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9 August 1974: US President Richard Nixon, facing almost...

National or international item

9 August 1974

US President Richard Nixon , facing almost certain impeachment over the Watergate scandal, resigned.
Forbes, Peter, editor. Scanning the Century. Viking, 1999.
224

1843: Scottish surgeon James Braid's Neurypnology;...

Building and people item

1843

Scottish surgeon James Braid 's Neurypnology; or, the Rationale of Nervous Sleep discussed hypnotism (a renaming of phenomena hitherto known as mesmerism) and its potential benefits.
Gauld, Alan. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
281-2, 324

Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis

SFG , French aristocrat, royal mistress, and later a political refugee in England, made her mark as an educational theorist and writer for children (plays, stories, and good advice) during the decade leading up to...
Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis Painting of Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1790. She is seated in a green upholstered chair, her arms folded on her lap, one hand holding a small fan. She wears light green gloves, a blue silk dress with layers of neckerchiefs and a lacy bow at the neck. Her curly, powdered hair is partly covered by a lace bonnet with huge silvery bows.

22 August 1748: The nuns of the Bar Convent at York were...

Building and people item

22 August 1748

The nuns of the Bar Convent at York were issued with notice to quit by this date, in conformity with the anti-Catholic penal laws, by York cathedral cleric Dr Jacques Sterne .
Kirkus, Sister M. Gregory. The Archives of the Bar Convent, York, UK.
19-20

5 July 1931: Ninette de Valois's ballet Job, with music...

Building and people item

5 July 1931

Ninette de Valois 's ballet Job, with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams , was performed for the Camargo Society at the Cambridge Theatre in London.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
374
Clarke, Mary, 1923 -, and David Vaughan, editors. The Encyclopedia of Dance and Ballet. Pitman, 1977.
121

Probably early May 1807: William Wordsworth published Poems in Two...

Writer or writing item

Probably early May 1807

William Wordsworth published Poems in Two Volumes; the Critical Review commented unkindly: A silly book is a serious evil; but it becomes absolutely insupportable when written by a man of sense.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
3d ser. 11 (1807): 399

17 May 1649: John Evelyn went up the Thames to Putney...

Writer or writing item

17 May 1649

John Evelyn went up the Thames to Putney with a mostly female party to see the Schooles or Colledges of the young gentlewomen.
A suspected connection with Bathsua Makin has not been demonstrated.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
278

1818: A surgeon pressed his ear against a woman's...

Building and people item

1818

A surgeon pressed his ear against a woman's corset and first heard a foetal heartbeat; the medical establishment soon began to monitor embryonic development.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
221

1887: The New Century Guild for Working Women began...

Building and people item

1887

The New Century Guild for Working Women began publishing, in London, the Working Woman's Journal, which offered articles about work from the employees' perspective.
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
205

Anne Audland

AA is a minor but early Quaker writer (active from the mid seventeenth century) , whose chief genres are letters and the religious testimony.

17 May 1916: The Summer Time Act received royal assent:...

Building and people item

17 May 1916

The Summer Time Act received royal assent: a wartime measure to make official time in Britain move one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, for the summer months only (in the first instance...

1977: Blue Jeans, a photostrip romance magazine...

Building and people item

1977

Blue Jeans, a photostrip romance magazine for teenagers, began publication by D. C. Thomson in London.
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
Braithwaite, Brian, and Joan Barrell. The Business of Women’s Magazines. Associated Business Press, 1979.
146
Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory 1999. 37th ed., R. R. Bowker, 1998.
1757

By 1761: Harris's List of Covent-garden Ladies: Or,...

Building and people item

By 1761

Harris's List of Covent-garden Ladies: Or, New Atlantis, a directory of prostitutes, was being printed annually under this title.
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women. Longman, 1999.
172n25
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
Wilson, Frances. The Courtesan’s Revenge. Faber, 2003.
Wilson 24

3 April 1645: The Self-Denying Ordinance provided that...

National or international item

3 April 1645

The Self-Denying Ordinance provided that all members of both Houses of Parliament were to resign from all military or civil offices they had held since 1640. Reappointments were to be made later, according to merit...

Evelyn Underhill

Perhaps more than any other person in the twentieth century, EU was responsible for fanning interest in and shaping the study of mysticism. Most of her works draw on her extensive knowledge of mystical texts...
Evelyn Underhill Black and white head-shot of Evelyn Underhill, in profile with her gaze downcast. Her hair is smoothed back.

1840: Reform Judaism (which had begun in continental...

Building and people item

1840

Reform Judaism (which had begun in continental Europe) saw the foundation of it's first English Congregation, the West London Synagogue of British Jews .
Eliade, Mircea, and Charles J. Adams, editors. The Encyclopedia of Religion. Macmillan, 1987, 16 vols.
259

27 June 1894: Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller...

Writer or writing item

27 June 1894

Mudie's Circulating Library and bookseller W. H. Smith together announced they would not pay more than four shillings a volume for novels; this forced publishers to abandon triple-decker format, and quickly led to its replacement...

1804: The Church Missionary Society sent out its...

Building and people item

1804

The Church Missionary Society sent out its first two missionaries to Africa.
Church Missionary Society Archive: Section IV: Africa Missions. Adam Matthew.

6 July 1885: The first instalment of W. T. Stead's Maiden...

Writer or writing item

6 July 1885

The first instalment of W. T. Stead 's Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, exposing the alleged sale of young girls in prostitution.
Walkowitz, Judith R. ’We Are Not Beasts of the Field’: Prostitution and the Campaign Against the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1869-1886. University of Rochester, 1974.
131
Walkowitz, Judith R. City of Dreadful Delight. University of Chicago Press, 1992.
81-3, 101

1646: Sir John Suckling's poetry volume Fragmenta...

Writer or writing item

1646

Sir John Suckling 's poetry volume Fragmenta Aurea (Golden Fragments) appeared in print five years after his death.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

1899: The first milk depot offering sterilized...

Building and people item

1899

The first milk depot offering sterilized cows' milk for infant feeding was opened in England.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
xxi

Ethel Arnold

Active at the turn of the twentieth century, EA was a well-received author and pro-suffrage speaker. With a particular faculty for literary criticism, she wrote over four hundred book reviews and twenty news stories for...

21 January 1994: A court in Virginia, USA, found that Lorena...

Building and people item

21 January 1994

A court in Virginia, USA, found that Lorena Bobbitt had acted in self-defence when she cut off her husband's penis the previous June, and cleared her of charges against her.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
523

1982: Tim Waterstone launched a new UK bookshop...

Writer or writing item

1982

Tim Waterstone launched a new UK bookshop chain called Waterstone's , with the aim of offering a larger range of titles than his competitors.
Kean, Danuta. “The end of the affair”. The Author, Vol.
cxvi
, No. 4, 1 Dec. 2005–28 Feb. 2006, pp. 145-7.
145

1933: Cassell published In the Midst of the Years,...

Women writers item

1933

Cassell published In the Midst of the Years, a novel by Joan Sutherland .
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.