Important Dates in U.S. Women’s History

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1637: Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy

1692: The Salem Witch Trials, Salem, Massachusetts

1789: Abigail Adams makes plea to her husband, "Remember the ladies" in the new Constitution

1792: Sarah Pierce establishes first institution in America for higher education of women, in Litchfield, CT

1820: Susan B. Anthony's birthday, February 15

1847: Maria Mitchell discovers a new comet, wins a medal from the King of Denmark

1848: Seneca Falls Convention, first to discuss women's rights, July 19-20

1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first licensed woman physician

1850: Harriet Tubman begins Underground Railroad to lead slaves to freedom

1851: The "Bloomer costume" adopted to urge dress reform for women

1855: Lucy Stone marries Henry Blackwell and keeps her birthname, inspiring generations to follow suit

1866: The Young Women's Christian Assoc. (YWCA) founded in Boston, MA

1869: Wyoming Territory grants women the vote in all elections, the first.

1881: Helen Hunt Jackson's book, A Century of Dishonor, calls attention to the unjust treatment of Native Americans

1885: Alice Paul's birthday, January 11

1889: Jane Addams and Ellen Starr found Hull House in Chicago, IL

1895: National Organization of Negro Women's Clubs organized in Boston, MA

1903: Women's Trade Union League founded to support working women

1912: Police close down Margaret Sanger's birth-control clinic

1912: Hadassah organized

1916: Jeannette Rankin elected to Congress, first woman

1917: National Woman's Party begins picketing White House for suffrage on July 14

1920: 19th Amendment (Woman Suffrage) ratified, August 26

1920: League of Women Voters founded

1920: Women's Bureau of Dept. of Labor formed

1921: American Birth Control League founded by Margaret Sanger

1922: Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City, results in protective legislation for workers, March 25

1923: Alice Paul proposes the Equal Rights Amendment, introduced in Congress every year since

1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross inaugurated, first woman governor in U.S., January 5

1926: Gertrude Ederle swims English Channel: first woman, breaks all records, August 6

1932: Amelia Earhart makes first transcontinental nonstop flight by a woman

1933: Frances Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor, first woman in U.S. cabinet, March 4

1934: Babe Didrikson pitches a full inning for the Philadelphia Athletics (vs. Brooklyn Dodgers), March 6

1941-1945: Millions of women enter work force during World War II

1942: Women's services established by Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps

1948: Jacqueline Cochran becomes first woman to break the sound barrier, May 18

1955: Rosa Parks arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Black Civil Rights Movement, December 1

1960: Enovid, first birth-control pill, goes on the market

1962: Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, calls attention to the dangers of agricultural pesticides

1963: Equal Pay Act passed by Congress

1963: Betty Friedan's book, Feminine Mystique, sparks the contemporary feminist movement

1964: Civil Rights Act outlaws sex discrimination

1966: National Organization for Women (NOW) organized

1968: Shirley Chisholm is first black woman elected to House

1972: Title IX of the Education Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in schools

1972: Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress and sent to states for ratification, March 22

1972: Ms. Magazine launched

1973: Roe v. Wade overturns state laws restricting right to abortion

1981: Sandra Day O'Connor first woman seated on the U.S. Supreme Court

1982: Equal Rights Amendment fails

1983: Sally Ride is first American woman to ride into space

1984: Geraldine Ferraro is first woman nominated for vice president by a major party

1987: Census Bureau reports average woman earns 68 cents for every dollar earned by a man

1992: Record-breaking number of women elected to Congress

1993: Janet Reno is first woman to hold office of Attorney General of the United States

1993: Supreme Court rules that sexual harassment in the workplace is illegal

This timeline was developed from a chronology compiled by Mary Ruthsdotter, at the National Women's History Project, and a timeline from the March 1993 issue of Scholastic Search.

For more information about this organization, please contact the National Women's History Project, 7738 Bell Road, Windsor, CA 95492. (707) 838-6000.

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