Daily Calendar for Sunday, August 27, 2028

This day marks the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920), granting women the right to vote. Ratification came in Tennessee, where Tennessee state legislator Harry T. Burn, age 24, cast the deciding vote after reading a letter from his mom, Febb Burn. “I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow,” he said, “and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

The country’s 26 million voting-age women were enfranchised by this change in the Constitution. Longtime suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt summed up her experiences in the battle this way: “Never in the history of politics has there been such a nefarious lobby as labored to block the ratification.” Upon ratification, Catt founded the League of Women Voters, an organization now dedicated to providing impartial, in-depth information about candidates, platforms, and ballot issues.

The 36th president of the United States was born on this day in 1908, in Texas. He became president on November 22, 1963, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On his watch, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation began its War on Poverty, the Department of Housing and Urban Development was created, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam expanded. In response to a public outcry after he was photographed lifting his dog by the ears, the crusty president said, My mother used to pull my ears, and it never did get that much attention.” In Texas, “Lyndon Baines Johnson Day” is an annual state holiday and a day off for the general population with schools and most businesses closed.”