The Barbary Coast was a red-light district during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries in San Francisco which featured dance halls, concert saloons, bars, jazz clubs, variety shows, and brothels. Its nine block area was centered on a three block stretch of Pacific Street, now Pacific Avenue, between Montgomery and Stockton Streets. Pacific Street was the first street to cut through the hills of San Francisco, starting near Portsmouth Square and continuing east to the first shipping docks at Buena Vista Cove.

The Barbary Coast was born during the California Gold Rush of 1849, when the population of San Francisco was growing at an exponential rate due to the rapid influx of tens of thousands of miners trying to find gold. (read more...)

Aileen Carol Wuornos Pralle (/ˈwɔːrnoʊs/; born Aileen Carol Pittman; February 29, 1956 – October 9, 2002) was an American serial killer who murdered seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 by shooting them at point-blank range. Wuornos claimed that her victims had either raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute, and that all of the homicides were committed in self-defense. She was convicted and sentenced to death for six of the murders and was executed by lethal injection on October 9, 2002.

The 2003 film Monster starred Charlize Theron as Wuornos. It chronicles Wuornos' story from childhood until her first murder conviction. The film earned Theron an Academy Award for Best Actress. (read more...)

• ... that the Dog and Duck (pictured) lost its licence after becoming "a house in which gangs of both whores and rogues were constantly associated"?
• ... that Gertrude Guillaume-Schack founded the German Cultural Association in 1880 to fight state-regulated prostitution?
• ... that the U.S. Travel Act prohibits interstate or foreign travel to promote, manage or commit extortion, bribery, prostitution and other crimes?
• ... that the children of Vietnamese prostitutes and American servicemembers from the Vietnam War were often forced into prostitution themselves?

• 4th
  • 1972: Death of Shirley Brifman, an Australian prostitute and brothel madam who was known as a whistleblower on police corruption. She died at the age of 36 in suspicious circumstances, in what was ruled a suicide.
• 12th
  • 1975: Birth of Vanessa de Oliveira, a Brazilian writer and former call girl.
• 17th
  • 2008: Resignation of the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, following revelations of a prostitution scandal by the New York Times.
• 19th
  • 1944: Birth of Molly Luft (nee Edda Blanck), a German prostitute, noted for her obesity and lurid make-up.
• 27th
  • 2017: Paying for sex in Ireland became illegal by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 coming into force.

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