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By May 1754: John Duncombe published The Feminiad. A Poem,...

Building and people item

By May 1754

John Duncombe published The Feminiad. A Poem, which celebrates the achievements of women writers with strict attention to their support for conventional morality.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
10: 371-2

1803: Britain annexed Orissa on the east coast...

National or international item

1803

Britain annexed Orissa on the east coast of India for the sake of its salt flats, seeking to eliminate competition to more expensive salt from Cheshire.
Meek, James. “If they’re ill, charge them extra”. London Review of Books, 21 Mar. 2002, pp. 3-5.
3

June 1919: A subcommittee of the Women's Advisory Committee...

National or international item

June 1919

A subcommittee of the Women's Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction announced that women should be eligible for all grades of appointments in civil service, earn equal pay and equal promotion.
Beddoe, Deirdre. Back to Home and Duty: Women Between the Wars, 1918-1939. Pandora, 1989.
83

1863: Moy's Music-Hall became known as the Royal...

Building and people item

1863

Moy's Music-Hall became known as the Royal Standard Music-Hall .
Mander, Raymond, and Joe Mitchenson. The Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963.
285

Mary Martha Sherwood

MMSwrote and signed more than 350 books (mostly for children, but including several adult novels), and left almost a score of fat volumes of diary. Some of her children's books, despite their uncompromisingly hell-fire...
Mary Martha Sherwood Head-and-shoulders print of Mary Martha Sherwood in profile by M. Maskall. She rests her head on a hand. Only her face and her frilled and ribboned cap are rendered in detail.

17 March 1894: The British Civil Service added the class...

Building and people item

17 March 1894

The BritishCivil Service added the class Female Typewriters, whose job was to copy handwritten material.
Evans, Dorothy. Women and the Civil Service. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, 1934.
8-9
Martindale, Hilda. Women Servants of the State, 1870-1938: A History of Women in the Civil Service. G. Allen and Unwin , 1938.
68

1881: British-born American Eadweard Muybridge...

Building and people item

1881

British-born American Eadweard Muybridge (formerly Edward James Muggeridge ) published his first serial collections of photographs freezing the stages of bodily movement.
Jobey, Liz. “Adventures in motion photographs”. Guardian Weekly, 15–21 May 2003, p. 18.

1920: Peggy Webling's A Sketch of John Ruskin appeared...

Women writers item

1920

Peggy Webling 's A Sketch of John Ruskin appeared in a twenty-nine page booklet several years after she had met him while doing recitations with her sisters.
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.
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

1685: The Licensing Act, which had lapsed in 1679,...

Building and people item

1685

The Licensing Act, which had lapsed in 1679, was renewed for a period of ten years only.
Suarez, Michael F. “The Business of Literature: The Book Trade in England from Milton to Blake”. A Companion to Literature from Milton to Blake, edited by David Womersley, Blackwell, 2000, pp. 131-47.
145

Hannah Mary Rathbone

HMR was an early Victorian anthologist, poet, novelist, memoirist, and religious writer, who also contributed to periodicals.

12 February 1719: In the second number of The Mirrour (a short-lived...

Writer or writing item

12 February 1719

In the second number of The Mirrour (a short-lived periodical whose first number does not survive) the anonymous editor announced his aim of being a Champion for the Fair.
Miegon, Anna E. The Ladies Diary and the Emergence of the Almanac for Women, 1704-1753. Simon Fraser University, Sept. 2008.
124

From October 1774: The famous Bristol election campaign was...

National or international item

From October 1774

The famous Bristol election campaign was fought on the issue of taxing the American colonies, with Edmund Burke standing against the tax.
Jones, Mary Gwladys. Hannah More. Cambridge University Press, 1952.
19-20
Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein, and John, 1920 - Brooke, editors. The House of Commons, 1754-1790. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964.
1: 535

July 1927: Close up. Devoted to the Art of Film began...

Writer or writing item

July 1927

Close up. Devoted to the Art of Film began monthly publication in Territet near Montreux, Switzerland.
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press, 1987.
276
Marek, Jayne E. Women Editing Modernism: "Little" Magazines & Literary History. University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
129-30

1875: The age of sexual consent for girls was raised...

National or international item

1875

The age of sexual consent for girls was raised to thirteen from twelve.
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
87-9, 94-5

1838: The Archimedes, designed by engineer Francis...

Building and people item

1838

The Archimedes, designed by engineer Francis Pettit Smith , was the first sizeable seagoing vessel to be driven by a screw propeller.
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
90

7 March 1989: A number of US publishers and writers (including...

Writer or writing item

7 March 1989

A number of US publishers and writers (including Joan Didion and Barbara Goldsmith ) pledged themselves to the use of acid-free paper only.
Baker, Nicholson. Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. Random House, 2001.
208

July 1917: US writer Floyd Dell published his article...

Building and people item

July 1917

US writer Floyd Dell published his article Feminism for Men in The Masses, the socialist magazine which he co-edited with Max Eastman .
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, and Michael Kimmel. Women and Economics. Editor Aronson, Amy, Centenary Edition, University of California Press, 1998.
Introduction n4

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.

Probably early May 1807: William Wordsworth published Poems in Two...

Writer or writing item

Probably early May 1807

William Wordsworth published Poems in Two Volumes; the Critical Review commented unkindly: A silly book is a serious evil; but it becomes absolutely insupportable when written by a man of sense.
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
3d ser. 11 (1807): 399

14 July 1976: The disastrously dry summer in Britain was...

Building and people item

14 July 1976

The disastrously dry summer in Britain was marked by the passage of the Drought Bill: water use was regulated, and fines instituted for offences like using hosepipes in gardens.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
414

9 January 1823: John Thurtell was executed for the murder...

Building and people item

9 January 1823

John Thurtell was executed for the murder of William Weare after media coverage which has made this seem the first trial by newspaper.
Clark, Lorna J. “Review of Mary Shelley, The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume III, Betty Bennett, editor”. TEXT, Vol.
8
, 1995, pp. 435-44.
441

May 1862: The Caledonian Press began publication, in...

Writer or writing item

May 1862

The Caledonian Press began publication, in Edinburgh, of the Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, with the aim of generating a constant supply of work for the hands, all female.
Reynolds, Siân. Britannica’s Typesetters: Women Compositors in Edwardian England. Edinburgh University Press, 1989.
33
Reynolds, Siân. Britannica’s Typesetters: Women Compositors in Edwardian England. Edinburgh University Press, 1989.
33
The title patriotically...

28 March 1762: Preaching at the opening of a chapel at the...

Building and people item

28 March 1762

Preaching at the opening of a chapel at the LondonLock Hospital (for sexually transmitted disease) the Rev. Martin Madan pointed the finger at men who knowingly infect children.
Merians, Linda E. “The London Lock Hospital and the Lock Asylum for Women”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 128-45.
134-5

31 October 2008: Only weeks after the global financial crisis...

Building and people item

31 October 2008

Only weeks after the global financial crisis precipitated by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and near-collapse of other US investment banks, the digital currency system Bitcoin was launched by someone using the fictitious name of...

20 January 1724: Elizabeth Harrison wrote for publication,...

Women writers item

20 January 1724

Elizabeth Harrison wrote for publication, with her name, A Letter to Mr. John Gay , On his Tragedy, call'd The Captives. To which is annex'd a copy of verses to the Princess.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.