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1930: Frank Whittle of England took out the first...

National or international item

1930

Frank Whittle of England took out the first jet-engine patent.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
214

16 September 1919: This Side of Paradise, the first novel by...

Writer or writing item

16 September 1919

This Side of Paradise, the first novel by the not yet twenty-four-old F. Scott Fitzgerald (titled from a poem by Rupert Brooke ), was accepted for publication by Scribner's .
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
16 September 2010, 16 September 2011

1854: A Royal Commission recommended that Oxford...

National or international item

1854

A Royal Commission recommended that Oxford and Cambridge should include significantly more science in their programmes of study.
Merrill, Lynn L. The Romance of Victorian Natural History. Oxford University Press, 1989.
99

Maria Susanna Cooper

MSC began as a writer of children's books which have not been identified. Between 1762 and 1775 she published four epistolary novels of a didactic and conservative cast (or five, if a radical revision is...

1809: A still unidentified volcano somewhere in...

National or international item

1809

A still unidentified volcano somewhere in the tropics produced ash clouds, tsunamis, crop failure, and starvation in parts of what is now Indonesia. Historian Gillen D'Arcy Wood estimates that millions died, just six years before...

Elizabeth Mary Parker

EMP is among the few working-class women writers of the Victorian period to have reached print in volume form, with a romance novel.

1956: The National Childbirth Trust was founded...

Building and people item

1956

The National Childbirth Trust was founded in Britain with the aim of advising and supporting first-time mothers through pregnancy, breast-feeding (of which it was and remains an advocate), and childcare.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

1774: Louise d'Epinay, former friend and patron...

Writer or writing item

1774

Louise d'Epinay , former friend and patron of Rousseau , published Conversations d'Emilie, a book on education for girls designed to counter the message of his Emile.
Goodman, Dena. Becoming a Woman in the Age of Letters. Cornell University Press, 2009.
64-5, 151 and n78

6 December 1830: Lucia Vestris became the first long-term...

Building and people item

6 December 1830

Lucia Vestris became the first long-term female theatre manager of the century, when she reopened the Olympic Theatre .
Appleton, William Worthen. Madame Vestris and the London Stage. Columbia University Press, 1974.
51
Booth, Michael R. et al. Three Tragic Actresses: Siddons, Rachel, Ristori. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
44-5

20 March 1990: Namibia, which had been German South-West...

National or international item

20 March 1990

Namibia, which had been German South-West Africa before the First World War (when it was annexed by South Africa), became an independent nation within the British Commonwealth.
South African History online. 30 Mar. 2005, http://www.sahistory.org.za/.
under 1990-1999

8 January 1918: US President Woodrow Wilson made his famous...

National or international item

8 January 1918

US President Woodrow Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points for Peace declaration.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
230
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd revised, Simon and Schuster, 1991.
472
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
356

1960: Alice Jenkins published Law for the Rich,...

Building and people item

1960

Alice Jenkins published Law for the Rich, in which she argued that working-class women were denied access to safe surgical abortions in England.
Brookes, Barbara. Abortion in England: 1900-1967. Croom Helm, 1988.
149
Dickens, Bernard M. Abortion and the Law. MacGibbon and Kee, 1966.
113

Anna Williams

AW was an eighteenth-century translator and poet. Best-known among her slender oeuvre is a miscellany or anthology of contemporary poems. Her projected dictionary of scientific terms remained unwritten.
Anna Williams Photograph of a painting of Anna Williams by Frances Reynolds. Williams gazes slightly to the right, away from the viewer. She wears a white cap, with little hair visible, a white bodice, and black mantle or cape. Her pale face makes a strong contrast with the painting's dark background. The picture hangs in Williams's long-term home, Dr Johnson's House in Gough Square, London.

May 1953: The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was...

Building and people item

May 1953

The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was marked by a special bonus on the butter ration: four extra ounces to add to each person's weekly eight ounces.
Spark, Muriel. Curriculum Vitae: Autobiography. Constable, 1992.
200

1679: The Licensing Act of 1662 lapsed; penalties...

Writer or writing item

1679

The Licensing Act of 1662 lapsed; penalties being no longer in force, Quaker printers began putting their names on the title-pages issuing from their shops.
Bracken, James K., and Joel Silver, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 170. Gale Research, 1996.
249

23 January 1911: The Ulster Women's Unionist Council was established...

National or international item

23 January 1911

The Ulster Women's Unionist Council was established to oppose Irish Home Rule and campaign for the continuing union of Ireland with Britain.
“Ulster Women’s Unionist Council Papers”. Genesis: RASCAL (Research And Special Collections Available Locally).

27 June 1777: The clergyman William Dodd was executed for...

Building and people item

27 June 1777

The clergyman William Dodd was executed for forgery despite the efforts of many distinguished people to win him a pardon.
Villette, John. A Genuine Account of the Behaviour and Dying Words of William Dodd, L.L.D. Printed for the author, 1777, http://BLC.
title-page
Johnson, Samuel. Sermons. Editors Hagstrum, Jean and James Gray, The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, Yale University Press, 1978.
300, 301n1

Margery Lawrence

A twentieth-century writer of popular fiction, ML published nearly thirty novels in a wide range of genres, including adventure-romance and novels of the supernatural. The generic boundaries of her novels are fluid, and many verge...

24 December 1812: The first news of Napoleon's catastrophic...

National or international item

24 December 1812

The first news of Napoleon 's catastrophic retreat from Moscow reached Britain through a report in The Times.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
McCarthy, Voice 482

Germaine de Staël

GS is remembered primarily for her political activism and the salons she established following the French Revolution; history, politics, and culture were certainly among her frequent literary subjects. The same interests inform her highly successful...
Germaine de Staël Photograph of the painting of Germaine de Staël by Baron Gérard. Godefroid, 1810. She stands leaning against a stone table. She is wearing a red high-waisted dress with short puff sleeves and a small cameo brooch pinned in the centre of the bust, a black shawl folded over her arm, and a striking red and white turban on her curly hair. She holds a small sprig of green in one hand.

11 December 1979: The rebellion, or unilateral declaration...

National or international item

11 December 1979

The rebellion, or unilateral declaration of independence, of Southern Rhodesia's white minority parliament formally ended.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
443

Early 1847: John Mitchell founded the United Irishman,...

National or international item

Early 1847

John Mitchell founded the United Irishman, a publication advocating armed rebellion against British rule.
Adelman, Paul. Great Britain and the Irish Question 1800-1922. Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.
66-7

January 1976: The British Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration...

National or international item

January 1976

The British Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service for industry, Acas, no longer under government control but directed by an independent council, achieved a statutory footing following its inception two years before.
“Acas History”. Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service): About Us.

20 July 1974: Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus (ethnically...

National or international item

20 July 1974

Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus (ethnically divided between Greeks and Turks) after a pro-Greek coup in the capital, Nicosia, was unsuccessful.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
436
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
267

May 1901: William Lea established the first driving...

Building and people item

May 1901

William Lea established the first driving school in England: the Liver Motor Car Depot and School of Automobilism at Birkenhead.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
153