Every Day Is Special: politician

Showing posts with label politician. Show all posts

July 15 - Happy Birthday, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Posted on July 15, 2020

The first Cuban American - and the first Latina! - elected to Congress, in 1989.

The person selected to give a Republican response to the 2011 and 2014 State of the Union addresses - in Spanish.

The first Republican in the House to support same-sex marriage.

Former Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was born in Cuba on this date in 1952, and she came to the U.S. - Floriday, specifically - when she was seven. Her maternal grandparents were Sephardic Jews who had been active in Cuba's Jewish community, although Ros-Lehtinen herself was raised Catholic and is now Episcopalian.

Ros-Lehtinen and her husband

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the Florida house in 1982, and that's where she met her husband, also a politician. He was a Democrat but switched parties before the two married. One of their two children (now grown) is a transgender LGBT rights activist!

Also on this date:

Mythicist Thomas Bulfinch's birthday

Gummi Worm Day

St. Swithin's Day

Mathematician Fibonacci's birthday

Physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell's birthday

Painter Rembrandt van Rijn's birthday

Anniversary of Twitter's introduction

His Majesty the Sultan's Birthday in Brunei

Be a Dork Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

February 4 - Happy Birthday, Rebecca White

Posted on February 4, 2020

Born in Tasmania, Australia, on this date in 1983, Rebecca White is a politician, a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly and a leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party in Tasmania. (That party is considered a center-left party, as opposed to the Liberal Party, which is center-right.)

White is a sixth generation Tasmanian! You might already know that Tasmania is an island off the southeastern coast of Australia as well as an Australian state.

Here, Tasmania is colored red.

Tasmania is known for:

Unusual animals, like the Tasmanian devil and Tasmanian tiger, both marsupials (that is, pouched animals like opossums, koalas, and kangaroos).

Unfortunately, the Tasmanian tiger is extinct. (Check out this short but fascinating video to find out why that may not be true - or may not stay true?)

The Neck, a spit of land where you can often see fairy penguins.

Gorgeous sights at Fortescue Bay.

Beautiful Russell Falls and other beautiful natural landmarks.

Also on this date:

Facebook's birthday

Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

Composer Johann Ludwig Bach's birthday

Civil rights icon Rosa Parks's birthday

Sri Lanka's Independence Day

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh's birthday

Liberace Day

Day of the Armed Struggle in Angola

USO Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

February holidays
February birthdays
Historical anniversaries in February

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

November 30 – Happy Birthday, Shirley Chisholm

Posted on November 30, 2014

The year was 1972.

Shirley Chisholm took a bold step: she threw her hat in the biggest ring there is in the United States.

Chisholm became the first African American person to ever make a bid for a major party's presidential nomination. Also, she was the first woman to ever run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

I remember her candidacy. I was young, idealistic, and so excited to be a part of history. In the primary elections, my state (California) ended up giving her the largest number of votes of any other state. Still, she ended up fourth among all the Democratic presidential hopefuls.

I gather that she didn't really expect to win the nomination—and she didn't—but she ran to demonstrate “sheer will” and her “refusal to accept the status quo.”

After the nomination of Senator George McGovern was certain, candidate Hubert Humphrey made a symbolic gesture and released all of his black delegates to Chisholm. Those delegates, along with all the delegates she won during the primary season, made Chisholm the fourth-ranking candidate in the Democratic Party. Not bad, considering the fact that she faced impossible odds!

By the way, I talked so much about Chisholm's brave, memorable, and meaningful presidential run, I neglected to say what she ran for an won:

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American woman ever elected to Congress! She represented New York in the House of Representatives.

More on Chisholm:

She was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were immigrants from Caribbean island nations. Chisholm spent about seven years in Barbados attending a strict elementary school, and for the rest of her life she had a slight “West Indian” accent.

Before she became a politician, Chisholm was an educator.

Chisholm also wrote two autobiographical books (that is, books about her own life). Don't you love the titles? They are Unbought and Unbossed and The Good Fight.