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July 4
To date, there have been 25 female officers in the United States Cabinet, including Hillary Clinton (pictured), the current Secretary of State. No woman held a Cabinet position before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920, which prohibits states and the federal government from denying any citizen the right to vote because of that citizen's sex. Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in the Cabinet; she was appointed Secretary of Labor in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1953, Oveta Culp Hobby became the second woman to serve in the Cabinet, when she was named head of the then newly formed Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Patricia Roberts Harris, who was Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare before the department split and had earlier served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1977, became the first female Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1979. Harris was also the first African American woman to serve in the Cabinet. (Full list...)
July 11
In Major League Baseball, the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards are presented annually to the players at each position judged to have shown superior individual fielding performances throughout the season. Since awards are presented in both the National and American Leagues, 18 Gold Gloves (pictured) have been given each year since 1958, after nine awards were presented in the inaugural 1957 season. Because ties in the voting are permissible, 19 awards have been presented twice, when four outfielders won, in 1985 and 2007. The Gold Glove is presented to outfielders irrespective of their specific position. Critics have argued that the three outfield positions are not equivalent defensively, supporting other defensive recognition such as the Fielding Bible Awards. Pitcher Greg Maddux has won the most Gold Gloves of any player, capturing 18 from 1990 to 2002 and 2004 to 2008. The only player ever to win Gold Gloves as an infielder and outfielder is Darin Erstad, who won as an outfielder in 2000 and 2002, and as a first baseman in 2004. (Full list...)
July 18
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The leaders of the Soviet Union were appointed by either the Communist Party or the Soviet Government. Although there was no office titled "Leader of the Soviet Union", during Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power in the 1920s, the incumbent of the post of the General Secretary of the Party's Central Committee became in effect the leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both Party and Government. By 1946, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers had become the de facto leader of the country. The last office performing the function of leader was the post of President of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was the only Soviet leader to rule the Soviet Union through the office of the head of state. There were nine leaders of the Soviet Union; Stalin's and Leonid Brezhnev's (pictured) rules were the lengthiest. (Full list...)
July 25
The infectious disease hepatitis C is caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which affects the liver (location pictured) and is transmitted by blood-to-blood contact. Some of the people diagnosed with the disease have made this known to help raise awareness about hepatitis C and to encourage more people to get tested for the disease. Although HCV was not discovered until April 1989, an estimated 170 million people worldwide are infected by the virus. It is the leading cause of liver transplant in the United States; 8,000–10,000 people die each year in the US from the disease. No vaccine is available at this time. The symptoms of infection can be medically managed when the disease is diagnosed early, and a proportion of patients can be cleared of the virus by a course of anti-viral medicines. The symptoms of HCV infection, especially in its early stages, can be mild enough to conceal the fact of the disease; thus, some people do not seek treatment. As Live Aid founder Bob Geldof states, "Stigma, shame and fear can suffocate awareness. These barriers prevent people from getting tested, receiving treatment, and clearing themselves of this disease". The World Health Assembly has designated 28 July as World Hepatitis Day, in order to raise awareness and understanding of HCV, as well as hepatitis B. (Full list...)