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22 September 1958: In a referendum almost 80% of French citizens...

National or international item

22 September 1958

In a referendum almost 80% of French citizens approved the constitution drawn up for the new Fifth Republic in France. The Fourth Republic, instituted on 27 October 1946 following World War Two, had foundered...

1924: John Wheatley, Minister of Health, forbade...

Building and people item

1924

John Wheatley , Minister of Health, forbade medical health officers to offer birth control advice.
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
96
Hindell, Keith, and Madeleine Simms. Abortion Law Reformed. Peter Owen, 1971.
62
Thane, Pat. “The Women of the British Labour Party and Feminism, 1906-1945”. British Feminism in the Twentieth Century, edited by Harold L. Smith, Edward Elgar, 1990, pp. 124-43.
137

July 1921: The Communist Party of China was formed at...

National or international item

July 1921

The Communist Party of China was formed at Peking.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
361

November 1881: Aunt Judy's Magazine, the leading fiction...

Writer or writing item

November 1881

Aunt Judy's Magazine, the leading fiction periodical for children founded by Margaret Gatty , changed publishers, and adopted a new format with a cover designed by Randolph Caldecott .
Gatty, Horatia K. F. Juliana Horatia Ewing and Her Books. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1885.
70

21 November 1920: Bloody Sunday (a nickname already used thirty...

National or international item

21 November 1920

Bloody Sunday (a nickname already used thirty years before) saw an escalation of violence between the Irish Republican Army Volunteers and the Black and Tans.
Cook, Chris, and John, 1946 - Stevenson. The Longman Handbook of Modern British History 1714-1987. 2nd ed., Longman, 1988.
26-7

1976: Angela Rippon became the first woman newsreader...

Building and people item

1976

Angela Rippon became the first woman newsreader on British television (BBC ); the job lasted only six years, though she acquired an enthusiastic public.
Steele, Sir Richard, and Joseph Addison, editors. The Guardian. J. Tonson.
(14 August 2000): G2 4

June 1798: Edward Jenner published An Inquiry into the...

Building and people item

June 1798

Edward Jenner published An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae . . . known by the name of the Cow-pox.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
2d ser. 24 (1798): 221

27 February 1807: Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born...

Writer or writing item

27 February 1807

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, USA.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
59

Good Friday 1612: A magistrate broke up a gathering of thirteen...

Building and people item

Good Friday 1612

A magistrate broke up a gathering of thirteen people at Pendle Hill in Lancashire, on suspicion of their being witches.
Sharpe, James. “Introduction: the Lancashire witches in historical context”. The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories, edited by Robert Poole, Manchester University Press, 2002, pp. 1-18.

May 1929: The Little Review, edited by Margaret Anderson...

Writer or writing item

May 1929

The Little Review, edited by Margaret Anderson with Jane Heap , ceased publication.
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press, 1987.
277
Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
60, 100
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

By June 1752: Christopher Smart published his first collection,...

Writer or writing item

By June 1752

Christopher Smart published his first collection, Poems on Several Occasions.
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
22 (1752): 291

1918: Madge Mears published her last novel, The...

Women writers item

1918

Madge Mears published her last novel, The Flapper's Mother.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Christine de Pisan

Christine de Pisan wrote for a living (years before any woman did this in Britain). She is remarkable both as a sophisticated, polished, and versatile writer of poetry in French, and as a proto-feminist. Her...
Christine de Pisan Illumination from the Queen’s Manuscript, c. 1410–14, with a portrait of Christine de Pisan in her study. She is sitting at a cloth-draped desk writing in a book with a box for writing materials beside her. She is wearing a white hat that appears to be bat ears or a large V on her head. She is wearing a double horned headdress with gauzy white veil and a bright blue dress (both the signs of high birth or status). A small white dog sits at her feet. (It is absent from a closely related picture that giv

September 1928: Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while...

National or international item

September 1928

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while working at St Mary's Hospital in London.
Seymour, David, and Emily Seymour, editors. A Century of News. Contender Books, 2003.
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
9: 697
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1870s: Henry Maudsley was principal editor of the...

Building and people item

1870s

Henry Maudsley was principal editor of the Journal of Mental Science, the journal of the Medico-Psychological Association .
Collie, Michael. Henry Maudsley: Victorian Psychiatrist. West End House, 1988, http://HSS.
32, 28

By 1148: Anna Comnena finished the fifteen books of...

Writer or writing item

By 1148

Anna Comnena finished the fifteen books of her Alexias, a history of the career and reign of her father, Alexius Comnenus , Emperor of Constantinople.
“The Catholic Encyclopedia”. New Advent.
Newman, Barbara. “Byzantine Laments”. London Review of Books, Vol.
39
, No. 5, 2 Mar. 2017, p. 21.

1876: University College, Bristol, was established;...

Building and people item

1876

University College, Bristol , was established; it became the University of Bristol in 1909.
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1590
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 21st ed., Ward, Lock and Bowden, 1895.
181

29 May 1537: Pope Paul III issued a Bull that classified...

National or international item

29 May 1537

Pope Paul III issued a Bull that classified American Indians as men, not brutes.
“Sublimus Dei”. New Advent.
New Catholic Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill, 1967, 18 vols.
under Racism

Between 776 and 786: A nun named Hugeburc, hailing from what is...

Women writers item

Between 776 and 786

A nun named Hugeburc , hailing from what is now England but living in the double monastery at Hildenheim in Bavaria, composed Latin biographies or hagiographies of Saints Wynnebald and Willibald .
Head, Pauline. “Who Is the Nun from Heidenheim? A Study of Hugeburc’s Vita Willibaldi”. Medium Ævum, Vol.
71
, No. 1, 2002, pp. 29-46.
29, 30-1

By October 1778: An anonymous two-volume epistolary novel,...

Women writers item

By October 1778

An anonymous two-volume epistolary novel, The Offspring of Fancy, was written and published by Mary Ann Canning , a widow and former actress engaged in a liaison with actor Samuel Reddish .
Crowe, Julian. “The Offspring of Fancy, The Author Identified”. The Female Spectator (1995-), Vol.
10
, No. 3, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2006, pp. 5-6.

21 March 1716: Elizabeth Powell, whose husband had gone...

Writer or writing item

21 March 1716

Elizabeth Powell , whose husband had gone into hiding after publishing Jacobite material, issued the first and only number of a new periodical, for which she was arrested.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
75-6

1868: Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered...

Writer or writing item

1868

Emily Taylor (1795-18), who is remembered for books connected with her school-teaching career, published Memories of some Contemporary Poets, with Selections from their Writings, with a good representation of women among her subjects (from...

29 March 1867: The Metropolitan Poor Law Act was passed...

National or international item

29 March 1867

The Metropolitan Poor Law Act was passed.
White, Rosemary. Social Change and the Development of the Nursing Profession: A Study of the Poor Law Nursing Service, 1848-1948. H. Kimpton, 1978.
39-40
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

24 April 1873: The Custody Act extended mothers' rights...

National or international item

24 April 1873

The Custody Act extended mothers' rights.
Helsinger, Elizabeth K. et al. The Woman Question. Garland, 1983.
2: 13
Taylor, Anne, 1932 -. Annie Besant: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 1992.
60
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
statutes

17 April 1695: Sor (Sister) Juana Inez de la Cruz, nun and...

Writer or writing item

17 April 1695

Sor (Sister) Juana Inez de la Cruz , nun and writer, the greatest poet the American continent produced in the seventeenth century,
“The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project”. Dartmouth College: Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
died in her convent in Mexico City.
“The Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Project”. Dartmouth College: Department of Spanish and Portuguese.