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25 February 1948: A nationalist riot broke out in the Gold...

National or international item

25 February 1948

A nationalist riot broke out in the Gold Coast.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
1235

1918: The English Electric Company was formed....

National or international item

1918

The English Electric Company was formed.
Electricity Council. Electricity Supply in Great Britain: A Chronology. Electricity Council, 1973.
15

16 October 2012: The American Library in Paris held a ceremony...

Writer or writing item

16 October 2012

The American Library in Paris held a ceremony with speeches and an exhibition to commemorate the writer Mary McCarthy , who died in 1989 but whose one hundredth birthday fell this year. Her alma mater,...

13 March 1951: The ballet Pineapple Poll, choreographed...

Building and people item

13 March 1951

The ballet Pineapple Poll, choreographed by John Cranko with music by Sullivan and Mackerras , was performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre , London.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
404

20 May 1609: Shakespeare's Sonnets were registered with...

Writer or writing item

20 May 1609

Shakespeare 's Sonnets were registered with the Stationers' Company ; they were published (whether by the author or as some kind of piracy) the same year.
Kay, Dennis. Shakespeare: His Life, Work, and Era. William Morrow, 1992.
12
Shakespeare, William. “Introduction”. Sonnets, edited by Alfred Leslie Rowse, Macmillan, 1964, p. vii - xxxvii.
xiii
Everett, Barbara. “Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Sonnet”. London Review of Books, Vol.
30
, No. 4, 8 May 2008, pp. 12-15.
12-13

December 1914: German anti-militarists including Rosa Luxemburg,...

National or international item

December 1914

German anti-militarists including Rosa Luxemburg , Clara Zetkin , and Karl Liebknecht founded the secret political organization called the Spartakusbund or Spartacus League.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.
under Clara Zetkin

7 October 2004: The Nobel Foundation announced that the Austrian...

Writer or writing item

7 October 2004

The Nobel Foundation announced that the Austrian novelist and dramatist Elfriede Jelinek was the 2004 winner of the literature prize.
Nobel Prize in Literature. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/.

1885: By this time, Ellice Hopkins' Ladies' Association...

Building and people item

1885

By this time, Ellice Hopkins ' Ladies' Association for the Care of the Lost had branches in 85 towns.
Bristow, Edward. Vice and Vigilance: Purity Movements in Britain Since 1700. Gill and Macmillan, 1977.
98

1905: K. L. Montgomery, the pseudonym for the two...

Women writers item

1905

K. L. Montgomery , the pseudonym for the two sisters Kathleen and Letitia (who were distantly related to Oliver Goldsmith ), published the contemporary love story Love in the Lists: A Pension Comedy.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

Ethel Wilson

Born in South Africa and raised until age ten in Britain, Ethel Wilson is best known as one of the first regional Canadian writers to capture in intimate detail the beauty of British Columbia, Canada...

1494: The University of Aberdeen (also known as...

Building and people item

1494

The University of Aberdeen (also known as King's College, Aberdeen ) was founded by William Elphinstone , Bishop of Aberdeen, primarily as a school of law.
Rashdall, Hastings. Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Editors Powicke, Sir Frederick Maurice and Alfred Brotherston Emden, Clarendon, 1987, 3 vols.
II: 318-9
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
1335
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Hector Boece

31 March 1896: The Poor Law Guardians (Ireland) Act gave...

National or international item

31 March 1896

The Poor Law Guardians (Ireland) Act gave women the right to be elected as poor law guardians if they met certain property qualifications.
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
28
Moody, Theodore William et al., editors. A New History of Ireland. Clarendon, 1976–2026, 10 vols.
8: 371
Ward, Margaret. “’Suffrage First--Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement”. Feminist Review, Vol.
10
, 1982, pp. 21-36.
23
Halevy, Elie. The Rule of Democracy 1905-1914. Translator Watkin, Edward Ingram, Second (revised) Edition, Peter Smith, 1952, 2 vols.
513
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.
statutes

1781: Richard Price's attack on enclosure was countered...

Building and people item

1781

Richard Price 's attack on enclosure was countered by John Howlett .
Neeson, J. M. Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700-1820. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
25-7

1855: The Metropolitan Board of Works, an indirectly...

National or international item

1855

The Metropolitan Board of Works , an indirectly elected body, was set up to supervise public infrastructure in London.
Hunt, Tristram. “Bus Lane Strategy”. London Review of Books, 31 Oct. 2002, pp. 20-1.
20

12 May 1910: The American National Association for the...

Building and people item

12 May 1910

The AmericanNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its second annual conference and formally adopted its name.
“A Century of Racial Segregation, 1849-1950”. The Library of Congress: Exhibitions.

1951: Arthur C. Clarke, populariser of space exploration...

Writer or writing item

1951

Arthur C. Clarke , populariser of space exploration and travel, published The Exploration of Space
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
259

Mary Kingsley

MK 's two lengthy travel books about West Africa feature personal experience (including sharply amusing anecdotes) and comment on African culture, politics, and biology. As well as books, she penned essays for periodicals and letters...
Mary Kingsley Black and white photograph of Mary Kingsley in profile, seated in a wooden chair. She is wearing a black pillbox hat that ties under her chin, and a dark dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves.

3 May 1661: John Evelyn was shown a wonderfull engine...

Building and people item

3 May 1661

John Evelyn was shown a wonderfull engine for weaving silk stockings, said to have been invented at Oxford forty years earlier.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
422

1939: Book Club Regulations stipulated, among other...

Writer or writing item

1939

Book Club Regulations stipulated, among other requirements, that book clubs (with the exception of religious and political clubs) could not release cheaper club editions less than a year from their first publication.
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
188

1704: A Penal Law enacted in England barred Roman...

National or international item

1704

A Penal Law enacted in England barred Roman Catholic estates in Ireland from descending by primogeniture to the eldest son; unless that eldest converted to Protestantism, the estate was to be shared equally among all...

From September 1939: Four out of every six schools in London,...

Building and people item

From September 1939

Four out of every six schools in London, and six out of every ten schools in Manchester, were requisitioned for official uses anticipated during the coming war.
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.

1906: Madame C. J. Walker invented a formula for...

Building and people item

1906

Madame C. J. Walker invented a formula for straightening black women's hair; this made her in time the first African-American millionaire.
Chambers, Veronica. “Good hair days”. Women’s Review of Books, Vol.
xix
, No. 2, Nov. 2001, pp. 15-16.
15

1941: The same year she became an American citizen,...

Women writers item

1941

The same year she became an American citizen, Welsh-born Dilys Laing published Another England, a collection of poetry that vilifies war.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.
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.

21 January 1976: The first supersonic passenger plane, the...

National or international item

21 January 1976

The first supersonic passenger plane, the British-French Concorde, began service between Paris and London; service to New York was later added.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
412
Spufford, Francis. “Love that Bird”. London Review of Books, 6 June 2002, pp. 28-33.
28, 29, 33

Katharine Evans

KE was a Quaker minister and missionary who, together with her companion Sarah Chevers , published in 1662 an important pamphlet detailing their experience in prison in Malta, together with their spiritual experiences, prophecies...