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1691: Jean Racine's heroic tragedy Athalie, written...

Writer or writing item

1691

Jean Racine 's heroic tragedy Athalie, written from a biblical subject for performance by a girls' school, was both printed and staged.
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.

April 1894: Aubrey Beardsley became art editor of The...

Writer or writing item

April 1894

Aubrey Beardsley became art editor of The Yellow Book, published by John Lane at Bodley Head .
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
119-20
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
163
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
40

12 June 1895: Telephone service between the post offices...

Building and people item

12 June 1895

Telephone service between the post offices in London, Edinburgh, and other principal towns in the UK was inaugurated.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
1228

19 April 1966: American Roberta Gibb became the first woman...

Building and people item

19 April 1966

American Roberta Gibb became the first woman to run the full Boston Marathon .
“Boston Marathon History”. Boston Athletic Association.

By 1 April 1854: Anna Elizabeth Blunden exhibited The Song...

Building and people item

By 1 April 1854

Anna Elizabeth Blunden exhibited The Song of the Shirt, based on Thomas Hood 's poem about garment outworkers, at the Society of British Artists .
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
60
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1379 (1 April 1854): 411-2

June 1830: Charles Lyell's first volume of The Principles...

Building and people item

June 1830

Charles Lyell 's first volume of The Principles of Geology inaugurated his three-volume study demonstrating that the earth is several million years old.
Dean, Dennis R. “Through Science to Despair: Geology and the Victorians”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 111-36.
113
Sedgwick, William Thompson et al. A Short History of Science. Macmillan, 1939.
433
Jay, Mike. “Like Cooking a Dumpling”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 22, 20 Nov. 2014, pp. 25-6.
26

1796: Children's writer Lucy Peacock published...

Women writers item

1796

Children's writer Lucy Peacock published Ambrose and Eleanor. Or, The Adventures of Two Children Deserted on an Uninhabited Island, translated and adapted from Ducray-Duménil 's Fanfan et Lolotte, 1788 (sometimes called Lolotte et Fanfan).
Rønning, Anne Birgitte. “Originality in Adaptation: Lucy Peacock’s Ambrose and Eleanor”. The Female Spectator, Vol.
16
, No. 4, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2012, p. 6.

Spring 1917: The Ministry of Munitions sponsored an exhibition...

Building and people item

Spring 1917

The Ministry of Munitions sponsored an exhibition of women's work shown in different industrial centres thoughout England.
Andrews, Irene Osgood. Economic Effects of the War Upon Women and Children in Great Britain. Oxford University Press, 1918.
53
Fraser, Helen. Women and War Work. G. A. Shaw, 1918.
116, 117

Jane Harvey

JH became in 1794 an early and unusual practitioner of the new genre of the guidebook. As a poet she begins in introspection and expands to consider, in briskly colloquial style, such topics as political...

August 2008: Stephenie Meyer, bestselling American author...

Writer or writing item

August 2008

Stephenie Meyer , bestselling American author of vampire books for teenagers, withdrew the fifth and final title in her series, Midnight Sun, from publication after the text was leaked and published on the web.
Beaumont, Peter. “Now we’ll never know the end”. Guardian Weekly, 12 Sept. 2008, p. 33.
33

1955: Copies of Molloy by Samuel Beckett and Lolita...

Writer or writing item

1955

Copies of Molloy by Samuel Beckett and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (both published in France) were seized by British Customs.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
112
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin, 1984.
391-2

4 May 1994: The ruling Conservatives were trounced in...

National or international item

4 May 1994

The ruling Conservatives were trounced in local government elections throughout Britain.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
532

4 August 1914: Late in the day of England's declaration...

National or international item

4 August 1914

Late in the day of England's declaration of war on Germany, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies membership demonstrated with members of trades unions and women's socialist organizations at a large peace rally held...

1659: T. Chamberlayne, in The Complete Midwifes...

Building and people item

1659

T. Chamberlayne , in The Complete Midwifes Practice Enlarg'd, provided careful instruction to couples as how to conceive male children only.
Mendelson, Sara Heller, and Patricia Crawford. Women in Early Modern England, 1550-1720. Clarendon Press, 1998.
28

31 December 1926-1 January 1927: The British Broadcasting Company was dissolved...

National or international item

31 December 1926-1 January 1927

The British Broadcasting Company was dissolved and the British Broadcasting Corporation was constituted under Royal Charter for ten years.
BBC Handbook: 1960. BBC, 1960, http://U of A HSS HE 8690 B86.
237

After January 2011: After the popular political demonstrations...

National or international item

After January 2011

After the popular political demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo it emerged that young women demonstrators had been subjected to virginity tests to undermine their claims of being raped.
Rice, Xan. “Egyptians protest over Tahrir virginity testsGuardian Weekly, 4 June 2011, p. 4.

1829: Louis Braille, then a twenty-year-old blind...

Building and people item

1829

Louis Braille , then a twenty-year-old blind instructor at the Institution Royale pour les Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, perfected his system of reading by feeling 63 different combinations of six raised dots.
British Book News. British Council.
(1952): 347-8
Rosen, Michael. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story. John Murray, 2013.
306

1767: The elder Thomas Cadell took over Andrew...

Writer or writing item

1767

The elder Thomas Cadell took over Andrew Millar 's publishing firm on Millar's retirement.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
His customary label as the elder is confusing: he had an uncle of the same name who was one of the...

Fanny Kemble

FK was a prolific nineteenth-century writer best known for her journals, which covered her life in the theatre and her residence in the American south. Her first-hand documentation of the institution of slavery was particularly...

: Shakespeare probably completed the story...

Writer or writing item

Winter 1598-9

Shakespeare probably completed the story of his two Henry IV history plays by writing Henry V, in which the charismatic but formerly undisciplined prince makes good as national military hero.
Dobson, Michael. “A Furtive Night’s Work”. London Review of Books, 20 Oct. 2005, pp. 7-8.
7

July 1832: A monthly periodical for women entitled The...

Writer or writing item

July 1832

A monthly periodical for women entitled The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée swallowed up La Belle Assemblée and began publishing under this title in London.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
4
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.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

22 June 2006: A play by the unknown Kate Betts entitled...

Women writers item

22 June 2006

A play by the unknown Kate Betts entitled On the Third Day opened at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London.
Logan, Brian. “The play that I wrote . . ”. The Observer, 25 June 2006, p. Review 3.
Review 3

1898: Margaret Louisa Woods published Weeping Ferry...

Women writers item

1898

Margaret Louisa Woods published Weeping Ferry and other stories.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

1863: Sir Wilfred Lawson introduced the United...

Building and people item

1863

Sir Wilfred Lawson introduced the United Kingdom Alliance 's Permissive Bill to Parliament in a bid to give two-thirds of the ratepayers of a parish the power to refuse licences for the sale of liquor.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
83
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
788

Probably March 1671: William Wycherley's first comedy, Love in...

Writer or writing item

Probably March 1671

William Wycherley 's first comedy, Love in a Wood, opened on stage; it was published the next year.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.