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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, OCT 22–28, 2025  
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_ DuPont Has DDT to Sell, So Watch Out! (1945), Women Want the Vote,
Men Say No Way (1915), Icelandic Women Go on Strike Against Gender
Discrimination (1975), Big Tobacco Kills, and Keeps on Killing (1940),
Happy Birthday, Mike Doonesbury! (1970) _

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_DUPONT HAS DDT TO SELL AND WON’T LET ANYONE STAND IN ITS WAY_

OCTOBER 22 IS THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY of a warning about environmental
damage that was ignored for far too long. 

It was in 1945, only six years after DDT had been discovered to be a
“miracle” insecticide, that biologists discovered that it was also
highly toxic to beneficial insects such as pollinators, as well as to
birds, fish, and amphibians. On this day a symposium of the National
Audubon Society heard several presentations that included powerful
evidence about the environmental damage DDT was beginning to cause.

The warning was not heeded for many years, thanks largely to a
disinformation campaign that cost  chemical manufacturers and the
agricultural industry many hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a
result, not only was DDT not restricted, it was widely used in
residential and institutional settings where humans, pets and other
organisms were needlessly exposed to it.

DDT’s advocates not only ignored and denied evidence of harm, they
used every possible political or legal means to prevent or delay
government regulation. In 1962, when Rachel Carson’s book, Silent
Spring, was published, including a detailed examination of DDT’s
dangers, the chemical industry and its allies attacked Carson's
credibility, saying she was "hysterical" and a "fanatic". 
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_WOMEN WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE IF ONLY THEY COULD PERSUADE HALF
THE MALE VOTERS_

OCTOBER 23 IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY of a red-letter day for the
campaign to make it possible for U.S. women to vote.

Woman suffrage advocates had succeeded in putting constitutional
amendments that would give women the right to vote in three of the
country’s largest states, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
Ten days before election day in 1915, woman suffrage organizations
staged the largest-ever equal-rights demonstration, a parade of some
30,000 people marching three miles up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue while
being cheered all along the route by a crowd of spectators that was
estimated to total a quarter million.

The marchers were highly organized, representing groups of women from
each borough, from cities and towns all over New York, and from other
states.  There were also groups organized by profession, including
teachers, medical workers, religious workers, garment workers and
culinary workers.

Sadly, the enormously impressive demonstration did not have its
desired effect. Each of the three state ballot measures was defeated
by a large margin by the all-male electorate on November 2.
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_ICELANDIC WOMEN DEFEAT GENDER DISCRIMINATION WITH A GENERAL STRIKE_

OCTOBER 24 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of a hugely successful 1-day
general strike by Icelandic women, who were demanding an end to the
country’s 40 percent pay gap.

An estimated 90 percent of women in Iceland refused to perform both
paid and unpaid labor for the day in 1975, with the result that most
offices, factories, schools, hotels and other businesses could not
function, and many men were prevented from working by the lack of
transportation and child-care. It was also a day when most meals were
eaten cold if they were eaten at all.

Some 25,000 (mostly) women (more than 10 per cent of the nation’s
population) brought traffic to a complete standstill by rallying in
Iceland’s capital. Seven months later Iceland’s parliament passed
the Gender  Equality Act, which sharply reduced gender discrimination
in workplaces and schools. It was not everything the strikers
demanded, but it was a good start.
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_MANY MILLION KILLED BY LUNG CANCER, AND THE END IS NOT IN SIGHT_

OCTOBER 25 IS THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY of a day when a brave doctor tried
to sound the alarm about the growing epidemic of lung cancer and the
tobacco industry dug in its heels to protect its profits. 

On that day in 1940, at the annual meeting of the American College of
Surgeons in Chicago, Dr. Alton Ochsner delivered a research paper that
he summarized this way: “Smoking cigarettes is a cause of cancer of
the lung.” Not a _POSSIBLE_ cause or _SUSPECTED_ cause, but _A_
cause. 

Ochsner, who had been studying lung cancer for two decades, had
discovered the causal connection between the disease and cigarette
smoking by carefully observing his patients’ health and their
smoking habits. In many cases, he had only been able to definitively
diagnose lung cancer by means of autopsy. He was not the first to
suspect that smoking was not a healthy habit, but he was the first
scientist to prove the link between smoking and cancer. 

His reward for what ought to have been considered a major contribution
to the cause of public health was to become the target of bitter
vituperation and ridicule by professional colleagues, many of whom
were either financial beneficiaries of the tobacco industry or
addicted to tobacco themselves. 

The tobacco industry, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars to
“prove” that Ochsner and those who agreed with him were wrong, was
completely successful until 1964, when the accuracy of Ochsner’s
discovery was certified by the Surgeon General of the U.S. 

It is conservatively estimated that more than 40 million people in the
US and Canada have died from smoking-related disease, including lung
cancer, since 1970. [link removed]
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_HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE DOONESBURY, AND MANY MORE!_

_OCTOBER 26 IS THE 55TH ANNIVERSARY _of the very first appearance of
Doonesbury, by master satirist Gary Trudeau.

Before the feature was five years old, it became the first daily
“comic” strip to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial
Cartooning (which was re-branded Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated
Reporting and Commentary in 2022). When Trudeau was honored, he joined
an elite crew that included Rube Goldberg, Herblock, Bill Mauldin,
Paul Conrad and Patrick Oliphant.

Here’s to Mike Doonesbury, 55 years young and still going strong!
(But only on Sundays, now.)
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For more People's History, visit
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* Rachel Carson
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* Ecocide
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* women voters
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* A Day Without a Woman
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* Gender Gap
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* Iceland
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* Big Tobacco
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* Doonesbury - Gary Trudeau
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