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November 1814: The Times made newspaper production more...

Building and people item

November 1814

The Times made newspaper production more efficient and cost-effective through the introduction of a steam press; this was the first time this technology had been commercially used.
Nevett, Terry R. Advertising in Britain: A History. Heinemann, 1982.
40
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
133
Marchand, Leslie Alexis. The Athenæum: A Mirror of Victorian Culture. Octagon, 1971.
8

1767: Man-midwife Sir John Leake assigned cost-free...

Building and people item

1767

Man-midwife Sir John Leake assigned cost-free land in Lambeth, south of the Thames, on which to build to the New Westminster Lying-in Hospital , a charity institution.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

April 1645: Cromwell formed his New Model Army, the first...

National or international item

April 1645

Cromwell formed his New Model Army , the first approximation to a modern, disciplined, professional fighting body.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1997: The actor John Gielgud, well into his nineties,...

Building and people item

1997

The actor John Gielgud , well into his nineties, appeared in three films this year.
“Sir John Gielgud: Master of the Bard onstage - and barbs off it”. National Post, 23 May 2000, p. A16.
(23 May 2000): A16

Violet Trefusis

Though VT is best known to literary history as a lover of English writer and aristocrat Vita Sackville-West , she wrote and published in a range of genres throughout her life, which spanned much of...

Jane Welsh Carlyle

JWC is well known for her prodigious letters, none of which were published during her lifetime.
Christianson, Aileen. “Jane Welsh Carlyle’s Private Writing Career”. A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, edited by Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan, Edinburgh University Press, 1997, pp. 232-45.
232
Her witty epistles, which Thomas Carlyle praised for pick[ing] up every diamond-spark, out of the common floor-dust,
qtd. in
Carlyle, Thomas, and Jane Welsh Carlyle. “Introduction”. The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, edited by Charles Richard Sanders, Duke University Press, 1970.
1: x
Jane Welsh Carlyle Photograph of a painting of Jane Welsh Carlyle by an unknown artist, at Carlyle's House in London. She is seen from the waist up, seated and looking down, with her head on one hand while the other holds a book. She wears a red velvet dress with lace at the collar and sleeves and a drop pearl at the neckline, as well as pearl bracelets and small gold rings. Her dark hair smooth, with a middle parting, and folded over her ears. National Trust'

4 July 1187: The Second Crusade ended at the Battle of...

National or international item

4 July 1187

The Second Crusade ended at the Battle of Hattin (in northern Palestine), when Franci or Christian forces were defeated by Saladin .
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/.
under Battle of Hattin

6-15 April 1896: The first Olympic Games of modern times were...

National or international item

6-15 April 1896

The first Olympic Games of modern times were held in Athens; the three hundred and eleven athletes who attended were all male.
“Chronology of the Olympic Games”. United States Olympic Team.

1926: Fanfrolico Press, founded in Australia in...

Writer or writing item

1926

Fanfrolico Press , founded in Australia in 1923 by Jack Lindsay and John T. Kirtley , established a London branch at 5 Bloomsbury Square.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 112. Gale Research, 1991.
119
Myers, Robin. The British Book Trade, from Caxton to the Present Day. Andre Deutsch in association with the National Book League, 1973.
320
Cave, Roderick. The Private Press. Faber and Faber, 1971.
204-5

1707: Fortnum and Mason's grocery shop was founded...

Building and people item

1707

Fortnum and Mason's grocery shop was founded by two former footmen to the court of Queen Anne.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
215

By September 1840: Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia joined...

National or international item

By September 1840

Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia joined in a Quadruple Alliance, which dispatched a fleet to the eastern Mediterranean to ensure the submission of Mehemet Ali of Egypt.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
263
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
131

1768: The Countess of Huntingdon opened Trevecca...

Building and people item

1768

The Countess of Huntingdon opened Trevecca College , for the training of evangelical Dissenting ministers, at Trevecca, Brecknockshire, Wales.
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
79
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Staves, Susan. “Church of England Clergy and Women Writers”. Reconsidering the Bluestockings, edited by Nicole Pohl and Betty Schellenberg, Huntington Library, 2003, pp. 81-103.
99

25 June-14 September 1742: A French army was besieged in Prague: one...

National or international item

25 June-14 September 1742

A French army was besieged in Prague: one of three sieges of Prague during the War of the Austrian Succession, which made the city a byword for human suffering.
Browning, Reed. The War of the Austrian Succession. St Martin’s Press, 1993.
107, 116, 124
Anderson, Matthew Smith. The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748. Longman, 1995.
112-13
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Editor Halsband, Robert, Clarendon Press, 1965–1967, 3 vols.
2: 303

Helen Waddell

HW , an early twentieth-century scholar in the field of medieval studies and especially Latin verse, was the author of scholarly monographs and translations (from Chinese as well as Latin), and of plays, articles, reviews...

By January 1848: Most railway companies in Britain had adopted...

Building and people item

By January 1848

Most railway companies in Britain had adopted Greenwich Mean Time or GMT (measured at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich), as had been recommended on 22 September 1847.
Myers, Joseph. “History of legal time in Britain”. SRCF (Student-Run Computing Facility).

28 May 1911: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard...

Writer or writing item

28 May 1911

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 's The Cherry Orchard was first performed in England (in Constance Garnett 's translation): by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Aldwych Theatre in London.
Drabble, Margaret, and Jenny Stringer, editors. The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1996.
103
Taylor, John Russell, editor. The Penguin Dictionary of Theatre. 3rd ed., Penguin, 1993.
60-1
Frye, Kate Parry. Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary. Editor Crawford, Elizabeth, Francis Boutle Publishers, 2013.
50
Tomalin, Clare. “Constance Garnett (1861 - 1946)”. Breaking Bounds. Six Newnham Lives, edited by Biddy Passmore, Newnham College, 2014, pp. 14-25.
22

5 November 1757: Britain's ally Frederick II had the first...

National or international item

5 November 1757

Britain's ally Frederick II had the first of two unexpected victories, at Rossbach near Halle in Germany.
Furneaux, Rupert. The Seven Years War. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, 1973.
55

1864-1867: The Reader, a weekly Review of Literature,...

Building and people item

1864-1867

The Reader, a weekly Review of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Roos, David A. “The Aims and Intentions of Nature”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 159-80.
163
appeared.
Roos, David A. “The Aims and Intentions of Nature”. Victorian Science and Victorian Values: Literary Perspectives, edited by James Paradis and Thomas Postlewait, New York Academy of Sciences, 1981, pp. 159-80.
163

Julia Strachey

JS published two novels and several pieces of short fiction during her lifetime, in the mid twentieth century. Frances Partridge writes in her introduction to JS 's memoir that when she died, after a long...

1917: Merely Players by Lucy Dale and Gertrude...

Women writers item

1917

Merely Players by Lucy Dale and Gertrude Minnie Faulding (writing as G. M. Faulding) was published from T. Fisher Unwin .
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

January-April 1960: Most of those who died in China's cataclysmic...

Building and people item

January-April 1960

Most of those who died in China's cataclysmic famine died in these months, with grain supplies exhausted and new crops not yet ripe.
Becker, Jasper. “Business as Usual at the ’People’s Daily’”. London Review of Books, 29 July 1999, pp. 26-7.
26-7
Scott, James C. “Tyranny of the Ladle”. London Review of Books, Vol.
34
, No. 23, 6 Dec. 2012, pp. 21-8.
21

1923: Guy Aldred and Rose Witcop were prosecuted...

Building and people item

1923

Guy Aldred and Rose Witcop were prosecuted for selling Margaret Sanger 's pamphlet Family Limitation: Handbook for Working Mothers.
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
191
McLaren, Angus. Birth Control in Nineteenth Century England. Croom Helm, 1978.
173

Sarojini Naidu

Sarojini Naidu was an Indian poet and political activist who published in English in the first decades of the twentieth century.
The British Library catalogue spells her name Sarojini Nayadu .
While studying in England...
Sarojini Naidu Black and white photo of Sarojini Naidu, head and neck only. She looks quizzically at the camera, her face resting on one hand, with slightly raised eyebrows emphasizing the wrinkles on her forehead. Her dark grey hair is brushed back, and she wears dangly earrings.

Catherine Crowe

Between 1838 and 1859, Catherine Crowe produced five novels, two plays, a number of short stories (including ghost stories), a translation and several children's tales.
Oliphant, Margaret et al. Women Novelists of Queen Victoria’s Reign. Hurst and Blackett, 1897.
149
Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter, editors. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. Garland, 1988.
She was a pioneer of domestic realism who combined...

28 November 1956: The film Et Dieu . . . créa la femme (And...

Building and people item

28 November 1956

The film Et Dieu . . . créa la femme (And Woman . . . Was Created in the UK and And God Created Woman in the USA) had its French premiere. It starred...