Welcome to Infinite Women

This Day In History

Activism

1917 President Woodrow Wilson is picketed by woman's suffragists in front of the White House, who demand that he support an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee women the right to vote.

1917 Ten suffragists are arrested while picketing the White House.

1963 At the historic March on Washington on August 28, 1963, legendary gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson not only performed as the lead-in to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his “I Have a Dream” speech, but she also played a direct role in turning that speech into one of the most memorable and meaningful in American history. The story that has been told since that day has Mahalia Jackson intervening at a critical junction when she decided King’s speech needed a course-correction. Recalling a theme she had heard him use in earlier speeches, Jackson said out loud to Martin Luther King, Jr., from behind the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” And at that moment, as can be seen in films of the speech, Dr. King leaves his prepared notes behind to improvise the entire next section of his speech—the historic section that famously begins “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….”

Sports

1972 15-year-old Shane Gould of Australia won the first of her five medals at the Munich Olympics (three gold medals, a silver, and a bronze) in the women's swimming events. She was the first woman to win five individual medals in swimming in the same Olympic Games (fellow Australian Emma McKeon won seven in 2020).