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.

Late May 1844: Because railway investment was lagging, Parliament...

Building and people item

Late May 1844

Because railway investment was lagging, Parliament reduced the deposit for new railway applications to five percent (from ten percent) of the railway's proposed capital investment.
Simmons, Jack. The Railway in England and Wales 1830-1914. Leicester University Press, 1978.
36

1987: Elizabeth Cadell published Out of the Rain,...

Women writers item

1987

Elizabeth Cadell published Out of the Rain, a romance.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Elizabeth Hincks:

EH , a Quaker widow about whose life nothing is known, wrote and published a single long poem in 1671.

Mary Herberts:

MH is an obscure early-eighteenth-century fiction-writer. It seems that she (assuming that she really was a woman, since the name has been taken as a pseudonym) published just a single, highly unusual work, a novel...

Ella K. Maillart

EKM was a Swiss traveller whose website calls her [w]riter and journalist through necessity, photographer by predilection.
Ella Maillart. http://www.ellamaillart.ch/index_en.php.
She published five books about her journeys, three books of reminiscence, and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Collections...

1992: Polytechnics in Britain, with some Colleges...

Building and people item

1992

Polytechnics in Britain, with some Colleges of Further Education, were upgraded to the status of universities.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
509

Ursula K. Le Guin

American author of more than twenty novels (some intended for young adults), a dozen volumes of poetry, many collections of stories and essays, thirteen children's books, five translations, and a how-to book about writing. UKLG

28 August 1907: The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act...

National or international item

28 August 1907

The Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act rescinded the ban on a man's marrying the sister of his previous wife, after her death.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1907): 215-16
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
31

November 1868-October 1869: George MacDonald's children's book At the...

Writer or writing item

November 1868-October 1869

George MacDonald 's children's book At the Back of the North Wind appeared serially in Good Words for the Young.
Raeper, William. George MacDonald. Lion Publishing, 1987.
269, 322, 423
Wolff, Robert Lee. The Golden Key. Yale University Press, 1961.
110
Saintsbury, Elizabeth. George MacDonald: A Short Life. Canongate, 1987.
105

1886: The Jaeger sanitary woollen corset was worn...

Building and people item

1886

The Jaeger sanitary woollen corset was worn in the UK from this time as an alternative to tight-lacing corsets.
Cunnington, C. Willett et al. The History of Underclothes. Revised, Faber and Faber, 1981.
185, 197

2 February 1742: Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime...

National or international item

2 February 1742

Sir Robert Walpole , Britain's first Prime Minister, communicated his intention of retiring.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
1368

1972: For the first time women were admitted to...

Building and people item

1972

For the first time women were admitted to a select few men's colleges at Cambridge University .
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1593-4
McWilliams-Tullberg, Rita. Women at Cambridge. Gollancz, 1975.
216

February 1936: The awesome trio of political theorist Harold...

Writer or writing item

February 1936

The awesome trio
Laity, Paul. “The left’s ace of clubs”. Guardian Unlimited, 7 July 2001.
of political theorist Harold Laski , publisher Victor Gollancz , and writer and Labour MP John Strachey established the Left Book Club (LBC) .
Laity, Paul. “The left’s ace of clubs”. Guardian Unlimited, 7 July 2001.

12 November 1794: The Jacobin Club of Paris closed down....

National or international item

12 November 1794

The Jacobin Club of Paris closed down.
Kafker, Frank A., and James M. Laux, editors. The French Revolution: Conflicting Interpretations. 4th ed., R. E. Krieger, 1989.
xiv

31 December 1711: The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed from...

National or international item

31 December 1711

The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed from all his posts.
Harris, Frances. A Passion for Government: The life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Clarendon, 1991.
178, 186-7

About 1818: Sir William Congreve (namesake of the dramatist)...

National or international item

About 1818

Sir William Congreve (namesake of the dramatist) invented a machine to produce coloured watermarking of paper.
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
Some sources give a date of 1819.

1838: Charles Knight patented a colour-printing...

Writer or writing item

1838

Charles Knight patented a colour-printing process called Patent Illuminated Printing.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
144

11 January-4 July 1879: Thousands were killed in the British war...

National or international item

11 January-4 July 1879

Thousands were killed in the British war against the Zulu under chief Cetewayo or Cetshwayo in Zululand (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa.
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714-1980. Longman, 1983.
235
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 761-2
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/.

6 February 1826: James Fenimore Cooper published The Last...

Writer or writing item

6 February 1826

James Fenimore Cooper published The Last of the Mohicans, the second of his Leather-Stocking Tales series, about the slow demise of a Native American Tribe.
Peck, H. Daniel, editor. New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
3, 6-7
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
6 February 2008

1904: Francis Galton founded a research fellowship...

Building and people item

1904

Francis Galton founded a research fellowship at the University of London that later became the Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics .
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
272
Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity. Knopf, 1985.
37-38
In his entry on Eugenics in Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia, Charles...

By December 1757: William Battie's Treatise on Madness made...

Building and people item

By December 1757

William Battie 's Treatise on Madness made great claims for his ground-breaking methods of curing lunatics by humane methods.
Although library catalogues list the publication date as 1758, the Critical Review reviews Battie's work in...

: The psychological journal Brain was foun...

Building and people item

Early 1879

The psychological journal Brain was founded.
Collie, Michael. Henry Maudsley: Victorian Psychiatrist. West End House, 1988, http://HSS.
34

29 December 1770: The Morning Chronicle began publication;...

Writer or writing item

29 December 1770

The Morning Chronicle began publication; it became London's leading Opposition paper, and ran until the end of 1800.
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.
Macleod, Emma Vincent. “A city invincible? Edinburgh and the war against Revolutionary France”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
23
, No. 2, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2000, pp. 153-66.
160

Muriel Jaeger

MJ began her book-publishing career with four novels during the 1920s and 30s; she is one of the least known amongst the Somerville novelists who attended Oxford together at the time of the First World...