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1790: In this year only, high or petty treason...

Building and people item

1790

In this year only, high or petty treason when committed by women became no longer punishable by burning at the stake.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
249

1826: The Royal Society of Literature received...

Writer or writing item

1826

The Royal Society of Literature received its charter; it had been founded several years previously.
“Companions of Literature”. Royal Society of Literature.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.

By 1 May 1789: John Boydell opened his Shakespeare Gallery,...

Writer or writing item

By 1 May 1789

John Boydell opened his Shakespeare Gallery , an exhibition of British artists' renderings of scenes from Shakespeare .
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
246-7
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
59 (1789): 442-4, 632-3; 60 (1790): 1088-90

1883-1891: During this period, the state subsidized...

National or international item

1883-1891

During this period, the state subsidized emigration for 25,000 residents of Ireland's western distressed districts.
Fitzpatrick, David. Irish Emigration 1801-1921. Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1984.
18

19 February 1945: 30,000 US Marines landed in Iwo Jima....

National or international item

19 February 1945

30,000 US Marines landed in Iwo Jima.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
230
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
866-8
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
566

1019: Knut or Canute united the kingdoms of England...

National or international item

1019

Knut or Canute united the kingdoms of England (whose army had chosen him ruler) and the Danelaw (that part of northern England which had been under Danish rule).
Morgan, Kenneth O., editor. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford University Press, 1984.
93

15 August 1917 : A resolution was passed, without debate,...

National or international item

15 August 1917

A resolution was passed, without debate, authorizing the House of Commons to spend up to five pounds dismantling the metal grille on the front of the Ladies' Gallery.
Cesvette, Debbie, and Isobel Grundy. Email about the Ladies’ Gallery in the British House of Commons to Isobel Grundy. 23 June 2004.
Chisholm, Hugh, editor. Encyclopædia Britannica. 12th ed., Encyclopædia Britannica Company, 1922, 3 vols.
32: 1039

About 1750: The population figure for the British Isles...

Building and people item

About 1750

The population figure for the British Isles in mid-century has been estimated at six million: up by a million since 1688.
Stanton, Judith Phillips. “Statistical Profile of Women Writing in English from 1660 to 1800”. Eighteenth-Century Women and the Arts, edited by Frederick M. Keener and Susan E. Lorsch, Greenwood Press, 1988, pp. 247-54.
248

19 May 1662: The Act of Uniformity made use of the revised...

National or international item

19 May 1662

The Act of Uniformity made use of the revised Book of Common Prayer compulsory in England and Wales; it came into use within three months.
Collinson, Patrick. “Holy-Rowly-Powliness”. London Review of Books, 4 Jan. 2001, pp. 33-4.
33

24 October 1944: A railway clerk named Mrs W. recorded in...

National or international item

24 October 1944

A railway clerk named Mrs W. recorded in her diary (now in the Mass-Observation archive): I cannot write what I feel about all this evil. My soul cries out in distress. I am a Jew...

4 February 1888: Annie Besant and W.T. Stead edited the first...

Women writers item

4 February 1888

Annie Besant and W.T. Stead edited the first weekly issue of The Link: A Journal for the Servants of Man / Law and Liberty League, published in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
12

1965: Peter Watson's The War Game, a television...

National or international item

1965

Peter Watson 's The War Game, a television film which imagines conditions in Britain in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, was withdrawn by the BBC in response to government pressure.
Rose, David. “The Closest Call”. The Observer, 3 Mar. 2002, p. Review 15.
Review 15

23 January 1806: The death of William Pitt after a long term...

National or international item

23 January 1806

The death of William Pitt after a long term as Prime Minister and war leader altered the face of English politics.
Caplan, Clive. “Jane Austen’s Banker Brother: Henry Thomas Austen of Austen and Co., 1801-1816”. Persuasions, Vol.
20
, 1998, pp. 69-90.
73

Catherine Sinclair

CS was perhaps best known during her lifetime as a prominent Edinburgh philanthropist, but as a writer she is best remembered for her Evangelical fiction aimed at young people or children, such as Modern Accomplishments...
Catherine Sinclair Monument to CS at Charlotte Square and Queen Street in Edinburgh.

By 14 January 1871: Algernon Charles Swinburne published Songs...

Writer or writing item

By 14 January 1871

Algernon Charles Swinburne published Songs Before Sunrise, a collection of poems.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Wise, Thomas J. A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of Algernon Charles Swinburne. Dawsons, 1966.
210
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.

8 July 1908: Thérèse Peltier became the first woman to...

National or international item

8 July 1908

Thérèse Peltier became the first woman to fly as a passenger in an aeroplane, accompanying Léon Delagrange who took off from Turin.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard. Aviation: An Historical Survey from its Origins to the end of World War II. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1970.
128, 244

19 June 1940: The London area received its first bomb of...

National or international item

19 June 1940

The London area received its first bomb of the Second World War; minor bombing raids began about now on East Anglia, the Midlands, and other places.
Oakley, Ann. Man and Wife: Richard and Kay Titmuss: My Parents’ Early Years. HarperCollins, 1996.
124

1823: The translation into English of folk tales...

Writer or writing item

1823

The translation into English of folk tales collected by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm paved the way for the development in English of this branch of children's literature.
Mitchell, Sally. Dinah Mulock Craik. Twayne, 1983.
82
Flood, Alison. “Gruesome originals of Grimms’ tales”. Guardian Weekly, 12 Dec. 2014, p. 39.

1820: Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind...

Writer or writing item

1820

Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind by Thomas Brown , Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University , appeared in four volumes in the year of his death.
Harris, James A. “First feeling”. Times Literary Supplement, 5 Mar. 2004, p. 32.
32

23 November 1869: The Cutty Sark, most famous and speedy of...

National or international item

23 November 1869

The Cutty Sark, most famous and speedy of the British tea clippers, was launched.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
115
Kemp, Peter, editor. Encyclopedia of Ships and Seafaring. Stanford Maritime, 1980.
175
Albion, Robert G. Five Centuries of Famous Ships: From the Santa Maria to the Glomar Explorer. McGraw-Hill, 1978.
262-3

1793: The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers launched...

Writer or writing item

1793

The liberal Dissenter Benjamin Flowers launched a periodical, the Cambridge Intelligencer; it ran until December 1800.
Mahon, Penny. “In Sermon and Story: contrasting anti-war rhetoric in the work of Anna Barbauld and Amelia Opie”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
7
, No. 1, 2000, pp. 23-38.
35n8, 36n20

7 December 1789: Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John...

Building and people item

7 December 1789

Hester Lynch Piozzi heard the African John Frederick Bridgetower speaking in public at Bath, to great applause, and wrote how Dr. Johnson would have adored that Man!
Piozzi, Hester Lynch. The Piozzi Letters. Editors Bloom, Edward A. and Lillian D. Bloom, University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses, 1989–2002, 6 vols.
1: 330-1 and nn2-4

1644: The French philosopher René Descartes published...

Building and people item

1644

The French philosopher René Descartes published his Principia philosophiae, dedicated to Elizabeth of Bohemia .
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
63

April 1684: Mr and Mrs Priest's school at Gorges House,...

Building and people item

April 1684

Mr and Mrs Priest's school at Gorges House, Chelsea, put on a private revival of the court masque Venus and Adonis, by John Blow (to a libretto perhaps by the future Anne Finch ).
Campbell, Margaret. Henry Purcell, Glory of His Age. Oxford University Press, 1995.
136
Winn, James Anderson. “A Versifying Maid of Honour: Anne Finch and the Libretto for Venus and AdonisReview of English Studies, Vol.
59
, No. 238, Feb. 2008, pp. 67-85.
67-85

1949: The London School of Printing and Kindred...

Writer or writing item

1949

The London School of Printing and Kindred Trades merged with the London County Council School of Photo-Engraving and Lithography (formerly Bolt Court Technical School ) to form the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts .
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
186