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1781: The young Johann Christoph Friedrich von...

Writer or writing item

1781

The young Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller published his first play, Die Räuber (The Robbers).
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.

11 May 1778: William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, died one month...

National or international item

11 May 1778

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham , died one month and four days after collapsing dramatically in the House of Lords in the midst of an impassioned harangue opposing the independence of the USA.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

July 1977: Splendid Lives: Stories by Penelope Gilliatt...

Women writers item

July 1977

Splendid Lives: Stories by Penelope Gilliatt was published.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
British Book News. British Council.
(1977): June insert

Gustave Flaubert

Delarivier Manley

DM was a pioneer in many fields: poetry, drama, journalism, and fiction, and the genres with which the fiction of her period interlocked: letters, soft pornography, satire, secret history, romance autobiography, and political polemic...
Delarivier Manley Mythological frontispiece to the "New Atlantis", showing three female figures. Astrea, goddess of justice, sits on a cloud holding her scales and sword, bare-breasted Truth deploys her trumpet in mid air, and Virtue reclines on earth in the guise of the Duchess of Ormonde. An inscription invokes "Sacred Truth" and the reforming power of satire.

Joan Vokins

JV , a late-seventeenth-century Quaker preacher, is best known for her autobiography; she also left letters addressed to individuals and epistles officially addressed to Quaker communities.
Joan Vokins Title-page of Joan Vokins's book, "God's Mighty Power Magnified: As Manifested and Revealed in his Faithful Handmaid Joan Vokins", 1691: a new edition published at Cockermouth in Cumbria, 1871. It bears the signature of a former owner.

24 July 1923: Turkey agreed to cede territory under the...

National or international item

24 July 1923

Turkey agreed to cede territory under the Treaty of Lausanne; this signalled the end of the Ottoman Empire.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 850
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
1086-7
Mazower, Mark. “Half-Infidels”. London Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2006, pp. 9-10.
9-10

22 March 1896: Thomas Hughes, novelist, died at Brighton,...

Writer or writing item

22 March 1896

Thomas Hughes , novelist, died at Brighton, East Sussex.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
163

1823: Ann Deane published with her initials (but...

National or international item

1823

Ann Deane published with her initials (but revealing her class and gender as a lady) A Tour through the Upper Provinces of Hindostan . . . between the years 1804 and 1814: with remarks...

6 May 1910: King Edward VII died, and George V assumed...

National or international item

6 May 1910

King Edward VII died, and George V assumed the throne; Virginia Woolf dated a section of The Years from the old king's death.
Woolf, Virginia. The Years. Hogarth Press, 1979.
172, 184, 205

8 December 1868: The radical daily half-penny paper the Echo...

Writer or writing item

8 December 1868

The radical daily half-penny paper the Echo first appeared, under the editorship of Arthur Arnold , providing both news and opinion.
Bourne, H. R. Fox. English Newspapers. Russell and Russell, 1966, 2 vols.
2: 275

1849: Prince Albert joined the Geological Society...

Building and people item

1849

Prince Albert joined the Geological Society of London .
Dean, Dennis R. “Through Science to Despair: Geology and the Victorians”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 111-36.
121

August 1841: The Irish Universal Suffrage Association...

National or international item

August 1841

The Irish Universal Suffrage Association was founded.
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
67, 71

1880s: Vere Foster, who promoted the emigration...

National or international item

1880s

Vere Foster, who promoted the emigration of young Irish women to the United States and the British colonies, aided 23,000 emigrants.
Fitzpatrick, David. Irish Emigration 1801-1921. Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1984.
17, 19
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
262

1741: Alexander Cruden's A Verbal Index to Milton's...

Writer or writing item

1741

Alexander Cruden 's A Verbal Index to Milton's Paradise Lost was published in London.
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.

6 August 1814: Byron published Lara, the third of three...

Writer or writing item

6 August 1814

Byron published Lara, the third of three narrative poems in little more than a year which served to establish the image of the Byronic hero.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
4th ser. 6 (1814): 203, 214
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
6 August 2008

By April 1929: The Book Society (first conceived of by Arnold...

Writer or writing item

By April 1929

The Book Society (first conceived of by Arnold Bennett ) was launched by Hugh Walpole with himself as chairman; it was the first such society in Britain.
Spurling, Hilary. Secrets of a Woman’s Heart. Hodder and Stoughton, 1984.
23
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
187-8

6 January 2021: One year after being identified, the COVID-19 coronavirus killed over two million people globally, with approximately eighty-six thousand deaths in the United Kingdom

Building and people item

6 January 2021

One year after being identified, the COVID-19 coronavirus killed over two million people globally, with approximately eighty-six thousand deaths in the United Kingdom.
Phillips, Tom. “Global report: coronavirus death toll reaches 2 million”. The Guardian, 16 Jan. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/global-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-2-million-people.
 

15 November 1743: George II was enthusiastically welcomed to...

National or international item

15 November 1743

George II was enthusiastically welcomed to London, with illuminations and bonfires, on his return from his victorious campaign in Europe.
Walpole, Horace. The Letters of Horace Walpole. Editor Toynbee, Mrs Paget, Clarendon, 1903–1925, 16 vols.
1: 391

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

EWW , a popular poet from the American mid-West, was born at mid nineteenth century and began publishing at an early age. Her output amounted to about eighty volumes (some posthumous), her poems (mostly first...

11 February 1722: Jonathan Swift wrote: It is a little hard,...

Building and people item

11 February 1722

Jonathan Swift wrote: It is a little hard, that not one gentleman's daughter in a thousand, should be brought to read, or understand her own natural tongue, or be judge of the easiest books that...

1940: Women in Quebec finally gained the right...

National or international item

1940

Women in Quebec finally gained the right to vote in provincial elections; most other Canadian women had enjoyed voting rights since 1918.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
504

Before October 1865: John Ruskin published his popular treatise...

Writer or writing item

Before October 1865

John Ruskin published his popular treatise on gender roles, Sesame and Lilies.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

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

22 April 1969: The Booker Prize for the year's best novel...

Writer or writing item

22 April 1969

The Booker Prize for the year's best novel was awarded for the first time. The winner was P. H. Newby with Something to Answer For; the judges were chaired by Frank Kermode , and...