Betsy Bakker-Nort (1874–1946) was a Dutch feminist, lawyer, and politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives for the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) from 1922 to 1942. Born in Groningen, she became involved with the feminist movement in 1894. At age 34, Bakker-Nort started studying law, realising that the fight for women's rights required a thorough understanding of the law. In the 1922 general election, the first in which women were allowed to vote, she was elected to parliament and became the VDB's first female representative. She was re-elected four times and was an advocate for more women's rights with respect to marriage and labour law. She took a leading role in preparations for a 1930 League of Nations conference. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, Bakker-Nort did not return to parliament. From December 1942 she was detained in internment and concentration camps. She was liberated in June 1945 and died the following year.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Bakker-Nort

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1945:

Manzanar, a camp in California for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, was closed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar

1964:

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to traffic as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrazzano-Narrows_Bridge

1970:

Vietnam War: American forces raided the North Vietnamese Sơn Tây prison camp in an attempt to rescue 61 American POWs who were thought to be held there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivory_Coast

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

fisherfolk: 1. People who fish for a living. 2. (anthropology) Members of a culture that is dominated by fishing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fisherfolk

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil. Once a single faculty of your soul has been tyrannized, all the other faculties will submit to the same fate.   --Voltaire https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire