Today is International Women's Day, which has been celebrated in the United States, Russia, and parts of Europe since the turn of the 20th century. It was during this holiday in 1917 that women workers in Russia left factories and took to the streets to protest food shortages. When Czar Nicholas II ordered the military to intervene, they did not. Shortly afterward, he abdicated, and shortly after that, women in Russia were given the right to vote, three years before women in the U.S. International Women's Day is celebrated in 28 countries and recognized by the United Nations.