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1 May 1649: Following the imprisonment of John Lilburne...

National or international item

1 May 1649

Following the imprisonment of John Lilburne and others, the Levellers issued An Agreement of the Free People of England, which Catharine Macaulay later judged their most important text.
Hill, Bridget. The Republican Virago: The Life and Times of Catharine Macaulay, Historian. Clarendon Press, 1992.
37, 180

Sophia Hume

SH was a leading Quaker pamphleteer of the mid eighteenth century. She published religious and moral exhortations, an anthology, and a diatribe against smallpox inoculation, in England and America.

1895: Not Counting the Cost, a novel in which Tasma...

Women writers item

1895

Not Counting the Cost, a novel in which Tasma explored issues of culture and nationality, appeared two years before her death.
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.
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.

9 April 1865: The American Civil war ended when General...

National or international item

9 April 1865

The American Civil war ended when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant 's federal forces in the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Catton, Bruce. Never Call Retreat. Doubleday, 1965.
449
Catton, Bruce. The Civil War. Fairfax Press, 1980.
276-7

July 1775: On the death of Charles Say (a major London...

Building and people item

July 1775

On the death of Charles Say (a major London printer, publisher of the official newspaper The Gazetteer), his widow Mary Say took over the business.
Barker, Hannah. “Women, work and the industrial revolution: female involvement in the English printing trades, c. 1700-1840”. Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, edited by Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, Longman, 1997, pp. 81-100.
91-2, 99
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

June 1884: The Somerset County Gazette was the first...

Writer or writing item

June 1884

The Somerset County Gazette was the first newspaper printed by electricity in England.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
161

1886: Furneaux Jordan argued in Character as Seen...

Building and people item

1886

Furneaux Jordan argued in Character as Seen in Body and Parentage that certain women had physical characteristics that literally drove men to abuse them or even murder them.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
107, 266n24

11 April 1884: Charles Reade, novelist and playwright, died...

Writer or writing item

11 April 1884

Charles Reade , novelist and playwright, died at 3 Blomfield Villas, Shepherd's Bush, London.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
21

10 December 1917: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the...

National or international item

10 December 1917

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Red Cross ; they won this prize again in 1944 and 1963.
Schott, Ben. Schott’s Original Miscellany. Bloomsbury, 2002.
111

Claire Luckham

Claire Luckham's career as a playwright was launched in 1976, when the feminist theatre group Monstrous Regiment selected Scum (a play on which she and her husband collaborated) to open their first season. Her plays...

4 July 1996: A Defamation Act of this date, repealing...

National or international item

4 July 1996

A Defamation Act of this date, repealing and amending earlier British acts, has been later attacked as inviting censorship by private interests: a sedition law for millionaires,
Monbiot, George. “The main threat to free speech is legal”. Guardian Weekly, 25 July 2008, p. 24.
24
because of the huge figures exacted in...

1949: Human sperm was first frozen in the United...

Building and people item

1949

Human sperm was first frozen in the United States using liquid nitrogen.
Chen, Serena H., and Edward E. Wallach. “Five Decades of Progress in Management of the Infertile Couple”. Fertility and Sterility, Vol.
62
, No. 4, Oct. 1994, pp. 665-85.
667
Wood, Clive. Vasectomy and Sterilization. Temple Smith, 1974.
142

1896: Una Ashworth Taylor published another novel,...

Women writers item

1896

Una Ashworth Taylor published another novel, Nets for the Wind.
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.

From 1662: The King's Library (now part of the British...

Writer or writing item

From 1662

The King's Library (now part of the British Library ) and Cambridge University Library enjoyed the legal right to a copy of every book published in Britain (a right granted to the Bodleian on 11...

January 1939: The Living Art in England exhibition was...

Building and people item

January 1939

The Living Art in England exhibition was held at the London Gallery. Painter Ithell Colquhoun was among the surrealists whose work was shown.
Windsor, Alan, editor. Handbook of Modern British Painting 1900-1980. Scolar Press, 1992.
65, 182

Andrea Levy

AL was a Black British novelist with roots in Jamaica, who began publishing towards the end of the twentieth century. Her five novels (in 2015) centre on the attainment of satisfactory mixed-race and mixed-nationality...
Andrea Levy Portrait photo of Andrea Levy. She has curly black hair and a white cardigan. Behind her is a tree trunk and to her left is a smattering of foliage.

1838: Charles Knight patented a colour-printing...

Writer or writing item

1838

Charles Knight patented a colour-printing process called Patent Illuminated Printing.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
144

December 1922: Miss E. S. Daniels was dismissed from her...

Building and people item

December 1922

Miss E. S. Daniels was dismissed from her post as a health visitor with Edmonton District Council , London, for telling mothers where to get birth control knowledge.
Fryer, Peter. The Birth Controllers. Secker and Warburg, 1965.
257

1770: Ann Lee, a member of a religious group which...

Building and people item

1770

Ann Lee , a member of a religious group which had split from the Quakers, had a vision telling her to spread the word of Christ's second coming.
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
81
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1971: A Maoist group based in Hertfordshire began...

Building and people item

1971

A Maoist group based in Hertfordshire began publishing the Women's Liberation Union Newsletter.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
74

1934: Lady de Frece (as she then was), former music-hall...

Building and people item

1934

Lady de Frece (as she then was), former music-hall star, male impersonator, and parodist of class-identities, published her autobiography, Recollections of Vesta Tilley.
Maitland, Sara. Vesta Tilley. Virago, 1986.

March 1734: Mary Edwards, an heiress who had made a clandestine...

Building and people item

March 1734

Mary Edwards , an heiress who had made a clandestine Fleet marriage, dissolved it by expunging it from the records.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Hogarth: A Life and A World. Faber and Faber, 1997.
364-5

Later March 1916: The College of Nursing was established to...

Building and people item

Later March 1916

The College of Nursing was established to promote nursing standards and lobby the government.
Abel-Smith, Brian. A History of the Nursing Profession. Heinemann, 1960.
89
Cowie, Anne. “Organized Labour”. Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting since 1900, edited by Peta Allen and Moya Jolley, Faber and Faber, 1982.
219

23 August 1939: Hitler's and Stalin's German-Soviet non-aggression...

National or international item

23 August 1939

Hitler 's and Stalin 's German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed by foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov .
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
19
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
25
Marples, David. “Far From Quiet on the Eastern Front”. Ideas, University of Alberta, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2001, p. 6.
6
Whipple, Dorothy. Random Commentary. Michael Joseph, 1966.
108

August 1932: The British Anti-War Movement was founde...

National or international item

August 1932

The British Anti-War Movement was founded.
Ceadel, Martin. Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945 : The Defining of a Faith. Clarendon, 1980, http://U of A HSS.
Appendix I