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By June 1727: John Gay published his first series of F...

Writer or writing item

By June 1727

John Gay published his first series of Fables.
Monthly Catalogue, 1723-1730. Gregg Press.

1912: Epsom in Surrey became the site of the first...

National or international item

1912

Epsom in Surrey became the site of the first automatic telephone exchange (not requiring an operator) in the UK.
Williams, Trevor I. A Short History of Twentieth-Century Technology, c.1900-c.1950. Clarendon, 1982.
305
Trotter, David. “The Person in the Phone Booth”. London Review of Books, Vol.
32
, No. 2, 28 Jan. 2010, pp. 20-2.
20-1

16 April 2015: A report on diversity in British book publishing,...

Writer or writing item

16 April 2015

A report on diversity in British book publishing, Writing the Future (authored by Danuta Kean for Bernardine Evaristo 's agency Spread the Word ), was launched at the London Book Fair .
Flood, Alison. “Publishers accused of losing plot on race”. The Guardian, 16 Apr. 2015, p. 3.
(16 April 2015): 3

12 November 2014: The European Space Agency's spacecraft Rosetta,...

Building and people item

12 November 2014

The European Space Agency 's spacecraft Rosetta, orbiting the planet Mars, succeeded in landing a smaller data-gathering craft, Philae, on the surface of a comet known as 67P.
Clark, Stuart. “After a hectic week, spacecraft send a last tweet and shut down”. Guardian Weekly, 21 Nov. 2014, p. 5.

1918: Oxford University opened its postgraduate...

Building and people item

1918

Oxford University opened its postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law examination to women; this was one of the changes introduced because the First World War shifted opinion towards assimilation of women in educational institutions.
Howarth, Janet. “Women”. The History of the University of Oxford: The Twentieth Century, edited by Brian Harrison, Clarendon, 1994, pp. 345-76.
349

October 1955: The Guildhouse Fellowship ended publication...

Building and people item

October 1955

The Guildhouse Fellowship ended publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
49

Mary Louisa Molesworth

MLM , writing in the later nineteenth century, was immensely prolific and successful as a writer for children. Of her publications (just over a hundred titles) only a few novels and volumes of stories are...

1899: The Church of England Temperance Society...

Building and people item

1899

The Church of England Temperance Society had as many as 200,000 members, belonging to 7,000 branches across the country.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
107

1 October 1985: New Zealander Janet Frame issued the last...

Writer or writing item

1 October 1985

New Zealander Janet Frame issued the last of three volumes of autobiography, The Envoy from Mirror City; the first came out in 1982. These books finally spread her fame and quashed her reputation as...

By November 1754: John Shebbeare anonymously published The...

Building and people item

By November 1754

John Shebbeare anonymously published The Marriage-act. A Novel, in which a whole range of marital and broader calamities are laid at the door of Hardwicke 's recent Marriage Act.
Griffiths, Ralph, 1720 - 1803, and George Edward Griffiths, editors. Monthly Review. R. Griffiths.
12: 478

1831: Queen Adelaide began the Buy British campaign...

Building and people item

1831

Queen Adelaide began the Buy British campaign to support fashions of British design and manufacture, a practice not strictly upheld by shops.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
33-5

24 January 1966: Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of I...

National or international item

24 January 1966

Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister of India.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
260

1954: New Hall, the third women's college of Cambridge...

Building and people item

1954

New Hall , the third women's college of Cambridge University, was founded.
The World of Learning. 45th ed., Allen and Unwin, 1995.
1593
McWilliams-Tullberg, Rita. Women at Cambridge. Gollancz, 1975.
215

1672: Puritan Nonconformist James Janeway published,...

Building and people item

1672

Puritan Nonconformist James Janeway published, for children, A Token for Children: Being an Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children (of both sexes).
Janeway, James. A Token for Children. Dorman Newman, 1676.
Demers, Patricia, and Robert Gordon Moyles, editors. From Instruction to Delight: An Anthology of Children’s Literature to 1850. Oxford University Press, 1982.
42-4

7 December 1891: The Women's Gazette and Weekly News: A Journal...

Building and people item

7 December 1891

The Women's Gazette and Weekly News: A Journal Devoted to the Social and Political Position of Women, and the Official Organ of the Women's Liberal Federation, ceased publication.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
13

July 1940: Margarine, cooking fats, and tea were rationed...

Building and people item

July 1940

Margarine, cooking fats, and tea were rationed to two ounces per week, and the government called a stop to the sale of timber for furniture.
Minns, Raynes. Bombers and Mash: The Domestic Front 1939-45. Virago, 1980.
86

Sarah Wentworth Morton

SWM , poet of the American Revolution, is remembered for the long, sentimental, narrative poems in which she considers the make-up of the new nation, inter-racial relationships (equal male friendship, unequal heterosexual love), the relationship...
Sarah Wentworth Morton Half-length painting of Sarah Wentworth Morton by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1802. She sits in a red chair looking at the viewer in half-profile, her dark hair and dress merging into the black background and only her face, décolletage, and forearms standing out dramatically, with a gold shawl at her elbows. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

1896: Una Ashworth Taylor published another novel,...

Women writers item

1896

Una Ashworth Taylor published another novel, Nets for the Wind.
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.

Lady Caroline Lamb

LCL was the author of three early-nineteenth-century novels and of an unpublished diary and occasional poetry. Some of her satirical poems were published. She wrote her first novel as a personal testament and retaliation after...
Lady Caroline Lamb Photograph of a portrait of Lady Caroline Lamb, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Her head is tilted, and her curly brown hair is presented as natural and unstyled. Her head and neck emerge from a background impressionistically rendered without concrete detail.

Charlotte Elliott

CE was a prolific author in the mid nineteenth century of religious lyrics, many of them hymns, which circulated in periodicals, annuals, and collections. Her enduring reputation rests on the hymn Just as I am—without...
Charlotte Elliott Black and white photograph of Charlotte Elliott. She sits at a slight angle to the camera, looking right. She wears a dark dress with white lace detail at the collar, and a white cap which covers most of her hair, with a few tight curls framing her face.

1-3 November 1914: The British Expeditionary Force and their...

National or international item

1-3 November 1914

The British Expeditionary Force and their allies fought the Germans in the battle of Ypres (later, because of further developments, known as the First Battle of Ypres).
Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. The Tears of War. Editor Fyfe, Charlotte, Cavalier Books, 2000.
35

1830: Political theorist Jeremy Bentham published...

Writer or writing item

1830

Political theorist Jeremy Bentham published his Constitutional Code; for the use of all nations, and all governments professing liberal opinions, in one volume.
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
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.
Bentham, Jeremy. Constitutional Code: Vol. I. Editors Rosen, Frederick and James Henderson Burns, Clarendon Press, 1983.
xi

March 1792: The Danish parliament voted to end the slave...

National or international item

March 1792

The Danish parliament voted to end the slave trade to their West Indian colonies.
Gott, Richard. “Don’t glorify slavery ban”. Guardian Weekly, 9–15 Mar. 2007, p. 6.
6

1898: English publication of the journal Cosmopolis...

Writer or writing item

1898

English publication of the journal Cosmopolis ceased after two years.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
151

1832: John William Parker established his own publishing...

Writer or writing item

1832

John William Parker established his own publishing business at 445 West Strand, London.
Rose, Jonathan, and Patricia J. Anderson, editors. Dictionary of Literary Biography 106. Gale Research, 1991.
106: 233