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18 May 1953: American pilot Jacqueline Cochran became...

National or international item

18 May 1953

American pilot Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to exceed the speed of sound; she thus set the world speed record for a woman pilot.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
264
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
549

January 1966: The British government took the decision...

National or international item

January 1966

The British government took the decision to deport the inhabitants of the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The same year they leased the land to the USA as an air base...

1894: Anthony Hope (pen-name of Sir Anthony Hope...

Writer or writing item

1894

Anthony Hope (pen-name of Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins) published his immensely popular novel The Prisoner of Zenda.
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.

By 18 September 1847: John Conolly published The Construction and...

Building and people item

By 18 September 1847

John Conolly published The Construction and Government of Lunatic Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane, which likened the asylum to a home with a benevolent superintendent father.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
28, 33-5, 84, 255
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1038 (1847): 973

By early November 1910: Katherine or Katharine Roberts published...

Writer or writing item

By early November 1910

Katherine or Katharine Roberts published anonymously with the Garden City Press at Letchworth and London the semi-fictional Pages from the Diary of a Militant Suffragette.
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.
Willis, Chris. Beatrice Harraden—Suffragette Writer. http://replay.web.archive.org/20071209111819/http://www.chriswillis.freeserve.co.uk/Harraden.htm.

30 December 1779: Christopher Wyvill, a conservative supporter...

National or international item

30 December 1779

Christopher Wyvill , a conservative supporter of parliamentary reform fuelled by a sense of the interests of the propertied gentry, held a meeting of about six hundred men at York assembly rooms, which resolved to...

1855: Lord Dunaldson suggested the use of the poisonous...

National or international item

1855

Lord Dunaldson suggested the use of the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide in the Crimean War.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
326

1845: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,...

Writer or writing item

1845

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, was published; it went through nine British editions by 1847.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr, and Henry Louis, Jr Gates, editors. “Introduction”. The Classic Slave Narratives, Penguin, 1987, p. ix - xviii.
xi

1883: L. R. S. Tomalin, an early disciple of Gustave...

Building and people item

1883

L. R. S. Tomalin , an early disciple of Gustave Jaeger 's woollen movement, set up the Jaeger Company in Fore Street, London, to sell Dr Jaeger's Sanitary Woollen Clothing..
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
185-7

1909: The London Brighton and South Coast railway...

National or international item

1909

The London Brighton and South Coast railway line was converted to electricity.
Allen, G. Freeman. Railways: Past, Present and Future. Orbis Publishing, 1982.
161

10 February 1946: The first session of the United Nations General...

National or international item

10 February 1946

The first session of the United Nations General Assembly opened in London (preceded by the first meeting of the Security Council).
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
395
“History of the United Nations”. The United Nations.

18-21 April 1999: The US Congress sent a fact-finding mission...

National or international item

18-21 April 1999

The US Congress sent a fact-finding mission to Yugoslavia to seek to establish the truth of what was happening in NATO 's bombing war on Serbs in the province of Kosovo.
Knightley, Phillip. “Fighting Dirty”. Guardian Weekly, 30 Mar. 2000, p. 23.
23

29 August 1907: More than eighty workers were killed when...

National or international item

29 August 1907

More than eighty workers were killed when a main compression chamber failed and the south arm of a bridge being built across the St Lawrence at Quebec collapsed.
Lindemann, Marilee, and Willa Cather. “Introduction, Chronology”. Alexander’s Bridge, edited by Marilee Lindemann and Marilee Lindemann, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. vii - xliv.
xvi

7 July 1990: Martina Navratilova won the women's singles...

Building and people item

7 July 1990

Martina Navratilova won the women's singles title at the Wimbledon tennis tournament for the ninth time, beating the record of eight wins set by Helen Wills Moody between 1927 and 1938.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
501

April-May 1795: There was famine in Paris, where bread rations...

Building and people item

April-May 1795

There was famine in Paris, where bread rations had steadily declined; women demonstrated in the streets.
Godineau, Dominique. The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution. Translator Streip, Katherine, University of California Press, 1998.
372

17 July 1925: The Radio Supplement was first issued by...

Building and people item

17 July 1925

The Radio Supplement was first issued by the BBC .
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
367

Earlier 1937: Ruth Pitter was awarded the Hawthornden Prize...

Women writers item

Earlier 1937

Ruth Pitter was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for her poetry; the presentation was made by Vita Sackville-West .
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin, 1984.
288

October 1942: The German Nazi Party prohibited Jews from...

Building and people item

October 1942

The GermanNazi Party prohibited Jews from buying white bread or meat (in an economy in which every kind of food was becoming scarce).
This information comes from the diaries of Victor Klemperer , first...

1830: William Cobbett published his most famous...

Writer or writing item

1830

William Cobbett published his most famous work, Rural Rides (a report on the conditions of the poor especially, of whom he was an unflagging advocate).
Colley, Linda. “I am the Watchman”. London Review of Books, 20 Nov. 2003, pp. 16-17.
16-17
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

15 September 1964: The Sun began publication by Odham Press...

Writer or writing item

15 September 1964

The Sun began publication by Odham Press of London, calling itself an independent daily newspaper and aimed at a working-class audience.
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.
Schott, Ben. Schott’s Original Miscellany. Bloomsbury, 2002.
140

July 1975: Contributing to her reputation as an important...

Women writers item

July 1975

Contributing to her reputation as an important film critic, Penelope Gilliatt published a filmmaker's profile entitled Jean Renoir : Essays, Conversations, Reviews.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons, 1874–1987.
1976

After 1 February 1785: M. Peddle (a gifted, little-known, Evangelical...

Women writers item

After 1 February 1785

M. Peddle (a gifted, little-known, Evangelical woman of Yeovil in Somerset, who later issued a conduct book under the name of Cornelia) published a biblical paraphrase in novelistic style: The Life of Jacob.
Peddle, M. The Life of Jacob. R. Goadby and Co., 1785.

6 June 1391: A hostile mob of armed Christians mounted...

National or international item

6 June 1391

A hostile mob of armed Christians mounted an attack on the Jewish quarter of Seville in Spain.
Nirenberg, David. “Unrenounceable Core”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, No. 14, 23 July 2009, pp. 16-17.
16

1832: Joseph Henry Parker took over his uncle's...

Writer or writing item

1832

Joseph Henry Parker took over his uncle's Oxford bookselling and publishing business; as J. H. Parker it soon became the foremost publisher of the Oxford or Tractarian Movement.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 106. Gale Research, 1991.
106: 230

1724: Sixteen new novels or works of fiction were...

Writer or writing item

1724

Sixteen new novels or works of fiction were published in England this year, besides three translations.
Downie, James Alan. “Mary Davys’s ’Probable Feign’d Stories’ and Critical Shibboleths about ’The Rise of the Novel’”. Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Vol.
12
, No. 2-3, Jan.–Apr. 2000, pp. 309-26.
311