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1947: James Barrie, great-nephew of playwright...

Writer or writing item

1947

James Barrie , great-nephew of playwright Sir James Barrie , founded an imprint to publish popular books, among them Lady Cynthia Asquith 's diaries.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
36

1909: The new Sinn Féin League (the Irish Republican...

National or international item

1909

The new Sinn Féin League (the Irish Republican party) officially supported women's suffrage, but argued that the women's vote must wait until after Ireland gained independence.
McKillen, Beth. “Irish Feminism and Nationalist Separatism, 1914-23”. Éire-Ireland, Vol.
17
, No. 3, 4, 1982, pp. 52 - 67, 72.
55-6

July 1975: The illustrious Cornhill Magazine ceased...

Writer or writing item

July 1975

The illustrious Cornhill Magazine ceased publication after a hundred and fifteen years in print.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
150
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

16 August 1946: The Muslim League called for a day of direct...

National or international item

16 August 1946

The Muslim League called for a day of direct action in Calcutta; 4,000-5,000 people were murdered and 10,000 were injured in the following three days.
Bayly, Christopher Alan. Atlas of the British Empire. Facts on File, 1989.
196
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
396

18 June 1936: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was declared...

National or international item

18 June 1936

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was declared an illegal organisation.
Foster, Robert Fitzroy. Modern Ireland 1600-1972. Allen Lane, 1988.
615

25 October 1971: The Communist People's Republic of China...

National or international item

25 October 1971

The CommunistPeople's Republic of China was belatedly allowed to join the United Nations (Taiwan having been first expelled).
Anderson, Perry. “Our Man”. London Review of Books, 10 May 2007, pp. 9-12.
12

April 1989: The European Economic Community finally suspended...

Building and people item

April 1989

The European Economic Community finally suspended trade relations with Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu ' Romania on account of its oppressive social and gender policies.
Murphy, Dervla. Transylvania and Beyond. Penguin, 1998.
xiii-xiv

By 22 December 1855: Thomas Babington Macaulay published volumes...

Writer or writing item

By 22 December 1855

Thomas Babington Macaulay published volumes III and IV of The History of England from the Accession of James the Second.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
(22 Dec. 1855): 1489-94

7 September 1880: The Debtors (Scotland) Act abolished imprisonment...

National or international item

7 September 1880

The Debtors (Scotland) Act abolished imprisonment for civil debt and allowed for the release of persons already imprisoned.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2025.
(1880): 218-23

November 1963: Hereditary peeresses (those few women inheriting...

National or international item

November 1963

Hereditary peeresses (those few women inheriting a peerage in their own right) were first admitted to the House of Lords .
Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press, 1991.
88
United Kingdom Parliament. http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/.

Marie de Sévigné

MS , who lived and wrote in seventeenth-century France, is widely regarded as one of the world's great letter-writers. The standard scholarly edition contains 1,372 letters.
Marie de Sévigné Head-and-shoulders painting of Marie de Sévigné by Claude Lefèbvre, c. 1665. She is in half-mourning, in a pale low-necked gown with puff sleeves and a lacy neckline tied with a dark bow. A grey scarf is tucked in. She has pearl ear studs, a pearl necklace, and dark curls around her face. She wears a slight smile. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

November 1854: Tsar Nicholas I of Russia accepted the Four...

National or international item

November 1854

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia accepted the Four Points proposed by Austria in the Crimean War.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
207, 208

By 19 December 1831: Cholera was sufficiently widespread in London...

Building and people item

By 19 December 1831

Cholera was sufficiently widespread in London for Joanna Baillie to comment on the general panic and uneasiness.
Baillie, Joanna. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie. Editor Slagle, Judith Bailey, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999, 2 vols.
1: 472

1886: The General Electric Apparatus Company (GEAC)...

Building and people item

1886

The General Electric Apparatus Company (GEAC) began operations in a London warehouse and became the first major British company to make electric fittings for the home.
Hardyment, Christina. From Mangle to Microwave: The Mechanization of Household Work. Polity Press, 1988.
30
Jones, Robert, 1934 -, and Oliver Marriott. Anatomy of a Merger: A History of G.E.C., A.E.I. and English Electric. Jonathan Cape, 1970.
71

1856: Richard Owen, a rival of Darwin and Huxley,...

Building and people item

1856

Richard Owen , a rival of Darwin and Huxley , was appointed superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum .
Gascoigne, Robert Mortimer. A Chronology of the History of Science, 1450-1900. Garland, 1987.
410
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-View in the Nineteenth Century. Basil Blackwell, 1986.
100

10 April 1710: An Act for the Encouragement of Learning...

Writer or writing item

10 April 1710

An Act for the Encouragement of Learning (later called the Copyright Act), passed in 1709, became effective.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
29
Sutherland, James. Defoe. Methuen, 1937.
170

Later 1946: The prohibition of married women in the British...

Building and people item

Later 1946

The prohibition of married women in the BritishCivil Service formally ended, although it had ended in practice during the wars.
Grint, Keith. “Women and Equality: The Acquisition of Equal Pay in the Post Office, 1870-1961”. Sociology, Vol.
22
, No. 1, 1988, pp. 87-108.
96

1906: At the Annual General Meeting of the Society...

Women writers item

1906

At the Annual General Meeting of the Society of Authors , George Bernard Shaw deplored the dragging down of literary earnings by groups possessing a non-literary income, particularly married women.
The Author. Alexander P. Watt.
(Winter 2000) cxi: 4, Shaw Supplement

1826: Twenty years after the Fourdrinier brothers...

Building and people item

1826

Twenty years after the Fourdrinier brothers took a patent for their papermaking machine, John Marshall invented the dandy-roll: a device used in papermaking machines whose machine-made paper would appear handmade.
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
106
Hunter, Dard. Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. Dover Publications, 1978.
400-1, 541

22 December 1965: For the first time in recent history an overall...

Building and people item

22 December 1965

For the first time in recent history an overall speed-limit—of 70 miles per hour—became mandatory on British roads, everywhere except where more restricted limits were already in force.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(15 November 1965): 6; (10 February 1966): 8

1895: For the first time a list of bestsellers...

Writer or writing item

1895

For the first time a list of bestsellers was printed in the US journal The Bookman.
Adams, Tim. “Read ’em and weep”. The Observer, 13 July 2003, pp. Review section 1 - 2.
1

15-18 September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force and their...

National or international item

15-18 September 1914

The British Expeditionary Force and their allies succeeded in crossing the River Aisne in the battle of that name, only to have their advance halted on the far side.
Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. The Tears of War. Editor Fyfe, Charlotte, Cavalier Books, 2000.
33

1951: Nikolaus Pevsner published the first three...

Building and people item

1951

Nikolaus Pevsner published the first three titles in his Buildings of England series, an immensely knowledgeable gazetteer, county by county, of historic and other noteworthy structures.
Darley, Gillian. “Down with Cosmopolitanism”. London Review of Books, 18 May 2000, pp. 21-2.
21
Hill, Rosemary. “Positively Spaced Out”. London Review of Books, 6 Sept. 2001, pp. 30-1.
30-1

By 16 December 1871: Lewis Carroll published Through the Looking-Glass...

Writer or writing item

By 16 December 1871

Lewis Carroll published Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (generally known as Alice Through the Looking-Glass).
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2303 (1871): 787

James Joyce

Irish exile JJ , hailed by Yeats as a new kind of novelist even before his first novel was published, became one of the leading practitioners of modernism. As well as poems, a play, and...