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By 18 September 1794: By this date Coleridge claimed to have written...

Writer or writing item

By 18 September 1794

By this date Coleridge claimed to have written one of the two sonnets attributed to him this year about the scheme for establishing Pantisocracy (a utopian community) in America.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Poetical Works [of] Coleridge, including poems and versions of poems herein published for the first time. Editor Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, Oxford University Press, 1969.
68-9

20 September 1854: Having landed in the Crimea without meeting...

National or international item

20 September 1854

Having landed in the Crimea without meeting resistance from the opposing Russians, Britain and its allies went on to fight the major battle of Alma.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
207

24 March 1989: An oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, ran aground...

National or international item

24 March 1989

An oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, dumping nearly 11 million tons of crude oil into the waters.
“Frequently Asked Questions About the Spill”. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council: History.

20 October 1762: The first number of the Providence Gazette...

Writer or writing item

20 October 1762

The first number of the Providence Gazette (first newspaper in the then British colony of Rhode Island) was printed by Sarah Goddard and her son and daughter William and Mary Katherine .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

1941: The East London Mosque was established in...

Building and people item

1941

The East London Mosque was established in Commercial Road, East London.
Sandhu, Sukhdev. “Come hungry, leave edgy”. London Review of Books, 9 Oct. 2003, pp. 10-13.
10

14 January 1744: Mark Akenside published a lengthy, influential,...

Writer or writing item

14 January 1744

Mark Akenside published a lengthy, influential, philosophic poem in blank verse entitled The Pleasures of Imagination: the faculty which, he argues, the artist uses to apprehend and to imitate the wonders of God's creation.
Foxon, David F. English Verse 1701-1750. Cambridge University Press, 1975, 2 vols.

1903: W. E. Du Bois published The Souls of Black...

Building and people item

1903

W. E. Du Bois published The Souls of Black Folk, a study of Black life and culture in the USA, which argues that black people would never be ranked as human until their...

1 January 1866: The West Pier at Brighton was opened. It...

Building and people item

1 January 1866

The West Pier at Brighton was opened. It stood for more than a century before being partly destroyed by the sea on 29 December 2002 while awaiting restoration, leaving Brighton's Pavilion Pier standing alone.
Hall, Sarah, correspondent. “Brighton landmark succumbs to elements”. The Guardian, 30 Dec. 2002, p. 1.
“The Brighton West Pier: History”. The Brighton West Pier Trust.

713: St Cuthburga founded the double monastery...

Building and people item

713

St Cuthburga founded the double monastery of Wimborne in Dorset.
Leibell, Sister Helen Dominica. Anglo-Saxon Education of Women: From Hilda to Hildegarde. B. Franklin, 1971.
64
Page, William, and Ralph B. Pugh, editors. The Victoria History of the County of Dorset. A. Constable; Oxford University Press, 1908–1968, 3 vols.
107-12
Knowles, David, and Richard Neville Hadcock. Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales. Longmans and Green, 1953.
345
Double monasteries were not uncommon: they included one institution for women and one for men.

1936: Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered...

Building and people item

1936

Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered the earth's inner core, a solid mass within its liquid outer core.
Women in Physics (WiP): Inge Lehmann. http://www.physics.purdue.edu/wip/herstory/lehmann.html.
Carlowicz, Michael. Inge Lehmann (1888-1993). http://replay.web.archive.org/20080917143316/http://www.agu.org/inside/awards/lehmann2.html.

13 August 1888: The Local Government Act, based on the Municipal...

National or international item

13 August 1888

The Local Government Act, based on the Municipal Corporations Act (1882), gave women ratepayers (land owners) the right to vote for the newly created County Councils.
Hollis, Patricia. Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government, 1865-1914. Clarendon, 1987.
306-7, 490
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1888: 231-51
Halevy, Elie. The Rule of Democracy 1905-1914. Translator Watkin, Edward Ingram, Second (revised) Edition, Peter Smith, 1952, 2 vols.
512-13

7 January 1940: BBC radio's Forces Programme began....

National or international item

7 January 1940

BBC radio's Forces Programme began.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
375

1850: US poet Frances Osgood issued at Philadelphia...

Writer or writing item

1850

US poet Frances Osgood issued at Philadelphia her final publication, Poems (a different collection from the one published at New York in 1846 under the same title).
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.

1450-1750: During these three centuries, around 100,000...

Building and people item

1450-1750

During these three centuries, around 100,000 trials for witchcraft were held throughout Europe; eighty per cent of those accused were women, and half of them were condemned to death.
Wootton, David. “Brutish Babies”. London Review of Books, 11 Nov. 1999, pp. 34-35.
34

Hester Mulso Chapone

As a young woman Hester Mulso (later HMC ) was a forceful arguer against social injustice meted out to women, but her enduring reputation as a writer and Bluestocking is as a staid, conservative moralist...
Hester Mulso Chapone Stipple engraving of Hester Mulso Chapone y R. Page, published late 1812. She wears a hat with a flat top and large brim over a white cap, a dark bodice with white linen under it, and apparently a coat which is either sleeveless or darker in the body than sleeves. Her name is below: "Mrs Chapone".

1991: RU 486, the morning after pill, was approved...

National or international item

1991

RU 486, the morning after pill, was approved for use in the UK.
Asbell, Bernard. The Pill: A Biography of the Drug that Changed the World. Random House, 1995.
352

By November 1802: The Society for the Suppression of Vice was...

Building and people item

By November 1802

The Society for the Suppression of Vice was founded in London and grew into the gap left by the Proclamation Society ; ironically, it was often called the Vice Society.
Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. Penguin, 1982.
312
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
84
Mason, Michael. The Making of Victorian Sexual Attitudes. Oxford University Press, 1994.
69
Bristow, Edward. Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700. Gill and Macmillan, 1977.
41-2

1901: Sarah Reddish and seven other members of...

National or international item

1901

Sarah Reddish and seven other members of the Women's Co-operative Guild presented a pro-suffrage petition signed by about 31,000 textile workers to the House of Commons.
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
97
Scott, Gillian. Feminism and the Politics of Working Women: The Women’s Cooperative Guild, 1880s to the Second World War. UCL Press, 1998.
103

Ethel Sidgwick

ES wrote early twentieth-century novels of which the earlier ones are ambitious and highly literary, the later ones in general longer and more romantic in tone, set within the confines and structure of the family...

February 1927: Alice Holland produced the first issue of...

Building and people item

February 1927

Alice Holland produced the first issue of Working Woman, a monthly Communist Party paper published in London.
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
617
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
49

9 September 1938: The ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, later...

National or international item

9 September 1938

The ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service, later the Women's Royal Army Corps ) was formed by direct order of the king, George VI .
“A Brief History of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, Auxiliary Territorial Service and Women’s Royal Army Corps”. WRAC Association.

By December 1760: Canal building was in progress in Lancashire,...

Building and people item

By December 1760

Canal building was in progress in Lancashire, following the passing of the third Duke of Bridgewater 's Canal Act.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
30 (1760): 623

1755: Francis Hutcheson's A System of Moral Philosophy...

Building and people item

1755

Francis Hutcheson 's A System of Moral Philosophy appeared posthumously (expanded from A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy, 1747, and its Latin version, 1745). As well as presenting God as benevolent and the passions...

16 December 1911: The National Insurance Act received Royal...

National or international item

16 December 1911

The National Insurance Act received Royal Assent; it introduced maternity benefits (payable to husbands) and covered manual workers from sixteen to seventy employed in certain industries subject to recurrent unemployment.
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History 1714-1987. 2nd ed., Longman, 1988.
25, 125
Pugh, Martin. Women and the Women’s Movement in Britain 1914 - 1959. Macmillan Education, 1992.
16
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1911): 337-55