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18 February 1793: A Catholic Relief Act repealed some parts...

National or international item

18 February 1793

A Catholic Relief Act repealed some parts of the infamous Penal Laws operative in Ireland. Either J. S. Anna Liddiard or her husband wrote in 1819 that this was the source of the improvement...

1850: The first midnight mission for the reclamation...

Building and people item

1850

The first midnight mission for the reclamation of prostitutes was held, in a Waterloo Road schoolroom, London.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
194

August 2006: A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots was given...

Building and people item

August 2006

A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots was given a prominent place in the National Portrait Gallery after it was recently discovered to date from Mary's lifetime.
National Portrait Gallery. http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp.
“Mary, Queen of Scots portrait likely authentic”. CBC Arts and Entertainment, 17 Aug. 2006.

1872: George MacDonald's children's classic, The...

Writer or writing item

1872

George MacDonald 's children's classic, The Princess and the Goblin, appeared in volume form.
Raeper, William. George MacDonald. Lion Publishing, 1987.
269, 423
Wolff, Robert Lee. The Golden Key. Yale University Press, 1961.
110
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

1981: Government funding of British universities...

Building and people item

1981

Government funding of British universities was savagely reduced by Margaret Thatcher 's Conservative government: a roughly 11% cut across the board rose to 20% at several institutions.
Collini, Stefan. “HiEdBiz”. London Review of Books, 6 Nov. 2003, pp. 3-9.
5

1684: John Banks's tragedy The Island Queens (which...

Writer or writing item

1684

John Banks 's tragedy The Island Queens (which featured Mary Queen of Scots as heroine and Elizabeth I as villain) was defiantly published after having been banned from the stage.
Dobson, Michael. “Lost Mother”. London Review of Books, 17 Feb. 2000, pp. 10-13.
11
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
1: 322, 323

Queen Elizabeth I

QEI was a scholar by training and inclination (who wrote translations both as learning exercises and for recreation), as well as a writer in many genres and several languages. As monarch she wrote speeches, and...
Queen Elizabeth I Full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by the school of Nicholas Hilliard, 1590. Behind her two hovering angels prepare to crown her. She wears formal and elaborate clothes: tight blonde curls, a ruff, a stiff bodice, petticoat and over-skirt in intricate brocade patterns, deep lace cuffs, strings of pearls and several rings. A lengthy Latin inscription calls her an invincible virgin, mistress of all sciences, founder of Jesus College, Oxford, where the painting hangs.

19 May 1924: The BBC radio made the first broadcast of...

Building and people item

19 May 1924

The BBC radio made the first broadcast of the song of a nightingale.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
366

2 April-28 May 1871: The second siege of Paris took place; this...

National or international item

2 April-28 May 1871

The second siege of Paris took place; this time the besiegers were monarchists, and the defenders were the supporters of the Paris Commune , who had ousted the monarchist National Assembly.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
288
Merriman, John M. “Contested Freedoms in the French Revolutions, 1830-1871”. Revolution and the Meanings of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Isser Woloch, Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 173-11.
202-6
Marlière, Philippe. “Globalisation before Globalisation”. London Review of Books, Vol.
37
, No. 13, 2 July 2015, pp. 21-2.
21

4 December 1931: The BBC announced the resignation of Hilda...

Writer or writing item

4 December 1931

The BBC announced the resignation of Hilda Matheson , its director of talks, which she had actually submitted in October. This was the climax of a long-running struggle over a series of talks by Harold Nicolson

1782: George Romney painted a picture to illustrate...

Women writers item

1782

George Romney painted a picture to illustrate (after the fact) William Hayley 'a Triumphs of Temper, 1781: Serena, reading Burney 's Evelina. The model was Honora Sneyd .
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
607, 609

1789: William Blake published the first of his...

Writer or writing item

1789

William Blake published the first of his engraved books of lyrics, Songs of Innocence.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

2 May 1670: Charles II signed the charter for the Hudson,...

National or international item

2 May 1670

Charles II signed the charter for the Hudson, or Hudson's, Bay Company , giving it trading rights in Rupert's Land.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
618
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd revised, Simon and Schuster, 1991.
307

1 January 1886: Upper Burma was annexed to British India...

National or international item

1 January 1886

Upper Burma was annexed to British India after Britain had despatched an expeditionary force to the area, which was perceived as an imperial problem.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
539
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714-1995. 3rd ed., Longman, 1996.
287
Thant Myint-U. “What to do about Burma”. London Review of Books, 8 Feb. 2007, pp. 31-3.
31

1769: Weavers at Fenwick in Scotland formed the...

National or international item

1769

Weavers at Fenwick in Scotland formed the first documented co-operative society, foreshadowing a significant movement, celebrated by the UN by designating 2012 the International Year of Co-operatives.
Ellwood, Wayne. “Co-ops offer a far better way to organize economic activity”. CCPA Monitor, Vol.
19
, No. 4, Sept. 2012, pp. 8-10.
8, 9

1926: Siegfried Sassoon published Satirical Poems;...

Writer or writing item

1926

Siegfried Sassoon published Satirical Poems; they were frequently reprinted over the next few years.
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.

1838: American physician Isaac Ray published A...

National or international item

1838

American physician Isaac Ray published A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity.
Walker, Nigel. Crime and Insanity in England. Edinburgh University Press, 1968.
89

1 May 1855: At the wedding of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell...

Building and people item

1 May 1855

At the wedding of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell in Massachusetts, they protested against the legal restrictions imposed on women after marriage.
Stone Blackwell, Alice. Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Women’s Rights. Little, Brown, and Company, 1971.
Stone, 166-169

Mary Jones

MJ , writing in the mid and later eighteenth century, is remarkable for publishing her work, although it was written in a private context. She is still under-rated both as a poet and as a letter-writer.
Mary Jones Title-page of Mary Jones's "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse", published with her name at Oxford, 1750.

1888: The Ladies' Gallery at the House of Commons...

National or international item

1888

The Ladies' Gallery at the House of Commons was closed on account of suffragists repeatedly shouting from it in order to disrupt parliamentary proceedings.
Cesvette, Debbie, and Isobel Grundy. Email about the Ladies’ Gallery in the British House of Commons to Isobel Grundy. 23 June 2004.

30 April 1945: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide...

National or international item

30 April 1945

Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide as Russian troops captured the Reichstag in Berlin.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
223
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
527-9
Ascherson, Neal. “Hitler’s Teeth”. London Review of Books, 28 Nov. 2002, pp. 15-16.
15-16

1857: By this date, an estimated 250 tons of human...

Building and people item

1857

By this date, an estimated 250 tons of human excrement were flowing into the Thames River on a daily basis.
Smith, Francis Barrymore. The People’s Health, 1830-1910. Croom Helm, 1979.
219
Wohl, Anthony S. Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain. Harvard University Press, 1983.
107, 234

6 November-22 December 1872: Jules Verne's adventure novel Around the...

Writer or writing item

6 November-22 December 1872

Jules Verne 's adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days appeared in its original form, serially published in French in Le Temps.
Gallagher, Edward Joseph et al. Jules Verne: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography. G. K. Hall, 1980.
12-15

June 1897: The first issue of The Adult, a periodical...

Building and people item

June 1897

The first issue of The Adult, a periodical from the Legitimation League , appeared: it campaigned for the rights of the illegitimate and for sex education.
McLaren, Angus. “Sex Radicalism in the Canadian Pacific Northwest 1890-1920”. American Sexual Politics: Sex, Gender and Race since the Civil War, edited by John C. Fout and Maura Shaw Tantillo, University of Chicago Press, 1993.
144
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.
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
180

1856: John Barron's factory in Leeds became the...

Building and people item

1856

John Barron's factory in Leeds became the first large-scale operation to make use of sewing machines.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
128