Today is Ellen Zwilich's birthday. She was the "first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music," says NWHP, in 1983. She won for her Symphony No. I (Three Movements for Orchestra), which was "commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra and premiered by that orchestra on May 5, 1982 in Alice Tully Hall, New York City," says the Pulitzer Prize website.

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Harper Lee

Happy birthday to award-winning American author Harper Lee, famous for her novel To Kill A Mocking Bird.

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Leaders in Equality

Happy birthday to British author and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and civil rights advocate Coretta Scott King.

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Birthdays!

Happy birthday to blues artist Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and television actress Carol Burnett!

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Ella Fitzgerald

Happy Birthday to Ella Fitzgerald!

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Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day, a holiday committed to raising awareness about the fact that there is a significant gap between what men are paid and what women are paid. Currently, women earns 77 cents for every dollar that men do.

What you can do to help:
Wear red to support the fair pay movement
Write to or call your senators and ask them to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Information on how to contact them, and background on the Act are here:
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=10323036

Here are some great links:
http://www.pay-equity.org
http://www.wageproject.org/

Today's birthdays

Happy birthday to Charlotte Bronte and Queen Elizabeth II!

The Women's History Project

Fair Pay Restoration Act

"The Fair Pay Restoration Act (S.1843) – drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which held that employees must sue for pay discrimination within the current 180-day statute of limitations – would permit employees to sue employers for wage discrimination even if the discrimination was discovered beyond the 180-day limit," says the National Comittee on Pay Equity. The Senate will be voting early on the Fair Pay Restoration act next week, says Feminist Majority: "The House has already passed the companion bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to correct the recent Supreme Court decision that guts the ability of women workers to sue for wage discrimination. Celebrate Equal Pay Day, April 22nd, by contacting your senators today!"

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P.S. For more information on the wage gap and equal pay, visit http://www.wageproject.org/content/gap/what.php.

Today's Birthdays!

Today, Olympic athlete Evelyn Ashford and jazz singer Bessie Smith were born.

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Digital History

Check out Digital History (http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/), a website that has an online textbook; over 400 annotated documents; historical maps, music and images; links; classroom handouts; and more!

The Women's History Project

In 1977, NWHP says, "18 women in the House of Representatives form the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues ." Also, our apologies for incorrectly stating that Anne Sullivan Macy's birthday was yesterday; the date is actually the 14th. Sorry for the mistake.

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Birthdays

Today is author Eudora Welty's birthday, and it is also Anne Sullivan's birthday. (Anne was Helen Keller's educator.)

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Today's Birthdays!

Today is Dolores Huerta's and Frances Perkins' birthdays.

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Happy Birthday

Today, dancer Irene Castle and singer Billie Holiday were born.

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Actress Bette Davis' birthday is today. Today is also the anniversary of when, in 1911, "80,000 people march on New York city's 5th avenue to attend the funeral of those who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in late March." (Thanks to NWHP.)

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Today's Birthdays

Today is both Maya Angelou's and Dorthea Dix's birthdays!

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Birthdays

Today is English educational reformer Mary Carpenter's birthday and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall's birthday!

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The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth

On today's date in 1931, "17-year old Jackie Mitchell, the first woman to play baseball in the minor leagues and be signed to an all-male team as a pitcher, pitches an exhibition game against NY Yankees and strikes out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The next day, the Baseball Commissioner voided her contract, claiming baseball was too strenuous for women. The ban was not overturned until 1992." (From The National Women's History Project.) Also, today is foreign correspondant Georgie Anne Geyer's birthday.

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