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February 1932: The International Disarmament Conference...

National or international item

February 1932

The International Disarmament Conference convened in Geneva. The conference lasted intermittently for two years, but its eventual breakdown dashed hopes of averting another world war.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
376

By June 1771: Henry Mackenzie published The Man of Feeling,...

Writer or writing item

By June 1771

Henry Mackenzie published The Man of Feeling, his most famous sentimental novel, whose hero observes with anguish the displayed sufferings of others.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
31 (1771): 482-3
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.

1 November 1954: A war of rebellion began in Algeria against...

National or international item

1 November 1954

A war of rebellion began in Algeria against France, the colonial power.
Johnson, Douglas. “What did the General have in mind when he said: ’Je vous ai compris’?”. London Review of Books, 11 Nov. 1999, pp. 20-3.
20-3

Mary Fisher

MF , one of the Valiant Sixty (that is, the earliest Quakers or members of the Society of Friends to undertake preaching journeys abroad), remained unpublished except for some strongly politicized letters and a one-sixth...
Mary Fisher Photograph of 1699 drawing of York Castle, where Mary Fisher was imprisoned.

April 1947: A Bethlehem antiquities dealer bought some...

Writer or writing item

April 1947

A Bethlehem antiquities dealer bought some papyrus scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in a cave at Qumran near the Dead Sea. One copy of the book of Isaiah has proved to be the...

1890s: The practice of strictly chaperoning unmarried...

Building and people item

1890s

The practice of strictly chaperoning unmarried women in society was waning, in daytime at least.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
154

18 September 1909: Women's Social and Political Union members...

National or international item

18 September 1909

Women's Social and Political Union members Mary Leigh and Charlotte Marsh , imprisoned in Winson Green , Birmingham, began fasting; they were ordered by Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone to be forcibly fed.
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
54
Tickner, Lisa. The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, 1907-1914. University of Chicago Press, 1988.
104
Seymour, David, and Emily Seymour, editors. A Century of News. Contender Books, 2003.
Lytton, Constance. Prisons and Prisoners. Heinemann, 1914.
201-2

1796: Children's writer Lucy Peacock published...

Women writers item

1796

Children's writer Lucy Peacock published Ambrose and Eleanor. Or, The Adventures of Two Children Deserted on an Uninhabited Island, translated and adapted from Ducray-Duménil 's Fanfan et Lolotte, 1788 (sometimes called Lolotte et Fanfan).
Rønning, Anne Birgitte. “Originality in Adaptation: Lucy Peacock’s Ambrose and Eleanor”. The Female Spectator, Vol.
16
, No. 4, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2012, p. 6.

1846: The short-lived Republic of Cracow abolished...

National or international item

1846

The short-lived Republic of Cracow abolished peasant burdens and promised national workshops to the urban poor.
Hobsbawm, Eric John. The Age of Revolution 1789-1848. Vintage, 1996.
126

1974: A new Juries Act reduced the minimum age...

National or international item

1974

A new Juries Act reduced the minimum age for serving on a jury in Britain to eighteen, and altered the qualification from property-owning to having one's name on the electoral register.
Schott, Ben. Schott’s Original Miscellany. Bloomsbury, 2002.
13

October 1710: The Tories won a large majority in the general...

National or international item

October 1710

The Tories won a large majority in the general election, leading to a predominantly Tory ministry under the leadership of Robert Harley .
Hayton, David W. et al. The House of Commons 1690-1715. Cambridge University Press, 2002, 5 vols.
I: 459-60
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

Maria Grey

MG wrote during the second half of the nineteenth century. Her early productions were literary: she collaborated with her sister on a narrative and a novel, and then produced a second novel independently. Her later...
Maria Grey Low-resolution black-and-white photo of Maria Grey sitting in a chair,holding a book. She has a white cap tied round her head and she is wearing glasses. Her dress is buttoned up the front and topped by a short jacket.

1846: Carl Zeiss founded an optical factory in...

Building and people item

1846

Carl Zeiss founded an optical factory in Jena, Germany.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd revised, Simon and Schuster, 1991.

24 November 1859: Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species...

Writer or writing item

24 November 1859

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of the Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
Gallant, Roy A. Charles Darwin: The Making of a Scientist. Doubleday, 1972.
150
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
24 November 2009
Shapin, Steven. “The Darwin Show”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 7 Jan. 2010, pp. 3-9.
3, 6

Earlier 1916: A British organization was founded called...

National or international item

Earlier 1916

A British organization was founded called the National Council Against Conscription . This lasted only until 1919, but it was the prototype for the better-known National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), founded in 1934.
Blondel, Nathalie. Mary Butts: Scenes from the Life. McPherson & Company, 1998.
443n8

March 1950: The middle-class monthly Strand Magazine...

Writer or writing item

March 1950

The middle-class monthly Strand Magazine ceased publication.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
609
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.

4 June 1940: The twenty-three-year-old Carson McCullers...

Writer or writing item

4 June 1940

The twenty-three-year-old Carson McCullers won a chorus of praise with her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, centred on a young white girl growing up in the racist American south.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
4 June 2008

By mid August 1958: The novel Doctor Zhivago by Russian writer...

Writer or writing item

By mid August 1958

The novel Doctor Zhivago by Russian writer Boris Pasternak was published in English. It had first reached print in Italian in 1957 and was not to appear in the Soviet Union until 1987, though it...

January 1975: The first home computer appeared on the market...

Writer or writing item

January 1975

The first home computer appeared on the market in the USA: the MITS Altair 8800, selling at $395 in the form of a kit for home assembly.
Glancey, Jonathan. “You’ve come a long way, baby”. The Guardian, 2 Sept. 2004, pp. G12 - G13.
G12

1843: In Man's Power Over Himself to Prevent or...

Building and people item

1843

In Man's Power Over Himself to Prevent or Control Insanity, the Rev. John Barlow asserted that rational exercise
Cooter, Roger. “Phrenology and British Alienists, ca. 1825-1845”. Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen: The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era, edited by Andrew Scull, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981, pp. 58-104.
79
of the brain could avert lunacy.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
30
Cooter, Roger. “Phrenology and British Alienists, ca. 1825-1845”. Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen: The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era, edited by Andrew Scull, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981, pp. 58-104.
79

By mid-1695: The government's failure to renew the Printing...

Writer or writing item

By mid-1695

The government's failure to renew the Printing or Licensing Act ended pre-publication censorship (through the need to obtain a licence), as well as controls on the number of master printers.
McDowell, Paula. “Women and the business of print”. Women and Literature in Britain, 1700-1800, edited by Vivien Jones, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 135-54.
137-8
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
9: 216
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
132

January 1964-May 1968: Abortifacient paste (Utus paste) was used...

Building and people item

January 1964-May 1968

Abortifacient paste (Utus paste) was used in Surrey to induce abortions.
Hordern, Anthony. Legal Abortion: The English Experience. Pergamon, 1971.
96

25 July 1989: The Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act...

National or international item

25 July 1989

The Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act promoted equality of employment opportunity between persons of different religious beliefs.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1989): 1673-1746

1771: John Millar published Observations concerning...

Building and people item

1771

John Millar published Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society.
The Origins of Modern Feminism, 1567-1876. Quaritch, 1998.
Catalogue No. 39

June 1972: Spare Rib, a feminist periodical issued monthly...

Women writers item

June 1972

Spare Rib, a feminist periodical issued monthly by Spare Ribs from 27 Clerkenwell Close, London, was launched to put women's liberation on the news stands.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
86
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
85-6
Dancyger, Irene. A World of Women: An Illustrated History of Women’s Magazines. Gill and Macmillan, 1978.
157
Braithwaite, Brian, and Joan Barrell. The Business of Women’s Magazines. Associated Business Press, 1979.
155
Callil, Carmen. “The stories of our lives”. Guardian Unlimited, 26 Apr. 2008.