45, Donna M. Christian-Christensen, a Democrat and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, was born in Teaneck, N.J.... 1893, legislators passed the Electoral Act that extended suffrage to women in New Zealand, as depicted in this illustration from the New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal. On this achievement -- New Zealand was the 1st country so to act -- the feisty suffragist Kate Sheppard commented:
It does not seem a great thing to be thankful for, that the gentlemen who confirm the laws which render women liable to taxation and penal servitude have declared us to be 'persons.' ... We are glad and proud to think that even in so conservative a body as the Legislative Council there is a majority of men who are guided by the principles of reason and justice, who desire to see their womenkind treated as reasonable beings, and who have triumphed over prejudice, narrow-mindedness and selfishness.
