Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

1721: Charles de Montesquieu published Lettres...

Writer or writing item

1721

Charles de Montesquieu published Lettres Persanes, which purport to be letters home from a Persian visiting Paris.
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.
Bosley, Vivien. “A Pre-Wave Ripple: The Sound of Other Voices”. Not Drowning but Waving: Women, Feminism, and the Liberal Arts, 14 Oct. 2006.

1750: There was published The Female Soldier; or,...

Building and people item

1750

There was published The Female Soldier; or, The Surprising Life and Adventures of Hannah Snell, who claimed to have served undetected for five years in the army, wearing men's clothes.
Robinson, Jane. Pandora’s Daughters: The Secret History of Enterprising Women. Constable, 2002.
101-4 and nn

26 July 1968: The Theatres Act removed all theatrical control...

Building and people item

26 July 1968

The Theatres Act removed all theatrical control from the Lord Chamberlain's list of duties, thus devolving theatre licensing onto local authorities and abolishing overall theatrical and film censorship in England.
Hartnoll, Phyllis, editor. The Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 4th ed., Oxford University Press, 1983.
502
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1968: 1393, 1406

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

13 April 1945: The Russians took Vienna from the Nazis....

National or international item

13 April 1945

The Russians took Vienna from the Nazis.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
219
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
822

1811: John Frank Newton published The Return to...

Building and people item

1811

John Frank Newton published The Return to Nature, or a Defence of the Vegetable Regimen.
Perkins, David. Romanticism and Animal Rights. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
117
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.

Mary Davys

MD was one of the first wave of novelists to follow Aphra Behn during the early eighteenth century. She also wrote plays and poetry, and is known as an Irish writer.

February 1831: Francis IV, Duke of Modena, attempted unsuccessfully...

National or international item

February 1831

Francis IV , Duke of Modena, attempted unsuccessfully to suppress a rising against papal rule at Modena; it spread to Parma and the northern Papal States. Delegates later met at Bologna to proclaim...

20 August 1867: The Metropolitan Streets Act was passed....

National or international item

20 August 1867

The Metropolitan Streets Act was passed. Among its aims were the regulation of public advertising and the control of rabies in London.
Nevett, Terry R. Advertising in Britain: A History. Heinemann, 1982.
128
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
Kaplan, Colin. Rabies: The Facts. Oxford University Press, 1977.
6-9

: The psychological journal Brain was foun...

Building and people item

Early 1879

The psychological journal Brain was founded.
Collie, Michael. Henry Maudsley: Victorian Psychiatrist. West End House, 1988, http://HSS.
34

1885: Queen Victoria sent a £500 donation to the...

Building and people item

1885

Queen Victoria sent a £500 donation to the Hospital for Women in Soho Square.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
92

Mona Caird

MC , until recently very little remembered, caused a sensation in 1888 with her articles calling for reform in marriage practices. She was already at that date a published novelist, and went on issuing novels...

24 May 1689: The Toleration Act (or Act of Toleration)...

Building and people item

24 May 1689

The Toleration Act (or Act of Toleration) declared that statutes against Protestant Dissenters would no longer be enforced; it did not, however, take them off the books.
Defoe, Daniel. Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe. Editor Shugrue, Michael F., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
326
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
197

20 August 1786: Calonne, French Finance Minister, informed...

National or international item

20 August 1786

Calonne , French Finance Minister, informed Louis XVI that the state was in financial crisis and submitted proposals for economic reforms to him.
Lefebvre, Georges. The French Revolution. Routledge and K. Paul, 1962.
98-9
Soboul, Albert. The French Revolution 1787-1799. Translators Forrest, Alan and Colin Jones, Vintage, 1975.
100-2
Paxton, John. Companion to the French Revolution. Facts on File, 1988.
213

9 November 1989: Popular action began pulling down the Berlin...

National or international item

9 November 1989

Popular action began pulling down the Berlin Wall (erected in August 1961, which divided the city into eastern and western sectors).
Lagassé, Paul, editor. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed., Columbia University Press, 2000.

1858: Blind Tom Bethune, later a popular black...

Building and people item

1858

Blind Tom Bethune , later a popular black performer in British concert halls, gave his first public performance in Savannah, Georgia.
Sanjek, Russell. American Popular Music and its Business. Oxford University Press, 1988.
218-19

1957: Sculptor Jacob Epstein completed the sculpture...

Building and people item

1957

Sculptor Jacob Epstein completed the sculpture Christ in Majesty for Llandaff Cathedral.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
412

11 May 1960: The US FDA approved the first birth control...

National or international item

11 May 1960

The US FDA approved the first birth control pill, Searle 's Enovid.
“The Pill: Timeline: 1951-1990”. PBS: The Pill: American Experience.

Early December 1798: Merchants in Edinburgh and Aberdeen sent...

National or international item

Early December 1798

Merchants in Edinburgh and Aberdeen sent messages to the Lord Mayor of London endorsing the levying of higher taxes for the war effort.
Macleod, Emma Vincent. “A city invincible? Edinburgh and the war against Revolutionary France”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
23
, No. 2, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2000, pp. 153-66.
160

Elizabeth Bowen

EB published ten novels, seventy-nine short stories, a history of her Anglo-Irish family, and a large body of critical and other nonfictional writing. Her novels and short stories blend romance (the perils of innocence, and...
Elizabeth Bowen Black and white head-and-shoulders photograph of Elizabeth Bowen seen in profile, with her head slightly turned. She is wearing a dark, high-collared jacket with a polka-dotted scarf around her neck; her hair, dark with a white streak, is pulled back in a bun, and she is wearing dark lipstick.

20 March 1930: Under the Poor Law Act (1930), the old Poor...

National or international item

20 March 1930

Under the Poor Law Act (1930), the old Poor Law system became one of Public Assistance.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1930): 93-181
Raynes, Harold E. Social Security in Britain: A History. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1957.
209-210

1956: The Paris Congress brought together for discussion...

Writer or writing item

1956

The Paris Congress brought together for discussion Black writers and artists from Africa, the Caribbean, and the USA.
White, Landeg. “The Dignity of Merchants”. London Review of Books, 10 Aug. 2000, pp. 40-1.
40

18 April 1791: Horace Walpole reported that sedan chairs...

Building and people item

18 April 1791

Horace Walpole reported that sedan chairs were dying out as a form of transport: London was now too big.
Walpole, Horace. The Letters of Horace Walpole. Editor Toynbee, Mrs Paget, Clarendon, 1903–1925, 16 vols.
14: 416

18 October 1998: Ten days before Poet Laureate Ted Hughes...

Writer or writing item

18 October 1998

Ten days before Poet Laureate Ted Hughes died, the Sunday Times carried his poem entitled The Offers, which he had excluded from both his books published this year, Birthday Letters (his last major collection)...

1948: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger completed...

Building and people item

1948

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger completed a highly successful ballet drama film entitled The Red Shoes.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
399
Robinson, David. The History of World Cinema. Stein and Day, 1981.
256, 450