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7 September 1765: Lloyd's Evening Post reported that the chevalier...

Building and people item

7 September 1765

Lloyd's Evening Post reported that the chevalier d'Éon and John Wilkes had each been attacked by six ruffians in the streets of London.
Clark, Anna. “The Chevalier d’Eon and Wilkes: Masculinity and Politics in the Eighteenth Century”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 1998, pp. 19-48.
23, 19

June to 11 November 1647: Charles I was held captive in his palace...

National or international item

June to 11 November 1647

Charles I was held captive in his palace at Hampton Court by Cromwell 's armies.
Cannon, John, editor. The Oxford Companion to British History. Revised edition, Oxford University Press, 2002.
189-90
Purkiss, Diane. The English Civil War, A People’s History. Harper Perennial, 2007.
459

1855: When Napoleon III and his wife, the Empress...

National or international item

1855

When Napoleon III and his wife, the Empress Eugénie , visited Queen Victoria , Eugénie brought the first crinoline to England with her.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
227

1904: Aliens of the West, by Charlotte O'Conor...

Women writers item

1904

Aliens of the West, by Charlotte O'Conor Eccles writing as The Author of The Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore, was published by Cassell .
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.

1832: The Christian Lady's Friend and Family Repository,...

Writer or writing item

1832

The Christian Lady's Friend and Family Repository, a monthly for women, began publication in London; it lasted only one year.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
3

1906: The coachman in the family of Winifred Knox...

Building and people item

1906

The coachman in the family of Winifred Knox (later Peck) pronounced on the subject of cars: Them things won't last; just a fad they are; won't last!
Peck, Winifred. Home for the Holidays. Faber and Faber, 1955.
74

7 June 1810: William Charles Macready (son of an actress...

Building and people item

7 June 1810

William Charles Macready (son of an actress and an actor-manager) began his successful acting career as Romeo in a performance in Birmingham; he became a specialist in Shakespeare an roles.
“William Charles Macready (1793-1873)”. Theatre Database.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Violet Hunt

Known mainly as a popular novelist, VH also published book and theatre reviews, translations, short stories, non-fiction, memoirs, and a biography. Her publishing career covers the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Though often initially...

30 March 1790: An advertisement appeared in The World inviting...

Building and people item

30 March 1790

An advertisement appeared in The World inviting benevolent persons to subscribe for the benefit of a recent widow of a major in the British Army , left with Seven Children without any means of support.
Behrendt, Stephen C. “Women without Men: Barbara Hofland and the Economics of Widowhood”. Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Vol.
17
, No. 3, Apr. 2005, pp. 481-08.
481

Roger Fry

RF was an art critic and art historian who during the earlier part of the twentieth century was deeply influential in turning British art towards modernism.

1845: After this date, female Methodist preachers...

Building and people item

1845

After this date, female Methodist preachers were very rare.
Owen, Alex. The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Nineteenth-Century England. Virago, 1989.
15

28 March 1702: Early in her reign Queen Anne issued a proclamation...

Building and people item

28 March 1702

Early in her reign Queen Anne issued a proclamation against anyone printing, publishing, or circulating seditious papers and libels.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
241n36

16 August 1845-29 May 1846: Frederick Douglass, ex-slave and anti-slavery...

Building and people item

16 August 1845-29 May 1846

Frederick Douglass , ex-slave and anti-slavery campaigner, visited Britain: Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Little, Brown, 1980.
24, 28, 35
Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass on Women’s Rights. Editor Foner, Philip S., Greenwood Press, 1976.
10
Halbersleben, Karen I. Women’s Participation in the British Antislavery Movement, 1824-1865. Edwin Mellen Press, 1993.
191

1929: The publishing firm of Faber and Gwyer became...

Writer or writing item

1929

The publishing firm of Faber and Gwyer became Faber and Faber, when the Gwyer family pulled out.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Geoffrey Faber

1853: The formal association of the Pre-Raphaelite...

Building and people item

1853

The formal association of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was dissolved; however, the movement persisted in various forms until the end of the century.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
13

Late November 1717: Edmund Curll published The Ladies Miscellany,...

Building and people item

Late November 1717

Edmund Curll published The Ladies Miscellany, an anthology of poems chiefly about dress, bearing the date 1718.
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.
Baines, Paul, and Pat Rogers. Edmund Curll, Bookseller. Clarendon Press, 2007.
108

Fanny Aikin Kortright

FAK , writing through the later half of the nineteenth century, was primarily known as a sensation novelist. Her books were regularly noticed, though not flatteringly, in the Athenæum. Her first publication was a...

25 November 1913: The Irish Volunteers were established at...

National or international item

25 November 1913

The Irish Volunteers were established at a meeting at the Rotunda Rink in Dublin, using a name from an earlier period of Irish nationalist ferment—that of the short-lived, late-eighteenth-century Dublin parliament.
Foster, Robert Fitzroy. Modern Ireland 1600-1972. Allen Lane, 1988.
612
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
348

Virginia Woolf

Thousands of readers over three or four generations have known that Virginia Woolf was—by a beadle—denied access to the library of a great university. They may have known, too, that she was a leading intellect...

16 October 1896: A conference of delegates from twenty suffrage...

National or international item

16 October 1896

A conference of delegates from twenty suffrage groups based in England, Scotland, and Ireland met in Birmingham to co-ordinate efforts to achieve women's suffrage.
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
5

3 March 1592: The first part of William Shakespeare's Henry...

Writer or writing item

3 March 1592

The first part of William Shakespeare 's Henry VI (not, however, the first part to be written) probably had its opening performance.
Kay, Dennis. Shakespeare: His Life, Work, and Era. William Morrow, 1992.
11, 97-8

1791: Flogging was abolished for female prisoners...

Building and people item

1791

Flogging was abolished for female prisoners in Bridewell in London.
Weinreb, Ben, and Christopher Hibbert, editors. The London Encyclopaedia. Macmillan, 1983.
87

18 December 1912: The Geological Society in London made public...

Building and people item

18 December 1912

The Geological Society in London made public the discovery, by an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson , of fragments of a fossil skull and jawbone attributed to Piltdown Man, a missing link in the...

Harriet Shaw Weaver

HSW wrote reviews and leaders for the influential little magazine The Egoist while she was its editor. She wrote historical surveys of philosophical concepts of time and space, but neither of these was ever published...

10 December 1884: The Representation of the People Act, sometimes...

National or international item

10 December 1884

The Representation of the People Act, sometimes called the Third Reform Act, extended the male-only franchise.
Craig, Fred W. S. British Electoral Facts 1832-1987. 5th ed., Parliamentary Research Services, 1989.
179
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714-1980. Longman, 1983.
61
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
309