1873
Born Helen (Nellie) Letitia Mooney on October 20
in Chatsworth, Ontario.

1880
Family homesteads in Manitoba.

1889
Becomes a teacher.

1890
Meets social reformer Annie McClung and, in 1896, marries Annie’s son, Robert Wesley McClung, with whom she has five children.

1908
Publishes her first novel — Sowing Seeds
in Danny — which becomes a bestseller.

1912
Is one of the founding members of the Political
Equality League.

1916
Women win the vote in Manitoba and later
in Alberta.

The first temperance bills to control the sale
of alcoholic drinks are adopted in Manitoba,
Alberta, Nova Scotia and Ontario.

1917
Canada recognizes the right of certain women,
such as the mothers and wives of servicemen,
to vote federally.

1921
Elected as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, where she had moved
with her family a few years earlier.

1929
As a member of the “Famous Five”, wins
legal recognition of women as “persons”.

1951
Dies on September 1 in Victoria, British Columbia.