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1616: Helkiah Crooke in Microcosmographia: A Description...

Building and people item

1616

Helkiah Crooke in Microcosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man laid out an exhaustive account of the human body, in which he rejected the one-sex model (the original editions spell this Mikrokosmographia).
Smith, Bruce R. “Premodern Sexualities”. PMLA, Vol.
115
, No. 3, May 2000, pp. 318-29.
322

1927: Eric Partridge founded Scholartis Press at...

Writer or writing item

1927

Eric Partridge founded Scholartis Press at New Oxford Street, London.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
283-4
Myers, Robin. The British Book Trade, from Caxton to the Present Day. Andre Deutsch in association with the National Book League, 1973.
325

1877: Greasepaint makeup was introduced to the...

Building and people item

1877

Greasepaint makeup was introduced to the stage by Leichner .
Booth, Michael R. Theatre in the Victorian Age. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
115

1979: A prison at Dungavel in Scotland appointed...

Building and people item

1979

A prison at Dungavel in Scotland appointed Agnes Curran as its governor, making her the first British woman to hold such a post.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

2 April 1698: Anne (Mason), Countess of Macclesfield, was...

Building and people item

2 April 1698

Anne (Mason), Countess of Macclesfield , was divorced by Act of Parliament; this was the first civil divorce (not first passed by an ecclesiastical court).
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Editor Gibbs, Vicary, St Catherine Press, 1910–1959, 14 vols.

December 1863: The Hindu religion was openly denied government...

National or international item

December 1863

The Hindu religion was openly denied government support in India.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 823

1926: Beatrice Kean Seymour published her novel,...

Women writers item

1926

Beatrice Kean Seymour published her novel, The Last Day, which would be reissued in the Modern Library series ten years hence.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

1749: An appeal to raise funds to institute a Magdalen...

Building and people item

1749

An appeal to raise funds to institute a Magdalen Hospital in London (for prostitutes wishing to reform) netted £5000 in a few months.
Perry, Ruth. “Good Girls and Fallen Women: Representations of Prostitutes in Eighteenth-Century Fiction”. Narrating Transgression: Representations of the Criminal in Early Modern England, edited by Rosamaria Loretelli and Roberto De Romanis, Peter Lang, 1999, pp. 91-101.
97

2 January 1847: The weekly Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial...

Writer or writing item

2 January 1847

The weekly Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial Times began publication in London.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
21-2
Beetham, Margaret. A Magazine of Her Own?: Domesticity and Desire in the Woman’s Magazine, 1800-1914. Routledge, 1996.
217
Palmegiano states that this newspaper became the Lady's Newspaper, The Queen and the Court Chronicle in 1863, and continued to publish...

10 August 1842: Ashley's Mines Act passed, making it illegal...

National or international item

10 August 1842

Ashley's Mines Act passed, making it illegal for women, girls, and boys under ten years old to work underground.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
265
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714-1995. 3rd ed., Longman, 1996.
164, 381-2
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
Baron Ashley , later the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was a champion of...

1849: Thomas Grainger designed the first train...

Building and people item

1849

Thomas Grainger designed the first train ferry; he used it to transport rail cars across the Firth of Forth.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
97

19 August 1942: German General Paulus launched his offensive...

National or international item

19 August 1942

German General Paulus launched his offensive against Stalingrad.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
111, 126-7
Waal, Thomas de. “Dun-Coloured Dust”. London Review of Books, 15 July 1999, pp. 18-19.
19
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
228-34
Stalingrad, formerly Tsaritsyn, was renamed in 1925 to commemorate Stalin's victory. In 1961 it was renamed again, and became Volgograd.

1769: Richard Arkwright set up a water-powered...

Building and people item

1769

Richard Arkwright set up a water-powered spinning mill of his own invention near Hockley, Nottingham.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

Very early 1136: The Welsh Princess Gwenllian, likely author...

Women writers item

Very early 1136

The Welsh Princess Gwenllian , likely author of Four Branches of the Mabinogi, died.
Breeze, Andrew. The Origins of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Gracewing, 2009.
16-33
Lloyd, John Edward. A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, Volume 2. Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1967.
470
Pierce, Thomas Jones. “GWENLLIAN”. Welsh Biography Online.

January 1966: The British government took the decision...

National or international item

January 1966

The British government took the decision to deport the inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The same year they leased the land to the USA as an air base...

1937: The Reader's Union was established....

Writer or writing item

1937

The Reader's Union was established.
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
188

1584: The Oakham and Uppingham Grammar Schools...

Building and people item

1584

The Oakham and UppinghamGrammar SchoolsUppingham School were founded in the county of Rutland, with a seal showing a master teaching four boys and, apparently, two girls.
Two of the figures on the seal are...

1 April 1936: Eight of the nine women Members of Parliament...

National or international item

1 April 1936

Eight of the nine women Members of Parliament in the House supported Ellen Wilkinson 's amendment seeking to provide equal pay for women in the civil service.
Phillips, Melanie. The Divided House: Women at Westminster. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1980.
50

1910: Isabella Fyvie Mayo published her autobiography,...

Women writers item

1910

Isabella Fyvie Mayo published her autobiography, Recollections of what I saw, what I lived through, and what I learned, during more than fifty years of social and literary experience.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Eliza Cook

EC was a highly popular poet, journalist, and editor of the mid-nineteenth century, whose songs in particular circulated very widely: set to music, performed in drawing-rooms, reprinted in single sheets, and collected in manuscript. Her...
Eliza Cook Photograph of a head-and-shoulders painting of Eliza Cook by William Etty, c. 1845. She is shown with her head turned to the side, wearing a red jacket over a white blouse with a large lace collar and a mauve bow tied in the centre. Her dark hair, smooth on top and centre-parted, hangs in loose ringlets around her face.

26 December 1918: US President Woodrow Wilson (who had already...

National or international item

26 December 1918

US President Woodrow Wilson (who had already been in Paris in connection with the peace conference which did not officially convene until 18 January following) was received in London with intense enthusiasm.
Hamilton, Mary Agnes. Remembering My Good Friends. Jonathan Cape, 1944.
92-4

1 June 1857: The first exhibition of the Society of Female...

Building and people item

1 June 1857

The first exhibition of the Society of Female Artists opened at 315 Oxford Street, London.
Nunn, Pamela Gerrish. Victorian Women Artists. Women’s Press, 1987.
73

17 August 1662: The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, revised...

Writer or writing item

17 August 1662

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, revised this year, was appointed for use and first used in churches throughout the land.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
442

Summer 1780: The Royal Academy's first annual exhibition...

Building and people item

Summer 1780

The Royal Academy 's first annual exhibition to be held in the new Somerset House (built by Sir William Chambers ) topped all records, with attendance of 61,381 and receipts of £3,074.6s.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
239-41

1839: Electrotyping processes were invented independently...

Writer or writing item

1839

Electrotyping processes were invented independently of one another by H. Von Jacobi of St. Petersburg, Thomas Spencer of Liverpool, and C. J. Jordan of London.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
145