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April 1645: Cromwell formed his New Model Army, the first...

National or international item

April 1645

Cromwell formed his New Model Army , the first approximation to a modern, disciplined, professional fighting body.
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

By 1800: 750,000 men and women belonged to Female...

National or international item

By 1800

750,000 men and women belonged to Female Friendly Societies .
Schwarzkopf, Jutta. Women in the Chartist Movement. St Martin’s Press, 1991.
205-6

3 May 1661: John Evelyn was shown a wonderfull engine...

Building and people item

3 May 1661

John Evelyn was shown a wonderfull engine for weaving silk stockings, said to have been invented at Oxford forty years earlier.
Evelyn, John. The Diary of John Evelyn. Editor De Beer, Esmond Samuel, Oxford University Press, 1959.
422

1592-3: These were plague years in London; the theatres...

Building and people item

1592-3

These were plague years in London; the theatres were closed.
Rogers, Pat, editor. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1987.
505
Shakespeare, William. “Introduction”. Sonnets, edited by Alfred Leslie Rowse, Macmillan, 1964, p. vii - xxxvii.
xx

June 1899: Belgravia: A London Magazine (formerly edited...

Writer or writing item

June 1899

Belgravia: A London Magazine (formerly edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon ) ceased publication.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
55
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.

May 1916: The British Parliament took the unpopular...

National or international item

May 1916

The British Parliament took the unpopular decision to institute conscription for the armed forces (which had been standard practice in other European countries but not in the UK); the Military Service Act followed.
Morgan, Kenneth O., editor. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. Oxford University Press, 1984.
524
Wainwright, Martin. “Conchies of the north fought the war at home”. Guardian Weekly, Vol.
11
, 7–13 Mar. 2002, p. 18.
18

1390: A new licensing procedure requiring a university...

Building and people item

1390

A new licensing procedure requiring a university education for the practice of medicine pushed women out of medical work in London.
Olsen, Kirstin. Chronology of Women’s History. Greenwood, 1994.
51

27 February 1868: Benjamin Disraeli, a Conservative, became...

National or international item

27 February 1868

Benjamin Disraeli , a Conservative , became Prime Minister following the resignation of the Earl of Derby .
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
491

19 May 1941: The Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo Road, London,...

Building and people item

19 May 1941

The Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo Road, London, was bombed.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
402

1830: Footwear began to be sold ready-made....

Building and people item

1830

Footwear began to be sold ready-made.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
31-2

Charles Dickens

A prolific novelist, journalist, and editor of periodicals such as Household Words and All the Year Round, CD crucially shaped Victorian fiction both by developing it as a dialogical, multi-plotted, and socially aware form...
Charles Dickens Head-and-shoulders daguerrotype of Charles Dickens by Jeremiah Gurney of New York City, 1867-8. Dickens has a goatee beard, moustache, and hair combed forward on each side of his bald patch.

2 November 1949: The first double-decked train in England...

National or international item

2 November 1949

The first double-decked train in England went into service with the Southern Region of British Rail .
Bruno, Leonard. On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation. Gale Research, 1993.
255

1932: Maids and Mistresses by Beatrice Kean Seymour...

Women writers item

1932

Maids and Mistresses by Beatrice Kean Seymour was published.
OCLC WorldCat. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

1910: The Carl Zeiss company developed the first...

Building and people item

1910

The Carl Zeiss company developed the first bifocal glasses.
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
255

Mary Bailey

MB wrote devotional works and three volumes of poetry during the early Victorian period. Her poetry and translations, including what she erroneously believed to have been the first English translations of Anacreon 's odes, also...

From late 1851: The trend of established drapers to expand...

Building and people item

From late 1851

The trend of established drapers to expand into department stores began after the Great Exhibition.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
142-3

1883: George Moore, already a disciple of Zola,...

Writer or writing item

1883

George Moore , already a disciple of Zola , published his first, semi-autobiographical novel, A Modern Lover, in realist style.
Horne, Eileen. “Power and Prejudice”. The London Library Magazine, No. 33, 1 Sept.–30 Nov. 2016, pp. 22-5.
24

Marie de Sévigné

MS , who lived and wrote in seventeenth-century France, is widely regarded as one of the world's great letter-writers. The standard scholarly edition contains 1,372 letters.
Marie de Sévigné Head-and-shoulders painting of Marie de Sévigné by Claude Lefèbvre, c. 1665. She is in half-mourning, in a pale low-necked gown with puff sleeves and a lacy neckline tied with a dark bow. A grey scarf is tucked in. She has pearl ear studs, a pearl necklace, and dark curls around her face. She wears a slight smile. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

1853: The Government School of Design (founded...

Building and people item

1853

The Government School of Design (founded in 1837) moved to South Kensington, where it became the greatly expanded National Art Training School .
“History and Location”. Royal College of Art.

1879: Albert Ludwig Siegmund Neisser, a German...

Building and people item

1879

Albert Ludwig Siegmund Neisser , a German doctor, described the gonococcus bacterium responsible for gonorrhea.
Trager, James. The Women’s Chronology: A Year-by-Year Record, from Prehistory to the Present. Henry Holt, 1994.
315

9 May 1918: Lytton Strachey published his irreverent...

Writer or writing item

9 May 1918

Lytton Strachey published his irreverent biographies entitled Eminent Victorians. He claimed to be breaking with two traditions: that of admiration for the Victorians and that of reverential biography.
Borne Back Daily. 2001, http://borneback.com/ .
9 May 2008
“4 June 1918. Victorians before a just court”. The Guardian, 5 June 2009, p. 22.
22

1 January 1900: The Net Book Agreement went into effect,...

Writer or writing item

1 January 1900

The Net Book Agreement went into effect, establishing minimum prices for the sale of books.
Feather, John. A History of British Publishing. Croom Helm, 1988.
147-8
Kingsford, Reginald John Lethbridge. The Publisher’s Association, 1896-1946. Cambridge University Press, 1970.
17
Curwen, Peter. The UK Publishing Industry. Pergamon Press, 1981.
41

1822: Drury Lane Theatre was closed for a complete...

Building and people item

1822

Drury Lane Theatre was closed for a complete internal overhaul.
Roose-Evans, James. London Theatre from the Globe to the National. Phaidon, 1977.
79
Mander, Raymond, and Joe Mitchenson. The Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963.
67, 282
Dobbs, Brian. Drury Lane: Three Centuries of the Theatre Royal, 1663-1971. Cassell, 1972.
143

1 May 1649: Following the imprisonment of John Lilburne...

National or international item

1 May 1649

Following the imprisonment of John Lilburne and others, the Levellers issued An Agreement of the Free People of England, which Catharine Macaulay later judged their most important text.
Hill, Bridget. The Republican Virago: The Life and Times of Catharine Macaulay, Historian. Clarendon Press, 1992.
37, 180

21 February 1931: The Nation and Athenæum (formerly the famous...

Writer or writing item

21 February 1931

The Nation and Athenæum (formerly the famous Victorian journal The Athenæum) finally ceased publication.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.