#OnThisDay, 24 Mar 1944, Éliane Plewman is arrested by the Gestapo in Nazi-occupied France after six months operating as a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance. A courier carried messages and equipment around their network.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WorldWar2 #EuropeanHistory #SOE

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#OnThisDay, 21 Mar 1945, Hannie Schaft, an active member of the Dutch resistance known as "the girl with the red hair", is arrested at a German checkpoint in Haarlem.

She is later executed, allegedly saying "I shoot better" after the first attempt to shoot her missed.

For women’s history month, we are celebrating our incredible leaders whose work has immeasurably bettered our communities and our country.

Thank you Rep. Julie Johnson (TX-32) for your meaningful work!

#OnThisDay, 17 Mar 1964, Joan Merriam Smith set off from Oakland airport in California in an attempt to fly solo around the world. She followed Amelia Earhart’s easterly route from 1937 as far as New Guinea where Earhart had vanished.

Merriam Smith arrived back in Oakland on 12 May 1964, the first pilot to successfully make a solo circumnavigation by the equatorial route.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenPilots #AmericanHistory #WomensHistoryMonth

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#OnThisDay, 13 Mar 1990, Ertha Pascal-Trouillot became the provisional president of Haiti. She was the first woman to hold the role.

She stabilised the country for long enough for it to hold a free and fair election.

“I accepted the position in the name of Haitian women. I did it as a service to my country. I did it with love and determination.”

#OnThisDay, 11 Mar 1959, Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, is the first play by a Black woman to debut on Broadway.

Hansberry was a rising star when she died young of cancer. Her posthumous play, Young Gifted and Black, inspired her friend Nina Simone to write the song of the same name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hdVFiANBTk

#OnThisDay, 11 Mar 1942, the current Waterloo Bridge in London partially opens. The construction force included many women, giving it the nickname “the Ladies Bridge”.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #LondonHistory #WorldWar2 #Histodons

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/england-built-by-women/

#OnThisDay, 11 Mar 1928, hundreds of women march through London to a Communist Party rally, demanding better working conditions.

[photo via https://redflagwalks.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/pawky-comments-in-downing-street-the-march-of-the-women-on-11th-march-1928/ ]

#OnThisDay, 4 Mar 1933, Frances Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor: the first woman to hold a cabinet post in the USA.

She was a workers-rights activist and key builder of the New Deal. She was in FDR's cabinet for all four terms of his Presidency.

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

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#OnTheDay, 2 Mar 1977, Bette Davis receives the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award. She is the first woman to win it.

Of the 50 recipients to date, 11 have been women.

Happy Women's History Month to all women!

May today be an opportunity for all allies to renew our commitment to lift up women's voices, celebrate them, and stand up for their rights.

#OnThisDay, 1 Mar 1912, Isabella Godwin is promoted, becoming the first woman police detective in the US after an undercover operation to catch a gang of bank robbers.

Very late #OnThisDay, 28 Feb 1944, Madeleine Damerment parachuted into occupied France to be an agent for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE worked with the French Resistance.

She was French, and had previously run escape lines for downed airmen. She escaped France in 1942, and then chose to return.

She was immediately arrested as the network had been betrayed. She was executed at Dachau in Sept 1944.

#OnThisDay, 28 Feb 1909, the first national Woman's Day is held in the USA. Suggested by Theresa Malkiel of the Socialist Party of America's Woman's National Committee, the idea is taken up in Europe and evolves into International Women's Day (normally 8 March).