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.

1889: Harrods (already a leading retail outlet)...

Building and people item

1889

Harrods (already a leading retail outlet) passed from family ownership to become a Limited Liability Company, thus beginning a trend which swept up most of the great department stores.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
234, 240-1

1812-29: A series of Parliamentary Select Committees...

Building and people item

1812-29

A series of Parliamentary Select Committees considered the judicial system, the prisons, and the policing of London, and published its findings in various reports; this year the first one debated the organisation of London's...

Mid 1820s: Harsh economic conditions caused two-thirds...

Writer or writing item

Mid 1820s

Harsh economic conditions caused two-thirds of established British publishing firms to crash: authors were ruined, like Sir Walter Scott , by the bankruptcy of Constable and Ballantyne in Edinburgh.
Campbell, Mary, 1917 - 2002. Lady Morgan: The Life and Times of Sydney Owenson. Pandora, 1988.
215-16
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1931: A car ferry across the English Channel began...

National or international item

1931

A car ferry across the English Channel began operation.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
217

28 April 1938: Russian poet Osip Mandelstam was arrested:...

Writer or writing item

28 April 1938

Russian poet Osip Mandelstam was arrested: charged with counter-revolutionary activities and sentenced to five years' hard labour, he died in a transit camp that same December.
“Review of David Kings Ordinary Citizens: The Victims of StalinLondon Review of Books, 20 Mar. 2003, p. 18.
18

1800: The College of Surgeons in London received...

Building and people item

1800

The College of Surgeons in London received a royal charter and became the Royal College of Surgeons .
Porter, Roy. English Society in the Eighteenth Century. Penguin, 1982.
91
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
10: 692-3

5 October 1947: The Cominform (Communist Information Bureau)...

National or international item

5 October 1947

The Cominform (Communist Information Bureau ) was founded at the Warsaw Conference and established in Belgrade.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
253
Kinder, Hermann, and Werner Hilgemann. The Anchor Atlas of World History. Translator Menze, Ernest A., Vol.
2
, Anchor, 1978.
II: 231

Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson

EFG, an American poet writing in the later eighteenth century (who also ran the first American literary salon), was remarkable for the ambitious scope of her writing. As well as occasional verse and translation, she...
Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson Lithographic print of Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson from the waist up. Her dark hair is ornamented and pulled back from her face, with a lock curling down over her low scooped neckline; the front of her bodice is beaded.

February 1871: The French National Assembly met at Bordeaux...

National or international item

February 1871

The French National Assembly met at Bordeaux and agreed to the terms of peace proposed by the Prussians.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
286-7

Summer 2005: An installation by Giancarlo Neri entitled...

Writer or writing item

Summer 2005

An installation by Giancarlo Neri entitled The Writer was erected on Hampstead Heath. It takes the form of a gigantic, empty table and chair, which the sculptor calls a monument to the loneliness of...

October 1918: The Dilution of Labour Bulletin, an illustrated...

Building and people item

October 1918

The Dilution of Labour Bulletin, an illustrated monthly report on the role of women as replacements for men in munitions work, ended publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
40

June 1868: The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain...

Building and people item

June 1868

The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain held the first aeronautical exhibition in history at the Crystal Palace, now south of London.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
115

1910: Albert Schweitzer' The Quest of the Historical...

Writer or writing item

1910

Albert Schweitzer ' The Quest of the Historical Jesus, first published in 1906, appeared in English translation.
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.

From 1920: The Ministry of Education instituted a scheme...

Building and people item

From 1920

The Ministry of Education instituted a scheme of state studentships: grants for university education based on the student's results in Higher School Certificate (including special scholarship papers).
Mountford, Sir James Frederick. British Universities. Oxford University Press, 1966.
100-1

Mary Tighe

Among the oeuvre of MT , Irish poet of the early nineteenth century, her long narrative allegory, Psyche, gives her a high place among the women Romantics. Her known oeuvre has excitingly expanded in...
Mary Tighe Half-length stipple engraving of Mary Tighe by Edward Scriven, derived originally from a painting by George Romney, published 1812. Tighe is seated, with long, flowing, dark hair, a ribbon round her head, and a simple gown that crosses over at the bust.

M. Marsin

Active in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, MM was a bold and idiosyncratic writer and publisher of tracts: her main interest is religion (even theology), but this involves her also in politics and...

October 1981: Writing Women, dedicated to publishing contemporary...

Writer or writing item

October 1981

Writing Women, dedicated to publishing contemporary women writers, began publication in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
212
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.

1811: Bedlam or Bethlehem Hospital moved from Moorfields...

Building and people item

1811

Bedlam or Bethlehem Hospital moved from Moorfields in the City of London across the Thames to St George's Fields in Southwark.
Norton, Rictor. Mistress of Udolpho: The Life of Ann Radcliffe. Leicester University Press, 1999.
219

Susan Hill

SH began publishing very young, and has been extraordinarily prolific throughout the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. She started off as a novelist and short-story writer, and then branched out...
Susan Hill Colour photo of Susan Hill posing with her Commander of the British Empire (CBE) medal at Buckingham Palace, after her investiture ceremony on 13 December 2012. She wears a bright red fascinator hat with feathers and a red rose.

17 March 1873: The Oxford, one of London's most popular...

Building and people item

17 March 1873

The Oxford , one of London's most popular music halls, reopened after being rebuilt and redesigned.
Cheshire, David F. Music Hall in Britain. David and Charles, 1974.
29

10 October 1868: Actress Ellen Terry began living out of wedlock...

Building and people item

10 October 1868

Actress Ellen Terry began living out of wedlock with Edward Godwin .
Cheshire, David F. Portrait of Ellen Terry. Amber Lane Press, 1989.
34-6

8 September 1893: A motion for women's suffrage was passed...

National or international item

8 September 1893

A motion for women's suffrage was passed by the New Zealand legislature, giving the vote to all, including Maori, women. Though New Zealand was still part of the British Empire, it ranks as the first...

1741: James Parsons published A Mechanical Critical...

Building and people item

1741

James Parsons published A Mechanical Critical Inquiry into the Nature of Hermaphrodites, which he said was designed to dispell ignorance and superstition and to reinforce truth.
Costa, Palmira Fontes da. “The understanding of monsters at the Royal Society in the first half of the eighteenth century”. Endeavour, Vol.
24
, No. 1, Mar. 2000, pp. 34-9.
38

1922: Monica Cobb became the first woman to plead...

Building and people item

1922

Monica Cobb became the first woman to plead a case in a British court.
Greenspan, Karen. The Timetables of Women’s History. Simon and Shuster, 1994.
322

8 May 1835: Hans Christian Andersen began publishing...

Writer or writing item

8 May 1835

Hans Christian Andersen began publishing fairy tales, some collected and some of his own devising, in his native Danish.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Bredsdorff, Elias. Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work, 1805-75. Souvenir, 1993.
120-1