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Spring 1874: Artist Lucy Madox Brown married art critic...

Building and people item

Spring 1874

Artist Lucy Madox Brown married art critic William Michael Rossetti , in a joining of Pre-Raphaelite minds and hearts.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
82-3

1600: 15-20% of the English population were reckoned...

Writer or writing item

1600

15-20% of the English population were reckoned to be literate.
Hunter, J. Paul. Before Novels: The Cultural Contexts of Eighteenth Century English Fiction. W. W. Norton, 1990.
66

21 September 1938: Emlyn Williams's play The Corn is Green,...

Writer or writing item

21 September 1938

Emlyn Williams 's play The Corn is Green, set in a Welsh mining town, was presented at the Duchess Theatre in London, starring Williams himself, with Sybil Thorndike as an elderly schoolmistress.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
384
Brownstone, David, and Irene Franck. Timelines of the Arts and Literature. HarperCollins, 1994.
447

9 June 2013: On the first day of the Jewish month of Tamuz,...

National or international item

9 June 2013

On the first day of the Jewish month of Tamuz, the feminist group Women of the Wall , acting on a ruling from the Israeli Supreme Court in April that permitted them to do so...

1898: Frank Karslake founded the Guild of Women...

National or international item

1898

Frank Karslake founded the Guild of Women Binders , which operated as a loosely-knit federation of women bookbinders from various craft groups. It ran until 1904.
Gertz, Stephen J. “The Guild of Women Binders: Bound to be Great”. Booktryst, A Nest for Book Lovers, 25 Oct. 2011.

1858: The innovative Female Mission to the Fallen...

Building and people item

1858

The innovative Female Mission to the Fallen was organized and funded by the Reformatory and Refuge Union .
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
189

22 April 1715: A total eclipse of the sun was visible over...

Building and people item

22 April 1715

A total eclipse of the sun was visible over a swathe of southern England and Wales: Edmond Halley printed and distributed an explanatory handbill.
“Still Counting”. Oxford Today, Vol.
12
, No. 1, Oct. 1999, pp. 18-20.
12: 1, 20

27 July 1919: Race riots took place in Chicago, sparked...

National or international item

27 July 1919

Race riots took place in Chicago, sparked by the return of both black and white servicemen from the First World War seeking to reclaim their former jobs.
Newman, Scott A. “The Chicago Race Riot of 1919”. Jazz-Age Chicago, 3 Nov. 2001.

12 December 1911: At a durbar or massive outdoor gathering...

National or international item

12 December 1911

At a durbar or massive outdoor gathering in Delhi, King George V was crowned Emperor of India, in the presence of 200 Indian princes and 80,000 of India's great and good.
Nelson, Dean. “India Relives the Glory Day of the Raj”. Sunday Times, 30 Oct. 2005, p. 29.
29

1961: The Royal Technical College of East Africa...

National or international item

1961

The Royal Technical College of East Africa in Nairobi was taken into special relation with the University of London .
Harte, Negley. The University of London 1836-1986. Athlone, 1986.
252
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
949

1868: Anne Jemima Clough organised Lectures for...

Building and people item

1868

Anne Jemima Clough organised Lectures for Ladies throughout Northern England.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
180
Borer, Mary Cathcart. Willingly to School: A History of Women’s Education. Lutterworth Press, 1976.
285

31 May 1934: Circular 1408, a government-issued document...

Building and people item

31 May 1934

Circular 1408, a government-issued document advising on the implementation of legislation, allowed local authorities in England to give advice on birth control to married, expectant, and nursing mothers.
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
97

22 June 1941: Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union (named...

National or international item

22 June 1941

Hitler 's invasion of the Soviet Union (named Operation Barbarossa, and in contravention of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of 23 August 1939) began with a surprise attack at dawn which destroyed a thousand Soviet planes...

: Rebellion headed by the performers Thomas...

Building and people item

Autumn 1694

Rebellion headed by the performers Thomas Betterton , Elizabeth Barry , and Anne Bracegirdle put an end to the United Company , which had been formed in 1682 with the merger of the two London theatres.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
1: 439

Late 1845 to 1850: During the Great Famine caused by the failure...

National or international item

Late 1845 to 1850

During the Great Famine caused by the failure of the potato crop, nearly a million Irish people died of starvation or disease.
Adelman, Paul. Great Britain and the Irish Question 1800-1922. Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.
64
Fitzpatrick, David. Irish Emigration 1801-1921. Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1984.
18
MacDonagh, Oliver. Ireland: the Union and its Aftermath. George Allen and Unwin, 1977.
56

By March 1745: The Quadruple Alliance was constituted by...

National or international item

By March 1745

The Quadruple Alliance was constituted by a conference held at Warsaw; it bound together one of the opposed sides in the War of the Austrian Succession.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
19 (1745): 167

1877: J. Mortimer Granville contributed five chapters...

Building and people item

1877

J. Mortimer Granville contributed five chapters to The Borderlands of Insanity, an attempt to categorize insanity and to identify borderland areas of the mind, where deviance and eccentricity lurked.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
105-6, 266

January-March 1765: George III was intermittently ill with his...

National or international item

January-March 1765

George III was intermittently ill with his first attack of what was almost certainly porphyria.
Macalpine, Ida, and Richard Hunter. George III and the Mad-Business. Allen Lane, 1969.
10-91, 172-5, 185
There seems to be some disagreement as to whether 1765 or 1788 constituted the first major attack...

16 November 1938: The BBC televised for the first time a play...

National or international item

16 November 1938

The BBC televised for the first time a play direct from the theatre, J. B. Priestley 's When We Are Married.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
374

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...

2 May 1907: Rioting broke out in Rawalpindi in connection...

National or international item

2 May 1907

Rioting broke out in Rawalpindi in connection with the charge of sedition brought against the proprietor and editor of the Punjabi in February.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 834

10 December 1980: Frederick Sanger from Great Britain was awarded...

National or international item

10 December 1980

Frederick Sanger from Great Britain was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Sanger shared one-half of the prize with Walter Gilbert , an American who, like Sanger, researched the base sequences of nucleic acid. The...

1829: Louis Braille, then a twenty-year-old blind...

Building and people item

1829

Louis Braille , then a twenty-year-old blind instructor at the Institution Royale pour les Jeunes Aveugles in Paris, perfected his system of reading by feeling 63 different combinations of six raised dots.
British Book News. British Council.
(1952): 347-8
Rosen, Michael. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story. John Murray, 2013.
306

Germaine de Staël

GS is remembered primarily for her political activism and the salons she established following the French Revolution; history, politics, and culture were certainly among her frequent literary subjects. The same interests inform her highly successful...
Germaine de Staël Photograph of the painting of Germaine de Staël by Baron Gérard. Godefroid, 1810. She stands leaning against a stone table. She is wearing a red high-waisted dress with short puff sleeves and a small cameo brooch pinned in the centre of the bust, a black shawl folded over her arm, and a striking red and white turban on her curly hair. She holds a small sprig of green in one hand.

4 July 1829: George Shillibeer's horse-drawn omnibus began...

Building and people item

4 July 1829

George Shillibeer 's horse-drawn omnibus began service in London: from Paddington to the Bank.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
79
Barker, Theodore Cardwell, and Dorian Gerhold. The Rise and Rise of Road Transport, 1700-1990. Macmillan, 1993.
66
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.