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1988: Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss became the first...

Building and people item

1988

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss became the first woman in Britain's Court of Appeal; her official title was, like that of her male colleagues, Lord Justice.
Dyer, Clare. “Where are the women?”. The Guardian, 8 July 2003, p. G2: 16.
G2: 16

Early 1957: John Braine's novel Room at the Top was published...

Writer or writing item

Early 1957

John Braine 's novel Room at the Top was published by Gollancz after eight rejections, on the advice of Elizabeth Jenkins in her capacity as publisher's reader.
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
(1 March 1957): 125
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson, 2004.
107-8

1840: The Society of Protestant Sisters of Charity...

Building and people item

1840

The Society of Protestant Sisters of Charity (Nursing Sisters) was founded as a secular nursing order in London, inspired by Quaker Elizabeth Gurney Fry .
Franck, Irene, and David Brownstone. Women’s World: A Timeline of Women in History. HarperCollins; HarperPerennial, 1995.
119
Williams, Katherine. “From Sarah Gamp to Florence Nightingale: A Critical Study of Hospital Nursing Systems from 1840 to 1897”. Rewriting Nursing History, edited by Celia Davies, Barnes and Noble, 1980, pp. 41-75.
42-4, 49, 64
Dingwall, Robert et al. An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing. Routledge, 1988.
28

1 December 1941: The British Government introduced a point...

Building and people item

1 December 1941

The British Government introduced a point scheme to complement rations.
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.
89

1760: A subscription got up for British soldiers...

Building and people item

1760

A subscription got up for British soldiers had 120 known female subscribers: three times its tally of clergymen and twelve times its tally of peers.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
94

1991: Norplant, an implanted and reversible form...

National or international item

1991

Norplant, an implanted and reversible form of birth control, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the US.
Asbell, Bernard. The Pill: A Biography of the Drug that Changed the World. Random House, 1995.
336
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
706

1879: The general public was first granted unrestricted...

Building and people item

1879

The general public was first granted unrestricted access to the British Museum collections.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd revised, Simon and Schuster, 1991.
439

21 March 1872: The Anglican Order of Holy Charity (Societas...

Building and people item

21 March 1872

The Anglican Order of Holy Charity (Societas Sanctae Caritatis) was founded in Edinburgh.
Anson, Peter F. The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion. Editor Campbell, A. W., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1964.
451

1948: The University of London appointed Professor...

Building and people item

1948

The University of London appointed Professor Lilian Penson vice-chancellor, the first time a woman held this position at a British university.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

July-October 1859: Charles Reade's historical sensation novel...

Writer or writing item

July-October 1859

Charles Reade 's historical sensation novel The Cloister and the Hearth was serialised as A Good Fight in Once A Week.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
133, 523

1996: The University College of Swansea became...

Building and people item

1996

The University College of Swansea became the University of Wales, Swansea .
“About Us: History”. Swansea University.

February 1812: The first Luddite riots in the West Riding...

Building and people item

February 1812

The first Luddite riots in the West Riding of Yorkshire occurred.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press, 1994.
45-47

31 January 1926: The Women's Service Library, later known...

Writer or writing item

31 January 1926

The Women's Service Library , later known as the Fawcett Library , and presently known as the Women's Library , was established.
Cadman, Eileen et al. Rolling Our Own: Women as Printers, Publishers and Distributors. Minority Press-Group, 1981.
96
“The Women’s Library”. London Metropolitan University.
Buhasz, Laszlo. “Notebook: Women’s Library to reopen in London”. The Globe and Mail, 1 Dec. 2001, p. T12.
T8

Mercy Otis Warren

MOW has been called First Lady of the American Revolution. She was its historian—the only writer to fill this role at an early date from anything like a revolutionary point of view—but she was also...
Mercy Otis Warren Painting of Mercy Otis Warren by John Singleton Copley. She stands in an outdoor background of trees and flowers, holding one hand out, and wearing a deep blue gown with quantities of lace at the wrists, frills and more lace elsewhere, and a silver bow in the centre of the bodice. She has a lacy white cap tied with a silver ribbon on her brown hair.

27 April 1799: The Irish poet Thomas Campbell, aged twenty-one,...

Writer or writing item

27 April 1799

The Irish poet Thomas Campbell , aged twenty-one, published a poem entitled The Pleasures of Hope (on the model of The Pleasures of Memory by Samuel Rogers , 1792).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1816: Thomas Love Peacock published his anonymous...

Writer or writing item

1816

Thomas Love Peacock published his anonymous satirical novel Headlong Hall.
Quarterly Review. J. Murray.
19 (1815): 574

9 March 1857: The Penal Servitude Act of 1853 link to 1853...

National or international item

9 March 1857

The Penal Servitude Act of 1853 was amended.
Emsley, Clive. Crime and Society in England 1750-1900. 2nd ed., Longman, 1996.
277
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

19 March 1920: The US Senate refused to endorse the Treaty...

National or international item

19 March 1920

The US Senate refused to endorse the Treaty of Versailles (signed on 28 June 1919, which set, among other things, the post-war French-German frontier).
Haslam, Jonathan. “Between Jesus and Napoleon”. London Review of Books, 2001, pp. 28-9.
28

19 August 1991: A coup in the Soviet Union overthrew the...

National or international item

19 August 1991

A coup in the Soviet Union overthrew the Communist government; this led to the crumbling of the Soviet empire.
Crystal, David. “Edit It Again, Sam”. The Author, Vol.
cxi
, No. 2, 1 June 2000–2026, pp. 82-3.
83
“The Soviet Era”. Geographia: Europe: Russia: History.
Johnson, Richard William. “Living on the Edge”. London Review of Books, Vol.
33
, No. 9, 28 Apr. 2011, pp. 32-3.
32

1985: The Matrimonial Causes Procedure Committee...

Building and people item

1985

The Matrimonial Causes Procedure Committee submitted its report on the current workings of the divorce laws in Britain.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

24 December 1812: The first news of Napoleon's catastrophic...

National or international item

24 December 1812

The first news of Napoleon 's catastrophic retreat from Moscow reached Britain through a report in The Times.
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
McCarthy, Voice 482

17 November 1922: Feminist and suffragist Helena Normanton...

Building and people item

17 November 1922

Feminist and suffragist Helena Normanton (1882-1957) became the the second woman called to the English bar; she was the first woman to practise as a barrister in the High Court of Justice .
Brakeman, Lynne, and Susan Gall, editors. Chronology of Women Worldwide: People, Places and Events that Shaped Women’s History. Gale Research, 1997.
341
Greenspan, Karen. The Timetables of Women’s History. Simon and Shuster, 1994.
322
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1860: In France, Henri Voirin invented his lithographic...

Building and people item

1860

In France, Henri Voirin invented his lithographic printing press.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
153

4 August 1940: Italy launched an invasion of British Somaliland...

National or international item

4 August 1940

Italy launched an invasion of British Somaliland from Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia).
Messenger, Charles. World War Two Chronological Atlas: When, Where, How and Why. Bloomsbury, 1989.
46, 48
Keegan, John. The Second World War. Viking, 1990.
149, 327-8

Later 1783: The first Anti-Slavery Committee was founded...

Writer or writing item

Later 1783

The first Anti-Slavery Committee was founded (a precursor to the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade , composed chiefly of Quakers ) and The Case of our Fellow Creatures, the Oppressed Africans was published.
Dickson, Mora. The Powerful Bond: Hannah Kilham 1774-1832. Dobson, 1980.
90