“Have ye come far?”
“Only from America.”

#OnThisDay, 21 May 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman - and only the second person - to fly solo and without stops across the Atlantic.

She lands unexpectedly in Ireland. There’s some wonderful images of her here: joecampbellart.com/2015/03/12/…

Watch newsreel of her taking off here: youtube.com/watch?v=y-itPeJOyz…

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AviationHistory @histodons #Histodons

“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.”

#OnThisDay, 19 May 1952, Lillian Hellman writes to the House of UnAmerican Activities refusing to testify against others.

In the 1940s, Hellman had been twice nominated for an Academy Award for her screenplays. As a result of refusing to testify about others to HUAC, she was blacklisted by Hollywood.

#HollywoodHistory #AmericanHistory #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 17 May 1988, Dr Patricia Bath was awarded the first of her three patents on the methods and equipment for laser cataract removal.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInMedicine #AmericanHistory #BlackHistory #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 16 May 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei reaches the summit of Everest. She is the first woman to make it to the peak of the world's highest mountain.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 14 May 1943, Vera Leigh returns to France to work as a courier for the British Special Operations Executive.

A fashion designer, Leigh had fled France in 1942 after running escape lines for Allied airmen.

After her return, Leigh carried documents and equipment such as guns and explosives around her network's area. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, she was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons

Happy Birthday to David Byrne, Scottish-American musician, founding member, lead singer and guitarist of the American band Talking Heads, born on this day in 1952, Dumbarton, Scotland

📸 Rob Verhorst

#punkrock #postpunk #newwave #davidbyrne #talkingheads #history #otd

#OnThisDay, 11 May 1978, Margaret Brewer becomes the first woman to reach the rank of General in the US Marines.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AmericanHistory #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Astronomy #WomenInSTEM #AmericanHistory #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 8 May 1946, Estonian teens Aili Jürgenson and Ageeda Paavel blew up a Soviet war memorial in response to Soviet destruction of Estonian war memorials. They served eight years in the gulag as punishment.

In 1988 they were awarded the Estonian Order of the Cross of the Eagle to recognise their fight.

We only have a photo of Aili Jürgenson.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #EuropeanHistory #Histodons

Happy 75th Birthday to Chris Frantz – drummer and co-founder of both the Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club, born on May 8, 1951, in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, USA.

📸 Tom Hill

#punkrock #postpunk #newwave #chrisfrantz #talkingheads #tomtomclub #punkrockhistory #otd

#OnThisDay, 5 May 1938, Dorothy Anderson presents her medical research identifying cystic fibrosis at a meeting of the American Pediatric Association.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInMedicine #CysticFibrosis #Histodons

#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.

She's never captured.

She died in 2023, in New Zealand.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons
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Very early #OnThisDay, 30 April 1944, New Zealander Nancy Wake parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported French Resistance to Nazi occupation.

Couriers like Wake would take messages and materials such as explosives, guns or grenades around the patch their network covered.

Nick-named 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo, she's never captured. She died in 2011.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons

ON THIS DAY

❝ Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian Fascist dictator, was summarily executed by an Italian partisan in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of…

the biggest mistake? not going after #USA and #Eu #oligarchy that kept Hitler and Mussolini in power for so long.

#antifa VPOTUS Wallace said as much ―and that’s why he was ousted, so he wouldn’t succeed a dying #FDR.

#OTD #history

circumstances of Mussolini's death

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

#OnThisDay, 28 April 1730 OS*, Anna Ivanovna is crowned the Empress of the Russian Empire.

The Privy Council picked Anna as she was widowed and childless. They imposed a set of Conditions through which they would control her.

She literally tore them up, and continued her uncle Peter the Great’s modernisation.

Like many Russian rulers, she could be cruel, vindictive and abuse her power.

*Old Style date

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #RussianHistory

#OnThisDay, 27 Apr 1992, Betty Boothroyd was elected Speaker of the UK House of Commons. She was the first - and to date only - woman to hold the role.

A working class woman, Betty had been a dancer before working for JFK and becoming an MP. She went on to sit in the House of Lords.

Watch: buff.ly/38djBcP

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