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8-9 August 1666: In a major English coup of the Second Dutch...

National or international item

8-9 August 1666

In a major English coup of the Second Dutch War, Albemarle and Prince Rupert burned a hundred and fifty Dutch merchant ships off the island of Schelling.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. Rutgers University Press, 1997.
95 and 455n11

Cicely Bulstrode

Very little has survived of CB 's writing, done (if at all) early in the seventeenth century, and none attributed without doubt. There is fairly strong circumstantial evidence of her authorship of a single, very...

1812: The Ladies' Royal Benevolent Society was...

Building and people item

1812

The Ladies' Royal Benevolent Society was founded, to provide charity to London's poor.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
101-2

March 1843: John Elliotson founded The Zoist: A Journal...

Building and people item

March 1843

John Elliotson founded The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology and Mesmerism, and their Applications to Human Welfare; it ran for thirteen years and marked the height of the mesmerism boom in Britain.
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
35
Gauld, Alan. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
206-7
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
25

13 August 1836: The Stamp Act tax was reduced to a penny...

Writer or writing item

13 August 1836

The Stamp Act tax was reduced to a penny per newspaper plus an extra halfpenny for each extra supplement.
Nevett, Terry R. Advertising in Britain: A History. Heinemann, 1982.
25
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
363

1816: The Peace Society was founded by Quakers;...

National or international item

1816

The Peace Society was founded by Quakers; the society wished to replace war with diplomacy in international relations.
Roach, John. Social Reform in England 1780-1880. St Martin’s Press, 1978.
109

1904: The National Peace Council was established...

National or international item

1904

The National Peace Council was established in Britain.
Ceadel, Martin. Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945 : The Defining of a Faith. Clarendon, 1980, http://U of A HSS.
Appendix I

Between December 1612 and February 1613: Parthenia or The Maydenhead was the first...

Building and people item

Between December 1612 and February 1613

Parthenia or The Maydenhead was the first book of music for the virginals printed in England.
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
282
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

May Kendall

May Kendall is most notable for late-nineteenth-century poems characterized by sharp humour and sarcastic wit on topics related to evolutionary science and the new woman. Her novels employ sarcasm and irony to examine British...

By 23 January 1886: Alice Diehl, as the Author of The Garden...

Women writers item

By 23 January 1886

Alice Diehl , as the Author of The Garden of Eden, published Griselda, one of her nearly fifty novels, a study (as its title implies) of female self-sacrifice.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3039 (1886): 134-5
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

Late November 1590: An outbreak of witch-hunting centred on Tranent...

National or international item

Late November 1590

An outbreak of witch-hunting centred on Tranent in Haddingtonshire, Scotland (but named from nearby North Berwick), escalated when charges of seeking to harm the king were made against upper-class people.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under North Berwick witches; under James VI and I

1975: Family allowances were amalgamated with child...

Building and people item

1975

Family allowances were amalgamated with child tax allowances to create Child Benefit.
Ross, Elizabeth Arledge, and Miriam L. Bearse. A Chronology of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain. Editors Boyle, Karen E. and The Oral History Project Advisory Group, The Feminist Archive, 1996, http://Bodleian.
22
Fairbairns, Zoë. “Wages for Housework”. New Internationalist, No. 181, Mar. 1988.

1844: The issue of Sunday Closing was first raised...

Building and people item

1844

The issue of Sunday Closing was first raised at the annual meeting of the British Temperance Association .
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
87

1957: Colin MacInnes (son of novelist Angela Thirkell)...

Writer or writing item

1957

Colin MacInnes (son of novelist Angela Thirkell ) published the first of his three London novels of the 1950s, City of Spades, a pioneering study of immigrant Black society in Britain.
Phillips, Caryl. “Kingdom of the blind”. The Guardian, 17 July 2004, pp. Review 4 - 6.
4-6

1798: The Annual Register Chronicle announced the...

Writer or writing item

1798

The Annual Register Chronicle announced the invention, by a Frenchman and a German, of the printing process known as stereotype or stereotyping.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. http://dictionary.oed.com/.

1 January 1969: In an article in The Black Dwarf entitled...

Building and people item

1 January 1969

In an article in The Black Dwarf entitled Women: the Struggle for Freedom, Sheila Rowbotham argued that the new politics would have more room for women and would pay more attention to people's personal...

1881: Liverpool University College was founded...

Building and people item

1881

Liverpool University College was founded.
Barnard, Howard Clive. A History of English Education from 1760. 2nd ed., University of London Press, 1961.
198
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1608

3-15 January 1966: Fidel Castro's Tricontinental Conference...

National or international item

3-15 January 1966

Fidel Castro 's Tricontinental Conference held in Havana, Cuba, resulted in the formation of the Cuban Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL).
Blight, James G., and Philip Brenner. Sad and Luminous Days: Cuba’s Struggle with the Russians After the Missile Crisis. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
103

1888: The first women typists in the Civil Service...

Building and people item

1888

The first women typists in the Civil Service were appointed; these women were often referred to as female typewriters.
Martindale, Hilda. Women Servants of the State, 1870-1938: A History of Women in the Civil Service. G. Allen and Unwin , 1938.
65-9
Cohen, Emmeline W. The Growth of the British Civil Service 1780-1939. Archon Books, 1965, http://U of G.
151-2

19 July 1553: Lady Jane Grey was deposed as queen, and...

National or international item

19 July 1553

Lady Jane Grey was deposed as queen, and Mary Tudor assumed the throne of England and Wales.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
43
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
151

Madeleine de Scudéry

MS is the most famous of the seventeenth-century French authors of heroic romances: fictions of great length, which centred on the lives, loves, and philosophical disquisitions of aristocratic characters. She also wrote poetry and letters.
Madeleine de Scudéry Oval head-and-shoulders engraving of Madeleine de Scudéry by Charles Devrits, from his "Poètes normands: portraits gravés", 1845. She wears a jewelled brooch at her low V-neck, a string of pearls, and a dark shawl wrapped around her. Her dark curly hair is partly tied back, partly in ringlets around her face.

1830: Footwear began to be sold ready-made....

Building and people item

1830

Footwear began to be sold ready-made.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
31-2

April 1955: The announcement was publicly made of the...

Building and people item

April 1955

The announcement was publicly made of the discovery by Jonas Salk of Canada of a vaccine for polio: the first effective protection against the infectious disease of poliomyelitis, which could cripple for life.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
298
Radford, Tim. “Nobel scientist warns of human hazard from bird flu”. Guardian Weekly, 22–28 Apr. 2005, p. 13.
13

1843: Alexander Bain, a Scottish inventor, patented...

Writer or writing item

1843

Alexander Bain , a Scottish inventor, patented an electrochemical recording telegraph, an early version of the facsimile machine.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Jean Plaidy

Twentieth-century popular writer JP wrote over 200 novels under seven different pseudonyms: some eighty-seven historical novels as Jean Plaidy, at least thirty-one gothic romances as Victoria Holt, and another nineteen historical romances as Philippa Carr...