December 1

Women peacemakers born today

• 1893 Dorothy Detzer born Ft. Wayne, IN (d. 1981). WILPF National Secretary 1924-46; organized post-WW I Quaker relief to Austria and Russia; lobbied against arms makers and military training; advocated for women in international organizations.

• 1901 Kothainayaki Ammal born Chengalapattu, Tamil Nadu (d. 1960). Author of 115 novels; playwright; classical singer and composer; editor; speaker; supporter of Vinoba Bhave's nonviolence efforts. Indian freedom fighter; Gandhian follower; twice imprisoned, once for eight months.

• 1937 Mervat Tallawy born Minya, Upper Egypt. Egyptian diplomat; international administrator; feminist leader; Executive Secretary Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ECSWA) 2001; chair UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1991-93; Ambassador to UN agencies Vienna 1988-91; Deputy Director UN Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) 1982-89; delegate to Middle East peace talks 1992-94.

• 1954 Medha Patkar born Bombay, India. Gandhian; nonviolent protester against Narvada dams; march and fast for life, 1986; recipient of Right Livelihood Award, 1991.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1896 Ghanaian women's nonviolent protest, Accra.

• 1914 Aletta Jacobs proposed women's peace conference which led to the creation of WILPF.

• 1949 People’s Republic hosted first Asian Women’s Conference, Beijing.

• 1955 Rosa Parks started bus boycott in "the decisive arrest" of the Civil Rights movement.

• 1985 Melbourne women began two-week vigil at US Consulate against US war machine.

• 1990 Five women and one man arrested in Gulf War protest at Westover Field, Chicopee, MA.

• 1997 37 Sudanese women arrested in Khartoum for silent march against the draft.

• 2001 World Satyagraha for Afghan women organized by Emma Bonino; 4,000+ women fasted.

• 2006 Sonia Sanchez and Grannies for Peace tried for Philadelphia protest.

• 2009 Catherine Ashton appointed first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, dictating foreign policy.

• 2014 Wong Tsz-yuet, 17, and Lo Yin-wai, 18, of Hong Kong began hunger strike for democracy.

December 2

Women peacemakers born today

• 1882 Helene Monastier born Payerne, Switzerland (d. 1976). Quaker; co-founder of first nonviolent peace corps, Service Civil International (SCI), 1920, whose motto is "Deeds, not words."

• 1934 Sissela Bok born Stockholm, Sweden. Nonviolent philosopher; daughter of Nobel prize winner Alva Myrdal.

• 1943 Sheila Watt-Cloutier born Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada. Inuit leader; environmental activist; Right Livelihood Award winner, 2015; Nobel prize nominee 2007; UN Champion of the Earth 2004.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1917 Helene Brion founded feminist and pacifist journal La Voie Feministe.

• 1949 UN Convention on Suppression of Traffic in Women approved by General Assembly.

• 1955 Prof. Jo Ann Robinson organized Montgomery bus boycott.

• 1982 First performance of "Missile America Contest" at Westlake Mall, Seattle.

• 1987 Carmen Mendieta and two other women leaders blown up by Contra mine near Piawas, Nicaragua.

• 1990 First Clothesline Project Hyannis by Rachel Carey-Harper.

• 2011 Six FEMEN women made topless protest at Euro games, Kiev.

• 2011 Norma Andrade, founder of "Our Daughters Return Home" shot in Ciudad, Juarez.

• 2013 800 members of WOZA held two peaceful protests as they petitioned Parliament on gender-based violence. “We have our rights!”

December 3

Women peacemakers born today

• 1899 Rama Devi Choudhury born Satyabhamapur, Cuttack, India (d. 1985). Gandhian leader; mother of activist Annapurna Maharana. Arrested on three occasions during independence movement, 1921, 1936, 1942; participated in Salt Movement. Organized relief for refugees from Bangladesh violence; helped in famine relief efforts, Koraput, 1951.

• 1935 Eddie Bernice Johnson born Waco, TX. Psychiatric nurse and politician. US Representative for Dallas, 1993. As head of Congressional Black Caucus, led opposition to Iraq War; opposed Kosovo bombing; voted to exit Afghanistan and Iraq. Supported a Department of Peace and Nonviolence, 2007.

• 1935 Ellen Moxley born Nanjing, China. Scottish citizen; Quaker pacifist; zoologist. Worked with Friends in Vietnam; took part in Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protests; founded Dunblane Peace House, 1987. Recipient of Right Livelihood award, 2001; awarded Gandhi Peace Prize, 2004.

• 1942 Alice Schwarzer born Wuppertal, Germany. Leading German feminist; lifelong pacifist; journalist; controversially advocated women’s military service to break “male craziness” of power, but supported conscientious objection, and hoped other women would follow.

• 1960 Daryl Hannah born Chicago, IL. Actress; eco-activist who has protested whaling, logging, sexual slavery, Amazon oil; jailed for farm protest; participated in civil disobedience against Iraq War, Los Angeles, 2006.

• 1980 Zlata Filipovic born Sarajevo. Kept diary of Bosnia War, 1991-93.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1851 Nonviolent abolitionist educational pioneer Myrtilla Miner established teachers school for African-Americans, Washington DC.

• 1909 10,000 women marched to NY City Hall in garment strike.

• 1918 Carrie Chapman Catt came up with the idea of League of Women Voters as a "service to welfare of humanity."

• 1970 Receiving a Public Service medal, Debra Sweet spoke truth to President Nixon. "I can’t believe you’re sincere in giving this award for service, when you’re killing millions of people in Vietnam."

• 1982 UN General Assembly passed resolution on Participation of Women in Promoting Peace.

• 2003 Mano River Women's Peace Network (MARWOPNET) awarded UN prize for human rights.

• 2016 Seattle Women’s March Against Hate, organized by Demi Wetzel and Kelsey Coleman.

December 4

Women peacemakers born today

• 1769 Elizabeth Coltman Heyrick born Leicester, England (d. 1831). Quaker pacifist; ex-army wife; radical pamphleteer; pioneering abolitionist; founder of women's reform groups; prison reformer; opponent of capital punishment and animal abuse.

• 1864 Edith Cavell born Swardeson, Norfolk, England (executed St. Gilles, Belgium, 1915). Nurse; executed by Germans for helping escape of Allied soldiers.

• 1864 Selina Cooper born Callington, Cornwall (d. 1946). Leading British suffragist; labor organizer; opposed both World Wars and draft; organizer Women's Peace Crusade, WILPF.

• 1919 Stella Cornelius born Sydney, Australia (d. 2011). Australian promoter of peace and conflict resolution; UN Peace Messenger; raised peace activist daughter Helena Cornelius. Founded Peace and Conflict Resolution Program of UN Association of Australia (UNAA), 1973; helped establish Media Peace Awards, 1978; founded Conflict Resolution Network, 1986, National Consultative Committee on Peace and Disarmament, 1986, and Macquarie University Centre for Conflict Resolution, 1988. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1928 Hebe de Bonafini born La Plata, Argentina. Co-founder of Mothers of Plaza del Mayo protesting disappearances; opposed US imperialism, saying Sept. 11 was result of US bombing Yugoslavia and Afghanistan.

• 1956 Margaret Arach Orech born Lira, Uganda. Lost leg to landmine, 1998; Founding Director, Uganda Landmine Survivors Association (ULSA), 2001. Ambassador for Nobel Prize organization International Campaign to Ban Landmines; Joan Kroc Woman Peacemaker, 2014.

• 1986 Rosa Lund born Copenhagen, Denmark. Red-Green member Danish Parliament, 2011-15; teacher; participated in Freedom Flotilla III for Gaza, 2015.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1916 Direct action by suffragists unrolling banner in Congress, interrupted President's speech.

• 1922 Appointment of first female career diplomat Lucille Atchison.

• 1937 Campaign for World Government begun by Lola Maverick Lloyd and Rosika Schwimmer.

• 1990 Betsy Corner arrested in Colrain, MA for entering her home after the IRS seized it for outstanding tax debts.

• 2003 Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Carmen Moreno Toscano appointed UN Director of International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

• 2007 Code Pink protesters Benjamin and Berry arrested Lahore, India.

• 2011 Uzbek woman Gulsumoy Abdujalilova committed suicide rather than kill for the state.

December 5

Women peacemakers born today

• 1890 Mildred Scott Olmsted born Glenolden, PA (d. 1990). Quaker peace activist; delivered Quaker relief in Germany, 1919; WILPF US national organization secretary, 1935; WILPF Executive Director, 1954-66.

• 1902 Mary Guillian Smieton born Cambridge, England (d. 2005). International personnel expert; UN Undersecretary, 1946; first Director of UN Personnel, 1946; board of International Civil Service Commission; UK representative to UNESCO, 1968.

• 1961 Maria Nicoletta Gaida born Tacoma, WA. Italian-American actress. Founded Ara Pacis Initiative, Rome, 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1983 Expert Meeting on Women & Peace, Vienna, through 9th.

• 1983 Trial of Puget Sound Women for talking to Boeing workers.

• 1999 Peace activist Helen Clark elected New Zealand Prime Minister.

• 2000 Three women arrested in Nashua, NH for protest against British Aerospace.

• 2005 Reta Kaur sentenced for Melbourne protest.

• 2005 Diane Wilson arrested in Houston for environmental protest.

• 2016 Uruguay held Arria-formula (informal) meeting of UN Security Council to discuss peacemaking by women.

December 6

Women peacemakers born today

• 1875 Evelyn Underhill born Wolverhampton, Staffordshire (d. 1941). Pacifist theologian; mystic; poet and novelist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1906 First meeting of the Portuguese branch of Peace & Disarmament by Women, Lisbon.

• 1916 2,000 suffragist women descended upon Congress.

• 1971 Dorothy Schneider's idea of UN Day adopted by UN General Assembly.

• 1981 2,000 Japanese women marched Tokyo on anniversary of Pearl Harbor. "We will not allow the way to war."

December 7

Women peacemakers born today

• 1801 Abigail Hopper Gibbons born Philadelphia, PA (d. 1893). Quaker abolitionist; prison reformer.

• 1815 Elizabeth Hussey Whittier born Haverhill, MA (d. 1864). Quaker pacifist; poet; abolitionist; founder of Female Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, 1833; mobbed, 1835; sister of poet.

• 1876 Willa Cather born Winchester, VA (d. 1947). Author; awarded Pulitzer Prize for antiwar novel One of Ours, 1922.

• 1932 Sheena Duncan (née Sinclair) born Johannesburg, South Africa  (d. 2010). South African anti-Apartheid leader, succeeded mother Jean Sinclair, as head of Black Sash 1975-, 1983-6; pacifist promoting nonviolent liberation; arrested 1986 for praying at parliament for black mourners; active in End Conscription campaign.

• 1935 Harriet Nahanee (née Jones) AKA Tseybeyotl born Pacheedaht tribe, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada  (d. 2007). Canadian indigenous rights activist; died soon after release from 2 weeks in jail for Sky-to-Sky highway protest.

• 1937 Nikki Nojima Louis born Seattle, WA. Japanese-American interned during World War II; WILPF playwright, "Word of Mouth: Speaking & Singing for Peace" & "Most Dangerous Women."

• 1941 Melba Pattillo Beals born Little Rock, AR. One of Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School nonviolently, 1955; later earned doctorate in education; journalist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1900 Emily Hobhouse set sail to South Africa to aid Boers during Second Boer War.

• 1921 Basanti and Urmila Devi arrested for selling khadi (home-produced cloth), Calcutta.

• 1922 "Conference for a New Peace" Emergency Peace Conference at The Hague called by WILPF, chaired by Jane Addams.

• 1943 Focolare Peace Movement founded.

• 1983 Cynthia Nelson made statement to court in Boeing trial.

• 1984 Imane Khalifeh awarded Alternative Nobel Prize for work in Lebanon war.

• 2011: Cambodian Women’s Hearing on Sexual Violence under Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh.

December 8

Women peacemakers born today

• 1626 Christina, Queen of Sweden born Stockholm (d. 1689). Patron of the father of international law, Hugo Grotius; major influence on Peace of Westphalia, which ended Thirty Years War, 1648; held Swedish throne, 1644-53; student of Islam.

• 1878 Marie Mattingly Meloney born Bardstown, KY (d. 1943). Editor and journalist; decorated by governments of Belgium and France for postwar relief; contributor to Why Wars Must Cease, 1935.

• 1903 Zelma Watson George born Hearn, TX (d. 1994). Musician; sociologist; African-American delegate to UN General Assembly, 1961; attendee African Ban The Bomb conference, Ghana, 1963; recipient of Dag Hammarskjöld Award, 1961; recipient of Dahlberg Peace Award, 1963; early advocate of UN.

• 1916 Bernice Fisher born Punxsutawney, PA (d. 1966). "Godmother of the restaurant 'sit-in' technique." Civil rights activist and labor organizer. Socialist; Baptist pacifist; Gandhian nonviolent resistance advocate. Head of Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Chicago chapter. Founding member of Committee of Racial Equality (CORE), 1942.

• 1930 Dorothy Granada born Los Angeles, CA. Nonviolent Filipina/Chicana nurse; 40-day international fast for life against nuclear weapons, 1983; part of group to protest disappeared Guatemalans, 1985; "lived on the tracks" of Concord weapons depot in Nuremberg protest, 1987; awarded FOR Peace prize, 1997; decade-plus efforts for Nicaraguan women.

• 1960 Helga Schmid born Dachau, Bavaria, Germany. Top German and European diplomat. Executive Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, 2010-current. Credited by UN women's report with successful nuclear treaty with Iran, 2015.

• 1981 Cécile Lecomte born Épinal, Vosges, France. French environmental advocate and anti-nuclear activist. Called “The Squirrel” for climbing trees and bridges to protest and “air-aerobatics against nuclear transport.”

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1941 Jeannette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against war with Japan. "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

• 1954 Kurdish activist Leyla Zana jailed by Turkish government.

• 1977 Nine members of the Mothers of La Plaza del Mayo kidnapped and disappeared.

• 1983 Five Puget Sound Women sentenced for Boeing trespass.

• 2008 Jestina Mukoko released after abduction and three months of torture at the hands of Zimbabwean agents.

• 2011 Abigail Borah interrupted conference, speaking for US, calling for climate treaty at Durban.

• 2014: Women’s Tribunal heard Nepali women's stories of wartime abuses.

December 9

Women peacemakers born today

• 1893 Muriel Lester born Leytonstone, Essex (d. 1968). "Mother of World Peace"; pacifist writer and lecturer; Socialist; settlement worker. Opposed World Wars I & II as early member of Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1914; friend of Gandhi; interned by British in Trinidad, repatriated to Holloway prison in England, 1941.

• 1895 Whina Cooper born Hokianga, North Island, New Zealand (d. 1994). "Mother of the Nation." Maori leader of hikoi, nonviolent march against loss of lands, 1975; first president Maori Women’s Welfare League, 1951.

• 1930 Felicia Langer born Tarnow, Poland. Israeli human rights activist lawyer; recipient of Alternative Nobel Prize, 1990.

• 1934 Judi Dench born Heworth, North Riding Yorkshire, England. British actress; supporter of Survival International for protection of tribal peoples.

• 1946 Sonia Gandhi born Lusiana, Italy. Nonviolent Indian leader of Congress Party, 1998; United Progressive Alliance, 2004.

• 1946 Biserka Momcinovic born Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Croatian peacemaker. Signed 1991 Antiwar Campaign Charter declaration affirming that, despite cultural differences, people can work together; actively intervened to protect Serbs from Croatian actions in Balkan war; organized two anti-war protests against Iraq war in Enough of Wars campaign. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1964 Ashima Kaul born Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Kashmiri peacemaker; journalist. Founded Athwaas (“Handshake”), forming dialogue between Muslim and Hindu women to get peace, 2001; founded Yakjah (“Being together”) Reconciliation and Development Network to counter violence, 2002; Joan Kroc Woman Peacemaker, 2014.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1897 First issue of La Fronde, feminist pacifist journal, Paris.

• 1940 Nonviolent woman Ambus Salaam went with Gandhi to Karachi to quiet riots with love.

• 1964 UN Human Rights Convention on Marriage effective.

• 1968 Eleanor Roosevelt given first UN Human Rights Prize.

• 2010 Human rights lawyer Claudia Paz y Paz named Guatemala's first woman Attorney General, eventually achieving conviction of war criminals and first laws outlawing violence against women.

• 2010 Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, human rights activist, murdered in Chihuahua, Mexico.

• 2014 Military court convicted war resister Sara Beining of desertion, with a sentence of 4 months time served and a Bad Conduct Discharge from the Army.

December 10

Human Rights Day

Women peacemakers born today

• 1891 Nelly Sachs born Berlin, Germany (d. 1970). German Jewish poet, playwright; awarded Nobel Literature Prize, 1966; awarded German Book Peace Prize, 1965; exiled 1940.

• 1922 Edith Ballantyne born Czechoslovakia. WILPF International President, 1992-98; Secretary General, Representative at UN; awarded Gandhi Peace Award, 1996; awarded first International Peace Woman Award, 2003.

• 1943 Tatyana Mamonova born Leningrad. Pioneer Russian dissident feminist writer and artist. Recipient of human rights award by African Peace Network, Accra, 1999, where she was keynote speaker on violence against women & children; exiled 1980.

• 1974 Maryam Uwais born Washington, D.C. Muslim lawyer; Nigerian; human rights activist.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1867 Wyoming became the first US state to give vote to women.

• 1916 Grace Abbott organized Women's Peace Party Conference of Oppressed or Dependent Nationalities. Washington, D.C.

• 1931 Gandhi addresses WILPF audience of 2,000 at Victoria Hall, in Geneva.

• 1932 Dorothy Day met Peter Maurin.

• 1970 Gedong Bagus Oka founded Gandhian ashram Canti Dasa, Bali.

• 1977 Publication of human rights article by Mothers of Plaza del Mayo regarding disappeared women.

• 1993 Women Raped In War founded Autonomous Women’s Center Against Sexual Violence, Belgrade: "We wish to stress once again that women’s rights are human rights, that human rights are above national interests, and that the State must not kill its citizens."

• 1999 Approval of UN treaty to allow women to file direct complaints of violence.

• 2004 Women's Global Charter for Humanity, Kigali, Rwanda. "We women have been marching a long time to denounce and demand an end to the oppression of women and end the domination, exploitation, egotism and unbridled quest for profit breeding injustice, war, conquest and violence."

• 2006 16 Stateswomen demand end to rape in Darfur.

• 2014 Kathy Kelly tried for drone protest at Whiteman AFB and sentenced to 3 months in prison.

December 11

Women peacemakers born today

• 1813 Clemence Sophia Harned Lozier born Plainfield, NJ (d. 1888). Physician and reformer; suffrage leader; promoter of international arbitration; founded women's medical school, 1863; daughter of a Quaker.

• 1849 Ellen Key born Västervik, Sweden (d. 1926). Feminist peace leader; advocated "scientific pacifism" to use innate female compassion to end war.

• 1859 Annie Furuhjelm born Novoarchangelsk, Russian Alaska (d. 1937). Finnish journalist; feminist; member of parliament, 1914-24, 1927-9; founder of WILPF.

• 1876 Ada Louise Comstock born Moorhead, MN (d. 1973). First President of AAUW, 1921-3; President of Radcliffe College, 1923-43; Vice-President of the Institute of Pacific Relations; delegate to International Federation of University Women (London 1920, Paris 1923).

• 1922 Grace Paley born Bronx, NY (d. 2007). Pacifist author and professor; "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist"; held one of the first meetings opposing Vietnam War in Greenwich Village; led seven-year vigil against war; peace visit to Hanoi, 1969; arrested at White House, 1978; organized Women & Life on Earth Conference, 1980; Pentagon Protest, 1980; opposed draft, nuclear weapons, Apartheid, central American intervention.

• 1945 Eleonora Zielinska. Polish expert on violence against women; feminist human rights lawyer; law professor.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1941 Founding of Church Women United, “to build a World Order based on love and justice without which there can be no durable peace,” Atlantic City, NJ.

• 1962 Women Strike for Peace tried to lay wreath in Capitol honoring suffrage founders; brought before House Un-American Activities Committee for communist ties.

• 1963 Berkeley Campus Women for Peace spokeswomen Jackie Goldberg and Ann Forrest protested bomb shelters.

• 1983 30,000 "Women Reclaim Greenham," ripping fence of US missile base.

• 1998 West African Workshop of Women in the Aftermath of Civil War, Dakar.

• 2010 Ladies in White protest outside Havana prison against detention of resisters.

• 2012 Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began six-week fast to talk to Canadian Prime Minister about First Nations issues.

• 2013 Margaretta D’Arcy attempted citizen’s arrest of judge Patrick Durcan, accusing him of making Ireland complicit in war crimes for allowing American military usage of Shannon Airport.

December 12

Women peacemakers born today

• 1897 Lillian Smith born Jasper, FL (d. 1966). American writer and social critic. Author of best-selling anti-segregation novel Strange Fruit, 1944; essay collection Killers of the Dream, 1949. Wrote FOR pamphlet “The White Christian and His Conscience”, 1945. Bayard Rustin credited her for getting him to teach Martin Luther King Jr. nonviolence.

• 1925 Betita Martínez born Washington, D.C. Radical Chicana leader and author. One of the first UN employees, working under Ralph Bunche on the UN's successful decolonization, 1946-50. Headed New York office of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); took part in SNCC's Freedom Summer, Mississippi, 1964. Peace and Freedom Party candidate for California governor, 1982; co-founded Institute for MultiRacial Justice, 1997.

• 1950 Dionne Warwick born East Orange, NJ 1950. Pop singer. US envoy for Health, UN Global Ambassador for FAO, 2002; active in AIDS campaign.

• 1970 Jesselyn Radack born Washington DC. American attorney and whistleblower. Took up the cause of American Taliban John Walker Lindh over concerns of illegal interrogation. Legal adviser to whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1958 Shirley Graham Du Bois delivered W.E.B. DuBois speech to All-African Conference Accra. "We look forward to Peace and backward to War."

• 1979 Nordic Women for Peace start organizing.

• 1982 30,000 Greenham women "embrace the base," encircling nine miles "countering violence with love."

• 2011 First Asia Pacific Feminist Forum held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

• 2012 Raging Grannies protested war toys at Toys-R-Us, Manhattan. “WAR is not a Game!”

• 2014 In Washington DC, African-American activist and self-described abolitionist Erika Totten interrupted Al Sharpton at the #MarchOnWashington to allow protesters from Ferguson, MO to speak about their experiences.

December 13

Women peacemakers born today

• 1885 Else von Hollander born Riga, Latvia (d. 1932). Founder of nonviolent Bruderhof movement, 1920; sister of Emmy; secretary to Eberhard Arnold.

• 1890 Mary Frances Butts born Parkstone, Dorset, England (d. 1937). British modernist author. Socialist, pacifist, social worker. Opposed first World War in National Council Against Conscription and National Council for Civil Liberties.

• 1894 Toini Hjelt Iversen born Helsinki, Finland (d. 1973). Teacher; founder of local Fellowship of Reconciliation, Finnish Peace Union, 1920; WILPF of Finland; assisted war refugees.

• 1903 Ella Baker born Norfolk, VA (d. 1986). Nonviolent human rights activist; founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1960; Southern Christian Leadership Council, 1957; Director NAACP, 1943-6; protested Ethiopian War, 1936; WILPF.

• 1971 Leanne Wood born Rhondda, Wales. Welsh antiwar politician; probation officer. Socialist; feminist. First woman head of Plaid Cymru, Welsh nationalist party, 2012. Chaired Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, 2004-05. Arrested for protest against Trident missiles, Faslane Naval Base, 2007. Called for peace in Syria, 2013.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• Feast Day of St. Lucy of Syracuse (d. 304 AD). Sacrificed herself in love against violence; condemned to a brothel, soldiers couldn't move her. "You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me." (Ǽlfric's lives, Skeat tr.)

• 1961 Simone Pacot and Marie Faugeron sentenced 6 months prison for nonviolent protest for French conscientious objectors.

• 1982 3,000 Greenham women blockade to "Close the Base."

• 1985 UN General Assembly implemented Nairobi Strategy for Advancement of Women.

• 1998 African Women’s Anti-War Coalition Declaration, Dakar. “[We] recommend to all governments that they make a firm commitment to end conflicts worldwide and particularly in Africa.”

• 2001 M. Robivioux launched "Enough (War), is Enough."

• 2016 Kim Mir Yang arrested for protest at Jeju military base, South Korea.

December 14

Women peacemakers born today

• 1631 Anne Conway born London (d. 1679). Platonist philosopher; converted Quaker, 1677.

• 1869 Mary Willcox Glenn (d. 1940). Social worker; associate of Jane Addams; founder of American Committee of the International Migration Services, 1924; hospitals for refugees, 1930.

• 1882 Helena Normanton born London (d. 1957). Pioneering British female barrister; feminist suffragist with nonviolent Women's Freedom League, 1907; lifelong pacifist against World War I; CND women's march against atom bomb, 1953.

• 1908 Doria Shafik born Tanta, Egypt (d. 1975). Egyptian feminist leader; editor; founded Daughters of the Nile, 1949; protest in parliament, 1951; 10-day fast for life brought vote, 1954.

• 1950 Fatima Gazieva born Kazakhstan. Chechen peacemaker. Co-founded Echo of War (Ekho Voiny); joined life chain protest against war, 1995; participated in Russian and Chechen women's Peace March from Moscow to Grozny, 1995; abducted and released the next day, 2004. Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

• 1954 Rebeca Grynspan born San José, Costa Rica. International economist; first woman head Ibero-American SEGIB for sustainable development; Costa Rica’s Vice President and Housing Minister 1996-8; UN Development Program Latin America 2006-10.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 2008 Pamela Bennet and Mari Blome arrested for protest at Marine recruiting station San Francisco.

• 2010 30 women arrested Kartoum for protesting flogging of woman: "Humiliating your women is humiliating all your people."

• 2011 Korean women stage 1000th weekly protest against Japanese sex slavery.

December 15

Women peacemakers born today

• 1861 Vida Scudder born Madurai, India (d. 1954). American social reformer; absolute pacifist; socialist; professor; scholar; lesbian.

• 1874 Zephine Humphrey born Philadelphia (d. 1959). Novelist who opposed World War I.

• 1913 Muriel Rukeyser born Manhattan, NY (d. 1980). Poet; socialist; jailed in New York and Washington, DC for civil disobedience; arrested Scottsboro, 1933. Opposed Spanish Civil War, Vietnam War.

• 1920 Marie Guisse-Matlet born Wanze, Belgium (d. 1998). Belgian feminist; pacifist; militant Communist.

• 1960 Martine Bonny Dikongue born Yaoundé, Cameroon. Economist; nonviolent conflict resolution trainer; peacemaker in post-genocide Rwanda; speaks 12 languages. Developed "Méthode Coulombe," white dove method of cultural reconciliation, 1997.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1901 German women protest Boer War in Munich.

• 1911 In London, suffragist Emily Davison set 3 mailboxes afire.

• 1915 Helen Keller spoke against war in New York. "I look upon the whole world as my fatherland."

• 1920 Henni Forchhammer of Denmark became the first woman to address the League of Nations.

• 1991 Rachelle Rachman arrested for Seneca Base protest.

• 2010 2,000 women from African Great Lakes march in protest against rape in Rutshuru, Goma (North Kivu, Congo).

December 16

Women peacemakers born today

• 1844 Fanny Garrison Villard born Roxbury, Boston (d. 1928). Nonviolent founder of NAACP, Women's Peace Society, 1919.

• 1867 Selma Anttila born Orimattila, Finland (d. 1942). Author and playwright; in 1920, founded Peace Union of Finland dedicated to nonviolence, international organization, disarmament and peace education.

• 1873 Harriet Burton Laidlaw born Albany, NY (d. 1949). Suffragist; founded League of Nations Non-Partisan Association, 1922; Chair of Women's Pro-League Council, 1921; leader of American Association for the UN; promoter of Jeannette Rankin; great orator.

• 1878 Gertrud Woker born Bern, Switzerland (d. 1968). Swiss biochemistry professor; opponent of chemical weapons; WILPF founder and benefactor.

• 1901 Margaret Mead born Doylestown, PA (d. 1978). Anthropologist, Quaker.

• 1918 Joan Bondurant born Great Bend, KS (d. 2006). Professor; pianist; linguist; leading scholar of nonviolence, authority on Gandhi; researcher for OSS during World War II.

• 1928 Barbara Wiedner born Superior, WI (d. 2002). Catholic opponent of nuclear weapons; repeated arrests for nonviolent civil disobedience; founded Grandmothers for Peace, 1986.

• 1939 Liv Ullmann born Tokyo, Japan. Norwegian actress and director; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, 1980-2000; vice-president International Rescue Committee; co-founder Women's Refugee Commission, 1989; recipient of Hammarskjold Medal for contribution to UN, 1985.

• 1948 Ines Monica Weinberg de Roca born Buenos Aires. International Judge on both Rwanda and Yugoslavia tribunals, 2003-08; UN Appeal tribunal.

• 1953 Elisabeth Decrey Warner. Swiss peace advocate; president of Geneva cantonal Council 2000; co-founding director of Geneva Call 2000 protecting civilians in war; won Hesse Peace Prize 2012; International Society for Human Rights Prize 2006; PeaceWomen Across the Globe board.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1873 Women's tax protest New York city on centennial of Boston Tea Party.

• 1918 300 suffragists burn president's speeches in Lafayette Park.

• 1939 Women's Peace Campaign, Central Hall, London.

• 1940 Market women of Lagos, Nigeria shut down market in nonviolent protest against income tax.

• 1965 13-year-old Mary Beth Tinker wore black armband vs. Vietnam War, expelled from school; led to Supreme Court decision in her favor, 1969.

• 2005 Lydia Cacho arrested by Puebla police, threatened with rape and drowning.

December 17

Women peacemakers born today

• 1874 Florence Cross Kitchelt born Rochester, NY (d. 1961). Socialist; sole woman on League of Nations Health Committee, 1924-30; head of Conn. League of Nations Association, 1924-44; promoted Model League of Nations; associate of Jane Addams.

• 1875 Louise Aimee Saumoneau born Poitiers, France (d. 1950). Led first International Women's Day in Paris, 1914; pacifist socialist opposed to World War I; imprisoned 7 weeks for antiwar stand, 1915.

• 1948 Florence Mumba born Mufulira, Zambia. Delegate to Nairobi, 1985; Zambian ombudsman, 1989; presided as judge at Yugoslav War Crimes tribunal, 1997; appointed International Criminal Tribunals vice-president, 1999; verdict in first case of wartime rape 2001; Cambodia Tribunal 2009.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1981 Congressional women protest for ERA at White House christmas tree lighting.

• 1999 UN General Assembly passed resolution declaring November 25 as Day of International Elimination of Violence Against Women.

• 2008 Four Code Pink women arrested at San Francisco Marine recruiting station.

• 2011 Maya Evans arrived in Kabul, leading the first British peace mission to Afghanistan.

December 18

Women peacemakers born today

• 1858 Kata Dalstrom born Emtöholm, Kalmar, Sweden (d. 1923). Swedish author; Christian Socialist; communist; opposed World War I; anti-war leader in peaceful separation of Norway, 1905; later Buddhist and Theosophist.

• 1878 Edna Fischel Gellhorn born St. Louis, MO (d. 1970). President League of Women Voters; promoted world unity through League of Nations and UN; leader in suffrage and racial integration.

• 1943 Karin Holmgrunn Sham Poo born Oslo, Norway. Norwegian banker; Deputy Exec. Director UNICEF, 1987-2004; special representative of UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, 2005.

• 1959 Zainab Bangura born Yonibani, Sierra Leone. Muslim women's leader; trainer in nonviolence and peacebuilding. Sierra Leone Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2007-10. UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2012.

• 1979 Maya Evans born Hackney, London, England. British peace activist. UK Voices for Creative Nonviolence coordinator. Arrested multiple times for nonviolent protests. Led first British peace mission to Afghanistan, 2011. Led eight-day, 90-mile Drones Peace Walk from factory to Waddington drone base, 2012.

• 1980 Christina Aguilera born Staten Island, NY. Pop singer; Ambassador of World Food Program, 2010; Amnesty International campaign to stop genocide; song for Darfur.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1914 Jane Addams founded American League to Limit Armaments.

• 1979 "Magna Carta of Women" (CEDAW) UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women adopted by UN General Assembly res. 34/180.

• 1992 Security Resolution 798 condemned rape and brutality toward women in Bosnia.

• 1999 Julia Butterfly Hill sets record 738 days in Redwood protest.

• 2007 Six women of "Shut It Down" group arrested in Brattleboro, VT protest against Vermont Yankee reactor.

• 2008 Sylvia Boyes sentenced to 3 months for anti-missile protest Fylingdales, Yorkshire.

• 2013 In Amman, Jordan, Syrian actress Nanda Mohammad helped refugee actors stage a performance of “The Syria Trojan Women”, a reinterpretation of Euripides' play, highlighting their post-war plight.

December 19

Women peacemakers born today

• 1806 Elizabeth Buffum Chace born Providence, RI (d. 1899). Radical pacifist and Quaker abolitionist, suffragist; conductor on underground railroad. Opposed Civil War, Spanish-American War.

• 1820 Mary Livermore born Boston, MA (d. 1905). American reformer; abolitionist; suffragist lecturer and journalist.

• 1919 Sally Lilienthal born Portland, OR  (d. 2006). American peace advocate and philanthropist; sculptor. Founded anti-nuclear grantmaking organization Ploughshares Fund, 1981. Vice-chairwoman of Amnesty International, 1977. Major supporter of Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 1997.

• 1945 Brenda Stokely born Harlem, New York. Co-chair New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW). Organized Million Worker March opposing war Oct. 2004; Black Socialist labor leader; opposes Israeli occupation; founder Troops Out Now 2004, Blacks in Solidarity Against the War 2005.

• 1949 Le Ly Hayslip born Ky La, Vietnam. Humanitarian, author; founded East Meets West Foundation to heal wounds of war, 1988; published memoir Child of War, Woman of Peace, 1993.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1645 Lady Deborah Moody got patent of religious liberty, leading to first Quaker meeting in America.

• 1979 CEDAW Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women adopted by UN General Assembly.

• 1999 Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia organized human chains for "Peace for Empowerment and Empowerment for peace."

• 2011 Three members of Femen abducted and beaten by Minsk security police for topless protests.

• 2011 President Obama issued the United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.

• 2014 The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) released plans to build six regional Women Peace and Training Centers.

December 20

Women peacemakers born today

• 1802 Amy Post born Jericho, Long Island, NY (d. 1889). Quaker nonresistant; feminist; abolitionist. Signed Seneca Falls Declaration, 1848. Conductor on Underground Railroad, Rochester, NY.

• 1808 Laura Smith Haviland born Kitley Township, Ontario, Canada (d. 1898). American Quaker abolitionist and suffragist. Co-founded Michigan's first abolition organization, the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society, 1832. Founded Michigan's first integrated school, the Raisin Institute, 1837. Operated Michigan's first Underground Railroad station.

• 1851 Dora Montefiore born Tooting, London (d. 1933). British feminist; Socialist leader. Actively opposed World War I, advocating general strike against war, and hiding to avoid arrest. Refused taxes in Boer War and suffrage protest, 1906; barricaded house against collectors, who sold her possessions; arrested for suffrage protest in House of Commons, 1906. Arrested for kidnapping in her rescue of 300 starving Irish children, Dublin, 1912.

• 1936 Sonia Picado born San Jose, Costa Rica. Chair of UN Commission on Timor, 1999; co-founder Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 1979; judge in Aloeboetoe decision on indigenous rights, 1993.

• 1938 Regina Birchem born Sisseton, SD. American cell biologist; professor; author. International President of WILPF, 2004-07; undertook peace mission to Gaza, 2009.

• 1954 Sandra Cisneros born Chicago, IL. Poet and novelist. WILPF Sponsor, Jane Addams Peace Award.

• 1954 Coleen Rowley born New Hampton, IA. Former FBI agent; peace activist. Testified before 9/11 Commission about intelligence failures, 2001.

• 1966 Claudia Haydt born Friederichshafen, Würtemburg, Germany. Sociologist and peace activist. Leader of Green Party BAG Peace and International. Founded Militarization Information Center, Tübingen, 1996.

• 1992 Sanaa Seif born Cairo, Egypt. Peace activist and advocate. Arrested, fined, and sentenced 3 years for involvement in nonviolent protest against anti-protest law, 2014.

Women's peacemaking on this day

• 1936 Premiere of Martha Graham's anti-war "Chronicle" at the Guild Theater, New York.

• 1952 Convention on Women's Political Rights adopted by UN General Assembly.

• 1958 April Carter and 29 others arrested Swatham, England protest against nuclear base by Direct Action Committee of CND.

• 2008 Four Seriously Pissed Off Grannies arrested at Broadway Recruiting Center, Portland.

• 2011 Largest Egyptian women's demo in history: thousands protest government violence against women, Cairo.

• 2011 U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security "The engagement and protection of women as agents of peace and stability will be central to the United States’ efforts to promote security, prevent, respond to, and resolve conflict, and rebuild societies."

• 2012 In Stockholm, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy and members of FEMEN held nude protest at Egyptian embassy. “Sharia is not a constitution.”