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1755: Wealthy West Indian proprietor William Beckford...

Writer or writing item

1755

Wealthy West Indian proprietor William Beckford (father of the author of the same name) launched The Monitor, the first newspaper to appeal explicitly to London freeholders, that is the well-to-do urban middle class.
Hudson, Nicholas. “Discourse of Transition: Johnson, the 1750s, and the Rise of the Middle Class”. The Age of Johnson, edited by Paul J. Korshin and Jack Lynch, Vol.
13
, 2002, pp. 31-51.
32

1874: Major Wingfield introduced the game of lawn...

Building and people item

1874

Major Wingfield introduced the game of lawn tennis; a craze for the sport soon swept the nation.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
196

Nancy Mitford

NM is best-known for her novels, witty comedies of twentieth-century manners which draw on her own privileged background. Her accounts of love and disappointment among the upper classes frequently include political references (fascism, communism) or...
Nancy Mitford Head-and-shoulders drawing of Nancy Mitford by William Acton, 1937. Her dark, wavy hair is parted in the centre; her bare shoulders rise smoothly from the background.

19 November 1910: The Daily Sketch printed a condemnatory report...

Building and people item

19 November 1910

The Daily Sketch printed a condemnatory report with pictures of the previous day's suffrage demonstration at the House of Commons , couched in a tone of strong disapproval.
Kazantzis, Judith, editor. Women in Revolt: the fight for emancipation: a collection of contemporary documents. Cape, 1968.

: Billy Graham made his first crusade to Britain,...

Building and people item

Autumn 1954

Billy Graham made his first crusade to Britain, landing in London with a reporter and a Life photograper.
Suggate, Alan M. “The Christian Churches in England since 1945: Ecumenism and Social Concern”. A History of Religion in Britain: Practice and Belief from Pre-Roman Times to the Present, edited by Sheridan Gilley and William J. Sheils, Blackwell, 1994, pp. 467-8.
470-1
Frady, Marshall. Billy Graham: A Parable of American Righteousness. Little, Brown, 1979.
97
Martin, William Curtis. A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story. W. Morrow, 1991.
164

July 1784: The Universal Magazine carried a posthumous...

Building and people item

July 1784

The Universal Magazine carried a posthumous essay by Dr William Hunter (who had died in March 1783) entitled On the Uncertainty of the Signs of Murder in Bastard Children.
Elliott, Nathan. “"Unball’d Sockets" and ‘The Mockery of Speech’: Diagnostic Anxiety and the Theater of Joanna Baillie”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
18
, No. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 83-103.
90-1, 103

1704: A Penal Law enacted in England barred Roman...

National or international item

1704

A Penal Law enacted in England barred Roman Catholic estates in Ireland from descending by primogeniture to the eldest son; unless that eldest converted to Protestantism, the estate was to be shared equally among all...

1923: MGs, sports cars with no windscreen, an outside...

Building and people item

1923

MGs, sports cars with no windscreen, an outside handbrake, and wire-spoked wheels, were introduced in Britain.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
200

August 1759: Russia's victory over Frederick the Great...

National or international item

August 1759

Russia's victory over Frederick the Great at Kunersdorff gave it a new status in European politics.
Levitt, Marcus C. “An Antidote to Nervous Juice: Catherine the Great’s Debate with Chappe d’Auteroche over Russian Culture”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 1998, pp. 49-63.
51

1961: The University of Sussex was founded in ...

Building and people item

1961

The University of Sussex was founded in Brighton.
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1637
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
508

4 January 1894: Lady Henry Somerset and Annie E. Holdsworth...

Writer or writing item

4 January 1894

Lady Henry Somerset and Annie E. Holdsworth published in London the first issue of the Woman's Signal, a weekly magazine addressing temperance issues, and also broader topics such as suffrage, working conditions, and domestic...

December 1914: Sinn Féin, the newspaper organized in 1906...

National or international item

December 1914

Sinn Féin, the newspaper organized in 1906 by Arthur Griffith as a vehicle of the Irish nationalist group Sinn Féin , was suppressed.
Hickey, D. J., and J. E. Doherty. A New Dictionary of Irish History From 1800. Gill and Macmillan, 2003.
446

1908: Paris fashion designer Paul Poiret inaugurated...

Building and people item

1908

Paris fashion designer Paul Poiret inaugurated a new ideal feminine form with designs which emphasized the legs, an all-around slim body, and minimal curves.
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. Random House, 1997.
99-105
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. Fasting Girls. Harvard University Press, 1988.
245

April 1847: Two of Elizabeth Fry's daughters, Katherine...

Women writers item

April 1847

Two of Elizabeth Fry 's daughters, Katherine Fry and R. E. Cresswell , completed their account of the activist's life in the two-volume Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry ; with Extracts from Her Journals and Letters.
Whitney, Janet. Elizabeth Fry: Quaker Heroine. Little, Brown, 1936.
313

Elizabeth Bathurst

EB , writing late in the seventeenth century, was one of the most popular women writers to be published by the Sowle Press , the best-known Quaker publishing house. Her three publications (dating from a...

1822: Using silver chloride, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce...

National or international item

1822

Using silver chloride, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce of France produced the first fixed positive image that could be called a photograph.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
283

20 February 1702: William III broke his collar-bone when his...

National or international item

20 February 1702

William III broke his collar-bone when his horse stumbled on a mole-hill; this was the ultimate cause of his death the following month.
Defoe, Daniel. Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe. Editor Shugrue, Michael F., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
326
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

April 1955: The announcement was publicly made of the...

Building and people item

April 1955

The announcement was publicly made of the discovery by Jonas Salk of Canada of a vaccine for polio: the first effective protection against the infectious disease of poliomyelitis, which could cripple for life.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
298
Radford, Tim. “Nobel scientist warns of human hazard from bird flu”. Guardian Weekly, 22–28 Apr. 2005, p. 13.
13

February 1951: The Bow Group was founded as an organisation...

National or international item

February 1951

The Bow Group was founded as an organisation of younger members of the Conservative Party , to carry out and publish research on political issues.
British Book News. British Council.
(1956): 475
The Bow Group. http://replay.web.archive.org/20080614014527/http://www.bowgroup.org/content.asp?pageid=8.

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...

4 February 1948: Ceylon became self-governing within the British...

National or international item

4 February 1948

Ceylon became self-governing within the British Commonwealth.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
252, 264
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Modern World: 1763 to the Present Time. David McKay, 1967.
610

January-December 1865: Charles Kingsley's last novel Hereward the...

Writer or writing item

January-December 1865

Charles Kingsley 's last novel Hereward the Wake, was serialised as Hereward, The Last of the English in Good Words.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
293, 335

5 May 1981: Bobby Sands, a member of the Provisional...

National or international item

5 May 1981

Bobby Sands , a member of the Provisional IRA , died in the Maze Prison near Belfast, where for two months he had been leading his final hunger strike.
“1981: Bobby Sands dies in prison”. BBC On this day.

1823: Thomas Wakely founded the medical journal...

Building and people item

1823

Thomas Wakely founded the medical journal The Lancet, in an effort to give the general practitioner a voice.
Blake, Catriona, and Wendy Savage. The Charge of the Parasols: Women’s Entry to the Medical Profession. Women’s Press, 1990.
22-3

Lady Anne Barnard

LAB , in her twenties a notable contributor to the Scots ballad revival, became during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a memoirist, political letter-writer, diarist, and travel-writer, as well as a fine illustrator.
Lady Anne Barnard Black and white photo of a miniature of Lady Anne Barnard. She sits writing with a quill on a sheet of paper, but pauses to look up and to her right with a half-smile. She wears a loose open jacket over a white high-necked blouse, and a large, soft hat in several dark and white layers, with dark feathers on top. Her hair, too, is dark.