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Michelle Obama, American first lady (2009–17), the wife of Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States. She was the first African American first lady, and during her time in that post she notably supported military families and promoted healthy eating. Learn more about her life and career.

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Questions and Answers on Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Uskup, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, North Macedonia), on August 26, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.

On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of Pope Paul VI.

Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded. In 1979 the Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch was established.

The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.

The Missionaries of Charity throughout the world are aided and assisted by Co-Workers who became an official International Association on March 29, 1969. By the 1990s there were over one million Co-Workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the Co-Workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity try to follow Mother Teresa's spirit and charism in their families.

Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished inNobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Mother Teresa died on 5 September 1997.

To cite this section
MLA style: Mother Teresa - Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2023. Mon. 20 Nov 2023. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/biographical/>

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The Nobel Peace Prize 1979 was awarded to Mother Teresa "for her work for bringing help to suffering humanity"

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L.M. Montgomery (Lucy Maud Montgomery) was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, on November 30, 1874, to Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner Macneill. When Montgomery was 21 months old, her mother died of tuberculosis. Her father left her in the care of her mother's parents, Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill of Cavendish, and moved to western Canada, where he eventually settled in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and remarried.

As an only child living with an elderly couple, Montgomery found companionship in her imagination, nature, books, and writing. When she was nine, she began writing poetry and keeping a journal. She also spent time with her Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell (her mother's sister), and their family in Park Corner. There she spent many happy days, playing with her cousins and visiting her paternal grandfather, Senator Donald Montgomery, who lived close to the Campbells. She loved her Cavendish home and Silver Bush (as the Campbell farm was called) in Park Corner.

At the age of six, she began attending the one-room school near her grandparents' home in Cavendish. She completed her early education there, with the exception of one year (1890-1891) which she spent in Prince Albert with her father and his wife, Mary Anne McRae. While in Prince Albert, she achieved her first publication - a poem entitled "On Cape LeForce" published by a Prince Edward Island newspaper, The Patriot. In September of 1891, she returned to Cavendish, too late to go to school that year, but she completed grade ten in 1892-1893. The following year (1893-1894), she studied for a teacher's license at Prince of Wales College, completing the two-year course in one year and graduating with honours.

During her brief teaching career, Montgomery taught at three Island schools: Bideford, Belmont, and Lower Bedeque respectively. She left teaching for one year (1895-1896) to study selected courses in English literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, becoming one of the few women of her time to seek higher education. It was during her stay at Dalhousie that she received the first payments for her writing.

In 1898, while Montgomery was teaching in Lower Bedeque, her Grandfather Macneill died suddenly. She returned to Cavendish immediately to take care of her grandmother who otherwise would have had to leave her home. She remained with her grandmother for the next thirteen years, with the exception of a nine-month period in 1901-1902 when she worked as a proof-reader for The Daily Echo in Halifax.

During her years in Cavendish, Montgomery continued to write and sent off numerous poems, stories, and serials to Canadian, British, and American magazines. Despite many rejections, she eventually commanded a comfortable income from her writing. In 1899, she earned $96.88 - not much by today's standards but a nice sum at the turn of the century. Her earnings from her writing increased to $500 in 1903.

In 1905, she wrote her first and most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. She sent the manuscript to several publishers, but, after receiving rejections from all of them, she put it away in a hat box. In 1907, she found the manuscript again, re-read it, and decided to try again to have it published. Anne of Green Gables was accepted by the Page Company of Boston, Massachusetts and published in 1908. An immediate best-seller, the book marked the beginning of Montgomery's successful career as a novelist.

After Grandmother Macneill died in March of 1911, Montgomery married the Reverend Ewan Macdonald, to whom she had been secretly engaged since 1906, on July 5, 1911. Prior to her engagement to Macdonald, she had had two romantic involvements: an unhappy engagement to her third cousin Edwin Simpson, of Belmont, and a brief, but passionate romantic attachment to Herman Leard, of Lower Bedeque.

After their marriage, Montgomery and Macdonald moved to Leaskdale, Ontario, where Macdonald was minister in the Presbyterian church. She had three sons: Chester (1912), Hugh (stillborn in 1914), and Stuart (1915); assisted her husband in his pastoral duties; ran their home; and continued to write best-selling novels as well as short stories and poems. She faithfully recorded entries in her journals and kept up an enormous correspondence with friends, family, and fans. Maud Montgomery Macdonald did not live on Prince Edward Island again, returning only for vacations.

Montgomery was a very sensitive and intelligent woman who suffered deeply from events that affected her personally and the world. In her journals, she expressed her pain at the death of her infant son Hugh, the horrors of the First World War, the death of her beloved cousin Frede Campbell, and the discovery that her husband suffered from religious melancholia. But despite these and other problems, she continued to write, expressing her love of life, nature, and beauty in her fiction, journals, and letters.

In 1926, the Montgomery Macdonalds moved to Norval, Ontario, where they stayed until Macdonald resigned from the ministry in 1935. They then moved to Toronto, where they could be close to their sons. Maud Montgomery Macdonald died in Toronto, Ontario, on April 24, 1942; Ewan Macdonald died in November 1943. In death, Montgomery returned to her beloved Prince Edward Island, where she was buried in the Cavendish cemetery, close to the site of her old home.

Montgomery immortalized this tiny province through her wonderful descriptions of life, nature, community, and people on Prince Edward Island. All but one of her 20 books are set on Prince Edward Island. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people, directly or indirectly influenced by the way of life she depicted in her writing, come to Prince Edward Island to see the place she loved so much.

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L.M. Montgomery (Lucy Maud Montgomery) was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, on November 30, 1874, to Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner Macneill. When Montgomery was 21 months old, her mother died of tuberculosis.

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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)

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Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)

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Read 36.6k reviews from the world's largest community for readers. This heartwarming story has beckoned generations of readers into the special world of Gr...

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Anne of Green Gables: Official Site for the Original Series

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The Films. The Anne of Green Gables series encompass 13 hours of Period Drama.

The Characters.
‍The outstanding performances in Anne of Green Gables bring to life L.M Montgomery's extraordinary cast of characters.

From book to screen, Anne of Green Gables continues to capture the hearts and minds of people around the world.
read more

The Collectibles.
‍Shop At Sullivan sells family-friendly mini-series and movies, including Anne of Green Gables, Wind At My Back and Road To Avonlea.

GazeboTV is available on iPhone/iPad, Android, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Firestick and Apple TV devices.

Stream Anne of Green Gables and more
classic shows for the whole family!
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anne of green gables the continuing story

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Anne of Green Gables: Official Site for the Original Series

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The Films. The Anne of Green Gables series encompass 13 hours of Period Drama. The Characters. ‍The outstanding performances in Anne of Green Gables bring to life L.M Montgomery's extraordinary cast of characters. read more The Collectibles. ‍Shop At Sullivan sells family-friendly mini-series and movies, including Anne of Green Gables, Wind At My Back and Road To Avonlea.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Story, Cast, & Facts

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Story, Cast, & Facts

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, American animated musical film, released in 1937, that established Walt Disney as one of the world’s most innovative and creative moviemakers. Along with Pinocchio (1940), it is widely considered to be Disney’s greatest film achievement. Loosely based on the famous…

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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

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Alice in Wonderland: Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney. With Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway. Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.

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Read 108k reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most pop...

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Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by every one who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else. So she was always called Little Red Riding Hood.

One day her mother said to her, "Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing. And when you go into her room, don't forget to say, good-morning, and don't peep into every corner before you do it."

I will take great care, said Little Red Riding Hood to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf met her. Little Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

"Good-day, Little Red Riding Hood," said he.

"Thank you kindly, wolf."

"Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?"

"To my grandmother's."

"What have you got in your apron?"

"Cake and wine. Yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger."

"Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?"

"A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood. Her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below. You surely must know it," replied Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf thought to himself, "What a tender young creature. What a nice plump mouthful, she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both." So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding Hood, and then he said, "see Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the flowers are about here. Why do you not look round. I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing. You walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry."

Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought, suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay. That would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time. And so she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.

Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.

"Who is there?"

"Little Red Riding Hood," replied the wolf. "She is bringing cake and wine. Open the door."

"Lift the latch," called out the grandmother, "I am too weak, and cannot get up."

The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap, laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.

Little Red Riding Hood, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.

She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself, oh dear, how uneasy I feel to-day, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.

She called out, "Good morning," but received no answer. So she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.

"Oh, grandmother," she said, "what big ears you have."

"The better to hear you with, my child," was the reply.

"But, grandmother, what big eyes you have," she said.

"The better to see you with, my dear."

"But, grandmother, what large hands you have."

"The better to hug you with."

"Oh, but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have."

"The better to eat you with."

And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Little Red Riding Hood.

When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud. The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself, how the old woman is snoring. I must just see if she wants anything.

So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it. "Do I find you here, you old sinner," said he. "I have long sought you."

Then just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf.

When he had made two snips, he saw the Little Red Riding Hood shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying, "Ah, how frightened I have been. How dark it was inside the wolf."

And after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Little Red Riding Hood, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.

Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went home with it. The grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Little Red Riding Hood had brought, and revived, but Little Red Riding Hood thought to herself, as long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.

It is also related that once when Little Red Riding Hood was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Little Red Riding Hood, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said good-morning to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up. "Well," said the grandmother, "we will shut the door, that he may not come in."

Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried, "open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red Riding Hood, and am bringing you some cakes."

But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Little Red Riding Hood went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child, take the pail, Little Red Riding Hood. I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough. Little Red Riding Hood carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned. But Little Red Riding Hood went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.

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Little Red Riding Hood is a favorite from the Children's Library. Our stories, nursery rhymes, fables, and fairytales make great bedtime stories too!

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The first woman in America to receive a medical degree, Elizabeth Blackwell championed the participation of women in the medical profession and ultimately opened her own medical college for women. Discover her story on womenshistory.org.

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Mary Shelley Biography - life, children, name, story, death, wife, mother, young, son

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Mary Shelley Biography - life, children, name, story, death, wife, mother, young, son

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Mary's home life improved little when four years later her father married his next-door neighbor, Mary Jane Clairmont, who already had two children of her own. The new Mrs. Godwin favored her own children over the daughters of the celebrated Wollstonecraft, and Mary was often alone and unhappy.

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Annex - Lanchester, Elsa (Bride of Frankenstein, The)_03.jpg

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Cleopatra | Biography, Beauty, History, Death, & Facts

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Life and reign

Daughter of King Ptolemy XII Auletes, Cleopatra was destined to become the last queen of the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 bce and its annexation by Rome in 30 bce. The line had been founded by Alexander's general Ptolemy, who became King Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt. Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent and had little, if any, Egyptian blood, although the Classical author Plutarch wrote that she alone of her house took the trouble to learn Egyptian and, for political reasons, styled herself as the new Isis, a title that distinguished her from the earlier Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra III, who had also claimed to be the living embodiment of the goddess Isis. Coin portraits of Cleopatra show a countenance alive rather than beautiful, with a sensitive mouth, firm chin, liquid eyes, broad forehead, and prominent nose. When Ptolemy XII died in 51 bce, the throne passed to his young son, Ptolemy XIII, and daughter, Cleopatra VII. It is likely, but not proven, that the two married soon after their father's death. The 18-year-old Cleopatra, older than her brother by about eight years, became the dominant ruler. Evidence shows that the first decree in which Ptolemy's name precedes Cleopatra's was in October of 50 bce. Soon after, Cleopatra was forced to flee Egypt for Syria, where she raised an army and in 48 bce returned to face her brother at Pelusium, on Egypt's eastern border. The murder of the Roman general Pompey, who had sought refuge from Ptolemy XIII at Pelusium, and the arrival of Julius Caesar brought temporary peace.

Cleopatra realized that she needed Roman support, or, more specifically, Caesar's support, if she was to regain her throne. Each was determined to use the other. Caesar sought money for repayment of the debts incurred by Cleopatra's father, Auletes, as he struggled to retain his throne. Cleopatra was determined to keep her throne and, if possible, to restore the glories of the first Ptolemies and recover as much as possible of their dominions, which had included southern Syria and Palestine. Caesar and Cleopatra became lovers and spent the winter besieged in Alexandria. Roman reinforcements arrived the following spring, and Ptolemy XIII fled and drowned in the Nile. Cleopatra, now married to her brother Ptolemy XIV, was restored to her throne. In June 47 bce she gave birth to Ptolemy Caesar (known to the people of Alexandria as Caesarion, or "little Caesar"). Whether Caesar was the father of Caesarion, as his name implies, cannot now be known.

It took Caesar two years to extinguish the last flames of Pompeian opposition. As soon as he returned to Rome, in 46 bce, he celebrated a four-day triumph-the ceremonial in honour of a general after his victory over a foreign enemy-in which Arsinoe, Cleopatra's younger and hostile sister, was paraded. Cleopatra paid at least one state visit to Rome, accompanied by her husband-brother and son. She was accommodated in Caesar's private villa beyond the Tiber River and may have been present to witness the dedication of a golden statue of herself in the temple of Venus Genetrix, the ancestress of the Julian family to which Caesar belonged. Cleopatra was in Rome when Caesar was murdered in 44 bce.

Soon after her return to Alexandria, in 44 bce, Cleopatra's coruler, Ptolemy XIV, died. Cleopatra now ruled with her infant son, Ptolemy XV Caesar. When, at the Battle of Philippi in 42 bce, Caesar's assassins were routed, Mark Antony became the heir apparent of Caesar's authority-or so it seemed, for Caesar's great-nephew and personal heir, Octavian, was but a sickly boy. Antony, now controller of Rome's eastern territories, sent for Cleopatra so that she might explain her role in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination. She set out for Tarsus in Asia Minor loaded with gifts, having delayed her departure to heighten Antony's expectation. She entered the city by sailing up the Cydnus River in a barge while dressed in the robes of the new Isis. Antony, who equated himself with the god Dionysus, was captivated. Forgetting his wife, Fulvia, who in Italy was doing her best to maintain her husband's interests against the growing menace of young Octavian, Antony returned to Alexandria, where he treated Cleopatra not as a "protected" sovereign but as an independent monarch.

In Alexandria, Cleopatra and Antony formed a society of "inimitable livers" whose members lived what some historians have interpreted as a life of debauchery and folly and others have interpreted as lives dedicated to the cult of the mystical god Dionysus.

In 40 bce Cleopatra gave birth to twins, whom she named Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene. Antony had already left Alexandria to return to Italy, where he was forced to conclude a temporary settlement with Octavian. As part of this settlement, he married Octavian's sister, Octavia (Fulvia having died). Three years later Antony was convinced that he and Octavian could never come to terms. His marriage to Octavia now an irrelevance, he returned to the east and reunited with Cleopatra. Antony needed Cleopatra's financial support for his postponed Parthian campaign; in return, Cleopatra requested the return of much of Egypt's eastern empire, including large portions of Syria and Lebanon and even the rich balsam groves of Jericho.

The Parthian campaign was a costly failure, as was the temporary conquest of Armenia. Nevertheless, in 34 bce Antony celebrated a triumphal return to Alexandria. This was followed by a celebration known as "the Donations of Alexandria." Crowds flocked to the Gymnasium to see Cleopatra and Antony seated on golden thrones on a silver platform with their children sitting on slightly lower thrones beside them. Antony proclaimed Caesarion to be Caesar's son-thus relegating Octavian, who had been adopted by Caesar as his son and heir, to legal illegitimacy. Cleopatra was hailed as queen of kings, Caesarion as king of kings. Alexander Helios was awarded Armenia and the territory beyond the Euphrates, his infant brother Ptolemy the lands to the west of it. The boys' sister, Cleopatra Selene, was to be ruler of Cyrene. It was clear to Octavian, watching from Rome, that Antony intended his extended family to rule the civilized world. A propaganda war erupted. Octavian seized Antony's will (or what he claimed to be Antony's will) from the temple of the Vestal Virgins, to whom it had been entrusted, and revealed to the Roman people that not only had Antony bestowed Roman possessions on a foreign woman but intended to be buried beside her in Egypt. The rumour quickly spread that Antony also intended to transfer the capital from Rome to Alexandria.

Antony and Cleopatra spent the winter of 32-31 bce in Greece. The Roman Senate deprived Antony of his prospective consulate for the following year, and it then declared war against Cleopatra. The naval Battle of Actium, in which Octavian faced the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra on September 2, 31 bce, was a disaster for the Egyptians. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, and Cleopatra retired to her mausoleum as Antony went off to fight his last battle. Receiving the false news that Cleopatra had died, Antony fell on his sword. In a last excess of devotion, he had himself carried to Cleopatra's retreat and there died, after bidding her to make her peace with Octavian.

Cleopatra buried Antony and then committed suicide. The means of her death is uncertain, though Classical writers came to believe that she had killed herself by means of an asp, symbol of divine royalty. She was 39 and had been a queen for 22 years and Antony's partner for 11. They were buried together, as both of them had wished, and with them was buried the Roman Republic.

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Cleopatra | Biography, Beauty, History, Death, & Facts

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Cleopatra, the last active ruler of ancient Egypt, intrigued powerful men like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony while navigating political intrigue in her quest to maintain Egyptian independence.

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MLA - Michals, Debra. "Sojourner Truth." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra. "Sojourner Truth." National Women's History Museum. 2015. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth.

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A former slave, Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women's rights in the nineteenth century. Learn more at womenshistory.org.

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Joan of Arc knew nothing but war. Her country of France had been fighting England for about 75 years when she was born around 1412. But when she was 16, even though she was poor and living at a time when women did not fight in the military-and certainly did not lead men-Joan came to believe that God had chosen her to lead her country to victory during what's now known as the Hundred Years War.

By 1428, England controlled much of France, and the French king no longer ruled. So Joan persuaded a local government leader to escort her through English-held territory to meet with and convince King Charles VII to let her lead his armies and help him regain the throne. Legend has it that Joan knew details about the king that no one else did, and he came to believe her claim that God had chosen her to lead.

The king ordered the army to take back the city of Orléans, accompanied by 17-year-old Joan. She cropped her hair short like a man's, donned a suit of white armor, and successfully helped French troops to victory in March 1429, even after being wounded in battle. King Charles then took back his crown a few months later. At the ceremony, Joan was at his side.

A few months later, though, Joan was captured in battle and held captive for more than a year. She was accused of witchcraft and the crime of dressing as a man. Not wanting to threaten his newly returned crown, the king didn't come to Joan's aid, and in 1431, when she was just 19, she was burned at the stake.

But beloved by France, she was officially cleared of her crimes 20 years later and became a Catholic saint in 1920. Today Joan of Arc remains the patron saint of France and a symbol of national pride.

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The teenage girl who helped lead a French army to victory

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Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American singer, guitarist, record producer and actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways, which recorded and released the hit song " Cherry Bomb". With The Blackhearts, Jett is known for her rendition of the song " I Love Rock 'n Roll" which was number-one on the Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982. Jett's other notable songs include " Bad Reputation", " Light of Day", " I Hate Myself for Loving You" and her covers of " Crimson and Clover", " Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" and " Dirty Deeds".

Jett has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. She has three albums that have been certified platinum or gold. She has been described as "the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll". Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.

Jett lives in Long Beach, New York, and has been a New York resident since the late 1970s.

At age 16, Jett became a founding member of the Runaways with drummer Sandy West. After the brief tenure of singer and bass guitarist Micki Steele, Jackie Fox, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie soon joined to complete the band, creating the classic lineup. While Currie initially fronted the band, Jett shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar, and wrote or co-wrote some of the band's material along with Ford, West, and Currie. This lineup recorded three albums, with Live in Japan becoming one of the biggest-selling imports in US and UK history.[citation needed ]

The band toured around the world and became an opening act for Cheap Trick, Ramones, Van Halen, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They found success abroad, especially in Japan. While touring England with the Runaways in 1976, Jett first heard the song " I Love Rock 'n' Roll" when she saw Arrows perform it on their weekly UK television series Arrows.[17]

While the Runaways were popular in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and South America, they could not garner the same level of success in the United States.[2][18] After Currie left the band, the band released two more albums with Jett handling the lead vocals: Waitin' for the Night and And Now... The Runaways. Altogether, they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in the spring of 1979.[19]

Soon after, Jett produced the Germs' only album, (GI).[2]

In 2010, The Runaways, a movie about Jett's band, was released, starring Kristen Stewart as Jett and Dakota Fanning as Currie.[2][20]

In 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career. She recorded three songs there with the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook and Steve Jones, one of which was an early version of Arrows' " I Love Rock 'n' Roll". This version appears on the 1993 compilation album Flashback.[21] Later that year, she returned to Los Angeles, where she began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film that was loosely based on the band's career entitled We're All Crazee Now! Three actresses stood in for the departed band members, including Rainbeaux Smith, who was also a rock drummer.[22] While working on the project, Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, who was hired by her manager Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film.[22] They became friends and decided to work together and Jett relocated to Long Beach, New York, where Laguna was based. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting after Jett fell ill, but in 1984, after she became famous, producers looked for a way to use the footage from the incomplete film.[22] Parts of the original footage of Jett were eventually used in another project, an underground film called Du-beat-eo, which was produced by Alan Sacks, but not commercially released.[22]

Jett and Laguna entered the Who's Ramport Studios with the latter at the helm, and Jett's self-titled solo debut was released by Ariola Records in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the US, after the album was rejected by 23 major labels,[23] Jett and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label, which they started with Laguna's daughter's college savings. Laguna remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do but print up records ourselves."[22]

With Laguna's assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts. Laguna recounted, "I told Joanie to forget the band and support herself on the advance money. There was enough for her but not for a band. She said she had to have a band. And I believe to this day that it was the Blackhearts, that concept, that made Joan Jett."[24] She placed an ad in the LA Weekly stating that she was "looking for three good men".[25] John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles. He mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, who had recently been crashing on his couch. Ryan was born Gary Moss, and adopted his stage name upon joining the Blackhearts in 1979, in part to cover for the fact that he was only 15 at the time.[26] Ryan was part of the Los Angeles punk scene and had played bass with local artists Top Jimmy and Rik L. Rik. He had been a fan of the Runaways and Jett for years. Jett recognized him at the audition and he was in. Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel, who was also at the time part of Rik L. Rik. The final addition to the original Blackhearts was drummer Danny "Furious" O'Brien, formerly of the San Francisco band the Avengers. This lineup played several gigs at the Golden Bear, in Huntington Beach, California, and the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood before embarking on their first European tour, which consisted of an extensive tour of the Netherlands and a few key shows in England, including the Marquee in London.[27]

Laguna fired O'Brien at the end of the tour,[24] and upon returning to the States, Jett, Ryan, and Ambel moved to Long Beach, New York. Auditions were set up, and Lee Crystal, formerly of the Boyfriends and Sylvain Sylvain, became the new drummer.[27] The band then toured throughout the US, slowly building a fan base, but struggling to remain financially afloat. Throughout 1980, the band was able to keep touring solely due to Laguna drawing on advances from outside projects.[24] Jett and Laguna used their personal savings to press copies of the Joan Jett album and set up their own system of distribution, sometimes selling the albums out of the trunk of Laguna's Cadillac at the end of each concert.[28] Laguna was unable to keep up with demand for the album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, made a joint venture with Laguna and signed Jett to his new label, Boardwalk Records and re-released the Joan Jett album as Bad Reputation.

A spring 1981 concert at the Palladium in New York City proved to be a turning point. Described by music journalists as a career-defining performance by Jett, it helped solidify a strong New York City following for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.[24] After a year of touring and recording, the Blackhearts recorded a new album entitled I Love Rock 'n Roll for the label. Ambel was replaced by local guitarist Ricky Byrd during the recording. Byrd recalled in an interview with Guitarhoo!, "One day I went to a studio to jam around a bit with Jett and everything clicked".[27][29] The first single from the album was the title track, " I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which in the first half of 1982 was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row.[30] It is Billboard's No. 56 song of all time[31] and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.[32]

Jett released Album (1983) and Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984). A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with the Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic.[33]

After receiving her own MTV New Year's Eve special, Jett beat out a number of contenders to appear in the movie Light of Day with Michael J. Fox. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song " Light of Day" especially for the movie,[34] and her performance was critically acclaimed.[35] It was about this time that Ryan and Crystal left the Blackhearts. They were soon replaced by Thommy Price and Kasim Sulton. Later that year, Jett released Good Music, which featured appearances by the Beach Boys, the Sugarhill Gang, and singer Darlene Love.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out.[33] Her next release, Up Your Alley, went multi-platinum. This album contains the single "I Hate Myself for Loving You", which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,[36] and had been used as the theme song for Sunday Night Football NFL games in America (with altered lyrics, by two singers) during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. This was followed by The Hit List, which was an album consisting of cover songs. During this time, Jett co-wrote the song " House of Fire", which appeared on Alice Cooper's 1989 album Trash.

In 1990, the band had a song on Days of Thunder's soundtrack, "Long Live the Night", written by Jett with Randy Cantor and Michael Caruso.

Her 1991 release, Notorious, which featured the Replacements' Paul Westerberg and former Billy Idol bass player Phil Feit, was the last with Sony/ CBS, as Jett switched to Warner Bros. A CD single of "Let's Do It" featuring Jett and Westerberg was also released during this time, and appeared in the song credits for the movie Tank Girl. In 1993, Jett and Laguna released Flashback, a compilation of various songs on their own Blackheart Records.

Jett produced several bands prior to releasing her debut, and her label Blackheart Records released recordings from varied artists such as thrash metal band Metal Church and rapper Big Daddy Kane.

The press touted Jett as the "Godmother of Punk"[37] and the "Original Riot Grrrl". In 1994, the Blackhearts released the well-received Pure and Simple, which featured tracks written with Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland, L7's Donita Sparks and Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna. Jett has also been described as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll.[38][39][40][41][42]

Timeline of members Edit

Jett returned to producing for the band Circus Lupus in 1992 and again, in 1994, for Bikini Kill. This recording was the New Radio +2 vinyl 7-inch EP for which she also played and sang back-up vocals. The Riot Grrrl movement started in the early 1990s, with Bikini Kill as a representative band, and many of these women credited Jett as a role model and inspiration.

In 1997, Jett was featured on the We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute album. She performed a cover of the Johnny O'Keefe song " Wild One" (or "Real Wild Child"). Jett worked with members of the punk rock band the Gits, whose lead singer and lyricist, Mia Zapata, had been raped and murdered in 1993.[2] The results of their collaboration was a live album, Evil Stig and a single, "Bob", whose earnings were contributed to the investigation of Zapata's murder. To this end, the band and Jett appeared on the television show America's Most Wanted, appealing to the public for information. The case was solved in 2004, when Zapata's murderer, Jesus Mezquia, was brought to trial and convicted.

Jett is a guest artist on Marky Ramone and the Intruders' 1999 album The Answer to Your Problems? on the track "Don't Blame Me". She is a guest vocalist on Peaches' album Impeach My Bush on the tracks " Boys Wanna Be Her" and "You Love It".

At an October 2001 9/11 benefit in Red Bank, New Jersey,[43] Jett and Springsteen appeared together on stage for the first time and played "Light of Day".

In 2004, Jett and Laguna produced the album No Apologies by the pop punk band the Eyeliners, after signing them. Jett also guested on the track "Destroy" and made a cameo appearance in its music video.

In 2005, Jett and Laguna signed punk rockers the Vacancies and produced their second album, A Beat Missing or a Silence Added (reaching the top 20 in CMJ Music Charts), and their third album in 2007, Tantrum. That same year, she was recruited by Steven Van Zandt to host her own radio show on Van Zandt's Underground Garage radio channel on Sirius Satellite Radio. She hosted a four-hour show titled Joan Jett's Radio Revolution, broadcast every Saturday and Sunday.[44] The program moved from Sirius 25 ( Underground Garage)[45] to Sirius 28 shortly before being canceled in June 2008.[46][47]

In 2005, Jett and Laguna celebrated the 25th anniversary of Blackheart Records with a sellout show at Manhattan's Webster Hall.[48]

In June 2006, Jett released her album Sinner, on Blackheart Records. To support the album, the band appeared on the 2006 Warped Tour and on a fall 2006 tour with Eagles of Death Metal. Various other bands such as Antigone Rising, Valient Thorr, the Vacancies, Throw Rag and Riverboat Gamblers were to have joined the tour for a handful of dates each. Jett sang a duet with Chase Noles on "Tearstained Letters", a song on the Heart Attacks' 2006 album, Hellbound and Heartless.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts headlined the Albuquerque, New Mexico Freedom Fourth celebration on July 4, 2007, with an estimated crowd of 65,000 in attendance at the annual outdoor event. In November 2007, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts appeared with Motörhead and Alice Cooper in a UK arena tour; Jett opened eight American shows on Aerosmith's 2007 World Tour.

Following the Dave Clark Five's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on March 10, 2008, Jett, as part of the ceremony, closed the program with a performance of the Dave Clark Five's 1964 hit " Bits and Pieces". Joan Jett & the Blackhearts appeared on several dates of the True Colors tour in the summer of 2008.[49] She opened for Def Leppard in August. On November 19, 2009, Mattel released a Joan Jett Barbie doll. Her name and likeness was used with her permission.[50]

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were part of the lineup for the Falls Music & Arts Festival, December 29 through January 1, 2010, in Australia.[51]

Jett was an executive producer for the film The Runaways, which chronicled the Runaways' career. It was written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, who has directed videos for Marilyn Manson, the White Stripes and David Bowie. Production of the movie began filming around Twilight's Kristen Stewart's filming schedule, (i.e. of the sequels New Moon and Eclipse). Stewart played Jett in the film. In order to prepare for the role, Stewart met Jett around January 2009. In an interview, Stewart revealed that she hoped to be able to sing some songs in the film.[52] The film explores the relationship between Jett and Runaways' lead singer, Cherie Currie, played by Dakota Fanning, and premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2010. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts appeared at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, at Harry-O's, to promote the film.

In March 2010, she released a 2-LP/CD Greatest Hits album with four newly re-recorded songs, as well as a hardcover biography, spanning her career from the Runaways to the present day. In June 2010, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts opened for Green Day on their UK tour alongside acts such as Frank Turner and Paramore. The band was the opening act for Aerosmith's September 2010 Canadian tour.[53]

Jett, along with the Blackhearts, released the album Unvarnished on September 30, 2013. The album reached Billboard's Top 50.[54] It included songs dealing with the death of her parents and other people.[55][56] August 1 was declared Joan Jett day in West Hollywood. She was named West Hollywood's Rock Legend.[57]

Former Blackhearts drummer Lee Crystal (born Lee Jamie Sackett in 1956 in Brooklyn, New York) died from complications of multiple sclerosis on November 5, 2013, at the age of 57.[58][59]

Jett starred in and was the executive producer of the film Undateable John, which was released in 2014.[60][61] In April 2014, Jett fronted the remaining members of Nirvana for a performance of " Smells Like Teen Spirit" for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She joined the band again later that night for its surprise concert at Saint Vitus. In April 2014, Jett was the first woman to win the Golden God Award.[62] Former bandmates Cherie Currie and Lita Ford supported her. On April 24, 2014, Alternative Press magazine held its first-ever Alternative Press Music Awards, and Jett received the AP Icon Award. On July 12, 2014, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performed at Tropicana Field after the baseball game in St. Petersburg, Florida. On October 29, 2014, Jett sang the U.S. national anthem at the New York Knicks vs. the Chicago Bulls basketball game. Jett and Hot Topic released Jett's first clothing line in 2014. It consists of jackets, shirts, pants, and a sweater.[63]

On April 15, 2015, Jett & the Blackhearts opened for the Who, kicking off their " The Who Hits 50!" 2015 North American tour in Tampa, Florida.[64] The Blackhearts opened for the Who for 42 dates in the U.S. and Canada, ending November 4 in Philadelphia. On July 4, 2015, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were part of the Foo Fighters' 20th anniversary show at the RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.[65]

In September 2018, Jett signed a music distribution deal with Sony Music's Legacy Recordings, making her catalogue officially available for streaming.[66]

Jett, along with the Blackhearts, was scheduled to join Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard on the 2020 The Stadium Tour as an opening act along with Poison[67] however tour was postponed to the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2021 it was announced that tour was again postponed and will now happen in the summer of 2022.[68] Jett announced that she will embark on a North American tour in the fall of 2021.[69] The tour ended on September 28, 2021, at the Paramount in Huntington, NY.[70]

On May 14, 2021, it was announced that to celebrate the 40th anniversaries of Jett's first two albums, Bad Reputation and I Love Rock & Roll, Z2 Comics was releasing two graphic novels titled Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - 40x40: Bad Reputation/I Love Rock 'n' Roll that will bring Jett's "songs to life as 20 vivid stories" by female writers and artists in the comic book industry. The books were released in November 2021.[71]

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts released Changeup on March 25, 2022, the first acoustic album ever recorded by the band, featuring "Bad Reputation" and "Crimson and Clover".[72]

Jett has long supported animal rights activism and organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).[73] For Valentine's Day 2022, PETA created a (Black)Heart-Shaped Pizza as a limited-time collaboration with a Los Angeles pizza shop, PIZZANISTA![74]

Jett is a sports fan and has remained actively involved in the sports world. "Bad Reputation" was used by Ultimate Fighting Championship's Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey as her walkout song at the pay-per-view event UFC 157 and is her current theme music in WWE. In April 2019, Jett performed "Bad Reputation" at WWE's WrestleMania 35 as Rousey was making her entrance.[75] Her cover of " Love Is All Around" (the theme song of The Mary Tyler Moore Show) was used by the NCAA to promote the Women's Final Four, as well as the song "Unfinished Business", which was never commercially released. "Love Is All Around" gained substantial radio play and became the number one requested song without a supporting album. Jett supplied theme songs for the ESPN X Games premiere and has contributed music to all their games since. At Cal Ripken Jr.'s request she sang the U.S. national anthem at the Baltimore Orioles game in which he tied[76] Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played. She also sang the national anthem at the final game played at Memorial Stadium. From 2006 to 2015, the melody for her song "I Hate Myself for Loving You" was used as the theme music for NBC Sunday Night Football with re-worked lyrics and retitled "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night". Beginning with the 2019 season, Jett performs the song with Carrie Underwood in the opener of Sunday Night Football games.[77]

Though Jett supported Howard Dean in the 2004 election because of his opposition to the Iraq War,[78][79] she has been a consistent supporter of the United States Armed Forces throughout her career and has toured for the United Service Organizations for over 20 years, and even performed at the United States Military Academy.[80] She often explains that while she doesn't like war, she loves the military.[81]

In 1983, musical satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic released a parody of " I Love Rock 'n' Roll" entitled " I Love Rocky Road", changing the singer's passion for rock music with that for ice cream.

Her name appears in the lyrics of the Le Tigre song " Hot Topic", released in 1999.[82]

In 2019 British blogger " Ladbaby" released a parody of I love Rock 'n' Roll, changing the singer's passion for rock music with that for sausage rolls. "I love Sausage Rolls" became the Christmas No.1 in the UK.[83]

The comic strip Bloom County included a character named Tess Turbo; her band was the Blackheads.[84]

Film, stage and television appearances Edit

Jett's first appearance on film is in the 1981 live concert film Urgh! A Music War, performing "Bad Reputation" with the Blackhearts at the Ritz in New York City.

She made her acting debut in 1987, co-starring with Gena Rowlands and Michael J. Fox in the Paul Schrader film Light of Day.[2] She has appeared in independent films, including The Sweet Life and Boogie Boy.

In 1992, she was a guest star in "Free Fall", a first-season episode of TV's Highlander: The Series.[85]

In 1997, she appeared on the sitcom Ellen,[86] in the episode "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah", performing the title song.

The 1999 series Freaks and Geeks used the song "Bad Reputation" as the opening theme.[87]

In 2000, Jett appeared in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show in the role of Columbia. That same year, Jett appeared on Walker, Texas Ranger as an ex-CIA agent turned assassin hired to kill Walker and Alex.

In 2002, Jett appeared in the film By Hook or by Crook in the role of News Interviewee.

From 2000 to 2003, Jett hosted a showcase of new film and video shorts, Independent Eye,[88] for Maryland Public Television.

In 2004, Jett narrated a short film, Godly Boyish, about two teenagers who share suicidal fantasies.

In 2008, Jett made a cameo appearance in Darren Lynn Bousman's rock opera/file Repo! The Genetic Opera as the guitarist in Shilo's room during the piece "Seventeen".[89] Also in 2008, she appeared in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode " Reunion" as a rock-and-roll talk show host who is murdered.

Jett played Betsy Neal in the film Big Driver. The film, based on Stephen King's novella of the same name, premiered on Lifetime on October 18, 2014.

Jett provided the voice for the character Sunshine Justice in an episode of Steven Universe.[90]

Jett was the subject of a documentary, Bad Reputation, which was released in theaters and streaming on September 28, 2018.[91]

Jett has been a vegetarian since the late 1980s and supports animal rights.[99][100]

Jett had, for years, refused to either confirm or deny rumors that she is lesbian or bisexual. In a 1994 interview with Out magazine she said, "I'm not saying no, I'm not saying yes, I'm saying believe what you want. Assume away-go ahead."[101] In 2006, she responded to an interviewer who had asked her when she had "come out" as a lesbian by saying, "I never made any kind of statement about my personal life on any level. I never made any proclamations. So I don't know where people are getting that from."[102]

In 2016, former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford revealed in her memoir that she temporarily quit the band because the other members were "all gay" saying "First I found out that Sandy, the one I had bonded with the most, was a lesbian. Then I found out that Cherie was messing around with Joan. I was so freaked out that I quit the band. When I found out that the girls were all gay in the band, I wasn't sure how to take it. I didn't know what it was."[103]

In a 2018 interview with the New York Times, when asked about how an LGBT film festival did not want to show her documentary because she was not "out", Jett said: "They don't want the movie there because I don't declare? [Holding up her necklace] What the [expletive] is that? Two labryses, or axes, crossing each other, inside of two women's symbols crossing each other. It's not been off since I got it. And I wear this one every day. [She turns around, lifts her shirt and reveals a tattoo with similar female symbols on her lower back.] I don't know how much more you can declare."[104]

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Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin, September 22, 1958) is an American singer, guitarist, record producer and actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways, which recorded and released the hit song " Cherry Bomb".

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Diana, princess of Wales | Biography, Wedding, Children, Funeral, & Death

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Diana, princess of Wales (born July 1, 1961, Sandringham, Norfolk, England-died August 31, 1997, Paris, France) was the princess of Wales, former consort (1981-96) of Charles, prince of Wales (later Charles III); mother of the heir apparent to the British throne, Prince William; and one of the foremost celebrities of her day.
(Read Britannica's interview with Tina Brown about Princess Di.)

Early life and education

Diana was born at Park House, the home that her parents rented on Queen Elizabeth II's estate at Sandringham and where Diana's childhood playmates were the queen's younger sons, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. As the third child and youngest daughter of Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, heir to the 7th Earl Spencer, and his first wife, Frances Ruth Burke Roche (daughter of the 4th Baron Fermoy), she was part of British nobility. Her parents' troubled marriage ended in divorce when Diana was a child, and she, along with her brother and two sisters, remained with her father. She became Lady Diana Spencer when her father succeeded to the earldom in 1975. Riddlesworth Hall (near Thetford, Norfolk) and West Heath School ( Sevenoaks, Kent) provided the young Diana's schooling. After attending the finishing school of Chateau d'Oex at Montreux, Switzerland, Diana returned to England and became a kindergarten assistant at the fashionable Young England school in Pimlico.

Marriage and divorce

She renewed her contacts with the royal family, and her friendship with Charles grew in 1980. On February 24, 1981, their engagement was announced, and her beauty and shy demeanour-which earned her the nickname "Shy Di"-made her an instant sensation with the media and the public. The couple married in St. Paul's Cathedral on July 29, 1981, in a globally televised ceremony watched by an audience numbering in the hundreds of millions. Their first child, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis of Wales, was born on June 21, 1982, and their second, Prince Henry ("Harry") Charles Albert David, on September 15, 1984.

"Princess Di" rapidly evolved into an icon of grace, elegance, and glamour. Exuding natural charm and charisma, she used her celebrity status to aid numerous charitable causes, and her changing hairstyles and wardrobe made her a fashion trendsetter. Behind the scenes, however, marital difficulties between the princess and prince were growing. Diana struggled with severe postnatal depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and the mounting strain of being constantly pursued by both the official media royal-watchers and the tabloid press, particularly the paparazzi. The marital breakdown became increasingly apparent amid mutual recriminations, tell-all biographies, and admissions of infidelity on both sides, and the couple formally separated in 1992. Diana presented her side in Andrew Morton's controversial book Diana: Her True Story (1992) and in an unusually candid television interview with Martin Bashir in 1995. After prolonged negotiations that left Diana with a substantial financial settlement but without the title Her Royal Highness, the couple's divorce became final on August 28, 1996.

"The People's Princess" and charity work

After the divorce, Diana maintained her high public profile and continued many of the activities she had earlier undertaken on behalf of charities, supporting causes as diverse as the arts, children's issues, and AIDS patients. She also was involved in efforts to ban land mines. To ensure that William and Harry had "an understanding of people's emotions, their insecurities, people's distress, and their hopes and dreams," Diana brought her sons with her to hospitals, homeless shelters, and orphanages. To acquaint them with the world outside royal privilege, she took them to fast food restaurants and on public transportation. Her compassion, personal warmth, humility, and accessibility earned her the sobriquet "the People's Princess."

Death and funeral

Long one of the most-photographed women in the world, Diana's unprecedented popularity both in Britain and abroad continued after her divorce. Although she used that celebrity to great effect in promoting her charitable work, the media (in particular the paparazzi) were often intrusive. It was while attempting to evade pursuing journalists that Diana was killed, along with her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, in an automobile accident in a tunnel under the streets of Paris in 1997.

Though the photographers were initially blamed for causing the accident, a French judge in 1999 cleared them of any wrongdoing, instead faulting Paul, who was found to have had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit at the time of the crash and to have taken prescription drugs incompatible with alcohol. In 2006 a Scotland Yard inquiry into the incident also concluded that the driver was at fault. In April 2008, however, a British inquest jury ruled both the driver and the paparazzi guilty of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving, though it found no evidence of a conspiracy to kill Diana or Fayed, an accusation long made by Fayed's father.

Her death produced unprecedented expressions of public mourning, testifying to her enormous hold on the British national psyche. The royal family, apparently caught off guard by the extraordinary outpouring of grief and by criticism of their emotional reticence, broke with tradition in arranging the internationally televised royal funeral. The image of Prince William, then age 15, and Prince Harry, then age 12, walking solemnly with their father behind Diana's casket in her funeral cortege became iconic. At Diana's funeral Sir Elton John performed a version of his classic song " Candle in the Wind" (originally written about actress Marilyn Monroe) with lyrics that had been revised by his songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, to reflect on the life and death of Diana, including

Goodbye England's rose;
May you ever grow in our hearts.
You were the grace that placed yourself
Where lives were torn apart.

The recording of that version of the song became the most successful pop single in history to date, selling more than 30 million copies.

Diana's life, and her death, polarized national feeling about the existing system of monarchy (and, in a sense, about British identity), which appeared antiquated and unfeeling in a populist age of media celebrity in which Diana herself was a central figure.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Meg Matthias.

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Diana, princess of Wales | Biography, Wedding, Children, Funeral, & Death

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Diana, princess of Wales, captivated the world with her grace and compassion as she used her platform to advocate for charitable causes and redefine the role of a modern royal.

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On December 1,1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of going to the back of the bus, which was designated for African Americans, she sat in the front. When the bus started to fill up with white passengers, the bus driver asked Parks to move. She refused. Her resistance set in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. As a child, she went to an industrial school for girls and later enrolled at Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes (present-day Alabama State University). Unfortunately, Parks was forced to withdraw after her grandmother became ill. Growing up in the segregated South, Parks was frequently confronted with racial discrimination and violence. She became active in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age.

Parks married a local barber by the name of Raymond Parks when she was 19. He was actively fighting to end racial injustice. Together the couple worked with many social justice organizations. Eventually, Rosa was elected secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

By the time Parks boarded the bus in 1955, she was an established organizer and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Parks not only showed active resistance by refusing to move she also helped organize and plan the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many have tried to diminish Parks' role in the boycott by depicting her as a seamstress who simply did not want to move because she was tired. Parks denied the claim and years later revealed her true motivation:

"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Parks courageous act and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the integration of public transportation in Montgomery. Her actions were not without consequence. She was jailed for refusing to give up her seat and lost her job for participating in the boycott.

After the boycott, Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia and later permanently settled in Detroit, Michigan. Parks work proved to be invaluable in Detroit's Civil Rights Movement. She was an active member of several organizations which worked to end inequality in the city. By 1980, after consistently giving to the movement both financially and physically Parks, now widowed, suffered from financial and health troubles. After almost being evicted from her home, local community members and churches came together to support Parks. On October 24th, 2005, at the age of 92, she died of natural causes leaving behind a rich legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice.

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Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and set in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Find out more about her at womenshistory.org.

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Marie Curie, née Sklodowska
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911

Affiliation at the time of the award: Sorbonne University, Paris, France

Prize motivation: "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element"

Prize share: 1/1

Also awarded: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903

Life

Marie Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers who believed strongly in education. She moved to Paris to continue her studies and there met Pierre Curie, who became both her husband and colleague in the field of radioactivity. The couple later shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie was widowed in 1906, but continued the couple's work and went on to become the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, Curie organized mobile X-ray teams. The Curies' daughter, Irene, was also jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside her husband, Frederic Joliot

Work

After Marie and Pierre Curie first discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium, Marie continued to investigate their properties. In 1910 she successfully produced radium as a pure metal, which proved the new element's existence beyond a doubt. She also documented the properties of the radioactive elements and their compounds. Radioactive compounds became important as sources of radiation in both scientific experiments and in the field of medicine, where they are used to treat tumors.

To cite this section
MLA style: Marie Curie - Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Wed. 30 Nov 2022. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1911/marie-curie/facts/>

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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 was awarded to Marie Curie, née Sklodowska "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element"

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Biography of Emmeline Pankhurst, Women's Rights Activist

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Emmeline Pankhurst (July 15, 1858-June 14, 1928) was a British suffragette who championed the cause of women's voting rights in Great Britain in the early 20th century, founding the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903.

Her militant tactics earned her several imprisonments and stirred up controversy among various suffragist groups. Widely credited with bringing women's issues to the forefront-thus helping them win the vote-Pankhurst is considered one of the most influential women of the 20th century.

Fast Facts: Emmeline Pankhurst

Early Years

Pankhurst, the eldest girl in a family of 10 children, was born to Robert and Sophie Goulden on July 15, 1858, in Manchester, England. Robert Goulden ran a successful calico-printing business; his profits enabled his family to live in a large house on the outskirts of Manchester.

Pankhurst developed a social conscience at an early age, thanks to her parents, both ardent supporters of the anti-enslavement movement and women's rights. At age 14, Emmeline attended her first suffrage meeting with her mother and came away inspired by the speeches she heard.

A bright child who was able to read at the age of 3, Pankhurst was somewhat shy and feared speaking in public. Yet she was not timid about making her feelings known to her parents.

Pankhurst felt resentful that her parents placed a lot of importance upon the education of her brothers, but gave little consideration to educating their daughters. Girls attended a local boarding school that primarily taught social skills that would enable them to become good wives.

Pankhurst convinced her parents to send her to a progressive women's school in Paris. When she returned five years later at the age of 20, she had become fluent in French and had learned not only sewing and embroidery but chemistry and bookkeeping as well.

Marriage and Family

Soon after returning from France, Emmeline met Richard Pankhurst, a radical Manchester attorney more than twice her age. She admired Pankhurst's commitment to liberal causes, notably the women's suffrage movement.

A political extremist, Richard Pankhurst also supported home rule for the Irish and the radical notion of abolishing the monarchy. They married in 1879 when Emmeline was 21 and Richard was in his mid-40s.

In contrast to the relative wealth of Pankhurst's childhood, she and her husband struggled financially. Richard Pankhurst, who might have made a good living working as a lawyer, despised his work and preferred to dabble in politics and social causes.

When the couple approached Robert Goulden about financial assistance, he refused; an indignant Pankhurst never spoke to her father again.

Pankhurst gave birth to five children between 1880 and 1889: daughters Christabel, Sylvia, and Adela, and sons Frank and Harry. Having taken care of her firstborn (and alleged favorite) Christobel, Pankhurst spent little time with her subsequent children when they were young, leaving them instead in the care of nannies.

The children did benefit, however, from growing up in a household filled with interesting visitors and lively discussions, including with well-known socialists of the day.

Gets Involved

Pankhurst became active in the local women's suffrage movement, joining the Manchester Women's Suffrage Committee soon after her marriage. She later worked to promote the Married Women's Property Bill, which was drafted in 1882 by her husband.

In 1883, Richard Pankhurst ran unsuccessfully as an independent for a seat in Parliament. Disappointed by his loss, Richard Pankhurst was nonetheless encouraged by an invitation from the Liberal Party to run again in 1885-this time in London.

The Pankhursts moved to London, where Richard lost his bid to secure a seat in Parliament. Determined to earn money for her family-and to free her husband to pursue his political ambitions-Pankhurst opened a shop selling fancy home furnishings in the Hempstead section of London.

Ultimately, the business failed because it was located in a poor part of London, where there was little demand for such items. Pankhurst closed the shop in 1888. Later that year, the family suffered the loss of 4-year-old Frank, who died of diphtheria.

The Pankhursts, along with friends and fellow activists, formed the Women's Franchise League (WFL) in 1889. Although the League's main purpose was to gain the vote for women, Richard Pankhurst tried to take on too many other causes, alienating the League's members. The WFL disbanded in 1893.

Having failed to achieve their political goals in London and troubled by money woes, the Pankhursts returned to Manchester in 1892. Joining the newly formed Labor Party in 1894, the Pankhursts worked with the Party to help feed the multitudes of poor and unemployed people in Manchester.

Pankhurst was named to the board of "poor law guardians," whose job it was to supervise the local workhouse-an institute for destitute people. Pankhurst was shocked by conditions in the workhouse, where inhabitants were fed and clothed inadequately and young children were forced to scrub floors.

Pankhurst helped to improve conditions immensely; within five years, she had even established a school in the workhouse.

A Tragic Loss

In 1898, Pankhurst suffered another devastating loss when her husband of 19 years died suddenly of a perforated ulcer.

Widowed at only 40 years old, Pankhurst learned that her husband had left his family deeply in debt. She was forced to sell furniture to pay off debts and accepted a paying position in Manchester as registrar of births, marriages, and deaths.

As a registrar in a working-class district, Pankhurst encountered many women who struggled financially. Her exposure to these women-as well as her experience at the workhouse-reinforced her sense that women were victimized by unfair laws.

In Pankhurst's time, women were at the mercy of laws which favored men. If a woman died, her husband would receive a pension; a widow, however, might not receive the same benefit.

Although progress had been made by the passage of the Married Women's Property Act (which granted women the right to inherit property and to keep the money they earned), those women without an income might very well find themselves living at the workhouse.

Pankhurst committed herself to securing the vote for women because she knew their needs would never be met until they gained a voice in the law-making process.

Getting Organized: The WSPU

In October 1903, Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The organization, whose simple motto was "Votes for Women," accepted only women as members and actively sought out those from the working class.

Mill-worker Annie Kenny became an articulate speaker for the WSPU, as did Pankhurst's three daughters.

The new organization held weekly meetings at Pankhurst's home and membership grew steadily. The group adopted white, green, and purple as its official colors, symbolizing purity, hope, and dignity. Dubbed by the press "suffragettes" (meant as an insulting play on the word "suffragists"), the women proudly embraced the term and called their organization's newspaper Suffragette.

The following spring, Pankhurst attended the Labor Party's conference, bringing with her a copy of the women's suffrage bill written years earlier by her late husband. She was assured by the Labor Party that her bill would be up for discussion during its May session.

When that long-anticipated day came, Pankhurst and other members of the WSPU crowded the House of Commons, expecting that their bill would come up for debate. To their great disappointment, members of Parliament (MPs) staged a "talk out," during which they intentionally prolonged their discussion on other topics, leaving no time for the women's suffrage bill.

The group of angry women formed a protest outside, condemning the Tory government for its refusal to address the issue of women's voting rights.

Gaining Strength

In 1905-a general election year-the women of WSPU found ample opportunities to make themselves heard. During a Liberal Party rally held in Manchester on October 13, 1905, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenny repeatedly posed the question to speakers: "Will the liberal government give votes to women?"

This created an uproar, leading to the pair being forced outside, where they held a protest. Both were arrested; refusing to pay their fines, they were sent to jail for a week. These were the first of what would amount to nearly 1,000 arrests of suffragists in the coming years.

This highly publicized incident brought more attention to the cause of women's suffrage than any previous event; it also brought a surge of new members.

Emboldened by its growing numbers and infuriated by the government's refusal to address the issue of women's voting rights, the WSPU developed a new tactic-heckling politicians during speeches. The days of the early suffrage societies-polite, ladylike letter-writing groups-had given way to a new kind of activism.

In February 1906, Pankhurst, her daughter Sylvia, and Annie Kenny staged a women's suffrage rally in London. Nearly 400 women took part in the rally and in the ensuing march to the House of Commons, where small groups of women were allowed in to speak to their MPs after initially being locked out.

Not a single member of Parliament would agree to work for women's suffrage, but Pankhurst considered the event a success. An unprecedented number of women had come together to stand for their beliefs and had shown that they would fight for the right to vote.

Pankhurst, shy as a child, evolved into a powerful and compelling public speaker. She toured the country, giving speeches at rallies and demonstrations, while Christabel became the political organizer for the WSPU, moving its headquarters to London.

On June 26, 1908, an estimated 500,000 people gathered in Hyde Park for a WSPU demonstration. Later that year, Pankhurst went to the United States on a speaking tour, in need of money for medical treatment for her son Harry, who had contracted polio. Unfortunately, he died soon after her return.

Over the next seven years, Pankhurst and other suffragettes were repeatedly arrested as the WSPU employed ever more militant tactics.

Imprisonment

On March 4, 1912, hundreds of women, including Pankhurst (who broke a window at the prime minister's residence), participated in a rock-throwing, window-smashing campaign throughout commercial districts in London. Pankhurst was sentenced to nine months in prison for her part in the incident.

In protest of their imprisonment, she and fellow detainees embarked upon a hunger strike. Many of the women, including Pankhurst, were held down and force-fed through rubber tubes passed through their noses into their stomachs. Prison officials were widely condemned when reports of the feedings were made public.

Weakened by the ordeal, Pankhurst was released after spending a few months in abysmal prison conditions. In response to the hunger strikes, Parliament passed what came to be known as the "Cat and Mouse Act" (officially called the Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act), which allowed women to be released so that they could regain their health, only to be re-incarcerated once they had recuperated, with no credit for time served.

The WSPU stepped up its extreme tactics, including the use of arson and bombs. In 1913, one member of the Union, Emily Davidson, attracted publicity by throwing herself in front of the king's horse in the middle of the Epsom Derby race. Gravely injured, she died days later.

The more conservative members of the Union became alarmed by such developments, creating divisions within the organization and leading to the departure of several prominent members. Eventually, even Pankhurst's daughter Sylvia became disenchanted with her mother's leadership and the two became estranged.

World War I and the Women's Vote

In 1914, Britain's involvement in World War I effectively put an end to the WSPU's militancy. Pankhurst believed it was her patriotic duty to assist in the war effort and ordered that a truce be declared between the WSPU and the government. In return, all suffragette prisoners were released. Pankhurst's support of the war further alienated her from daughter Sylvia, an ardent pacifist.

Pankhurst published her autobiography, "My Own Story," in 1914. (Daughter Sylvia later wrote a biography of her mother, published in 1935.)

Later Years, Death, and Legacy

As an unexpected by-product of the war, women had the opportunity to prove themselves by carrying out jobs previously held only by men. By 1916, attitudes toward women had changed; they were now regarded as more deserving of the vote after having served their country so admirably. On February 6, 1918, Parliament passed the Representation of the People Act, which granted the vote to all women over 30.

In 1925, Pankhurst joined the Conservative Party, much to the astonishment of her former socialist friends. She ran for a seat in Parliament but withdrew before the election because of ill health.

Pankhurst died at the age of 69 on June 14, 1928, only weeks before the vote was extended to all women over 21 years of age on July 2, 1928.

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Biography of Emmeline Pankhurst, Women's Rights Activist

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Emmeline Pankhurst (July 15, 1858-June 14, 1928) was a British suffragette who championed the cause of women's voting rights in Great Britain in the early 20th century, founding the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. Her militant tactics earned her several imprisonments and stirred up controversy among various suffragist groups.

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Susan B. Anthony | Biography, Accomplishments, Dollar, Suffrage, & Facts

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Susan B. Anthony, (born February 15, 1820, Adams, Massachusetts, U.S.-died March 13, 1906, Rochester, New York), American activist who was a pioneer crusader for the women's suffrage movement in the United States and was president (1892-1900) of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote.

Early life

Anthony was reared in the Quaker tradition in a home pervaded by a tone of independence and moral zeal. She was a precocious child and learned to read and write at the age of three. After the family moved from Massachusetts to Battensville, New York, in 1826, she attended a district school, then a school set up by her father, and finally a boarding school near Philadelphia. In 1839 she took a position in a Quaker seminary in New Rochelle, New York. From 1846 to 1849 she taught at a female academy in upstate New York.

Abolition, temperance, and women's suffrage

Anthony subsequently settled in her family home, now near Rochester, New York. There she met many leading abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, Parker Pillsbury, Wendell Phillips, William Henry Channing, and William Lloyd Garrison. Soon the temperance movement enlisted her sympathy and then, after meeting Amelia Bloomer and through her Elizabeth Cady Stanton, so did that of women's suffrage.

The rebuff of Anthony's attempt to speak at a temperance meeting in Albany in 1852 prompted her to organize the Woman's New York State Temperance Society, of which Stanton became president, and pushed Anthony farther in the direction of women's rights advocacy. In a short time she became known as one of the cause's most zealous, serious advocates, a dogged and tireless worker whose personality contrasted sharply with that of her friend and coworker Stanton. She was also a prime target of public and newspaper abuse. While campaigning for a liberalization of New York's laws regarding married women's property rights, an end attained in 1860, Anthony served from 1856 as chief New York agent of Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society. During the early phase of the Civil War she helped organize the Women's National Loyal League, which urged the case for emancipation. After the war she campaigned unsuccessfully to have the language of the Fourteenth Amendment altered to allow for woman as well as African American suffrage, and in 1866 she became corresponding secretary of the newly formed American Equal Rights Association. Her exhausting speaking and organizing tour of Kansas in 1867 failed to win passage of a state enfranchisement law.

In 1868 Anthony became publisher, and Stanton editor, of a new periodical, The Revolution, originally financed by the eccentric George Francis Train. The same year, she represented the Working Women's Association of New York, which she had recently organized, at the National Labor Union convention. In January 1869 she organized a women's suffrage convention in Washington, D.C., and in May she and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). A portion of the organization deserted later in the year to join Lucy Stone's more conservative American Woman Suffrage Association, but the NWSA remained a large and powerful group, and Anthony continued to serve as its principal leader and spokeswoman.

In 1870 she relinquished her position at The Revolution and embarked on a series of lecture tours to pay off the paper's accumulated debts. As a test of the legality of the suffrage provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, she cast a vote in the 1872 presidential election in Rochester, New York. She was arrested, convicted (the judge's directed verdict of guilty had been written before the trial began, and she called the proceedings "the greatest judicial outrage history has ever recorded"), and fined, and although she refused to pay the fine, the case was carried no farther. She traveled constantly, often with Stanton, in support of efforts in various states to win the franchise for women: California in 1871, Michigan in 1874, Colorado in 1877, and elsewhere. In 1890, after lengthy discussions, the rival suffrage associations were merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and after Stanton resigned in 1892, Anthony became president. Her principal lieutenant in later years was Carrie Chapman Catt.

By the 1890s Anthony had largely outlived the abuse and sarcasm that had attended her early efforts, and she emerged as a national heroine. Her visits to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and to the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon, in 1905 were warmly received, as were her trips to London in 1899 and Berlin in 1904 as head of the U.S. delegation to the International Council of Women (which she helped found in 1888). In 1900, at age 80, she retired from the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, passing it on to Catt. Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed.

Writings, dollar coin, and museum

Principal among Anthony's written works are the first four volumes of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage, written with Stanton and Matilda J. Gage. Various of her writings are collected in The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader (1992), edited by Ellen Carol DuBois, and The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (1997), edited by Ann D. Gordon. With the issue of a new dollar coin in 1979, Anthony became the first woman to be depicted on United States currency, although the honour was somewhat mitigated by popular rejection of the coin because its size was so similar to that of the 25-cent coin.

The opening in 2010 of the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum in Adams, Massachusetts, on the occasion of the 190th anniversary of Anthony's birth, stirred controversy when the owner of the property and president of the museum led with an exhibit presenting Anthony as an antiabortion feminist in 21st-century terms. Further controversy followed in 2020 when U.S. Pres. Donald Trump pardoned Anthony for her 1872 conviction. The move was criticized by historians and others who argued that Anthony did not believe she had committed a crime and that the pardon validated the trial.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Amy Tikkanen.

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Susan B. Anthony | Biography, Accomplishments, Dollar, Suffrage, & Facts

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Susan B. Anthony, American activist who was a pioneer crusader for the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. and was president (1892-1900) of the National Woman Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote.

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She never reached her fortieth birthday, but in her brief life, Amelia Earhart became a record-breaking female aviator whose international fame improved public acceptance of aviation and paved the way for other women in commercial flight.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas to Amy Otis Earhart and Edwin Stanton Earhart, followed in 1899 by her sister Muriel. The family moved from Kansas to Iowa to Minnesota to Illinois, where Earhart graduated from high school. During World War I, she left college to work at a Canadian military hospital, where she met aviators and became intrigued with flying.

After the war, Earhart completed a semester at Columbia University, then the University of Southern California. With her first plane ride in 1920, she realized her true passion and began flying lessons with female aviator Neta Snook. On her twenty-fifth birthday, Earhart purchased a Kinner Airster biplane. She flew it, in 1922, when she set the women's altitude record of 14,000 feet. With faltering family finances, she soon sold the plane. When her parents divorced in 1924, Earhart moved with her mother and sister to Massachusetts and became a settlement worker at Dennison House in Boston, while also flying in air shows.

Earhart's life changed dramatically in 1928, when publisher George Putnam -seeking to expand on public enthusiasm for Charles Lindbergh's transcontinental flight a year earlier -tapped Earhart to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane. She succeeded, albeit, as a passenger. But when the flight from Newfoundland landed in Wales on June 17, 1928, Earhart became a media sensation and symbol of what women could achieve. Putnam remained her promoter, publishing her two books: 20 Hrs. 40 Mins. (1928) and The Fun of It (1932). Earhart married Putnam in 1931, though she retained her maiden name and considered the marriage an equal partnership.

Earhart's popularity brought opportunities from a short-lived fashion business to a stint as aviation editor at Cosmopolitan (then a family magazine). It also brought financing for subsequent record-breaking flights in speed and distance. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic -as a pilot. Her awards included the American Distinguished Flying Cross and the Cross of the French Legion of Honor. In 1929, Earhart helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization of female aviators.

In 1935, Purdue University hired Earhart as aviation advisor and career counselor for women and purchased the Lockheed plane she dubbed her "flying laboratory." On June 1, 1937, she left Miami with navigator Fred Noonan, seeking to become the first woman to fly around the world. With 7,000 miles remaining, the plane lost radio contact near the Howland was never found, despite an extensive search that continued for decades.

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She never reached her fortieth birthday, but in her brief life, Amelia Earhart became a record-breaking female aviator whose international fame improved public acceptance of aviation and paved the way for other women in commercial flight. Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas to Amy Otis Earhart and Edwin Stanton Earhart, followed in 1899 by her sister Muriel.

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Amelia Earhart | Biography, Childhood, Disappearance, & Facts

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Table of Contents

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Amelia Earhart (born July 24, 1897, Atchison, Kansas, U.S.-disappeared July 2, 1937, near Howland Island, central Pacific Ocean) was an American aviator, one of the world's most celebrated, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Her disappearance during a flight around the world in 1937 became an enduring mystery, fueling much speculation.

Early life

Earhart's father was a railroad lawyer, and her mother came from an affluent family. While still a child, Earhart displayed an adventurous and independent nature for which she would later become known. After the death of her grandparents, the family struggled financially amid her father's alcoholism. The Earharts moved often, and she completed high school in Chicago in 1916. After her mother received her inheritance, Earhart was able to attend the Ogontz School in Rydal, Pennsylvania. However, during a visit to her sister in Canada, Amelia developed an interest in caring for soldiers wounded in World War I. In 1918 she left junior college to become a nurse's aide in Toronto.

Historic flights

After the war, Earhart entered the premed program at Columbia University in New York City but left in 1920 after her parents insisted that she live with them in California. There she went on her first airplane ride in 1920, an experience that prompted her to take flying lessons. In 1921 she bought her first plane, a Kinner Airster, and two years later she earned her pilot's license. In the mid-1920s Earhart moved to Massachusetts, where she became a social worker at the Denison House, a settlement home for immigrants in Boston. She also continued to pursue her interest in aviation.

During this time promoters sought to have a woman fly across the Atlantic Ocean, and in April 1928 Earhart was selected for the flight. Some speculated that the decision was partly based on her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh, who had become the first man to fly nonstop solo across the Atlantic the previous year. On June 17, 1928, Earhart departed Trepassey, Newfoundland, Canada, as a passenger aboard a seaplane piloted by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. After landing at Burry Port, Wales, on June 18, Earhart became an international celebrity. She wrote about the flight in 20 Hrs. 40 Min. (1928) and undertook a lecture tour across the United States. Much of the publicity was handled by publisher George Palmer Putnam, who had helped organize the historic flight. The couple married in 1931, but Earhart continued her career under her maiden name. That year she also piloted an autogiro to a record-setting altitude of 18,415 feet (5,613 metres).

Determined to justify the renown that her 1928 crossing had brought her, Earhart crossed the Atlantic alone on May 20-21, 1932. Her flight in her Lockheed Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, was completed in a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes despite a number of problems. She notably experienced mechanical difficulties and inclement weather and was unable to land in her scheduled destination of Paris. Afterward she published The Fun of It (1932), in which she wrote about her life and interest in flying. Earhart then undertook a series of flights across the United States.

In addition to her piloting feats, Earhart was known for encouraging women to reject constrictive social norms and to pursue various opportunities, especially in the field of aviation. In 1929 she helped found an organization of female pilots that later became known as the Ninety-Nines. Earhart served as its first president. In addition, she debuted a functional clothing line in 1933, which was designed "for the woman who lives actively."

In 1935 Earhart made history with the first solo flight from Hawaii to California, a hazardous route 2,408 miles (3,875 km) long, a longer distance than that from the United States to Europe. She departed from Honolulu on January 11 and, after 17 hours and 7 minutes, landed in Oakland the following day. Later that year she became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City.

Final flight and disappearance

In 1937 Earhart set out to fly around the world, with Fred Noonan as her navigator, in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra. On June 1 the duo began their 29,000-mile (47,000-km) journey, departing from Miami and heading east. Over the following weeks they made various refueling stops before reaching Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. At that point, Earhart and Noonan had traveled some 22,000 miles (35,000 km).

They departed on July 2, headed for Howland Island, approximately 2,600 miles (4,200 km) away. The flight was expected to be arduous, especially since the tiny coral atoll was difficult to locate. To help with navigation, two brightly lit U.S. ships were stationed to mark the route. Earhart was also in intermittent radio contact with the Itasca, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter near Howland. Late in the journey, Earhart radioed that the plane was running out of fuel. About an hour later she announced, "We are running north and south." That was the last transmission received by the Itasca. The plane was believed to have gone down some 100 miles (160 km) from the island, and an extensive search was undertaken to find Earhart and Noonan. However, on July 19, 1937, the operation was called off, and the pair was declared lost at sea. Throughout the trip, Earhart had sent her husband various materials, including letter and diary entries, and these were published in Last Flight (1937).

Earhart's mysterious disappearance captured the public's imagination and generated numerous theories and claims. Notably, some believed that she and Noonan had crashed on a different island after failing to locate Howland, and others posited that they were captured by the Japanese. However, no definitive evidence was found for such claims. Most experts believe that Earhart's plane crashed in the Pacific near Howland after running out of fuel. A fixture in popular culture, she was the subject of numerous books and movies.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Amelia Earhart | Biography, Childhood, Disappearance, & Facts

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Amelia Earhart, American aviator who was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Her disappearance during a flight around the world in 1937 became an enduring mystery, fueling much speculation. Learn about her life, career, and disappearance in this article.