Explore Orlando

Use of sound waves for underwater detection of objects was investigated by English physicists John W. S. Rayleigh and Lewis F. Richardson .

The House of Commons debated what aggravations a husband could commit that, when coupled with adultery, would justify a wife in suing for divorce.

American woman of letters Katherine Anne Porter titled her only full-length fiction, the novelShip of Fools, after a late-fifteenth-century satirical poem in German by Sebastian Brant .

Edmund Spenser dated (using the old-style reckoning of 1589) his letter to Sir Walter Raleghexpounding his whole intention in the first three books of The Faerie Queene, which was published soon afterwards.

Britain joined Turkey and Iraq as signatories to the Baghdad Pact, a defence treaty. Pakistan, Iran, and Jordan also signed before the end of the year.

Naomi Klein set out in her bookNo Logo to chart the workings of worldwide global capitalist production and marketing methods, and the beginnings of an anti-corporate movement.

The Malthusian, advocating birth control, began monthly publication in London.

As Mrs. Wilfrid Ward, Josephine Ward published her novelTudor Sunset.

The Salvation Army 's Women's Social Services was created in Whitechapel.

English director Alfred Hitchcock was recognized as a film talent and hired at British International Pictures , which had built studios at Elstree with the aim of becoming the British equivalent to Hollywood.

Blues singer Billie Holiday died in New York.

Lady Eleanor Fenn , a well-known writer for children, published three works this year: Fables and Fables in Monosyllables, both as Mrs Teachwell, and Rational Sports in Dialogues Passing Among the Children of...

Hamish Hamilton established his own publishing house at 90 Great Russell Street, London.

The Ottawa Imperial Economic Conference met and decided in favour of limited imperial preference in trade in order to encourage Canadian economic recovery.

The Royal Commission on Copyright was formed to consolidate domestic and international copyright law.

Conferring of British nationality was first done as a public ceremony, in this case held in the town hall of Brent in North London and attended by the Prince of Wales and the Home Secretary...

The Sans Pareil theatre (which had hitherto performed burlettas and other works by Jane Scott ) changed hands and became The Adelphi .

Richard Steele signed an agreement with John Rich for the production of his comedy The Funeral.

Spencer Perceval assumed office as Prime Minister. He was a Tory, an Evangelical, and an abolitionist, strongly committed to the war against France.

Samuel Pepys noted that it was now the fashion for ladies to hide their whole face with a vizard or mask throughout an evening at the theatre.

Around this time, there were few professional nurses in Ireland; the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary , for example, had only two paid nurses and expected friends of patients to nurse them while...

Sir William Davenant 's masqueThe Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, Exprest by instrumentall and vocall musick, and by the art of perspective in scenes, etc., was published; it had been performed the same year.

Richard Nixon was elected President of the USA at the height of the Vietnam war. He was re-elected in November 1972.

The UK took over the government of Nigeria and Lagos from the Royal Niger Company .

The National Unemployed Workers' Committee Movement was founded in London as a communist satellite organization with the main objective of Work or Full Maintenance at Trade Union Rates.