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29 May 1453: Constantinople was taken from the Christians...

National or international item

29 May 1453

Constantinople was taken from the Christians by Sultan Mahomet (or Mehmet) II ; this signalled the end of the Byzantine Empire.
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
7: 202-4
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
98

27 September 1998: The electronic search engine Google was launched....

Building and people item

27 September 1998

The electronic search engine Google was launched. It quickly grew to dominate its market, so that googling became the term for making any internet search.
Fraser, Antonia. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Heirloom Library, 1954.
27 September 2012

25 December 1799: In France the Constitution of the Year VIII...

National or international item

25 December 1799

In France the Constitution of the Year VIII was implemented. This constitution set up a Council of State and a Consulate headed by a First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte . It was completed on 22 Frimaire...

9 December 1941: The National Service Act came before parliament....

Building and people item

9 December 1941

The National Service Act came before parliament. Through it the British Government instituted conscription for women aged twenty to thirty, making them liable for military service, and lowered the conscription age for men to eighteen...

October 1845: Henry Layard began excavating the ruins of...

Building and people item

October 1845

Henry Layard began excavating the ruins of Nineveh, capital of Assyria, aided by both his scholarly reading and his experience of sharing the life of local tribes.
Hellemans, Alexander, and Bryan Bunch. The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science. Simon and Shuster, 1988.
312
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1883: L. R. S. Tomalin, an early disciple of Gustave...

Building and people item

1883

L. R. S. Tomalin , an early disciple of Gustave Jaeger 's woollen movement, set up the Jaeger Company in Fore Street, London, to sell Dr Jaeger's Sanitary Woollen Clothing..
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
185-7

By 1886: One hundred and twenty-five libraries had...

Building and people item

By 1886

One hundred and twenty-five libraries had been founded in Britain under the Public Libraries Act (1850).
Kelly, Thomas. A History of Public Libraries in Great Britain 1845-1975. 2nd ed., Library Association, 1977.
23

10 May 1786: The Times (not yet using its final and best-known...

Building and people item

10 May 1786

The Times (not yet using its final and best-known title) published the first of a three-year series of accounts complaining of the high numbers of prostitutes, especially child prostitutes.
Henderson, Tony. Disorderly Women. Longman, 1999.
21

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

MEB made her name, scandalously, in the early 1860s as a founder of the intricately plotted sensation novel, and was particularly known for her transgressive heroines. Although still most strongly associated with this and the...
Mary Elizabeth Braddon Painting of Mary Elizabeth Braddon by William Powell Frith, exhibited 1865. She stands beside a desk with writing materials and stacks of books, looking at the viewer, in a long dark dress. The wall behind her and the desk chair are red. Her red-brown hair is coiled over her ears, and her clasped hands hold a handkerchief. National Portrait Gallery.

Anne Brontë

The youngest of the famous Brontë sisters, AB has had the slightest reputation among the three for her output of poetry and two novels. Recently, however, her fiction's importance and influence has begun to be...
Anne Brontë Detail from the long lost, now well-known, painting of Anne Brontë and her sisters by their brother Branwell, c. 1834. She is shown from the shoulders up, at a three-quarter turn, wearing a blue dress. Her loose blonde curls fall around her face. The picture retains the crease marks from its years folded on top of a wardrobe. National Portrait Gallery

5 December 1821: The first known fatality in a railway accident...

Building and people item

5 December 1821

The first known fatality in a railway accident occurred when carpenter David Brook was hit by a coal train during a storm.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
78

1928: Charlotte Haldane, an anti-feminist opposed...

Building and people item

1928

Charlotte Haldane , an anti-feminist opposed to the employment of women, published Motherhood and Its Enemies.
Ferguson, Neal A. “Women’s Work: Employment Opportunities and Economic Roles, 1918-1939”. Albion, Vol.
7
, No. 1, 1975, pp. 55-68.
61

6 June 1844: A new Factory Act was implemented, limiting...

National or international item

6 June 1844

A new Factory Act was implemented, limiting female factory workers of eighteen years and over to the same hours as young persons aged thirteen to seventeen.
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
161-181
Chapman, Annie Beatrice Wallis, and Mary Wallis Chapman. The Status of Women Under the English Law. George Routledge and Sons, 1909.
49

21 July 1722: A London newspaper reported that link boys...

Building and people item

21 July 1722

A London newspaper reported that link boys with flaming torches (employed to light pedestrians home at night) had attacked a woman wearing a calico gown and petticoat (imported from India). She died of burns...

3 September 1658: Oliver Cromwell died and Richard Cromwell...

National or international item

3 September 1658

Oliver Cromwell died and Richard Cromwell became Lord Protector of Great Britain and Ireland.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
425
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
44

2 August 1907: The War Office instituted the Territorial...

National or international item

2 August 1907

The War Office instituted the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, which would allow for a volunteer force ready to be mobilised in case of invasion or national emergency.
Summers, Anne. Angels and Citizens: British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914. Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1988.
238-9
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1907: 17-41
Gould, Jenny. “Women’s Military Services in First World War Britain”. Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 114-25.
115

1944: The Old Vic Company began its season at New...

Building and people item

1944

The Old Vic Company began its season at New Theatre in London with Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson in Ibsen 's Peer Gynt, Shaw 's Arms and the Man, and Shakespeare 's Richard III.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
393

1 January 1954: Flashing indicator lights (as opposed to...

Building and people item

1 January 1954

Flashing indicator lights (as opposed to pointers which swung out from the car body) became compulsory on newly manufactured British cars.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
277

1920: The Irish composer and musician Ina Boyle...

Building and people item

1920

The Irish composer and musician Ina Boyle received a Carnegie Award for the orchestral work The Magic Harp; the work was performed in London.
Sadie, Julie Anne, and Rhian Samuel, editors. The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. Macmillan, 1994.
81

1993: Valerie Gillies edited an anthology of new...

Women writers item

1993

Valerie Gillies edited an anthology of new writing, East Coast Writers.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Early hours, 29 February 1976: Some women were assaulted by men at a women-only...

Building and people item

Early hours, 29 February 1976

Some women were assaulted by men at a women-only disco at the Moulin Rouge, Bristol, in connection with the National Lesbian Conference in that city.
Ross, Elizabeth Arledge, and Miriam L. Bearse. A Chronology of the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain. Editors Boyle, Karen E. and The Oral History Project Advisory Group, The Feminist Archive, 1996, http://Bodleian.
23-4

1966: US cultural critic Susan Sontag published...

Writer or writing item

1966

US cultural critic Susan Sontag published Against Interpretation, her first essay collection. The title piece, On Style, and Notes on Camp (dedicated to Oscar Wilde and exploring the idea of life as theatre)...

1810-February 1812: During these years the price of wheat in...

Building and people item

1810-February 1812

During these years the price of wheat in Britain and Ireland (which had been rising steeply since the 1790s) averaged an unprecedented 102 shillings a hundredweight.
Colley, Linda. Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837. Yale University Press, 1992.
158
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
82 (1812): 199
Richards, Eric. Debating the Highland Clearances. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
221
A hundredweight (a measure...

11 December 1792: Louis XVI went on trial before the National...

National or international item

11 December 1792

Louis XVI went on trial before the National Convention in Paris.
Tomalin, Claire. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft. Revised, Penguin, 1992.
158
Soboul, Albert. The French Revolution 1787-1799. Translators Forrest, Alan and Colin Jones, Vintage, 1975.
283