Explore Orlando

Here, you’ll find randomized material from across the textbase’s author profiles and timelines. To jump to the content of your choice, click on its image card.

26 December 1967: Television aired the Beatles' satirical programme...

Building and people item

26 December 1967

Television aired the Beatles ' satirical programme The Magical Mystery Tour. Its mix of masks, disguises, and jokes included a woman doing strip-tease.
Gamble, Sarah. Angela Carter. A Literary Life. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
78

November 1896: The Lady's Realm began publication in London;...

Writer or writing item

November 1896

The Lady's Realm began publication in London; while much concerned with fashion, it also published contemporary fiction.
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.

19 February 1797: Publisher James Dodsley (much younger brother...

Writer or writing item

19 February 1797

Publisher James Dodsley (much younger brother of Robert ) died worth over £60,000; Charles Dilly , who died ten years later, left about the same.
Dodsley, Robert. The Correspondence of Robert Dodsley 1733-1764. Editor Tierney, James E., Cambridge University Press, 1988.
508
Suarez, Michael F. “The Business of Literature: The Book Trade in England from Milton to Blake”. A Companion to Literature from Milton to Blake, edited by David Womersley, Blackwell, 2000, pp. 131-47.
134
Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.

1752: Nestor Druid edited the first issue of The...

Building and people item

1752

Nestor Druid edited the first issue of The Lady's Curiosity or Weekly Apollo, published by C. Sympson at the Bible in Chancery Lane, London.
White, Cynthia L. Women’s Magazines 1693-1968. Michael Joseph, 1970.
30

June 1908: The Women's Labour League established its...

National or international item

June 1908

The Women's Labour League established its first Scottish branch in Glasgow.
Gordon, Eleanor. Women and the Labour Movement in Scotland 1850-1914. Clarendon, 1991, http://University of Toronto (Robarts).
265

20 February 1946: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London,...

Building and people item

20 February 1946

The Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, London, had its grand reopening after wartime closure. Margot Fonteyn performed with the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty.
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
396
Dane, Clemence. London Has a Garden. Michael Joseph, 1964.
151-2

1 July 1974: The Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act in Ireland...

National or international item

1 July 1974

The Anti-Discrimination (Pay) Act in Ireland legislated equal pay for work of equal value.
Acts of the Oireachtas. Stationery Office, 1938–2026.
15 (1974)
Sawyer, Roger. We Are But Women: Women in Ireland’s History. Routledge, 1993.
155

30 July 1949: Following a report of 1945, the Legal Aid...

Building and people item

30 July 1949

Following a report of 1945, the Legal Aid and Advice Act received royal assent. It replaced a previously patchy or inadequate system with public funding for all those unable to pay a solicitor.
Hansard 1803-2005. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/.
Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949

26 January 1790: Mozart's opera Così Fan Tutte had its premiere...

Building and people item

26 January 1790

Mozart 's opera Così Fan Tutte had its premiere in Vienna.
Solman, Joseph. Mozartiana. Walker, 1990.
162

1952: Psychologist Erik Erikson published Childhood...

Building and people item

1952

Psychologist Erik Erikson published Childhood and Society, in which he hoped that his way of looking would bring children and women back into social history.
Dinnage, Rosemary. “Streamlined Smiles”. London Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2000, pp. 32-3.
33

411: St Augustine of Hippo established the orthodox...

Building and people item

411

St Augustine of Hippo established the orthodox Christian doctrine of original sin (the inescapable rottenness of all human beings from the instant of birth) in his work De Peccatum Meritis et Remissione.
Wood, James. “Watering the Dust”. London Review of Books, 30 Sept. 1999, pp. 42-4.
42-4

17 November 1711: The Duke of Marlborough landed in England...

National or international item

17 November 1711

The Duke of Marlborough landed in England after what proved to be his last military campaign.
Harris, Frances. A Passion for Government: The life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Clarendon, 1991.
186-7

22 November 1697: For this day Dryden wrote his Alexander's...

Writer or writing item

22 November 1697

For this day Dryden wrote his Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique, An Ode, In Honour of St. Cecilia's Day; it was performed to music by Jeremiah Clarke .
Dryden, John. Selected Poetry and Prose of John Dryden. Editor Miner, Earl, Modern Library College Editions, The Modern Library, 1985.
503

About 1470: The Distaff Gospels, a collection of the...

Writer or writing item

About 1470

The Distaff Gospels, a collection of the beliefs, proverbs, stories, medical and cookery recipes, and advice of medieval peasant women, is assigned to this date by its editors, Kathleen Garay and Madeleine Jeay .
“Scriptorium: Distaff Gospels”. McMaster University: Libraries: e-Resources: Medieval Women: An Interactive Exploration, 2000.
Broadview Press. http://www.broadviewpress.com/.

By 1692: The theory of hysteria as a specifically...

Building and people item

By 1692

The theory of hysteria as a specifically female form of insanity was becoming established.
Mendelson, Sara Heller, and Patricia Crawford. Women in Early Modern England, 1550-1720. Clarendon Press, 1998.
25

Kate O'Brien

KOB , twentieth-century Irish writer, was successively a journalist, playwright, novelist, essayist, travel writer, and biographer. She was, she said, influenced by the singing voice and by dance music. Masefield said, Don't despise dance music...
Kate O'Brien Black and white photograph of Kate O'Brien, sitting in an upholstered chair, with her sister Nancy O'Brien perched on its arm beside her. Both look straight at the camera. Kate is wearing a long, dark skirt and a V-necked sweater with a pattern of horizontal stripes. She has short, dark, straight hair and is holding a paper in her lap.

8-9 August 1666: In a major English coup of the Second Dutch...

National or international item

8-9 August 1666

In a major English coup of the Second Dutch War, Albemarle and Prince Rupert burned a hundred and fifty Dutch merchant ships off the island of Schelling.
Todd, Janet. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. Rutgers University Press, 1997.
95 and 455n11

Bessie Rayner Parkes

Bessie Rayner Parkes (later Belloc) , a late nineteenth-century feminist, focused her writings especially on issues relating to women's work. During her life she published a collection of miscellaneous essays, a collection of vignettes, numerous...
Bessie Rayner Parkes Sepia toned photograph of Bessie Rayner Parkes, seated on an upholstered chair, with an ornate table next to her. Her hands are clasped in her lap, she is wearing a dark dress with a voluminous skirt and long sleeves. She has dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair.

1991: The first female president of the Amateur...

Building and people item

1991

The first female president of the Amateur Athletic Association , Dame Marea Hartman , took up her post.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

Late November 1642: Abel Tasman sighted the lands which later...

National or international item

Late November 1642

Abel Tasman sighted the lands which later became Tasmania and New Zealand; a national park is now named after him.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. 3rd revised, Simon and Schuster, 1991.
291
Abel Tasman. http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20080423094744/http://www.muffley.net/pacific/dutch/tasman.htm.

7 July 1978: The Solomon Islands became independent from...

National or international item

7 July 1978

The Solomon Islands became independent from Britain.
Steinberg, Sigfrid Henry. Historical Tables: 58 BC-AD 1985. 11th ed., Garland Publishing, 1986.
268

Wilkie Collins

Best remembered for his sensational fiction of the 1860s, WC was, in the course of his forty-year writing career, the author of many ingeniously-plotted novels, as well as a writer of plays (some in collaboration...
Wilkie Collins Caricature of Wilkie Collins, with oversized head and hat and skinny legs. He is putting up a poster for The Woman in White and his jacket pocket is stuffed with posters.

May 1909: Gertrude Jennings's one-act suffrage play...

Women writers item

May 1909

Gertrude Jennings 's one-act suffrage play A Woman's Influence was performed at the Votes for Women Exhibition at the Prince's Skating Rink in Knightsbridge.
Stowell, Sheila. A Stage of Their Own. University of Michigan Press, 1992.
53-4
Gale, Maggie B. West End Women: Women and the London Stage, 1918-1962. Routledge, 1996.
117

28 March 1867: H. A. Bruce presented Parliament with a women's...

National or international item

28 March 1867

H. A. Bruce presented Parliament with a women's suffrage petition bearing 3,559 signatures.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
163

Lady Louisa Stuart

LLS , writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, published almost nothing deliberately. It was mostly after her death that her writings filtered into print. Her poems show an acute and original mind...
Lady Louisa Stuart Photograph of a sketch of Lady Louisa Stuart in old age by Sir George Hayter. She sits solitary, wearing a simple dark dress and lacy cap, in a small, dimly lit room with curtains draped in the window, in a large chair at a table strewn with books and other objects. She is hunched over one book, holding it very close to her eyes in the effort of reading. An inscription below, in capitals, names sitter, artist, and owner.