Explore Orlando

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.

1950: An early, experimental, oral polio vaccine...

Building and people item

1950

An early, experimental, oral polio vaccine was first tested on human beings. In 1957-58 it was used intensively in Central Africa, because unlike other vaccines it was effective with a single dose.
Porter, Roy. “Tissue Wars”. London Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2000, pp. 34-5.
34

June 1852: The National Charter Association was discredited...

National or international item

June 1852

The National Charter Association was discredited when Feargus O'Connor was declared insane.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
49

1951: American secretary and single mother Bette...

Building and people item

1951

American secretary and single mother Bette Nesmith Graham invented Liquid Paper® (correction fluid for covering errors in typing) made from tempera water-based paint.
Vare, Ethlie Ann, and Greg Ptacek. Patently Female. John Wiley and Sons, 2002.
14-15

2 April-14 June 1982: Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland...

National or international item

2 April-14 June 1982

Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands; the Falklands War with the UK ensued.
Knightley, Phillip. “Fighting Dirty”. Guardian Weekly, 30 Mar. 2000, p. 23.
23

December 1746: William Collins published Odes on Several...

Writer or writing item

December 1746

William Collins published Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects.
Gray, Thomas, and William, poet Collins. “Introductions”. Selected Poems of Thomas Gray and William Collins, edited by Arthur Johnson, Edward Arnold, 1967, pp. 9 - 14, 121.
129

1349: Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), Italian father...

Writer or writing item

1349

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ), Italian father of the sonnet, circulated in manuscript his Canzoniere or Rime sparse or Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, which include his most famous love poems to Laura (who, he wrote, had recently died).
Bergin, Thomas G. Petrarch. Twayne, 1970.
14

October 1975: USA feminist Susan Brownmiller published...

Building and people item

October 1975

USA feminist Susan Brownmiller published her influential study of sexual violence, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape.
Baxandall, Rosalyn. “Wide World of Women”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
xix
, No. 9, June 2002, pp. 7-8.
7
Brownmiller, Susan. In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial, 1999.
223

18 July 1936: The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans...

National or international item

18 July 1936

The Spanish Civil War began between the Republicans (including Communists) and the Fascists led by Francisco Franco .
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
228

May 1923: Mother's Day, celebrated in the USA since...

Building and people item

May 1923

Mother's Day, celebrated in the USA since 1908 on the second Sunday in May, was first observed in Europe on that date. It has co-existed for nearly a century with Mothering Sunday in Britain (the...

1741, 1743: A private edition of ten copies (only) was...

Writer or writing item

1741, 1743

A private edition of ten copies (only) was published of Athenian Letters or, the epistolary correspondence of an agent of the King of Persia, residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian war, written by Philip Yorke (later Lord Hardwicke)

28 August 1858: Dr Alexander Wood published a paper in the...

Building and people item

28 August 1858

Dr Alexander Wood published a paper in the British Medical Journal on a new medical therapy involving morphine injections through a hypodermic syringe.
Parssinen, Terry M. Secret Passions, Secret Remedies: Narcotic Drugs in British Society 1820-1930. Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1983.
80-1

1872: The Civil Marriage Act in India set restrictions...

National or international item

1872

The Civil Marriage Act in India set restrictions on bigamy and on child marriage; it encouraged the remarriage of widows, which had been legalised in 1856.
“History: The Colonial Period”. India Heritage. A Living Portrait of India, 2005.

1 February 1886: William Gladstone (Liberal) formed the UK...

National or international item

1 February 1886

William Gladstone (Liberal ) formed the UK government for the third time.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
115
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
491

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

November 1753: Horace Walpole penned a pornographic poem,...

Building and people item

November 1753

Horace Walpole penned a pornographic poem, The Judgment of Solomon, in which two women dispute the ownership not of a baby but a gigantic phallus (with man attached).
Haggerty, George E. “Walpoliana”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
34
, No. 2, 2001, pp. 227-49.
222-4

July-August 1839: The Rural Police Act was debated and passed...

National or international item

July-August 1839

The Rural Police Act was debated and passed on 17 August 1839.
Thompson, Dorothy, 1923 - 2011, editor. The Early Chartists. Macmillan, 1971.
40
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

29 March 1898: The Registration (Ireland) Act gave women...

National or international item

29 March 1898

The Registration (Ireland) Act gave women ratepayers and peers the right to vote in local government elections.
Moody, Theodore William et al., editors. A New History of Ireland. Clarendon, 1976–2026, 10 vols.
372
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1898: 3

5 May 1911: The Conciliation Bill on suffrage, revised...

National or international item

5 May 1911

The Conciliation Bill on suffrage, revised this parliamentary session, passed its second Commons reading by a wider majority than before: 255 for, 88 against.
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
104-5

1703: A class-conscious educational pamphlet entitled...

Building and people item

1703

A class-conscious educational pamphlet entitled The Ladies' Catechism was published.
Adburgham, Alison. Women in Print: Writing Women and Women’s Magazines from the Restoration to the Accession of Victoria. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1972.
37

6 February 1953: Singer Kathleen Ferrier collapsed during...

Building and people item

6 February 1953

Singer Kathleen Ferrier collapsed during Gluck 's opera Orfeo at Covent Garden ; she never sang again, but died of cancer later this year.
Drogheda, Charles Garrett Ponsonby Moore, Earl of et al. The Covent Garden Album: 250 Years of Theatre, Opera, and Ballet. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
141
Stevenson, John, 1946 -. British Society, 1914-45. Penguin, 1984.
409
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

April 1847: Two of Elizabeth Fry's daughters, Katherine...

Women writers item

April 1847

Two of Elizabeth Fry 's daughters, Katherine Fry and R. E. Cresswell , completed their account of the activist's life in the two-volume Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry ; with Extracts from Her Journals and Letters.
Whitney, Janet. Elizabeth Fry: Quaker Heroine. Little, Brown, 1936.
313

March 1886: Petroleum was discovered at Jebel Zeit, Egypt,...

National or international item

March 1886

Petroleum was discovered at Jebel Zeit, Egypt, on the Red Sea.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 633

Katharine S. Macquoid

Katharine S. Macquoid 's prolific writing career (over sixty books, as well as contributions to periodicals) spanned the last four decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. She was chiefly...
Katharine S. Macquoid Faded black and white studio photograph of Katharine S. Macquoid by H. I. Mendelsohn of London. She is seen from the waist up against a backdrop of vegetation, turning with her face in profile. She wears a dark dress with a high collar closed with a brooch. Her smooth grey hair is pulled back and part covered by a black cap; she has a pearl stud in each ear. Her signature is written across the bottom of the picture.

Sylvia Townsend Warner

STW once commented that her career in writing was an accidental one, as her initial career was in musicology. However, she was very prolific for more than fifty years of the twentieth century over a...

1767: Rétif de la Bretonne published Le Pornographe...

Building and people item

1767

Rétif de la Bretonne published Le Pornographe ou les idées d'un honnête homme sur un projet de règlement pour les prostituées, the first of two works on the containment of female sexuality.
Norberg, Kathryn. “From Courtesan to Prostitute: Mercenary Sex and Venereal Disease 1730-1802”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 34-50.
39
Howard, Heather. “Offstage Performances: Prostitution and Eighteenth-Century French Theatrical Reform”. American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS) Conference, Las Vegas, NV, 31 Mar. 2005.