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.

1977: The Benyon Abortion Bill sought to make abortion...

Building and people item

1977

The Benyon Abortion Bill sought to make abortion far more difficult to obtain.
Ross, Elizabeth Arledge, and Miriam L. Bearse. A Chronology of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain. Editors Boyle, Karen E. and The Oral History Project Advisory Group, The Feminist Archive, 1996, http://Bodleian.
30-1, 35, 39

1823: Working with the Society for the Improvement...

National or international item

1823

Working with the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline , Robert Peel aided the passage of the Gaol Act.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
270
Briggs, John et al. Crime and Punishment in England: An Introductory History. St Martin’s, 1996.
168

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

: Evangelical William Wilberforce stayed in...

Building and people item

Winter 1814-15

Evangelical William Wilberforce stayed in Brighton during the winter season in order to have access to the Prince Regent and attempt a conversion within the monarchy.
Bradley, Ian. The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians. Jonathan Cape, 1976.
35-6

Valentine Ackland

VA published very little in her lifetime, and has gone largely unrecognised since. Her lifelong partner, Sylvia Townsend Warner , was very supportive of Ackland and helped her to get her writing into print. This...
Valentine Ackland Black and white photograph of Valentine Ackland in a rural setting at Winterton in Norfolk (her family's holiday home) in 1928. Her hair is cropped short, and she is wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, dark tie, breeches, and hunting boots, and holding a rifle.

1899: The Church of England Temperance Society...

Building and people item

1899

The Church of England Temperance Society had as many as 200,000 members, belonging to 7,000 branches across the country.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
107

25 February 1729: The Haymarket Theatre, hitherto occupied...

Building and people item

25 February 1729

The Haymarket Theatre , hitherto occupied by temporary foreign troupes, opened as a mainstream theatre.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
2: 987, 1017

1976: An industrial explosion at a plant manufacturing...

Building and people item

1976

An industrial explosion at a plant manufacturing pesticides and herbicides at Seveso in Italy released dioxin into the atmosphere; the town later gave its name to European standards for hazardous materials.
Seabright, Paul. “What explosion?”. London Review of Books, 1 Nov. 2001, pp. 32-3.
32
Europa: The European Union online. Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response. http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/seveso/#2.

1 August 1643: Milton published The Doctrine and Discipline...

Building and people item

1 August 1643

Milton published The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, a pamphlet arguing that divorce ought to be easier (for a husband).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Milton

July 1869: The Hospital for Women in Soho Square introduced...

Building and people item

July 1869

The Hospital for Women in Soho Square introduced the first pay block wing in the United Kingdom.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
93-4

1699: Golden Square in London was built as an exclusive...

Building and people item

1699

Golden Square in London was built as an exclusive upper-class development; by the 1770s it had lost its cachet.
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women. Longman, 1999.
68

March 1914: The Irish Women's Franchise League publicly...

National or international item

March 1914

The Irish Women's Franchise League publicly disassociated itself from the Women's Social and Political Union .
Ward, Margaret. Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism. Pluto, 1983.
33

25 January 1909: Hugo von Hoffmansthal's first opera, Elektra,...

Writer or writing item

25 January 1909

Hugo von Hoffmansthal 's first opera, Elektra, with music by Richard Strauss , opened in Dresden.
Brockway, Wallace, and Herbert Weinstock. The World of Opera. Methuen, 1963.

By April 1978: Marilyn French's important feminist novel...

Writer or writing item

By April 1978

Marilyn French 's important feminist novel The Women's Room (a bestseller in the USA in 1977) appeared in an English edition.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
(20 April 1978): 11
Baker, Sophie. “Literary landmarks: The Women’s Room”. Mslexia, No. 33, Apr. 2007, pp. 50-1.
50-1

10 February 1793: The president of the Dijon women's club published...

Building and people item

10 February 1793

The president of the Dijon women's club published a reasoned argument for the freedom and equality of women.
Godineau, Dominique. The Women of Paris and Their French Revolution. Translator Streip, Katherine, University of California Press, 1998.
289, 370

1 August 1698: The will of Gertrude Rolles was proved, which,...

Building and people item

1 August 1698

The will of Gertrude Rolles was proved, which, against convention, left nothing but small bequests to two sons, making two daughters the heirs and executrixes.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680-1780. University of California Press, 1996.
143-4, 270n46

: Charles Wesley and two or three other undergraduates...

Building and people item

Spring 1729

Charles Wesley and two or three other undergraduates founded a society at Oxford which others called methodistical.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

About 1764: James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny...

Building and people item

About 1764

James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny after seeing a traditional spinning wheel fall over, with its wheel and spindle turning in the air.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

March 1849: Having been defeated by the Austrians at...

National or international item

March 1849

Having been defeated by the Austrians at Novara, Charles Albert abdicated the throne of Piedmont; he was succeeded by Victor Emmanuel II .
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
186, 274

10 April 1790: Students at the Académie Royale de Peinture...

Building and people item

10 April 1790

Students at the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in Paris demanded to be allowed (for the first time) female models.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “Revolution, Representation, Equality: Gender, Genre, and Emulation in the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, 1785-93”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
31
, No. 2, Dec. 1997, pp. 153-74.
160

2 October 1871: The Slade School of Art was inaugurated as...

Building and people item

2 October 1871

The Slade School of Art was inaugurated as part of University College, London; the school was open to male and female students.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
78
Nunn, Pamela Gerrish. Victorian Women Artists. Women’s Press, 1987.
50, 52

1516: Sir Thomas More published, not in England...

Writer or writing item

1516

Sir Thomas More published, not in England but at Louvain, his socio-political satire and fantasy Utopia, written in Latin.
Guthkelch, Adolph Charles, and Sir Thomas More. “Note; Introduction”. Utopia, edited by George Sampson and George Sampson, G. Bell and Sons, 1914, p. v - vii; xi-xxv.
v

28 April 2009: Kickstarter, the largest-ever crowd-funding...

Building and people item

28 April 2009

Kickstarter , the largest-ever crowd-funding platform, was launched in New York, USA, and soon spread to embrace projects based in other countries; it opened to British projects on 31 October 2012.
Kickstarter. http://www.kickstarter.com/about?ref=nav.

7 December 1698: Edward Rigby, a naval captain, was prosecuted...

Building and people item

7 December 1698

Edward Rigby, a naval captain, was prosecuted for sodomy with William Minton, whom he had picked up at a fireworks display and taken to a tavern.
May, James E. “Scribleriana Transferred since late 1994”. The Scriblerian, Vol.
xxxi
, No. 1, Department of English, Temple University, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 1998, pp. 118-32.
130

7 June 1786: During the absence abroad of William Beckford,...

Writer or writing item

7 June 1786

During the absence abroad of William Beckford , his tutor Samuel Henley anonymously published his own English translation of Vathek, an Oriental gothic tale which Beckford had originally written in French.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
James, Jamie. “The Caliph of Fonthill”. The American Scholar, Vol.
72
, No. 1, 1 Dec. 2003–28 Feb. 2004, pp. 67-79.
70