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1896: Margaret Louisa Woods published Wild Justice:...

Women writers item

1896

Margaret Louisa Woods published Wild Justice: A Dramatic Poem.
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.

1912: The Illustrated London News installed the...

Writer or writing item

1912

The Illustrated London News installed the first intaglio rotary press (German built) in Britain.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
172

Early June 1919: Escalating anti-black race riots in Newport...

National or international item

Early June 1919

Escalating anti-black race riots in Newport and Cardiff culminated in organised attacks on black residents of Cardiff city centre led by gun-wielding Australian soldiers.
Phillips, Mike. “Cardiff race riots, 1919”. The Guardian, 24 July 2006, p. G2: 10.
G2: 10

Marianne Chambers

MC , who was active in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, published a novel and had two lively comedies produced, the first of which had some success.

1698-1715: Of eighty-five girls entering the Great Yarmouth...

Building and people item

1698-1715

Of eighty-five girls entering the Great Yarmouth Children's Hospital (a charitable workhouse which prepared needy children for apprenticeship), over half could not read.
Cressy, David. Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England. Cambridge University Press, 1980.
33

October 1947: Detective Sergeant Alberta Mary Law was the...

Building and people item

October 1947

Detective Sergeant Alberta Mary Law was the first female recipient of the King's Police Medal.
Luck, Joan. The British Policewoman: Her Story. R. Hale, 1979.
195
“Palmer’s Index to the Times”. Historical Newspapers Online.
(October-December 1947): 279

1 July 1997: Hong Kong was returned to China, ending years...

National or international item

1 July 1997

Hong Kong was returned to China, ending years of British rule.
Bayly, Christopher Alan. Atlas of the British Empire. Facts on File, 1989.
242
Palmer, Alan, and Veronica Palmer. The Chronology of British History. Century, 1992.
449

November 1851: The United Kingdom and France signed a copyright...

Writer or writing item

November 1851

The United Kingdom and France signed a copyright agreement.
Feather, John. Publishing, Piracy and Politics: An Historical Study of Copyright in Britain. Mansell, 1994.
161

1723: Dr Thomas Bray, who had founded the Society...

National or international item

1723

Dr Thomas Bray , who had founded the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge , used a bequest from a Dutch secretary to William III to found Dr Bray's Associates , an organization supporting parochial libraries...

Margaret Gatty

MG was a popular and influential children's writer (of fiction and a famous periodical) and scientific writer in the mid-nineteenth century. She began by publishing a biography of her father. Apart from her writings she...
Margaret Gatty Faded sepia head-and-shoulders photo of Margaret Gatty in profile. Her smooth hair is gathered at the nape of her neck and her eyes cast down. Her dress is dark, with lace at the collar and bust, and she wears drop earrings.

Catherine Cuthbertson

CC is a fairly conventional novelist of the early nineteenth century. Her seven novels have historically realised settings (often in continental Europe), and happy endings for virtuous upper-class characters. The lower classes (often Irish) provide...

3 January 1888: Marvin Chester Stone of the USA patented...

Building and people item

3 January 1888

Marvin Chester Stone of the USA patented an artificial drinking straw made of paper coated with paraffin.
Kesterson, Michael. “Social Studies: A Daily Miscellany of Information”. The Globe and Mail, 3 Jan. 2000, p. A18.
A16

1856: The National Portrait Gallery was founded,...

National or international item

1856

The National Portrait Gallery was founded, largely through the advocacy of Lord Stanhope , who was president of the Society of Arts at the time.
Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross, editor. English Art, 1800-1870. Clarendon, 1959.
270
Nunn, Pamela Gerrish. Victorian Women Artists. Women’s Press, 1987.
36
National Portrait Gallery. http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp.

1948: George de Mestral of Switzerland invented...

Building and people item

1948

George de Mestral of Switzerland invented locking tape (Velcro); it was made of cotton fabric, later nylon for durability.
Panati, Charles. Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. Perennial Library, 1987.
318

April 1761-May 1762: Andrew Kippis edited, and Ralph Griffiths...

Writer or writing item

April 1761-May 1762

Andrew Kippis edited, and Ralph Griffiths published, a periodical called the Library; or, Moral and Critical Magazine.
Forster, Antonia. Email about Mary Jones to Isobel Grundy. 25 Apr. 2005.

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

Very early 1136: The Welsh Princess Gwenllian, likely author...

Women writers item

Very early 1136

The Welsh Princess Gwenllian , likely author of Four Branches of the Mabinogi, died.
Breeze, Andrew. The Origins of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi. Gracewing, 2009.
16-33
Lloyd, John Edward. A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, Volume 2. Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd., 1967.
470
Pierce, Thomas Jones. “GWENLLIAN”. Welsh Biography Online.

1899: This year saw the earliest known printing...

Writer or writing item

1899

This year saw the earliest known printing of what was later called an advertising blurb on a book jacket: that of John Barrett 's Admiral George Dewey.
Barcham, Maureen. “Letter”. Guardian Weekly, 5–11 July 2001, p. 18.
18

1854: A British patent was granted to Paul Pretsch...

Writer or writing item

1854

A British patent was granted to Paul Pretsch of Vienna for printing plates used in half-tone printing.
Clair, Colin. A Chronology of Printing. Cassell, 1969.
150

1702: Hanging paper (i.e. wallpaper) was already...

Building and people item

1702

Hanging paper (i.e. wallpaper) was already on sale in London, some of it imported from China.
Saumarez Smith, Charles. Eighteenth-Century Decoration: Design and the Domestic Interior in England. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993.
122
Garnett, Oliver. “Paper Chase”. The National Trust Magazine, Vol.
90
, 1 June 2000–2026, p. 88.
88

January 1881: Charles Stewart Parnell and several prominent...

National or international item

January 1881

Charles Stewart Parnell and several prominent Irish Land League members were tried on various charges, the most general of which was demoralizing the Irish; they were all acquitted.
Morton, Grenfell. Home Rule and the Irish Question. Longman, 1980.
25

Elizabeth Elstob

EE is noteworthy as the first female scholar in the newly opening field of the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) language. She was also a translator, a biographer, and a promoter of learning for women and...
Elizabeth Elstob Line engraving with portrait of Elizabeth Elstob inside an initial letter G, by Simon Gribelin, from "An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory", 1709, which she translated from Old English. She looks towards the viewer, slightly angled to her left with her head turned to her right. She wears a dress with a low neckline, and her hair is styled with curls framing her forehead and face, while the rest hangs behind her shoulders.

12 May 1870: Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederat...

National or international item

12 May 1870

Manitoba entered the Canadian Confederation.
Keller, Helen, editor. The Dictionary of Dates. Macmillan, 1934, 2 vols.
II: 476

1972: Ian Hamilton's The Review: A Bi-Monthly Magazine...

Writer or writing item

1972

Ian Hamilton 's The Review: A Bi-Monthly Magazine of Poetry and Criticism, launched in 1962, ended with a double issue, 29-30, enabling it to reach the number 30 which Hamilton was set on.
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.
Jacobson, Dan. “The Price”. London Review of Books, 21 Feb. 2002, pp. 22-8.
24

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