#OnThisDay, 4 Jun 1972, civil rights activist Angela Davis is acquitted in a trial over her alleged involvement in the 1970 Marin County Civic Centre attack.
Davis had been prosecuted for three capital felonies, including conspiracy to murder, after guns she owned were used in the attack. The all-white jury cleared her of all charges.
“Bribed With Our Own Money: Federal Abuse of American Indian Funds in the Termination Era” examines how officials coerced tribal nations to accept termination by threatening to withhold money owed them by the federal government.'
'The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) is proud to announce the launch of the National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive (NIBSDA), the first-ever digital archives database on Indian Boarding Schools. NIBSDA is a groundbreaking project aimed at preserving and bringing to light the history of the U.S. Indian Boarding School era.'
#OTD in 1973, the Senate Watergate hearings began, marking one of the most infamous events in American political history and reshaping public trust in government and media. Relive this pivotal moment in history by exploring the complete "gavel to gavel" coverage with the AAPB’s The Watergate Hearings Collection: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-6688g8g717
#OnThisDay, 15 May 1946, Camilla Williams makes her operatic debut as Cio-Cio San with the New York City Opera. She is the first Black woman to sign a contract with a major US opera company.
"Women are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights."
#OnThisDay, 10 May 1872, Victoria Woodhull was nominated to run for US president by the Equal Rights Party. Her nomination was ratified on June 6, 1872, making her the first woman candidate.
Woodhall had co-founded, with her sister, both a Wall Street brokerage and a newspaper. She was also an anti-abortionist and eugenics supporter.
#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.
#OnThisDay, 8 May 1865, Dr Mary Harris Thompson founds the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children. At the time one of the city's two existing hospitals did not admit women patients.
#OnThisDay, 3 May 1933, Nellie Tayloe Ross takes up post as director of the US Mint. She is the first woman to hold the position, and stays in post for 20 years.
#OnThisDay, 19 Apr 1967, Katherine Switzer becomes the first woman to complete the Boston Marathon as a registered runner, despite the organiser physically trying to stop her.
#OnThisDay, 17 Apr 1964, Jerrie Mock touches down in Ohio to become the first woman to fly solo around the world. Press coverage of the time made much of her being a “housewife”. 🙄
#OnThisDay, 16 Apr 1912, Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly a plane across the English Channel.
Quimby was the first American woman to receive a pilot’s licence and made her living doing exhibition flights in the US. She also made money as the advertising face of a grape juice. She died in July 1912 when her plane pitched forward at 1,000 feet and she was thrown out.
#OnThisDay, 15 Apr 1960, Ella Baker convenes a conference of 126 independent student protest groups. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) forms as a result. SNCC coordinated and assisted direct-action challenges to segregation in the USA.
Baker was a civil rights activist for five decades, and advocated grassroots activism. She also criticised the misogyny she encountered within the movement.
#OnThisDay, 10 Apr 1864, army surgeon Dr Mary Edwards Walker is captured by the Confederates during the US Civil War. She later receives the Medal of Honor.
As well as serving in the Civil War, and being a dress reformer who preferred to wear trousers, she was also a suffragist who declined to take her husband’s name when they married.
#OnThisDay, 9 Apr 1939, Marian Anderson sings to thousands for free in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Millions more tuned in on the radio.
Howard University had wanted to book the biggest concert venue in DC, Constitution Hall, for her. But the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned it, would only let white performers appear on their stage.