#OnThisDay, 15 May 1946, Camilla Williams makes her operatic debut as Cio-Cio San with the New York City Opera. She is the first Black woman to sign a contract with a major US opera company.
#OnThisDay, 14 May 1943, Vera Leigh returns to France to work as a courier for the British Special Operations Executive.
A fashion designer, Leigh had fled France in 1942 after running escape lines for Allied airmen.
After her return, Leigh carried documents and equipment such as guns and explosives around her network's area. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, she was executed at Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp.
#OnThisDay, 12 May 1743, Maria Theresa Habsburg is crowned Queen of Bohemia and consolidates her position as the ruler of the Austrian empire. The Seven Year War was promoted by rival claims to the empire, and she worked to elevate her husband to be Holy Roman Emperor. After his death she co-ruled with her son.
She sponsored trials of smallpox inoculation, having lost three of her children to the disease.
#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.
#OnThisDay, 8 May 1946, Estonian teens Aili Jürgenson and Ageeda Paavel blew up a Soviet war memorial in response to Soviet destruction of Estonian war memorials. They served eight years in the gulag as punishment. In 1988 they were awarded the Estonian Order of the Cross of the Eagle to recognise their fight.
#OnThisDay, 8 May 1865, Dr Mary Harris Thompson founds the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children. At the time one of the city's two existing hospitals did not admit women patients.
Very early #OnThisDay, 6 May 1944, Marguerite 'Peggy' Knight parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported the French resistance.
Knight fought her way out of an attempted capture, and returned to the UK in September 1944.
#OnThisDay, 5 May 1938, Dorothy Anderson presents her medical research that identified cystic fibrosis at a meeting of the American Pediatric Association.
#OnThisDay, 3 May 1933, Nellie Tayloe Ross takes up post as director of the US Mint. She is the first woman to hold the position, and stays in post for 20 years.
#OnThisDay, 1 May 1944, South African Phyllis Latour parachutes into occupied France to be a radio operator for the British Special Operations Executive.
Very early #OnThisDay, 30 April 1944, New Zealander Nancy Wake parachutes into occupied France to be a courier for the Special Operations Executive. The British SOE supported French Resistance to Nazi occupation.
Nick-named 'the white mouse' by the Gestapo, she is never captured. She died in 2011.
#TaylorSwift recently paid homage to early Hollywood star Clara Bow on her new album "The Tortured Poets Department."
Bow was known as Hollywood's "hottest jazz baby," becoming a huge star who received 45,000 fan letters a month in the 1920s. However, she struggled under the strict control of the studio system and was often the target of tabloid gossip. After decades of relentless demands, Bow made a bold move to leave Hollywood.
Dolors Martí Domènech 1901–70 only woman to hold position of political responsibility in Catalan Republican government in Tarragona, Spain in 1930s. Socialist politician, worked to develop women's rights, a skilled public speaker. During Spanish Civil War was responsible for keeping supply chains running during bombings. Fled to France w family to escape Republican retribution, died in exile 1970. New #wikipedia pg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolors_Mart%C3%AD_Dom%C3%A8nech#WomensHistory@histodons@CarveHerName#WikiWomenInRed