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Late June 2012: A Poetry Parnassus was held in London, bringing...

Writer or writing item

Late June 2012

A Poetry Parnassus was held in London, bringing together poets from the more than two hundred countries that were due to send athletes one month later to compete in the Olympic Games.
Withey, Elizabeth. “Poetry far from home”. Edmonton Journal, 7 July 2012, pp. C1 - C2.
C1

1905: The Times posthumously printed Benjamin Disraeli's...

Writer or writing item

1905

The Times posthumously printed Benjamin Disraeli 's last novel, which is now known as Falconet.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.

11 May 2007: Britain's Arts and Humanities Research Council...

Building and people item

11 May 2007

Britain's Arts and Humanities Research Council informed university Vice-Chancellors that the council had decided to withdraw funding from the eleven-year-old Arts and Humanities Data Service .
“Ahdsfunding—epetition reply”. 10 Downing Street, 4 Jan. 2008.

29 November 1947 - 29 February 1948: The Royal Academy in London held an important...

Building and people item

29 November 1947 - 29 February 1948

The Royal Academy in London held an important exhibition of Indian and Pakistani art. Sarojini Naidu was one of those who worked with British arts professionals to find and select the exhibits.
Roberts, Cleo. “1947: India, Art and Nationhood”. London Library Magazine, No. 38, 1 Dec. 2017–28 Feb. 2018, pp. 22-5.
24-5

Elizabeth Hands

EH , a mid-eighteenth-century labouring-class poet, is of interest for the literary quality of her work (in pastoral, narrative poetry/biblical paraphrase, and satire) and also as an example of writing and publishing without the usual...
Elizabeth Hands Title-page of Elizabeth Hands, "The Death of Amnon", 1789.

1945: The Cheltenham Festival of Contemporary British...

Building and people item

1945

The CheltenhamFestival of Contemporary British Music was established.
Nettel, Reginald. The Orchestra in England: A Social History. Jonathan Cape, 1956.
249

1808-14: This period of Indian history was called...

National or international item

1808-14

This period of Indian history was called The Great Anarchy because Anglo-Indians (men of mixed race) were discharged from the British Army, where many had been doing well; feeling betrayed, many took service in...

4 September 1957: The Wolfenden Commission published its Report...

National or international item

4 September 1957

The Wolfenden Commission published its Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution which recommended the decriminalization of homosexual acts occurring in private between consenting adults over 21, but suggested stricter regulation of prostitution.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
412, 416
“Homosexuality ’should not be a crime’”. BBC News: On This Day, 4 Sept. 1957.

21 June 1813: The British victory at the aptly-named Vitoria...

National or international item

21 June 1813

The British victory at the aptly-named Vitoria ended the Peninsular War by driving the French out of Spain.
Page, F. C. G. Following the Drum: Women in Wellington’s Wars. Deutsch, 1986.
12

Ellen Johnston

EJ is one of the few working-class Victorian women whose poetry made it into print in volume form. Along with her autobiography, her poems provide invaluable evidence of the limited opportunities—material, social, and discursive—available to...

1917: Beat: A Modern Love Story by Mollie Stanley...

Women writers item

1917

Beat: A Modern Love Story by Mollie Stanley Wrench was published.
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.

1861: Maria Rye opened at 12 Portugal Street, London,...

Building and people item

1861

Maria Rye opened at 12 Portugal Street, London, a law-copying office to provide employment opportunities for women.
Mitchell, Sally. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. University of Virginia Press, 2004.
113

1911: The satirist Saki (whose real name was Hector...

Writer or writing item

1911

The satirist Saki (whose real name was Hector Hugh Munro ) published in New York his short-story collection The Chronicles of Clovis.
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.

6 January 1941: Aviator Amy Johnson drowned when her aeroplane...

Building and people item

6 January 1941

Aviator Amy Johnson drowned when her aeroplane crashed in the Thames estuary.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
507

30 August 1667: Anne Maxwell of Thames Street in London (a...

Building and people item

30 August 1667

Anne Maxwell of Thames Street in London (a master printer with about a hundred imprints between 1660 and 1684) entered as hers in the Stationers' RegisterThe life and death of Mother Shipton (a folk...

27 August 1950: The BBC made its first live television broadcast...

Building and people item

27 August 1950

The BBC made its first live television broadcast from the Continent (from Calais) using outside broadcast equipment.
Briggs, Asa. The BBC: The First Fifty Years. Oxford University Press, 1985.
381

12 May 1888: The UK proclaimed a formal protectorate over...

National or international item

12 May 1888

The UK proclaimed a formal protectorate over North Borneo.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
I: 949

1829: The steel busk front fastening first appeared...

Building and people item

1829

The steel busk front fastening first appeared on corsets.
Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. Theatre Arts Books, 1970.
79
Aphra Behn had once celebrated in verse the noble fate of a tree cut down to make wooden busks.

1861: Testifying before a Select Committee on Poor...

Building and people item

1861

Testifying before a Select Committee on Poor Relief, Louisa Twining noted of poor females that service . . . is the only occupation they can follow in life.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
154

October 1936: The German Nazi Party barred Jews from the...

Building and people item

October 1936

The GermanNazi Party barred Jews from the reading rooms of public libraries.
This information comes from the diaries of Victor Klemperer , first published in 2000.
Powers, Thomas. “’A Thousand Mosquito Bites’”. London Review of Books, 21 Sept. 2000, pp. 3-7.
3

1867: A Church of England Committee on Intemperance,...

Building and people item

1867

A Church of England Committee on Intemperance, organized by the Convocation of Canterbury, prepared a report on social problems.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
101

1908: The Children Act or Children's Act passed...

National or international item

1908

The Children Act or Children's Act passed by the British Parliament established separate juvenile courts and made many other changes in the treatment of children by the justice system.
Pinchbeck, Ivy, and Margaret Hewitt. Children in English Society. Routledge and Kegan Paul , 1969–1973, 2 vols., http://U of A, Ruth N Flr 4.
II: 492-3
Weeks, Jeffrey. Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800. Longman, 1981.
127

Louisa May Alcott

United States novelist LMA published during the later nineteenth century more than three hundred writings, including works for children, short stories, letters, poetry, novels, plays, sensation fiction, and journalism.Little Women, her best-known work...
Louisa May Alcott Black and white, three-quarter length photo of Louisa May Alcott by J. Notman, c. 1865. She sits by a table covered with books and writing implements, slightly turned and seen in profile. She wears a dark dress with large bow at the neck; her hair is waved and pulled back in a bun.

1845: Victoria Park in East London was opened to...

Building and people item

1845

Victoria Park in East London was opened to the public as the first public park in Britain. (The more famous London parks belonged to the Crown.) Situated among the poor, working-class districts of the East...

1880: The French Republic granted amnesty to Communards...

National or international item

1880

The French Republic granted amnesty to Communards who had been arrested and sentenced after the fall of the revolutionary Paris Commune nine years earlier.
Merriman, John M. “Contested Freedoms in the French Revolutions, 1830-1871”. Revolution and the Meanings of Freedom in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Isser Woloch, Stanford University Press, 1996, pp. 173-11.
210
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
295-6, 316
Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa, editors. The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World. Henry Holt and Company, 1996.
173