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15 August 1057: Malcolm killed King Macbeth, and assumed...

National or international item

15 August 1057

Malcolm killed King Macbeth , and assumed the throne of Scotland as King Malcolm III of Scots or of Scotland.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
51

1811-53: The French Biographie Universelle appeared...

Writer or writing item

1811-53

The French Biographie Universelle appeared in 53 volumes, covering an international range of subjects: on this George Smith first modelled, in 1882, his plan for an English Dictionary of National Biography.
Holland, Peter. “Sidney Lee as Biographer of Shakespeare”. Early Modern Lives: Biography and Autobiography, Renaissance and Seventeenth Century Conference, London, 27 June 2002.

1862: Henry Mayhew published The Criminal Prisons...

Writer or writing item

1862

Henry Mayhew published The Criminal Prisons of London.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
634

By March 1772: Granville Sharp published his Appendix to...

Building and people item

By March 1772

Granville Sharp published his Appendix to the Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery; his previous volume had appeared in 1769.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
28 (1769): 118; 33 (1772): 261

14 October 1768: The Duke of Grafton formed the government...

National or international item

14 October 1768

The Duke of Grafton formed the government in succession to William Pitt , following an election in March.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein, and John, 1920 - Brooke, editors. The House of Commons, 1754-1790. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964.
1: 535

26-27 December 1781: The Womens Quarterly Meeting for Yorkshire...

Women writers item

26-27 December 1781

The Womens Quarterly Meeting for Yorkshire was held at Leeds, at which an Epistle of general exhortation was drawn up, to be printed at London.
Womens Quarterly Meeting for the County of York (Society of Friends). An Epistle from the Womens Quarterly Meeting for the County of York. James Phillips, 1782.
title-page

1838: The Camden Society was founded; it was concerned...

Writer or writing item

1838

The Camden Society was founded; it was concerned with the printing of unpublished material and reprinting rare works.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
144

1937: The British Screenwriters' Association was...

Writer or writing item

1937

The British Screenwriters' Association was established under the auspices of the Society of Authors .
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
198

1876: The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New...

Writer or writing item

1876

The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments, translated by Julia Evelina Smith , was published at Hartford, Connecticut.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

14 July 1930: The first televised play was broadcast by...

Building and people item

14 July 1930

The first televised play was broadcast by the BBC : Lance Sieveking and Sydney Moseley 's production of Pirandello 's experimental The Man with the Flower in his Mouth.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
370
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
126

1967: This year the number of US troops in Vietnam...

National or international item

1967

This year the number of US troops in Vietnam rose to 500,000 (up from 23,000 in early 1965).
Kettle, Martin. “Nixon ’wrecked early peace in Vietnam’”. The Guardian, 9 Aug. 2000, p. 3.
3

10 October 1957: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, her last novel,...

Writer or writing item

10 October 1957

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand , her last novel, set her Objectivist philosophy in stone: I'll give you a hint. Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your...

14 November 1948: Princess Elizabeth had her first child, Charles,...

National or international item

14 November 1948

Princess Elizabeth had her first child, Charles , who was later invested as Prince of Wales.
“The Queen at 80: Timeline”. BBC News.

Anita Desai

AD , an Indian writer of partly European descent who has lived in both England and the USA (where she is now settled), focuses her psychologically-oriented novels on the predicaments of women, immigrants and displaced...
Anita Desai Colour photograph of Anita Desai, in France, wearing a patterned sari or wrap, 5 March 1991.

1886: Elizabeth Cady Stanton approached Priscilla...

National or international item

1886

Elizabeth Cady Stanton approached Priscilla Bright McLaren and Anna Maria Priestman to help organise a British delegation to an international conference of suffragists in Washington.
Holton, Sandra Stanley. Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Routledge, 1996.
74

September 1810: Leigh Hunt began editing The Reflector, a...

Writer or writing item

September 1810

Leigh Hunt began editing The Reflector, a quarterly journal which was in circulation for two years.
Blainey, Ann. Immortal Boy: A Portrait of Leigh Hunt. St Martin’s Press, 1985.
48-9
Johnson, R. Brimley. Leigh Hunt. Haskell House, 1970.
77-8
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
80 (1810): 258

22 November 1687: For this day's celebrations Dryden wrote...

Writer or writing item

22 November 1687

For this day's celebrations Dryden wrote his Song for St. Cecilia's Day.
Dryden, John. Selected Poetry and Prose of John Dryden. Editor Miner, Earl, Modern Library College Editions, The Modern Library, 1985.
503

23 April 1979: Blair Peach, a London teacher, suffered a...

Building and people item

23 April 1979

Blair Peach , a London teacher, suffered a fractured skull when he was hit on the head by a police officer as he was leaving an anti-National Front demonstration at Southall. He died...

Jo Shapcott

JS is a poet of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, who has also published anthologies, verse for music, and a book of critical prose based on a lecture series.

1989: The Joy Luck Club by Chinese-American writer...

Writer or writing item

1989

The Joy Luck Club by Chinese-American writer Amy Tan appeared in both hardback and paperback to considerable acclaim, which was increased by a film of the novel, released in 1993.
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.

1891: The White Cross League, a chastity society...

Building and people item

1891

The White Cross League , a chastity society founded in 1883, merged with the Anglican ChurchChurch of England Purity Society and was henceforth know as the White Cross Society.
Bristow, Edward. Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700. Gill and Macmillan, 1977.
136-7

24 July-3 August 1943: An intense Allied bombing campaign against...

National or international item

24 July-3 August 1943

An intense Allied bombing campaign against Hamburg produced a firestorm that caused massive damage and killed approximately 40,000 people.
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
139
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
426-7

January 1870: The Rights of Woman, a comedy by Emma Schiff,...

Women writers item

January 1870

The Rights of Woman, a comedy by Emma Schiff , premiered at the Globe Theatre .
Mullin, Donald C. Victorian Plays: A Record of Significant Productions on the London Stage, 1837-1901. Greenwood Press, 1987.
Carlson, Susan. “Conflicted politics and circumspect comedy: Women’s comic playwrighting in the 1890s”. Women and Playwriting in Nineteenth-Century Britain, edited by Tracy C. Davis and Ellen Donkin, Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 256-76.
256

Jane Collier

JC was a remarkably innovative and experimental prose-writer of the mid-eighteenth century. She produced one anti-conduct-book, one collaborative novel (written together with Sarah Fielding ), a remarkable commonplace-book (only recently discovered), and trenchant literary-critical comments...
Jane Collier Jane Collier's commonplace-book page 78: "Sallys and Jennys Emblem (1751) concerning the Cry", an allegory in which she and Sarah Fielding collaborate on a dressmaking project -- that is, on the experimental novel "The Cry", 1754. Hilda Londry Collection.

1860: The first international meeting of scientists...

National or international item

1860

The first international meeting of scientists (the First International Chemical Congress ) was held at Karlsruhe, Germany.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
330
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-View in the Nineteenth Century. Basil Blackwell, 1986.
157