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Anne Lister

Antiquarians and local historians have for generations known AL as an early nineteenth-century diarist and have made use of her diary (which amounts to about four million extant words in twenty-four quarto volumes, a sixth...
Anne Lister Photograph of a painting of Anne Lister by an unidentified artist; it hangs at Lister's estate, Shibden Hall. She is shown from the waist up against the background of a gold curtain, wearing a high-collared maroon jacket. Her jaw-length dark hair, smoothly parted in the middle, is curly around her face.

7 June 1786: During the absence abroad of William Beckford,...

Writer or writing item

7 June 1786

During the absence abroad of William Beckford , his tutor Samuel Henley anonymously published his own English translation of Vathek, an Oriental gothic tale which Beckford had originally written in French.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
James, Jamie. “The Caliph of Fonthill”. The American Scholar, Vol.
72
, No. 1, 1 Dec. 2003–28 Feb. 2004, pp. 67-79.
70

Before May 1951: Architect Robert Matthew designed the Royal...

Building and people item

Before May 1951

Architect Robert Matthew designed the Royal Festival Hall and Ralph Tubbs designed the Dome of Discovery, for the Festival of Britain on the South Bank.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
404

1795: The (male) offspring of racially mixed marriages...

Building and people item

1795

The (male) offspring of racially mixed marriages were disqualified from all military service in the British Army except in non-combatant positions.
Neff, David Sprague. “Hostages to Empire: The Anglo-Indian Problem in Frankenstein, The Curse of Kehama, and The Missionary”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
8
, No. 4, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 1997, pp. 386-08.
389

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

BLSB 's literary work emerged from her convictions as a feminist. Her accounts of women's political, legal, and educational disabilities (in lectures, pamphlets, and an important periodical) played a crucial role in mid-Victorian legal reform...
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon Black and white photograph of Barbara Bodichon in profile, looking towards the right. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, with some part in a single plait. She is wearing a white blouse with a ruffled neckline, and a black jacket with buttons.

1959: The Mental Health Act was passed, replacing...

Building and people item

1959

The Mental Health Act was passed, replacing the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913, which was by now seen as oppressive, especially in its powers of detention.
Liberty: A Brief History. http://web.archive.org/web/20080807173131/http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/about/1-history/index.shtml.

1881: Elizabeth Blackwell proposed improvements...

Building and people item

1881

Elizabeth Blackwell proposed improvements to the Contagious Diseases Acts that would not discriminate against prostitutes.
Blake, Catriona, and Wendy Savage. The Charge of the Parasols: Women’s Entry to the Medical Profession. Women’s Press, 1990.
110

1045: Saint Margaret, who became the wife of King...

National or international item

1045

Saint Margaret , who became the wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland, was born.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
83-4
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
53, 56

16 July 1959: The Street Offences Act (1959) made it an...

National or international item

16 July 1959

The Street Offences Act (1959) made it an offence for a prostitute to loiter or solicit in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1959: 963, 966.
Honore, Tony. Sex Law. Duckworth, 1978.
119

Mary Hays

MH is one of the best-known among the group of radical feminists surrounding Mary Wollstonecraft; she is notable for arguing from emotion, even passion, as well as reason. She wrote two novels, poetry, and a...
Mary Hays Title-page of Mary Hays's "Female Biography", 1803, volume 2.

November 1939: Open Door, a journal about women's employment,...

National or international item

November 1939

Open Door, a journal about women's employment, ended publication.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
50
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
385

October 2018: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change...

Building and people item

October 2018

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) put out a special report entitled Global Warming of 1.5°C.
“Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15). Summary for Policy Makers”. IPCC. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control, Oct. 2018.

Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis

SFG , French aristocrat, royal mistress, and later a political refugee in England, made her mark as an educational theorist and writer for children (plays, stories, and good advice) during the decade leading up to...
Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis Painting of Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1790. She is seated in a green upholstered chair, her arms folded on her lap, one hand holding a small fan. She wears light green gloves, a blue silk dress with layers of neckerchiefs and a lacy bow at the neck. Her curly, powdered hair is partly covered by a lace bonnet with huge silvery bows.

30 March 1730: Henry Fielding's The Author's Farce opened...

Writer or writing item

30 March 1730

Henry Fielding 's The Author's Farce opened at his Little Theatre in the Haymarket , which was currently presenting its first season.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
3: 3, 45

Mary Savage

MS was a later eighteenth-century poet in the Augustan tradition, who says she also wrote a great deal of prose.

1938: British researcher Sir Charles Dodds developed...

Building and people item

1938

British researcher Sir Charles Dodds developed the synthetic estrogen hormone diethylstilboestrol or DES.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
509
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1570: The engraver Abraham Ortelius published the...

Building and people item

1570

The engraver Abraham Ortelius published the first world atlas based on scientific measurements, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; Gerhard Mercator followed with his Atlas, 1585-1595, which gave the genre its current name.
Monmonier, Mark. “Measurements that made the world”. Guardian Weekly, Vol.
168
, No. 13, 20–26 Mar. 2003, p. 30.
30

1780: The comedy The Oaks, or the Beauties of Canterbury by Mrs. Burgess was published

Women writers item

1780

The comedy The Oaks, or the Beauties of Canterbury by Mrs. Burgess was published. Mrs. Burgess is identified in the prologue as a pastry cook with a shop on St. George's Street.
“The last night but two. Benefit of Mrs. Dawes”. Lewis Walpole Library, 1780, https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17337813.
 

July 2010: The United Nations General Assembly created...

Building and people item

July 2010

The United Nations General Assembly created UN Women , an agency charged with promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.
UN Women. 2011, http://www.unwomen.org/.

Maria Theresa Kemble

MTK was an actress and playwright who began her acting career in London at the age of eight and her public career as a writer just before the dawn of the nineteenth century. She wrote...
Maria Theresa Kemble Painting of Maria Theresa Kemble by Samuel de Wilde, in character as the male lover, Patie, in a stage version of Allan Ramsay's Scottish pastoral "The Gentle Shepherd" (which she first played in 1796). She stands in a meadow among mountains, holding a shepherd's crook, dressed in white shirt and trousers, with a tartan jacket, cummerbund, and Scots bonnet sporting a large black feather. Garrick Club.

1920: Carrington painted her portrait E. M. Fo...

Building and people item

1920

Carrington painted her portrait E. M. Forster.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
359

1840-41: Robert Smith Surtees's Handley Cross was...

Writer or writing item

1840-41

Robert Smith Surtees 's Handley Cross was serialised in the New Sporting Magazine; it appeared in three volumes in 1843.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.

July 1851: Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum opened in Middlesex...

Building and people item

July 1851

Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum opened in Middlesex with a potential capacity of 1,250 patients; this institution came to epitomize progressive Victorian psychiatry.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
23-4, 101

21 March 1930: The Popular and Nationalist parties of Iraq...

National or international item

21 March 1930

The Popular and Nationalist parties of Iraq demonstrated against the British (whose mandate to govern the country had been supported by the League of Nations in April 1920).
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 852

1789: During the year following passage of the...

National or international item

1789

During the year following passage of the Slave-Trade Regulation Bill, the House of Commons postponed until next session a decision about abolition; meanwhile a push for regulation as opposed to abolition was gaining ground.
Dickson, Mora. The Powerful Bond: Hannah Kilham 1774-1832. Dobson, 1980.
91