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1843: Tight-lacing à la paresseuse was introduced...

Building and people item

1843

Tight-lacing à la paresseuse was introduced in France; instead of having to be re-inserted at each wearing, the lace remained in the corset and slipped through loops, allowing for easier adjustment of fit.
Kunzle, David. Fashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture in the West. Rowman and Littlefield, 1982.
122

1873: Writing as Menzies Sutherland, Elizabeth...

Women writers item

1873

Writing as Menzies Sutherland, Elizabeth Stone published Political Women.
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.

January 1704: Volume one of Antoine Galland's Les mille...

Writer or writing item

January 1704

Volume one of Antoine Galland 's Les mille et une nuit, was published at Paris; the first English version appeared in 1706, as Arabian Nights Entertainments: later usually Arabian Nights.
Mack, Robert L., editor. Arabian Nights’ Entertainments. Oxford University Press, 1998.
xxx

1961: The United Nations population commission...

National or international item

1961

The United Nations population commission mandated to pursue an aggressive antinatalist policy to combat overpopulation.
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
22

1825: Justus von Liebig established the first university...

National or international item

1825

Justus von Liebig established the first university research laboratory for chemistry, at Giessen in Germany.
Hobsbawm, Eric John. The Age of Revolution 1789-1848. Vintage, 1996.
279

By June 1893: Sir Charles Hallé founded the Royal Manchester...

Building and people item

By June 1893

Sir Charles Hallé founded the Royal Manchester College of Music.
Ford, Boris, editor. The Cambridge Guide to the Arts in Britain. Vol. 9 vols, Cambridge University Press, 1988–2026.
7: 290; 8: 119

6 April 1757: William Pitt was dismissed from office as...

National or international item

6 April 1757

William Pitt was dismissed from office as Secretary of State.
Black, Jeremy. Pitt the Elder. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
138, 141-3
Brown, Peter Douglas. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the Great Commoner. Allen and Unwin, 1978.
144

31 January 1926: The Women's Service Library, later known...

Writer or writing item

31 January 1926

The Women's Service Library , later known as the Fawcett Library , and presently known as the Women's Library , was established.
Cadman, Eileen et al. Rolling Our Own: Women as Printers, Publishers and Distributors. Minority Press-Group, 1981.
96
“The Women’s Library”. London Metropolitan University.
Buhasz, Laszlo. “Notebook: Women’s Library to reopen in London”. The Globe and Mail, 1 Dec. 2001, p. T12.
T8

By early March 1792: According to Maria Edgeworth, 25,000 families...

National or international item

By early March 1792

According to Maria Edgeworth , 25,000 families in England had joined in the boycott against West Indian, that is slave-grown, sugar.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
300

1940: The age at which British women became eligible...

Building and people item

1940

The age at which British women became eligible to receive a pension was reduced by five years, to sixty.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

12 December 1896: Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration...

National or international item

12 December 1896

Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of wireless telegraphy at Toynbee Hall in London.
Briggs, Asa. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Oxford University Press, 1961, 5 vols.
1: 20-1
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
113

May Sinclair

MS , a major figure in the development of Modernism, wrote more than two dozen works ranging from novels (twenty-one of them), poetry, and collections of short stories to polemical pamphlets, philosophical treatises, translations, biography...
May Sinclair Black-and-white photo of May Sinclair. She is looking down, and pictured in profile.

3 July 1673: Elkanah Settle's verse tragedy The Empress...

Writer or writing item

3 July 1673

Elkanah Settle 's verse tragedy The Empress of Morocco, written in rhyming couplets and spectacularly staged, had its first public performance, following several at court with high-profile amateur actors.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
12 February 2008

Mary Jones

MJ , writing in the mid and later eighteenth century, is remarkable for publishing her work, although it was written in a private context. She is still under-rated both as a poet and as a letter-writer.
Mary Jones Title-page of Mary Jones's "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse", published with her name at Oxford, 1750.

1895: The first issue of Process Work Year Book,...

Writer or writing item

1895

The first issue of Process Work Year Book, founded and edited by William Gamble for A. W. Penrose and Company , was printed.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
164
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.
Myers, Robin. The British Book Trade, from Caxton to the Present Day. Andre Deutsch in association with the National Book League, 1973.
302

April 1894: The aesthetic quarterly the Yellow Book began...

Writer or writing item

April 1894

The aesthetic quarterly the Yellow Book began publication.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
685
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.

2 September 1990: The United Nations Convention on the Rights...

National or international item

2 September 1990

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child came into effect, having been adopted the previous November.
“Conventions on the Rights of the Child”. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 20 Nov. 1989.

Anita Desai

AD , an Indian writer of partly European descent who has lived in both England and the USA (where she is now settled), focuses her psychologically-oriented novels on the predicaments of women, immigrants and displaced...
Anita Desai Colour photograph of Anita Desai, in France, wearing a patterned sari or wrap, 5 March 1991.

By 2 August 1856: Jane Margaret Strickland published a novel,...

Women writers item

By 2 August 1856

Jane Margaret Strickland published a novel, Adonijah, a tale of the Jewish Dispersion; it was shortly attacked by George Eliot in Silly Novels by Lady Novelists as one of the deplorable types of fiction...

13 February 1974: Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Prize-winner...

Writer or writing item

13 February 1974

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Prize-winner in Literature, who had more than once refused to surrender himself to state investigators)
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 February 2008
was expelled from the Soviet Union; treason charges followed.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 February 2008
Francis, Damien. “Dissident writer Solzhenitsyn dies at 89”. Guardian Weekly, 8 Aug. 2008, p. 11.
11

9 November 1921: The Malthusian League opened a birth control...

Building and people item

9 November 1921

The Malthusian League opened a birth control clinic, the Welfare Centre for Pre-Maternity, Maternity and Child Welfare , at 153A East Street, Walworth, London.
Ledbetter, Rosanna. A History of the Malthusian League: 1877-1927. Ohio State University Press, 1976.
220
Fryer, Peter. The Birth Controllers. Secker and Warburg, 1965.
251

1915: Mary Frances Harriet Dowdall published one...

Women writers item

1915

Mary Frances Harriet Dowdall published one of her several novels, The Kaleidoscope.
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.

16 April 1977: Only a year after the release of Apple I,...

Building and people item

16 April 1977

Only a year after the release of Apple I, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of Apple Computers launched the Apple II, one of the first successful and popular personal computers.
Aley, Jim. “Apple founder dead at 56. Apple and Jobs: The Early Years”. Edmonton Journal, 6 Oct. 2011, p. A20.
A20

2-3 December 1967: Dr Christian or Christiaan Barnard of the...

Building and people item

2-3 December 1967

Dr Christian or Christiaan Barnard of the Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, performed the world's first heart-transplant operation; the patient, Louis Washkansky , survived for eighteen days.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/.
Cooper, David K. C. “Christiaan Barnard”. Guardian Weekly, 6–12 Sept. 2001, p. 14.
14

Jeni Couzyn

JC , poet of the twentieth century and later, calls herself a blend of several nationalities (South African, British, and Canadian) and of many identities. She is a feminist anthologist as well as a poet...