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1850: From this date, anaesthetic was regularly...

Building and people item

1850

From this date, anaesthetic was regularly used in the practice of gynaecology, gaining wide popularity after 1870.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
126

Margaret Roberts

MR wrote from youth until old age, mostly during the later nineteenth century. She usually remained anonymous, though she did eventually give permission to the firm of Tauchnitz to put her name on some of...

8 June 1946: Britain's Victory Parade marking the end...

National or international item

8 June 1946

Britain's Victory Parade marking the end of the Second World War was televised by the BBC .
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
379

1938: The Grace Darling National Memorial Museum...

Building and people item

1938

The Grace Darling National Memorial Museum opened in Bamburgh, Northumberland, to honour the near-legendary Victorian heroine of rescue at sea, six years after Constance Smedley published her biography of Darling .
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
“Grace Darling National Memorial Museum, Bamburgh”. Discover the Borders: Museums.

5 October 1760: A party of English dragoons beat up the Scottish...

Building and people item

5 October 1760

A party of English dragoons beat up the Scottish couple who kept the toll-gate between East Lothian and Mid-Lothian.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
118-19

17 November 1558: Queen Mary I died, and Elizabeth I assumed...

National or international item

17 November 1558

Queen Mary I died, and Elizabeth I assumed the throne of England and Wales.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
43
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
264
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
152
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
425

30 September 1885: H. Rider Haggard published his first successful...

Writer or writing item

30 September 1885

H. Rider Haggard published his first successful adventure novel, King Solomon's Mines (which he said he wrote in six weeks to win a bet with his brother that he could equal Stevenson 's Treasure Island...

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

26 February 1731: Elizabeth Rayner, having had her pamphlet...

Building and people item

26 February 1731

Elizabeth Rayner , having had her pamphlet shop at Charing Cross raided for libels, challenged the raiders in a newspaper advertisement to prove their legal authority, or she would take legal redress.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
110-11

24 October 1897: Francis Turner Palgrave, poet, critic, and...

Writer or writing item

24 October 1897

Francis Turner Palgrave , poet, critic, and anthologist, died.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
35
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1816: John Reeves, a tea inspector with the East...

Building and people item

1816

John Reeves , a tea inspector with the East India Company , sent the first wisteria plant from China to England.
Lively, Penelope. A House Unlocked. Penguin, 2002.
118

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

21 May 1839: The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway was completed,...

Building and people item

21 May 1839

The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway was completed, becoming England's first coast-to-coast railway.
Simmons, Jack. The Railway in England and Wales 1830-1914. Leicester University Press, 1978.
30
Ellis, Hamilton. British Railway History: An Outline from the Accession of William IV to the Nationalisation of Railways 1830-1876. George Allen and Unwin, 1954.
43

16 January 1605: Miguel de Cervantes published at Madrid the...

Writer or writing item

16 January 1605

Miguel de Cervantes published at Madrid the first part of his immensely influential mock-romance Don Quixote; copies reached England by the summer.
Ungerer, Gustav. “Recovering Unrecorded Quixote Allusions in Ephemeral English Publications of the late 1650s”. Bodleian Library Record, Vol.
xvii
, No. 1, Apr. 2000, pp. 65-9.
65
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
16 January 2009

Percy Bysshe Shelley

PBS is one of the six major (male) English Romantic poets.
Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley, in an engraving by William Finden from a head-and-shoulders portrait by Amelia Curran, 1819. Shelley is gazing slightly to the left, wearing a dark jacket over a white open-necked shirt, and holding a quill. His signature is reproduced below.

January 1932: Oswald Mosley, leader of the recent, short-lived...

National or international item

January 1932

Oswald Mosley , leader of the recent, short-lived British New Party , made a visit to Mussolini in Italy.
Bradshaw, David. “Mrs. Dalloway’s Forgotten Fronts: Figuring the War and Memorializing the Dead”. Voyages Out, Voyages Home: The Eleventh Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, Bangor, 15 June 2001.

November 1906: The Women's Suffrage Record, edited by Edith...

Building and people item

November 1906

The Women's Suffrage Record, edited by Edith Palliser , ceased publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
22

1971: The Misuse of Drugs Act criminalised not...

Building and people item

1971

The Misuse of Drugs Act criminalised not only trading in but also possession of recreational drugs in Britain; it enacted law which was regularly broken by a high proportion of younger citizens.
Humphreys, Hope. “Cannabis”. The Independent on Sunday, 15 July 2001, p. Focus 15.
Focus 15

1 September 1931: The United States broke from the Anglo-American...

National or international item

1 September 1931

The United States broke from the Anglo-American postal agreement of 1908 by increasing postal rates to the United Kingdom.
Staff, Frank. The Penny Post, 1680-1918. Lutterworth Press, 1964.
211

July 1859: Napoleon III of France and Francis Joseph...

National or international item

July 1859

Napoleon III of France and Francis Joseph of Austria signed the Treaty of Villafranca.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
230, 234

1841: The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew were made...

Building and people item

1841

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew were made a public botanical garden.
Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
152

1952: Oxford University ceased to use a separate...

Building and people item

1952

Oxford University ceased to use a separate class-list for women's examination results.
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
348
Brittain, Vera. The Women at Oxford. George G. Harrap, 1960.
236

By 28 July 1883: George Meredith published Poems and Lyrics...

Writer or writing item

By 28 July 1883

George Meredith published Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2909 (1883): 103

1931: Woman Clerk: the Organ of the Association...

Building and people item

1931

Woman Clerk: the Organ of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries ceased publication.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
43
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
602

28 January 1547: King Henry VIII died, and the youngest of...

National or international item

28 January 1547

King Henry VIII died, and the youngest of his children (the only boy among them) assumed the throne of England and Wales as Edward VI .
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
42-3
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 77