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Early 2004: The Richard and Judy Book Club was launched...

Writer or writing item

Early 2004

The Richard and Judy Book Club was launched in Britain as a weekly television programme on Channel 4 , taking as its model the bookclub of Oprah Winfrey in the USA.
Jeffries, Stuart. “The booksellers”. Guardian Unlimited, 26 Feb. 2004.
H. S. “A Week in Books”. The Guardian, 14 June 2008, p. Review 5.
Review 5

3 April 1849: Frederick William IV's refusal of the imperial...

National or international item

3 April 1849

Frederick William IV 's refusal of the imperial crown of Germany signalled the end of the Frankfurt Assembly, which collapsed in December 1849.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
176-7, 256

16 August 1845-29 May 1846: Frederick Douglass, ex-slave and anti-slavery...

Building and people item

16 August 1845-29 May 1846

Frederick Douglass , ex-slave and anti-slavery campaigner, visited Britain: Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Little, Brown, 1980.
24, 28, 35
Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass on Women’s Rights. Editor Foner, Philip S., Greenwood Press, 1976.
10
Halbersleben, Karen I. Women’s Participation in the British Antislavery Movement, 1824-1865. Edwin Mellen Press, 1993.
191

Sheila Kaye-Smith

Writing mostly in the first half of the twentieth century, SKS published thirty-one novels, in addition to about twenty works in other genres: biography, criticism, saints' lives, country lore, and books of memoirs (one of...
Sheila Kaye-Smith Black and white, half-length photo of Sheila Kaye-Smith from "Harper's Magazine, October 1922. She looks to her right, wearing a boat-neck dark top with a long beaded necklace; her wavy, dark hair is bobbed, with a fringe.

Kathleen Raine

KR 's lengthy, successful career as twentieth-century poet, autobiographer, essayist, critic, and translator, won her many awards in England and other countries. She called the writing of words (especially poetry) her greatest joy. Paradoxically, it...

1990: The Royal Navy, while still barring women...

Building and people item

1990

The Royal Navy , while still barring women from submarines and deep sea diving, allowed them to go to sea.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

1655: An inscription was placed on a special two-person...

Building and people item

1655

An inscription was placed on a special two-person bench in a church at Ferryside in Wales, designed for married couples to do public penance for quarrelling.
Gillis, John R. For Better, For Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present. Oxford University Press, 1985.
77-8

11 December 1957: The first European School opened in a new...

Building and people item

11 December 1957

The first European School opened in a new building constructed in the shape of a giant E, in the Boulevard de la Foire in Luxembourg. It aimed to impart an international education, and half...

10 December 1928: Sigrid Undset's powerful and evocative novelistic...

Writer or writing item

10 December 1928

Sigrid Undset 's powerful and evocative novelistic descriptions of Scandinavian life in the Middle Ages gained her the Nobel Prize in Literature. (The British Sir Owen Willans Richardson won the prize in Physics.)
Schlessinger, Bernard S., and June H. Schlessinger. The Who’s Who of Nobel Prize Winners, 1901-1995. 3rd ed., Oryx Press, 1996.
Nobel Prize in Literature. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
20 May 2009
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

14 July 1908: The Maori congress opened at Wellington,...

National or international item

14 July 1908

The Maori congress opened at Wellington, New Zealand.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 943

U. A. Fanthorpe

The poetry of UAF was hailed with some enthusiasm when it began to appear in print in the later twentieth century. She was a late starter but once started was consistently prolific. She published verse...
U. A. Fanthorpe Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of U. A. Fanthorpe. She has short hair, and wears large-rimmed glasses, and a dark jacket or sweater with a dog brooch over a white shirt.

1694-1706: Quaker printer Tace Sowle produced three...

Writer or writing item

1694-1706

Quaker printer Tace Sowle produced three volumes of the works of George Fox (Quaker pioneer, husband of Margaret Fell ): his Journal, Epistles, and Gospel-Truth Demonstrated.
Bracken, James K., and Joel Silver, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 170. Gale Research, 1996.
254-5
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2002, 2 vols.

1 January 1946: London Airport (later Heathrow) opened for...

Building and people item

1 January 1946

London Airport (later Heathrow) opened for civil aviation. By 1954 twenty-three international airlines were flying into it, and plans were afoot for expansion.
British Book News. British Council.
(July 1954): 388

31 May 1910: The Union of South Africa was inaugurated;...

National or international item

31 May 1910

The Union of South Africa was inaugurated; it incorporated Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal.
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
913
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 592
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
892

Jessie White Mario

JWM made her literary debut in Eliza Cook's Journal, but it was her involvement in the Italian Risorgimento (sometimes as a spy) that fostered her career as a journalist, translator, propagandist, lecturer, and biographer...
Jessie White Mario Black and white photograph of Jessie White Mario, standing with one hand on her hip and the other on the back of a carved chair. She is wearing a long skirt with a bold pattern and a simple, solid-coloured jacket with broad sleeves. Her hair is chin-length and her expression challenging.

1829: The British Association for Promoting Co-operative...

National or international item

1829

The British Association for Promoting Co-operative Knowledge was founded.
Goodway, David. London Chartism, 1838-1848. Cambridge University Press, 1982.
21

July 1848: After a fierce struggle, Austrian general...

National or international item

July 1848

After a fierce struggle, Austrian general Radetzky regained control of Milan, from which he had retreated four months earlier.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
159

1928-1934: Significant progress was made in Shanxi province...

Building and people item

1928-1934

Significant progress was made in Shanxi province in China towards stamping out the practice of footbinding for women.
Mitter, Rana. “Untwisting the Pastry”. London Review of Books, 11 May 2006, pp. 27-9.
27-9

7 October 1931: Statutory regulations for British policewomen...

Building and people item

7 October 1931

Statutory regulations for British policewomen standardized conditions of service, pay and pensions.
Carrier, John. The Campaign for the Employment of Women as Police Officers. Avebury; Gower, 1988.
241
Hart, Jenifer Margaret Murray. The British Police. Allen and Unwin, 1951.
141, 142

1378-1417: Rival claimants to the position of Pope weakened...

National or international item

1378-1417

Rival claimants to the position of Pope weakened the authority of the Papacy in what became known as the Great Schism.
Griffiths, Ralph Alan. “The Later Middle Ages (1290-1485)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 166-22.
211-12

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

1987: Elizabeth Cadell published Out of the Rain,...

Women writers item

1987

Elizabeth Cadell published Out of the Rain, a romance.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

13 February 1974: Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Prize-winner...

Writer or writing item

13 February 1974

Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Prize-winner in Literature, who had more than once refused to surrender himself to state investigators)
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 February 2008
was expelled from the Soviet Union; treason charges followed.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
13 February 2008
Francis, Damien. “Dissident writer Solzhenitsyn dies at 89”. Guardian Weekly, 8 Aug. 2008, p. 11.
11

July 1921: News reached the rest of the world that the...

National or international item

July 1921

News reached the rest of the world that the harvest had failed for the fourth year in succession in Russia.
John, Angela V. Evelyn Sharp: Rebel Woman, 1869–1955. Manchester University Press, 2009.
127-8

1791: William Gifford, in his satire The Baviad,...

Writer or writing item

1791

William Gifford , in his satire The Baviad, became the first to attack the Della Cruscan body of poetry which notably included work by Robert Merry and Hannah Cowley .
McGann, Jerome. The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style. Clarendon, 1996.
74ff