#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
#OTD In 1397, Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.
https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-april-17-2026/
"Canterbury Tales" at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales
"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.
#OTD in 1910.
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy dies of pneumonia aged 82 at Astapovo railway station, after a day's train journey south, fleeing from his home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
Books by Leo Tolstoy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/136
#OTD in 1906.
Frank Wedekind's play Spring Awakening: A Children's Tragedy (Frühlings Erwachen), completed 1901, receives its first staging, directed by Max Reinhardt.
The Awakening of Spring at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/35242
Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889–1982)—author, poet, film-maker, botanist, #arctic explorer—was born #OTD, 30 May. A 🎂 🧵
WalkHighlands shares an extract from PEAK BEYOND PEAK, describing how she tackled the Corrieyairack Pass between the #Cairngorms & Loch Ness
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#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #hillwalking #mountaineering
#OTD in 1902.
J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh.
José-Maria de Heredia was born #OTD in 1842.
He published in 1893 Les Trophées comprising 198 sonnets that retrace the history of the world or depict privileged moments as well as four longer poems.
José-Maria de Heredia at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5697
#OTD in 1900.
August Strindberg's To Damascus (Till Damaskus, first two parts) receives its première at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm with August Palme and Harriet Bosse, Strindberg's future wife, in the leading rôles.
Anna Bayerová was born #OTD in 1853.
She studied at University of Bern since University of Vienna denied her entry there. She provided critical healthcare to women & children often focusing on underserved & rural communities.
#OTD in 1850.
Alfred Tennyson is named Poet Laureate of the UK in succession to William Wordsworth, but only after Samuel Rogers has declined the offer because of his age and Tennyson is assured that birthday odes will not be required of him.
#OTD in 1918.
Wilfred Owen is killed in action aged 25, at the Sambre–Oise Canal, with only five of his poems published. News of his death reaches his parents in Shrewsbury a week later on Armistice Day.
Endre Ady was born #OTD in 1877.
Some of his notable poetry collections include "Új versek" (New Poems, 1906), "A Holnap" (Tomorrow, 1908), and "A halottak élén" (At the Head of the Dead, 1918).
Books by Endre Ady at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39489
French and American writer, journalist and pianist Ève Curie was born #OTD in 1904.
She is best known for writing a biography of her mother, Madame Curie (1937). Ève was the only member of her family who did not choose a career as a scientist and did not win a Nobel Prize, although her husband, Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., did collect the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of UNICEF.
101 years ago, #OTD in 1925, Edwin Hubble announced that Andromeda and other spiral nebulae were definitely separate galaxies outside the Milky Way, in a paper read to an AAS meeting by H.N. Russell.
There was no doubt that the Universe was more than just our little island of stars.
The City is of Night; perchance of Death…
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of Modernism
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https://psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-dreadful-night/
#Scottish #literature #poetry #Victorian #19thCentury #modernism #TSEliot
#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.
#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
![Leo Tolstoy in his office. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1908 May]; CREATOR: Prokudin-Gorskii, Sergei Mikhailovich, 1863-1944, photographer. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.](/proxy/post_attachment/518491/2adb5dcf0dd463cf3f28d3bd20ca477a.jpeg "Leo Tolstoy in his office. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1908 May]; CREATOR: Prokudin-Gorskii, Sergei Mikhailovich, 1863-1944, photographer. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.")
