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26 March 1885: The first crematorium in Britain, at Woking...

Building and people item

26 March 1885

The first crematorium in Britain, at Woking in Surrey, was inaugurated with the cremation of Jeannette Caroline Pickersgill .
Lynch, Thomas. “No Casket, No Flowers”. London Review of Books, 20 Apr. 2006, pp. 10-11.
11

Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan

In her capacities as poet, novelist, and travel writer with a sharp eye for culture and politics, SOLM spoke for the early movement of Irish nationalism. She also wrote plays and verse. Her reputation, once...
Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan Full-length portrait of Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan, by René Théodore Berthon, c. 1818. She sits in an ornate chair, with an elbow on a desk bearing paper, an inkwell, and a vase of flowers; her head rests pensively on her hand. She is wearing a black Empire-style dress with short puff sleeves, and holding a quill pen. A blue mantle with plentiful white fur trim is thrown carelessly on her chair. National Gallery of Ireland.

July 1847: Feargus O'Connor, the only Chartist Member...

National or international item

July 1847

Feargus O'Connor , the only Chartist Member of Parliament ever, was returned for Nottingham at a general election in which Chartism was an important issue.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
42, 134

By 10 August 1839: Captain Philip Meadows Taylor published The...

Writer or writing item

By 10 August 1839

Captain Philip Meadows Taylor published The Confessions of A Thug, purporting knowledge of an indigenous and criminal secret society in India.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
615 (1839): 595
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

January 1979: The Feminist Review, an academic and theoretical...

Writer or writing item

January 1979

The Feminist Review, an academic and theoretical journal, began publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
178

1944: The Times began printing on India paper for...

Writer or writing item

1944

The Times began printing on India paper for circulation by air mail overseas.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
184

1879: Painter Elizabeth (Thompson), Lady Butler,...

Building and people item

1879

Painter Elizabeth (Thompson), Lady Butler , sister of poet Alice Meynell , fought unsuccessfully to become the first woman elected as a Royal Academy member.
Casteras, Susan P., and Linda H. Peterson. A Struggle for Fame: Victorian Women Artists and Authors. Yale Center for British Art, 1994.
54
McMaster, Juliet. That Mighty Art of Black-and-White. Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy. Ad Hoc Press, 2009.
12

1889: The first public electricity supply was inaugurated...

Building and people item

1889

The first public electricity supply was inaugurated in London.
Forster, Margaret. Significant Sisters. Secker and Warburg, 1984.
prelims

By 1640: About 300 editions of Sternhold and Hopkins's...

Writer or writing item

By 1640

About 300 editions of Sternhold and Hopkins 's English verse psalms had been published.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

25 August 1744: The Daily Advertiser carried an advertisement...

Writer or writing item

25 August 1744

The Daily Advertiser carried an advertisement for The School of Venus, or The Lady's Delight, an English translation of a French pornographic text entitled L'Ecole des Filles.
Barker, Nicholas, and James McLaverty. “David Fairweather Foxon, 1923-2001”. Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol.
161
, 2009, pp. 158-75.
167

17 September 1792: When the legislature of Upper Canada first...

National or international item

17 September 1792

When the legislature of Upper Canada first met, at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake), the Lieutenant-Governor,John Graves Simcoe proposed a method for ending slavery in the colony.
Cook, Ramsay, editor. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://www.biographi.ca/index2.html.

1835: Future poet laureate Alfred Austin was born...

Writer or writing item

1835

Future poet laureate Alfred Austin was born at Headingley.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.

Edith Somerville

ES , who published from 1885, is known from the Somerville and Ross partnership which produced at least one important novel and a collection of classic comic stories (set in the west of Ireland and...
Edith Somerville Black-and-white photo portrait of Edith Somerville, 1916. Shown in profile, she is seated, wears a brimmed hat and suit.

By October 1985: Keri Hulme's novel The Bone People was published...

Writer or writing item

By October 1985

Keri Hulme 's novel The Bone People was published in England. It won the Booker Prize over the objections of Nina Bawden , who hated its depiction of violence to a child.
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
(25 October 1985): 1202
“Tears, tiffs and triumphs”. Guardian Unlimited, 6 Sept. 2008.

Early 1759: Voltaire published his most famous single...

Writer or writing item

Early 1759

Voltaire published his most famous single work, the philosophical tale Candide; ou, L'Optimisme, simultaneously in several different countries; three English translations appeared that same year.
Wade, Ira O. “The First Edition of Candide: A Problem of Identification”. Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol.
20
, 1959, pp. 63-88.
Wade

1642: Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (A Physician's...

Writer or writing item

1642

Sir Thomas Browne 's Religio Medici (A Physician's Faith) was most imperfectly and surreptitiously printed (in the words of the title-page of next year's authorised edition).
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

1741: Alexander Cruden's A Verbal Index to Milton's...

Writer or writing item

1741

Alexander Cruden 's A Verbal Index to Milton's Paradise Lost was published in London.
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.

15 June 1928: A new Book of Common Prayer, on which the...

Building and people item

15 June 1928

A new Book of Common Prayer, on which the Church of England had been working for years and which among other details deleted the word obey from women's marriage vows, was rejected by Parliament

28 May 1901: The Federation of Master Printers and Allied...

Writer or writing item

28 May 1901

The Federation of Master Printers and Allied Trades of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland held their first official meeting.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
167
Myers, Robin. The British Book Trade, from Caxton to the Present Day. Andre Deutsch in association with the National Book League, 1973.
304, 306

1958: Helen Foley's first novel, Between the Parties,...

Women writers item

1958

Helen Foley 's first novel, Between the Parties, was published.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

17 November 1750: Westminster Bridge was opened: only the second...

Building and people item

17 November 1750

Westminster Bridge was opened: only the second bridge over the Thames in London.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
20 (1750): 523

1923: Post-war inflation in Germany grew so high...

National or international item

1923

Post-war inflation in Germany grew so high that a new German mark was introduced, the Rentenmark, worth one billion of the former marks.
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
7: 76
Bedford, Sybille. Quicksands. Counterpoint, 2005.
170

1867: The Religious Disabilities Removals Act was...

National or international item

1867

The Religious Disabilities Removals Act was passed, allowing English Roman Catholics greater freedom in civic conduct.
Norman, Edward R. The English Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century. Clarendon, 1984.
191

1875: The English Home Rule Confederation was founded,...

National or international item

1875

The English Home Rule Confederation was founded, to organize Irish voters in England.
Morton, Grenfell. Home Rule and the Irish Question. Longman, 1980.
19