Explore Orlando

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1941: The Parker 51 fountain pen came into production;...

Building and people item

1941

The Parker 51 fountain pen came into production; by 1972, 41 million of these pens had been sold.
Marshall, Jim. “Fountain Pens”. The Author, Vol.
cx
, No. 4, 1 Dec. 1999–28 Feb. 2000, pp. 173-4.
173

22 February 1858: Dion Boucicault's Jessie Brown; or The Relief...

Writer or writing item

22 February 1858

Dion Boucicault 's Jessie Brown; or The Relief of Lucknow was first performed at Wallack's Theatre , New York.
Boucicault, Dion. “Introduction and Editorial Materials”. Plays, edited by Peter Thomson, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. Various pages.
7, 101

By May 1754: John Duncombe published The Feminiad. A Poem,...

Building and people item

By May 1754

John Duncombe published The Feminiad. A Poem, which celebrates the achievements of women writers with strict attention to their support for conventional morality.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
10: 371-2

27 October 2009: In Washington, DC, the National Museum of...

Women writers item

27 October 2009

In Washington, DC, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Washington Shakespeare Company together launched a Sort-of-Jane-Austen Play Reading Festival presenting women playwrights.
“Sort-of-Jane Austen Play Reading Festival”. Washington Shakespeare Company.

Mary Anne Barker

Mary Anne Barker (later Broome: she published both as Lady Barker and Lady Broome) put her considerable talent to work during the 1870s in London journalism (reviewing, reporting, editing) and in miscellaneous writing: stories...
Mary Anne Barker Black and white photograph of Mary Anne Barker. She is seated, eyes cast down, apparently in mourning since her dress and shawl are black. Her dark, gleaming hair is centre-parted and pinned back.

By 2000: The number of liberal democracies in the...

National or international item

By 2000

The number of liberal democracies in the world had almost doubled since 1972, from forty-four to eighty-five.
Anderson, Perry. “Confronting Defeat”. London Review of Books, 17 Oct. 2002, pp. 10-17.
14

August 1900: A world epidemic or pandemic of the plague...

Building and people item

August 1900

A world epidemic or pandemic of the plague (whose bacillus had been identified in Hong Kong in 1894) arrived at Glasgow in Scotland, its furthest point north.
Pennington, Hugh. “Two Spots and a Bubo”. London Review of Books, 21 Apr. 2005, pp. 30-1.
30-1

By 4 May 1889: Mary Bramston published In Hiding, a novel...

Women writers item

By 4 May 1889

Mary Bramston published In Hiding, a novel of moral struggle in which the central characters are women.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3210 (1889): 564

4-7 June 1942: American aircraft carriers won the Battle...

National or international item

4-7 June 1942

American aircraft carriers won the Battle of Midway against Japanese carriers, putting Japan on the defensive.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
104-5
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
274-8
Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World At Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
336-9

December 1731: Peg Woffington, then a little-known but rising...

Building and people item

December 1731

Peg Woffington , then a little-known but rising Irish actress, scored a resounding stage success in Dublin in the breeches role of Sir Harry Wildair, hero of George Farquhar 's comedy The Constant Couple (first...

1862: The Peabody Trust was founded by George Peabody,...

Building and people item

1862

The Peabody Trust was founded by George Peabody , with a £150,000 donation, to create affordable urban housing.
Rodger, Richard. Housing in Urban Britain, 1780-1914: Class, Capitalism and Construction. Macmillan, 1989.
46
Owen, David. English Philanthropy, 1660-1960. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964.
380

: A National Victim Fund was established to...

National or international item

Summer 1848

A National Victim Fund was established to deal with the effects of increased government intolerance of Chartism.
Schwarzkopf, Jutta. Women in the Chartist Movement. St Martin’s Press, 1991.
147

Anna Kavan

AK is primarily a novelist and short story writer of the first half of the twentieth century, who based her writing quite closely on her life. In her writing, as well as in her life...

About 9 February 1682: Thomas Otway's she-tragedy Venice Preserved...

Writer or writing item

About 9 February 1682

Thomas Otway 's she-tragedyVenice Preserved had its first performance.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
1.1: 306

1977: The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act recognised...

Building and people item

1977

The Housing (Homeless Persons) Act recognised battered women as homeless and to some extent improved their prospects of rehousing.
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.
31

From 1933: The flow of refugees from Germany to Britain...

National or international item

From 1933

The flow of refugees from Germany to Britain began; by 1939 about 56,000 people, including more than ten thousand children, had arrived from old and new German territories including Czechoslovakia.
Lively, Penelope. A House Unlocked. Penguin, 2002.
103

January 1866: Alexander Strahan began publication of the...

Writer or writing item

January 1866

Alexander Strahan began publication of the Contemporary Review, a monthly journal of scholarly Christianity.
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
1: 210
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
1: 210
Houghton, Walter E., and Jean Harris Slingerland, editors. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900. University of Toronto Press, 1966–1989, 5 vols.
1: 210, 212, 214

1968: Welfare State International (originally Welfare...

Building and people item

1968

Welfare State International (originally Welfare State) was founded by a group of freelance artists including John Fox , Sue Gill , and Roger Coleman , on the principle of universal art like universal health care or education.
Welfare State International. http://www.welfare-state.org/index.htm.

March 1958: Trinidadian-born activist Claudia Jones launched,...

Writer or writing item

March 1958

Trinidadian-born activist Claudia Jones launched, on a shoe-string, the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News, which kept publishing in London until May 1965, only two issues after her death.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1801: The Monthly Magazine estimated the number...

Writer or writing item

1801

The Monthly Magazine estimated the number of circulating libraries in Britain as a thousand or more. Twenty years later it reckoned that that number was up by a half.
McLeod, Deborah. The Minerva Press. University of Alberta, 1997.
22

27 April 1831: Fantee independence was recognized under...

National or international item

27 April 1831

Fantee independence was recognized under the treaty of peace and commerce between the Ashanti and the British.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 604

Ruth Pitter

During a career that spanned the greater part of the twentieth century, RP published eighteen collections of poetry. She left letters and a journal, and occasionally spoke or wrote on literary topics. Her admirers have...

January 1971: The Open University began teaching its first...

Building and people item

January 1971

The Open University began teaching its first courses.
Bell, Robert, b. 1930, and Malcolm Tight. Open Universities: A British Tradition? Open University Press, 1993.
134

1609: The Douai or Douai-Rheims Bible appeared:...

Writer or writing item

1609

The Douai or Douai-RheimsBible appeared: this was the version used by English-speaking Roman Catholics until the twentieth century.
Bible. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

21 June 1936: The Stone Bomb or Anti-Air-War Memorial (showing...

Building and people item

21 June 1936

The Stone Bomb or Anti-Air-War Memorial (showing an eighteen-inch bomb nose down in an object resembling Ordnance Survey markers) was officially unveiled at Woodford Green in Essex.
Wright, Patrick. “The Stone Bomb”. London Review of Books, 23 Aug. 2001, pp. 12-13.
12-13