April 27

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Women peacemakers born today

  • 1759 Mary Wollstonecraft born Spitalfields, London (d. 1797). British feminist pioneer; anarchist. Opposed all war and violence; author of radical Vindication of the Rights of Women, 1792.

  • 1874 Severine born Paris, France (d. 1929). French journalist; radical feminist, pacifist, anarchist, and human rights advocate. Worked for rights of Algerian women. "Queen of the Dreyfusards" against anti-Semitism.

  • 1907 Rachel Carson born Springdale, PA (d. 1964). Ecologist; biologist. Published Silent Spring, 1962.

  • 1908 Lilian Watford born Chicago, IL (d. 2004). Quaker peace activist; lobbyist.

  • 1916 Emilia Castro de Barish born San José, Costa Rica. Costa Rican diplomat and human rights advocate. Led creation of UN Human Rights Commission, 1946; UN University of Peace, 1980; Culture of Peace, 1999. Member of UN Security Council, 1971.

  • 1927 Coretta Scott King born Heiberger, AL (d. 2006). Singer; wife and companion of Martin Luther King, Jr. Founding member of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, 1957. Following the death of her husband, founded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, 1968.

Women's peacemaking on this day

  • 1915 Jane Addams and 41 American women arrived Rotterdam on SS Noordam for International peace conference, after 3 day delay by British off Dover.

  • 1978 VONS Committee for Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted founded Czechoslovakia by Olga Havlováand other dissidents.

  • 2001 Three Ploughshares women damaged military barge Loch Goil in anti-nuclear protest. Ulla Roder spray painted "useless" on sub at Faslane.

  • 2006 18 Raging Grannies acquitted of blocking military recruiting Times Square.

  • 2009 Two US Congresswomen arrested for Darfur protest at Sudanese Embassy, Washington DC: Rep. Lynn Woolsey and Rep. Donna Edwards.

  • 2010 Beatriz Cariño Trujilo, Mexican human rights activist was murdered, Oaxaca.

  • 2012 Bertha Bejarano led TIPNIS (Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure) protest march from Trinidad, Bolivia to LaPaz.

  • 2015 Over 1,000 women attended WILPF Conference, The Hague.