8 March : INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

International women’s day observance was held on February 28,1909 in New york and organized by the socialist party of America. A women’s demonstration on march 8,1917 in petrograd sparked the Russian Revolution. Declared a national holiday in the Soviet Russia in 1917, it was preadominantly celebrate by the socialist movement and Communist countries until it was adopted in 1977 by the United Nation. 
International women’s day was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and switerland. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations. In vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasses qnd carried banners honoring the martyrs of the Paris commune. Women demanded that they be given the Right to Vote and to held public office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination.
International women’s day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace.

• INDIA 121 BY KANIKA GAUTAM