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21 April 1749
Handel 's Music for the Royal Fireworks was first heard; its audience was one of all classes at Vauxhall Gardens, London.
1865
The Roman Catholic Benedictine Community of St Mary at the Cross (Sisters of the Poor) was founded at Edgware in Middlesex.
1681-5
Of 217 Catholic estates sequestered during the last four years of Charles II 's reign, over half were worth less than £100.
28 May 1754
Seeds were sown for the Seven Years' War when a small force of Americans (both British and native) allegedly made an unprovoked attack on a conciliatory French force on the banks of the Ohio River.
1944
The Times began printing on India paper for circulation by air mail overseas.
22 June 1941
Hitler 's invasion of the Soviet Union (named Operation Barbarossa, and in contravention of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 23 August 1939) began with a surprise attack at dawn which destroyed a thousand Soviet planes...
1910
British-born American Frances Hodgson Burnett published a novel which she originally intended for adults, but which became a children's classic: The Secret Garden.
22 May 1761
Lady Sarah Lennox returned to court after recovering from a broken leg.
5 December 1837
After declaring a provisional government, W. L. Mackenzie led the revolt in Upper Canada, launched the previous day when rebels gathered at Montgomery's Tavern in what is now Toronto.
September 1714
There was published A Collection of Queen Anne 's Speeches, Messages . . . from her Accession to the Throne to her Demise.
30 April 1987
Anna Adams published her poetry volume Six Legs Good.
1 May 1925
British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was forced by the coal-miners to reverse his decision that, to aid postwar recovery, workers must accept pay reduction.
1954
The Report of the Church of England Moral Welfare Council , The Problem of Homosexuality, advocated the decriminalisation of homosexual practices between consenting adults.
November 1895
The University Association of Women Teachers magazine ceased publication in London.
18 May 1827
Maria Marten was murdered by William Corder , near Ipswich, an event later dubbed the Red Barn Murder.
4 September 1957
The Wolfenden Commission published its Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution which recommended the decriminalization of homosexual acts occurring in private between consenting adults over 21, but suggested stricter regulation of prostitution.
By 26 October 1972
Helen Gardner edited The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1950, designed to update and replace Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch 's Oxford Book of English Verse, 1900.
Painting of Mercy Otis Warren by John Singleton Copley. She stands in an outdoor background of trees and flowers, holding one hand out, and wearing a deep blue gown with quantities of lace at the wrists, frills and more lace elsewhere, and a silver bow in the centre of the bodice. She has a lacy white cap tied with a silver ribbon on her brown hair.

Mercy Otis Warren

MOW has been called First Lady of the American Revolution. She was its historian—the only writer to fill this role at an early date from anything like a revolutionary point of view—but she was also...
22 December 1963
War broke out between Turks and Greeks in Cyprus (the two ethnic groups on the island).
1892
The University of Chicago opened as a co-educational institution; women were granted admission on the same basis as men.

George Bradshaw

Photo of a full-length painting of Leah Sumbel by Samuel de Wilde, performing (under her original name, Mary Wells) as Anne Lovely in Susannah Centlivre's "A Bold Stroke for a Wife". She stands on stage, wearing a long, plain grey dress laced up the bodice, its square neckline filled with a fichu, Her hair is powdered under a tall mob cap with a blue ribbon, and she holds a paper in her hands.

Leah Sumbel

LS , an actress of the later eighteenth century, became a remarkable memoirist as well as a journalist and a dabbler in writing for the stage. Her account of her life may be grouped with...
January 1884
The Fabian Society was founded in London to publicize socialist ideas and investigate the application of socialist principles to British conditions.
1923
The first issue of The Fleuron, a magazine devoted to the history and practice of typography, was published.
1916
The Academy, an Oxford dating from 1869, ceased publication.
1768
The Countess of Huntingdon opened Trevecca College , for the training of evangelical Dissenting ministers, at Trevecca, Brecknockshire, Wales.
18 December 1865
The 13th Constitutional Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
20 May 1927
The Treaty of Jiddah between the UK and Ibn Saud , King of Saudi Arabia, recognized the complete and absolute independence of Hejaz, Nejd and dependencies (Saudi Arabia) and announced co-operation in the suppression of...
1900
Onora, a novel by Rosa Mulholland , was published; it was re-issued fifteen years later as Norah of Waterford.
1947
Christian Dior , a Parisian fashion designer, introduced the New Look: long full skirts, darted bodices, and defined waistlines replaced stark wartime designs.
1904
The first scientific paper read by a woman for the Royal Society was delivered by Hertha Ayrton .
10 September 1990
Naomi Wolf set out in The Beauty Myth to demonstrate how society uses images of beauty in women to their detriment.
12 January 1895
The National Trust was founded at Grosvenor House in London by Octavia Hill , Hardwicke Rawnsley , and Robert Hunter (who had been working towards its opening for nearly a year).
1996
The University College of Swansea became the University of Wales, Swansea .
“About Us: History”. Swansea University.
25 July 1889
The Women's Franchise League , an organisation committed to including married women in future women's suffrage proposals, was formed in London by Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy , Alice Scatcherd , and Harriet M'Ilquham and others.
1843
William Hallowes Miller developed new standard measures for England.
26 February 1846
Herman Melville published his first book, Typee; or, A Peep at Polynesian Life.
1851
Amelia Jenks Bloomer of the US arrived in England and advocated dress reform; she introduced bloomers, baggy trousers for women worn beneath a tunic or skirt.
1799
The Seditious Societies Act restricted the circulation of newspapers, books and pamphlets, all in aid of quelling any expression of sympathy with revolutionary France.
16 January 1664
The Indian Queen, the first heroic tragedy on the English stage, by John Dryden and Sir Robert Howard , opened in London.

Harriet Corp

HC was an obscure early nineteenth-century writer of religious and didactic fiction (both novels and short stories) with striking talent and intelligence, as well as a strong interest in the spiritual and material condition of...
1878
British Churchman W. L. Blackley proposed a scheme for government-sponsored old age pensions.
24 July 1567
Mary, Queen of Scots , abdicated in favour of her one-year-old son, and James VI assumed the Scottish throne.
Engraving of Elizabeth Isabella Spence, from from "La Belle Assemblée", No. 185. She is seated, seen from the shoulders up, facing the viewer with a slight smile. She wears a dark, high-waisted dress with short sleeves and two layers of white linen at the neck, with a light shawl wrapped around her. Her curly hair spills out from her high, puffed, flower-bedecked bonnet. A book or sheaf of papers, and a quill and inkwell, are visible on a desk behind her.

Elizabeth Isabella Spence

EIS began publishing just before the end of the eighteenth century and continued for twenty-five years. She issued novels, shorter fiction, and travel books, the latter put together from letters sent to friends in the...
1863
Turnham's Music Hall opened in Edgware Road, London; it was renamed The Metropolitan Music Hall the following year.
16 November 1925-13 March 1926
Alan Cobham and his crew made the first round-trip flight from London to Cape Town.

Olive Senior

Olive Senior is one of the most widely read Caribbean writers. Some of her books are required reading in Caribbean primary schools and in several international high schools and universities.
Simpson, Hyacinth. “Olive Senior’s Gardening in the Tropics”. Ryerson University.
She has published across genres—non-fiction...
1654
A young French priest, Father Antoine Biet , visited British-held Barbados and Surinam in the Caribbean; his account of his journey, published in 1664, mentions the low cost of the slaves and the huge...
31 March 1796
Edward Gibbon 's Miscellaneous Works, with Memoirs of his Life and Writings were posthumously published by his literary executor, Lord Sheffield .
By 5 October 1889
Mary Bramston issued a two-volume novel entitled Apples of Sodom, whose heroine is unusually gifted and outspoken.