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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.

16 February 1946: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and...

Building and people item

16 February 1946

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the world's first large-scale electronic computer, was unveiled at the Moore School of Engineering in Pennsylvania.
Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray. Computer. Basic Books, 1996.
97-8
Moschovitis, Christos et al. History of the Internet. ABC-CLIO, 1999.
28

1865: Actress Marie Wilton borrowed £1000 from...

Building and people item

1865

Actress Marie Wilton borrowed £1000 from her brother-in-law and became the manager of the re-christened Prince of Wales Theatre ; her fame drew large crowds, turning The Dust Hole into a great success.
Macqueen-Pope, Walter James. Ladies First: The Story of Woman’s Conquest of the British Stage. W. H. Allen, 1952.
347-9
Booth, Michael R. Theatre in the Victorian Age. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
32

1727: Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi's opera...

Writer or writing item

1727

Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi 's opera Orlando Furioso was first performed, adapted from Ludovico Ariosto 's epic of the same title.
Alberge, Dalya. “Vivaldi’s lost masterpiece is found in library archives”. The Guardian, 15 July 2012.

January 1883: Friendly Work began monthly (later quarterly)...

Building and people item

January 1883

Friendly Work began monthly (later quarterly) publication in London from the Girls' Friendly Society of the Church of England .
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
9-11

1948: Dilys Bennett Laing released her only published...

Writer or writing item

1948

Dilys Bennett Laing released her only published novel, The Great Year.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By October 1805: Catharine Cappe published Observations on...

Women writers item

By October 1805

Catharine Cappe published Observations on Charity Schools, a hard-hitting critique of the existing situation.
Sales, Roger. “The Maid and the Minister’s Wife: Literary Philanthropy in Regency York”. Women’s Poetry in the Enlightenment: The Making of a Canon, 1730-1820, edited by Isobel Armstrong and Virginia Blain, St Martin’s Press, 1998, pp. 127-41.
131n16, 129, 130

1920: Scofield Thayer began editing The Dial, a...

Writer or writing item

1920

Scofield Thayer began editing The Dial, a monthly magazine published in New York.
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press, 1987.
277
Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
138

1938: Richard Titmuss (not yet a professional sociologist...

Building and people item

1938

Richard Titmuss (not yet a professional sociologist or writer) argued in Poverty and Population that poverty was causing about 50,000 preventable deaths in Britain every year.
Oakley, Ann. Man and Wife: Richard and Kay Titmuss: My Parents’ Early Years. HarperCollins, 1996.
77
Titmuss later became the father of Ann Oakley .

1848: The Order of the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived...

Building and people item

1848

The Order of the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived in Ireland, and the first Magdalene Asylums were established.
Raftery, Mary, and Eoin O’Sullivan. Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland’s Industrial Schools. Continuum, 2001.
288-9
O’Toole, Fintan. “The Sisters of No Mercy”. Guardian Unlimited, 16 Feb. 2003.
6

December 1835: Feargus O'Connor toured the North of England,...

National or international item

December 1835

Feargus O'Connor toured the North of England, lecturing and founding local Chartist associations.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
20, 131
Taylor, Miles. “Knife and Fork Question”. London Review of Books, 29 Nov. 2001, pp. 28-9.
28

25 July 1755: The Acadians (French-speaking settlers) were...

National or international item

25 July 1755

The Acadians (French-speaking settlers) were expelled from Nova Scotia; dispossessed, they travelled south.
Story, Norah. The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature. Oxford University Press, 1967.
6

Dylan Thomas

DT acquired instant fame as a very young man in the 1930s when his earliest poems were published. Throughout his short life he turned out journalistic hack work and reviews; as well as poetry he...

1955: Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin founded Daughters...

Building and people item

1955

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin founded Daughters of Bilitis , the USA's first lesbian association.
Brownmiller, Susan. In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial, 1999.
72

Lettice Cooper

LC 's writing career spans both sides of the Second World War. Author of twenty novels which deal with human relationships as responsive to the social and cultural conditions of her day, many of them...
Lettice Cooper Black and white photograph of Lettice Cooper, depicted face-on, from the shoulders up, with her head slightly turned. She is wearing a dark jacket with a white collar, and dark lipstick and eye makeup. Her hair is chin-length, dark, and parted to the side.

1920: A new Official Secrets Act was passed: once...

National or international item

1920

A new Official Secrets Act was passed: once again it came at a time of intense labour and popular unrest.
Porter, Bernard. “Boarder or Day Boy?”. London Review of Books, 15 July 1999, pp. 13-15.
13

1859-1866: Obstetrician Isaac Baker Brown performed...

Building and people item

1859-1866

Obstetrician Isaac Baker Brown performed clitoridectomies in London on women whom he believed to be succumbing to female insanity.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
263
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
75-7

6 August 1814: Byron published Lara, the third of three...

Writer or writing item

6 August 1814

Byron published Lara, the third of three narrative poems in little more than a year which served to establish the image of the Byronic hero.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
4th ser. 6 (1814): 203, 214
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
6 August 2008

1388-1400: Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales,...

Writer or writing item

1388-1400

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, and gave them some currency in manuscript.
Eagle, Dorothy et al. The Oxford Literary Guide to Great Britain and Ireland. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 1993.
412

Marcel Proust

French novelist, whose novel sequence A la recherche du temps perdu, published between 1913 and 1927, blends memory, invention, and psychological study of the human response to time passing. It has been almost immeasurably influential.
Marcel Proust Black and white photograph of Marcel Proust from the chest up. He is looking straight at the viewer, and is posing with his left hand touching the side of his face.

1891: The British patent for aluminium litho-plates...

Writer or writing item

1891

The British patent for aluminium litho-plates was awarded to Mullaby and Bullock .
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
118

1839: Theodor Schwann published the results of...

Building and people item

1839

Theodor Schwann published the results of his cell research, translated into English in 1847 as Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants.
Merrill, Lynn L. The Romance of Victorian Natural History. Oxford University Press, 1989.
119
Taton, René, editor. Science in the Nineteenth Century. Translator Pomerans, Arnold J., Vol. 3, Basic Books, 1965.
350

Edith J. Simcox

A writer of remarkable versatility, EJS was a prolific contributor to several major periodicals. She also published three monographic works (a series of thinly-disguised fictional vignettes, a lengthy essay on ethics, and a historical text)...

30 September 1760: Lady Coventry (formerly the beautiful Maria...

Building and people item

30 September 1760

Lady Coventry (formerly the beautiful Maria Gunning) died, allegedly of the effects of white lead cosmetics.
Rizzo, Betty. “Decorums”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 149-67.
157

11 October 1709: Richard Steele's use of Mrs Jenny Distaff...

Writer or writing item

11 October 1709

Richard Steele 's use of Mrs Jenny Distaff (supposedly half-sister of the supposed author, Isaac Bickerstaff) in The Tatler gave rise to a short-lived periodical, The Whisperer, written as by this fictional woman.
Prescott, Sarah, and Jane Spencer. “Prattling, tattling and knowing everything: public authority and the female editorial persona in the early essay-periodical”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
23
, No. 1, 1 Mar.–31 May 2000, pp. 43-57.
43
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

1857: The Anglican Community of the Holy Cross...

Building and people item

1857

The Anglican Community of the Holy Cross in Haywards Heath was founded by Miss Elizabeth Neale . She was the sister of John Mason Neale , founder of the Society of the Sisters of St Margaret