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February 1741: Mary Pendarves (later Delany) wrote of her...

Building and people item

February 1741

Mary Pendarves (later Delany) wrote of her friend the Duchess of Queensberry 's court dress representing botanically exact flowers of many species, with the banks and tree-stumps they grew on.
Shteir, Ann B. Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
41-3 and n23

16 July 1985: The Surrogacy Arrangements Act criminalised...

National or international item

16 July 1985

The Surrogacy Arrangements Act criminalised commercial surrogate motherhood in the UK.
Law Reports: Statutes. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1866–2026.
(1985): 1067-8, 1070-1
Spallone, Patricia. Beyond Conception: The New Politics of Reproduction. Bergin and Garvey, 1989.
82

1855: The Anglican Community of the Blessed Virgin...

Building and people item

1855

The Anglican Community of the Blessed Virgin Mary was informally developed in Rottingdean, Sussex.
Anson, Peter F. The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion. Editor Campbell, A. W., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1964.
331, 333

6 April 2007: Public authorities in the UK were charged...

Building and people item

6 April 2007

Public authorities in the UK were charged with a legal obligation to promote gender equality and to eliminate sexual discrimination and harassment.
Bawden, Anna. “The gender agenda”. Guardian Unlimited, 21 Mar. 2007.

August 1980: The Red Rag, produced by a Marxist collective...

Building and people item

August 1980

The Red Rag, produced by a Marxist collective of the Women's Liberation Movement in London, ended publication.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
80

1880s: Artists, musicians, and writers were welcomed...

Building and people item

1880s

Artists, musicians, and writers were welcomed into fashionable circles as never before.
Adburgham, Alison. A Punch History of Manners and Modes 1841-1940. Hutchinson, 1961.
128-30

10 December 2003: Shirin Ebadi of Iran was awarded the Nobel...

National or international item

10 December 2003

Shirin Ebadi of Iran was awarded the Nobel Peace Price for her work for human rights, especially for women and children.
The Nobel Foundation. Nobel E-Museum.

1953: Mohammed Mossadegh, nationalist prime minister...

National or international item

1953

Mohammed Mossadegh , nationalist prime minister of Iran, was ousted by British and (mostly) US influence; this ensured another twenty-five years' rule for the pro-western Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi .
Johnson, Chalmers. “Abolish the CIA!”. London Review of Books, 21 Oct. 2004, pp. 25-8.
25

22 May 1873: Alessandro Manzoni, Italian novelist, died...

Writer or writing item

22 May 1873

Alessandro Manzoni , Italian novelist, died at eighty-eight years old.
Wall, Bernard. Alessandro Manzoni. Yale University Press, 1954.
63
“The Catholic Encyclopedia”. New Advent.

1712: A pornographic work warning men against women...

Building and people item

1712

A pornographic work warning men against women was published: Entertainments of Gallantry, or Remedies for Love.
London, April. “Avoiding the Subject: The Presence and Absence of Venereal Disease in the Eighteenth-Century English Novel”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 213-27.
218-19

1963: Jenny Joseph published New Poems, 1963, which...

Women writers item

1963

Jenny Joseph published New Poems, 1963, which is famous for just one piece, the poem entitled Warning, which begins, When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.
Larkin, Philip, editor. The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Verse. Guild Publishing, 1984.
609-10
The Poetry Archive. 2005, http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do.

30 January 1961: The National Health Service announced that...

Building and people item

30 January 1961

The National Health Service announced that the early contraceptive pill Enovid would become available in Britain in December this year. The birth-control pill had to be bought, but was subsidized to keep its cost to...

1918-1938: Louisa Emily (Emma) Lomax held the position...

Building and people item

1918-1938

Louisa Emily (Emma) Lomax held the position of Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Sadie, Julie Anne, and Rhian Samuel, editors. The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. Macmillan, 1994.
xxvii, 286

1663: The first Turnpike Act was passed for the...

Building and people item

1663

The first Turnpike Act was passed for the maintenance and improvement of roads in Britain
Oxford English Dictionary Online. http://dictionary.oed.com/.
Black, Joseph Laurence, editor. Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Broadview Press, 2006.

November 1764: Governors of the London Lock Hospital for...

Building and people item

November 1764

Governors of the LondonLock Hospital for sexually transmitted disease agreed to fund the prosecution of the rapist of a five-year-old girl admitted to the hospital in June.
Merians, Linda E. “The London Lock Hospital and the Lock Asylum for Women”. The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France, edited by Linda E. Merians, University Press of Kentucky, 1996, pp. 128-45.
135

1980: Andrea Dunbar published The Arbor: A Play,...

Women writers item

1980

Andrea Dunbar published The Arbor: A Play, which had a moderately successful run at the Royal Court Theatre .
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.

1879-1882: Significant country-wide civil disobedience...

National or international item

1879-1882

Significant country-wide civil disobedience took place in Ireland during this period, in connection with pressure for Home Rule.
MacDonagh, Oliver. Ireland: the Union and its Aftermath. George Allen and Unwin, 1977.
24

1768: By act of parliament, the spa resort of Bath...

Building and people item

1768

By act of parliament, the spa resort of Bath (which had supported a theatre since 1705) received a patent for the first Theatre Royal outside London.
“A Brief History of the Theatre Royal, Bath”. Theatre Royal, Bath: History.

October 1877: The Library Association of the United Kingdom...

Building and people item

October 1877

The Library Association of the United Kingdom was founded.
Black, Alistair. “Lost Worlds of Culture: Victorian Libraries, Library History and Prospects for a History of Information”. Journal of Victorian Culture, Vol.
2
, No. 1, 1997.
103
Kelly, Thomas. A History of Public Libraries in Great Britain 1845-1975. 2nd ed., Library Association, 1977.
100

1866: The Cabinet photograph, 6 by 4 inches, was...

Building and people item

1866

The Cabinet photograph, 6 by 4 inches, was introduced; it often depicted professional beauties.
Barwick, Sandra. A Century of Style. Allen and Unwin, 1984.
27

27 December 1890: The Women's Penny Paper ended publication...

Building and people item

27 December 1890

The Women's Penny Paper ended publication in London under this title.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
13

1883: Actor Henry Irving declined a knighthood;...

Building and people item

1883

Actor Henry Irving declined a knighthood; the first female actress did not receive a D.B.E. for another 38 years.
Davis, Tracy C. Actresses as Working Women: Their Social Identity in Victorian Culture. Routledge, 1991.
4

June 1876: Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom...

Writer or writing item

June 1876

Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Camfield, Gregg, editor. The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. Oxford University Press, 2003.
710

1715: The theatre censorship system which had been...

Building and people item

1715

The theatre censorship system which had been in place since the 1690s died out when Drury Lane under Richard Steele ceased sending playscripts to Killigrew .
Hume, Robert D. “Jeremy Collier and the Future of the London Theatre in 1698”. British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) Conference, Oxford, 3 Jan. 1998.

21 June 1948: Developed at the University of Manchester,...

Building and people item

21 June 1948

Developed at the University of Manchester , the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, also known as the Manchester Baby Machine, became the first computer able to store and recall programmes.
Campbell-Kelly, Martin, and William Aspray. Computer. Basic Books, 1996.
100
Napper, Brian. “The University of Manchester Celebrates the Birth of the Modern Computer”. Computer 50.