August 1

Women peacemakers born today

• 1846 Clara Bewick Colby born Gloucester, England (d. 1916). American publisher, first official war correspondent, lecturer, and peace advocate. Founding editor of suffragist journal Women’s Tribune, 1883. Delegate to International Peace Conferences, London, 1899; The Hague, 1913. Spoke on peace at Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. Correspondent for International Peace Union. Vice-President, League of World Peace, 1915.

• 1881 Rose Macaulay born Rugby, England (d. 1958). Popular British author of war novels Non-Combatants and Others (1916), What Not: A Prophetic Comedy (1918), Mystery at Geneva (1922). Internationalist who promoted League of Nations; sponsored Peace Pledge Union; pacifist pamphleteer.

• 1899 Kamala Nehru born Delhi, India (d. 1936). Indian nonviolent freedom fighter; member of Gandhi's ashram. Arrested for leading nonviolent protests. Led women's picketing, Allahabad, 1921; twice jailed. Sister-in-law of nonviolence leader Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.

• 1953 María Esperanza Ortega born Arcatao, El Salvador. Member, Association of War Victims of El Salvador. Founding member of Coordinadora de Comunidades y Repoblaciones (“Coordination for Communities and Repopulation”), 1988. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1922 Professor Kristine Bonnevie was the only woman member at the first session of the Committee on Intellectual Co-operation, Geneva.

• 1931 Total Disarmament Now Committee (TDNC) established by Women's Peace Union, Geneva; idea of Elinor Byrns.

• 1981 Longest Peace Vigil: Concepción Picciotto began vigil against nuclear weapons outside White House, continuing until her 2016 death.

• 1983 Climax of Seneca Campaign. 3000 women committed mass civil disobedience; 242 arrested including Barbara Deming.

• 1983 40 Women from Puget Sound Peace Camp buried Cruise Missile Kent WA.

• 1988 Two Nuns hammered Trident missile parts and poured blood in Plowshares protest Quonset, CT.

• 1995 "Building a Secure and Sustainable World Society" WILPF Conference Helsinki, Finland called for woman UN Secretary General.

• 1996 The Women in Black held fifth international meeting of The Women United Against War Network, Novi Sad, Vojvodino, Serbia.

• 1997 Through the efforts of groups including the Naga Mother's Association led by Neidonuo Angami, the Indian government announced the Nagaland Ceasefire.

August 2

Women peacemakers born today

• 1894 Berta Lutz born São Paulo, Brazil (d. 1976). One of four women to sign UN Charter 1945. Brazilian zoologist and leading feminist who led for right of women to vote; diplomat who signed treaty on Diplomatic Asylum 1954; co-founded Pan American Association of Women 1922.

• 1922 Annabelle Wiener born New York, NY (d. 1999). Deputy Director of World Federation of UN Associations (WFUNA) 1991; ran philatelic program promoting UN; Special Adviser on International Women's Year.

• 1945 Jewell Jackson McCabe born Washington DC. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer for Northeast US; founder and first President of National Coalition of 100 Black Women 1981.

• 1955 Nevena Vučković Šahović born Belgrade. UN expert on rights of the child 2003-9; human rights lawyer; President of Child Rights Centre Belgrade; judge International Children's Peace Prize.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1915 Jane Addams and other women envoys reported on their appeals to state leaders to stop World War I.

• 1972 First Woman Delegate on UN Security Council Jeanne Cissé of Guinea.

• 1991 Nancy Kent and Lynn Fredriksson convicted of disorderly breach of peace for protest of June 8 Gulf War Victory parade, D.C.

• 2004 "Women, Water, Peace" 28th WILPF Congress, Göteborg, Sweden.

August 3

Women peacemakers born today

• 1802 Sarah Platt Doremus born Manhattan, NY (d. 1877). "Jewel of New York" who organized international relief to Greece 1828, Ireland 1869; inspired by appeals of oppressed Chinese women, she started single women's missions.

• 1868 Cathinca Olsen born Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 1947). Gandhian ceramist, painter and designer. Leader of Gandhian Friends of India; stayed at his ashram 1928-9 where she painted.

• 1893 Elsa Cedergren born Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1996 aged 102). Quaker granddaughter of Swedish King Oscar II; leader of Action Group against Swedish Nuclear Bomb; head of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), the international association of Quakers 1959-61; the first worldwide meeting of FWCC in Africa, Nairobi 1961.

• 1905 Maggie Kuhn born Buffalo, NY (d. 1995). Radical nonviolent social reformer; founded Grey Panthers 1970 against agism, sexism and militarism; first protest opposed Vietnam War Aug. 1970.

• 1920 Nicola Geiger born Germany (d. 2006). Buddhist Peace activist; joined White Rose resistance to Hitler; lost husband and 2 babies in World War II; raped at end of war Berlin 1945; turned to life of peace: aided postwar refugees; helped Korean survivors of Japanese occupation, and Hiroshima victims; opposed Marcos regime in Philippines; sat-in segregated restaurants; 8 years at Resource Center for Nonviolence Santa Cruz; opposed Vietnam War; active in Women Strike for Peace and WILPF.

• 1935 Myrna Lamb born Newark, NJ. Feminist playwright led United Women's Contingent in massive protest of 500,000 against Vietnam War 1971.

• 1936 Catherine Lalumiere born Rennes, France. Secretary General Council of Europe 1989-94; Vice President European Movement International.

• 1949 Lynne Greenwald born Erie, PA (d. 2014). American anti-nuclear activist; protested Vietnam War inside Pentagon. Arrested for climbing onto missile, Great Falls, MT, sentenced to six months while pregnant, but released after one month,1982; led protests against missile carrying White Train; arrested for cutting three fences into Kitsap missile base, Bangor, WA, served 6 months prison, 2009.

• 1949 Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis born Limossol, Cyprus. First woman Foreign Minister of Cyprus 2007; poet; sociologist; delegate to UN active in securing independence of Namibia.

• 1964 Annick Girardin born St. Malo, France. French politician. Member of National Assembly, 2007-14. Junior Minister for Development, 2014-present.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1529 Ladies Peace of Cambrai negotiated by Louise of Savoy, Regent of France, and Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, ending war between France and Austria.

• 1983 Puget Sound Women's Peace Camp demonstration against pornography.

• 1986 World Sing-Out for Peace organized Milwaukee by Ruth Johnson.

• 1986 Laurie MacBride led the Motherpeace action civil disobedience at Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island. Eight women were arrested for holding a picnic protest at Winchelsea Island, center of the Nanoose naval weapons testing range.

August 4

Women peacemakers born today

• 1868 Esther Roper born Lindow, Cheshire (d. 1938). British suffragist opposed World War I; aided conscientious objectors; lifelong partner of pacifist Eva Gore-Booth.

• 1869 Evelyn Jane Sharp born Denmark Hill, London, England (d. 1955). British author and suffragist. Tax resister; pacifist against WWI. Twice imprisoned and force-fed, 1911, 1913. Barred from Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915. Took part in postwar Quaker relief to Russia, 1920, and Germany, 1921.

• 1920 Helen Thomas born Winchester, KY (d. 2013). American journalist and author; critic of Iraq War and Israeli occupation.

• 1928 Betty Shiver Krawczyk born Salinas, CA. Canadian environmental activist; repeatedly arrested, jailed 1994, 1999, 2000 (twice), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 for nonviolent environmental protests.

• 1938 Ellen Schrecker born Philadelphia, PA. "The dean of the anti-anti-Communist historians." Historian; anti-war activist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1914 First major women's rally against war, Kingsway Hall London organized by Helena Swanwick.

• 1934 In Paris, Gabrielle Duchene organized the World Assembly of Women and chaired the World Committee of Women Against War and Fascism.

• 1946 First postwar WILPF Congress "A New World Order" Luxembourg.

• 1954 WILPF XIIth Congress Paris condemned US aid to French war in Vietnam.

• 1966 While participating in a nonviolent march for racial equality led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Chicago, Sister Mary Angelica injured by brick.

• 1967 Chicago Manifesto "To the Women of the Left" started radical women's movement.

• 1977 Frances Peavey led nonviolent protest against expulsion of Asian tenants from International Hotel, San Francisco.

• 1983 Barbara Deming released from Waterloo, NY jail.

• 1985 On the 40th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Justine Merritt led thousands in wrapping 15-mile-long Peace Ribbon around the Pentagon.

• 1990 Catholic nuns arrested for protest at Wurtsmith AFB, Osceola MI.

• 1994 The Women in Black held 3rd international meeting of The Women United Against War Network, Novi Sad, Vojvodino, Serbia.

• 1995 Neidonuo Angami presided over 3,000 Naga women for a Mourning Day of war, resolving "Shed No More Blood."

August 5

Women peacemakers born today

• 1905 Alice Shaffer born Chicago, IL (d. 1997) "Champion of the world's children". Quaker social worker; director of Berlin Quaker center 1939 aiding refugees; first UNICEF worker in Latin America 1947-62.

• 1910 Jacquetta Hawkes born Cambridge, England (d. 1996). Prominent British archaeologist; wrote UNESCO History of Mankind; led Aldermaston March at founding of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) 1958; chaired Women Against the Bomb conference London June 1958.

• 1976 May Sabe Phyu born Yangon, Burma. Kachin peace leader. Founded Kachin Peace Network, 2012; Director, Gender Equality Network. Arrested and acquitted for peace protests.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1906 In response to women's activism, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar of Persia issued a proclamation calling for the establishment of a national constitution.

• 1989 22-year-old protester Helen Thomas killed by police van Greenham Common.

• 1990 First International Conference of Indigenous Women Karasjohka, Norway.

• 1990 Women on the Road to Peace started 2,500 mile protest against British nuclear bases start at Upper Heyford, Berks.

• 2005 Peace Gardeners (Barbara Smedema, Susan Clarkson, Treena Lenthall, Lizzie Jones) arrested for planting vines and fig trees at Aldermaston atomic facility.

August 6

Women peacemakers born today

• 1854 Anna Braithwaite Thomas born Banbury, Oxfordshire (d. 1947). Anglo-American Quaker peace leader; minister and author; recorded wartime relief Germany, Austria and Hungary in First World War.

• 1858 Ethel J. Rosenberg born Bath, England (d. 1930). English artist. Pioneering speaker and writer of Bahá’i causes of peace, universal brotherhood, and gender equality.

• 1886 Inez Milholland born Brooklyn, NY (d. 1916). Socialist pacifist suffragist orator; labor lawyer and journalist who sailed on Ford's Peace ship to stop World War I; expelled from Italy for antiwar articles; suffrage icon riding white horse in 1913 parade DC.

• 1892 Ruth Suckow born Hawarden, IA (d. 1960). Quaker novelist and poet who supported conscientious objection in World War II.

• 1934 Diane di Prima born Brooklyn, NY. American anarchist and Beat Poet. Refused taxes for Vietnam War, 1966. Edited War Poems, 1968. Signed Pledge of Resistance to Bush wars, 2002.

• 1952 Wang Xuan born Yiwu, Zhejiang, China. Chinese activist. Campaigned against Japanese army's usage of germ warfare during World War II.

• 1972 Geri Halliwell born Watford, Hertfordshire, England. English pop star; member of the Spice Girls. UN Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador, 1999; mission to Zambia, 2006.

• 1983 Annevig Schelde Ebbe born Århus, Denmark. Danish actress; peace activist; sang in mass protest against Iraq War 2001; second-generation peacemaker, daughter of WILPF president.

• 1985 Debi Nova born San José, Costa Rica. UN Youth Champion against violence to women; singer, songwriter, instrumentalist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1918 Forty-eight suffragists arrested, Washington DC.

• 1965 Mariquita Platov protested Vietnam War at White House.

• 1982 Greenham women protested nuclear arms.

• 1994 Six women arrested at Burghfield England atomic weapons depot.

• 1999 Candlelight pledge of peace by South Asian women at Gandhi memorial, Delhi.

• 2005 Cindy Sheehan turned away from Crawford TX White House. "I want to ask George Bush: Why did my son die?"

• 2008 Sylvia Boyes arrested for cutting into Flyingdales England missile base.

• 2008 Patricia O’Brien appointed first woman Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary for Legal Affairs, UN.

August 7

Women peacemakers born today

• 1813 Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis born Bloomfield, NY (d. 1876). Abolitionist and suffragist; feminist editor of women's newspaper The Una; main organizer of the first National Woman's Rights Convention Worcester, MA 1850; home in Utica NY nearly burned by mob Oct. 1835.

• 1863 Matilda Widegren born Söderköping, Sweden (d. 1938). Swedish pioneer in peace education; first chair of Swedish WILPF 1919-37; radical pacifist; founded International Foyer for Refugees 1935; nominated Jane Addams for Nobel Prize.

• 1864 Ellen Fitz Pendleton born Westerly, RI (d. 1936). President of Wellesley College who opposed firing of pacifist professor Emily Balch; mathematician; only woman juror for Bok American Peace Prize 1923.

• 1869 Ellen Palmstierna born Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1941). Swedish founder of WILPF; made peace mission to Russia with Jane Addams 1915; founded Swedish Save the Children, for starving children in postwar Europe 1919.

• 1930 Mary Gregory born St. Paul, MN (d. 2005). American peace activist; potter and counselor. Protested nuclear testing, Nevada, 1950s. Anti-Vietnam War activist. Founding member, Clamshell Alliance, 1976. First arrest earned 3 months in jail, 1977.

• 1938 Helen Caldicott born Melbourne, Australia. Physician led international opposition to nuclear tests 1971; co-founded Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) 1980; active in Physicians for Social Responsibility which won Nobel Prize 1985.

• 1941 Amelia Rokotuivuna born Fiji (d. 2005). Fijian feminist who fought for peace, justice and equality; sat-in at French office in protest for nuclear free Pacific.

• 1944 Nancy Morejon born Havana. Leading Cuban poet feminist who opposed Vietnam War, Grenada invasion, Pinochet.

• 1956 Christiana Figueres born San José, Costa Rica. Costa Rican diplomat, expert on global climate change; UN Climate Chief 2010; founded Center for Sustainable Development in the Americas (CSDA) 1995; Hero of the Planet 1991.

• 1975 Charlize Theron born Benoni, Transvaal. South African/American actress; UN Messenger of Peace 2008 focusing on violence against women; promoted anti-HIV campaign.

• 1986 Sadžida Tulić born Libya. Bosnian human rights lawyer. Aided refugees from Syrian War.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1914 First meeting of Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu, major woman leader of nonviolent protest, London.

• 1989 Jennifer Hoffman and Honey Nesfel arrested Westboro MA protest against first strike weapons.

• 1995 WILPF Peace Train Helsinki to Beijing Women's Conference 230.

• 2000: All Africa Women for Peace (AAWP) founded, Pretoria University.

August 8

Women peacemakers born today

• 1847 Alice Gordon Gulick born Boston, MA (d. 1903). Opposed Spanish-American War 1898; founded International Institute for Girls, San Sebastian, Spain 1887.

• 1868 Elisabeth Waern-Bugge born Billingsfors, Sweden (d. 1951). Swedish leader of WILPF 1919; first WILPF mission and report on Palestine 1931; Swedish Women's Unarmed Uprising Against War 1935.

• 1887 Germaine Hannevart born Leuze, Hainaut, Belgium (d. 1977). Belgian educator, biology professor; became active pacifist after fiance killed in WWI; militant feminist; peace missions to China and Korea.

• 1910 Rúhíyyih Khanum born New York, NY (d. 2000). Bahá'í leader; promoted world peace and UN.

• 1932 Ruth Elizabeth Lechte born Melbourne, Australia (d. 2012). Feminist; environmentalist; peace activist. Founding staff member of Fiji YWCA, 1962. Spearheaded opposition to nuclear testing in Mururoa, leading to nuclear-free Pacific, 1968.

• 1958 Mozah bint Nasser born Al Khor, Qatar. Muslim wife of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar. UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education, 2003; UN Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) Ambassador, 2010; UN Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group, 2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1950 American Women for Peace founded. "The lives of our daughters and sons can be secure only in a world at peace."

• 1958 First woman to head national delegation to UN: Agda Rössel for Sweden.

• 1981 Nordic Women for Peace March for Peace from Copenhagen arrived Paris.

• 1983 35 German women fasted 7 days for peace, Düsseldorf.

• 1984 Barb Katt damaged computers for Trident missile in Plowshares protest at Sperry plant, Eagan, MN.

• 1988 2000 women attended the First International Women’s Peace Conference, organized and chaired by Vivian Castleberry, Dallas, TX.

• 2007 Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge fired for policy to fight AIDS.

• 2011 In Bahrain, Jalila Al Salman and Rula Al Saffar went on hunger strike to protest torture.

• 2011 Kissathon protest for better education, Santiago, Chile.

• 2012 Tibetan nun Dolkar Kyi died of immolation at Tso monastery, Kanltho, Gansu.

• 2016 Conference on Women, Peace and Security in Western Asia, Beirut.

August 9

Women peacemakers born today

• 1872 Vilma Glucklich born Vágujhely, Hungary (d. 1927). Internationalist and pacifist leader; feminist suffragist; physics educator. Led first Hungarian protest against World War I, 1914; founding member and International Secretary of WILPF, 1922-25.

• 1922 Mildred Robbins Leet born Brooklyn, NY (d. 2011). Co-founded UNIFEM, 1976; co-founded Trickle-Up against poverty, 1979; founded African Action on AIDS, 1998; promoted International Peace Academy; Theodore Kheel Award of Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, 1985.

• 1956 Lucinda Marshall. American feminist and peace activist; poet and blogger. Founded Feminist Peace Network, 2001.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1928 Jane Addams presided over the first Pan-Pacific Women's Conference, Honolulu.

• 1956 On South African Women's Day, 20,000 women including Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, and Helen Joseph participated in a silent march against Apartheid, Pretoria.

• 1981 UN Day of Solidarity with South African Women (Resolution 37/1721).

• 1981 Louise Franklin-Ramirez organized DC Grey Panthers Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee with protest at Lincoln Memorial.

• 1982 Greenham Common women gave peace cranes to base commander.

• 1990 Declaration of Karajohka of indigenous women, Norway.

• 1991 Yolanda Huet-Vaughn sentenced to 2½ years Leavenworth Prison for refusal of Gulf War service.

• 1991 Three women arrested for Nagasaki protest at Westover Field, Massachusetts.

• 2000 Five Women arrested at Pentagon for "Act of Nonviolent Love" in Nagasaki protest at Pentagon.

• 2014 Jaine Rose's Wool against Weapons Action (AWE) stretched 7-mile-long pink "peace scarf" against Trident missiles from Aldermaston to Burghfield, Berkshire.

August 10

Women peacemakers born today

• 1858 Anna J. Cooper born Raleigh, NC (d. 1964). Black educator and author, born a slave; PhD Sorbonne on French slavery.

• 1872 Martha Root born Richwood, OH (d. 1939). Feminist, journalist, and orator. High-ranking Baha'i leader; advocate of women's leadership for peace and international organization.

• 1878 Marthe Pichorel (née Collard) born Cherbourg, France (d. 1968). Militant pacifist; French syndicalist leader of teachers. Fired as teacher for pacifism, 1917. Signed women’s manifesto against World War II, 1938.

• 1944 Alice Tepper Marlin born Long Branch, NJ. Economist. Received Right Livelihood Honorary Award for work in peace-centric ethical investment, 1990.

• 1957 Angie Harmon born Highland Park, TX. Actress named UNICEF Ambassador 2013.

• 1969 Anita McKone born Canberra, Australia. Australian nonviolent activist; poet, songwriter and writer; arrested 7 times; imprisoned four, during which she fasted, one time four weeks.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1970 Women “seized” Statue of Liberty and hung banner “WOMEN OF THE WORLD UNITE.”

• 1976 First Meeting of Irish Peace People after three children were killed Belfast.

• 1982 Six Greenham Women chained to The Gem, nuclear waste ship.

• 1984 Barb Katt damaged Trident sub parts at Sperry plant in Plowshares protest.

• 1990 First arrest in Gulf War protest: Cheryl Lessin jailed 3 weeks for burning US flag, Cleveland.

• 1997 Joyce Parkhurst & Martha Scarborough jailed 9 months for cutting fence at Nevada test site.

• 1997 Angie Zelter arrested for swimming around NATO fence Coulport, Belgium.

• 1999: Indian conference “Women’s Vision: A Culture of Peace.”

• 2010 Eight women arrested for protest at Vermont Yankee nuclear plant Vernon. "Shut it down now."

August 11

Women peacemakers born today

• 1901 Margaret Moseley born Dedham, MA (d. 1997). Peace, civil rights and community activist Boston and Cape Cod; state leader WILPF; marched at Selma.

• 1917 Inge Scholl born Forchtenberg, Bavaria (d. 1998). Member of White Rose nonviolent resistance to Hitler; arrested but released; postwar leader opposing Pershing nuclear missiles; arrested for protest at Mutlangen 1985.

• 1941 Elizabeth Holtzman born Brooklyn, NY. Elected 1973 to Congress on anti-Vietnam War platform; youngest woman elected to Congress, age 31; opposed capital punishment and Apartheid; sued Nixon for bombing Cambodia 1973; advocated impeaching Bush for Iraq War.

• 1947 Miriam Leiva born Villa Clara, Cuba. Cuban dissident journalist; co-founded Ladies in White protesting political detentions 2003; fired from Foreign Ministry 1992; sought reconciliation of US and Cuba; blog Cuban Reconciliation.

• 1966 Melissa Parke born Donnybrook, Australia. Served as lawyer for UN, Kosovo, 1999-2002; Gaza 2002-03. Established UN Ethics Office, 2005-06. Member, Australian Parliament, 2007-present. Australian Minister of Development, 2013.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1253 Death of St. Clare, companion of nonviolent Saint Francis.

• 1917 Women's Peace Crusade march by 1000 women Nelson, Lancashire.

• 1958 UN Treaty on Women's Nationality effective.

• 1977 20th WILPF Conference, Tokyo.

• 2003 11th international meeting of Women in Black, Marina di Massa, Tuscan coast. “Let’s Dare to Make Peace; Let’s Disarm the World”

• 2011 Judge Patricia Acioli assassinated by police bullets Rio de Janiero for prosecuting police violence.

• 2014 European Conference of Women in Black, Leuven, Belgium.

August 12

Women peacemakers born today

• 1831 Helena Blavatsky born Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine (d. 1891). Founder of Theosophy, universal brotherhood 1875; profoundly influenced Gandhi.

• 1833 Lillie Devereux Blake born Raleigh, NC (d. 1913). Pacifist suffragist; author and orator; Civil War correspondent; opposed US imperialism and War with Spain; principal of New York Public School 6.

• 1859 Katharine Lee Bates born Falmouth, Cape Cod (d. 1929). Poet and songwriter; Wellesley professor; author of "America the Beautiful" and pacifist poem "Fodder for Cannon."

• 1928 Fatima Meer born Durban, South Africa (d. 2010). Gandhian Muslim anti-apartheid leader and writer; sociology professor. Founded Student Passive Resistance Committee, 1946. Banned by South African government, 1952-56, 1976-86. Survived assassination attempt, 1976; home twice firebombed.

• 1948 Eve Bazaiba born Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese Senator. Muslim proponent of nonviolence and conflict resolution. Member of regional peace organization Women as Partners for Peace in Africa (WOPPA), 2000. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1950 Nina Karpachova born Ceadîr-Lunga, Moldova, USSR. Ukrainian human rights lawyer. First national Ombudsman and Commissioner of Human Rights, 1998-2012. Protested arrest of former premier Yulia Tymoshenko.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• Feast Day of Clare of Assisi. "Go forth in peace. . . Go forth without Fear."

• 1914 Peace Parade Committee formed New York City opposing World War I.

• 1918 30 Suffragists arrested Lafayette Park, DC.

• 1943 Pacifist “C. O. Girls” demanded a role in Civilian Public Service as alternative to war, Goshen College.

• 1976 1,000 women demonstrated Andersontown, N. Ireland where three Maguire children were killed. 6,000 people signed peace petition.

• 1991 Three women arrested Westover Field, Mass. for Nagasaki Remembrance.

• 1996 Bougainville “Women Speak Out” against civil war, Sydney, Australia.

• 2005 13th international meeting of Women in Black, Jerusalem. “Women Resisting Occupation and War”

• 2016 Conclusions of UN on Women and Sustainable Development “Driving the Gender-Sensitive Implementation”.

August 13

Women peacemakers born today

• 1818 Lucy Stone born West Brookfield, MA (d. 1893). Peace orator, pioneer feminist, suffragist, abolitionist; rescued Stephen Foster from Cape Cod mob with nonviolent confrontation; inspired Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, and Julia Ward Howe.

• 1847 Catherine Impey born Street, Somerset (d. 1923). British Quaker reformer and humanitarian; pioneer of transatlantic campaign against lynching; opponent of militarism: vegetarian; founded first British anti-racist paper Anti-Caste 1888; began anti-racist Society for the Recognition of the Universal Brotherhood of Man 1893; campaigned in US against lynching with Frederick Douglass; sponsored Ida B. Wells’s tour of Briitain.

• 1947 Gay McDougall born Atlanta, GA. African-American human rights lawyer; head Global Rights, Partners for Justice 1994-2005; first UN Independent Expert on Minorities 2005; advised first South African elections 1994, and first government of Namibia 1990.

• 1949 Marjon V. Kamara born Monrovia, Liberia. Director of UN High Commission for Refugees in Africa 2005-09; Ambassador to UN 2009; UN commission on postwar capacities 2010.

• 1953 Kristalina Georgieva born Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian environmental economist; official nominee for UN Secretary General 2016. European of Year 2010 for work as European Humanitarian Commissioner in relief of Haiti earthquake 2010, and Pakistan floods 2010.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• Feast Day of St. Radegund of Thuringia, Queen of Franks (518-587)

• 1976 Women for Peace Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams issued first Declaration of Peace. "We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society. . . We reject the use of the bomb and the bullet and all the techniques of violence."

• 2012 6000 Tunisian Women marched to protest making women "complimentary to men."

• 2014 Gen. Kristin Lund took command in Cyprus, as the first woman leader of UN Peacekeeping force.

• 2016 Peruvian women organized march of over 50,000 against violence. “Enough of Violence!”

August 14

Women peacemakers born today

• 1874 Mary Patterson Nitobe born Philadelphia, PA (d. 1938). "First Lady of the World", as hostess at League of Nations for husband, the Under-Secretary; Quaker pacifist.

• 1929 Louise McIntosh Slaughter born Lynch, KY. "Most liberal" Democratic congresswoman 1987; opposed Iraq War; favored impeaching president for deception; opposed missile defense and landmines.

• 1944 Arlette Ramaroson born Diego Suarez, Madagascar. Appeals Judge International Criminal Tribunal for Ruanda; Presiding Judge who found Ildephonse Hategekimana guilty of genocide; also Bisengimana.

• 1948 Helena Knapp-Meyer born London. American professor of peace studies; author. Co-founded Nuclear Freeze, 1980; published Dangerous Peace-Making, 2003.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1917 Suffragettes' Kaiser Wilhelm Protest mobbed Washington DC.

• 1918 Thirty women suffragists arrested Lafayette Park DC, released and rearrested.

• 1932 Kathe Kollwitz's masterwork dedicated Roggevelde, Flanders as memorial to her son killed 1914.

• 1976 First Peace March Northern Ireland, Belfast 10,000 marchers.

August 15

Women peacemakers born today

• 1787 Eliza Lee Cabot Follen born Boston, MA (d. 1860). Nonviolent abolitionist leader, poet and childrens' author; opposed Mexican War.

• 1828 Maria Deraismes born Paris (d. 1894). Leading French feminist and pacifist; founded Human Right, first Masonic lodge practicing equality 1882; co-founded Society for Amelioration of Women's Condition 1870; co-convened first women's rights conference 1878; promoted arbitration.

• 1885 Edna Ferber born Kalamazoo, MI (d. 1938). Popular author and playwright; opposed World War I.

• 1893 Dorothy C. Kahn born Seattle, WA (d. 1955). International social worker; Chief of UN Social Welfare promoting human rights and economic welfare 1950-55; began biennial Report on the World Social Situation (RWSS); delegate to international conference on child welfare.

• 1906 Suzanne Bastid born Rennes, Brittany (d. 1965). International lawyer, first French woman professor of law; on first international (League of Nations) committee on status of women 1937; President World Court 1949-52.

• 1908 Sita Akka Paulickpulle born Sri Lanka (d. 2003). American nurse and teacher. Peace poet at Washington Peace Center; protested against war at White House.

• 1915 Julia Henderson born DuQuoin, IL (d. 2013). Lifelong UN employee, 1945-70. Secretary General, International Planned Parenthood Federation, London, 1971-78. Received UN Populations Award, 1991.

• 1918 Fay Honey Knopp born Bridgeport, CT (d. 1995). Quaker minister and peace activist. Gandhian pacifist; feminist; draft counselor; prison abolitionist; sexual abuse prevention pioneer. Founded Prison Research Education Action Program (PREAP), 1976.

• 1924 Hedy Epstein born Freiburg, Germany. Holocaust survivor; peace missions to Cambodia and Central America 1989; nonviolent protests against Israeli wall and destruction 2005; March to Free Gaza March 2009; hunger strike Cairo 2009-10.

• 1930 Selma James born Brooklyn, NY. Socialist reformer. Active in West Indian independence, 1960; first Organizing Secretary for Campaign Against Racial Discrimination, 1965; International Coordinator for grassroots women's network Global Women's Strike, 2000.

• 1938 Maxine Waters born St. Louis, MO. US Congresswoman for Los Angeles 1990; opposed Iraq War; founder and chair of Out of Iraq Caucus; urged impeachment of president; arrested for nonviolent protests against Apartheid and Haiti.

• 1945 Khaleda Zia born Dinajpur, East Bengal. First woman prime minister of Bangladesh 1991-6, 2001-6; actively supported UN peacekeeping; under house arrest by opposition 1971.

• 1949 Janet Museveni born Bwongyera, Uganda. Founded Ugandan Women's Effort to Save Orphans UWESO 1986; First Lady of Uganda 1986; led fight against AIDS; founded Creators of Peace 1991.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1918 First suffrage protesters sentenced to 10-12 days in DC prison workhouse; they began hunger strike, and were released five days later.

• 1949 Eleventh WILPF conference Copenhagen opposed Cold War alliances NATO.

• 1963 Thich Nu Dien Quang immolated herself Vietnam, age 27, first of 20 nuns.

• 1973 Greenpeace activists Mary Lornie and Ann-Marie Horne attacked in Vega by French navy Moruroain protest against nuclear tests.

• 1978 Mirapuri, City of Peace established by commission of The Mother in Novara, Italy.

• 1989 Im Su Kyong arrested for crossing Korean DMZ in protest against disunity.

• 1994 Noellen Heyzer appointed Director of UNIFEM, first woman from south half of the globe.

August 16

Women peacemakers born today

• 1872 Roberta Jull born Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1961). Australian physician and social reformer. Internationalist; leader of League of Nations Union. Delegate to League of Nations, 1929. One of 200 women who presented an international petition for peace bearing more than nine million signatures to the World Disarmament Conference, Geneva, 1932.

• 1887 Agnes Dollan born Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1966). Pacifist feminist and suffragette; Socialist politician; public antiwar protests throughout World War I; led local Women's International League 1915; co-founded Women's Peace Crusade 1916; jailed in rent protest 1917.

• 1941 Frances “Finley” Peavey born Twin Falls, ID (d. 2010). Peace activist and writer. Tax refuser against nuclear weapons. Held international show “Nuclear Comedians” about the absurdity of nukes. Promoted Ganges River cleanup. Led nonviolent protest on behalf of Filipinos expelled from International Hotel, San Francisco, 1977.

• 1947 Carol Moseley Braun born Chicago, IL. First female African-American US Senator 1993-99; Ambassador to New Zealand, 1999; ran for President 2004 opposing Iraq War.

• 1955 Christiana Thorpe born Freetown, Sierra Leone. Former nun of St. Joseph; leader of West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) promoting peace after 10-year civil war. Minister of Education, 1994; first woman to head Electoral Commission, 2005.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1989 Vera Vasardani organized protest against NATO bases on Crete.

• 2002 Women’s Peace Train departed Kampala, Uganda 10 A.M. for Johannesburg on 8,000-km trip.

• 2007 14th international meeting of Women in Black, Valencia, Spain. "The relations between women as an alternative policy for Peace"

• 2010 Women and People's Summit of the Americas Against Militarization, Bogota, Colombia through 23rd. "As women, we construct loving relations with Mother Earth and affirm the Sovereignty of our people."

• 2014 First major rally of Women Wage Peace after Gaza War.

August 17

Women peacemakers born today

• 1801 Fredrika Bremer born Abo, Finland (d. 1865). Swedish author and feminist; co-founded Women’s Society for the Improvement of Prisoners 1854; suffragist.

• 1885 Clara Wichmann born Hamburg (d. 1922). Dutch jurist, sociologist, feminist, anarchist and philosopher of nonviolence; co-founded Committee on Crime & Punishment 1919; co-founded International Anti-Militarist Bureau 1920.

• 1912 Elsie Locke born Hamilton, New Zealand. (d. 2001). Author; historian; peace activist; communist; defended Maori rights; opposed conscription and nuclear weapons; co-founded Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which led to nuclear free zone; opposed Korean, Vietnam and Iraq Wars.

• 1919 Shulamith Katznelson born Geneva (d. 1999). Founded Ulpan Akiva language school Netanya for Arabs and Jews 1951; twice nominated for Nobel prize.

• 1923 Juanita Morrow Nelson (d. 2015) born Cleveland, OH. Black peace activist 50 years; arrested 1943 sit-in; first Freedom Ride Journey of Reconciliation 1947; co-founded war tax resistance Peacemakers, 1948; held record 60+ years war tax refusal; arrested, tried Philadelphia 1959; charges dropped.

• 1925 Eva Kollisch born Vienna, Austria. American poet and professor of comparative literature. Feminist lesbian peace activist; anti-Stalinist Marxist Trotskyite. Escaped Germany in Childrens’ Transport, 1940. Arrested for anti-Vietnam protests. Received Clara Lemlich Award for Social Activism, 2016.

• 1960 Naomi Wallace born Prospect, KY. American playwright, poet and professor; peace activist; “The Fever Chart: Three Versions of the Middle East” (2008) exposes the cruelty of Palestine’s occupation and Iraq War; Women’s Boat for Gaza 2016.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1907 Pacifist Clara Zetkin elected Secretary of International Socialist Women, at Stuttgart.

• 1917 Six suffragettes arrested and sentenced to 60 days, Occoquan Workhouse, without presidential pardon.

• 1982 Anti-Apartheid activist Ruth First killed by letter bomb, Maputo, Mozambique.

• 1991 German women formed peace network Women’s Action Scheherazade to protest Iraq War.

• 1992 Paulette Blair and Carolyn Holmberg arrested Boyd County NB protest against low-level nuclear dump.

• 2011 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) faulted US protection against domestic violence in Gonzalez case.

• 2012 FEMEN women cut down cross in Kiev to support Pussy Riot protests in Russia.

• 2015: 470 Women of Zabadani, Syria demanded “Stop the Violence!”

August 18

Women peacemakers born today

• 1898 Amalia González Caballero de Castillo Ledón born Santander, Tamaulipas, Mexico (d. 1986). Mexican stateswoman and women's rights leader; poet and playwright. First woman in presidential cabinet position. Mexican delegate to San Francisco Conference on founding of United Nations, 1945.

• 1900 Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit born Allahabad, India (d. 1991). First woman president UN General Assembly 1953; diplomat ambassador to USSR, US, UK. Gandhian nonviolent resister 1919; jailed for civil disobedience 1932, 1940, 1942; Vice President India WILPF.

• 1904 T. S. Soundaram Ramachandran (née Iyengar) born Thirinulveli, Madras, India (d. 1964). Physician associate of Gandhi; active in Quit India movement; started Gandhigram program of rural health, education, development; founded Kasturba Hospital 1947; began Gandhigram Rural Institute 1947; member of national legislature 1957-67; as Deputy Minister of Education she introduced compulsory free education, and National Service.

• 1911 Amelia Boynton Robinson born Savannah, GA. Nonviolence advocate and civil rights activist. Key figure in planning of Selma marches, 1965. Beaten unconscious by police during first Selma to Montgomery march at Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 7, 1965.

• 1912 Elsa Morante born Rome, Italy (d. 1985). Author. Published her essay “For and Against the Atom Bomb”, 1965. Wrote stage musical “The World Saved by Children”, 1968. Contrasted the horrors of war as she experienced the underground in World War II with world history in History: A Novel, 1974.

• 1937 Sheila Cassidy born Cranwell, Lincolnshire. English doctor tortured in Chile under Pinochet, 1975; led international campaign to expose torture.

• 1949 Florence Rita Arrey born Buea, Cameroon. Judge of International Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) 2003; convicted Rwandan singer Bikindi of genocide.

• 1959 Winona LaDuke born Los Angeles, CA. Native American; member of Anishinaabe people. Vice Presidential candidate for Green Party 1996, 2000; founded Indigenous Women's Network 1985; Reebok Human Rights Award 1998.

• 1970 Samar Yazbek born Jableh, Syria. Syrian writer, journalist, and editor. Feminist; follower of Gandhi.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1968 17th WILPF Congress, Nyborg Strand, Denmark; Dorothy Hutchinson's keynote "The Right to be Human", "to express and to implement human compassion is a human right."

• 1981 Rosa Cisneros assassinated aiding poor in El Salvador; human rights lawyer.

• 1983 Trial of seven Greenham women for painting Blackbird spy plane; case dismissed, one jailed for contempt.

• 2000 Hina Jilani named first Special Rep. For Human Rights Defenders; founded first Pakistani women's law firm.

• 2003 Liberian Peace agreement achieved by women Accra, Ghana.

• 2005 Karambu Ringera convened first Women's International Grassroots Peace Congress, Nairobi.

August 19

Women peacemakers born today

• 1856 Florence Balgarnie born Scarborough, Yorkshire (d. 1928). Militant British suffragette; international speaker on reform; pacifist leader of International Arbitration & Peace Association; Secretary of British Anti-lynching League.

• 1885 Grace Hutchins born Boston, MA (d. 1965). "Revolutionary" labor economist; lesbian partner of pacifist Anna Rochester; leader of nonviolent pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation 1922-26; later communist; missionary to China; arrested in Sacco-Vanzetti protest 1927.

• 1914 Margaret Morgan Lawrence born New York, NY. African-American child psychiatrist. Pacifist in World War II and Cold War. Active member of Fellowship of Reconciliation. Received Fellowship of Reconciliation Martin Luther King Jr Award, 2005.

• 1920 Donna Allen born Petosky, MI (d. 1999). Labor economist; author and editor; historian; feminist; peace and civil rights activist; co-founder Women’s Strike for Peace; founded Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) 1972; opposed CIA intervention Guatemala, nuclear weapons, Vietnam War; arrested for protest against NATO Paris 1965; sentenced for contempt of House Un-American Activities 1966, then exonerated.

• 1939 Ingela Mårtensson born Ström, Sweden. Swedish politician and peace leader; Liberal member of parliament 1985-94; opposed militarization by NATO; President Peoples Movement NO to EU, with NATO tie; against Indonesian war in Timor 1993.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1921 Women's Peace Union founded Niagara Falls, Canada by Elinor Byrns. "Under no circumstances is it right to take human life and [we women] pledge ourselves to work for world peace."

• 1922 Jessie Hooper launched campaign for world peace in her Senate race Blue River WI.

• 1958 Erica Enzer and Eleanor Calkins led first protest against a Cold War military base, Cheyenne WY.

• 1958 Clara Luper made first Sit-in at Katz Drugstore, Oklahoma City.

• 1980 21st WILPF Conference, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT.

• 1983 Canadian women established peace camp at Cold Lake, Alberta.

• 1989 Csilla von Boeselager's Pan European peace picnic opened refuge from Eastern Europe, first leak in the Iron Curtain.

• 1991 Russian Peace Society held nonviolent protest against Moscow coup against Gorbachev.

• 1996 At UCLA's Freud Theater, Winona LaDuke accepted the Green Party vice-presidential nomination.

• 2013 16th international meeting of Women in Black, Montevideo, Uruguay.

August 20

Women peacemakers born today

• 1881 Rosa Manus born Amsterdam (d. 1943). Dutch feminist and pacifist; WILPF founding member; archivist founded IAV International Archive of Women 1935; visited women Latin America with Carrie Chapman Catt, 1921-23; deported and died in Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück.

• 1905 Alice Wedega born Alo Alo, Papua New Guinea (d. 1987). Peacemaker at home and Northern Ireland; first woman legislator 1961; conscientious objector.

• 1907 Marthe Dortel-Claudot born Vic-sur-Cère, France. Co-founded nonviolent Catholic fellowship Pax Christi 1945 for reconciliation with Germans.

• 1926 Gaositwe K.T. Chiepe born Serowe, Bechuanaland. First woman in Botswana cabinet 1974; top ambassador, 10 years Foreign Minister 1984-94; active in negotiation of Lomé Conventions for European trade and aid to Africa 1975; supported UN measures against Apartheid and promoted Namibian independence; observed elections Zanzibar, Zimbabwe 2000.

• 1932 Lonnie Nelson born Seattle, WA (d. 2014). Communist labor leader; civic organizer; protested Vietnam War; supported Stockholm Peace Appeal. Founded Seattle Mothers for Police Accountability (MFPA); arrested 3 times for civil disobedience for Indian fishing rights, against Apartheid, and Medicare cuts.

• 1936 Undine von Blottnitz born Berlin, Germany (d. 2001). Politician; dedicated to nonviolence, sustainable ecology, and anti-nuclear action. Member of European Parliament, 1984-89, 1994-99.

• 1942 Alison Des Forges (née Liebhafsky) born Schenectady, NY (d. 2009). Human rights activist; expert on Rwanda genocide and Congo.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1991 Nonviolent resistance to coup Moscow led by Russana reached critical stage.

• 1991 Moana Cole of New Zealand and Sue Frankel-Streit sentenced one year prison for Griffis AFB New Year's Dayprotest.

• 2009 Second Women's International Grassroots Peace Congress held under the theme "Women, Peace and Community," Meru, Kenya.

• 2011 First African Slut Walk against sexual violence, Capetown.