International Women's Day

As you wander around groggily trying to recover from the changeover to Daylight Savings Time, don't forget that today is also International Women's Day.

Clara Zetkin, a German delegate at the Conference of Working Women in 1910, first suggested an international day to discuss and promote the rights of women in society. And to show she meant business, she picked the 55th anniversary of a Prussian revolution for the first celebration. In fear after the uprising, the Prussian king promised to give votes to women, but failed to deliver on his promise when things calmed down.

While it wasn't a revolution, the first International Women's Day certainly had its share of conflict. It was so popular that there were major crowd control issues. One parade jammed the streets with 30,000 demonstrators, which led to scuffles with the police. Many town hall meetings were so crowded that the organizers had to ask men to give up their seats, go home, and look after the kids for a day.

Imagine that!

In 1913, the day was assigned a permanent date of March 8th, and it has stayed there ever since. So celebrate international women today, and give them a full vote on everything--including who does the daily chores around the house.