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1805: The East India Company established a training...

National or international item

1805

The East India Company established a training college for civil servants.
Bayly, Christopher Alan. Atlas of the British Empire. Facts on File, 1989.
94

Probably late 1634: Francis Quarles published his Emblemes (bearing...

Writer or writing item

Probably late 1634

Francis Quarles published his Emblemes (bearing the next year's date), which remains the best-known of the English emblem books.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Annie Besant

AB is known primarily for two streams of non-fiction writing, one concerning birth control and the other the Theosophist movement. However, this omits much of the remarkable output whose topics ranged from women's rights and...
Annie Besant Photograph of Annie Besant looking directly at the camera with her right hand over her chest. She has a serious expression and is wearing a white high frill-collared dress with possibly a shawl over it. She has two rings on her visible right hand. She has blonde hair and it is in an updo.

By December 2008: The city of Paris offered a rent-free artist's...

Writer or writing item

By December 2008

The city of Paris offered a rent-free artist's studio to Taslima Nasrin or Nasreen , a Pakistani/Bangladeshi author exiled by the denunciation and threats that greeted her novel Lajja (Shame) in 1993.
Chrisafis, Angelique. “Paris opens door to author fleeing Islamist threats”. Guardian Weekly, 9 Jan. 2009, p. 7.
7

1840: The British and North American Royal Mail...

National or international item

1840

The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (later the Cunard Steamship Company ) began its regular transatlantic steamer service.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
92
Kemp, Peter, editor. Encyclopedia of Ships and Seafaring. Stanford Maritime, 1980.
216

January 1837: The East London Democratic Association was...

National or international item

January 1837

The East London Democratic Association was founded.
Thompson, Dorothy, 1923 - 2011, editor. The Early Chartists. Macmillan, 1971.
37
Goodway, David. London Chartism, 1838-1848. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
23
Royle, Edward. Chartism. Longman, 1980.
21

1785-1814: Esther Tuke, a Quaker, ran a school for girls...

Building and people item

1785-1814

Esther Tuke , a Quaker, ran a school for girls in Trinity Lane, York.
Hans, Nicholas A. New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
251

1883: Elie Metchnikoff was the first scientist...

Building and people item

1883

Elie Metchnikoff was the first scientist to observe the phenonemon known as phagocytosis.
Bynum, William F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
159
Shryock, Richard Harrison. The Development of Modern Medicine: An Interpretation of the Social and Scientific Factors Involved. University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.
296
Youngson, A. J. The Scientific Revolution in Victorian Medicine. Holmes and Meier, 1979.
198

By 17 April 1869: Rosa Mulholland's Hester's History, her first...

Women writers item

By 17 April 1869

Rosa Mulholland 's Hester's History, her first novel published under her own name, was both influenced and in due course appreciated by Charles Dickens .
Athenæum. J. Lection.
2164 (1869): 533
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.

Anne Manning

AM published, from mid-nineteenth century onwards, over fifty titles. She is most famous for her historical novels, some of them issued as a pastiche of documents centuries old. She also wrote a series of novels...

24 April 1946: The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet company,...

Building and people item

24 April 1946

The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet company, with principal ballerinas Moira Shearer , Margot Fonteyn , and Pamela May , performed Symphonic Variations at Covent Garden .
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
396

Frances Mary Peard

FMP published more than forty books between 1867 and 1909, mostly domestic novels and short-story volumes. Much of her fiction is historical and much is set abroad; some is specifically aimed at younger readers. Many...

1619: The first public school for girls was founded...

Building and people item

1619

The first public school for girls was founded in Deptford, London.
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.

By 16 October 1768: The long-lived publishing house of John Murray...

Writer or writing item

By 16 October 1768

The long-lived publishing house of John Murray was founded, after John Murray I , born John McMurray, came south to London from Edinburgh; it survived until May 2002.
Murray, John R. “Going Strong”. The Author, Vol.
cxi
, No. 4, 1 Dec. 2000–28 Feb. 2001, pp. 182-4.
182
Abbott, John L. “Review of William Zachs, The First John Murray and the Late Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, 1998”. The Age of Johnson, edited by Paul J. Korshin, Vol.
12
, 2001, pp. 495-03.
497, 501

16 April 1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to...

National or international item

16 April 1912

Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel: from Deal in England to Cape Gris-Nez in France.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
181
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
395
Trager, however, writes that she left from Dover and landed near Hardelot.

1883: Emily Jones, the first woman inspector in...

Building and people item

1883

Emily Jones , the first woman inspector in the BritishDepartment of Education , was appointed Directress of Needlework.
Martindale, Hilda. Women Servants of the State, 1870-1938: A History of Women in the Civil Service. G. Allen and Unwin , 1938.
36-7

1868: Most prostitutes operated independently;...

Building and people item

1868

Most prostitutes operated independently; only two known brothels operated in London.
Walkowitz, Judith R. Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women, Class, and the State. Cambridge University Press, 1980.
24-5, 268

Anne Docwra

As an elderly woman in the late seventeenth century, AD published at least seven polemical tracts, most of them defending the Quakers. Her work shows her to have been a leader of local public opinion...

December 1945: The Committee on the Juvenile Employment...

Building and people item

December 1945

The Committee on the Juvenile Employment Service (chaired by Sir Godfrey Ince ) recommended that juvenile employment service should be established to assist boys and girls in their passage from school into the working world.
Parker, Henry Michael Denne. Manpower: A Study of War-time Policy and Administration. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957.
367
Parker, Henry Michael Denne. Manpower: A Study of War-time Policy and Administration. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957.
367-70

1894: William Hollins patented a wool/cotton blend...

Building and people item

1894

William Hollins patented a wool/cotton blend fabric under the trade name Viyella.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
191

31 August 1907: Under the terms of the Anglo-Russian Treaty,...

National or international item

31 August 1907

Under the terms of the Anglo-Russian Treaty, the UK undertook neither to annex nor to occupy any Afghan territory; Russia agreed to conduct political relations in the area through the British Government.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 770
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
222

By February 1793: John Burton's Lectures on Female Education...

Building and people item

By February 1793

John Burton 's Lectures on Female Education and Manners was published.
Burton, John. “Lectures on Female Education and Manners”. Classics in the Education of Girls and Women, edited by Shirley Nelson Kersey, Scarecrow Press, 1981.
185
Kersey, Shirley Nelson, editor. Classics in the Education of Girls and Women. Scarecrow Press, 1981.
184-91

By late November 1956: Kathryn Hulme published her best-seller The...

Writer or writing item

By late November 1956

Kathryn Hulme published her best-seller The Nun's Story, about a Belgian woman whose years as a nun included nursing in the then Belgian Congo, but who finally left her Order to return to the world.
Freeman, Gwen. “Conflict of Loyalties”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2856, 23 Nov. 1956, p. 695.
695

3 September 1802: William Wordsworth composed his well-known...

Writer or writing item

3 September 1802

William Wordsworth composed his well-known sonnet Upon Westminster Bridge, responding to the power of the city, as well as countryside or wilderness, to arouse transcendent feelings.
Tollet, Elizabeth. Poems on Several Occasions. J. Clarke, 1755.
152
Purkis, John. A Preface to Wordsworth. Scribner, 1970.
192

1778: When William Caslon (the second to bear that...

Writer or writing item

1778

When William Caslon (the second to bear that name) died, his famous type-foundry passed to his widow Elizabeth Caslon , whose business acumen was particularly admired.
Barker, Hannah. “Women, work and the industrial revolution: female involvement in the English printing trades, c. 1700-1840”. Gender in Eighteenth-Century England: Roles, Representations and Responsibilities, edited by Hannah Barker and Elaine Chalus, Longman, 1997, pp. 81-100.
93