07-23 TABLE of CONTENTS: Dame Te Arikinui Te Ata-irangi-kaahu, Maori Queen DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTE by Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Dame Te Arikinui Te Ata-irangi-kaahu Born 07-23-1931, Dame Te Arikinui Te Ata-irangi-kaahu, who became Maori Queen, 23 May 1966, at the death of her father.       Her role is primarily ceremonial as is Queen Elizabeth's, but she is vital to her people. The two met and exchanged honors when Elizabeth visited New Zealand.       The Maori, indigenous to New Zealand, are now subject to the laws of the primarily White government but strongly maintain their own culture. She attends 28 Poukai (formal Maori assemblies) each year.       She was educated in NZ and is known to be particularly charming. She is much respected and admired in the entirety of NZ as well as in her many travels abroad.       She is usually addressed as Te Arikinui, or Dame Te Ata. She is popular with all races in NZ and has compiled a number of books about the history and culture of the Maori.       [We'd seen a news item about Queen Elizabeth's meeting with Dame Te Ata in New Zealand and asked if anyone on the WOA email network had any information about her. Reader Michael Anne Haywood contacted friend Archdeacon Reg Nicholson in New Zealand who forwarded the above basic information about the Queen of the Maori. We thank them both.] | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 07-23 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 07-23-1721, Anna Dorothea Lisiewska-Therbusch - German artist of Polish descent. ALT's marriage interrupted her painting until after her family was grown. She did a number of paintings for several German princes as well as Frederick the Great.       She was elected to the Académie Royale in Paris but was not particularly successful there because, as critic Diderot pointed out, she was in her 40s and not particularly attractive.       Her work was realistic and unflattering. She was also elected to the Bologna Academy and the Vienna Academy. B. 07-23-1816, Charlotte Saunders Cushman - U.S. actor of legendary proportion. CSC was born into poverty and forced to quite school when she was 13 to go to work. However, through perseverence she became her generation's most acclaimed classical actress and was elected to Hall of Fame of Great Americans.       Her operatic voice had been ruined by a bad coach who tried to turn her natural contralto into a soprano.       CSC was noted for her male roles such a Romeo. She was a patron of several women artists, especially Heriet Hosmer. Charlotte Cushman as Romeo, one of her most celebrated portrayals. She is shown here with her sister Susan as Juliet B. 07-23-1907, Elspeth Huxley - Kenyan historian. EH was known as the chronicler of colonial Kenya. She wrote more than 30 books, many about the land where she spent her childhood. Macmillan refused to publish her book Red Strangers because she wrote of clitoridectomies - the terrible genital mutilation of girls/women. The cutting away of the entire external sexual parts of a girl is usually done with a sharp stone or piece of metal without anaesthesia. The mutilation is part of the Kikuyu culture. B. 07-23-1942, Ald Sallyanne Atkinson - Australian official. She was elected Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Australia, in 1985. She authored a number of books including guides of Brisbane. B. 07-23-1944, Lisa Alther - U.S. novelist. Alther focuses on the ironies of modern women's lives. B. 07-23-1973, Monica Lewinsky. A tragedy. As a 24-year-old, she boasted to a confidant, Linda Tripp, that she had an affair with President Bill President Clinton in the White House.       Tripp recorded the conversations without permission and presented the recordings to a special prosecutor checking into President Clinton on another matter entirely.       The resultant scandal damaged Lewinsky almost beyond belief as every late night cheap comic took every cheap shot they could to get a cheap laugh. It also led to an attempt to impeach President Clinton which failed. Event 07-23-1992: Jill Barad becomes president and CEO of Mattel, Inc. She is the brains behind Barbie's evolution from a boy-crazy teeenager to a career-driven woman.       Under Barad's leadership sales went past the $1 billion a year mark; that's two Barbies sold every second. Event 07-23-1994: Chiaki Mukai, heart surgeon and first Japanese woman in space, spent a then record 15 days doing scientific experiments aboard a U.S. spacecraft. Event 07-23-1999, NASA's first space mission commanded by a woman. Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins blasted off from Cape Canaveral in a rare night takeoff (12:26 am) and ended five days later (07-27-99) in a rarer night time landing (11:20 pm). On 07-24-99, mission specialist Catherine "Cady" Coleman was in charge of efforts to successfully deploy the $1.55 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory and did most of the delicate deployment herself.       The twice delayed launch was witnessed by the WOAH compiler and several women members of her family from a nearby beach. The crowd was surprisingly subdued as if they realized something wasn't right.       It wasn't until the next day that the public learned a fuel leak almost resulted in a highly dangerous, forced night landing. It would have been the first "forced landing" of a U.S. space ship. Captain Eileen Collins handled the crisis perfectly and the mission continued as scheduled. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR BLACKMUN, HARRY A:       "In the chief justice's world, a woman considering whether to terminate a pregnancy is entitled to no more protection than adulterers, murderers and so-called 'sexual deviates.'       "Given the chief justice's exclusive reliance on tradition, people using contraceptives seem the next likely candidate for his list of outcasts.       "Even more shocking than the chief justice's cramped notion of individual liberty is his complete omission of any discussion of the effects that compelled childbirth and motherhood have on women's lives..."             -- Supreme Court Justice Blackmun, in a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court statement. Justices often write additional comments about decisions and other justices may agree with his/her reasoning. In this case, Justice Souter concurred with Blackmun's particular reasoning. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |