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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.

1815: Joseph Dufour of Paris, manufacturer of scenic...

Building and people item

1815

Joseph Dufour of Paris, manufacturer of scenic panoramic wallpapers, issued a set of Views of India; he said such subjects aimed to bring the peoples of the world closer together.
Garnett, Oliver. “Paper Chase”. The National Trust Magazine, Vol.
90
, 1 June 2000–2026, p. 88.
88

1680: Mrs Frankland founded a school in Manchester...

Building and people item

1680

Mrs Frankland founded a school in Manchester for the daughters of Dissenters.
Hans, Nicholas A. New Trends in Education in the Eighteenth Century. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951.
196

16 January 1969: In Wenceslas Square in Prague a student named...

National or international item

16 January 1969

In Wenceslas Square in Prague a student named Jan Palach set light to himself as a protest against the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia and the behaviour of Czech politicians.
“Jan Palach”. Radio Praha.

31 March 1774: The Boston Port Bill (first of five acts...

National or international item

31 March 1774

The Boston Port Bill (first of five acts which the Americans called the Intolerable Acts) received the royal assent.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Oxford University Press, 1982.
229-30

1959: English composer Elizabeth Maconchy became...

Building and people item

1959

English composer Elizabeth Maconchy became the first woman chairperson of the Composer's Guild of Great Britain .
Sadie, Julie Anne, and Rhian Samuel, editors. The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. Macmillan, 1994.
302

Muriel Spark

The publishing career of MS spanned the later twentieth century, extending beyond each end of that fifty-year period. She began writing as a poet, and went on to short fiction, literary criticism, biography, journalism, and...
Muriel Spark Black-and-white photo of Muriel Spark, 1965. Sitting at a desk, she looks directly at the camera, leaning on her papers with a cigarette in her left hand and a pencil in her mouth.

1904: The Women Guardians Society (formed in 1881...

National or international item

1904

The Women Guardians Society (formed in 1881 to promote the appointment of women as Poor Law Guardians) was disbanded.
Hollis, Patricia. Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government, 1865-1914. Clarendon, 1987.
236

1832: Botanist Robert Brown identified the nucleus...

Building and people item

1832

Botanist Robert Brown identified the nucleus as an essential component of the cell.
Bynum, William F. Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
125
Shryock, Richard Harrison. The Development of Modern Medicine: An Interpretation of the Social and Scientific Factors Involved. University of Wisconsin Press, 1979.
201

2 February 1774: General Gage, Commander-in-Chief of the British...

National or international item

2 February 1774

General Gage , Commander-in-Chief of the British army in North America, noted that the crisis is come, when the provinces must be either British colonies, or independent and separate states.
This was in a...

1600: The Apothecaries' Guild began to give advice,...

Building and people item

1600

The Apothecaries' Guild began to give advice, prescription and diagnosis, rather than just compounding medication.
Dingwall, Robert et al. An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing. Routledge, 1988.
17

1888: J. W. Bengough supplied the illustrations...

Women writers item

1888

J. W. Bengough supplied the illustrations for Jessie Lawson 's epistolary, dialect, comic novel The Epistles o' Hugh Airlie.
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.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

1837: Legislation against abortionists was amended;...

National or international item

1837

Legislation against abortionists was amended; pregnancy terminations performed before quickening were no longer exempt from prosecution.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
157

1 October 1985: New Zealander Janet Frame issued the last...

Writer or writing item

1 October 1985

New Zealander Janet Frame issued the last of three volumes of autobiography, The Envoy from Mirror City; the first came out in 1982. These books finally spread her fame and quashed her reputation as...

1943: As the longest-serving member of the British...

National or international item

1943

As the longest-serving member of the British Trades Union Congress or TUC general council, lifelong trade unionist Dame Anne Loughlin became the first woman chairman and president of the TUC.
Brakeman, Lynne, and Susan Gall, editors. Chronology of Women Worldwide: People, Places and Events that Shaped Women’s History. Gale Research, 1997.
386-7
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

15 October 1951: Synthetic oestrogen was first made by scientist...

Building and people item

15 October 1951

Synthetic oestrogen was first made by scientist Luis Miramontes under the direction of Carl Djerassi and George Rosencrantz in the labs of the company Syntex .
Greer, Germaine. Sex and Destiny. Harper and Row, 1984.
138

1693: John Dunton dedicated volume 11 of his Athenian...

Writer or writing item

1693

John Dunton dedicated volume 11 of his Athenian Mercury to the fictional Worshipfull Society of Mercury-Women . . . of London.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
25-8

May 1568: Mary Queen of Scots fled from Scotland to...

National or international item

May 1568

Mary Queen of Scots fled from Scotland to England; she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I after standing trial in October that year.
Guy, John. “The Tudor Age (1485-1603)”. Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, edited by Kenneth O. Morgan, Oxford University Press, 1984, pp. 223-85.
266
Lee, Sophia. The Recess. Editor Alliston, April, University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
335n28

1874: Emma Paterson founded the Women's Protective...

Building and people item

1874

Emma Paterson founded the Women's Protective and Provident League to promote the organization of women workers in England.
Goldman, Harold. Emma Paterson: She Led Woman into a Man’s World. Lawrence and Wishart, 1974.
33-41
Lorwin, Val R., and Sarah Boston. “Great Britain”. Women and Trade Unions in Eleven Industrialized Countries, edited by Alice H. Cook et al., Temple University Press, 1984, pp. 140-61.
142

By September 1976: South Asian women (called by the media strikers...

Building and people item

By September 1976

South Asian women (called by the media strikers in saris) went on strike at Grunwick Film Processing plant in Willesden, North London.
Exhibitions and Events, The Women’s Library, Autumn and Winter 2009/10. The Women’s Library, 2009.
Beckett, Andy. “Vuvuzelas Unite”. London Review of Books, Vol.
37
, No. 20, 22 Oct. 2015, pp. 25-8.
25
Pedersen, Susan. “You’re only interested in Hitler, not me”. London Review of Books, Vol.
35
, No. 24, 19 Dec. 2013, pp. 16-18.
17

1 June 1980: CNN, the world's first 24-hour television...

Building and people item

1 June 1980

CNN , the world's first 24-hour television news channel, was launched in the USA. It went on to change the style of news reporting worldwide.
“Some Defining Moments of CNN’s First 25 Years”. CNN.com, 19 June 2005.

1749: Lord Hardwicke, now Lord Chancellor, confirmed...

Writer or writing item

1749

Lord Hardwicke , now Lord Chancellor, confirmed his ruling of 1729 that, contrary to popular belief, a slave did not become free on reaching England.
Walvin, James et al. “Ignatius Sancho: The Man and His Times”. Ignatius Sancho: An African Man of Letters, National Portrait Gallery, 1997, pp. 93-113.
98

1805: No provision whatever for education was being...

Building and people item

1805

No provision whatever for education was being made for the 200,000 pauper children in the care of the British state.
Dickson, Mora. The Powerful Bond: Hannah Kilham 1774-1832. Dobson, 1980.
77

10 May 1904: Sir Henry Morton Stanley, explorer and journalist,...

Writer or writing item

10 May 1904

Sir Henry Morton Stanley , explorer and journalist, died in Surrey.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
189

1 April 1947: Mahatma Gandhi suggested, remarkably for...

National or international item

1 April 1947

Mahatma Gandhi suggested, remarkably for a devout Hindu , that the first Prime Minister of an independent (and united) India should be the MuslimMuhammad Ali Jinnah (who after Partition became first premier of Pakistan).
Vedantam, Shankar. “Lost recording of Gandhi uncovered”. Guardian Weekly, 15 Aug. 2008, p. 30.
30

August 1847: As a result of the famine, three million...

National or international item

August 1847

As a result of the famine, three million Irish were being served by government-sponsored soup kitchens; the programme was halted without notice in September, forcing 200,000 into workhouses.
Adelman, Paul. Great Britain and the Irish Question 1800-1922. Hodder and Stoughton, 1996.
62-3