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Beatrice Harraden

Writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, BH published seventeen novels, besides journalism and letters to the editor, short stories, a suffrage play and pamphlet, and children's books. Favourite topics with her, seemingly...
Beatrice Harraden Black and white photograph of Beatrice Harraden, shown from the shoulders up. She has her head turned and appears to be looking off intently into the distance. She wears a light dress with flower detailing around the neck, and she has short curly hair and small wire-rimmed spectacles perched on the end of her nose.

26 April 1937: The German Air Force bombed the village of...

National or international item

26 April 1937

The German Air Force bombed the village of Guernica in the Basque country in Spain; this was not a military target, so the incident represents an early instance of the bombing of civilians with...

27 April 1966: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley went on trial...

Building and people item

27 April 1966

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley went on trial at Chester for the sexual assault and murder of five girls and boys aged between ten and seventeen; they were sentenced to life imprisonment.
“Moors Murderer Hindley Dies”. BBC News, 16 Nov. 2002.

30 June 1849: A weekly periodical for women entitled The...

Writer or writing item

30 June 1849

A weekly periodical for women entitled The Domestic Journal and Home Miscellany of Instruction and Amusement began publication in London.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
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1926: Frank Sheed and Masie Ward founded Sheed...

Building and people item

1926

Frank Sheed and Masie Ward founded Sheed and Ward Limited at 31 Paternoster Row, London, to publish and circulate Catholic thought.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
304

1926: The Electricity Supply Act established a...

Building and people item

1926

The Electricity Supply Act established a Central Electricity Board and National Grid with a ten-year plan for distributing cheap, reliable, standardized power throughout England.
Hardyment, Christina. From Mangle to Microwave: The Mechanization of Household Work. Polity Press, 1988.
31
Electricity Council. Electricity Supply in Great Britain: A Chronology. Electricity Council, 1973.
18

March 1808: Napoleon's forces entered Madrid; on 12 July...

National or international item

March 1808

Napoleon 's forces entered Madrid; on 12 July Joseph Bonaparte was installed as King of Spain, following the successive abdication of two Spanish kings, father and son.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
1165
Collier, Simon. “Old Iron-Arse”. London Review of Books, 9 Aug. 2001, pp. 30-1.
30

February 1987: Mirror Image, a novel by Dulcie Gray, ap...

Women writers item

February 1987

Mirror Image, a novel by Dulcie Gray , appeared.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
“Bowker’s Global Books in Print”. globalbooksinprint.com.

16 July 1941: Stalin signed one of his earliest decrees,...

National or international item

16 July 1941

Stalin signed one of his earliest decrees, taking military decisions out of the hands the Red Army command and subjecting them to political control.
Waal, Thomas de. “Dun-Coloured Dust”. London Review of Books, 15 July 1999, pp. 18-19.
18

1906: The Labour Representation Committee changed...

National or international item

1906

The Labour Representation Committee changed its name to the Labour Party .
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
428

1943: All conscripted women in Britain were compelled...

Building and people item

1943

All conscripted women in Britain were compelled to serve in specified industries. In this year the proportion of single women under thirty in paid work rose to the high point of 90 per cent.
Smith, Harold L. “The Effects of the War on the Status of Women”. War and Social Change: British Society in the Second World War, edited by Harold L. Smith, Manchester University Press, 1986.
214

1877: Octavia Hill founded the Kyrle Society; this...

Building and people item

1877

Octavia Hill founded the Kyrle Society ; this organization sought to bring beauty to the lives of the poor, through the creation of public parks, private gardens, and home decor.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
123

1938: China suffered famine after Chiang Kai-shek,...

National or international item

1938

China suffered famine after Chiang Kai-shek , in order to impede the advance of the Japanese invaders, opened dikes and changed the course of the Yellow River. Millions died.
Scott, James C. “Tyranny of the Ladle”. London Review of Books, Vol.
34
, No. 23, 6 Dec. 2012, pp. 21-8.
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Margaret Bingham, Countess Lucan

MBCL , eighteenth-century London miniature-painter, wit, and minor bluestocking, seems to have written verse all her life. Her writing would not be remembered if it were not for her strong political poem protesting against Britain's...
Margaret Bingham, Countess Lucan Mezzotint of Margaret Bingham, Countess Lucan, by James Watson after a painting by Angelica Kauffmann, published 1776. Lucan wears a laurel wreath (as a painter, not a poet) above her simple robe and dark mantle. She is sitting on a velvet, tasselled stool leaning on a carved table and gesturing towards a large book of art works. A classical column stands in the background.

6 April 1757: William Pitt was dismissed from office as...

National or international item

6 April 1757

William Pitt was dismissed from office as Secretary of State.
Black, Jeremy. Pitt the Elder. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
138, 141-3
Brown, Peter Douglas. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the Great Commoner. Allen and Unwin, 1978.
144

1909: Edith Durham published High Albania: A Victorian...

Women writers item

1909

Edith Durham published High Albania: A Victorian Traveller's Balkan Odyssey, one of her several accounts of the seven years she spent in regular excursions to the mountains of northern Albania, where she...

1596-8: Amid savage persecution of Roman Catholics...

Writer or writing item

1596-8

Amid savage persecution of Roman Catholics in the area of York, two women were burned for persuading a minister to be a Catholic.
Chambers, Mary Catharine Elizabeth. The Life of Mary Ward (1585-1645). Editor Coleridge, Henry James, Burns and Oates, 1882, 2 vols.
1: 32

25 April 1870: Dante Gabriel Rossetti published a collection...

Writer or writing item

25 April 1870

Dante Gabriel Rossetti published a collection of Poems, which included Sister Helen, Jenny, and the first part of his sonnet sequence The House of Life.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Harriet Lee

HL , Romantic-period novelist and dramatist, is remembered primarily for the fiction collection Canterbury Tales, in which her sister Sophia shared.

Jackie Kay

JK 's poetry, plays, and fiction explore issues of divided, displaced, or mixed identity. Her writings probe and challenge assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality with a mixture of pain and humour. She often draws...
Jackie Kay Photo of Jackie Kay taken during the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival. She is wearing brown tinted glasses and a dress with small polka-squares that matches her earrings. she has short black hair.

1938: Routledge and Sons decided not to publish...

Writer or writing item

1938

Routledge and Sons decided not to publish former prostitute Sheila Cousin 's autobiography To Beg I am Ashamed after the publisher received much bad press and threats of prosecution from the police.
Craig, Alec. The Banned Books of England and Other Countries. George Allen and Unwin, 1962.
97
Thomas, Donald. A Long Time Burning: The History of Literary Censorship in England. Frederick A. Praeger, 1969.
305

1820: The construction of Regent Circus, London...

Building and people item

1820

The construction of Regent Circus, London (now Regent Street), a fashionable shopping thoroughfare, was completed.
Campbell, Peter. “In Soho”. London Review of Books, 24 May 2001, p. 37.
37

1900: The Free Kirk (dating from 1843) and several...

Building and people item

1900

The Free Kirk (dating from 1843) and several earlier seceders from the Church of Scotland joined to form the United Free Church of Scotland .
Kernohan, Robert Deans. Our Church: A Guide to the Kirk of Scotland. Saint Andrew, 1985.
19-20

1826: Josiah Holbrook founded the first lyceum...

Building and people item

1826

Josiah Holbrook founded the first lyceum in the USA at Millbury, Massachusetts. This was a volunteer centre for adult education, which ran meetings, discussion groups, and lectures. Other such institutions quickly sprang up, and...

December 1865: The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's...

Building and people item

December 1865

The Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal ceased publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
2
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
434