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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 May 2020: George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis

Building and people item

25 May 2020

George Floyd  was killed in Minneapolis by police officer Derek Chauvin , who pinned Floyd to the ground and held his knee on Floyd's neck, despite Floyd's repeated statement, I can't breathe. Floyd's death sparked...

1815: Joseph Dufour of Paris, manufacturer of scenic...

Building and people item

1815

Joseph Dufour of Paris, manufacturer of scenic panoramic wallpapers, issued a set of Views of India; he said such subjects aimed to bring the peoples of the world closer together.
Garnett, Oliver. “Paper Chase”. The National Trust Magazine, Vol.
90
, 1 June 2000–2026, p. 88.
88

4 September 1848: A UK order in council made Cape Colony a...

National or international item

4 September 1848

A UK order in council made Cape Colony a penal settlement.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 620

2 August 1788: The painter Thomas Gainsborough died at the...

Building and people item

2 August 1788

The painter Thomas Gainsborough died at the age of sixty-two; he was buried beside his friend Joshua Kirby (father of Sarah Trimmer ) in Kew churchyard.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1820: American writer Washington Irving published...

Writer or writing item

1820

American writer Washington Irving published The Sketch Book under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, Gent..
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
497

Charlotte Eliza Humphry

Mrs C. E. Humphry , a journalist at a time when the field was just opening up to women, began her career with a popular newspaper column aimed at women. This chatty column appeared in...

29 April 1771: Edmund Burke spoke in parliament in support...

Building and people item

29 April 1771

Edmund Burke spoke in parliament in support of a bill to prevent divorced parties from marrying again.
O’Brien, Karen. Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
146

21 July 1960: Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister...

National or international item

21 July 1960

Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon, and the first woman head of state in the Commonwealth.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
1265
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
258
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Modern World: 1763 to the Present Time. David McKay, 1967.
670, 676

2 June 1851: The first prohibition law was passed, in...

Building and people item

2 June 1851

The first prohibition law was passed, in Maine: across the Atlantic in England this inaugurated the third phase of temperance reform, the push for a legislative solution to the perceived evils of drink.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
4, 75

1710: Oxford scholar Thomas Hearne published through...

Writer or writing item

1710

Oxford scholar Thomas Hearne published through the university press the first of the nine volumes of The Itinerary of John Leland , Antiquary.
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.

Mary Louisa Molesworth

MLM , writing in the later nineteenth century, was immensely prolific and successful as a writer for children. Of her publications (just over a hundred titles) only a few novels and volumes of stories are...

1861: The Royal College of Physicians made midwifery...

Building and people item

1861

The Royal College of Physicians made midwifery a required topic for their licence.
Towler, Jean. Midwives in History and Society. Croom Helm, 1986.
149

1832: John William Parker established his own publishing...

Writer or writing item

1832

John William Parker established his own publishing business at 445 West Strand, London.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 106. Gale Research, 1991.
106: 233

30 May 1771: A letter to the Gazetteer attributed all...

Building and people item

30 May 1771

A letter to the Gazetteer attributed all the faults of French absolutist government to the influence of madame Du Barry (1746-93, mistress to the former monarch Louis XV) and to Marie Antoinette .
Clark, Anna. “The Chevalier d’Eon and Wilkes: Masculinity and Politics in the Eighteenth Century”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 1998, pp. 19-48.
31
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
under Du Barry

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

1881: Lady Harberton founded the Rational Dress...

Building and people item

1881

Lady Harberton founded the Rational Dress Society which proposed dress reform for women, denounced tight-lacing and high heels, and advocated divided skirts.
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.
173
Gernsheim, Alison. Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey. Dover, 1981.
72
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.

1818: Judges in Britain began sentencing some juvenile...

Building and people item

1818

Judges in Britain began sentencing some juvenile delinquents to privately funded reformatories, instead of to jails.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
275

13 December 1476: William Caxton printed a Papal Indulgence...

Building and people item

13 December 1476

William Caxton printed a Papal Indulgence on which a contemporary hand added this date, which makes it Caxton's earliest known printing in England.
Caxton’s Printed Indulgence. National Archives, http://www.pro.gov.uk/virtualmuseum/icons/caxton.htm.

March 1981: Activist Darcus Howe led about 10,000 people...

Building and people item

March 1981

Activist Darcus Howe led about 10,000 people in a protest march to 10 Downing Street (London headquarters of of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher ) to protest about alleged racism both of criminals and of...

1937: Under Eamon De Valera, Ireland unilaterally...

National or international item

1937

Under Eamon De Valera , Ireland unilaterally adopted a new Constitution making it no longer the Irish Free State but Eire.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
132
Kelly, Matthew. “Now is your chance”. London Review of Books, 5 Oct. 2006, pp. 31-2.
31

1889: T. H. Huxley published an work Agnostici...

Writer or writing item

1889

T. H. Huxley published an work Agnosticism.
Huxley, Thomas Henry. The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley. Editor Barr, Alan P., University of Georgia Press, 1997.
253

March 1892: Alfred, Lord Tennyson's The Foresters: Robin...

Writer or writing item

March 1892

Alfred, Lord Tennyson 's The Foresters: Robin Hood & Maid Marion had its first performance at Daly's Theatre in New York.
Wise, Thomas J. A Bibliography of the Writings of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1967, 2 Vols.
177
Beetz, Kirk H. Tennyson: A Bibliography, 1827-1982. Scarecrow Press, 1984.
133
Martin, Robert Bernard. Tennyson: The Unquiet Heart. Clarendon Press, 1983.
525, 578

Mid 1820s: Harsh economic conditions caused two-thirds...

Writer or writing item

Mid 1820s

Harsh economic conditions caused two-thirds of established British publishing firms to crash: authors were ruined, like Sir Walter Scott , by the bankruptcy of Constable and Ballantyne in Edinburgh.
Campbell, Mary, 1917 - 2002. Lady Morgan: The Life and Times of Sydney Owenson. Pandora, 1988.
215-16
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

By 15 May 1981: Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children,...

Writer or writing item

By 15 May 1981

Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children, a novel in which the midnight in question is the moment of Indian independence from Britain.
Cunningham, Valentine. “Nosing out the Indian reality”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 4076, 15 May 1981, p. 535.
535

1913: The Irish Women's Reform League was established...

National or international item

1913

The Irish Women's Reform League was established in Dublin by Louie Bennett , and affiliated to the Irish Women's Suffrage Federation .
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
42
Murphy, Cliona. The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Irish Society in the Early Twentieth Century. Temple University Press, 1989.
24
Ó’Céirín, Kit, and Cyril Ó’Céirín, editors. Women of Ireland: A Biographic Dictionary. Tír Eolas, 1996.
20