Women peacemakers born today

1807 Elizabeth Margaret Chandler born Centre, DE (d. 1834). Quaker; abolitionist; poet and pioneer of women's peace.

1869 Henriette Roland Holst-van der Schalk born Noordwijk, Netherlands (d. 1952). Dutch poet; friend of Gandhi; nonviolent Communist.

1881 Margaret Sackville born Mayfair, London 1881 (d. 1962). Anti-war poet and writer; socialist; pacifist.

1943 Tarja Halonen born Helsinki. Pacifist; Finnish Foreign Minister, 1995-2000; active peacemaking in Northern Ireland; President of European Union, 1999; first female president of Finland, 2000; opposed military alliances, including NATO.

1952 Petra Finsterle-Häbler born Zürich, Switzerland (d. 2012). German peace activist; second-generation WILPF member. Founded radical alternative cabaret Club Voltaire Munich 2001; organizer anti-SIKO protest against NATO 2009.
1956 Irene Khan born Dhaka, Bangladesh. First female Secretary General of Amnesty International, 2001-09; UN High Commission for Refugees, 1990, leading missions to India, 1991, and Macedonia, 1999; recipient of Sydney Peace Prize, 2006; featured in antiwar movie Soldiers of Peace, 2009.
1973 Kerry Nettle born Sydney, Australia. Australian senator; Green Party environmentalist. Against nuclear weapons and power; critic of Israeli wars in Lebanon and Gaza; opposed US base in Australia and war in Afghanistan. Interrupted President Bush’s speech to oppose Iraq War and Guantanamo, 2003.

Women's peacemaking on this day

1925 Nonviolent leader Sarojini Naidu elected first woman president of Indian National Congress, Kanpur.

1944 German woman Elisabeth Vincken sheltered three American soldiers and four German soldiers in Hűrtgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge.
1968 Claire Culhane began 19-day "Enough/Assez" outdoor film campaign against Vietnam War in Ottawa.
2004: Binalakshmi Nepram began movement leading to Manipur Women Guns Survivor Network.