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1773: A bill that had been enacted by the colonial...

Building and people item

1773

A bill that had been enacted by the colonial legislature of Pennsylvania to permit divorce was disallowed by the Privy Council in London.
Staves, Susan. Married Women’s Separate Property in England, 1660 - 1833. Harvard University Press, 1990.
24

1991: The numbers of British full-time first-degree...

Building and people item

1991

The numbers of British full-time first-degree students in polytechnics and colleges rose for the first time above the numbers in universities; in the year following, polytechnics were granted university status.
Ainley, Patrick. Degrees of Difference: Higher Education in the 1990s. Laurence and Wishart, 1994.
12-13

12 January 1866: The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain...

Building and people item

12 January 1866

The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain (later the Royal Aeronautical Society ) was founded in London.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
114

1993: The annual Turner Prize for art went to Rachel...

Building and people item

1993

The annual Turner Prize for art went to Rachel Whiteread for her model of the space enclosed by the walls of a house.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
519

12 December 1821: Phoebe Hessel died at Brighton, where a tombstone...

Building and people item

12 December 1821

Phoebe Hessel died at Brighton, where a tombstone records her claim to have reached the age of a hundred and eight, and to have served for five years in the army, wearing men's clothes.
Robinson, Jane. Pandora’s Daughters: The Secret History of Enterprising Women. Constable, 2002.
105-6

29 May 2002: The British government's Women and Equality...

National or international item

29 May 2002

The British government's Women and Equality Unit (WEU) , set up in 1997, was transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Department of Trade and Industry .
“Plans for 2003-06 and Managing the Department”. Department of Trade and Industry (UK): Departmental Report 2003: Section A: Delivering Better Public Service: 2.
Ward, Lucy. “Campaigner Heads Women’s Unit”. Guardian Unlimited, 22 Nov. 2002.

Stevie Smith

SS , publishing in the mid twentieth century, was a poet who is hard to categorise. All of her works—poetry, novels, stories, essays, reviews, a radio play, and her inimitable drawings— have a quirkiness, a...
Stevie Smith Photograph of a circular blue English Heritage plaque in the brick wall of Smith's "house of female habitation" in Palmers Green. It reads: "Stevie Smith, 1902-1971, Poet lived here 1906-1971."

July 1921: The Communist Party of China was formed at...

National or international item

July 1921

The Communist Party of China was formed at Peking.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
361

1923: Ten years after the first, Mary Frances Harriet...

Women writers item

1923

Ten years after the first, Mary Frances Harriet Dowdall released another book on domesticity titled The Second Book of Martha.
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.

Sheenagh Pugh

SP is a Welsh contemporary poet who has published nine volumes of poetry and translation, as well as two novels. Her poetry has a wide thematic reach both historical and geographical, and succeeds in making...
Sheenagh Pugh Colour photo of Sheenagh Pugh in a garden, kneeling with a bed of white roses behind her, looking down at a black and white cat in her arms. She has straight, dark hair with grey roots, jaw-length, and wears a red shirt, blue trousers, and glasses with large frames.

Anne Hunter

AH was admired during the Romantic period for her poetry, most of it songs and ballads. She wrote her own music for some; Haydn set many others. She also wrote occasional poetry of many kinds...
Anne Hunter Engraving by W. W. Ryland from a lost painting by Angellica Kauffman of Anne Hunter in 1767, before her marriage. She is shown with her forehead resting on an urn; the picture was titled "The Pensive Muse"..

6 June 1844: A new Factory Act was implemented, limiting...

National or international item

6 June 1844

A new Factory Act was implemented, limiting female factory workers of eighteen years and over to the same hours as young persons aged thirteen to seventeen.
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
161-181
Chapman, Annie Beatrice Wallis, and Mary Wallis Chapman. The Status of Women Under the English Law. George Routledge and Sons, 1909.
49

Julia Strachey

JS published two novels and several pieces of short fiction during her lifetime, in the mid twentieth century. Frances Partridge writes in her introduction to JS 's memoir that when she died, after a long...

20 September 1909: The Labour Exchanges Act in the UK established...

National or international item

20 September 1909

The Labour Exchanges Act in the UK established Labour Exchanges.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1909): 34-40
Butler, David E., and Jennie Freeman. British Political Facts, 1900-1960. Macmillan, 1963.
351
Seymour, David, and Emily Seymour, editors. A Century of News. Contender Books, 2003.

1539: Juan de Zumárraga, Bishop of Mexico, destroyer...

Writer or writing item

1539

Juan de Zumárraga , Bishop of Mexico, destroyer of thousands of native manuscripts (documents of the Aztec, Maya, and Olmec civilizations), set up in Mexico City the first printing press in the Americas.
Manguel, Alberto. “Cities Built on Books”. The London Library Magazine, No. 30, 1 Dec. 2015–28 Feb. 2016, pp. 22-5.
23

1806: German pharmacy assistant Frederick Sertürner...

Building and people item

1806

German pharmacy assistant Frederick Sertürner isolated the drug morphia from opium; it became widely available in Britain from the 1820s.
Duin, Nancy, and Jenny Sutcliffe. A History of Medicine: From Prehistory to the Year 2020. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
51
Parssinen, Terry M. Secret Passions, Secret Remedies: Narcotic Drugs in British Society 1820-1930. Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1983.
79
Historians Duin and Sutcliffe give 1803 as the year of this discovery. However...

20 June 1864: The Bill for the Prevention of Contagious...

National or international item

20 June 1864

The Bill for the Prevention of Contagious Diseases at Certain Naval and Military Stations (by regulating prostitutes, and detaining women found to be infected) was introduced by Lord Clarence Paget , Secretary to the Admiralty

27 November 1703: The Great Storm hit much of Southern England,...

Building and people item

27 November 1703

The Great Storm hit much of Southern England, leaving many houses demolish'd and people kill'd.
Brett, Simon, b. 1945, editor. The Faber Book of Diaries. Faber, 1987.
403

8 March 1973: An IRA car-bomb outside the Old Bailey in...

National or international item

8 March 1973

An IRA car-bomb outside the Old Bailey in London caused widespread destruction and temporarily paralysed the City.
Johnson, Pamela Hansford. Important to Me. Macmillan; Scribner, 1974.
234
“National archives 1973”. The Guardian, 1 Jan. 2004, pp. 4-5.
5

27-28 June 1746: Flora Macdonald, in her early twenties, sailed...

National or international item

27-28 June 1746

Flora Macdonald , in her early twenties, sailed from the island of Benbecula to Skye with Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart ) disguised as her maid.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1966: The Times was taken over by Canadian magnate...

Writer or writing item

1966

The Times was taken over by Canadian magnate Roy Thomson (who already owned the British group Kemsley Newspapers ).
Stevens, Ronald. “A Different Sort of Tory”. London Review of Books, 12 Dec. 2002, pp. 16-17.
16

3 December 1895: Psychologist Anna Freud was born in Vienna,...

Building and people item

3 December 1895

Psychologist Anna Freud was born in Vienna, Austria.
Stevens, Gwendolyn, and Sheldon Gardner. The Women of Psychology. Schenkman, 1982, 2 vols., http://HSS.
II: 17
Hergenhahn, Baldwin Ross. An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 2nd ed., Wadsworth Publishing, 1992, http://HSS.
461

1936: Selling, importing, or advertising any form...

Building and people item

1936

Selling, importing, or advertising any form of birth-control device or method was declared illegal in Ireland.
Greenspan, Karen. The Timetables of Women’s History. Simon and Shuster, 1994.
336

1869: Pope Pius IX decreed that a foetus had a...

National or international item

1869

Pope Pius IX decreed that a foetus had a soul from the time of conception.
Hordern, Anthony. Legal Abortion: The English Experience. Pergamon, 1971.
13
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
292

Spring 1978: Patches, a weekly photostrip romance magazine...

Building and people item

Spring 1978

Patches, a weekly photostrip romance magazine for teenagers, began publication from D. C. Thomson in London.
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
Braithwaite, Brian, and Joan Barrell. The Business of Women’s Magazines. Associated Business Press, 1979.
129