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10 December 1970: Sir Bernard Katz from Great Britain was awarded...

National or international item

10 December 1970

Sir Bernard Katz from Great Britain was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize was shared with fellow physiologists Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod , and recognized their discoveries concerning the...

27 April 1831: Fantee independence was recognized under...

National or international item

27 April 1831

Fantee independence was recognized under the treaty of peace and commerce between the Ashanti and the British.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 604

May 1977: Breaking Chains began as the bimonthly newspaper...

Building and people item

May 1977

Breaking Chains began as the bimonthly newspaper of the Abortion Law Reform Association based in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
147
Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory 1999. 37th ed., R. R. Bowker, 1998.
806

1839: Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith...

Building and people item

1839

Kirkpatrick MacMillan , a Scottish blacksmith at Keir in Dumfriesshire, invented the first self-propelling bicycle. In June 1842 he publicized his invention by riding it the sixty-eight miles from his home to Glasgow.
Panati, Charles. Panati’s Browser’s Book of Beginnings. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
312
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
260
Buchanan, Stewart. “Made in Scotland”. London Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2006, p. 6.
6

1983: Sheila Kitzinger published The Good Birth...

Building and people item

1983

Sheila Kitzinger published The Good Birth Guide, a book about natural childbirth which became an indispensable guide for new mothers inspired by the women's liberation movement.
Stanley, Jo. “Women’s History Month: Sheila Kitzinger”. Women’s History Network Blog, 29 Mar. 2010.

1980: Carolyn Merchant published a major feminist...

Writer or writing item

1980

Carolyn Merchant published a major feminist statement about science:
Hacking, Ian. “Almost Zero”. London Review of Books, 10 May 2007, pp. 29-30.
29
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution.
Hacking, Ian. “Almost Zero”. London Review of Books, 10 May 2007, pp. 29-30.
29

4 February 1935: In response to an announcement that proposed...

National or international item

4 February 1935

In response to an announcement that proposed implementation of Part II of the Unemployment Act would result in cuts to benefits, a mass demonstration of women was held at Merthyr in Wales, outside the...

26 October 1918: Religious and temperance philanthropist Agnes...

Building and people item

26 October 1918

Religious and temperance philanthropist Agnes Weston was given burial with full naval honours—a very rare distinction for a woman.
Greenspan, Karen. The Timetables of Women’s History. Simon and Shuster, 1994.
315
“Agnes Weston: Information Sheet No. 43”. Royal Naval Museum: Collections: Research Collections: Information Service: Information Sheets.

December 1936: The Nobel Peace Prize for 1935 was awarded...

National or international item

December 1936

The Nobel Peace Prize for 1935 was awarded to Carl von Ossietzky , a German pacifist who had been arrested two years before this and sent to a concentration camp for exposing Nazi activities in...

April 1759: London publishers launched an expensive campaign...

Writer or writing item

April 1759

London publishers launched an expensive campaign to curb pirated reprints from Dublin, Edinburgh, and English provincial centres.
Nichol, Donald W. “Warburton (Not!) on copyright: Clearing up the Misattribution of An Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Literary Property”. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
19
, No. 2, 1996, pp. 171-82.
173

February 1913: The Women's Social and Political Union began...

Building and people item

February 1913

The Women's Social and Political Union began a concerted campaign of destruction of public and private property.
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
193
Hume, Leslie Parker. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, 1897-1914. Garland, 1982.
193

12 July 1690: William III heavily defeated James II at...

National or international item

12 July 1690

William III heavily defeated James II at the battle of the Boyne in Ireland, in which 62,000 men fought.
Defoe, Daniel. Selected Poetry and Prose of Daniel Defoe. Editor Shugrue, Michael F., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.
324
Kelly, Matthew. “With Bit and Bridle”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 15, 5 Aug. 2010, pp. 12-13.
22

1784: Parliament increased by threepence the tax...

Building and people item

1784

Parliament increased by threepence the tax (dating from the 1690s) which was levied on marriage.
Gillis, John R. For Better, For Worse: British Marriages, 1600 to the Present. Oxford University Press, 1985.
191

1949: Richard Strauss's opera Salome, to words...

Building and people item

1949

Richard Strauss 's opera Salome, to words by Oscar Wilde , was performed at Covent Garden, produced by Peter Brook with sets by Salvador Dali .
Drogheda, Charles Garrett Ponsonby Moore, Earl of et al. The Covent Garden Album: 250 Years of Theatre, Opera, and Ballet. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981.
136
Harewood, George Henry Hubert Lascelles, Earl of, editor. Kobbé’s Complete Opera Book. 10th ed., Bodley Head, 1987.
806-7

January 1866: The Englishwoman's Review began publication...

Building and people item

January 1866

The Englishwoman's Review began publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
3
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.
118-19
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
434

Angela Brazil

AB began writing children's plays about fairies, and progressed, during the first half of the twentieth century, through one bildungsroman for girls based on her own childhood and another on the experience of her mother...
Angela Brazil Sepia-toned photograph of Angela Brazil, seated at a small desk, with a piece of paper on top, and a pen in her hand. One elbow is resting on the desk, with her arm held vertically and her head propped on her hand. She is wearing a loose-fitting dress with a pattern of abstract stitching, and a long necklace. There is a headband in her short, curly hair.

24 November 1859: Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species...

Writer or writing item

24 November 1859

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of the Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
Gallant, Roy A. Charles Darwin: The Making of a Scientist. Doubleday, 1972.
150
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
24 November 2009
Shapin, Steven. “The Darwin Show”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 1, 7 Jan. 2010, pp. 3-9.
3, 6

1911: The Social Democratic Federation merged with...

National or international item

1911

The Social Democratic Federation merged with other activist groups to form the British Socialist Party (not to be confused with the Labour Party , which had been in being for a decade).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Hicks, Hyndman

March 1871: Following the fall of the French Empire,...

Building and people item

March 1871

Following the fall of the French Empire, England fell back on concocting its own fashions.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
96-7

1906: At the Annual General Meeting of the Society...

Women writers item

1906

At the Annual General Meeting of the Society of Authors , George Bernard Shaw deplored the dragging down of literary earnings by groups possessing a non-literary income, particularly married women.
The Author. Alexander P. Watt.
(Winter 2000) cxi: 4, Shaw Supplement

16 July 1985: The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act...

National or international item

16 July 1985

The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act made it an offence to excise, infibulate or mutilate female genitals or to aid or abet such procedure in the UK.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1985): 969-70
McVeigh, Tracy. “Female genital mutilation rising in Britain”. Guardian Weekly, 30 July 2010, p. 15.
15

: 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

1 April 1814: The Gas, Light and Coke Company began to...

National or international item

1 April 1814

The Gas, Light and Coke Company began to lay gas mains made of cast-iron pipe in Westminster.
Derry, Thomas Kingston, and Trevor I. Williams. A Short History of Technology From the Earliest Times to A.D. 1900. Clarendon, 1960.
510
Hardyment, Christina. From Mangle to Microwave: The Mechanization of Household Work. Polity Press, 1988.
25
Singer, Charles et al., editors. A History of Technology. Clarendon, 1958, 8 vols.
4: 269

28 January 1684: The Dublin Philosophical Society, recently...

Building and people item

28 January 1684

The DublinPhilosophical Society , recently founded on the model of the Royal Society of London, met to formulate rules and draw up its first list of members.
Gilbert, Sir John Thomas. A History of the City of Dublin. McGlashan and Gill, 1859, 3 vols.
13
Hoppen, K. Theodore. The Common Scientist in the Seventeenth Century. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970.
26

1914: In Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of...

Writer or writing item

1914

In Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed, Gelett Burgess coined the word blurb, meaning an author's testimonial for the work of another writer.
Cronin, Blaise. “Puff pellets”. The Author, Vol.
cxvi
, No. 4, 1 Dec. 2005–28 Feb. 2006, pp. 159-60.
159