Important Women's Birthdays

A celebration of women. I do not own any images.

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Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom was born in 1892 in Haarlem, Netherlands. During World War II, the ten Boom family hid Jews and members of the Dutch resistance in their home. She also used her job as a watchmaker to build contacts within the resistance and help obtain ration books for Jews in hiding. In 1944, the family was betrayed and arrested. Corrie's father died in prison, and she and her sister, Betsie, were eventually sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Corrie survived and was released from Ravensbrück at the age of 53. In 1967, she was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. In 1971, ten Boom published her memoir, The Hiding Place, which sold over 4 million copies.

Corrie ten Boom died in 1983 at the age of 91.

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Margaret Alva

Margaret Alva was born in 1942 in what is now Mangaluru, India. Alva was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1974, and served a total of thirty years in both houses of India's Parliament. During this time, she worked on legislation in the area of women's rights, including amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act and Marriage Laws. Alva held cabinet posts including Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs as well as Youth and Sports. Alva has also served as governor of Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand.

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Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Poet and novelist Ahlam Mosteghanemi was born in 1953 in Tunis, Tunisia. In 1973, Mosteghanemi published her first poetry collection, On the Harbor of the Days. Three years later, she published another anthology, Writing in a Moment of Nudity. In 1993, Mosteghanemi published her first novel, Memory in the Flesh, which became a bestseller in the Arab world and later won the Naguib Mahfouz Prize. Her next four novels were also bestsellers, and her writing has been translated into several languages.

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Hey, just letting you all know I'm going to be taking a short break once the queue runs out in a couple days. I hope to be back sometime next month, this hiatus should be nowhere near as long as my last one.

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Ella Gauntt Smith

Ella Gauntt Smith was born in 1868 in Troup County, Georgia. In 1897, when a neighbor asked Smith to repair one of her dolls, Smith realized that repairing the doll's cracked head with plaster and fibers made it much sturdier. From there, she developed her "Indestructible Doll". Smith grew her business, showcasing her dolls at craft shows and expositions around the country. She employed roughly a dozen local women in a two-story factory next to her home, where they reportedly produced 8,000 handmade dolls in 1908. Smith spent more than 30 years crafting, selling, and improving the dolls, and received her first of 11 patents for them in 1905. The company also made Black dolls, which were a rarity in the South at the time. Today, Smith's dolls are sought-after collectors' items that sell for thousands of dollars.

Ella Gauntt Smith died in 1932 at the age of 63.

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Tirzah Garwood

Tirzah Garwood was born in 1908 in Gillingham, England. Garwood began making wood engravings in 1926, and she exhibited at the Society of Wood Engravers' 1927 annual exhibition. The most famous of her wood engravings was her 1929 piece, The Crocodile. After her marriage to Eric Ravilious, domestic duties occupied most of her time, but she found another creative outlet in paper marbling, which she did for both shops and private clients. Some of these pieces are now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. In 1942, Garwood became a widow and was diagnosed with breast cancer. Yet she would later return to art, this time embracing oil paintings. Her cancer returned in 1948, and had spread by 1950, but she continued to paint, producing around 20 canvases during the final year of her life.

Tirzah Garwood died in 1951 at the age of 42.

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Adisa Azapagic

Chemical engineer Adisa Azapagic was born in 1961 in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Azapagic is a Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester. Her research interests include corporate sustainability, sustainable production and consumption, and life cycle sustainability assessment, and she has over 250 publications in these areas. Azapagic has been elected to the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In 2020, she was awarded an MBE, and in 2023, she won the Davis Medal, the most prestigious medal awarded by the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

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Helen Alfredsson

Professional golfer Helen Alfredsson was born in 1965 in Gothenburg, Sweden. A professional golfer for more than twenty years, Alfredsson's wins include the Nabiso Dinah Shore, the Women's British Open, and three Evian Masters. In 2019, she won the US Senior Women's Open and Senior LPGA Championship.

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Anna Korakaki

Anna Korakaki was born in 1996 in Drama, Greece. At the 2016 Olympics, Korakaki won the bronze medal in the 10-meter air pistol and the gold medal in the 25-meter sporting pistol event. Two years later, she won gold in the 10m air pistol at the World Championships. Korakaki went on to win three silver medals at the World Championships, one in 2022 and two in 2023. She is also a two-time European champion in air pistol.

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Sandy Powell

Costume designer Sandy Powell was born in London in 1960. Powell has worked on over 50 films, including The Crying Game, Interview With the Vampire, and The Wolf of Wall Street. She has won three Academy Awards for Best Costume Design: one for Shakespeare in Love, one for The Aviator, and another for The Young Victoria. She has also won three BAFTAs. In 2023, Powell became the first costume designer to receive the BAFTA Fellowship.

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Joan Carlyle

Opera singer Joan Carlyle was born in 1931 in Upton, England. Carlyle made her debut in 1955 in Carmen. Over the course of twenty years, she performed in more than twenty-five operas for the Royal Opera Company. In 1963, Carlyle made her US debut. During her career, she also performed at La Scala, the Berlin State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Dutch National Opera.

Joan Carlyle died in 2021 at the age of 90.

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Mary Jane Holmes

Novelist and short story writer Mary Jane Holmes was born in 1825 in Brookfield, Massachusetts. Holmes published her first novel, Tempest and Sunshine, when she was 29 years old. In 1856, she published Lena Rivers, her best-known work. Overall, Holmes published 39 novels, which sold a combined total of 2 million copies during her lifetime.

Mary Jane Holmes died in 1907 at the age of 82.

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Susan Alcorn

Pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn was born in 1953 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Alcorn was one of the leading champions of the pedal steel guitar who expanded the use of the instrument beyond its traditional genre of country music. A talented composer and improviser, she drew on influences from classical music to Indian ragas. Alcorn won the Baker Artist Award in 2017 and shared the Instant Award in Improvised Music in 2018.

Susan Alcorn died in 2025 at the age of 71.

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Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman was born in 1958 in Denver, Colorado. Woodman's artistic career was brief, but influential in contemporary photography. She took over 800 photographs, and became especially well-known for her images of herself. Woodman died in 1981 at the age of 22. Her art has continued to garner praise and attention in the art world, with solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and the Fondation Cartier. Woodman's work can be found in museum collections throughout the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Getty Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Centre Pompidou, and the Museum of Modern Art.

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Émilie Charmy

Émilie Charmy was born in 1878 in Saint-Étienne, France. Charmy was a trailblazer in modern painting who carved a place for herself in the Parisian avant-garde. Her work, strongly influenced by Fauvism, aimed to transcend notions of "feminine art" in terms of both style and subject matter. Charmy enjoyed a six-decade artistic career, during which she exhibited at prestigious Paris galleries as well as internationally. While she garnered critical acclaim during the interwar years, she faded from the public eye after World War II. In the 21st century, however, Charmy's art has been rediscovered by museums and the public.

Émilie Charmy died in 1974 at the age of 96.

Image: Portrait de la peintre Emilie Charmy by Pierre Girieud

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Kathy Stobart

Jazz saxophonist Kathy Stobart was born in 1925 in South Shields, England. A significant figure in British jazz, Stobart was best known for her work with the Humphrey Lyttleton Band. She also performed with prominent figures such as Denis Rose and Vic Lewis, formed her own bands, and appeared as a soloist during her career. Despite working in a male-dominated field, Stobart managed to become a household name.

Kathy Stobart died in 2014 at the age of 89.

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Deirdre Clancy

Costume designer Deirdre Clancy was born in London in 1943. Clancy has played an important role in the development of modern costume design for theater. She has won an Olivier Award for Best Stage Costume Design and a BAFTA for Best Film Costume Design. Clancy has worked on over 140 productions in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Some of her designs can be found in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.