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From today's featured article Ellen Wilkinson (1891–1947) was a British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow from 1935 to 1947 and Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. In 1936 she was a leader of the Jarrow March, an iconic symbol of 1930s unemployment and impoverishment. On graduating from the University of Manchester in 1913, Wilkinson worked mainly as a trade union official, and was briefly a member of the British Communist Party before becoming Labour MP for Middlesbrough East in 1924. After losing her seat in the 1931 general election she worked as a writer and journalist before resuming her parliamentary career in 1935. A strong advocate for the Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War, she made several visits to the battle zones. During the Second World War Wilkinson served in Churchill's wartime coalition as a junior minister. By the time she achieved cabinet office in Clement Attlee's postwar Labour ministry she was in poor health due to constant overwork, and was able to promote only modest educational reforms. She died of an accidental overdose of medication while under treatment for an acute bronchial disease. (Full article...) Recently featured: Bristol Iven Mackay Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Did you know... Ruth M. Gardiner ... that the first US Army hospital named for a woman or nurse was named after US Army Nurse Corps Lieutenant Ruth M. Gardiner (pictured)? ... that a Bogotan Civil Order of Merit María Currea de Aya is given annually on International Women's Day in honor of the first female president of the Bogotá City Council? ... that Doris Sands Johnson, who wrote a how-to book for voting, lost her initial attempt to run for office but later became the premier woman President of the Bahamian Senate? ... that Woman, Demon, Human, directed by Huang Shuqin, is considered to be China's first feminist film? ... that Hana Blažíková is a soprano with the Bach Collegium Japan, conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, for the project to record the complete Bach cantatas? ... that Deolinda Rodríguez de Almeida became known as Angola's "Mother of the Revolution"? ... that Edith Houghton Hooker claimed that women's suffrage would improve water quality and reduce disease? ... that Sonia M. Johnny, the first woman ambassador to the United States from Saint Lucia, has also represented CARICOM nations' interests in a trade dispute over bananas?

In the news Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi The Human Rights Protection Party, led by Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi (pictured), wins a landslide victory in the Samoan general election. Astronomers announce the identification of GN-z11, the most distant known galaxy in the Universe. Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres is murdered, prompting protests and calls for an investigation. In the Irish general election, the ruling Fine Gael–Labour coalition loses its majority and over a third of its vote, but Fine Gael narrowly remains the largest party. Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman win the Turing Award for introducing the ideas of public-key cryptography and digital signatures. Ongoing events: Zika virus outbreak European migrant crisis Recent deaths: Adrian Hardiman Nancy Reagan Ray Tomlinson Nikolaus Harnoncourt On this day... March 8: International Women's Day; Mother's Day in various countries Nader Shah 1658 – After a devastating defeat in the Second Northern War, King Frederick III of Denmark–Norway was forced to give up nearly half his Danish territory to Sweden to save the rest. 1736 – Nader Shah (pictured), founder of the Afsharid dynasty, was crowned Shah of Iran. 1924 – Three violent explosions at a coal mine near Castle Gate, Utah, US, killed all 171 miners working there. 1963 – The Ba'ath Party came to power in Syria in a coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council of the Revolutionary Command. 1983 – The Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire". More anniversaries: March 7 March 8 March 9

Today's featured picture A check from the National American Woman Suffrage Association, payable to Rachel Foster Avery, which was filled out by hand by the Association's treasurer Harriet Taylor Upton and countersigned by Susan B. Anthony as president and Alice Stone Blackwell as recording secretary. NAWSA, formed on February 18, 1890, to work for women's suffrage in the United States, was formally led by Anthony between 1892 and 1900. During her presidency, the small organization focused predominantly on women's rights at the state level—much to Anthony's chagrin. It also sent delegates to the World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition. Check: Harriet Taylor Upton (image courtesy of the National Museum of American History) Recently featured: Adonis blue Sari temple Ukiyo-e print

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