October 11 Birthday
On October 11, 1984, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space. She was a mission specialist on Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41-G). The spacewalk lasted three hours and twenty-nine minutes. Sullivan later served as NOAA Administrator under President Obama. The first woman in space was Valentina Tereshkova (1963); the first woman to spacewalk was Svetlana Savitskaya (1984), three months before Sullivan. Eleanor Roosevelt, born this day in 1884, was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt and the wife of Franklin. She held 348 press conferences — all restricted to female reporters, which forced newspapers to hire women. She wrote a daily newspaper column, "My Day," for twenty-seven years. After FDR's death, she chaired the commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Truman called her the "First Lady of the World.". People born on October 11 fall under the zodiac sign of Libra. The birthstone is Opal and the birth flower is Marigold. Historical events on October 11 include 1975: Bill Clinton marries Hillary Rodham in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1984: Kathryn Sullivan becomes first American woman to walk in space, 2002: Jimmy Carter awarded Nobel Peace Prize. Famous people born on October 11 include Eleanor Roosevelt (1884), Elmore Leonard (1925), Luke Perry (1966).