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Fun Fact! Women Were Once Banned from Smoking in Public
Katie Mulcahey, a New Yorker, was jailed in 1908 for striking a match on a wall and lighting a cigarette with it. Why? Because it was a breach of The Sullivan Ordinance, a local ordinance that prohibits women (and only women!) from smoking in public. Mulcahey protested for her right to smoke cigarettes in public at her hearing in district court. She received a $5.00 fine. The Sullivan Ordinance was vetoed by New York City's mayor two weeks later.