Today in Comics History, February 3: Happy birthday, Elizabeth Blackwell!

Born on this day in 1821: Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. From 1821 to 1827, nothing happened to her. Then, suddenly:


from "The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell" in Wonder Woman (1942 series) #19 (DC, September 1946), script by Alice Marble, pencils and inks by Alfonso Greene



Say...!


Later, while Elizabeth was visiting EC Comics' The Old Witch...


Thee was only one thing standing between Blackwell and her intended profession: 50% of the Earrth's population.


Upon finally getting her medical dregree, four people clapped, and then the Freelance Shame Squad took to the streets to jeer at her.


Wait, this was all a story being written by Wonder Woman?!? Geez, Diana, during all the time you spent researching and writing this, Dr. Psycho has destroyed France.


Eventually even every schoolchild learned that a woman could become a doctor!


from Simpsons Comics #175 (Bongo, February 2011), script by Ian Boothby, pencils by John Costanza, inks by Phyllis Novin, colors by Art Villanueva, letters by Karen Bates
Ah, at last the answer to the long-running question of which state Springfield is in: it must be Florida.


And from that moment onwards through history, men were excited and supportive of the new movement towards women's rights in the workplace!


Happy birthday, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell!