"If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the university and laboratory until one gets a better grasp of one's subject matter."

Margaret Mead died #OTD in 1978.

#books #literature

Let's not forget another amazing person born #OTD - Hedy Lamarr. The brilliant actress co-invented Spread Spectrum Technology, which would one day form the basis for today's #WiFi and #Bluetooth communication systems: women-inventors.com/Hedy-Lamma…

You may recognize her from SETI Live co-host Beth Johnson's background, which is actually a wall in one of our conference rooms!

#HedyLamarr #WomenInSTEM

h/t Cady Coleman, astronaut

"The moment of discovery" does not always exist: the scientist's work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire.

Marie Curie was born #OTD in 1867.

#physics #WomenInSTEM

#OTD in 1797.

Jane Austen's father writes to London bookseller Thomas Cadell to ask if he is interested in seeing the manuscript of Jane's recently completed novel First Impressions (later re-titled Pride and Prejudice); Cadell declines.

gutenberg.org/ebooks/42671

#books #literature

Japanese artist and printmaker Hokusai was born #OTD in 1760.

He is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai

#art #painting #woodblockprinting

Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science Laura Bassi was born #OTD in 1711. Bassi became the most important populariser of Newtonian mechanics in Italy.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ba…

#science #physics #WomenInSTEM

Italian physicist (1711-1778)

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}

#OnThisDay, 28 Oct 1908, Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox unfurl a banner and then chain themselves to the grille in the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons, London, demanding votes for women.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Histodons
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#OnThisDay, 27 Oct 1967, the Abortion Act gains royal assent. It allows women in the UK – except for Northern Ireland - to legally have an abortion on a range of medical grounds but stops short of making abortion legal.

It came into effect in April 1968 everywhere except Northern Ireland: NI passed their own act in 2020.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Histodons

American astronomer Henrietta Hill Swope was born #OTD in 1902.

Working with H. Shapley, she helped establish the famous period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars, thereby permitting determination of the Sun's position in our galaxy and of distances to other galaxies. In 1962, using plates taken with the 200" Hale reflector by W. Baade, she determined the distance to the Andromeda galaxy to be 2.2 million light years.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henriett…

#astronomy #womeninSTEM

#OTD in 1892.

Ida B. Wells began publishing her research on lynching in the United States, for which she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize special citation, in 2020.

gutenberg.org/ebooks/14975

#books #literature

#OnThisDay, 24 Oct 1901, American Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first *person* to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

The cat did *not* do the stunt with her.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons