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.

17 April 1799: Humphry Davy, then a young man, inhaled nitrous...

Building and people item

17 April 1799

Humphry Davy , then a young man, inhaled nitrous oxide in order to see what it would do to him: by the following year he had discovered and tested its anaesthetic effects.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Guardian Weekly.
(14-20 December 2000): 15

: Members of the League of Nations members...

National or international item

Summer 1935

Members of the League of Nations members conducted a peace ballot in Britain: eleven and a half million people voted ten to one for disarmament.
Oakley, Ann. Man and Wife: Richard and Kay Titmuss: My Parents’ Early Years. HarperCollins, 1996.
69

September 1643: Parliament entered into the Solemn League...

National or international item

September 1643

Parliament entered into the Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots, which committed them to accepting the reformed religion (i.e. Presbyterianism ) in Scotland and establishing it in England.
Cope, Esther S. Handmaid of the Holy Spirit: Dame Eleanor Davies, Never Soe Mad a Ladie. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
112-3
Purkiss, Diane. The English Civil War, A People’s History. Harper Perennial, 2007.
233

1980: Lesley Abdela founded the 300 Group, an organization...

National or international item

1980

Lesley Abdela founded the 300 Group , an organization devoted to equalizing representation of women in the House of Commons .
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

By 4 October 1851: Chemistry professor William Gregory published...

Building and people item

By 4 October 1851

Chemistry professor William Gregory published an extended analysis of mesmerism entitled Letters to a Candid Inquirer on Animal Magnetism.
Gauld, Alan. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
208, 210
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1249 (1851): 1037

Amelia Beauclerc

AB 's half-dozen novels, all published within a decade of the early nineteenth century and of oddly varying quality, centre on the theme of bad parenting. Many include travel and several touch the fringes of...

9 May 1918: Lytton Strachey published his irreverent...

Writer or writing item

9 May 1918

Lytton Strachey published his irreverent biographies entitled Eminent Victorians. He claimed to be breaking with two traditions: that of admiration for the Victorians and that of reverential biography.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
9 May 2008
“4 June 1918. Victorians before a just court”. The Guardian, 5 June 2009, p. 22.
22

1891: Maxwell Gray (whose real name was Mary Gleed...

Women writers item

1891

Maxwell Gray (whose real name was Mary Gleed Tuttiet ) published her novel In the Heart of the Storm: A Tale of Modern Chivalry, which deals with women's rights.
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.

Around 3 December 1859: Samuel Smiles published his very successful...

Writer or writing item

Around 3 December 1859

Samuel Smiles published his very successful Self-Help, attacking over-government and lobbying for thrift, industry, and self-improvement.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1675 (1859): 725
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1679 (31 December 1859): 883-5
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

October 1875: L. M. Hubbard edited the first monthly issue,...

Building and people item

October 1875

L. M. Hubbard edited the first monthly issue, in London, of the Woman's Gazette, a practical guide for genteel women pursuing employment.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
10
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
51

Probably 1783: Vicesimus Knox published his prose anthology...

Building and people item

Probably 1783

Vicesimus Knox published his prose anthology Elegant Extracts in its earliest form: it achieved both fame for popularising and educating, and notoriety for providing a mere veneer of culture.
Difficulty in dating this work is...

December 1896: The British Workwoman: Out and At Home ended...

Building and people item

December 1896

The British Workwoman: Out and At Home ended publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
2
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
54

1869: For the first time, upscale French evening...

Building and people item

1869

For the first time, upscale French evening dresses featured a sewn-in label displaying the manufacturer's name.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
225

Lady Charlotte Bury

LCB had the example in her family of genteel women whose writing was an important source of income to them. Her relations had addressed some of her favourite fictional topics: marriage into the nobility from...
Lady Charlotte Bury Painting of Lady Charlotte Bury as a teenager by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1789. She is sitting under a tree, wearing a white, classical-style gown and yellow mantle, with a garland on her blonde curly hair. She is reaching up for a branch with her left hand, while a deer beside her, on its hind legs, reaches too. Her right hand rests on a scroll lying across her lap. Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Claire Keegan

The writing style of CK , contemporary Irish short-story writer, is minimalist, and she does not often discuss her process, giving a definite sense that she would prefer not to have to comment on her...

By March 1913: Leonard Woolf published the first of his...

Writer or writing item

By March 1913

Leonard Woolf published the first of his two novels, The Village in the Jungle, which is set in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and relates events so far as possible from the viewpoint of view...

1903: The Poor Prisoners' Defence Act established...

Building and people item

1903

The Poor Prisoners' Defence Act established legal aid for the defence of those facing criminal charges.
Warren, Michael. “A Chronology of State Medicine, Public Health, Welfare and Related Services in Britain: 1066 - 1999”. Michael Warren’s Chronology, 6 Jan. 2003.

August 1979: During the annual conference at Brighton...

Building and people item

August 1979

During the annual conference at Brighton of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality , the Gay Humanist Group (GHG) was launched. It later became the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association, or GALHA .
Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. http://www.galha.org/index.html.

9 September 1976: Mao Zedong (also known in the west as Mao...

National or international item

9 September 1976

Mao Zedong (also known in the west as Mao Tse-Tung) died in Beijing, in his eighties. His death was followed by a series of cataclysmic changes in the Chinese political system.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.
under Mao Zedong

1948: The Kinsey Report on Sexual Behaviour in...

Building and people item

1948

The Kinsey Report on Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male was published, questioning the notion of sexual norms as naturally determined.
Tannahill, Reay. Sex in History. Stein and Day, 1980.
404
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
241, 242
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
533

1815: Elizabeth Appleton published Private Education;...

Building and people item

1815

Elizabeth Appleton published Private Education; or a Practical Plan for the Studies of Young Ladies. With an address to parents, private governesses, and young ladies.
Burmester, James et al. English Books. James Burmester Rare Books, 1985–2026, Numbered catalogues.
1-2

1937: Margot Ruddock published The Lemon Tree,...

Women writers item

1937

Margot Ruddock published The Lemon Tree, a collection of her poetry edited by W. B. Yeats .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
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.

1946: William Joyce, born in New York of an Irish-American...

National or international item

1946

William Joyce , born in New York of an Irish-American father and English mother, was hanged for treason on account of his pro-Nazi broadcasts during the war.
Dear, Ian C. B., and Michael Richard Daniell Foot, editors. The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press, 1995.
640
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr, and Laurie Clancy. “Running Experiments Off: An Interview”. Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut, edited by William Rodney Allen, Mississippi University Press, 1988, pp. 46-56.
50

30 May 1827: John Keble anonymously published The Christian...

Writer or writing item

30 May 1827

John Keble anonymously published The Christian Year, a volume of sacred verse.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Keble, John. The Christian Year. Reprint, Gale Research, 1975, http://University of Guelph Library.
Advertisement

1876: Elizabeth Stone, under the pseudonym of Sutherland...

Women writers item

1876

Elizabeth Stone , under the pseudonym of Sutherland Menzies, published a volume in Collins 's School Series, entitled History of Germany for Junior Classes.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.