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17 August 1801: Fredrika Bremer, author and women's rights...

Writer or writing item

17 August 1801

Fredrika Bremer , author and women's rights activist, was born in Åbo (now Turku), Finland, then a part of Sweden.
Bremer, Fredrika, and Fredrika Bremer. “Biography”. Life, Letters, and Posthumous Works of Fredrika Bremer, edited by Charlotte Bremer et al., translated by. Frederick Milow, Emily Nonnen, Hurd and Houghton, 1868, pp. 1-100.

By the 1860s: Devices designed for viewing moving pictures,...

Building and people item

By the 1860s

Devices designed for viewing moving pictures, such as the magic lantern and the Zoetrope, became popular forms of home entertainment.
Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. St Martin’s Press, 2001.
3

Queen Victoria

From a young age, Queen Victoria wrote extensive journals, two of which were published with great success during her lifetime. Other selections from her journals, collections of her letters, and drawings and watercolours from her...
Queen Victoria Black and white photograph of Queen Victoria, done for her Diamond Jubilee, 1897, by W. and D. Downey. She is seated, face in profile, holding a fan and wearing an elaborately embroidered floor-length dress, a small crown, a veil on the back of her head whose lace matches that of her skirt, a jewelled bracelet and drop earrings. National Archives of Canada.

Bessie Rayner Parkes

Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc) , a late nineteenth-century feminist, focused her writings especially on issues relating to women's work. During her life she published a collection of miscellaneous essays, a collection of vignettes, numerous...
Bessie Rayner Parkes Sepia toned photograph of Bessie Rayner Parkes, seated on an upholstered chair, with an ornate table next to her. Her hands are clasped in her lap, she is wearing a dark dress with a voluminous skirt and long sleeves. She has dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair.

1820: David Jones of the Methodist London Missionary...

National or international item

1820

David Jones of the Methodist London Missionary Society travelled to Antananarivo in Madagascar, to spread the word of Christianity.
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. 2nd ed., Penguin, 1990.
269

By 1692: The theory of hysteria as a specifically...

Building and people item

By 1692

The theory of hysteria as a specifically female form of insanity was becoming established.
Mendelson, Sara Heller, and Patricia Crawford. Women in Early Modern England, 1550-1720. Clarendon Press, 1998.
25

1 April 1684: George Hickes (later a patron of Elizabeth...

Building and people item

1 April 1684

George Hickes (later a patron of Elizabeth Elstob ) preached at St Bridget's Church in London a sermon on almsgiving which made particular mention of charities to benefit women, including schools and colleges along the...

1658: L. Lemnius in The Secret Miracles of Nature...

Women writers item

1658

L. Lemnius in The Secret Miracles of Nature in Four Books wrote of the respective roles of both sexes in creating new life, and of the offensive odour and effects of menstrual blood.
Mendelson, Sara Heller, and Patricia Crawford. Women in Early Modern England, 1550-1720. Clarendon Press, 1998.
24, 27, 28

4 July 1829: George Shillibeer's horse-drawn omnibus began...

Building and people item

4 July 1829

George Shillibeer 's horse-drawn omnibus began service in London: from Paddington to the Bank.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
79
Barker, Theodore Cardwell, and Dorian Gerhold. The Rise and Rise of Road Transport, 1700-1990. Macmillan, 1993.
66
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.

1966: The Times was taken over by Canadian magnate...

Writer or writing item

1966

The Times was taken over by Canadian magnate Roy Thomson (who already owned the British group Kemsley Newspapers ).
Stevens, Ronald. “A Different Sort of Tory”. London Review of Books, 12 Dec. 2002, pp. 16-17.
16

19 February 1789: Parliament was informed that George III was...

National or international item

19 February 1789

Parliament was informed that George III was in a state of convalescence; the Regency Bill which had passed the Commons on the 13th never completed its passage.
Ayling, Stanley. George the Third. Collins, 1972.
345

January 1896: The first number of The Savoy: An Illustrated...

Writer or writing item

January 1896

The first number of The Savoy: An Illustrated Monthly appeared; the cover was by Aubrey Beardsley .
Beardsley, Aubrey. The Savoy. Editor Symons, Arthur, Leonard Smithers.
1
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/.

2 March 1807: The US Congress prohibited the import of...

National or international item

2 March 1807

The US Congress prohibited the import of any more slaves from Africa after 1808.
Kennedy, David. “Leur Pays”. London Review of Books, 22 Feb. 2001, pp. 24-5.
24

14 July 1742: Horace Walpole was diverted by the great...

Building and people item

14 July 1742

Horace Walpole was diverted by the great physical strength of a servant-maid helping to rescue goods in danger of burning in a house fire; he thought it particularly comic that she had the pastoral name...

8 June 2005: An exhibition at the Victoria and Albert...

Writer or writing item

8 June 2005

An exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London entitled Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 provided useful insight into its immediate topic, but also into twentieth-century book design in general.
Campbell, Peter. “At the V & A”. London Review of Books, 2 June 2005, p. 33.
33

End of the 1990s: Bloody conflicts still raged in the Horn...

National or international item

End of the 1990s

Bloody conflicts still raged in the Horn of Africa, Angola, Sri Lanka, and the Russian province of Chechnya, while those in Kosovo and in East Timor had only recently ended.
“It will be remembered as the Age of Barbarism”. Guardian Weekly, 30 Dec. 1999–5 Jan. 2000, p. 3.
3

By September 1784: An anonymous work entitled Thoughts on the...

Building and people item

By September 1784

An anonymous work entitled Thoughts on the Slavery of the Negroes caused the Critical Review to prophesy that the growing movement for abolition of slavery would soon provoke the attention of parliament.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
58 (1784): 239

1 January 1866: The West Pier at Brighton was opened. It...

Building and people item

1 January 1866

The West Pier at Brighton was opened. It stood for more than a century before being partly destroyed by the sea on 29 December 2002 while awaiting restoration, leaving Brighton's Pavilion Pier standing alone.
Hall, Sarah, correspondent. “Brighton landmark succumbs to elements”. The Guardian, 30 Dec. 2002, p. 1.
“The Brighton West Pier: History”. The Brighton West Pier Trust.

Earlier 1938: Doctor Joan Malleson recommended a patient,...

Building and people item

Earlier 1938

Doctor Joan Malleson recommended a patient, a pregnant fourteen-year-old girl who had been gang-raped by soldiers at Kensington Barracks , to Aleck Bourne , an eminent gynaecological surgeon, for an abortion.
Hall, Lesley. “Articulating abortion in interwar Britain”. Women’s History Magazine, No. 70, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2012, pp. 13-21.
18

1 November 1911: During the Turkish-Italian war, a pilot named...

National or international item

1 November 1911

During the Turkish-Italian war, a pilot named Giulio Cavotti dropped the first bomb from a plane, on troops at an oasis near Tripoli.
Wright, Patrick. “Dropping Their Eggs”. London Review of Books, 23 Aug. 2001, pp. 11-14.
11

By 27 February 1911: The secretary of the Actresses' Franchise...

Building and people item

By 27 February 1911

The secretary of the Actresses' Franchise League organised a feminist production of Wilde 's Salome (reviewed on this date).
Walkowitz, Judith R. “Women Writing / Women Performing in the Imperial Metropolis”. Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers Conference, Lawrence, KS, 17 Mar. 2001.

May 1852: The National Woman's Rights Association was...

National or international item

May 1852

The National Woman's Rights Association was established.
Schwarzkopf, Jutta. Women in the Chartist Movement. St Martin’s Press, 1991.
248, 254

11 November 1985: The Data Protection Act (1984) came into...

Building and people item

11 November 1985

The Data Protection Act (1984) came into effect in Britain, requiring 400,000 computer users to register . . . to protect individuals from the misuse of personal data stored on computer.
McKenzie, Donald Francis. Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
52

August 1896: Inhabitants of the Philippines rose against...

National or international item

August 1896

Inhabitants of the Philippines rose against the imperial power of Spain in what Benedict Anderson has called the first nationalist insurrection in Asia.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
13 November 1896): 8

3 December 1868: Following the first general election after...

National or international item

3 December 1868

Following the first general election after the Second Reform Act of the previous year, William Gladstone , a Liberal , formed the government in succession to ConservativeBenjamin Disraeli .
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
115
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
491