Sophie Kerr Literary Prize created
Popular early 20th century author Sophie Kerr creates the largest U.S. literary prize for an undergraduate at Washington College in 1965.
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Women
Claire McCardell, fashion designer of modern women’s sportwear
Fashion designer Claire McCardell, featured on the cover of Time in 1955, is the successful creator everyday easy-to-wear clothing for women.
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Mary Surratt is the first woman hanged by the federal government
Mary Jenkins Surratt is hanged in 1865 with three other conspirators for plotting to kill President Abraham Lincoln. She is the first woman executed by the federal government. She is hanging on the far left of the scaffold.
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Clara Barton volunteers as nurse in the Civil War.
Clara Barton, volunteer, goes to the front at Antietam battlefield in 1862, risking her life to treat the wounded with much success. After the War she founds the American Red Cross and settles in Glen Echo.
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Anna Ella Carroll advises Lincoln on Civil War strategy
Anna Ella Carroll is the only woman to privately advise Lincoln on Civil War tactics. Her strategy leads to the capture of forts in the Western Campaign, the first major Union victory in Civil War in 1862.
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Frances Ellen Watkins Harper publishes first short story by a black woman.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, born in Baltimore, abolitionist, suffragist and writer, in 1859 publishes the first short story, then a novel by a Black woman.
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Abolitionist Martha Ellicott Tyson publishes first biography of Benjamin Banneker
Quaker abolitionist Martha Ellicott Tyson knew Benjamin Banneker when she was a child. She publishes the biography in 1854.
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“Uncle Tom” is based on a Marylander
Josiah Henson, born in Port Tobacco, escapes slavery, leads a community and learns to read and write. He becomes the model for the title character in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a nationally popular anti-slavery story published in 1852.
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Harriet Tubman, A Moses to her People
Harriet Tubman escapes slavery with two brothers in 1849. Subsequently she leads 13 more escape missions, rescuing 70 individuals and she participates in Civil War military engagements in South Carolina.
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Patty Cannon, notorious slave catcher
Patty Cannon, female head of a notorious gang of slave catchers, is arrested in 1829 and indicted for the murder of four Black men. She dies in jail awaiting trial.
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