Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

20 November 1839: Missionary John Williams was clubbed to death...

National or international item

20 November 1839

Missionary John Williams was clubbed to death by cannibal islanders of Erromanga in the New Hebrides; missions on many of the islands were fraught with danger.
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. 2nd ed., Penguin, 1990.
255
Bozman, Ernest Franklin, editor. Everyman’s Encyclopaedia. 4th Edition, J. M. Dent, 1958, 12 vols.
under Erromanga

1891-1902: Miss Kate Lewtas worked as the librarian...

Building and people item

1891-1902

Miss Kate Lewtas worked as the librarian of Blackpool; she was one of Britain's first female chief librarians.
Black, Alistair. A New History of the English Public Library: Social and Political Contexts, 1850-1914. Leicester University Press, 1996.
223-4
Kelly, Thomas. A History of Public Libraries in Great Britain 1845-1975. 2nd ed., Library Association, 1977.
178-9, 203

1 February 1893: Thomas Edison opened the world's first film...

Building and people item

1 February 1893

Thomas Edison opened the world's first film studio in West Orange, New Jersey; the film strips were not designed for projection onto a screen but for individual viewers to watch, "peep-show" style, through a...

1716: The hawker Elizabeth Scales, eighty years...

Building and people item

1716

The hawker Elizabeth Scales , eighty years old, poor, and ill, petitioned Lord Townshend against her imprisonment for selling an opposition newspaper which she could not read, being illiterate.
McDowell, Paula. The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics, and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730. Clarendon, 1998.
58

1921: Norman Douglas published Alone, which the...

Writer or writing item

1921

Norman Douglas published Alone, which the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls the mellowest, most relaxed of his travel writings, the author's favourite and the last about Italy.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

26 May 1905: The Fabian Society set up a committee under...

Building and people item

26 May 1905

The Fabian Society set up a committee under Sidney Webb to investigate the declining birth rate and the level of infant mortality.
McLaren, Angus. Birth Control in Nineteenth Century England. Croom Helm, 1978.
188
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
5

September 1938: The Woman's National Newspaper began publishing...

Writer or writing item

September 1938

The Woman's National Newspaper began publishing in London; it had claimed to be the first independent newspaper in the world owned and controlled entirely by women.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
54
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
54

1866: Physician Wynn Williams published an article...

Building and people item

1866

Physician Wynn Williams published an article opposing clictoridectomies, though not on account of the violence of the operation.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
77, 263

1991: The Listener, founded early in 1929 as the...

Writer or writing item

1991

The Listener, founded early in 1929 as the journal of the BBC , ceased publication.
Williams, Neville et al. Chronology of the 20th Century. Helicon, 1996.
507

3 November 1978: Dominica became independent from Britain...

National or international item

3 November 1978

Dominica became independent from Britain.
Rogozinski, Jan. A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present. Revised, Facts on File, 1999.
249
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
268

19 January 1771: The best-known of Richard Cumberland's dozen...

Writer or writing item

19 January 1771

The best-known of Richard Cumberland 's dozen plays, The West Indian, opened in Londonto the greatest applause imaginable.
The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1960–1968, 5 vols.
4.3: 1524

17 March 1873: The Oxford, one of London's most popular...

Building and people item

17 March 1873

The Oxford , one of London's most popular music halls, reopened after being rebuilt and redesigned.
Cheshire, David F. Music Hall in Britain. David and Charles, 1974.
29

1802: The Rosetta stone, whose three-fold inscription...

Building and people item

1802

The Rosetta stone, whose three-fold inscription offered the opportunity of learning to decode ancient Egyptian, was presented to the British Museum after being captured in the Egyptian campaign the previous year.
James, Thomas Garnet Henry. “Secrets of the stone deciphered”. Guardian Weekly, 25–31 Oct. 2001, p. 16.
16

26 May 1926: The BBC for the first time broadcast speeches...

Building and people item

26 May 1926

The BBC for the first time broadcast speeches from the House of Lords .
BBC Handbook: 1960. BBC, 1960, http://U of A HSS HE 8690 B86.
237

23 July 1992: A new Irish Health (Family Planning) (Amendment)...

National or international item

23 July 1992

A new Irish Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Act lowered the age restriction for the purchase of contraceptives to seventeen.
Acts of the Oireachtas. Stationery Office, 1938–2026.
20 (1992)
Sawyer, Roger. We Are But Women: Women in Ireland’s History. Routledge, 1993.
115

September-October 2001: Two books on corsets highlighted the controversial...

Building and people item

September-October 2001

Two books on corsets highlighted the controversial nature of women's history: one saw the corset as oppressing the female body, the other as offering a range of choice to wearer and commentator alike.
Pollitt, Katha. “Our Soft-Shelled Condition”. London Review of Books, 14 Nov. 2002, pp. 32-3.
32-3

3 January 1962: Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban leader...

National or international item

3 January 1962

Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban leader Fidel Castro . This was in keeping with the Roman Catholic Church 's decree against its members joining communist organizations.
“Timeline: 1962”. Macrohistory and World Report.
“The Vatican”. Bartleby.com: Great Books Online: The Encyclopedia of World History.

1982: The Royal Court Theatre commissioned Rita,...

Women writers item

1982

The Royal Court Theatre commissioned Rita, Sue and Bob Too from Andrea Dunbar .
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.

April 1860: Mazzini's supporters instigated revolt among...

National or international item

April 1860

Mazzini 's supporters instigated revolt among nationalists in Sicily.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
267

29 April 2011: Prince William, heir to the British throne,...

National or international item

29 April 2011

Prince William , heir to the British throne, and Kate Middleton , then a commoner, were married at Westminster Abbey in London amid intense national and international rejoicing.
“Royal Wedding”. BBC News, 29 Apr. 2011.

Spring 1978: Patches, a weekly photostrip romance magazine...

Building and people item

Spring 1978

Patches, a weekly photostrip romance magazine for teenagers, began publication from D. C. Thomson in London.
Winship, Janice. Inside Women’s Magazines. Pandora, 1987.
166
Braithwaite, Brian, and Joan Barrell. The Business of Women’s Magazines. Associated Business Press, 1979.
129

1925: The fashionable hemline length for women's...

Building and people item

1925

The fashionable hemline length for women's skirts became dramatically shorter.
Forster, Margaret. Significant Sisters. Secker and Warburg, 1984.
prelims

Phebe Gibbes

PG was an eighteenth-century novelist (of great gifts but extreme obscurity), who also wrote (from financial need) drama and periodical essays, and projected a sociological study of the lower classes. Her canon is, like most...