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1872: The Dolly Varden hat, named for the coquette...

Building and people item

1872

The Dolly Varden hat, named for the coquette of Dickens 's Barnaby Rudge, made its first appearance.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
97

May 2009: The BBC aimed to demonstrate that poetry...

Writer or writing item

May 2009

The BBC aimed to demonstrate that poetry is for everyone in a series launched this month: it succeeded in that sales of poetry soared in Britain.
Crown, Sarah. “The Week in Books”. The Guardian, 27 June 2009, p. Review 5.
Review 5

1836: American T. Daddy Rice introduced the black...

Building and people item

1836

American T. Daddy Rice introduced the black minstrelsy song Jim Crow to the London stage.
Bratton, Jacqueline S., editor. Music Hall: Performance and Style. Open University Press, 1986.
73-4

After 15 May 1930: The world's first airline stewardesses (all...

National or international item

After 15 May 1930

The world's first airline stewardesses (all eight of them nurses) worked for the American firm Boeing Air Transport (later United Airlines ) for three years before other airlines adopted the idea.
Hudson, Kenneth. Air Travel: A Social History. Adams and Dart, 1972.
43
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
461

30 October 1909: Rose Lamartine Yates planted a tree in Annie's...

National or international item

30 October 1909

Rose Lamartine Yates planted a tree in Annie's Arboretum (named from Annie Kenney ), a commemorative landscape project begun by Emily and Mary Blathwayt at their home, Eagle House at Batheaston, which offered refuge...

10 August 1956: The first piloted flight into the stratosphere...

National or international item

10 August 1956

The first piloted flight into the stratosphere was made by Lt Cdr Malcolm Ross and Lt Cdr Lee Lewis in a polyethylene balloon.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
270

2 January 1783: The Daily Advertiser printed a spoof account...

Building and people item

2 January 1783

The Daily Advertiser printed a spoof account that George Washington was really a cross-dressed woman, on the supposed model of the chevalier d'Éon.
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.
47n144

18 September 1867: Fenians staged an attack in Manchester on...

Building and people item

18 September 1867

Fenians staged an attack in Manchester on a police van to gain the release of two Fenian prisoners who were arrested the week before; a policeman was killed. Later five men were tried for murder...

Geraldine Jewsbury

During her life, Geraldine Jewsbury wrote six novels and two books for children. Widely published in Victorian periodicals, she was a respected reviewer, editor, and translator. Her periodical publications ranged from theatre reviews, short fiction...
Geraldine Jewsbury Head-and-shoulders photograph of Geraldine Jewsbury. She is wearing a dark, hooded cloak, with a light lace collar and a rose-shaped fastener. Her dark wavy hair is pulled back. Her full signature is reproduced underneath: "Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury".

1600: 15-20% of the English population were reckoned...

Writer or writing item

1600

15-20% of the English population were reckoned to be literate.
Hunter, J. Paul. Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth Century English Fiction. W. W. Norton, 1990.
66

1887: The monthly Atalanta: Every Girl's Magazine...

Writer or writing item

1887

The monthly Atalanta: Every Girl's Magazine began publication.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
32

5 February 1637: At the height of the tulip craze, a single...

Building and people item

5 February 1637

At the height of the tulip craze, a single bulb sold at auction in Amsterdam for 5,400 guilders.
Julius, Anthony. “Bloom Merchants”. Guardian Weekly, 24 Jan. 1999, p. 29.
29

By June 1797: The unidentified Mrs Carver published one...

Women writers item

By June 1797

The unidentified Mrs Carver published one of her two novels this year with the Minerva Press : Elizabeth. The other is the distinctly gruesome The Horrors of Oakendale Abbey.
Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols.
1: 709-10, 741; 2: 111

September-December 1745: At least fifty-seven local associations of...

National or international item

September-December 1745

At least fifty-seven local associations of concerned citizens in England and Wales banded together for armed resistance to the invading Jacobite army.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
81, 376

1593: London began keeping weekly Bills of Mortality:...

Building and people item

1593

London began keeping weekly Bills of Mortality: registers of deaths and their supposed causes, parish by parish.
Defoe, Daniel. Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe. Editor Shugrue, Michael F., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
330

1842: Accoucheur Protheroe Smith wrote a circular...

Building and people item

1842

Accoucheur Protheroe Smith wrote a circular entitled Medical Testimony on the Expediency of Establishing a Hospital for the Diseases of Women; it was established the following year.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
82-5

Toni Morrison

TM 's eleven novels give her a place as one of the major American novelists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her books of non-fiction—speeches and essays on social and literary topics— give her an...
Toni Morrison Head-shot in colour of Toni Morrison with a big smile. She is wearing red lipstick, gold earrings, and a black jacket over a leopard-spotted shirt. Her hair is short and grey.

24 May 1855: On this date, The London Times contained...

Building and people item

24 May 1855

On this date, The London Times contained 2,575 advertisements within its sixteen pages.
Fenstermaker, John J. “Thomas Carlyle, Popular Advertising, and the Commerical Spirit in Victorian England”. Studies in Popular Culture, Vol.
15
, No. 1, 1992, pp. 25-36.
29

June 1976: Demonstrations in the Black township of Soweto,...

National or international item

June 1976

Demonstrations in the Black township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, were met with police brutality.
Marx, Anthony W. Lessons of Struggle: South African Internal Opposition, 1960-1990. Oxford University Press, 1992.
66-9

John Oliver Hobbes

Writing for a brief period at the turn of the twentieth century, the pseudonymous JOH (whose actual married name was Pearl Craigie ) was the author of over a dozen novellas, novels, and several plays...
John Oliver Hobbes Sepia toned photograph of John Oliver Hobbes, shown from the shoulders up. Her dark wavy hair is pulled back, and she wears small, white, circular stud earrings.

March 1931: The government of Iraq granted by Principal...

National or international item

March 1931

The government of Iraq granted by Principal Agreement to the Iraq Petroleum Company or IPC (a consortium of English, French, and US oil companies constituted in 1928) 32,000 square miles of Iraqi territory.
Boal, Iain et al. “Blood for Oil?”. London Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2005, pp. 12-16.
14

11 November 1975: The Labour Government was dismissed in A...

National or international item

11 November 1975

The Labour Government was dismissed in Australia.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
266

By June 1753: There was published anonymously Hypatia;...

Building and people item

By June 1753

There was published anonymously Hypatia ; or, the history of a most beautiful, most virtuous, most learned, and every way accomplished lady.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
8: 510

1 December 1918: One of the many post-war treaties set up...

National or international item

1 December 1918

One of the many post-war treaties set up a combined kingdom of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia: in January 1929 this became known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Murphy, Dervla. Through the Embers of Chaos. J. Murray, 2002.
xvi

April 1990: Illustrated by Will Maclean, The Chanters...

Women writers item

April 1990

Illustrated by Will Maclean , The Chanters Tune by Valerie Gillies appeared.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
“Bowker’s Global Books in Print”. globalbooksinprint.com.