1512 In a regime change Niccolò Machiavelli was dismissed from the Republican chancellory by the acolytes of the de’ Medici family. Most of the conventional wisdom, some propounded by the man himself, about Machia is erroneous. See below for details.
1916 Jeannette Rankin from Montana became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. A lifelong pacifist she was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. That ended her political career. She was crucified by the press apart from stalwart William Allan White of the ‘Emporia Gazette’ who recognised her moral courage to stand by her convictions even in these circumstances. She had likewise voted against the declaration of World War I in 1917 along with a hundred others, all men.
1929 The Museum of Modern Art opened in NYC in the building pictured. Rockefeller money made it happen. Been there.
1990 Máire Bean Mhic Róibín became the first woman elected President of the Republic of Ireland, that is Mary Robinson. She started out in the Dublin city council in 1979 and kept going. Saw her give a keynote address at a conference in D.C. once upon a time.
2012 Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington approved measures for same-sex marriage. Hey, what happened in Minnesota?
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