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Mary I (1516–1558), queen of England and Ireland, was crowned on this day in 1553.

"What Mary endured psychologically and physically before Katherine’s banishment from court in 1531 was trivial compared with what followed Henry’s marriage to Anne and the birth of their daughter Elizabeth on 7 September 1533. While Henry had risked his throne for yet another girl, he could still hope for a male heir; but Mary, who defied her father and fought the succession of humiliations that followed, risked all with little hope for the future. She had acquired a firm identity as a princess from her early years at court, and when denied that status she acted every inch the Tudor.

From the outset she refused to relinquish the dignity of princess, of which she was deprived after Henry announced his marriage to Anne in April 1533. Her very serious illness that summer demonstrated the personal cost of defying her father. After Elizabeth’s birth, the council again ordered Mary to stop calling herself princess. She continued to refuse her demotion to the status of ‘lady’. Henry, enraged by what he repeatedly called her Spanish stubbornness, failed to recognize that she was as obstinate as he.” Image credit: Portrait of Mary I of England, via Wikimedia Commons.

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RCA Broadcasting Station, 1923

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October 2, 1950: The First Peanuts Comic Strip Is Published   On this day in 1950, the first Peanuts comic strip was published in seven daily newspapers, debuting Charlie Brown and the gang. Created by Charles Schulz, the strip ran for 50 years and solidified the concept of a four panel gag comic.   Check out PBS Newshour’s Peanuts timeline for a look at the comic’s impact and legacy.   Photos: Peanuts. “Rats! There goes the bell” / Schulz. 1963 & Charles Schulz portrait, 1956 (Library of Congress).

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Today for Women’s History Wednesday we’re featuring selections from our Mildred Wirt Benson digital collection. The UI alum and original author of the Nancy Drew series didn’t just write about adventurous heroines — she lived it!

From top:

Benson’s senior portrait, University of Iowa Hawkeye yearbook, 1926.

An early short story for Lutheran Young Folks, 1924; Benson in the Daily Iowan newsroom, 1925.

Quarry Ghost, skin diving mystery, 1959; Benson diving into the Iowa River, 1925.

Not for the faint-hearted: The Brownie Scouts in the Circus, 1949; Benson among her novels, 1949.

Benson in the pilot seat, 1987 - photo by Jack Ackerman for the Toledo Blade.

Courageous Wings: An Air Story for Girls, 1937.

The first Nancy Drew novel, The Secret of the Old Clock, was published in 1930.

Browse all: Mildred Wirt Benson digital collection

Learn more: Guide to the Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson papers, 1915-2002

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October 3, 1990: Germany is Reunified   On this day in 1990, East and West Germany were reunified after 45 years of division and a year after the Berlin Wall began to fall. Many regard “Unity Day” as the end of the Cold War.   Watch The Wall – A World Divided for look at the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.

Photo: An East German border guard offers a flower through a gap in the Berlin Wall on the morning of November 10th 1989, when it fell. (Photo by Tom Stoddart/Getty Images) 

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William Scrots. Detail from Portrait of Elizabeth I when a Princess, 1546.

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Prince Constantin Vincent Maria Radziwill. 

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People reenact a balloon flight for Paris’s 2,000th anniversary, June 1952.Photograph by Justin Locke, National Geographic

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Queen Mary’s amethyst parure.  The amethyst were from a charity raffle that Queen Mary won. The parure was sold after the Queen Mother’s death, the necklace was seen on Anna Wintour.

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Edin’s Hall Broch, also known as Odin’s Hall Broch is a 2nd century broch near Duns in the Borders of Scotland. It is one of very few brochs found in southern Scotland. It is roughly 27m in diameter.

The broch may have been built during the pre-Roman Iron Age,  during the forty-year interval from AD 100 and 140 (Pax Romana),  the two Roman occupations of southern Scotland.

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A small and a big meerkat (by Tambako the Jaguar)

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