Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
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29 April 1884: Oxford University began admitting women to...
Building and people item
29 April 1884
Oxford University began admitting women to honours examinations for degrees, although they were still not awarded the actual degree.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
908
Pedersen, Joyce Senders. The Reform of Girls’ Secondary and Higher Education in Victorian England: A Study of Elites and Educational Change. Garland, 1987.
90
18 August 1882: The Electric Lighting Act set restrictions...
National or international item
18 August 1882
The Electric Lighting Act set restrictions on electricity companies: it limited the tenure of a plant to 21 years, restricted undertakings to a single municipal area, and fixed prices.
Hardyment, Christina. From Mangle to Microwave: The Mechanization of Household Work. Polity Press, 1988.
28
Ballin, Harold Hans. The Organisation of Electricity Supply in Great Britain. Electrical Press , 1946.
9
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
13 July 1917: The first mass aeroplane raid was made on...
National or international item
13 July 1917
The first mass aeroplane raid was made on London by the Germans.
Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard. Aviation: An Historical Survey from its Origins to the end of World War II. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1970.
247
1885: Herman H. Ploss published Das Weib, which...
Building and people item
1885
Herman H. Ploss
published Das Weib, which became the canonical text on women for many years.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
24
1 June 1831: James Clark Ross reached the magnetic North...
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.
297
Williams, L. Pearce. Album of Science: The Nineteenth Century. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978.
149
Writer or writing
Author profile
Elizabeth Sarah Gooch
ESG
's writing career began in the later eighteenth century with a sizeable pamphlet justifying her role in the quarrel with her estranged husband which had landed her in debtors' prison. From this she moved...
January 1996: Virago Press resumed operations as an imprint...
Building and people item
January 1996
Virago Press
resumed operations as an imprint of another larger company, Little Brown
. Its board took the decision to sell in 1995, two years after its twentieth birthday.
“The History of Virago”. Virago, 2012.
17 July 1729: The all-female mercury firms of Elizabeth...
Building and people item
17 July 1729
The all-female mercury firms of Elizabeth Nutt
and Anne Dodd
were summonsed about a libel they had published. Subordinate members of each firm testified that the mistress was not responsible, having been away ill at...
10 May to 14 August 1813: The British Institution held a retrospective...
Building and people item
10 May to 14 August 1813
The British Institution
held a retrospective exhibition of 141 paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds
at its Pall Mall Picture Galleries: a major event of the social season, both cultural and patriotic.
Barchas, Janine. What Jane Saw. 2013, http://www.whatjanesaw.org.
1881: Lady Harberton founded the Rational Dress...
Building and people item
1881
Lady Harberton
founded the Rational Dress Society
which proposed dress reform for women, denounced tight-lacing and high heels, and advocated divided skirts.
Kunzle, David. Fashion and Fetishism: A Social History of the Corset, Tight-Lacing and Other Forms of Body-Sculpture in the West. Rowman and Littlefield, 1982.
173
Gernsheim, Alison. Victorian and Edwardian Fashion: A Photographic Survey. Dover, 1981.
72
Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Editor Gibbs, Vicary, St Catherine Press, 1910–1959, 14 vols.
Writer or writing
Author profile
Stéphanie-Félicité de Genlis
SFG
, French aristocrat, royal mistress, and later a political refugee in England, made her mark as an educational theorist and writer for children (plays, stories, and good advice) during the decade leading up to...
7 March 1912: The first non-stop flight from Paris to London...
Building and people item
7 March 1912
The first non-stop flight from Paris to London was made.
Seymour, David, and Emily Seymour, editors. A Century of News. Contender Books, 2003.
Writer or writing
Author profile
An Collins
AC
was an obscure seventeenth-century religious poet, whose work has survived in a single copy of a single publication.
26 March 1743: Anne Smythies née Summers of Lavenham in...
Building and people item
26 March 1743
Anne Smythies née Summers
of Lavenham in Suffolk (cousin by marriage of the novelist Susan Smythies
) received from the Bishop of Norwich a licence to practise publicly in curing scrofula or the King's Evil.
“Genealogical Notes to the Pedigree of the Smythies Family”. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol.
4: 4
, 1912, pp. 276 - 86, 306.
310
1920: The Dick Kerr Ladies competed against a French...
Building and people item
1920
The Dick Kerr Ladies
competed against a French team at Preston in the first international football match between women's teams.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
6 February 1947: The Fourteen-Day Rule was formalized in Britain,...
National or international item
6 February 1947
The Fourteen-Day Rule was formalized in Britain, by which no bill coming before parliament within the next two weeks was to be discussed on the BBC
.
Mount, Ferdinand. “Living with Monsters”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 8, 22 Apr. 2010, pp. 24-6.
25-6
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Ian Jacob
Paulu, Burton. Television and Radio in the United Kingdom. University of Minnesota Press, 1981.
208-9
1893: Arthur Munby published a narrative poem called...
Writer or writing item
1893
Arthur Munby
published a narrative poem called Susan: A Poem of Degrees, a thinly disguised account of his tempestuous secret love for working-class diarist Hannah Cullwick
.
Hudson, Derek, and Arthur Joseph Munby. Munby, Man of Two Worlds. J. Murray, 1972.
420-1
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.
23 April 1975: A major demonstration was held in Belgrave...
Writer or writing item
23 April 1975
A major demonstration was held in Belgrave Square, London, in support of Public Lending Right.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go? Random House of Canada, 2010.
16
13 May 1851: John Ruskin published a letter in The Times...
Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross, editor. English Art, 1800-1870. Clarendon, 1959.
283-4
By 8 June 1615: Antiquary and historian William Camden anonymously...
Writer or writing item
By 8 June 1615
Antiquary and historian William Camden
anonymously published the first part of his Annales, a Latin history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth
.
Woolf, Daniel. The Idea of History in Early Stuart England. University of Toronto Press, 1990.
119
1960: The Betting and Gaming Act (which came into...
Building and people item
1960
The Betting and Gaming Act (which came into force the following year) made off-course betting legal in Britain: betting shops sprang up, though their appearance was uninviting.
McKibbin, Ross. “Perhaps a Merlot”. London Review of Books, 3 Mar. 2005, pp. 16-17.
16
14 April 1894: Thomas Edison opened the first movie theater,...
Building and people item
14 April 1894
Thomas Edison
opened the first movie theater, the Kinetoscope Parlor, at 1155 Broadway, New York City.
Panati, Charles. Panati’s Browser’s Book of Beginnings. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
223
Singer, Charles et al., editors. A History of Technology. Clarendon, 1958, 8 vols.
5: 743
January 1944: The average wage for women in engineering...
Building and people item
January 1944
The average wage for women in engineering jobs was £3, 10s compared to £7 for men.
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.
41
July 1855: Alfred Tennyson published Maud and Other...
Tennyson, Alfred. Tennyson’s Poetry. Editor Hill, Robert W., Jr, W. W. Norton, 1971.
213
Eliot, George. Essays of George Eliot. Editor Pinney, Thomas, Columbia University Press, 1963.
197
1973: The University College at Buckingham was...
National or international item
1973
The University College at Buckingham
was founded as the only independent institution of higher education in Britain, outside the national or state system and financed by private donors.
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
505
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.