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Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

15 May 1858: The third Covent Garden Theatre of the century...

Building and people item

15 May 1858

The third Covent Garden Theatre of the century was opened.
Wyndham, Henry Saxe. The Annals of Covent Garden Theatre From 1732 to 1897. Chatto and Windus, 1906, 2 vols.
2: 220-2
Mander, Raymond, and Joe Mitchenson. The Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963.
57

June 1643: The Long Parliament took a decisive step...

Writer or writing item

June 1643

The Long Parliament took a decisive step towards re-establishing government control over printing: a Licensing Order was enacted to take over the censorship function formerly exercised by the Court of the Star Chamber and relinquished...

15 July 1916: King George V opened the National Library...

Writer or writing item

15 July 1916

King George V opened the National Library of Wales at its new site overlooking Aberystwyth and Cardigan Bay.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
182

1857: William Acton's Prostitution advocated of...

Building and people item

1857

William Acton 's Prostitution advocated of the control of prostitution through state regulation.
Walkowitz, Judith R. ’We Are Not Beasts of the Field’: Prostitution and the Campaign Against the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1869-1886. University of Rochester, 1974.
109

1563: Convocation of the Church of England drew...

Building and people item

1563

Convocation of the Church of England drew up the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, as a statement of what it is necessary for an Anglican to believe.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
274
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

July 1803: An invasion scare gripped England. Young...

National or international item

July 1803

An invasion scare gripped England. Young men joined volunteer regiments ready for a landing and occupation by Napoleon 's troops—though at the same time people continued to plan their lives normally.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
McCarthy, Voice 460-1

7 July 1975: The first work by the Afro-American writer...

Writer or writing item

7 July 1975

The first work by the Afro-American writer Ntozake Shange opened off Broadway in New York: the choreopoem (or verse sequence for musical performance with dance) For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When...

1884: Tory women were admitted to the newly founded...

National or international item

1884

Tory women were admitted to the newly founded Primrose League .
Walker, Linda. “Party Political Women: A Comparative Study of Liberal Women and the Primrose League, 1890-1914”. Equal or Different: Women’s Politics 1800-1914, edited by Jane Rendall, Basil Blackwell, 1987, pp. 165-91.
166, 170-1

By the end of August 1588: The attempted invasion of England by Philip...

National or international item

By the end of August 1588

The attempted invasion of England by Philip II 's Spanish Armada was defeated.
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
270

21 April 1509: King Henry VII died; the next day Henry VIII...

National or international item

21 April 1509

King Henry VII died; the next day Henry VIII assumed the throne of England. He began his reign by marrying Catherine of Aragon , widow of his brother Arthur.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
42
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
108
Duffy, Eamon. “The Unlikeliest Loophold”. London Review of Books, Vol.
33
, No. 15, 28 July 2011, pp. 17-18.
17-18

1950: Woman's Friend ended publication in Lond...

Building and people item

1950

Woman's Friend ended publication in London.
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
97
Dancyger, Irene. A World of Women: An Illustrated History of Women’s Magazines. Gill and Macmillan, 1978.
142

Around 1941-43: The publication of patriotic statistics encouraged...

Building and people item

Around 1941-43

The publication of patriotic statistics encouraged newspaper and magazine recycling (generally known as salvage).
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.
143
Briggs, Susan. Keep Smiling Through. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975.
175, 187

1953: The United Nations General Assembly appointed...

National or international item

1953

The United Nations General Assembly appointed its first female president, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

29 February 1916: A Board of Education circular stipulated...

Building and people item

29 February 1916

A Board of Education circular stipulated that school children should be hired for work only when no adult man or woman could fill the position.
Andrews, Irene Osgood. Economic Effects of the War Upon Women and Children in Great Britain. Oxford University Press, 1918.
148

By about 1650: Slave-holding plantations were established...

Building and people item

By about 1650

Slave-holding plantations were established in the north as well as the south of the future USA: at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, New York.
Wilford, John Noble. “Digging Up Secrets of Northern Slaves”. Edmonton Journal, 12 Sept. 1999, p. B4.
B4

September 2010: The public library in Edmonton, Alberta,...

Building and people item

September 2010

The public library in Edmonton, Alberta, pioneered the provision of books for commuters to borrow from a vending machine at a subway station.
CBC National News. CBC Television.

1840: The Society of Protestant Sisters of Charity...

Building and people item

1840

The Society of Protestant Sisters of Charity (Nursing Sisters) was founded as a secular nursing order in London, inspired by Quaker Elizabeth Gurney Fry .
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
119
Williams, Katherine. “From Sarah Gamp to Florence Nightingale: A Critical Study of Hospital Nursing Systems from 1840 to 1897”. Rewriting Nursing History, edited by Celia Davies, Barnes and Noble, 1980, pp. 41-75.
42-4, 49, 64
Dingwall, Robert et al. An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing. Routledge, 1988.
28

Constance, Countess Markievicz

CCM , a leader in Ireland's nationalist struggle for independence (and latterly for the unification of independent Ireland), is, and has always been, better known for her appearances in creative works by others than...
Constance, Countess Markievicz Black and white photograph of Constance, Countess Markievicz, shown from the waist up. She is wearing a military-style double-breasted jacket with a high collar and epaulettes. Her hair is done in a roll in front and a bun behind.

1805: Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and...

Writer or writing item

1805

Alexis de Tocqueville , French historian and sociologist, was born.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

8 June 1814: Novelist and playwright Charles Reade was...

Writer or writing item

8 June 1814

Novelist and playwright Charles Reade was born at Ipsden House, Ipsden, Oxfordshire.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2025, 22 vols. plus supplements.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
21

1931: Imperial Airways opened a London to Cape...

National or international item

1931

Imperial Airways opened a London to Cape Town service.
Hudson, Kenneth. Air Travel: A Social History. Adams and Dart, 1972.
161

1874: St Mary's Hospital, London, chemically produced...

Building and people item

1874

St Mary's Hospital , London, chemically produced the drug heroin from morphine; it was later patented in the 1890s by the pharmaceutical company Bayer .
Berridge, Virginia, and Griffith Edwards. Opium and the People: Opiate Use in Nineteenth-Century England. St Martin’s Press, 1981.
xix
Duin, Nancy, and Jenny Sutcliffe. A History of Medicine: From Prehistory to the Year 2020. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
51

1623: During a terrible famine in Scotland, many...

National or international item

1623

During a terrible famine in Scotland, many poor people died in the streets in Edinburgh.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under William Drummond of Hawthornden

1919: Siegfried Sassoon published War Poems, and...

Writer or writing item

1919

Siegfried Sassoon published War Poems, and became literary editor of the Daily Herald.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

20 February 1946: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London,...

Building and people item

20 February 1946

The Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, London, had its grand reopening after wartime closure. Margot Fonteyn performed with the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
396
Dane, Clemence. London Has a Garden. Michael Joseph, 1964.
151-2