#OTD in 1893.
Arthur Conan Doyle surprises the reading public by revealing in the story "The Adventure of the Final Problem", published in The Strand Magazine, that Sherlock Holmes had apparently died at the Reichenbach Falls on 4 May 1891.
books
#OTD in 1924.
The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble stating that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is in fact another galaxy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble
In November 1909.
E. M. Forster's science fiction short story "The Machine Stops" is published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review. The story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928.
The Eternal Moment at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/72890
British Library Exhibit Reveals Lives of Medieval Women
By Madeleine Muzdakis
#OTD in 1930.
American novelist Sinclair Lewis is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the first writer from the United States to receive the award.
Sinclair Lewis Nobel Lecture:
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1930/lewis/lecture/
#OTD in 1878.
Henry Irving's production of Hamlet, with himself in the title rôle playing opposite Ellen Terry as Ophelia, opens at the Lyceum Theatre, London (of which they have taken over the management). The tendency of actor-managers to emphasise the importance of their own central character did not always meet with the critics' approval.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet
Hamlet at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1524
What Influenced Mary Shelley to Write Frankenstein?
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is today lauded as the first science fiction novel as well as a seminal work of Gothic horror.
By Lauren Jones
https://www.thecollector.com/mary-shelley-wrote-frankenstein-novel/
#OTD in 1877.
Anna Sewell's animal welfare novel Black Beauty is published. It was written from a horse as main character's perspective. Sewell wrote it in the last years of her life, during which she was bedridden and seriously ill.
#OTD in 1891.
Maurice Maeterlinck's play The Blind (written in 1890) is premièred. Les Aveugles is, along with L'Intruse, one of Maurice Maeterlinck's first two plays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_(play)
Les Aveugles is available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48368
In December 1876.
The first United States edition of Mark Twain's first individual extended work of fiction, the Bildungsroman The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, illustrated by True Williams, is published by the American Publishing Company. An authorised non-illustrated British edition has appeared in early June from Chatto & Windus in London (with the first review appearing on June 24 in a British magazine) and pirated editions have appeared in Canada and Germany.
"Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel."
Jack London died #OTD in 1916.
A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
#OTD in 1899.
William Gillette's play Sherlock Holmes, based (with authorisation) on the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle, opens in New York City with himself in the title rôle.
Danish author Marie Bregendahl was born #OTD in 1867.
Her first novel Hendrik i Bakken was published in 1904. She went on to gain fame with En Dødsnat in 1912, based on the death of her mother when she was only 12.
#OTD in 1859
Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, an early example of mystery fiction, begins serialisation in All the Year Round.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_White_(novel)#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Year_Round
#OTD in 1952.
Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End after a premiere in Nottingham, UK. It will become the longest continuously running play in history.
#OTD in 1919.
The Großes Schauspielhaus opens as a theater in Berlin, with an interior designed by Hans Poelzig. It begins with the director Max Reinhardt's production of the Oresteia.
The House of Atreus at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8604
Is beauty natural?
Charles Darwin was as fascinated by extravagant ornament in nature as Jane Austen was in culture. Did their explanations agree?
By Abigail Tulenko via @aeonmag
https://aeon.co/essays/how-austen-and-darwin-converged-on-the-question-of-beauty
"The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present."
Swedish writer Ellen Key was born #OTD in 1849.
She on many subjects in the fields of family life, ethics and education and was an important figure in the Modern Breakthrough movement. She was an early advocate of a child-centered approach to education and parenting, and was also a suffragist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Key
Ellen Key at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/502
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: The Woman Who Unraveled the Stars
By: Akshita Singh
Her PhD thesis is available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73996
As today is the re-opening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, this is a good reason to re-read Victor Hugo's masterpiece. There is also an interesting book on the restoration of Notre-Dame (1843).
Notre-Dame de Paris - Tome 1 by Victor Hugo:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70891
Notre-Dame de Paris - Tome 2:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71445
The Hunchback of Notre Dame:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6539
Projet de restauration de Notre-Dame de Paris by Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18920
#OTD in 1884.
The first London publication of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn occurs.
Twain initially conceived of the work as a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that would follow Huckleberry Finn through adulthood. He worked on the manuscript off and on for the next several years, ultimately abandoning his original plan of following Huck's development into adulthood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/76
#OTD in 1908.
Cuala Press, set up at Churchtown, Dublin, as a private press independent of the former Dun Emer Press in connection with the Irish Literary Revival and Arts and Crafts movement by Elizabeth "Lolly" Yeats with editorial support from her brother W. B. Yeats, produces its first publication, Poetry and Ireland: Essays by W. B. Yeats and Lionel Johnson (died 1902).
"I saw you - and from that day
I see only you in the world."
Johan Henric Kellgren, born #OTD in 1751, was a Swedish poet and critic.
Kellgren began as a tutor and later worked as a journalist and editor for Stockholms Posten, where he gained a reputation as a sharp and influential critic. Notable works include "Mina Löjen", which blends satire with lyrical beauty, and "Den nya skapelsen", which highlights themes of renewal & enlightenment.
"A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas."
Godfrey Harold Hardy, who died #OTD in 1947, was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory & mathematical analysis.
In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of population genetics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Hardy
Books by G.H. Hardy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39236
