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Important Dates in Women's Rights History

By 104616
  • 1769

    Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
  • July 19-20

    First woman's rights convention (Seneca Falls Convention) Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were there this event sparked decades of activism which led to the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote.
  • January 23

    Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to graduate from medical school and became a doctor in the United States. (Had the highest grades in her class)
  • May 29

    A former slave Sojourner Truth delivers her famoud "Ain't I a Woman" speech at The Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.
  • 1854

    Henry David Thoreau published Walden
  • 1866

    The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
  • December 10

    The legislative of the territory of Wyoming passes Americas first woman suffrage law, granting woman the right to vote and hold office.
  • 1872

    The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain
  • 1905

    The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
  • October 16

    Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United Sates location in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Her clinic was deemed illegal under the "com stuck laws" The clinic was raided October 26, 1916, she eventually closed the clinic.
  • 1916

    US Congress created the National Park Service
  • April 2

    Jeanette Rankin of Montana, is sworn in as the first woman elected to congress as a member of the House of Representatives.
  • May 20-21

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman pilot ever to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic.
  • December 1

    Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama which helped launch the Civil Rights Movement.
  • 1962

    Rachel Carson published Silent Spring
  • 1968

    The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
  • 1970

    First Earth Day – April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established
  • September 20

    In the "The Battle of the Sexes" tennis game Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in straight sets during a match.
  • June 18

    Flying on the space shuttle, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
  • 1989

    Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
  • 1997

    The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
  • 2001

    U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
  • January 24

    The U.S. military removes a ban against women serving in combat positions.
  • 2017

    U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
  • 2021

    U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation