Important dates in women’s rights history

By ellacindric

  • Water Regulation

    Water Regulation
    Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

  • Seneca Falls Convention

    Seneca Falls Convention
    The first women’s rights convention organized by women, held in New York with over 300 attendees

  • First woman doctor

    First woman doctor
    Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to graduate from medical school and become a doctor in the United States.

  • Walden

    Walden
    Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

  • Ecology

    Ecology
    The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

  • First women suffrage law

    First women suffrage law
    The legislature of the territory of Wyoming passes America’s first woman suffrage law, granting women the right to vote and hold office

  • Acid Rain

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

  • Smog

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

  • National Park Service

    National Park Service
    US Congress created the National Park Service

  • Birth Control Clinic

    Birth Control Clinic
    Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States, located in Brownsville, Brooklyn. It was deemed illegal under the “Comstock Laws” forbidding birth control.

  • First woman elected to Congress

    First woman elected to Congress
    Jeannette Rankin of Montana is sworn in as the first woman elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives

  • 19th Amendment

    19th Amendment
    Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is completed, declaring “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

  • Birth Control

    Birth Control
    The FDA approves the first commercially produced birth control pill in the world, allowing women to control when and if they have children.

  • Silent Spring

    Silent Spring
    Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

  • Earthrise

    Earthrise
    The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

  • First Earth Day

    First Earth Day
    Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established

  • Title XI

    Title XI
    Title IX of the Education Amendments is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

  • Montreal Protocol

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

  • Kyoto Protocol

    Kyoto Protocol
    The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide

  • U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

    U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
    U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

  • Military

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

  • Paris Agreement

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

  • Rejoin Paris Agreement

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

  • Vice President

    Vice President
    Kamala Harris is sworn in as the first woman and first woman of color vice president of the United States.