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.

November 1847: Alfred Tennyson published The Princess: A...

Writer or writing item

November 1847

Alfred Tennyson published The Princess: A Medley.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
Wise, Thomas J. A Bibliography of the Writings of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Dawsons of Pall Mall, 1967, 2 Vols.
98-101

21-24 April 1876: A riot occurred in Barbados over the proposed...

National or international item

21-24 April 1876

A riot occurred in Barbados over the proposed federation with the Windward Islands.
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present. Revised, Facts on File, 1999.
198
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
100

1908: The British government entertained a scheme...

National or international item

1908

The British government entertained a scheme to prevent the access of married women to employment; it was, however, abandoned.
Raitt, Suzanne. May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian. Clarendon Press, 2000.
110

1714: British female literacy rates at this date...

Writer or writing item

1714

British female literacy rates at this date have been estimated as 25%, against a male rate of 45%.
Brewer, John. The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997.
167

April 1837: Sergeant Talfourd, a Member of Parliament...

National or international item

April 1837

Sergeant Talfourd , a Member of Parliament and a friend of Caroline Norton , introduced an Infant Custody Bill.
Huddleston, Joan, and Caroline Norton. “Introduction”. Caroline Norton’s Defense, Academy Chicago, 1982, p. I - XIII.
ix

1992: It was first hinted by non-medical writers...

Building and people item

1992

It was first hinted by non-medical writers that the source of AIDS might be contaminated oral polio vaccine used in Africa in the 1950s, mainly in the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Porter, Roy. “Tissue Wars”. London Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2000, pp. 34-5.
34

6 November 1916: The UK, France, and Russia recognized Hussein...

National or international item

6 November 1916

The UK, France, and Russia recognized Hussein (Sharif or Emir of Mecca) as head of Arab peoples and King of Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia).
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 774, 849
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Modern World: 1763 to the Present Time. David McKay, 1967.
460

8 June 1885: A Punch cartoon by Du Maurier on the annual...

Building and people item

8 June 1885

A Punch cartoon by Du Maurier on the annual Royal Academy exhibition made fun of the recent controversy over nude models.
McMaster, Juliet. That Mighty Art of Black-and-White. Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy. Ad Hoc Press, 2009.
59 and fig. 36

July 1942: The German Nazi Party made it illegal to...

Building and people item

July 1942

The GermanNazi Party made it illegal to arrange teaching for Jewish children, either privately or communally.
Powers, Thomas. “’A Thousand Mosquito Bites’”. London Review of Books, 21 Sept. 2000, pp. 3-7.
5
This information comes from the diaries of Victor Klemperer , first published in 2000.

Marghanita Laski

ML , a cultural force in twentieth-century Britain, published six novels, four biographies (one on multiple subjects), an anti-nuclear play, a collection of children's stories, three quasi-scientific investigations into secular and religious experiences, and various...

9 December 1936: BBC television broadcast its first cookery...

Building and people item

9 December 1936

BBC television broadcast its first cookery demonstration: Moira Meighn presented meals cookable in fifteen minutes on a single burner.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
373

September 1886: A famous meeting of the Fabian Society resolved...

National or international item

September 1886

A famous meeting of the Fabian Society resolved that it was desirable for socialists to form a politial party; this was the first germ of the Labour Party .
Briggs, Julia. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit, 1858-1924. Hutchinson, 1987.
137

16 April 1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to...

National or international item

16 April 1912

Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel: from Deal in England to Cape Gris-Nez in France.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
181
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
395
Trager, however, writes that she left from Dover and landed near Hardelot.

1773: John Leake published A Lecture Introductory...

Building and people item

1773

John Leake published A Lecture Introductory to the Theory and Practice of Midwifery, arguing, like others, that this ought to be taken over by men.
O’Malley, Andrew. The Creation of the Modern Child Subject: Children’s Literature, Pedagogy, Pediatrics, and the Politics of Class in Late Eighteenth-Century England. University of Alberta, 1999.
136
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 October 1739: Britain declared war against Spain. This...

National or international item

23 October 1739

Britain declared war against Spain. This war, however, was later swallowed up in the War of the Austrian Succession, which involved a larger number of combatants.
Wallace, Charles Harrison. “Porto Bello”. Monamy Website.

Patricia Highsmith

PH , writing from the mid-twentieth century, first in the USA and then in Europe and England, produced short stories and novels, the majority of them variously classifiable as thrillers or suspense fiction, a...

Christian Gray

CG , a labouring-class Scottish poet of the early nineteenth century, wrote in a wide range of genres, from political to religious and autobiographical. Many of her poems are written in Scots, and some are...

January 1769-December 1795: The Town and Country Magazine was published...

Writer or writing item

January 1769-December 1795

The Town and Country Magazine was published at London; it became well-known for its reports of adultery trials.
University of Alberta Libraries On-line Catalogue. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/.

26 October 1872: The weekly Lady's Own Paper ceased publication;...

Writer or writing item

26 October 1872

The weekly Lady's Own Paper ceased publication; it had begun on 24 November 1866.
Palmegiano, Eugenia M. Women and British Periodicals, 1832-1867: A Bibliography. Garland, 1976.
22

31 January 1929: William Faulkner issued Sartoris, the first...

Writer or writing item

31 January 1929

William Faulkner issued Sartoris, the first of the novels which he set in the Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional area of Mississippi which became his trademark.
American National Biography. http://www.anb.org/articles/home.html.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
7 October 2008

By October 1928: Stephen Spender, as an Oxford undergraduate,...

Writer or writing item

By October 1928

Stephen Spender , as an Oxford undergraduate, self-published a booklet of poems entitled Nine Experiments.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1852: The House of Correction at Brixton was purchased,...

National or international item

1852

The House of Correction at Brixton was purchased, and converted to provide 700-800 places for women sentenced to penal servitude.
Zedner, Lucia. Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England. Clarendon, 1991, http://U of A HSS.
178-9

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.

1704: Queen Anne's Bounty (a fund for supplementing...

Building and people item

1704

Queen Anne 's Bounty (a fund for supplementing the stipends of the most poorly-paid clergy) was instituted.
Dobree, Bonamy. English Literature in the Early Eighteenth Century, 1700-1740. Clarendon Press, 1959.
570

1892: Jane Payne became the first woman member...

Writer or writing item

1892

Jane Payne became the first woman member of the London Society of Compositors .
Cockburn, Cynthia. Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change. Pluto Press, 1983.
154