Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

1904: British troops under Sir Francis Younghusband...

National or international item

1904

British troops under Sir Francis Younghusband invaded Tibet (nominally under Chinese rule but feared to be leaning towards Russia); 2,000 Tibetans died in the invasion, as against forty British soldiers.
Macfarlane, Robert. “The Nominated Boy”. London Review of Books, 29 Nov. 2001, pp. 30-2.
30

8 October 1755: The expulsion began of about 14,000 French...

National or international item

8 October 1755

The expulsion began of about 14,000 French settlers from Acadia, an area covering what is now part of the Canadian Maritime provinces and also some of New England.

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

By about 1825: The number of commercially-produced Valentine...

Building and people item

By about 1825

The number of commercially-produced Valentine cards or messages sent in mid-decade in London alone had reached about 200,000.
Flynn, Amanda. “Sweet and Sour Commodities: Nineteenth-Century Valentines in the John Johnson Collection of Ephemera”. Bodleian Library Record, Vol.
23
, No. 1, Apr. 2010, pp. 64-9.
65

16 August 1972: Five years after May Hobbs began a strike...

National or international item

16 August 1972

Five years after May Hobbs began a strike of night cleaners at the Ministry of Defence (supported by the civil servant trade union and others, and by feminist sympathisers), management agreed to the women's demands...

Between 1997 and 2002: Numbers of people in prison in Britain rose...

National or international item

Between 1997 and 2002

Numbers of people in prison in Britain rose steeply: the male prison population rose by 14% (and that of black men by 41%) but the steepest rise was that of women: a 61% increase.
FitzGerald, Marian. “The Enemy”. London Review of Books, 18 Dec. 2003, pp. 8-10.
9

November 1919: The Woman's Outlook: a Popular Magazine devoted...

Building and people item

November 1919

The Woman's Outlook: a Popular Magazine devoted to Woman's Interests in all Spheres and Phases of Life, which combined general interest, home hints, and socialist-feminist political articles, began publication in Manchester It ran until...

28 October 1998: Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate and widower of...

Writer or writing item

28 October 1998

Ted Hughes , Poet Laureate and widower of Sylvia Plath , died.
The Ted Hughes Homepage. 26 May 2011, http://web.archive.org/web/20091028202301/http://www.zeta.org.au/~annskea/THHome.htm.

1933: The businessman Frank Pick succeeded in bringing...

Building and people item

1933

The businessman Frank Pick succeeded in bringing together the many privately-owned underground railway lines in London under the management of a body to be called London Transport .
Saint, Andrew. “Diary”. London Review of Books, 20 Jan. 2000, pp. 40-1.
40
Taylor, Sheila, and Oliver Green. The Moving Metropolis: a History of London’s Transport since 1800. Laurence King, 2001.

11 May 1992: The sentence for terrorist killing which...

National or international item

11 May 1992

The sentence for terrorist killing which had kept Judith Ward in prison for eighteen years was overturned on appeal.
“1974: M62 bomber jailed for life”. BBC News: On This Day. 4 November, 4 Nov. 1974.

Probably 1873: Isabella Tod founded the North of Ireland...

Building and people item

Probably 1873

Isabella Tod founded the North of Ireland Women's Suffrage Society , the first Irish suffrage group.
Murphy, Cliona. The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Irish Society in the Early Twentieth Century. Temple University Press, 1989.
17-18

17 August 1847: The duchesse de Praslin was murdered by her...

Building and people item

17 August 1847

The duchesse de Praslin was murdered by her husband in their home in Paris. He attempted to conceal his guilt, then took poison and died during his trial.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
833
Carter, Kathryn. “The Cultural Work of Diaries in Mid-Century Victorian Britain”. Victorian Review, Vol.
23
, No. 2, 1 Dec. 1997–28 Feb. 1998, pp. 251-67.
261

3 May 1926: The General Strike began in England: all...

National or international item

3 May 1926

The General Strike began in England: all transport workers, as well as those in the heavy industries, the printing and building trades, and gas and electricity companies walked off the job in support of miners...

June 1848: Serbs in southern Hungary revolted against...

National or international item

June 1848

Serbs in southern Hungary revolted against the new Hungarian government.
Deák, István. “Lawful Revolutions and the Many Meanings of Freedom in the Habsburg Monarchy”. Revolution and the Meanings of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Isser Woloch, Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 280-14.
298

1984: With the attainment of suffrage by Liechtensteinian...

National or international item

1984

With the attainment of suffrage by Liechtensteinian women, all countries in Europe now allowed women to vote.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

1898: Frank Karslake founded the Guild of Women...

National or international item

1898

Frank Karslake founded the Guild of Women Binders , which operated as a loosely-knit federation of women bookbinders from various craft groups. It ran until 1904.
Gertz, Stephen J. “The Guild of Women Binders: Bound to be Great”. Booktryst, A Nest for Book Lovers, 25 Oct. 2011.

Shena Mackay

SM had published by the close of the twentieth century ten novels and several short-story collections. She has also edited anthologies and written poetry, and she reviews for newspapers. She is highly popular as well...
Shena Mackay Portrait of Shena Mackay. She has cropped white hair with bangs, and wears an orange cardigan. Her arms are crossed in front of her, and she holds her glasses in her left hand. The background is a dark teal.

17 July-2 August 1945: The Potsdam Conference convened to plan the...

National or international item

17 July-2 August 1945

The Potsdam Conference convened to plan the Allied occupation of Germany and the enactment of principles agreed on at the Yalta Conference.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
235
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
830, 836-41

4 August 1944: The Dutch Jewish family of Otto Frank, including...

National or international item

4 August 1944

The Dutch Jewish family of Otto Frank , including fifteen-year old Anne Frank , were betrayed to the Gestapo after more than two years of hiding in their secret annexe above the offices at 263...

Annabella Plumptre

Romantic-era writer AP 's career shadowed that of her probably better-known sister Anne ; but after novels and translations she turned to domestic and children's literature instead of to travel and political writing.

May 1977: An explosion in a 70-metre shaft sunk in...

National or international item

May 1977

An explosion in a 70-metre shaft sunk in the cliff at Dounreay nuclear plant, releasing large quantities of radioactivity.
Guardian Weekly.
(14 December 1997): 8

24 April 1954: In response to the Mau Mau movement's murders...

National or international item

24 April 1954

In response to the Mau Mau movement's murders of white settlers in Kenya and massacres of loyalist Africans, the British government retaliated with military force, code-named Operation Anvil.
Nicholls, C. S. Elspeth Huxley. HarperCollins, 2002.
259-60
Preston, Peter. “Atrocity at the end of empire”. Guardian Weekly, 28 Jan. 2005, p. 26.
26

28 February 1860: Nathaniel Hawthorne published Transformation:...

Writer or writing item

28 February 1860

Nathaniel Hawthorne published Transformation: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni in three volumes.
Clark, C. E. Frazer. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Descriptive Bibliography. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978.
244-5

30 January 1933: Hitler became Chancellor of Germany....

National or international item

30 January 1933

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
13
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
35
Laqueur, Thomas. “Devoted to Terror”. London Review of Books, Vol.
37
, No. 18, 24 Sept. 2015, pp. 9-16.
10

January-March 1948: During a bitter winter, Britain struggled...

Building and people item

January-March 1948

During a bitter winter, Britain struggled with coal shortages resulting from disputes in the recently nationalised mines.
Martin, Richard, 1934 -. Ink in Her Blood: The Life and Crime Fiction of Margery Allingham. UMI Research Press, 1988.
160-1