Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

25 October 1997: The Round Reading Room at the British Library...

Building and people item

25 October 1997

The Round Reading Room at the British Library was finally closed.
Guardian Weekly.
26 October 1997: 10

1872: The second Committee on Intemperance organized...

Building and people item

1872

The second Committee on Intemperance organized by the Church of England offered essentiallly the same report as the first, but spurred renewed temperance activity.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
101-2

1866: Paul Verlaine published Poèmes saturnien...

Writer or writing item

1866

Paul Verlaine published Poèmes saturniens.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Verlaine, Paul. “Introduction”. Selected Poems, translated by. Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre, University of California Press, 1948.
viii

31 August 1939: The British Government issued an evacuation...

National or international item

31 August 1939

The British Government issued an evacuation notice to be carried out within twenty-four hours; within three days, in fact, a million and a half children, pregnant women, and the blind were moved from their urban...

1827: Scottish botanist Robert Brown discovered,...

Building and people item

1827

Scottish botanist Robert Brown discovered, with the help of a microscope, Brownian motion.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
291

11 July 1960: Harper Lee (full name Nelle Harper Lee) published...

Writer or writing item

11 July 1960

Harper Lee (full name Nelle Harper Lee) published her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. She had to revise it radically for acceptance, but it quickly became phenomenally popular.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(2 May 1961): 11
Freeman, Hadley. “Harper Lee has nothing to worry about”. Guardian Weekly, 9 July 2010, p. 27.
27

1749: Lord Hardwicke, now Lord Chancellor, confirmed...

Writer or writing item

1749

Lord Hardwicke , now Lord Chancellor, confirmed his ruling of 1729 that, contrary to popular belief, a slave did not become free on reaching England.
Walvin, James et al. “Ignatius Sancho: The Man and His Times”. Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters, National Portrait Gallery, 1997, pp. 93-113.
98

12 October 1984: The IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton...

National or international item

12 October 1984

The IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton where the Conservative Party was holding a conference.
Bernard, Bruce, editor. Century. Phaidon, 2002.
937, 979-80

April 1913: The Free Church Suffrage Times began pub...

Building and people item

April 1913

The Free Church Suffrage Times began publication.
Kaye, Elaine. “A Turning-point in the Ministry of Women: The Ordination of the First Woman to the Christian Ministry in England in September 1917”. Women in the Church, edited by William J. Sheils and Diana Wood, Basil Blackwell, 1990, pp. 505-12.
505

29 January 1849: The National Parliamentary and Financial...

National or international item

29 January 1849

The National Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association was founded to unite Chartists and radicals.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
48, 134

Jane West

JW , novelist, poet, and dramatist, became especially well-known during the 1790s for her novels' conservative message, in terms of both political and gender ideologies. Her less-known later work is arguably more complex and interesting.

1 January 1804: Haiti became an independent black republic...

National or international item

1 January 1804

Haiti became an independent black republic after the capitulation (the previous November) of a large force sent by Napoleon to quell the rebellion there.
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present. Revised, Facts on File, 1999.
173
Walvin, James. Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery. Howard University Press, 1994.
xii
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
862
Farmer, Paul. “Who removed Aristide?”. London Review of Books, 15 Apr. 2004, pp. 28-31.
28

January 1944: The average wage for women in engineering...

Building and people item

January 1944

The average wage for women in engineering jobs was £3, 10s compared to £7 for men.
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.
41

Anne Killigrew

AK (also a painter) was a fine Restoration-period poet, who has the misfortune of being better known for Dryden 's praises of her than for her actual work.

26 January 1790: Mozart's opera Così Fan Tutte had its premiere...

Building and people item

26 January 1790

Mozart 's opera Così Fan Tutte had its premiere in Vienna.
Solman, Joseph. Mozartiana. Walker, 1990.
162

By April 1757: William Chambers (later Sir William) published...

Building and people item

By April 1757

William Chambers (later Sir William) published Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils, a shaping influence on the coming style of Chinoiserie.
Fleeman, John David, and James McLaverty. A Bibliography of the Works of Samuel Johnson. Clarendon Press, 2000, 2 vols.
1: 714-15

1791: Anglo-Indians (that is males of mixed race)...

Building and people item

1791

Anglo-Indians (that is males of mixed race) were precluded from employment as officers in the Civil, Military or Marine services of the [East India] Company .
Neff, David Sprague. “Hostages to Empire: The Anglo-Indian Problem in Frankenstein, The Curse of Kehama, and The Missionary”. European Romantic Review, Vol.
8
, No. 4, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 1997, pp. 386-08.
389

L. S. Bevington

LSB was an essayist, philosopher and poet, one of a very small handful of publishing anarcho-communist women. She issued three collections of poetry, over thirty essays, and a small number of translations in the latter...

15 August 1649: English troops under Oliver Cromwell landed...

National or international item

15 August 1649

English troops under Oliver Cromwell landed at Ringsend outside Dublin with the aim of putting down the rebellion which had lasted in Ireland from October 1641.
Bennett, Ronan. “Warts and all”. Guardian Weekly, 10 Oct. 2008, p. 38.
38
Kelly, Matthew. “With Bit and Bridle”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 15, 5 Aug. 2010, pp. 12-13.
22

11 January 1931: The Sunday Times newspaper began publica...

Writer or writing item

11 January 1931

The Sunday Times newspaper began publication.
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.

Pat Arrowsmith

PA 's writing—novels, poetry, memoirs and non-fiction, spanning much of the later twentieth century—reflects her lifelong commitment to militant political activism. Her work firmly expresses her socialist, pacifist, and feminist politics and often contains a...
Pat Arrowsmith Black-and-white photo of Pat Arrowsmith protesting in Cardiff, after unsuccessfully running as a candidate for the Trotskyist Socialist Unity Party, against Prime Minister James Callahan, 3 May 1979.

6 January 2006: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated as...

National or international item

6 January 2006

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated as first woman President of Liberia, and the first elected woman head of state in Africa.
Duodu, Cameron. “Africa’s First Lady”. Guardian Unlimited, 6 Jan. 2006.
G2

1989: Fred Newman, co-founder of Publishers News:...

Writer or writing item

1989

Fred Newman , co-founder of Publishers News: Weekly for People in the Book Trade, organised the first occurrence of the British Book Awards event.
Sykes, Angela. “Publishing News”. The Author, Vol.
cxii
, No. 4, 1 Dec. 2001–28 Feb. 2002, p. 184.
184

1770 or 1771: Scottish painter George Romney did a portrait...

Building and people item

1770 or 1771

Scottish painter George Romney did a portrait of English painter Mary Moser which shows her using the medium of oils, mark of the professional rather than the amateur.
“Brilliant Women: 18th-Century Bluestockings”. National Portrait Gallery.

Anna Maria van Schurman

AMS , living in seventeenth-century Utrecht, became not only a living proof of women's talents and capacity for education, as equal to those of men, but also a public advocate for opportunities for women...
Anna Maria van Schurman Photograph of a painting of Anna Maria van Schurman by Jan Lievens. She is seated at a desk with an inkwell and quill on it, and the book she holds appears to have blank pages: so she is shown as a writer. She is wearing a large, dark, fur-trimmed cloak over a white chemise with a low V neck; her dark hair is partly pulled back in a bun encircled with a strand of pearls, with the rest of her hair falling down around her shoulders. National Gallery.