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1780: James Watt (building on Erasmus Darwin's...

Writer or writing item

1780

James Watt (building on Erasmus Darwin 's production two years earlier of a mechanically copied letter) marketed a copier for documents which enabled him to make multiple copies of contracts.
Pagden, Anthony. “Great Expectations of Themselves”. London Review of Books, 17 Apr. 2003, pp. 32-3.
33

1866: Comic singer Alfred Vance was hired by the...

Building and people item

1866

Comic singer Alfred Vance was hired by the Oxford music hall in London, to compete with the popular swell singer George Leybourne .
Bratton, Jacqueline S., editor. Music Hall: Performance and Style. Open University Press, 1986.
52

1967: This year the French philosopher and critic...

Writer or writing item

1967

This year the French philosopher and critic Jacques Derrida issued three of his best-known works: La voix et la phénomène, L'Ecriture et la différence, and De la Grammatologie.
Attridge, Derek, and Thomas Baldwin. “Jacques Derrida”. Guardian Weekly, 15–21 Oct. 2004, p. 30.
30

24 March 1882: At a meeting of the Berlin Physiological...

Building and people item

24 March 1882

At a meeting of the Berlin Physiological Society, Robert Koch announced that he had identified the tubercle bacillus.
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.
337
Bynum, William F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
101, 130-1
Duin, Nancy, and Jenny Sutcliffe. A History of Medicine: From Prehistory to the Year 2020. Simon and Schuster, 1992.
57
Shryock, Richard Harrison. The Development of Modern Medicine: An Interpretation of the Social and Scientific Factors Involved. University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.
286
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
241-2
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. Houghton Mifflin, 1952.
552
Specialist histories do not confirm Hellemans' note of this event.

1875: The Merchant Shipping Act was passed....

Building and people item

1875

The Merchant Shipping Act was passed.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
120

1953: The United Nations General Assembly appointed...

National or international item

1953

The United Nations General Assembly appointed its first female president, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

22 August 1791: Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola:...

National or international item

22 August 1791

Thousands of blacks rebelled in Hispaniola: in the French-speaking part of the island (now called Haiti while the other part is called the Dominican Republic). This (also known as Sainte-Domingue or Santo Domingo)...

1972: Karen Kollias, Liz O'Sullivan, and six other...

Building and people item

1972

Karen Kollias , Liz O'Sullivan , and six other affiliates of the Washington, DC, Women's Liberation organization founded the DC Rape Crisis Center , which included a phone line providing callers with counselling and medical information.
Brownmiller, Susan. In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution. Dial, 1999.
206

1869: US physician George Henry Taylor patented...

Building and people item

1869

US physician George Henry Taylor patented a steam-powered Manipulator for vibration and massage treatment of female disorders and other complaints.
Maines, Rachel P. The Technology of Orgasm: ’Hysteria’, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
14-15

1 October 1935: At the Labour Party's annual conference Ernest...

National or international item

1 October 1935

At the Labour Party 's annual conference Ernest Bevin made a dramatic attack on the pacifist views of the leader, George Lansbury , who thereupon resigned.
Light, Alison. “Harnessed to a Shark”. London Review of Books, 21 Mar. 2002, pp. 29-31.
31
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Editors Bell, Anne Olivier and Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, 1977–1984, 5 vols.
4: 345

Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich was a religious visionary whose experiences of the divine came to her in the later fourteenth century. She was also something that no Englishwoman had been before her: the author of a...
Julian of Norwich Photograph of the statue of Julian of Norwich sculpted for a niche in the west front of Norwich Cathedral by David Holgate in 2014, six centuries after Julian's death. The photo, taken from below, shows only the waist up. Julian has an alert face and heroic stance, wrapped in a loose cloak and hood, and holding a book titled (in capitals very unlike the writing of her own day) "Revelations of Divine Love."

1800: Nicolas-Louis Robert, a Frenchman, invented...

Writer or writing item

1800

Nicolas-Louis Robert , a Frenchman, invented a machine for making continuous-roll paper for printing.
Norris, F. H. Paper and Paper Making. Oxford University Press, 1952.
1

Anna Eliza Bray

AEB first reached print with a collection of letters, the first of two which appeared over the course of her career. During fifty-four years, she published twelve novels, and twelve historical and biographical works. She...
Anna Eliza Bray Black-and-white portrait of Anna Eliza Bray in her youth, 1883.

15 January 1759: The British Museum (including what had formerly...

Building and people item

15 January 1759

The British Museum (including what had formerly been known as the King's Library ), established six years earlier, was first opened to the public.
Gray, Thomas, and Herbert Willmarth Starr. Correspondence. Editors Toynbee, Paget and Leonard Whibley, Clarendon Press, 1971, 3 vols.
2: 620 and n14

1 March 1954: The United States tested over Bikini Atoll...

National or international item

1 March 1954

The United States tested over Bikini Atoll (part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean) a nuclear bomb 1,000 times the strength of the one used at Hiroshima.
Leney, Alice. “Strained celebrations in the shadow of the bomb”. Guardian Weekly, 3 Apr. 2002, p. 22.
22

1888: Mary Hoppus, writing as Mary A. Marks (her...

Women writers item

1888

Mary Hoppus , writing as Mary A. Marks (her married name), published her historical novel Masters of the World, which John Ruskin called clever and splendid.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.
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.

20 November 1737: Caroline of Anspach, Queen of England, died...

National or international item

20 November 1737

Caroline of Anspach , Queen of England, died of a rupture after eleven days of excruciating illness.
Grundy, Isobel. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Comet of the Enlightenment. Clarendon, 1999.
370-1

Late 1945: André Deutsch established the publishing...

Writer or writing item

Late 1945

André Deutsch established the publishing firm Allan Wingate in Great Cumberland Street, London.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
95, 342
Mumby, Frank Arthur, and Ian Norrie. Mumby’s Publishing and Bookselling in the Twentieth Century. 6th ed., Bell and Hyman, 1982.
89-90

6 December 1712: Joseph Addison and his associates ceased...

Writer or writing item

6 December 1712

Joseph Addison and his associates ceased publishing The Spectator.
Addison, Joseph et al., editors. The Spectator (1711-1714). Clarendon Press, 1965, 5 vols.
554 (1712): 491

26 March 1902: Cecil Rhodes died, leaving a trust producing...

Building and people item

26 March 1902

Cecil Rhodes died, leaving a trust producing nearly £52,000 per annum to fund fifty-two (at first) graduate scholarships each year to Oxford . They were not, under the terms of his will, open to women...

1957: Rosalind Wade's novel Mrs Jamison's Daughter...

Women writers item

1957

Rosalind Wade 's novel Mrs Jamison's Daughter was published.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

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

1799: Women weavers, many of whom had replaced...

Building and people item

1799

Women weavers, many of whom had replaced men enlisted in the war against France, declared that they were better off than with their men at home.
Christie, Ian. Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain: Reflections on the British Avoidance of Revolution. Clarendon, 1984.
84

By 1880: Almost 100,000 miles of submarine telegraph...

National or international item

By 1880

Almost 100,000 miles of submarine telegraph cable was run directly from Britain to her outlying colonies.
Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet. Walker and Company, 1998.
102