Birth Locations – Page 79 – The Exasperated Historian

497) Jaya Varma Sinha

Courtesy of Railways India Media Limited

497: Jaya Varma Sinha

Birth Date and Location Unknown

In 2018, Jaya became Principal Chief Operations Manager of South Eastern Railway; the first woman to hold that position.

She has worked for the company since 1988.

SER operates in India and is responsible for loading 13.5% of all local traffic in the country.

In late 2023, Jaya became CEO and Chairperson of Indian Railways, the first woman in the company's 170 year history to hold that position.

Jaya faces several challenges in her new position, including cutting costs while also strengthening safety standards, all while trying to increase the number of passengers on the trains to try and get them away from airline travel.

Jaya was supposed to retire in the fall of 2023, but after receiving her new position as CEO and Chairperson, she was given a one-year extension. I believe this means she will have to retire at the end of 2024, but we will see what happens.

Sources:

http://www.railnews.in/jaya-varma-sinha-takes-over-as-sers-first-lady-principal-chief-operations-manager/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaya-varma-sinha-b206025/?originalSubdomain=in

http://www.uniindia.com/jaya-varma-sinha-has-takes-over-as-first-women-principal-chief-operation-manager/states/news/1160640.html

https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/the-buzz/story/meet-jaya-varma-sinha-the-railway-boards-first-woman-chairperson-and-ceo-398892-2023-09-19

496) Mary Brooks

496: Mary Brooks

Director of the United States Mint From 1969 to 1977

Born: 1 November 1907, Colby, Kansas, United States of America

Died: 11 February 2002, Twin Falls, Idaho, United States of America

Mary’s father was a US Senator from Idaho twice over.

She received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1929.

Her first husband drowned early on leaving her a widow with two young children. Mary’s second husband was an Illinois Senator.

She took over her father’s sheep ranch after he died, also serving in the Idaho State Senate from 1963 to 1969.

Mary was the third woman to direct the US Mint. She was the first woman to receive the US Treasury Department’s Highest Honor: The Alexander Hamilton Award. While at the Mint, Mary oversaw the production of the Eisenhower Dollar Coin, and the redesign of the quarter, dollar, and half-dollar coins in time to celebrate the US’s bicentennial.

Mary was also an advocate of historic preservation and saved the original San Francisco Mint building from being bulldozed. Today, the building is a California State and National Historic Landmark.

Sources:

https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/20020225-in-memoriam-former-mint-director-mary-brooks

https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/mary-brooks-resigns-as-director

https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/mary-brooks-wins-award

495) Annie Edson Taylor

"Nobody ought ever to do that again."

495: Annie Edson Taylor

The First Person to Survive After Going Down Niagara Falls in a Barrel

Born: 24 October 1838, Auburn, New York, United States of America

Died: 29 April 1901, Lockport, New York, United States of America

Annie performed this stunt in 1901.

She was sixty-three years old and went down the falls with her cat.

On a regular day, Annie was an unassuming schoolteacher from Michigan. She was born into a family of eleven children and married at the age of eighteen. Annie’s marriage wasn’t a happy one, but her husband died relatively early on in her life.

Annie wanted both fame and fortune but only achieved the fame dying completely destitute twenty years later.

She remains the oldest person and the only solo woman to have survived going down the falls.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Uppity Women Speak Their Minds by Vicki Leon

Who Knew Women in History by Sarah Herman

Sources:

http://www.infoniagara.com/niagaradaredevils/annietaylor.aspx

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/obituaries/annie-edson-taylor-overlooked.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7698828/annie-edson-taylor

Entries Born in Uganda

These are the entries born in the country of Uganda.

Entries:

Phiona Mutesi, The Queen of Katwe

494) Phiona Mutesi

"Back in Africa, the society — the way it trains us — it trains us to be, like, 'We women are nothing. Boys are the ones who go to school. The girls are supposed to be home.

"My grandmother did not go to school. My mother did not go to school — she got married when she was 16. The same thing happened to my sister. She also gave birth when she was 16. And, actually, her first daughter — I just heard that she was pregnant. She’s 17. It’s like a curse. You know, like, your family will never make it."

494: Phiona Mutesi

The Queen of Katwe

Born: 1996, Kampala, Uganda

Disney made a movie based on her life (but one source claims she didn’t get any money from the movie).

Phiona rose from the slums of Katwe in Uganda to become the winner of an international chess championship. The Mutesi family ended up in Katwe after Phiona’s father died when she was a child. Phiona and her siblings sold maize on the streets instead of attending school, trying to make ends meet.

Phiona originally began playing chess after learning the chess club offered free meals to those wanting to play. At first, Phiona played for food, but soon became good at the game.

A book was released about her story first and she took the money from the book to buy a house for her mother and family to get them out of the slums.

Phiona arrived in the United States to begin at Northwestern University in the Fall of 2017—but she struggled because she didn’t know how to type or use a computer.

She works as a motivational speaker and accepts donations to help cover her room, board, and travel to and from Uganda to visit family. The scholarship awarded to her only covers her tuition.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

The Queen of Katwe by Tim Crothers

Sources:

https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/01/11/queen-of-katwe-phiona-mutesi-chess

https://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2019/03/23/phiona-mutesi-reflects-on-life-after-queen-of-katwe/

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/queen-of-katwe/

493) Trisha Prabhu

493: Trisha Prabhu

Computer Coder Who Appeared on Shark Tank

Born: c.2000

Trisha is an inventor and holds the patent for her ReThink Technology which helps detect and stop online hate.

In 2016, Trisha was invited to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

As of 2019 she is an undergraduate student at Harvard University and serves as the CEO of ReThink Technology. That same year, Trisha became the first Harvard Freshman to be awarded the Harvard University’s President Innovation Grand Prize.

Sources:

http://www.trishaprabhu.com/about

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishaprabhu/

492) Roberta Cordano

"I think I've always navigated two worlds. And I've cherished both worlds."

492: Roberta Cordano

The Eleventh President of Gallaudet University

Born: 1963, Delavan, Wisconsin, United States of America

She is the first deaf woman to hold the presidency of Gallaudet and the first deaf woman to become president of a United States university. This is notable because, for those unaware, Gallaudet is a liberal arts college for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Roberta is also the first openly LGBT President of Gallaudet University.

Before beginning her work at Gallaudet in 2016, Roberta worked in various industries in Minnesota, including healthcare, other universities, and as an Assistant Attorney General of the state.

Roberta’s parents and older sister are also deaf, however her wife and two children are hearing.

Sources:

https://www.gallaudet.edu/office-of-the-president/presidents-profile

https://www.npr.org/2017/01/21/508353362/gallaudet-president-navigates-from-world-of-hearing-to-sound-leadership-of-the-d

491) Yao Niang

491: Yao Niang

Court Dancer

c. 10^th Century AD, China

Niang was a concubine living in the Tang Dynasty of Ancient China. While her story is widely accepted as part of the mythos of foot binding (as you’ll read below) any other details about Yao’s life are noticeably missing.

It is said her graceful dancing was so profound others sought to imitate her, and the practice of foot binding was born. Niang bound her feet into the shape of the new moon, the small sliver shape that became known later on as the lotus foot. Whether or not she chose to bind her feet or was forced into it is not known, but what is known is that for centuries afterward thousands if not millions of young Chinese girls were forced to bind their feet until the practice was outlawed in 1911, with the final lotus shoe factory closing in 1999.

How the actual foot binding occurs is horrifying to outsiders to say the least. The practice begins when a girl is only five or six years old, to prevent their feet from ever reaching the full adult size. The feet are soaked in hot water and the nails trimmed short. Then the feet are massaged in a mix of oils before eight of the ten toes (leaving the big ones alone for now) are broken and folded under the bottom of the foot. Then the arch of the foot is strained before the entire ensemble is bound in a piece of silk ten feet long and two inches wide. The result is a miniature triangle shaped foot; whose dressings have to be changed every two days to prevent infection from setting in.

The girls with recently bound feet were encouraged to walk long distances to break their arches faster. The entire process would be finished around two years later, with the foot permanently altered to the desired lotus shape.

The practice of the lotus foot shaping has always horrified me. As a woman whose feet had reached size eleven (in the American style) by the sixth grade, when I was eleven, I cannot imagine forcing my large feet into the lotus shape, how painful it would have been. Some women even died from the practice, infection set in quite often when the feet were not properly cared for and washed regularly.

I think this is one cultural practice that everyone can agree belongs in the past.

Sources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbinding-persisted-china-millennium-180953971/

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/10/11/foot-binding-in-china/

490) McKenna Dahl

Courtesy of the International Paralympic Committee

490: McKenna Dahl

Paralympian Rifle Shooter

Born: 1 May 1996, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

McKenna served as the Junior Ambassador to the National Rifle Association in 2012.

She competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, earning a bronze medal. McKenna was the first American woman to earn a medal at those games.

McKenna became the first woman to earn a Paralympic shooting quota for the United States in 2014.

She was born with amyoplasia arthrogyrposis in her feet and left hand which prevented normal muscle growth.

In 2018, she began studying at DeVry University with the hopes of becoming a lawyer.

Sources:

https://www.usashooting.org/12-the-team/usashootingteam/paralympicteam/mckenna-dahl

https://www.paralympic.org/mckenna-dahl

https://www.teamusa.org/para-shooting/athletes/McKenna-Dahl

489) Margaret Floy Washburn

489: Margaret Floy Washburn

The First Woman to Earn a PhD in Psychology

Born: 25 July 1871, New York City, New York, United States of America

Died: 29 October 1939, Poughkeepsie, New York, United States of America

Sources differ on where she earned her degree from. Psychology’s Feminist Voices and the National Women’s History Museum claim she earned her degree from Cornell, while the APA claims it was from Harvard. I hope it was from Cornell, because if it was Harvard, then she would not have been actually granted the degree because Harvard wasn’t about to hand out degrees to women at the time.

Margaret is most remembered for her pioneering work in animal behavior and motor theory development. She never married and served as president of Vassar College for thirty-six years.

She was also the second woman to serve as the president of the American Psychological Association.

Sources:

http://www.feministvoices.com/margaret-floy-washburn/

https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/bio-margaret-washburn

https://www.womenshistory.org/margaret-floy-washburn