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21 February 1831: Steam-driven buses invented by Sir Goldsworthy...

Building and people item

21 February 1831

Steam-driven buses invented by Sir Goldsworthy Gurney began regular service between Gloucester and Cheltenham.
Panati, Charles. Panati’s Browser’s Book of Beginnings. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
309
Derry, Thomas Kingston, and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. Clarendon, 1960.
388

14 July 1833: John Keble preached a sermon at St Mary's...

National or international item

14 July 1833

John Keble preached a sermon at St Mary's Church, High Street, Oxford (the University Church), on National Apostacy; it is viewed as the beginning of the Tractarian Movement.
Marriott, Sir John A. R. Oxford, Its Place in National History. Clarendon, 1933.
172

1908: W. H. Smith and Son bought the Arden Press...

Writer or writing item

1908

W. H. Smith and Son bought the Arden Press and transferred business to Letchworth; the move signalled Smith's move into publishing.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
170
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 106. Gale Research, 1991.
279

1805-1830: During these years the proportion of British...

Building and people item

1805-1830

During these years the proportion of British men who made their wills in India and left their property to Indian wives or mixed-race families dropped from one in four to one in six, according to...

22 April 1809: A second British expeditionary force landed...

National or international item

22 April 1809

A second British expeditionary force landed at Lisbon, to replace those who had retreated from Corunna in Spain.
Page, F. C. G. Following the Drum: Women in Wellington’s Wars. Deutsch, 1986.
7

13 June 1971: The New York Times began printing the Pentagon...

National or international item

13 June 1971

The New York Times began printing the Pentagon Papers dossier compiled by Daniel Ellsberg as he worked for the US administration on an internal history of American involvement in Vietnam.
Johnson, Chalmers. “Who’s in charge?”. London Review of Books, 6 Feb. 2003, pp. 7-9.
8-9

Summer 1863: The first Cook's tour took place in Switzerland:...

Building and people item

Summer 1863

The first Cook 's tour took place in Switzerland: three weeks walking, riding muleback, and climbing, with stiff gradients, high passes, and imposing views of glaciers. Jemima Morrell (1832-1909) kept a journal of this...

Iris Tree

Twentieth-century poet IT published three volumes of poetry in her twenties and thirties and a long poem in her old age. Her poems also appeared in verse anthologies, most notably Edith Sitwell 's Wheels...

15 March 2011: Street demonstrations in Syria began to escalate...

National or international item

15 March 2011

Street demonstrations in Syria began to escalate into revolutary action, then brutal repression, then full-scale civil war. At six years old the war was still going strong, with cities like Aleppo bombed into ruins, thousands...

By late 1697: John Dryden published by subscription his...

Writer or writing item

By late 1697

John Dryden published by subscription his verse translation of Virgil 's Works; it was the first time a literary work by a living author had been published by this means.
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

1657: At Helmsley in Yorkshire a Whitby woman was...

Building and people item

1657

At Helmsley in Yorkshire a Whitby woman was sentenced to be ducked as a scold.
Gillis, John R. For Better, For Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present. Oxford University Press, 1985.
78

9 December 1909: The Lord Chief Justice ruled in favour of...

National or international item

9 December 1909

The Lord Chief Justice ruled in favour of forcible feeding of suffragists, arguing that it was the duty of the prison medical officer to prevent prisoners from committing suicide.
Tickner, Lisa. The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907-1914. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
105

January 1845: J. B. Buckstone's The Green Bushes; or, A...

Writer or writing item

January 1845

J. B. Buckstone 's The Green Bushes; or, A Hundred Years Ago opened at the Adelphi Theatre.
Moody, Jane. “Illusions of authorship”. Women and Playwriting in Nineteenth-Century Britain, edited by Tracy C. Davis and Ellen Donkin, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 99-124.
114, 116

1929: This Quarter ceased publication in Paris;...

Writer or writing item

1929

This Quarter ceased publication in Paris; its editors had included Ernest Walsh , Ethel Moorhead , and Kay Boyle .
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press, 1987.
277
Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
12

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)...

1824: The Manchester Mechanical Institute was ...

Building and people item

1824

The Manchester Mechanical Institute was founded.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
783
The World of Learning. 47th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1997.
1997: 1563

Pat Barker

PB is a contemporary writer of fiction (novels, linked tales, and short stories) who began publishing about women's lives but has made her special subject-matter the working-class culture of northern industrial towns and the experience...

1850: Scottish doctor Robert Knox in The Races...

Building and people item

1850

Scottish doctor Robert Knox in The Races of Men posited racial difference as the foundation of human conflict; a second edition followed in 1862.
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.
Kaplan, Cora, and Dinah Mulock Craik. “Introduction”. Olive; and, The Half-Caste, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. ix - xxv.
xv-xvi
Beckman, Linda Hunt. Amy Levy: Her Life and Letters. Ohio University Press, 2000.
112 and n93

January 1814: Exceptionally cold weather led to a celebratory...

Building and people item

January 1814

Exceptionally cold weather led to a celebratory ice fair on the frozen Thames at London, with ox-roasts on the ice.
Douglass, Paul. Lady Caroline Lamb. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
156

20 March 1933: Hitler began using Dachau, his first concentration...

National or international item

20 March 1933

Hitler began using Dachau, his first concentration camp, to imprison Communists and other political opponents.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
96
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
285-6

25 June 1886: The Infant Custody, or Guardianship of Infants,...

National or international item

25 June 1886

The Infant Custody, or Guardianship of Infants, Act gave mothers the right to custody of their children if the father died.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
xix
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

November 1932: The German National Socialist Party (the...

National or international item

November 1932

The GermanNational Socialist Party (the Nazis) lost ground in the Reichstag elections.
Mommsen, Wolfgang. “Working Towards the Führer”. London Review of Books, 19 Aug. 1999, pp. 29-30.
29

1904-1905: The Women's Co-operative Guild 's (WCG) Health...

Building and people item

1904-1905

The Women's Co-operative Guild 's (WCG) Health for School Children campaign resulted in the establishment of school clinics.
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
101

10 August 1915: The British Government created Queen Mary's...

National or international item

10 August 1915

The British Government created Queen Mary's Needlework Guild as an answer to increased women's unemployment during the war.
Soldon, Norbert. Women in British Trade Unions 1874-1976. Gill and Macmillan, 1978.
79

1919: As Hon. Mrs. Dowdall, Mary Frances Harriet...

Women writers item

1919

As Hon. Mrs. Dowdall, Mary Frances Harriet Dowdall published her novel Susie Yesterday, To-Day, and Forever.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.