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.

1500: British female literacy rates at this time...

Writer or writing item

1500

British female literacy rates at this time have been estimated as 1%, against a male rate of 10%.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
167

2 April 1873: The first sleeping car in the UK was introduced...

Building and people item

2 April 1873

The first sleeping car in the UK was introduced on the Glasgow to London night express.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
296

December 1865: The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's...

Building and people item

December 1865

The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal ceased publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
2
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
434

1926: Fanfrolico Press, founded in Australia in...

Writer or writing item

1926

Fanfrolico Press , founded in Australia in 1923 by Jack Lindsay and John T. Kirtley , established a London branch at 5 Bloomsbury Square.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
119
Myers, Robin. The British Book Trade, from Caxton to the Present Day. Andre Deutsch in association with the National Book League, 1973.
320
Cave, Roderick. The Private Press. Faber and Faber, 1971.
204-5

By April 2004: The City of London (which till the 1960s...

Building and people item

By April 2004

The City of London (which till the 1960s banned buildings taller than St Paul's Cathedral) acquired a new giant: the Swiss Re Tower at 10 St Mary Axe, designed by Norman Foster of...

13 April 1945: The Russians took Vienna from the Nazis....

National or international item

13 April 1945

The Russians took Vienna from the Nazis.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
219
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
822

13 April 1955: The BBC television show For Deaf Children...

Building and people item

13 April 1955

The BBC television show For Deaf Children was first aired.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
385

25 July 1948: Bread rationing (instituted during the Second...

Building and people item

25 July 1948

Bread rationing (instituted during the Second World War) ended in Britain.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
398

June 1851: Ingomar the Barbarian; or, the Son of the...

Women writers item

June 1851

Ingomar the Barbarian; or, the Son of the Wilderness, adapted from German by Maria Lovell , premiered at Drury Lane .
Mullin, Donald C. Victorian Plays: A Record of Significant Productions on the London Stage, 1837-1901. Greenwood Press, 1987.
166
Powell, Kerry. Women and Victorian Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
132

An Collins

AC was an obscure seventeenth-century religious poet, whose work has survived in a single copy of a single publication.

March 1599: Queen Elizabeth sent her young favourite...

National or international item

March 1599

Queen Elizabeth sent her young favourite the Earl of Essex to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant with a large army to crush Tyrone 's Rebellion.
Lee, Sophia. The Recess. Editor Alliston, April, University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
353n37, 355n4, 356n11

August 1831: The French expelled the Dutch from Belgium,...

National or international item

August 1831

The French expelled the Dutch from Belgium, which had declared its independence from them the previous year.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
86

1839: Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave tra...

National or international item

1839

Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade.
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present. Revised, Facts on File, 1999.
183-4

1899: Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemists founded...

Writer or writing item

1899

Jesse Boot of Boots the Chemists founded the Boots Booklovers Library , hoping to attract customers by adding a lending library to Boots shops.
McAleer, Joseph. Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain 1914-1950. Clarendon Press, 1992.
49
Beauman, Nicola. A Very Great Profession: The Woman’s Novel 1914-39. Virago, 1983.
10

Summer 1830: In this year's elections (which followed...

National or international item

Summer 1830

In this year's elections (which followed the death of George IV ) no votes were cast in Wales and only 239 were cast in Scotland; most constituencies had a single candidate, so there was...

2 April 1911: A national census took place in Britain,...

National or international item

2 April 1911

A national census took place in Britain, and was widely boycotted by suffragist organizations under the slogan No Vote, No Census.
Frye, Kate Parry. Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary. Editor Crawford, Elizabeth, Francis Boutle Publishers, 2013.
42
McCarthy, Helen. “The Statistical Gaze”. London Review of Books, Vol.
39
, No. 11, 29 June 2017, pp. 34-5.
34

1910: My Weekly, a magazine for working class women...

Building and people item

1910

My Weekly, a magazine for working class women focusing on fashion, meal-planning, and domestic issues, began publication by D. C. Thomson in London.
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
Ferguson, Marjorie. Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. Heinemann, 1983.
17
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
87
Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory 1999. 37th ed., R. R. Bowker, 1998.
6946

1796-1815: Throughout these war years the Bibliothèque...

Writer or writing item

1796-1815

Throughout these war years the Bibliothèque britannique, published in Geneva, kept open cultural relations between France and England.
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.

1922: The Austin Seven, a small four-seater with...

Building and people item

1922

The Austin Seven, a small four-seater with a four-cylinder engine nicknamed the Chummy, became the first affordable car in Britain.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
197
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
362

1656: Abraham Cowley published Poems; this volume,...

Writer or writing item

1656

Abraham Cowley published Poems; this volume, which included his Pindaric Odes and Miscellanies, confirmed his stature as the leading poet of the day.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

Isabella Beeton

IB was the author of the classic book of household management which became a standard reference work for generations following her death—probably, says critic Michael Mason , less common only than the Bible, Shakespeare and...
Isabella Beeton Black and white photograph of Isabella Beeton, standing with her head turned towards the camera, and one hand resting on an ornate chair. She is wearing a black dress with a voluminous skirt and a long, dark beaded necklace.

February 1885: The first number of Commonweal, the Socialist...

National or international item

February 1885

The first number of Commonweal, the Socialist League 's official publication, appeared in London.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
North, John S., editor. The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals: 1800-1900. http://www.victorianperiodicals.com/series2/defaultLoggedIn.asp.
Quail, John. The Slow Burning Fuse: The Lost History of the British Anarchists. Granada, 1978.
passim

16 June 1913: The South African Native Land Act restricted...

National or international item

16 June 1913

The South African Native Land Act restricted the purchase and lease of land by blacks.
Bayly, Christopher Alan. Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
151

19 January 1850: A series of lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson...

Writer or writing item

19 January 1850

A series of lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson was published under the title Representative Men.
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.
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.
1160 (19 January 1850): 68-9