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1907: The London County Council banned stage tableaus...

Building and people item

1907

The London County Council banned stage tableaus or living pictures (erotic in content), and in their place the Palace Theatre engaged Maud Allan as a solo dancer.
Walkowitz, Judith R. “Women Writing / Women Performing in the Imperial Metropolis”. Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers Conference, Lawrence, KS, 17 Mar. 2001.

Sojourner Truth

ST , a charismatic religious and political leader (Christian revivalist, abolitionist, and feminist) in the northern states of the USA in the mid-nineteenth century, dictated her life story, a spiritual autobiography or slave narrative, to...
Sojourner Truth Black and white photo of Sojourner Truth, wearing wire spectacles, a white cap, long, dark, long-sleeved dress, and a white shawl. She sits beside a small table with a vase of flowers on it, holding a half-done piece of knitting. She regularly used small, carte-de-visite photos to publicize her cause, under the slogan: “I Sell the Shadow to Support the Substance.”

1903: Dorothy Levitt competed in a motor car race....

Building and people item

1903

Dorothy Levitt competed in a motor car race. She was the first woman to do so.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.

8 April 1706: George Farquhar's comedy The Recruiting Officer...

Writer or writing item

8 April 1706

George Farquhar 's comedy The Recruiting Officer was first performed at Drury Lane .
Watson, George, and Ian Roy Wilson, editors. The New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 1969, 5 vols., http://U of A, HSS Ruth N Flr 1 Ref.

Sarah Harriet Burney

SHB was an early nineteenth-century novelist and letter-writer (though she began to publish before the end of the eighteenth century). Her achievements in both these genres have been obscured by those of her sister Frances...
Sarah Harriet Burney

9 September 1803: The first number appeared of the Annual Review,...

Writer or writing item

9 September 1803

The first number appeared of the Annual Review, a Dissenting periodical run by Lucy Aikin 's brother Arthur Aikin , which had been planned in 1802.
White, Daniel E. “The Joineriana: Anna Barbauld, the Aikin Family Circle, and the Dissenting Public Sphere”. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol.
32
, No. 4, 1999, pp. 511-33.
531n25
McCarthy, William. Anna Letitia Barbauld, Voice of the Enlightenment. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
411

1880: In Glasgow the Universalist Church appointed...

Building and people item

1880

In Glasgow the Universalist Church appointed its first woman minister in Britain, Caroline Soule . US Universalists were ahead of them, having ordained Olympia Brown in 1863.
Gilley, Keith. “The ministry of women”. The Guardian, 25 Sept. 2004, p. 29.
29

21 June 1945: Japanese resistance to US invasion ended...

National or international item

21 June 1945

Japanese resistance to US invasion ended on the island of Okinawa; though the campaign officially lasted until 2 July, this day is often used to mark the close of the Second World War.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/.

1624: The Monopolies Act, a crucial episode in...

National or international item

1624

The Monopolies Act, a crucial episode in the restriction of absolutism, stripped away most of the traditional power of the Royal Prerogative, leaving it to control only printing privileges and inventions.
Shapin, Steven. “Rough Trade”. London Review of Books, 6 Mar. 2003, pp. 14-16.
14

27 October 1980: A hunger strike began in the notorious H-blocks...

National or international item

27 October 1980

A hunger strike began in the notorious H-blocks of the Maze Prison , Belfast, among young men convicted of terrorist violence, who already spent four years wearing wraps, not clothes, in a Blanket and...

1795-7: Margaret Leeson, alias Peg Plunkett, who...

Building and people item

1795-7

Margaret Leeson , alias Peg Plunkett, who was well-known for her thirty years as a courtesan and brothel-keeper, mostly in Dublin, set out to raise cash by publishing Memoirs of Mrs. Margaret Leeson.
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.

1973: Canon introduced the first dry photocopier...

Building and people item

1973

Canon introduced the first dry photocopier able to produce full colour copies.
Harris, Melvin. ITN Book of Firsts. Michael O’Mara Books, 1994.
217

8 August 1918: The Maternity and Child Welfare Act encouraged...

Building and people item

8 August 1918

The Maternity and Child Welfare Act encouraged local authorities to set up centres with provision for antenatal clinics.
Leap, Nicky, and Billie Hunter. The Midwife’s Tale: An Oral History from Handywoman to Professional Midwife. Scarlet Press, 1993.
199
Pfeffer, Naomi. The Stork and the Syringe: A Political History of Reproductive Medicine. Polity Press, 1993.
91
Webb, Catherine. The Woman with the Basket: The History of the Women’s Co-operative Guild 1883-1927. Co-operative Wholesale Society’s Printing Works, 1927.
139

1764: A group of fashionable young Englishmen calling...

Building and people item

1764

A group of fashionable young Englishmen calling themselves the Macaroni Club embarked on a campaign to promote Continental styles of cooking and dressing.
Nigro, Jeffrey A. “Estimating Lace and Muslin: Dress and Fashion in Jane Austen and her World”. Persuasions, Vol.
23
, 2001, pp. 50-62.
51-2

By 1770: The proportion of fiction among annual publications...

Writer or writing item

By 1770

The proportion of fiction among annual publications in England had risen to four percent (from 1.1% in about 1730).
McDowell, Paula. “Women and the business of print”. Women and Literature in Britain, 1700-1800, edited by Vivien Jones, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 135-54.
136

9 April 1887: Following the appeal judgment which ordered...

Women writers item

9 April 1887

Following the appeal judgment which ordered her to cohabit with her husband, Dadaji Bhikaji , a letter by Rukhmabai appeared in the LondonTimes.
Burton, Antoinette. “Conjugality on Trial: the Rukhmabai Case and the Debate on Indian Child-Marriage in Late-Victorian Britain”. Disorder in the Court: Trials and Sexual Conflict at the Turn of the Century, edited by George Robb and Nancy Erber, New York University Press, 1999, pp. 33-56.
44-8, 50

1704: Joseph Pitts published at Exeter (his home...

Building and people item

1704

Joseph Pitts published at Exeter (his home town) A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans, the fruit of years of experience as a Barbary captive and Islamic convert.
Pagden, Anthony. “Oak in a Flowerpot”. London Review of Books, 14 Nov. 2002, pp. 9-10.
9
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.

13 August 1971: A report by Detective Chief Inspector George...

Writer or writing item

13 August 1971

A report by Detective Chief Inspector George Fenwick to Home Secretary Reginald Maudling justified the public prosecution for indecency of hippie publications like the magazine Oz.
Travis, Alan. “Oz trial lifted lid on bribery in porn squad”. Guardian Weekly, 18–24 Nov. 1999, p. 11.
11

14 March 1757: Admiral John Byng was executed (by firing-squad...

National or international item

14 March 1757

Admiral John Byng was executed (by firing-squad on the deck of his own flagship) for his part in the loss of the Mediterranean island of Minorca to the French the previous year: a step towards...

By 1767: Of the thirty-seven county towns in England,...

Building and people item

By 1767

Of the thirty-seven county towns in England, twelve had public Catholicmass-houses and at nine more a priest celebrated regular mass in his home.
Rowlands, Marie B. English Catholics of Parish and Town, 1558-1778. Catholic Record Society, 1999.
71, 73, 307, 282

14 December 1987: The Status of Children Act of Ireland struck...

National or international item

14 December 1987

The Status of Children Act of Ireland struck down illegitimacy laws, provided for guardianship and maintenance of children, and allowed children of unmarried parents to inherit as if their parents had been married.
Acts of the Oireachtas. Stationery Office, 1938–2026.
26 (1987)
Sawyer, Roger. We Are But Women: Women in Ireland’s History. Routledge, 1993.
108

1953: The United Nations General Assembly appointed...

National or international item

1953

The United Nations General Assembly appointed its first female president, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit of India.
“Women’s History Timeline”. BBC: Radio 4: Woman’s Hour.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Sarah Grand

SG is known as a late nineteenth-century women's rights campaigner and social reformer. She claimed to have coined the term New Woman in her articleThe New Aspect of the Woman Question, which appeared...
Sarah Grand Sepia albumen print (flecked with white) of Sarah Grand by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn, 1894. Grand is seen from the shoulders up, at a slight turn, wearing a dark dress with beaded detail at the neck. She has short, dark, curly hair.

2 August 1830: Charles X of France abdicated, leaving the...

National or international item

2 August 1830

Charles X of France abdicated, leaving the throne to his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux, and power in the hands of moderate liberals who formed a National Guard to control the Paris mob.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
66, 86
Gildea, Robert. Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914. Oxford University Press, 1987.
62

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

BLSB 's literary work emerged from her convictions as a feminist. Her accounts of women's political, legal, and educational disabilities (in lectures, pamphlets, and an important periodical) played a crucial role in mid-Victorian legal reform...
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon Black and white photograph of Barbara Bodichon in profile, looking towards the right. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, with some part in a single plait. She is wearing a white blouse with a ruffled neckline, and a black jacket with buttons.