Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini was born #OTD in 1782.
He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Paganini&submit_search=Go%21
#OnThisDay, 27 Oct 1967, the Abortion Act gains royal assent. It allows women in the UK – except for Northern Ireland - to legally have an abortion on a range of medical grounds but stops short of making abortion legal.
It came into effect in April 1968 everywhere except Northern Ireland: NI passed their own act in 2020.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Histodons
German scholar Johann Albert Fabricius was born #OTD in 1668.
He produced several significant bibliographies, such as Bibliotheca Graeca, Bibliotheca Latina, Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, and Bibliotheca Latina mediae et infimae aetatis.
#OnThisDay, 28 Oct 1908, Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox unfurl a banner and then chain themselves to the grille in the Ladies Gallery in the House of Commons, London, demanding votes for women.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #BritishHistory #Histodons
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#art #history:
‘kiss me & you will see how important i am.’
i'm wishing a sketchy birthday to la plath, born #otd in 1932 - &, even though i've not a chance in high hades of achieving a scintilla of the written eloquence that she displayed, here's my scribbled ode. [cheeky wee thread follows]
#sylviaPlath #illustration #poet #literature #poetry
Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science Laura Bassi was born #OTD in 1711. Bassi became the most important populariser of Newtonian mechanics in Italy.
#OTD in 1675.
Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. He adapted the integral symbol, ∫, from the letter ſ (long s), standing for summa (written as ſumma; Latin for "sum" or "total").
"[...] people always live for ever when there is any annuity to be paid them."
#OTD in 1811.
Jane Austen publishes her first novel: Sense and Sensibility at her own expense in 3 volumes, priced at 15 s., in Thomas Egerton's Military Library.
#OTD in 1938.
Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States.
The War of the Worlds at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/36
"If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the university and laboratory until one gets a better grasp of one's subject matter."
Margaret Mead died #OTD in 1978.
Japanese artist and printmaker Hokusai was born #OTD in 1760.
He is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
#OTD in 1612 (and 27 January 1613). Galileo Galilei became the first person to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
Because Neptune was only beginning its yearly retrograde cycle in Dec. 1612, the motion of the planet was far too slight to be detected with Galileo's small telescope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune
Neptune at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/34991
#OTD in 1850.
Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield concludes serial publication and on November 14 appears complete in book form from Bradbury and Evans in London.
#OTD in 1895
Thomas Hardy's last completed novel, Jude the Obscure is published by Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. in London, dated 1896, on completion of an expurgated serialization under the title Hearts Insurgent in Harper's Magazine.
#OTD in 1902
Leo Tolstoy's drama The Power of Darkness (written in 1886) has its Russian-language première at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although Stanislavski is self-critical.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Darkness
The Power of Darkness at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26661
#OTD in 1520.
The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is known by this name after the Portuguese sailor Fernão de Magalhães sailed through it in the XVI century.
#OnThisDay, 5 July 1957, Althea Gibson becomes the first Black person to win a #Wimbledon Singles tennis trophy.
Blogpost by Moira from 2019:
https://illustratedwomeninhistory.com/althea-gibson/
Newsreel: https://youtu.be/2EJCqBsh2Dk?t=1m15s
Listen to her being interviewed here (dead bird link)
https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1412427791396659204
#BlackHistory #TennisHistory #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons
"Man is free at the instant he wants to be."
French writer, deist and philosopher Voltaire was born #OTD in 1694. He established himself as one of the leading writers of the enlightenment.
Books by Voltaire at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/913
#OTD in 1748.
The first instalment of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, also known as Fanny Hill, is published anonymously by John Cleland to raise money to free himself from the London debtors' prison. It is considered by some to be the first modern erotic novel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill
Memoirs of Fanny Hill at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/25305
#OTD in 1908.
The release in France of La Mort du duc de Guise marks the first film with a screenplay by Henri Lavedan; it is also directed by Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes. Music composed by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Science history: Richard Feynman gives a fun little lecture — and dreams up an entirely new field of physics — Dec. 29, 1959
By Tia Ghose
Abby Morton Diaz was born #OTD in 1821.
Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, she became involved in the reform movements of the 19th century, particularly those related to women's suffrage, education, and labor.
Abby Morton Diaz at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2166
"Existence is of little interest save on days when the dust of realities is mingled with magic sand."
Marcel Proust died #OTD in 1922. He was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu.
#OTD in 1856.
British actress Laura Keene opens her own theatre in New York City. She is most famous for being the lead actress in the play Our American Cousin, which was attended by President Abraham Lincoln on the evening of his assassination.
![Bielefeld : Velhagen und Klasing, 1905 Opis fizyczny: [6], 154 s, 18 k. tabl. : il. ; 27 cm Max Osborn - This file comes from Polona Digital Library and is available under the digital ID https://polona.pl/item/der-holzschnitt,MTQ2Mzk1Njkz/174/](/proxy/post_attachment/490388/09147528c8.jpeg "Bielefeld : Velhagen und Klasing, 1905 Opis fizyczny: [6], 154 s, 18 k. tabl. : il. ; 27 cm Max Osborn - This file comes from Polona Digital Library and is available under the digital ID https://polona.pl/item/der-holzschnitt,MTQ2Mzk1Njkz/174/")
