In July – July 31, 1790 – first U.S. patent went to Samuel Hopkins for an improvement “in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process.” President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson signed the patent. Only two other patents were granted that year, [...]

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Today in History – June 21, 1946 - UN Commission on the Status of Women was established as a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to be “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women”. The goal was to  “prepare recommendations and reports to the Council on promoting women’s rights [...]

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Today in History – May 30, 1932 – Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She was one of the most famous women aviators in history. Earhart worked as a nurse’s aide in a military hospital in Canada during WWI and became a social worker after attending college. She took her [...]

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Today in History – May 18, 2004 – Founding of the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT). Alas women now only represent a small fraction of computer science graduates and are not fully represented in the world of information technology and computing. This is one reason I enthusiastically agreed to co-found and serve as [...]

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Today in History – May 5, 1809 – Mary Kies is the first woman to receive a U.S. patent. Prior to the U.S. Patent Act of 1790, only men could author a patent. Even after the federal law was passed, women couldn’t patent as most states did not allow women to legally own property. For [...]

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