This Day in History is DUE’s daily dose of trivia for all the history buffs out there. So sit back and take a ride to all the fascinating things that happened today!
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in people, and hence, every day has been a significant one in the foibles of History. Let’s take a tour of “This Day in History – 15th of May”.
1869: National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York City
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) when the women’s rights movement split into two groups over the issue of suffrage for African American men. The proposed Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution had extended suffrage only to black men. The organization gave priority to securing women the right to vote. It often stirred public debate through its reform proposals on a number of social issues, including marriage and divorce. The split in the suffrage movement was healed in 1890 when the NWSA merged with its rival, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). They formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
1897: Magnus Hirschfeld forms the first-ever LGBT rights organization
Magnus Hirschfeld formed The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin to campaign for the social recognition of LGBT people and against their legal persecution. Its main goal was to fight for the abolishment of Paragraph 175 of the German Imperial Penal Code, which punished sexual contact between men. Its motto was Justice through science. In 1899, Magnus started the Yearbook of Intermediate Sexual Types, the first journal in the world to deal with sexual variants. It was regularly published until 1923. He also published an important study on cross-dressing, The Transvestites (1910).
1987: British tennis player Andy Murray is born
Born in Surrey, tennis star Andy Murray turns 34 today. He has been ranked one by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks and won three Grand Slam singles titles, including two at Wimbledon. An outspoken feminist, Murray also became the second top 10 player in the history of the ATP Tour to have a female coach when he hired Amélie Mauresmo. Great Britain regards him as a national hero for reestablishing the country as a leading force in men’s tennis for the first time since the early 20th century. He and his brother have also led the Great Britain Davis Cup team to a title in 2015.
1993: International Day of Families
In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly decided in a resolution to observe today as The International Day of Families. This day promotes awareness of issues relating to families. It aims to increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. ‘Families and New Technologies’ is the theme for 2021. It focuses on megatrends and their effects like new technologies, demographic shifts, rapid urbanization, migration and climate change. Read more about it HERE.
2019: The Christchurch Call to Action Summit
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern initiated the Christchurch Call in Paris, France. This was two months after the Christchurch mosque shootings of 15 March 2019. President Emmanuel Macron of France co-chaired the political summit with Ardern. It aimed to ‘bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organize and promote terrorism and violent extremism.’ 17 countries originally signed the non-binding agreement. Another 31 followed suit on 24 September the same year. The pledge consists of three sections or commitments: one each for governments, online service providers, and the ways in which the two can work together.
