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1925: Christine Murrell and Letitia Fairfield,...

Building and people item

1925

Christine Murrell and Letitia Fairfield , in association with the Medical Women's Federation , set out to explode some damaging myths by launching a survey on menstrual experience among girls.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Lady Mary Wroth

LMW achieved two firsts with a single publication in 1621: the first full-length fiction (a prose romance) to be written in English by a woman and the first sonnet sequence in English by a woman...
Lady Mary Wroth Full-length portrait of Lady Mary Wroth attributed to John de Critz the elder, c. 1620. She stands holding a theorbo that reaches to her shoulder, in a picture with striking touches of red. Wroth's stiff, embroidered gown and large, transparent ruff are pale; her petticoat and belt are red, and her arms, shoulders, and bust are picked out with red bows. She rests an arm of a red sofa, with red curtains behind.

Summer 1792: In Easter Ross in Scotland, for the first...

National or international item

Summer 1792

In Easter Ross in Scotland, for the first and virtually the last time . . . an effort was made to raise the entire Highlands against the invasion of sheep and the disruption of...

1848: American George Washington Bethune published...

Writer or writing item

1848

American George Washington Bethune published his anthology The British Female Poets.
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.
Bethune, George Washington. The British Female Poets. Lindsay and Blakiston, 1848.

February 1846-February 1847: William Makepeace Thackeray's The Snobs of...

Writer or writing item

February 1846-February 1847

William Makepeace Thackeray 's The Snobs of England was serialised in Punch.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.

3 March 1924: Sean O'Casey followed his first success at...

Writer or writing item

3 March 1924

Sean O'Casey followed his first success at the Abbey Theatre , Dublin, with a play about war entitled Juno and the Paycock.
Tóibín, Colm. “After I am hanged my portrait will be interesting”. London Review of Books, Vol.
38
, No. 7, 31 Mar. 2016, pp. 11-23.
22

: For the first time a literary festival (brainchild...

Writer or writing item

Summer 1988

For the first time a literary festival (brainchild of Norman and Peter Florence ) was held at Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, a small town (Y Gelli in Welsh) with few amenities but...

1 October 1973: An official order was issued border guards...

National or international item

1 October 1973

An official order was issued border guards by the State Security Ministry or Stasi of East Germany instructing them if necessary to shoot to liquidate anyone trying to escape to the West.
Dempsey, Judy. “Watching the watchmen watch—decades later”. Globe and Mail, 13 Aug. 2007, p. A11.
A11

22-24 February 1848: An insurrection occurred in Paris, which...

National or international item

22-24 February 1848

An insurrection occurred in Paris, which became known as the February Revolution.
Hobsbawm, Eric John. The Age of Revolution 1789-1848. Vintage, 1996.
213
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
87
Gildea, Robert. Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914. Oxford University Press, 1987.
85-6

6 July 1189: King Henry II died, and Richard I assumed...

National or international item

6 July 1189

King Henry II died, and Richard I assumed the throne of England on 3 September 1189.
Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw. Handbook of British Chronology. Editors Greenway, D. E. et al., 3rd ed., Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986.
36
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
425

Susanna Wesley

SW 's surviving writings, dating from the earlier eighteenth century, include letters, devotional diaries, prayers, meditations, and essays written for her children on points of religious doctrine. Publication began years after her death.
Susanna Wesley Head-and-shoulders painting of Susanna Wesley in profile, artist unknown. Set against an outdoor background, she is wearing a lace cap over her dark hair, gold drop earrings and a white lace neckerchief under a yellow or beige cloak.

1839-41: The standard translation of the Arabian Nights,...

Writer or writing item

1839-41

The standard translation of the Arabian Nights, made by Edward William Lane and issued in instalments, appeared in three massive volumes.
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.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

1976: The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings...

Building and people item

1976

The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act allowed a woman to take out an injunction ordering a man out of the matrimonial home, without instigating proceedings for divorce or separation.
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.
26

During the 1750s: A Mrs Dennis ran a school at 31 Queen's Square,...

Building and people item

During the 1750s

A Mrs Dennis ran a school at 31 Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, which was called the Ladys' Eton.
Feminist Companion Archive.

Viola Tree

Best known for her acting career, which began in the early years of the twentieth century and ended in the thirties, VT was also an opera singer and a theatre manager. She published an autobiography...
Viola Tree Black and white, head-and-shoulders photograph of Viola Tree. Her head is tilted with a winsome expression. She wears a gauzy top and has her hair in thick, bulky curls at the sides and tied at the back.

: Liberal Protestants defeated conservative...

National or international item

Summer 1847

Liberal Protestants defeated conservative Catholics in a civil war in Switzerland.
Hobsbawm, Eric John. The Age of Revolution 1789-1848. Vintage, 1996.
118, 302, 308
Sheehan, James J. “The German States and the European Revolution”. Revolution and the Meanings of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Isser Woloch, Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 246-79.
267

1823: John Mitford published A Description of the...

Building and people item

1823

John Mitford published A Description of the Crimes and Horrors in the Interior of Warburton 's Private Mad-House at Hoxton, Commonly Called Whitmore House: in one of these the writer Mary Lamb had been confined.
Woodbery, Bonnie. “The Silence of the Lambs: Anti-Maniacal Regimes in the Writings of Mary Lamb”. Women’s Writing, Vol.
5
, No. 3, 1998, pp. 289-04.
291

1045: Saint Margaret, who became the wife of King...

National or international item

1045

Saint Margaret , who became the wife of King Malcolm III of Scotland, was born.
Dolan, Josephine A. History of Nursing. 12th ed., Saunders, 1968.
83-4
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
53, 56

5 May 1911: The Conciliation Bill on suffrage, revised...

National or international item

5 May 1911

The Conciliation Bill on suffrage, revised this parliamentary session, passed its second Commons reading by a wider majority than before: 255 for, 88 against.
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
104-5

1780: James Watt (building on Erasmus Darwin's...

Writer or writing item

1780

James Watt (building on Erasmus Darwin 's production two years earlier of a mechanically copied letter) marketed a copier for documents which enabled him to make multiple copies of contracts.
Pagden, Anthony. “Great Expectations of Themselves”. London Review of Books, 17 Apr. 2003, pp. 32-3.
33

2 August 1880: The so-called Ellice Hopkins Act, an Industrial...

National or international item

2 August 1880

The so-called Ellice Hopkins Act, an Industrial Schools Act, provided for the separation of prostitutes from their children. The act applied to Britain and Ireland.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
211
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
90
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
644
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
1880: 45

December 1700: The Middlesex Grand Jury made a presentment...

Writer or writing item

December 1700

The Middlesex Grand Jury made a presentment against the immorality of plays.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
2: 3-4

May 1823: William Hazlitt published his scandalously...

Writer or writing item

May 1823

William Hazlitt published his scandalously erotic Liber Amoris.
Ragaz, Sharon. “Writing to Sir Walter: The Letters of Mary Bryan Bedingfield”. Cardiff Corvey: Reading the Romantic Text, No. 7, Dec. 2001.
n28

21 June 1779: Spain declared war on Britain in the American...

National or international item

21 June 1779

Spain declared war on Britain in the American Revolutionary war.
Coakley, Robert, and Stetson Conn. The War of the American Revolution. Center of Military History, 1975.
117

15 June 1920: Dame Nellie Melba sang from the Marconi Company's...

Building and people item

15 June 1920

Dame Nellie Melba sang from the Marconi Company 's experimental radio studio at Chelmsford, Essex. The broadcast (the first one by a professional singer, publicly advertised) was heard in Europe and Newfoundland.
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
116
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
363
“Time Machines Exhibition”. Museum of the History of Science,, Oxford, 2012.