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17 April 1799: Humphry Davy, then a young man, inhaled nitrous...

Building and people item

17 April 1799

Humphry Davy , then a young man, inhaled nitrous oxide in order to see what it would do to him: by the following year he had discovered and tested its anaesthetic effects.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
Guardian Weekly.
(14-20 December 2000): 15

Charlotte Yonge

CY was a staggeringly prolific author. Her more than two hundred works include domestic and historical novels for both adults and children, biographies, history and language textbooks, religious manuals, and a fragment of autobiography. She...
Charlotte Yonge Black and white reproduction of an albumen print of Charlotte Yonge's head by the Rev. Duke Yonge, 1858? The image is oval; the sitter is seen in profile facing left. She is wearing a small, light cap, a pale ribbon around her neck fastened with a brooch (perhaps a cameo), and embroidery around her collar. National Portrait Gallery.

By 27 November 1886: Rosa Mulholland published Marcella Grace:...

Women writers item

By 27 November 1886

Rosa Mulholland published Marcella Grace: An Irish Novel, as Rosa M. Gilbert.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
3083 (1886): 704

February 1849: Matthew Arnold published his first volume...

Writer or writing item

February 1849

Matthew Arnold published his first volume of poetry, The Strayed Reveller, and Other Poems, anonymously under the initial A.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1144 (29 Sept. 1849): 982-3
Neiman, Fraser. Matthew Arnold. Twayne, 1968.
9

Frances Power Cobbe

As one of the most prominent Victorian writers of non-fiction prose, and the only feminist of the period who wrote regularly in periodicals, FPC published prolifically in a range of genres from reportage and travel...
Frances Power Cobbe Black and white photograph of Frances Power Cobbe in middle age. She faces forward, but looks out slightly to her right. Her expression is resolute. Her grey hair is pulled away from her face, and she wears a coat with a large fur collar, under which is visible a shirt with a stiff white collar and a silver chain.

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.

1789: Erasmus Darwin published The Loves of the...

Writer or writing item

1789

Erasmus Darwin published The Loves of the Plants, as the second part of his scientific poem The Botanic Garden.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

1893: St Mary's University College was founded...

Building and people item

1893

St Mary's University College was founded for Catholic girls in Merrion Square, Dublin.
O’Connor, Anne V. “The Revolution in Girls’ Secondary Education in Ireland, 1860-1910”. Girls Don’t Do Honours: Irish Women in Education in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Mary Cullen, Women’s Education Bureau, 1987, pp. 31-54.
45-6

29 April 1884: Oxford University began admitting women to...

Building and people item

29 April 1884

Oxford University began admitting women to honours examinations for degrees, although they were still not awarded the actual degree.
Haydn, Joseph. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. Editor Vincent, Benjamin, 23rd ed., Ward, Lock, 1904.
908
Pedersen, Joyce Senders. The Reform of Girls’ Secondary and Higher Education in Victorian England: A Study of Elites and Educational Change. Garland, 1987.
90

September 1964: The University of Essex opened in Colchester,...

Building and people item

September 1964

The University of Essex opened in Colchester, Essex, as a utopian experiment designed to accommodate both expanding numbers and expanding knowledge, and to break down barriers between disciplines and between students and teachers.
Dent, Harold Collett. 1870-1970: Century of Growth in English Education. Longmans, 1970.
155
Whitaker’s Almanack. 119th ed., J. Whitaker, 1987.
506
Warner, Marina. “Diary”. London Review of Books, Vol.
36
, No. 17, 11 Sept. 2014, pp. 42-3.
42

By 15 May 1981: Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children,...

Writer or writing item

By 15 May 1981

Salman Rushdie published Midnight's Children, a novel in which the midnight in question is the moment of Indian independence from Britain.
Cunningham, Valentine. “Nosing out the Indian reality”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 4076, 15 May 1981, p. 535.
535

March 1524: Erasmus's Abbatis et Eruditae was published...

Building and people item

March 1524

Erasmus 's Abbatis et Eruditae was published in his Colloquies.
Barbour, Paula L., and Bathsua Makin. “Introduction”. An Essay to Revive the Antient Education of Gentlewomen, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, 1980, p. iii - xi.
v
Erasmus, Desiderius. Collected Works of Erasmus. Editors Schoeck, Richard J. and Beatrice Corrigan, University of Toronto Press, 1974–2026, 84 vols.
39: 499

1899: The Church Congress included a session on...

Building and people item

1899

The Church Congress included a session on The Training and Payment of Women Church Workers,
Heeney, Brian. “The Beginnings of Church Feminism: Women and the Councils of the Church of England, 1897-1919”. Religion in the Lives of English Women, 1760-1930, edited by Gail Malmgreen, Indiana University Press, 1986, pp. 260-84.
282
chaired by Louise Creighton , an active feminist and wife of the Bishop of London.
Heeney, Brian. “The Beginnings of Church Feminism: Women and the Councils of the Church of England, 1897-1919”. Religion in the Lives of English Women, 1760-1930, edited by Gail Malmgreen, Indiana University Press, 1986, pp. 260-84.
266

12 March 1925: Chinese ruler Sun Yat-sen, author of the...

National or international item

12 March 1925

Chinese ruler Sun Yat-sen , author of the Chinese revolution of 1912 and father of the republic, died unexpectedly, unleashing a wave of popular protest (which had foreign influence as one of its prime targets)...

1841: Rudolph von Kolliker (1817-1905) of Switzerland...

Building and people item

1841

Rudolph von Kolliker (1817-1905) of Switzerland first demonstrated the function of spermatazoa.
Pascoe, Lionel Craman et al. The Teach Yourself Encyclopaedia of Dates and Events. English Universities Press, 1968.
491

4 March 1852: Alice Liddell, the original recipient of...

Building and people item

4 March 1852

Alice Liddell , the original recipient of Lewis Carroll 's Alice works, was born on this date.
Gardner, Martin, and Lewis Carroll. “Introduction and Notes”. The Annotated Alice, Wings Books, 1960.
96

Margaret Calderwood

MC , living and writing in the eighteenth century, is remembered for her travel journal (which grew out of letters to her daughter). As a Scotswoman she reports on the foreign country of England as...
Margaret Calderwood Painting of Margaret Calderwood, she is wearing a low cut brown dress and has a blue scarf over her left arm. The background is also a shade of brown, and her hair is black.

October 1853-August 1855: William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Newcomes...

Writer or writing item

October 1853-August 1855

William Makepeace Thackeray 's novel The Newcomes was serialised in monthly parts.
Harden, Edgar F. A Checklist of Contributions by William Makepeace Thackeray to Newspapers, Periodicals, Books, and Serial Part Issues, 1828-1864. English Literary Studies, University of Victoria, 1996.
71-5
Cruse, Amy. The Victorians and Their Books. George Allen and Unwin, 1935.
225-6

Elizabeth Delaval

ED is remembered for her manuscript book about her own early life, drafted in 1663-72, during her teens and early twenties (sometimes called either a diary or a commonplace-book). Its obvious motive was religious self-examination...

11-12 October 2008: This weekend the banking system in Britain...

National or international item

11-12 October 2008

This weekend the banking system in Britain approached collapse. The government bailed out the Royal Bank of Scotland (the world's largest company measured in assets) with £20 billion.
Lanchester, John. “It’s Finished”. London Review of Books, Vol.
31
, No. 10, 28 May 2009, pp. 3-13.
3

1928: The poet Edmund Blunden published his memoir...

Writer or writing item

1928

The poet Edmund Blunden published his memoir Undertones of War, which, with a number of works issued the following year, have been granted canonical status as imaginative accounts of the First World War.
Lefanu, Sarah. Rose Macaulay. Virago, 2003.
326

26 March 1917: The first battle of Gaza began the British...

National or international item

26 March 1917

The first battle of Gaza began the British invasion of Palestine.
Langer, William L., editor. An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. 4th ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1968.
965
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
229

1 October 1804: A print was published, The Circulating Library,...

Writer or writing item

1 October 1804

A print was published, The Circulating Library, with a lengthy caption satirising the allegedly prurient taste of young women for sensational novels.
Benedict, Barbara M. “Jane Austen and the Culture of Circulating Libraries: The Construction of Female Literacy”. Revising Women: Eighteenth-Century "Women’s Fiction" and Social Engagement, edited by Paula R. Backscheider, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 147-00.
166-7

13 September 1896: Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Apostolicae...

Building and people item

13 September 1896

Pope Leo XIII published his encyclical Apostolicae Curae, which formally rejected Anglican ordinations within the Roman Catholic Church as absolutely null and utterly void.
Edwards, David Lawrence. Christian England, from the Eighteenth Century to the First World War. Collins, 1984, 3 vols.
Edwards 284
Edwards, David Lawrence. Christian England, from the Eighteenth Century to the First World War. Collins, 1984, 3 vols.
284
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
325-6

9 June 1817: Knitter Jeremiah Brandreth led an uprising...

National or international item

9 June 1817

Knitter Jeremiah Brandreth led an uprising of 300 men, who marched from Pentridge in Derbyshire to nearby Nottingham.
Spartacus Educational. 28 Feb. 2003, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/.