 1957 Amy Goodman born Bayshore, NY. Investigative journalist. Founded Democracy Now! The War & Peace Report, 1996. Arrested for antiwar protest at White House, 2003.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1915 47 American peace women departed New York on the S.S. Noordam to attend the Women's Peace Congress at The Hague.

• 1918 Mrs. Harley Stafford of Montrose, MI, tarred and feathered for “disloyal remarks” during World War I.

• 1918 Socialist doctor Eva Harding of Topeka, KS, acquitted of conspiracy to violate Draft Act.

• 1921 In Cleveland, Carrie Chapman Catt delivered a fiery antiwar speech to League of Women Voters after President Harding rejected League of Nations. “No, you shall no longer kill your fellow man.”

• 1930 Indian Women's Pickets against liquor began at Dandi.

• 1933 Ruth Bryan Owen appointed first woman to head diplomatic mission, Denmark.

• 1962 Rachel Carson's Silent Spring published.

• 1977 First Protest of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Buenos Aires; 14 women led by Azucena de Vincenti.

• 1993 Six women of Global Peace Movers arrested Santa Rosa for establishing an IRS medical clinic.

• 2011 14 Female Members of US Congress joined WomenThrive fast against cutting food aid.

• 2011 Hundreds of Syrian Women of Bayda marched on coastal highway protesting. "We want the men of Bayda!"

• 2012 Cindy Sheehan refused tax $105,000 to "stop being accessories to our government's war crimes and crimes against humanity."

• 2015 Ten members of WILPF Oceania boarded a peace train at Istanbul bound for the WILPF centenary conference at The Hague.

April 14

Women peacemakers born today

• 1867 Jessie Aitken (née Fraser) born Ecclesmachan, Linlithgow, Scotland (d. 1934), New Zealand peace activist, socialist, feminist; led Woman’s Anti-Conscription delegation to Prime Minister.

• 1910 Zilphia Horton born Spadra, AR (d. 1956). Singer and composer of protest anthem “We Shall Overcome”. Labor organizer; music director of Highlander Folk School, which trained many civil rights leaders.

• 1932 Klaryta Antoszewska born Poniewierz, Lithuania (d. 2014). Holocaust survivor; humanitarian; philologist; peacemaker and protester against nuclear weapons; rescuer of refugees. Catholic sister of St. Francis.

• 1933 Lucy R. Lippard born Bronx, NY. Antiwar art historian; feminist.

• 1935 Monique Chemillier-Gendreau born Antananarivo, Madagascar. French jurist, professor of international law; numerous cases at World Court; sponsor of Russell Tribunal on Palestine; critical of US violation of international law in Vietnam agent orange, Iraq, Kosovo, Guantanamo.

• 1936 Astrid N. Heiberg born Oslo, Norway. Professor of psychiatry; first woman president of International Red Cross, 1997-2001. Peacemaker in Tamil-Sri Lanka war, 2003.

• 1944 Carolyn Tanner Irish born Salt Lake City, UT. Episcopal Bishop of Utah, 1996; anti-Iraq War epistle, 2002.

• 1949 Anuradha Koirala born Rumjata, Okhaldhunga, Nepal. Founded Maiti (Mother's home) to rescue girls from sex slavery.

• 1968 Gayle Brandeis born Chicago, IL. Author and poet. Founding member of Code Pink, 2002, and Women Creating Peace, 2003.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1910 Alice Paul endorsed militant suffrage tactics like British women’s action, which she described as, “war of men and women working together against the politicians.”

• 1915 National Conference of Women met at London's Central Hall to discuss basis of permanent peace.

• 1931 WILPF Economic Conference, Paris responded to Great Depression with call for European Customs Union.

• 1982 Greenham Women tried at Newbury: "How dare the government presume the right to kill others in our names?"

• 2004 Vicky Monk of Sammamish, WA led soldiers' mothers protest at White House.

• 2008 Spanish Cabinet has female majority.

• 2011 Diane Wilson protested oil spill at BP meeting London.

• 2011 37 Nepali women leaders arrested in protest calling for establishment of new government and new constitution.

April 15

Women peacemakers born today

• 1887 Violet Bonham Carter born Hampstead, London, England (d. 1969). First woman president of Internationalist Liberal Party.

• 1918 Shirley R. Barbour (d. 2005). American artist; World Federalist. Leader in Rhode Island Nuclear Freeze campaign Women for a Non-Nuclear Future; Rhode Island Peace Mission.

• 1921 Vimala Thakar born Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India (d. 2009). Gandhian social activist and spiritual leader. Active in Vinoba Bhave’s land gift movement.

• 1923 Yusra al-Barbari born Al-Daraj, Gaza. Palestinian educator; barred from leaving Gaza. Served Red Cross in WWII and later as executive. Palestinian delegate to UN General Assembly, 1963. Founding President, Palestinian Women’s Union in Gaza, 1964. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1934 Solange Fernex born Strasbourg, France (d. 2006). French biologist; WILPF leader; Gandhian nonviolent protester. Member of European Parliament, 1989-94.

• 1934 Ida Kuklina born Russia. Founded Committee of Soldiers' Mothers Against the Chechen War, 1989. Received Right Livelihood Award, 1996.

• 1966 Chai Ling born Rizhao, Shandong. Graduate student in psychology. "General Commander" of Tiananmen protests, 1989; exiled, 1990. Founded All Girls Allowed, 2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1918 Poet Josephine Bell tried for conspiracy to violate Espionage Act for her poem “A Tribute”.

  Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

  Are in prison tonight, 

  They are working on our destinies: 

  They are forging the love of the nations: 

  . . .

  Tonight they lie in prison.

• 1973 Chris Sadler, British student poet, held off attacks at Keerungudi, Tamilnad in Gandhian satyagraha.

• 1975 Shirley MacLaine's documentary film Other Half of the Sky about African-American activist Unita Blackwell's trip to China was released.

• 1993 Global Peace Movers tax protest at Concord Depot resulted in arrest of three women.

• 2011 Mabel Cluer celebrated her 100th birthday while standing in CND peace vigil against Iraq War, Wimbledon.

• 2013 Hattie Nestel and Priscilla Lynch stenciled “I smell a rat” on the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant driveway, resulting in their arrests.

April 16

Women peacemakers born today

• 1937 Colette Flesch born Dudelange, Luxembourg. President, Council of Europe, 1980; Luxembourg Foreign Minister, 1980-84; Director-General European Commission, 1990-1999.

• 1938 Alice Slater born New York, NY. Anti-nuclear activist; attorney. Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; president of Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE); co-founder of Abolition 2000.

• 1941 Sucheng Chan born Chicago, IL. First Asian-American provost of University of California; founder of first department of Asian-American studies, Santa Barbara.

• 1963 Aleta Baun born Lelobatan, Molo, Timor, Indonesia. Led 150 women in year-long nonviolent protest against marble mining, 2010. Awarded Goldman Environmental Prize, 2013.

• 1977 Ingrid Fiskaa born Bryne, Norway. Norwegian politician and peace activist. Socialist Left Deputy in Parliament, 1997-2005, 2009-13. Spokesperson for Peace Initiative Against Iraq War, 2002-03; led protest against troops in Iraq, 2005. Led Peace Initiative, 2005-06. State Secretary for Environment and International Development, 2009; chaired Peace Support Group in Nepal, 2011. Led protests against NATO presence in Afghanistan.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1922 Children's Crusade for Amnesty for political prisoners organized by Kate Richards O'Hare departed St. Louis for Washington DC.

• 1960 Ella Baker organized a student conference on nonviolence at Shaw University, leading to the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

• 2003 Five-year-old daughter of Christine Manes was pulled from her arms as she was arrested at Boeing Protest, St. Charles, MO.

• 2005 Aid worker Marla Ruzicka killed by suicide bomber, Baghdad.

• 2005 Tina Richards arrested for sit-in at US House Speaker Pelosi's office.

• 2019 Extinction Rebellion members Farhana Yamin and Clare Farrell were arrested for supergluing themselves to Shell Building, London.

April 17

Women peacemakers born today

• 1851 Anna Garlin Spencer born Attleborough, MA (d. 1931). Unitarian minister; suffragist. Co-founded American School Peace League for peace education, 1908. Founding member and National Chair of WILPF, 1919-20.

• 1917 Marietta Peabody Tree born Lawrence, MA (d. 1991). American diplomat appointed by JFK; US representative to UN Human Rights Commission and Trusteeship Council, 1961; mother of Vietnam author Frances Fitzgerald.

• 1924 Althea Simmons born Shreveport, LA (d. 1990). Civil rights activist lawyer; chief lobbyist for NAACP, esp. Mississippi voting rights. Advocated for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as national holiday.

• 1957 Jacqueline Moudeina born Kouma, Chad. First Chadian woman lawyer; human rights activist; began suit of 7 women against dictator Hissène Habré for genocide 2000; wounded by grenade in peaceful protest 2001; Ennals Human Rights Defender 2004; Right Livelihood award 2011.

• 1969 Birgitta Jónsdóttir born Rejkjavík, Iceland. "Poetician" and activist. Organized Art Against War protest against Iraq War. Member of Icelandic Parliament for Citizens Party, 2009-13, and Pirate Party, which she founded, 2013-present. Led campaign to support whistleblowing for free speech.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1943 Howard University law student Pauli Murray led 19 of her classmates in a nonviolent sit-in protest of segregated Little Palace Cafeteria, Washington DC.

• 1955 First conference of Federation of South African Women, Johannesburg.

• 1992 In Good Friday protest, Carol Carlson of Memphis was arrested for hammering nuclear missile silo at Whiteman Air Force Base; sentenced to seven months prison.

• 1996 Founding of Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, leading to women’s role in final peace agreement, Belfast.

• 2011 Zainab al-Khawaja began 10-day hunger strike to protest Bahrain violence.

• 2013 Sandra Steingraber jailed 15 days for nonviolent protest of fracking operation.

• 2013 Three women arrested for blocking road to Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

April 18

Women peacemakers born today

• 1856 Fanny Petterson born Narva, Estonia, Russia (d. 1915). Swedish peace pioneer. Professor of modern languages. Founded Society of International Concord. Organized Stockholm Peace Congress, 1910.

• 1889 Jessie Street born Chota Nagpur, Bihar, India (d. 1970). Australian feminist, Socialist and peace leader. Only woman on Australian delegation to San Francisco Conference on the founding of the UN; delegate of UNESCO, 1947-48; vice chairperson, UN Human Rights Commission, 1948.

• 1942 Irene Fernandez born Kedah, Malaysia (d. 2014). Malaysian human rights activist. Founded Tenaganita (“Women Force”), 1991. Received Right Livelihood Award, 2005.

• 1945 Margaret Fitzsimmons Hassan born Dalkey, Dublin, Ireland (d. 2004). Director of CARE Iraq; kidnapped and murdered, Baghdad, 2004.

• 1962 Bothaina Kamel born Cairo, Egypt. Egyptian TV anchor; first woman to run for president 2011; leader from start of Tahrir square protests, forming shield for male activists.

• 1972 Rosa Clemente born South Bronx, NY. Journalist and nonviolent community organizer. Vice-presidential candidate of Green Party, 2008, winning 161,797 votes.

• 1982 Esther Ibanga born Nigeria. Nigerian Christian pastor. Protested Jos massacres with peace march of 100,000 women and children, 2010. Co-founded Women Without Walls Initiative, 2011.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1901 National Council of French Women formed.

• 1910 International conference to abolish traffic in women, Paris.

• 1977 First Thursday Afternoon Protest by Mothers of the Plaza, Buenos Aires.

• 1985 Sheila Parks and Suzanne Schmidt arrested at Quonset Point for damaging and bloodying Trident missile.

• 1989 Daughters of Mother Jones occupied Pittston headquarters Lebanon VA. in support of strike.

April 19

Women peacemakers born today

• 1854 Emma Pieczynska-Reichenbach born Paris, France (d. 1927). Swiss peace educator and speaker; feminist and Christian pacifist.

• 1872 Alice Salomon born Berlin, Germany (d. 1948). “Matriarch of German social studies.” Founded Social Women’s School, 1908. Founded German Academy for Women's Social and Educational Work, 1925.

• 1882 Margery Corbett Ashby born Danehill, East Sussex, England (d. 1981). British suffragist and politician. Observed Versailles Peace Conference, 1919. Delegate to Geneva Disarmament Conference, 1932; resigned when government rearmed, 1935. Drafted UN Human Rights Declaration; participated in final demonstration at age 98.

• 1893 Jessie Stephen born Marylebone, London (d. 1979). British militant suffragist, pacifist and Socialist labor organizer; leader in No Conscription Fellowship opposing First World War.

• 1934 Sally Jean Michael Gawel (d. 1999). Radical Northeastern University professor of philosophy. Joined student strike after Kent State shootings, 1970. Coined the slogan "Pentago! Pentagoing! Pentagon!" at Women's March against the war, 1971.

• 1939 Inga-Britt Ahlenius born Karlstad, Sweden. Swedish financial expert; UN Under-Secretary of Internal Oversight, 2005; Auditor of UN mission in Kosovo, 2003.

• 1968 Ashley Judd born Granada Hills, CA. Film actress. Appointed Global Youth Aids Ambassador, 2003; documentary on AIDS in India, 2007; two missions to Congo against genocide and rape.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1913 Kasturba Gandhi committed herself to civil disobedience Phoenix, Natal.

• 1915 Maude Royden's classic book Militarism versus Feminism published.

• 1989 Daughters of Mother Jones ended their occupation of Pittston coal plant Lebanon, VA.

• 1941 Bertolt Brecht's anti-fascist play “Mother Courage” debuted in Zurich, starring Therese Giehse.

• 1992 Federation des Femmes por la Paix Mondiale (FFPM) founded Seoul.

• 1992 "Tomb of Death" protest by four nuns at Wirstmith Airforce base Osceola WI.

• 1997 Swedish Women Choose Life Rev. Cecilia Redner and Marija Fischer planted apple tree at Bofors arms factory.

• 2007 Cabinet of Finland attained female majority, a global first.

• 2015 During a visit from two Ugandan cabinet ministers, Keromela Anek led women in a nude roadblock in the village of Apaa.

April 20

Women peacemakers born today

• 1939 Gro Harlem Brundtland born Oslo, Norway. Three-time prime minister of Norway, first woman and youngest ever. First woman to head World Health Organization, 1998-2003; UN Special Envoy for Climate Change, 2007.

• 1949 Jessica Lange born Cloquet, MN. Actress who opposed Iraq War; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador 2003, with mission to Congo to oppose violence to women.

• 1950 Sandra Kanck born Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Australian social reformer and peace activist. Politician; member of South Australian Parliament, 1993-2009. Protested French atomic tests, Mururoa, 1971.

• 1955 Michele Picard born Grenoble, France. President of Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia, 1997. Judge at International Criminal Tribunal Yugoslavia (ICTY), 2008; Human Rights Advisory Panel, Kosovo, 2007.

• 1963 Seyran Ates born Istanbul, Turkey. German-Turk feminist Muslim lawyer. One of 1000 women nominated by WILPF for Nobel Peace Prize for defense of women's rights; severely wounded by Muslim fanatic, 1984.

• 1975 Sabeen Mahmud born Karachi, Pakistan (d. 2015). Pakistani peacemaker and “tech geek.” Founded The Second Floor café (T2F), a community space for social change, 2007. Assassinated after hosting a seminar at T2F, 2015.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1534 Holy Maid of Kent, Elizabeth Barton hanged Westminster for treason, a political martyr of Henry VIII.

• 1975 20,000 Greek Cypriot women marched in demand for return of refugees.

• 1982 First of many arrests of Barbara Wiedner at Mather AFB. "As a mother and grandmother, I could no longer remain silent as our world rushes on its collision course with disaster which threatens the lives and futures of all children, everywhere, and the future of this beautiful planet itself."

• 1986 Women’s Funeral protest against army killings Port Elizabeth, South Africa. “We said it’s enough, what are we going to do now? We are the women, we are going to take over the funeral; there will be no more children dying.”

• 2007 American author Maureen Corrigan injured in protest against Israeli wall of separation.

• 2009 Neda Agha-Soltan killed in nonviolent protest, Tehran.