""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" November 6/7, 1995 - Episodes 465-6 - Women of Achievement and Herstory compiled by Irene Stuber """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 11-06 Anniversaries ........................................... B. Nov. 6, 1784, Laure Junot, Duchess (duchesse) D'Abrantes, French author of famous memoirs concerning Napoleon Bonaparte and his inner circle. Some modern historians judge them as inaccurate. B. Nov. 6, 1797, Frances Ann Denny Drake, leading American actress of her time. B. Nov. 6, 1904, Selena Royle, her screen career eclipsed, she authored _A Gringo's Guide to Mexican Cooking_. B. Nov. 6, 1906, Janet Gaynor, actor won first ever Academy Award for her work in _Sunrise, Seventh Heaven, and Street Angel_, 1927-28, the earliest awards being for a body of work, not just a single movie. Her best known movie to TV viewers is _A Star is Born_ (1937). B. Nov. 6, 1946, Sally Field, actor won Academy Award for her work in _Norma Rae_ (1979) and a handful of Emmys. B. Nov. 6, 1955, Maria Shriver, TV personality and broadcast journalist. Daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, niece of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis who was, before her marriage, a Roving Photographer for a well-known national magazine. Event Nov. 6, 1984, Madeline M. Kunin, by a margin of 4,000 votes is elected governor of Vermont. Arlene Violet, a former Roman Catholic nun, becomes the first woman to be elected Attorney General of Rhode Island. Event Nov. 6, 1990, in an unprecedented move that could have resulted in their imprisonment or execution by stoning, 50 Saudi Arabian women drove automobiles for about a half hour before being arrested. They were turned over to male relatives for discipline. Later, during "Desert Storm" American service women were forced to comply with the religious regulations and were not allowed to drive military transport outside of U.S. bases by order of the Bush administration. They were also not allowed to wear short sleeves in keeping with Muslim religious law by order of the General of the Army Colin Powell. Our proofreading email friend Margaret Russell, writes: "The book _Princess_ by Jean Sasson, reports the rumor, neither officially confirmed or denied, that one Saudi woman was executed by her father for driving because she shamed the family. The father thought by executing the daughter, the religious fanatics would leave the family in peace. What is reported as true by Sasson is "As a result of their bravery, their lives were devastated by their actions: passports taken, jobs lost, and families harassed." The women were denounced as prostitutes and their names, addresses, and phone numbers circulated. Many feminist have objected to the U.S. military defending the Saudi "way of life," in Desert Storm. 11-07 Anniversaries ........................................... B. Nov. 7, 1847, Lotta Crabtree, taught by the legendary Lola Montez, LC became the rage of the English and American stage and left a fortune of $4 million. B. Nov. 7, 1867, Marie Sklodowska Curie, Polish-French physicist whose work with radium and other materials made her the first person to win the Nobel prizes twice. The mother of two daughters, including Irene who also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Mme. Curie was the first female lecturer and professor at Sorbonne. She had degrees in mathematics and physics. During World War I in France, with the assistance of her daughter Irene, MC perfected the new medical diagnostic tool "X radiography." She learned to drive a car, acquainted herself with auto mechanics, and toured actual battlefields to personally install mobile X-ray equipment that served as many as one million soldiers. Pierre Curie, Marie's husband who shared the first of the two Nobel prizes won by Marie was offered France's Legion of Honor, its highest honor for winning the Nobel. But he refused it because it was not awarded jointly with his wife who was instrumental in the discovery of radium. Pierre died in 1905. Marie won her second Nobel in 1911. In 1921, Marie Curie was given a gram of radium valued at $250,000 by members of the American Asociation of University Women (AAUW) who held a special fundraiser. Curie was too poor to buy it herself even after winning TWO Nobel Prizes. France NEVER paid her tribute even with a modern laboratory. B. Nov. 7, 1878, Lise Meitner, Austrian physicist, first published scientist who recognized the atom could be split to release energy, her joint research in Germany and Austria with Otto Han and Fritz Strassman led to the discovery of uranium fission. She fled Nazi Germany to Austria where she continued her research and detailed the theory of splitting the Uranium atom when she was fleeing to Sweden from Austria. Truly the mother of the atomic age. No one is really sure why she never won the Nobel Prize. B. Nov. 7, 1893, Margaret Kernochan Leech, author and historian, double Pulitzer prize winner for _Reveille in Washington, 1860-1865_ (1941) and _In the Days of McKinley_ (1959). B. Nov. 7, 1901, Cecilia Meireles, Brazilian poet, teacher, and journalist. Known for her lyrical poetry. B. Nov. 7, 1917, Helen Suzman, White South African legislator (1953-89) who spoke out against apartheid. Event Nov. 7, 1922, Grace F. Kaercher, becomes the first woman in Minnesota history to be elected to a statewide office, that of clerk of the state supreme court. B. Nov. 7, 1926, Joan Sutherland, Australian opera singer considered to have one of the greatest bel canto voices in herstory, best known for her remarkable vocalizing in Donizetti's _Lucia di Lammermoor_. B. Nov. 7, 1936, Audrey McLaughlin, named leader of Canada's New Democratic party in 1989, Yukon representative to Canada's parliament. B. Nov. 7, 1937, Mary Travers, author, composer, singer, (Peter, Paul and Mary). Quotes du jour ................................................ "... the concept of motherhood in the United States is held in high esteem, glorified -- so much so that special-interest groups have taken it upon themselves to destroy abortion clinics by bombing them or by harassing their patients. "Yet, once motherhood becomes an established fact, women who are heads of households are denied legislation that could remove them from a chronic state of poverty." -- Edwards, Gabrielle, _Coping With Discrimination_. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1986 and 1992. Summary: Examines the historical patterns and results of prejudice and discrimination and their effects on such minorities as homeless, blacks, women, homosexuals, and the handicapped. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>(C) 1995, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, voice mail or fax, 501-624-5262 ID #300, or email irenestuber@delphi.com with comments and suggestions. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting WOA.<<