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.

16 June 1670: The Bear Garden in London, re-opened since...

National or international item

16 June 1670

The Bear Garden in London, re-opened since the Restoration for bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and fights staged between dogs and cocks, was seen in operation for the first time in twenty years by John Evelyn .
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
540

September 1965: The United Nations Conference on Population...

National or international item

September 1965

The United Nations Conference on Population was held.
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
22

4 October 1802: The Morning Post carried Samuel Taylor Coleridge's...

Writer or writing item

4 October 1802

The Morning Post carried Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's Dejection: An Ode, a lamentation over his sense of lost poetic power.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Poetical Works [of] Coleridge, including poems and versions of poems herein published for the first time. Editor Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, Oxford University Press, 1969.
362

Elizabeth Isham

EI , living unmarried in a gentry family in the earlier seventeenth century, left two unique pieces of life-writing: a year-by-year summary of major events in her life, and a connected narrative based on the...

1840s: Advertisers packed London streets with large...

Building and people item

1840s

Advertisers packed London streets with large models of various products; fantastic items such as seven-foot-tall top hats and sides of bacon were frequently seen as they were pulled through the roadways mounted on carts.
Fenstermaker, John J. “Thomas Carlyle, Popular Advertising, and the Commerical Spirit in Victorian England”. Studies in Popular Culture, Vol.
15
, No. 1, 1992, pp. 25-36.
25

Emily Hickey

EH was a poet of ideas who wrote during the mid to late nineteenth century, developing in her work both her feminist views about reforming social attitudes, and, later, her religious faith as she became...
Emily Hickey .Emily Hickey, cover of Our Catholic Heritage in English Literature, 1910.

About 1616: Forceps for use in childbirth were invented...

Building and people item

About 1616

Forceps for use in childbirth were invented by a member of the Chamberlen family, probably Peter Chamberlen the Elder ; they were kept a secret.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
139
Fraser, Antonia. The Weaker Vessel: Woman’s Lot in Seventeenth Century England. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984.
448-9
This date is given variously by different sources...

1895: The Dangerous Trades Committee was established,...

Building and people item

1895

The Dangerous Trades Committee was established, with Member of Parliament Harold Tennant as Chair. It included one of the first women inspectors, May Abraham .
Harrison, Barbara. Not Only the ’Dangerous Trades’: Women’s Work and Health in Britain, 1880-1914. Taylor and Francis, 1996.
54

23 October 1991: The House of Lords ruled that a husband can...

Building and people item

23 October 1991

The House of Lords ruled that a husband can be guilty of marital rape; this provision thus became part of British law.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
503

1850: The manufacture of perambulators began in...

Building and people item

1850

The manufacture of perambulators began in England.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
98

Mary Bryan

MB was a remarkable and unusual Romantic poet, though her output is so slim. The same emotionalism of style informs her surviving letters, though it is a less successful element in prose. Her last work...

1842: The School of Pharmacy, now part of the University...

Building and people item

1842

The School of Pharmacy , now part of the University of London , was founded by the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain .
Harte, Negley. The University of London 1836-1986. Athlone, 1986.
227
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1540

March 1748: The Poems of Thomas Warton the elder were...

Writer or writing item

March 1748

The Poems of Thomas Warton the elder were published by subscription.
Reid, Hugh. “’Those beck’ning ghost(s)’: The Subscribers to Thomas Warton’s Poems(1748)”. English Studies in Canada, Vol.
25
, Sept.–Dec. 1999, pp. 277-94.
277-8, 283-4

1937: In India the Congress Party, which favoured...

National or international item

1937

In India the Congress Party , which favoured independence from Britain and was largely backed by Hindus, swept to power in elections, even in some Muslim-majority areas.
Ali, Tariq. “Bitter Chill of Winter”. London Review of Books, 19 Apr. 2001, pp. 18-27.
21

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

Over a series of nine poetry volumes published in Ireland, beginning in 1972, ENC 's central theme has been the emergence of female subjectivity
Allen Randolph, Jody. “Making it new”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
xvii
, No. 8, May 2000, pp. 24-5.
25
and spirituality from variously-depicted hampering and confinement. Her vibrant...

6 July 1189: King Henry II died, and Richard I assumed...

National or international item

6 July 1189

King Henry II died, and Richard I assumed the throne of England on 3 September 1189.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
36
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
425

Shortly before 20 April 1759: George Frederick Handel died after spending...

Building and people item

Shortly before 20 April 1759

George Frederick Handel died after spending the best years of his career in England, specialising first in Italian opera, then in oratorio.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
29 (1759): 191, 194

9 June 1812: The Earl of Liverpool became Prime Minister...

National or international item

9 June 1812

The Earl of Liverpool became Prime Minister following the assassination of Spencer Perceval .
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
202
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
491
The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985. Oxford University Press, 1995, 3 vols.
Barrell, John. “Shoot first, ask questions later”. The Guardian, 12 May 2012, p. Review 6.
Review 6

1905: Albert Einstein received his doctorate from...

Building and people item

1905

Albert Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zurich and published three ground-breaking papers, the second of which proposed what is now known as the special theory of relativity.
“Albert Einstein”. School of Mathematics and Statistics: University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Smith, Peter D. “’With fame I become more stupid’”. Guardian Weekly, 12–18 Sept. 2002, p. 16.
16

February 1913: The last issue of The Link: The Organ of...

Building and people item

February 1913

The last issue of The Link: The Organ of the Women's Socialist Movement was published in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
31
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
286

By 1895: 875 women served on Boards of Guardians....

National or international item

By 1895

875 women served on Boards of Guardians.
Stone, James S. Emily Faithfull: Victorian Champion of Women’s Rights. P. D. Meany, 1994.
284

14 June 2017: A fire started at a little after midnight...

National or international item

14 June 2017

A fire started at a little after midnight in the kitchen of a flat on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London, a 23-storey building that was home to about 350...

1889: The Christian Social Union was formed (at...

Building and people item

1889

The Christian Social Union was formed (at Oxford) by Scott Holland , Charles Gore , and Brooke Foss Westcott .
Norman, Edward R. Church and Society in England, 1770-1970. Clarendon, 1976.
181
Gilley, Sheridan. “The Church of England in the Nineteenth Century”. A History of Religion in Britain, edited by Sheridan Gilley and William J. Sheils, Blackwell, 1994, pp. 291-05.
304

1859: The London General Omnibus Company reported...

Building and people item

1859

The London General Omnibus Company reported carrying thirty-nine million riders annually.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
107
Day, John R. The Story of the London Bus: London and Its Buses from the Horse Bus to the Present Day. London Transport Executive, 1973.
24

October 1910: Margaret Llewelyn Davies and Eleanor Barton,...

National or international item

October 1910

Margaret Llewelyn Davies and Eleanor Barton , as representatives of the Women's Co-operative Guild , gave evidence to the Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes .
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
152
Gaffin, Jean et al. “Women and Cooperation”. Women in the Labour Movement: The British Experience, edited by Lucy Middleton, Croom Helm, 1977, pp. 113-42.
132-3