This Month in History: May

May 2, 1977 – Birmingham Bookstore opened in Pittsburgh.  It was the first feminist bookstore in the city.

May 8, 1985 – Wilma Scott Heide, founder of the Greater Pittsburgh Area NOW chapter and the third President of the National Organization for women, died of a heart attack in Norristown, PA.

May 1971 – Following a campaign led by Pennsylvania NOW chapters, voters in a statewide referendum ratified the Equal Rights Amendment that had been proposed when the Commonwealth’s Constitution was revised in 1969.

May 11, 1975 – The Mothers’ Day of Outrage instigated by Jeanne Clarke brought 4000 pro-choice demonstrators to the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C. to publicize the amount of money the Catholic Church had spent to enforce compulsory pregnancy.

May 21, 1977 – First All-Female Ice Hockey Tournament in Pittsburgh.

MAY BIRTHDAYS

May 27, 1907 (1964): Rachel Carson was born in Springdale, PA and graduated from Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University). Her was a scientist and ecologist whose book Silent Spring was influential in advancing the global environmental movement.