Event: 03-15: Birthday of Kuan Yin, Goddess of Mercy, as celebrated in Taiwan.
B. 03-15-1852, Lady Augusta Gregory, Irish playwright and poet. Lady Gregory was not only the founder and director of The Abbey and a talented playwright, she recorded the folklore of Ireland and inspired her people for a free Ireland.
B. 03-15-1868, Lida Gustava Heymann, noted German feminist and peace advocate, one of the founders of the German women's suffrage movement. After Hitler came to power was active in refugee work in Switzerland where she took refuge.
B. 03-15-1905, Margaret Webster, English-born American stage director, primarily Shakespeare. Along with Cheryl Crawford, and Eva LeGallienne formed the American Repatory Theatre. Called the "best director of the plays of Shakespear we have," according to biting theatrical critic George Jean Nathan. Voted one of American most outstanding women in 1940. Daughter of famed actor Dame May Whitty.
B. 03-15-1933, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court judge appointed 1992, lifelong advocate of women's rights. She was the first female tenured professor at Columbia University and former director of the Women's Rights Project of the ACLU, appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Briefed and argued precedent setting cases before U.S. Supreme Court on sex-biased discriminations.
Event: 03-15-1937, the first contraceptive clinic is set up for poor women in North Carolina.
Event 03-15-1969, Deaconess Phyllis Edwards breaks tradition in the Episcopal Church by performing a marriage ceremony.
Event 03-15-1995, the first ever Associated Press women's all American basketball team was announced. Getting an unanimous vote was Connecticut's Rebecca Lobo, a 4.0 grade-point average student who is also 6"4" and averages 17.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 3.4 blocks.
Others chosen were Shelley Sheetz of Colorado, Nikki McCray of Tennessee, Charlotte Smith of North Carolina, and Niesa Johnson of Alabama. Smith, you may remember (as if any of us will EVER forget) was the young woman who calmly shot the three-pointer at the bell to give her team a 60- 59 win for the national championship. And Smith changed women's basketball forever because now girls in high school, having seen that a woman CAN do it, are regularly shooting the three-pointers. Smith also dunks, the first woman in ten years to dunk in a game. North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell encourages her women to do what women aren't taught to do by men coaches. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma talked not about Lobo's outstanding athletic ability but her (feminine?) unselfishness. Siigghh.