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1889: Harrods (already a leading retail outlet)...

Building and people item

1889

Harrods (already a leading retail outlet) passed from family ownership to become a Limited Liability Company, thus beginning a trend which swept up most of the great department stores.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
234, 240-1

27 October 1832: The weekly Ladies' Penny Gazette, or Mirror...

Writer or writing item

27 October 1832

The weekly Ladies' Penny Gazette, or Mirror of Fashion and Miscellany of Instruction and Amusement began publication in London.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
11

21 March 1716: Elizabeth Powell, whose husband had gone...

Writer or writing item

21 March 1716

Elizabeth Powell , whose husband had gone into hiding after publishing Jacobite material, issued the first and only number of a new periodical, for which she was arrested.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
75-6

9 August 1888: Women's Gazette and Weekly News: A Journal...

Building and people item

9 August 1888

Women's Gazette and Weekly News: A Journal Devoted to the Social and Political Position of Women, and the Official Organ of the Women's Liberal Federation began weekly publication in London and Manchester.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
12, 13

November 1848-December 1850: William Makepeace Thackeray's autobiographical...

Writer or writing item

November 1848-December 1850

William Makepeace Thackeray 's autobiographical novel Pendennis appeared in twenty-four monthly parts, with his own illustrations.
Harden, Edgar F. A Checklist of Contributions by William Makepeace Thackeray to Newspapers, Periodicals, Books, and Serial Part Issues, 1828-1864. English Literary Studies, University of Victoria, 1996.
59-67
Peters, Catherine. Thackeray’s Universe: Shifting Worlds of Imagination and Reality. Oxford University Press, 1987.
194

20 August 1867: The Agricultural Gangs Act was passed, prohibiting...

National or international item

20 August 1867

The Agricultural Gangs Act was passed, prohibiting the mixing of sexes in work gangs and the employment of children under the age of eight in public work gangs; the Act also required gangmasters to be...

Matilda Betham-Edwards

Over the course of a career spanning the later nineteenth century and the opening decades of the twentieth, MBE maintained a phenomenally high publishing output and covered most viable genres. She was best known for...
Matilda Betham-Edwards Oval photograph of Matilda Betham-Edwards, c. 1893, looking straight forward with a dreamy smile. She is wearing a high collared dress with a pendant cross, and her hair, grey in front, is arranged tightly on top of her head. Her signature is reproduced below: "Yours truly, M. Betham-Edwards".

January 2010: The Simone de Beauvoir prize for women's...

Building and people item

January 2010

The Simone de Beauvoir prize for women's liberty was awarded jointly to two Chinese women, Guo Jianmei , a lawyer, and Ai Xiaoming , a film-maker and professor of comparative literature.
Kristeva, Julia. “Women’s rights falter in China”. Guardian Weekly, 24 June 2011, p. 24.
24

17 November 1881: Professor David Ferrier was unsuccessfuly...

Building and people item

17 November 1881

Professor David Ferrier was unsuccessfuly tried for unlicensed vivisection under the recent Cruelty to Animals Act.
Collins, Wilkie. Heart and Science. Chatto and Windus, 1883, 3 vols.
15-16, 365

1845: The Bradford Long Pledge Association, a working-class...

Building and people item

1845

The Bradford Long Pledge Association , a working-class teetotal society, boasted 500 reformed drunks among its 2000 members.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
23, 31

10 July 1553: Lady Jane Grey (who descended through her...

National or international item

10 July 1553

Lady Jane Grey (who descended through her mother from Henry VIII 's sister Mary ) acceded to the throne of England.
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
261
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

26 November 1891: A private command performance of Mascagni's...

Building and people item

26 November 1891

A private command performance of Mascagni 's Cavalleria Rusticana was presented at Windsor Castle for Queen Victoria .
Drogheda, Charles Garrett Ponsonby Moore, Earl of et al. The Covent Garden Album: 250 Years of Theatre, Opera, and Ballet. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
97

February 1877: The Senate of St Andrews University established...

Building and people item

February 1877

The Senate of St Andrews University established a distance qualification for women: the Licentiate, or LA, of equal standard to the MA (which was and is in Scotland a first degree).
Bell, Robert, b. 1930, and Malcolm Tight. Open Universities: A British Tradition? Open University Press, 1993.
76

July 1780: Robert Raikes opened his first Sunday sc...

National or international item

July 1780

Robert Raikes opened his first Sunday school.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Laqueur, Thomas. Religion and Respectability. Yale University Press, 1976.
21-6
This inaccuracy persists although the Dictionary of National Biography specifically says Raikes's school was not the first.

27 March 1960: The first transmission of colour television...

National or international item

27 March 1960

The first transmission of colour television between Paris and London was demonstrated at the Institution of Electrical Engineers.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
390

November 1873: The Home Government Association became the...

National or international item

November 1873

The Home Government Association became the Irish Home Rule League ; the new league asserted the Irish right to self-governance, and pressed for a domestic parliament as well as a federal relationship between Dublin and London.
Morton, Grenfell. Home Rule and the Irish Question. Longman, 1980.
14

10 August 1866: Another Industrial Schools Act allowed the...

National or international item

10 August 1866

Another Industrial Schools Act allowed the removal of children from mothers twice convicted of crimes.
Zedner, Lucia. Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England. Clarendon, 1991, http://U of A HSS.
148
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

1804: The publisher George, George, and John Robinson,...

Writer or writing item

1804

The publisher George, George, and John Robinson , whose list of women writers had been distinguished, went bankrupt.
Burney, Sarah Harriet. The Letters of Sarah Harriet Burney. Editor Clark, Lorna J., University of Georgia Press, 1997.
93 n1

22 August 1791: Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola:...

National or international item

22 August 1791

Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola: in the French-speaking part of the island (now called Haiti while the other part is called the Dominican Republic). This (also known as Sainte-Domingue or Santo Domingo)...

1818: A Select Committee of the House of Commons...

Writer or writing item

1818

A Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended that the eleven free copies of books which publishers were currently obliged to provide for the Copyright Libraries be limited to a single copy for the...

18 June 1744: John Newbery advertised his Little Pretty...

Building and people item

18 June 1744

John Newbery advertised his Little Pretty Pocket Book, one of the first books aimed at delighting children while instructing them.
Demers, Patricia, and Robert Gordon Moyles, editors. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children’s Literature to 1850. Oxford University Press, 1982.
104
O’Malley, Andrew. “The Coach and Six: Chapbook Residue in Late Eighteenth-Century Children’s Literature”. The Lion and The Unicorn, Vol.
24
, 2000, pp. 18-44.
22-3, 38n5
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
445

1976: The East Sussex Fire Brigade hired Mary Joy...

Building and people item

1976

The East Sussex Fire Brigade hired Mary Joy Langdon , making her the first woman fierfighter in Britain.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

29 October 1929: The Times published Printing in the Twentieth...

Writer or writing item

29 October 1929

The Times published Printing in the Twentieth Century, a review of technical progress in printing.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
179
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.

17 March 1740: A warrant was issued for the arrest of William...

Writer or writing item

17 March 1740

A warrant was issued for the arrest of William Guthrie , a writer for the Opposition periodicals Common Sense and Old England.
Clark, Jonathan Charles Douglas. Samuel Johnson: Literature, religion and English cultural politics from Restoration to Romanticism. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
149

1811-53: The French Biographie Universelle appeared...

Writer or writing item

1811-53

The French Biographie Universelle appeared in 53 volumes, covering an international range of subjects: on this George Smith first modelled, in 1882, his plan for an English Dictionary of National Biography.
Holland, Peter. “Sidney Lee as Biographer of Shakespeare”. Early Modern Lives: Biography and Autobiography, Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Conference, London, 27 June 2002.