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.

By about September 1679: Thomas Shadwell's comedy The Woman Captain...

Writer or writing item

By about September 1679

Thomas Shadwell 's comedy The Woman Captain was first performed on stage.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

4 May 1949: Norman Mailer published a novel about a US...

Writer or writing item

4 May 1949

Norman Mailer published a novel about a US assault and short campaign in the Philippines during World War Two: The Naked and the Dead.
“Under Fire”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2468, 20 May 1949, p. 325.
325
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
4 May 2009

19 August 1874: John Tyndall attacked religion at a British...

Building and people item

19 August 1874

John Tyndall attacked religion at a British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Belfast.
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-View in the Nineteenth Century. Basil Blackwell, 1986.
190
Dean, Dennis R. “Through Science to Despair: Geology and the Victorians”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 111-36.
127
Sawyer, Paul L. “Ruskin and Tyndall: The Poetry of Matter and the Poetry of Spirit”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 217-46.
233

1835: Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre produced the...

Building and people item

1835

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre produced the first recognizable photographic image printed on a treated metal plate, a precursor to the Daguerrotype.
Hannavy, John. Masters of Victorian Photography. David and Charles, 1976.
12-3
Davis, Phil. Photography. 3rd ed., W. C. Brown, 1979.
4

1580-1640: During this period about 90 per cent of women...

Writer or writing item

1580-1640

During this period about 90 per cent of women in London were unable to sign their names.
Smith, Hilda L. Reason’s Disciples: Seventeenth-Century English Feminists. University of Illinois Press, 1982.
26

1801: The jacquard loom was invented in France,...

Building and people item

1801

The jacquard loom was invented in France, but it did not become widely used in Britain until the 1830s.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
11

Elizabeth Helme

EH began publishing in the 1780s to supplement her family's income. She issued ten novels with her name or some other means of (at least later) identification, three translations, and a number of didactic and...
Elizabeth Helme Elizabeth Helme, title-page of "St Margaret's Cave; or, The Nun's Story", 1801, vol. 4.

1676: Following the Great Fire of London, Robert...

Building and people item

1676

Following the Great Fire of London, Robert Hooke designed the new Bedlam Hospital in Moorfields, London.
Roberts, Andrew. “Mental Health History Timeline”. Middlesex University: Andrew Roberts Homepage: Mental Health and Learning Disability.
Pope, Alexander. The Poems of Alexander Pope. Editor Butt, John, Twickenham Edition, Methuen; Yale University Press, 1951–1969, 11 vols.
5: 271n31

Elizabeth Walker

EW 's writings, dating from the later seventeenth century, comprise diary entries, prayers, meditations, letters, memoirs of early life, writings about her husband, her children and herself, and religious advice designed for them.
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.

2 January 1861: William I became King of Prussia when Frederick...

National or international item

2 January 1861

William I became King of Prussia when Frederick William IV died.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
243, 256
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh, Cambridge University Press, 1911.
Clark, Christopher. “I could bite the table”. London Review of Books, Vol.
33
, No. 7, 31 Mar. 2011, pp. 15-16.
15

1850-1874: Roman Catholic schools in England increased...

National or international item

1850-1874

Roman Catholic schools in England increased fifteen-fold over this period, from 99 to 1,484.
Norman, Edward R. The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon, 1984.
206

By October 1820: A revolution in Naples—instigated by the...

National or international item

By October 1820

A revolution in Naples—instigated by the Carbonari (a secret political society founded in 1815)—provoked Ferdinand I to grant a constitution, which included the establishment of an elected parliament.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
26, 50-1, 273

By January 1754: Richard Glover's Short History of Boadicea,...

Building and people item

By January 1754

Richard Glover 's Short History of Boadicea, the British Queen, was published (staged at Drury Lane late the previous year).
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
10: 78

Probably 10 July 1748: Dorothea, Lady Bradshaigh, wrote her first...

Writer or writing item

Probably 10 July 1748

Dorothea, Lady Bradshaigh , wrote her first letter to Samuel Richardson , signing herself Belfour.
Fulton, Gordon D., and Janine Barchas, editors. The Annotations in Lady Bradshaigh’s Copy of Clarissa. University of Victoria, 1998.
37n11, 103, 104

1872: Samuel Butler anonymously published, at his...

Writer or writing item

1872

Samuel Butler anonymously published, at his own expense, his satirical novel Erewhon.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
151-2, 323
Howsam, Leslie. Kegan Paul—A Victorian Imprint. Kegan Paul; University of Toronto Press, 1998.
142-3
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

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

1704: Joseph Pitts published at Exeter (his home...

Building and people item

1704

Joseph Pitts published at Exeter (his home town) A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans, the fruit of years of experience as a Barbary captive and Islamic convert.
Pagden, Anthony. “Oak in a Flowerpot”. London Review of Books, 14 Nov. 2002, pp. 9-10.
9
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.

16 January 1929: The Listener began publication; it has been...

Writer or writing item

16 January 1929

The Listener began publication; it has been said that it did more for the new 'thirties poetry in Britain than any of the specialized poetry magazines.
BBC Handbook: 1960. BBC, 1960, http://U of A HSS HE 8690 B86.
144, 237
Dowson, Jane, editor. Women’s Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. Routledge, 1996.
175
Hobsbawm, Eric John. “C (for Crisis)”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, No. 15, 6 Aug. 2009, pp. 12-13.
12
Wilmers, Mary-Kay. “Diary”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 19, 9 Oct. 2014, p. 45.

March 1884: Dadaji Bhikaji, the husband of Rukhmabai,...

Building and people item

March 1884

Dadaji Bhikaji , the husband of Rukhmabai , a twenty-two-year-old Indian woman who had been married to him at the age of eleven, began legal proceedings in Bombay to force his wife to cohabit with...

3 May 1834: William Harrison Ainsworth published his...

Writer or writing item

3 May 1834

William Harrison Ainsworth published his hugely successful first novel, Rookwood.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
11-12
Turner, Ernest Sackville. “Delightful to be Robbed”. London Review of Books, 9 May 2002, pp. 32-3.
33-4
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

7 August 1821: George IV's estranged wife, Queen Caroline,...

National or international item

7 August 1821

George IV 's estranged wife, Queen Caroline, died.
Carretta, Vincent. George III and the Satirists from Hogarth to Byron. University of Georgia Press, 1990.
358
Macalpine, Ida, and Richard Hunter. George III and the Mad-Business. Allen Lane, 1969.
248

1905: Harriette Chick, a bacteriologist, was the...

Building and people item

1905

Harriette Chick , a bacteriologist, was the first woman appointed to Lister Institute for medical research.
Hall, Lesley. “Chloe, Olivia, Isabel, Letitia, Harriette, Honor, and Many More: Women in Medicine and Biomedical Science, 1914-1945”. This Working-Day World: Women’s Lives and Culture(s) in Britain, 1914-1945, edited by Sybil Oldfield, Taylor and Francis, 1994, pp. 192-0.
198

3 March 1838: The first issue of The Monthly Chronicle:...

Writer or writing item

3 March 1838

The first issue of The Monthly Chronicle: A National Journal of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art was published.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
3: 111
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
109-12

1929: The publishing firm of Faber and Gwyer became...

Writer or writing item

1929

The publishing firm of Faber and Gwyer became Faber and Faber, when the Gwyer family pulled out.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Geoffrey Faber

27 June 1894: Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller...

Writer or writing item

27 June 1894

Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller W. H. Smith together announced they would not pay more than four shillings a volume for novels; this forced publishers to abandon triple-decker format, and quickly led to its replacement...