Join Login Search
For Electric Cooperative Members
For Electric Cooperative Members
Currents

February Herstory

Some of the topics we looked into while you were reading last month’s issue

Pioneering M.D.

National Women Physicians Day is February 3. The date marks the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell in 1821. When Blackwell graduated from New York’s Geneva Medical College in 1849, she became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.

In Texas, 22,550 of the state’s 64,602 physicians—about one-third—are women, according to a March 2019 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Worth Repeating

“There is no history about which there is so much ignorance as this great movement for the establishment of equal political rights for women. I hope the twentieth century will see the triumph of our cause.”

—Susan B. Anthony, in a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, December 20, 1900. Anthony was born 200 years ago, February 15, 1820.

Cut It Out!

Have you witnessed crape murder—the horrific and drastic pruning of innocent crape myrtles? Or seen the gnarled, knotty scars left by previous crimes?

Read our feature Crape Murder, then tell us about your experience by emailing [email protected] or posting on our Facebook page. Include your name, co-op and city. (We won’t turn you in to the pruning police.)

By the Numbers: 5,200

That’s the number of choking deaths in the U.S. in 2017, according to the National Safety Council. Surgeon Henry Heimlich, who in the 1970s invented a technique used to help choking victims dislodge an obstruction from their airways, was born 100 years ago—February 3, 1920, in Delaware. The Heimlich maneuver is credited with saving thousands of lives.

Did You Know?

In 2016, at the age of 96, Heimlich himself used his technique for the first time to save the life of a woman choking at his retirement home in Cincinnati.

Desolate Skies

The New York Times, reporting on an analysis in the journal Science, said in September that there are 2.9 billion fewer birds in the United States and Canada than there were in 1970.

While the study was not designed to determine the cause of the 29% drop in population, scientists suggest likely culprits are habitat loss and pesticides.

Finish This Sentence

My most unforgettable first date was . . .

Last month we asked readers to finish a sentence that we started. Your snappy answers are still coming in, and we’ll share them next month. Meanwhile, amid thoughts of romance and Valentine’s Day, how would you finish the sentence above?

Your answers can be silly, serious, deep or superficial. Post your responses on our Facebook page or email them to [email protected]. Please include your name, city and co-op.

Almanac

275 Years Ago: Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery, was born February 18, 1745. He announced his invention in 1800.

100 Years Ago: Rube Foster of Calvert created the Negro National League, the first successful all-black baseball league, February 13, 1920. Foster, known as the father of black baseball, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

25 Years Ago: Astronaut Bernard Harris Jr., who was born in Temple, became the first African American to walk in space February 9, 1995.

Chopin and Friends

Classical music lovers are in for a treat when distinguished Canadian pianist Ryo Yanagitani performs Chopin and Friends: Romantic Genius at the Cailloux Theater in Kerrville on February 27.

Frédéric Chopin was a 19th-century Polish composer and virtuoso pianist who was close friends with French composer Hector Berlioz and sometimes friend, sometimes rival of Franz Liszt. The concert will feature pieces by all three and one by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of Chopin’s greatest influences.

“This concert is all about showmanship,” says Eugene Dowdy, conductor and artistic director for Symphony of the Hills, host of the event. “Ryo is a wonderful showman as a performer, super energetic. And even Chopin, himself a famous piano performer, also hung out with other showy composers like Hector Berlioz—composer of a piece named Symphony Fantastique, by the way. Who writes a symphony and names it that?” 

For more information, call (830)792-7469, or visit symphonyofthehills.org.