On July 20

On this day in ...
... 1921, Alice Mary Robertson (near left) became the 1st woman to preside over the U.S. House of Representatives. Having been elected by Oklahoma voters, on March 4 of the same year she'd become the 2d woman ever to serve in Congress (the 1st was Jeannette Rankin, another Republican, about whom we've posted). Of Robertson's politics it's been written:

She opposed feminist groups like the League of Women Voters and the National Women's Party, and voted against bills funding maternity and childcare on the grounds that they were an unwarranted governmental intrusion on personal rights. This earned her the support of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she was a member.

(See also Louise Boyd James, “Alice Mary Robertson -- Anti-Feminist Congresswoman,” 55 Chronicles of Oklahoma 454 (Winter 1977-1978).) Robertson served only 1 term, losing her bid for re-election to the incumbent she'd ousted 2 years later. It would not be until the election of Republican Mary Fallin in 2006 that Oklahomans would send another woman to Congress. (credit for 1923 photo of Robertson with 2 later-arriving Representatives, Winnifred Huck (R-Ill.), far left, and Mae Ella Nolan (I-Calif.), center)
... 1940, having been occupied by Nazi Germany in April, Denmark withdrew from the League of Nations.

(Prior July 20 posts are here and here.)

On December 9, ...

... 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted and opened for signature the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention, which entered into force on January 12, 1951, now has 133 states parties. I"ve written about its drafting history, as well as the abiding problem of defining groups protected under the convention, here; IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack's discussed similar issues here.
... 1948, in an address that's depicted at right and can be read and heard here, former 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as head of the U.S. delegation, spoke to the U.N. General Assembly in favor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that she had helped to draft. She said in part:

This Declaration is based upon the spiritual fact that man must have freedom in which to develop his full stature and through common effort to raise the level of human dignity. We have much to do to fully achieve and to assure the rights set forth in this Declaration. But having them put before us with the moral backing of 58 nations will be a great step forward.
As we here bring to fruition our labors on this Declaration of Human Rights, we must at the same time rededicate ourselves to the unfinished task which lies before us. We can now move on with new courage and inspiration to the completion of an international covenant on human rights and of measures for the implementation of
human rights.

The text would be adopted the next day.
... 1954, U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) was born in Warrensburg, Missouri.