On March 28

On this day in ...
... 1983, the Council of the European Communities prohibited the importation of seal-pup skins and related products pursuant to Council Directive 83/129/EEC. (photo credit) This ban on white pelts from baby seals, taken by means of a Canada hunt, did not end controversy, however; in recent years the European Union outlawed all importation. Just last month, officials said Canada intends to challenge the recent, total EU ban in the World Trade Organization.

(Prior March 28 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On April 5

On this day in ...
... 1904, Frances Power Cobbe (right) died in Hengwrt, Wales, 81 years after her birth at Newbridge House, the County Dublin estate of her "prominent" Anglo-Irish family, which "included no fewer than five archbishops" of the Anglican church. She herself became "one of the most influential figures in the British Unitarian movement of her day." In her mid-30s Cobbe began a 3-1/2-decade career as a teacher at a Bristol, England, school, founded by Mary Carpenter to educated "girls released from prison, inmates of work houses, prostitutes, and other unfortunates." An important feminist writer and suffragist, Cobbe is perhaps best known today for her campaigns against animal cruelty. Among the groups she founded was the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, still in operation via the acronym BUAV, 111 years later.

(Prior April 5 posts are here, here, and here)

On October 26

On this day in ...
... 1984 (25 years ago today), California physicians gave an infant born with a heart condition sure to lead to death within days "a controversial transplant operation," xenotransplantation: they gave "Baby Fae" the heart of a baboon. Initial results seemed promising, but eventually the body of the infant (right) rejected the transplant and she died, 3 weeks after surgery. The procedure, which sparked controversy among medical ethicists and animal rights activists, has not been repeated.

(Prior October 26 posts are here and here.)

On this day

On February 18, ...
... 1931, Chloe Anthony Wofford was born in Lorain, Ohio, the 2d of 4 children of a shipyard worker and a homemaker. In 1st grade she was the only African-American child. Displaying an early aptitude for literature, she received degrees from Howard and Cornell universities. During her marriage, which would end in divorce, she became known as Toni Morrison -- the name by which she's written some of the most powerful novels and short stories of her generation, among them a personal favorite, the slavery-era work, Beloved. Her achievements earned her the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
... 2005, a controversial law banning foxhunting, harecoursing, and other sports the aim of which is killing wild mammals, came into effect in Britain.

On November 30, ...

... 1982 (25 years ago today), animal rights activism took a violent turn as a letter sent by the "Animal Rights Militia" exploded when it was opened at No. 10 Downing Street, London, by a member of the staff of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The staffer suffered minor burns. Thatcher, who suffered no physical injury, commented: Letter bombs anywhere are most distressing and I'm afraid we are all vulnerable."
... 1957 (50 years ago today), Margaret Spellings (right) was born in Michigan, where she lived until age 3, when she and her family moved to Houston, Texas. A political science graduate of the University of Houston, she worked for 6 years as an educational aide to then-Governor George W. Bush. Moving to Washington after his election as President, "she helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and crafted policies on education, immigration, health care, labor, transportation, justice, housing, and other elements of the President's domestic agenda," before becoming Secretary of Education in 2005. Spellings is the 2d woman to lead the Department; the 1st was Shirley Hufstedtler (left), who resigned a federal appellate judgeship to become the 1st person to hold the Cabinet-level post, from 1979-1981.
... 1946, U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) was born in Salinas, California.