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Mavis Gallant

Canadian-born Mavis Gallant lived most of her life in Paris, where she wrote hundreds of short stories, two novels, essays, diaries, and a play during the mid to late twentieth century. Her work, which often...
Mavis Gallant Colour portrait photo of Mavis Gallant in Paris, July 1984. She is smiling and looking directly at the camera. She wears a navy blazer with a brown stone brooch at the side and a small microphone at her collar.

12 April 1949: The Geneva Conventions were adopted in the...

National or international item

12 April 1949

The Geneva Conventions were adopted in the basic form in which they currently (2008) apply, revising earlier conventions and treaties of 1864, 1899, 1907, 1925, and 1929.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
535-6
Trombly, Maria. “Geneva Conventions: A Reference Guide”. Society of Professional Journalists, 2003.

Mary Robinson

MR , scandalous woman and Romantic poet, was also a forceful and emotional, radical writer in many other genres: novels, scholarship, memoirs, drama, periodical essays, and translation. During the last two years of her life...
Mary Robinson Glamorous painting of Mary Robinson, attributed to John Hoppner. She wears a black hat with wide drooping brim, adorned with white ostrich feathers which echo her big-style powdered hair. Her gown is black with lace at the low neckline and a red rose on the sleeve, echoing red drapery behind her.

1911: At an international congress held in Paris,...

Building and people item

1911

At an international congress held in Paris, international time zones each of fifteen degrees longitude were agreed on for the world.
Daston, Lorraine. “Language of Power”. London Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2001, p. 3, 6.
6

1843: Parliament deregulated the London stage by...

Building and people item

1843

Parliament deregulated the London stage by removing the restriction which had limited the number of patent or fully licensed theatres in the capital to no more than two, Covent Garden and Drury Lane .
Hume, Robert D. “Jeremy Collier and the Future of the London Theatre in 1698”. British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) Conference, Oxford, 3 Jan. 1998.

26 November 1945: The film Brief Encounter, starring actress...

Building and people item

26 November 1945

The film Brief Encounter, starring actress Celia Johnson , directed by David Lean , based on a play by Noël Coward , had its English premiere.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
395
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). http://www.imdb.com.
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books, 2009.
xviii, 230-2

1836: A temperance meeting in Taunton, Somerset,...

Building and people item

1836

A temperance meeting in Taunton, Somerset, witnessed the outbreak of a riot, as moderationists violently disrupted a speech by teetotaller James Tearle .
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
54

19 July 1545: A state-of-the-art warship, the Mary Rose,...

National or international item

19 July 1545

A state-of-the-art warship, the Mary Rose, sank off Portsmouth while being demonstrated to Henry VIII and a large gathering of eminent people.
Guardian Weekly.
(26 Nov 1995): 10

10 May 1951: Actress Vivien Leigh and actor Laurence Olivier...

Building and people item

10 May 1951

Actress Vivien Leigh and actor Laurence Olivier began the season at St James's Theatre , London, alternately playing Shaw 's Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare 's Antony and Cleopatra.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
404

8 October 1915: A British advance on Loos in France, launched...

National or international item

8 October 1915

A British advance on Loos in France, launched on 25 September, was finally beaten back with huge losses.
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
5: 463, 8: 99

1915: The first deaths were recorded from toxic...

Building and people item

1915

The first deaths were recorded from toxic jaundice resulting from work with TNT in munitions factories.
Braybon, Gail, and Penny Summerfield. Out of the Cage: Women’s Experiences in Two World Wars. Pandora, 1987.
86
Andrews, Irene Osgood. Economic Effects of the War Upon Women and Children in Great Britain. Oxford University Press, 1918.
133
Marwick, Arthur. Women at War, 1914-1918. Croom Helm, 1977.
68

October 1865: Elizabeth Garrett obtained an apothecary's...

Building and people item

October 1865

Elizabeth Garrett obtained an apothecary's licence through the Society of Apothecaries : this began her medical career, after her rejection by the Universities of London , Edinburgh , St Andrews , Oxford , and Cambridge .
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
156
Alic, Margaret. Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women in Science. Women’s Press, 1985.
106
Blake, Catriona, and Wendy Savage. The Charge of the Parasols: Women’s Entry to the Medical Profession. Women’s Press, 1990.
66

15-22 July 1933: Wiley Post made the first solo flight around...

Building and people item

15-22 July 1933

Wiley Post made the first solo flight around the world.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard. Aviation: An Historical Survey from its Origins to the end of World War II. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1970.
249

Christmas Day 1797: The owner of The Press, a radical Dublin...

Writer or writing item

Christmas Day 1797

The owner of The Press, a radical Dublin paper, was sentenced for reporting an execution as murder.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
68 (1798): 69

1848: Samuel Gregory established the New England...

Building and people item

1848

Samuel Gregory established the New England Female Medical College in Boston, the first-ever medical college for women.
Blake, Catriona, and Wendy Savage. The Charge of the Parasols: Women’s Entry to the Medical Profession. Women’s Press, 1990.
30

1913: Edmund Husserl published Ideas: General Introduction...

Writer or writing item

1913

Edmund Husserl published Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (translated in 1931), his next major philosophical enterprise after Logical Investigations, 1900-1.
Oxford Reference. http://www.oxfordreference.com.

14 June 1913: Women's Social and Political Union supporters...

Building and people item

14 June 1913

Women's Social and Political Union supporters formed a funeral procession for Emily Wilding Davison 's funeral.
Tickner, Lisa. The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907-1914. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
138ff
Frye, Kate Parry. Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary. Editor Crawford, Elizabeth, Francis Boutle Publishers, 2013.

21 November 1696: Sir John Vanbrugh's comedy The Relapse: or...

Writer or writing item

21 November 1696

Sir John Vanbrugh 's comedy The Relapse: or Virtue in Danger opened at Drury Lane .
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

1 January 1946: London Airport (later Heathrow) opened for...

Building and people item

1 January 1946

London Airport (later Heathrow) opened for civil aviation. By 1954 twenty-three international airlines were flying into it, and plans were afoot for expansion.
British Book News. British Council.
(July 1954): 388

1906: The Church Socialist League was created in...

Building and people item

1906

The Church Socialist League was created in Morecambe.
Norman, Edward R. Church and Society in England, 1770-1970. Clarendon, 1976.
246, 248, 287

1857-1863: The number of prostitutes under sixteen years...

Building and people item

1857-1863

The number of prostitutes under sixteen years of age in lock hospitals decreased to 2.3% of patients.
Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. Cambridge University Press, 1980.
17

1899: Josephine Ward published One Poor Scruple:...

Women writers item

1899

Josephine Ward published One Poor Scruple: A Seven Weeks' Story.
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.

Christmas Day 1699 : Playwright and amateur architect John Vanbrugh...

Building and people item

Christmas Day 1699

Playwright and amateur architect John Vanbrugh recorded in a letter his progress on designs for an ambitious rebuilding of Castle Howard in Yorkshire in the style later called English baroque.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Vanbrugh

2 April 1720: Handel and the Royal Academy of Music opened...

Building and people item

2 April 1720

Handel and the Royal Academy of Music opened the first season of Italian opera in several years at the Haymarket . The Royal Academy of Music continued offering opera there until 1728.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
2: 547, 575, 931

1666: Joanna Nye, an Essex parson's daughter, was...

Building and people item

1666

Joanna Nye , an Essex parson's daughter, was bound apprentice to Thomas Minshall , engraver: the first woman so bound, under the Act for the Encouragement of Learning, to the Stationers' Company .
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
35