The First American Woman To Vote

Louisa Swain

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution secured women the right to vote in 1920. But, half a century earlier, in 1870, a woman actually cast a ballot in an American election for the first time. That’s because in 1869, the territorial legislature of Wyoming passed a law giving women the right to vote. And, on December 10th of that year, territorial Gov. John Campbell signed the bill into law. 

Then, on September 6, 1870—almost exactly 156 years ago—70-year-old Louisa Swain of Laramie, Wyoming cast the first official documented vote by a woman in the United States. She almost missed the honor, but she beat 27-year-old Augusta Howe by just a half an hour. Technically, Swain was likely the first woman in the entire world to cast a ballot under a specific law granting women full political equality with men. 

Wyoming was also the first to elect a woman governor and the first to appoint a woman to public office. In 1890, Wyoming was “invited” to join the Union—but only if their women’s suffrage law was repealed. The legislature responded with this formal statement: “We will remain out of the Union one hundred years rather than come in without the women.” They got their way, and Wyoming was admitted as the 44th state in 1890, with their women’s voting law intact and in place. 

So, there’s good reason why Wyoming is nicknamed “The Equality State”—it beat the rest of the country to women’s voting rights by a full 50 years.

World War II And Pizza

If there’s one food that transcends all social barriers in America, it has to be pizza. Pretty much everybody loves it. The USDA estimates that 37 million Americans partake of pizza daily. 

But pizza was—obviously—not an original American food. Immigrants from Italy first introduced pizza to the United States in the early 1900s—but it was pretty much confined to Italian neighborhoods in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago. In terms of retail, Gennaro Lombardi was the first to receive a license to make and sell pizza in 1905 in New York City. 

Despite a bit of a resurgence in the 1930s, pizza didn’t really take off in the United States until after World War II. Around 150,000 GIs were stationed in Southern Italy during the war. They ate tons of pizza and loved it. This phenomenon was helped by one of the Army’s food suppliers—Hector Boiardi. He later became the famous Chef Boyardee. Then, returning GI Ira Nevin built the first gas-fired, ceramic-deck Bakers Pride pizza oven—which allowed for the explosion of pizza places nationwide. Pizza chains started cropping up in the late 1950s—starting with Pizza Hut and followed by Little Caesar’s and Domino’s. Now, pizza is, literally, ubiquitous.

But this “pizza revolution” in America would never have happened without hungry GIs demanding that amazing food they experienced in the south of Italy.