July 19 Birthday
On July 19, 1848, the first Women's Rights Convention opened at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who had met eight years earlier at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where women were barred from speaking. Three hundred people attended. Stanton read a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, which declared that "all men and women are created equal." Frederick Douglass spoke in support of women's suffrage. Sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the declaration. It would take seventy-two years for women to win the right to vote nationally. Edgar Degas, born this day in 1834, was not an Impressionist — he called himself a realist and despised painting outdoors. He painted dancers, laundresses, and racehorses. He never married. He went blind in his later years and turned to sculpture and pastels. His Little Dancer of Fourteen Years was initially reviled by critics for its ugliness — it is now one of the most beloved sculptures in the world. People born on July 19 fall under the zodiac sign of Cancer. The birthstone is Ruby and the birth flower is Larkspur. Historical events on July 19 include 1848: Women's Rights Convention begins at Seneca Falls, New York, 1903: First Tour de France bicycle race concludes, 1984: Geraldine Ferraro nominated as Democratic vice presidential candidate. Famous people born on July 19 include Edgar Degas (1834), Samuel Colt (1814), Benedict Cumberbatch (1976).