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March 1929: The last issue of Working Woman, a Communist...

National or international item

March 1929

The last issue of Working Woman, a Communist Party paper, was published in London.
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
617

19 April 1982: Étienne-émile Baulieu, a French biochemist,...

Building and people item

19 April 1982

Étienne-émile Baulieu , a French biochemist, announced RU 486, popularly known as the abortion pill or the morning after pill.
Asbell, Bernard. The Pill: A Biography of the Drug that Changed the World. Random House, 1995.
350
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
692

April 1936: The League of Nations mounted an investigation...

National or international item

April 1936

The League of Nations mounted an investigation into Italy's alleged use of poison gas in its invasion of Ethiopia (violating the 1925 Geneva Protocol).
Waal, Alex de. “Dangers of Discretion”. London Review of Books, 21 Jan. 1999, pp. 27-9.
27-8

Late 1692: A Lottery Act was proposed to raise a million...

Building and people item

Late 1692

A Lottery Act was proposed to raise a million pounds for expenses incurred in the Nine Years War.
Defoe, Daniel. Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe. Editor Shugrue, Michael F., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
322
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680-1780. University of California Press, 1996.
179

5 November 1757: Britain's ally Frederick II had the first...

National or international item

5 November 1757

Britain's ally Frederick II had the first of two unexpected victories, at Rossbach near Halle in Germany.
Furneaux, Rupert. The Seven Years War. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1973.
55

1792: The Evangelical Henry Thornton bought a house...

Building and people item

1792

The EvangelicalHenry Thornton bought a house on Battersea Rise, Clapham, South London: from this came the name of the Clapham Sect .
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

9 October 2009: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US President...

National or international item

9 October 2009

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US President Barack Obamafor his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, especially as regards nuclear weapons.
“The Nobel Peace Prize 2009”. Nobelprize.org, 9 Oct. 2009.

13 September 1742: Frances Williams wrote a letter of pure anger...

Building and people item

13 September 1742

Frances Williams wrote a letter of pure anger to her husband , who had hinted that she must have infected him with venereal disease when it was actually the other way round.
Stewart, Mary Margaret. “’And Blights with Plagues the Marriage Hearse’: Syphilis and Wives”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 103-13.
106-10

1909: The Women's Social Services opened a new...

Building and people item

1909

The Women's Social Services opened a new maternity hospital in Hackney near London.
Higginbotham, Ann R. “Respectable Sinners: Salvation Army Rescue Work with Unmarried Mothers, 1884-1914”. Religion in the Lives of English Women, 1760-1930, edited by Gail Malmgreen, Indiana University Press, 1986, pp. 216-33.
219

8 September 1705: On this day, according to Defoe's True Relation...

Building and people item

8 September 1705

On this day, according to Defoe 's True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal (published next year), the phantom of a young woman who had just died paid a call on a friend.
Defoe, Daniel. The Earlier Life and Chief Earlier Works of Daniel Defoe. Editor Morley, Henry, 1822 - 1894, George Routledge, 1889.
435-6

Kate Greenaway

KG was a writer and artist who worked primarily at illustrating books for children during the Victorian era. Her career took off with the publication of Under the Window, a children's book of verse...
Kate Greenaway Low resolution sepia photo of Kate Greenaway. She is wearing a striped, buttoned dress with a white collar, sitting in a chair with pen and paper in her hands, beside a desk with, apparently, more writing materials. Her hair is in short curls in front with a bun behind.

1672: Puritan Nonconformist James Janeway published,...

Building and people item

1672

Puritan Nonconformist James Janeway published, for children, A Token for Children: Being an Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children (of both sexes).
Janeway, James. A Token for Children. Dorman Newman, 1676.
Demers, Patricia, and Robert Gordon Moyles, editors. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children’s Literature to 1850. Oxford University Press, 1982.
42-4

July 1888: One thousand four hundred women workers at...

National or international item

July 1888

One thousand four hundred women workers at the Bryant and May match factory in London went on strike, in protest against poor working conditions and low wages; this became known as the Match Girls (or...

1887: James McNeill Whistler was elected president...

Building and people item

1887

James McNeill Whistler was elected president of the Society of British Artists .
Spencer, Robin. The Aesthetic Movement: Theory and Practice. Studio Vista, 1972.
113

11 July 1789: Louis XVI dismissed Necker from the post...

National or international item

11 July 1789

Louis XVI dismissed Necker from the post of Director of Finances and Minister of State.
Kafker, Frank A., and James M. Laux, editors. The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations. 4th ed., R. E. Krieger, 1989.
x
Soboul, Albert. The French Revolution 1787-1799. Translators Forrest, Alan and Colin Jones, Vintage, 1975.
137-41
Lefebvre, Georges. “A Series of Class Revolts”. The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations, edited by Frank A. Kafker et al., 4th Edition, R. E. Krieger, 1989, pp. 3-33.
20, 26-7

23 February 1950: The General Election brought 84 percent of...

National or international item

23 February 1950

The General Election brought 84 percent of the British electorate out to vote. The BBC aired the first televised report of results of this election.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
381
Schott, Ben. Schott’s Original Miscellany. Bloomsbury, 2002.
102
McKibbin, Ross. “Not Pleasing the Tidy-Minded”. London Review of Books, Vol.
30
, No. 8, 24 Apr. 2008, pp. 30-1.
31
Johnson, R. W. “Already a Member”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 17, 11 Sept. 2014, pp. 31-2.
32

23 February 1854: In the Convention of Bloemfontein, the British...

National or international item

23 February 1854

In the Convention of Bloemfontein, the British relinquished jurisdiction over the Orange River, and the Orange Free State was formed.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 620, 694
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Modern World: 1763 to the Present Time. David McKay, 1967.
224

1959: Psychologist R. D. Laing published his hugely...

Writer or writing item

1959

Psychologist R. D. Laing published his hugely influential The Divided Self. A Study of Sanity and Madness.
Dinnage, Rosemary. “Streamlined Smiles”. London Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2000, pp. 32-3.
33
British Book News. British Council.
(1960): 547

23 June 2016: By a narrow margin (about 52% to 48%) the...

National or international item

23 June 2016

By a narrow margin (about 52% to 48%) the British electorate voted for Brexit: that is, to take Britain out of the European Union .
“EU referendum: full results and analysis”. theguardian.com, 24 June 2016.

10 April 1827: George Canning, a Tory, became Prime Minister...

National or international item

10 April 1827

George Canning , a Tory, became Prime Minister after Lord Liverpool had a stroke.
Parry, Jonathan. The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain. Yale University Press, 1993.
44, 312
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714-1980. Longman, 1983.
50

By 1495: A syphilis epidemic began raging through...

Building and people item

By 1495

A syphilis epidemic began raging through Europe. (It was then known as the pox, from the noticeable symptoms of one stage in the disease's progress, and was not to be generally called syphilis...

24 July 1950: Obscenity cases began in the seaside resort...

Writer or writing item

24 July 1950

Obscenity cases began in the seaside resort of Blackpool, against several bookshops and a shop selling birth control supplies and educational material.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
108

March 1848: Chartist uprisings took place in London,...

National or international item

March 1848

Chartist uprisings took place in London, Glasgow, and Manchester.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
40-3

January 1814: Exceptionally cold weather led to a celebratory...

Building and people item

January 1814

Exceptionally cold weather led to a celebratory ice fair on the frozen Thames at London, with ox-roasts on the ice.
Douglass, Paul. Lady Caroline Lamb. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
156

10 May 1933: Following a speech from Joseph Goebbels,...

Building and people item

10 May 1933

Following a speech from Joseph Goebbels , over 40,000 people participated in burning books to cleanse German literature and root out Jewish intellectualism.
Bernard, Bruce, editor. Century. Phaidon, 2002.
313, 347
“Book Burning”. Holocaust Encyclopedia.
“Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings”. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.