Women peacemakers born today

1870 Ada Nield Chew born Audley, Staffordshire, England (d. 1945). Suffragist leader; labor organizer; radical feminist; pacifist. Tried to attend Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915; founding member of WILPF.
1903 Kathleen Lonsdale born Newbridge, Ireland (d. 1971). Eminent physicist; Quaker; president of WILPF and Pugwash Conference; led peace mission to USSR, 1951.
1953 Biljana Jovanovic born Belgrade, Yugoslavia (d. 1996). Yugoslav Serbian poet, playwright and novelist; feminist. Early critic of communist repression, 1960s; opposed breakup of Yugoslavia and nationalist wars that followed. Co-founded antiwar Civil Resistance Movement, 1992.
1968 Sarah McLachlan born Halifax, Canada. Singer of peace and nonviolence; supporter of CARE, Heifer International, and anti-hunger causes.

Women's peacemaking on this day

1974 WILPF marched on Philadelphia city hall in protest against continuation of Vietnam War.
1995 100 Russian mothers protested missing soldier sons in Chechen war.
1997 UN appointed two women to top positions: Angela King as Assistant Secretary General for Women, and Gillian Sorensen as Assistant Secretary General for External Relations.
2006 Carol Fisher arrested for posting anti-Bush posters in Cleveland, OH.
2014 In Addis Ababa, Mary Robinson established the Great Lakes Women’s Platform for the Peace, Security and Cooperation.
2016 Femen activist Sarah Constantin hanged herself from a noose-like rope on Paris bridge to protest Iranian executions.