Welcome to Infinite Women

This Day In History

Activism

2018 Saudi Arabia issued its first driver’s licenses to women as the kingdom prepared to lift the world’s only ban on women driving.

Aviation and Aeronautics

1784 Lyon's Élisabeth Thible became the first woman on record to fly in an untethered hot air balloon. Eight months after the first manned balloon flight, Thible flew with Mr. Fleurant on board a hot air balloon christened La Gustave in honour of the visit of King Gustav III of Sweden, who witnessed the flight. When the balloon left the ground Thible, dressed as the Roman goddess Minerva, and Fleurant sang two duets from Monsigny's La Belle Arsène, a celebrated opera of the time. The flight lasted 45 minutes, covered four kilometres and achieved an estimated height of 1,500 meters. During the bumpy landing Thible turned an ankle as the basket hit the ground. She was credited by Fleurent with the success of the flight both because she fed the balloon's fire box en route and by exhibiting her remarkable courage.

Crime

1972 Angela Yvonne Davis, a black militant, former philosophy professor at the University of California and communist, is acquitted on charges of conspiracy, murder and kidnapping by a jury in San Jose, California. In October 1970, Davis was arrested in New York City in connection with a shootout that occurred on August 7 in a San Raphael, California, courtroom. She was accused of supplying weapons to Jonathan Jackson, whose actions led to a courtroom shoot-out with police, killing Jackson, a judge and two inmates. Her trial began in March 1972 and drew international attention because of the weakness of the prosecution’s case and obvious political nature of the proceedings. She was acquitted of all charges.

Writing

1940 22-year-old Carson McCullers’ first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, is published. The novel, about misfits in a Georgia mill town, is an instant success.