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Timeline of Events xxiii April Two women’s basketball games, the University of California vs. Stanford and the University of Washington vs. Ellensburg Normal School, are the first intercollegiate women’s athletic competitions. May 18 The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson rules that “separate but equal” public accommodations for people of different races are constitutional, thus giving federal sanction to segregation laws. 1897 Jell-­O is introduced. William McKinley becomes president of the United States. February 17, 1897 Alice Birney convenes the first National Congress of Mothers (the forerunner of the Parent-­Teacher Association). March 17 E. G. Briggs of the Union Theological Seminary becomes the first woman to graduate from a U.S. divinity school. 1898 The second volume of The Woman’s Bible is published. Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes Women and Economics. The National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) is founded. The National Consumers’ League (NCL) is founded. WCTU president Frances Willard dies. Suffragists make a special push for a constitutional amendment on account of the fiftieth anniversary of the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York—­but, just as it does for every year 1893–­1913, the amendment fails to come to a vote in Congress. The United States goes to war with Spain seventy-­ seven-­year-­old Clara Barton immediately organizes nurses and a relief ship to go to Cuba in support. About 1,500 nurses will also join the new Army Nurse Corps, headed by Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee (1864–­1940). September 19, 1899 The first Lake Placid conference inaugurates the study of home economics. 1900 Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-­Sa) publishes Old Indian Legends.