otd

<p><a href="/tags/onthisday/" rel="tag">#OnThisDay</a>, 1 Aug 1786, Caroline Herschel discovers comet C/1786 P1, becoming one of the first women to find one (and have it named after her). Her brother was appointed court astronomer to King George III. When Caroline took a government salary for helping him she became the first woman to be paid for her astronomical work.</p><p>This week, 2025, Prof Michele Dougherty became the first woman to be Astronomer Royal.</p><p><a href="/tags/womeninhistory/" rel="tag">#WomenInHistory</a> <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#History</a> <a href="/tags/womenshistory/" rel="tag">#WomensHistory</a> <a href="/tags/womeninstem/" rel="tag">#WomenInSTEM</a> <a href="/tags/histodons/" rel="tag">#Histodons</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1899.</p><p>William Gillette&#x27;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.</p><p><a href="https://archive.org/details/sherlockholmes0000will" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="archive.org/details/sherlockholmes0000will"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">archive.org/details/sherlockho</span><span class="invisible">lmes0000will</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>

<p>Danish author Marie Bregendahl was born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1867.</p><p>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.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Bregendahl" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Bregendahl"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Br</span><span class="invisible">egendahl</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1859</p><p>Wilkie Collins&#x27;s The Woman in White, an early example of mystery fiction, begins serialisation in All the Year Round.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_White_(novel)#" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_in_White_(novel)#"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woma</span><span class="invisible">n_in_White_(novel)#</span></a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Year_Round" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Year_Round"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_</span><span class="invisible">Year_Round</span></a></p><p><a href="https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/583" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gutenberg.org/ebooks/583</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1952.</p><p>Agatha Christie&#x27;s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London&#x27;s West End after a premiere in Nottingham, UK. It will become the longest continuously running play in history.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mousetrap"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mous</span><span class="invisible">etrap</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/onthisday/" rel="tag">#OnThisDay</a>, 28 Nov 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers the existence of pulsars.</p><p>Not included in the 1974 Nobel prize for the discovery, Bell received a £3m prize for her work in 2018. She&#x27;s used it to set up a foundation to improve the diversity in STEM.</p><p><a href="/tags/womeninhistory/" rel="tag">#WomenInHistory</a> <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#History</a> <a href="/tags/womenshistory/" rel="tag">#WomensHistory</a> <a href="/tags/womeninstem/" rel="tag">#WomenInSTEM</a> <a href="/tags/histodons/" rel="tag">#Histodons</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1919.</p><p>The Großes Schauspielhaus opens as a theater in Berlin, with an interior designed by Hans Poelzig. It begins with the director Max Reinhardt&#x27;s production of the Oresteia.</p><p>The House of Atreus at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8604" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8604</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>

<p>&quot;The moment of discovery&quot; does not always exist: the scientist&#x27;s work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire.</p><p>Marie Curie was born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1867.</p><p><a href="/tags/physics/" rel="tag">#physics</a> <a href="/tags/womeninstem/" rel="tag">#WomenInSTEM</a></p>

<p>Mary Somerville, a Scottish scientist died <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1872. Her most famous work, The Mechanism of the Heavens (1831), was a translation and expansion of Laplace&#x27;s Traité de mécanique céleste. </p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Somerville" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Somerville"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Som</span><span class="invisible">erville</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/32884" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/32884"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho</span><span class="invisible">r/32884</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/womeninstem/" rel="tag">#WomenInSTEM</a></p>

<p>&quot;The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present.&quot;</p><p>Swedish writer Ellen Key was born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1849.</p><p>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.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Key" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Key"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Ke</span><span class="invisible">y</span></a></p><p>Ellen Key at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/502" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/502"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho</span><span class="invisible">r/502</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1922.</p><p>At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year old Leonard Thompson became the first human to receive an injection of insulin as a treatment for diabetes, administered by Dr. James Collip. Thompson developed an allergic reaction to the injection. Additional work was done to refine the treatment and a second dose given on January 23.</p><p>More about insulin:<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin</a></p><p><a href="/tags/science/" rel="tag">#science</a> <a href="/tags/medicine/" rel="tag">#medicine</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1884.</p><p>The first London publication of Mark Twain&#x27;s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn occurs.</p><p>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&#x27;s development into adulthood. </p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventur</span><span class="invisible">es_of_Huckleberry_Finn</span></a></p><p>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at PG:<br><a href="https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/76" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gutenberg.org/ebooks/76</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p>&quot;Thine emulous fond flowers are dead, too,<br>And the daft sun-assaulter, he<br>That frightened thee so oft, is fled or dead:<br>Save only me<br>...<br>There is none left to mourn thee in the fields.&quot;</p><p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1894. Robert Frost&#x27;s first poem, &quot;My Butterfly&quot; appears in The New York Independent, which pays him $15.</p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1908.</p><p>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 &quot;Lolly&quot; 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).</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuala_Press" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuala_Press"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuala_Pr</span><span class="invisible">ess</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p>&quot;I saw you - and from that day<br>I see only you in the world.&quot;</p><p>Johan Henric Kellgren, born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1751, was a Swedish poet and critic.</p><p>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 &quot;Mina Löjen&quot;, which blends satire with lyrical beauty, and &quot;Den nya skapelsen&quot;, which highlights themes of renewal &amp; enlightenment.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Henric_Kellgren" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Henric_Kellgren"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_He</span><span class="invisible">nric_Kellgren</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p>&quot;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.&quot;</p><p>Godfrey Harold Hardy, who died <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1947, was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory &amp; mathematical analysis.</p><p>In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of population genetics.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Hardy" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Hardy"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Ha</span><span class="invisible">rdy</span></a></p><p>Books by G.H. Hardy at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39236" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39236"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho</span><span class="invisible">r/39236</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/mathematics/" rel="tag">#mathematics</a></p>

<p>&quot;Ask no questions, and you&#x27;ll be told no lies.&quot;</p><p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1860.</p><p>Charles Dickens&#x27;s Bildungsroman Great Expectations begins serialization in All the Year Round. Although intended for weekly publication, Great Expectations was divided into nine monthly sections, with new pagination for each.</p><p>Great Expectations at PG:<br><a href="https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p>The laverock rises owe blin waas<br>At ane wi the great North wun<br>At the heid o hecht…</p><p>—“The Heid o Hecht” by Duncan Glen, born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a>, 11 Jan, 1933. Starting out as an apprentice printer, he became a poet, designer, editor, publisher, &amp; academic</p><p>1/3</p><p><a href="https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">asls.org.uk/publications/books</span><span class="invisible">/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scotish/" rel="tag">#Scotish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/poem/" rel="tag">#poem</a> <a href="/tags/poetry/" rel="tag">#poetry</a> <a href="/tags/20thcentury/" rel="tag">#20thcentury</a> <a href="/tags/scots/" rel="tag">#Scots</a> <a href="/tags/scotslanguage/" rel="tag">#Scotslanguage</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1892.</p><p>George Bernard Shaw&#x27;s first play Widowers&#x27; Houses has its first performance, at the Royalty Theatre in London under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society. The author is booed.</p><p>This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898. The other plays in the group are The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren&#x27;s Profession.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowers%27_Houses" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowers%27_Houses"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowers</span><span class="invisible">%27_Houses</span></a></p><p>Books by Bernard Shaw at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/467" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/467"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho</span><span class="invisible">r/467</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1812.</p><p>Leigh Hunt is tried and convicted of libel for calling the Prince Regent &quot;a violator of his word, a libertine over head and ears in debt and disgrace&quot; in The Examiner on March 22.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hunt" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hunt"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hu</span><span class="invisible">nt</span></a></p><p>Original files (with links) are available at <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>internetarchive</span></a></span> </p><p>Books by Leigh Hunt at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3612" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3612"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho</span><span class="invisible">r/3612</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1822.</p><p>French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin</span><span class="invisible">-Jean_Fresnel</span></a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(waves)" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(waves)"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polariza</span><span class="invisible">tion_(waves)</span></a></p><p>The wave theory of light is available at <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>internetarchive</span></a></span> <br><a href="https://archive.org/details/wavetheoryofligh00crewrich" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="archive.org/details/wavetheoryofligh00crewrich"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">archive.org/details/wavetheory</span><span class="invisible">ofligh00crewrich</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/physics/" rel="tag">#physics</a></p>

<p>“The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.”</p><p><a href="/tags/onthisday/" rel="tag">#OnThisDay</a>, 1 Dec 1955, Rosa Parks does *not* give up her seat on the bus for a white passenger, and is arrested. Her refusal is a key moment in the American civil rights movement.</p><p><a href="/tags/womeninhistory/" rel="tag">#WomenInHistory</a> <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#History</a> <a href="/tags/womenshistory/" rel="tag">#WomensHistory</a> <a href="/tags/americanhistory/" rel="tag">#AmericanHistory</a> <a href="/tags/histodons/" rel="tag">#Histodons</a><br>1/3</p>

<p>&quot;It is equally a fault to believe all men or to believe none.&quot;</p><p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1817.</p><p>Walter Scott&#x27;s historical novel Rob Roy, written from this spring, is published anonymously by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh, while a shipload of copies is carried from Leith to London for simultaneous publication there by Longman.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_(novel)" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_(novel)"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_</span><span class="invisible">(novel)</span></a></p><p>Rob Roy at PG:<br><a href="https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/7025" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gutenberg.org/ebooks/7025</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

<p>Orcadian author Ann Scott-Moncrieff (1914–1943) was born <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a>, 11 January. Lesley Findlay, her daughter, talks about Ann’s life in Orkney, her writing, &amp; her children’s stories – recently republished by Scotland Street Press</p><p>1/7</p><p><a href="https://www.scotlandstreetpress.com/journal/who-was-ann-scott-moncrieff" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.scotlandstreetpress.com/journal/who-was-ann-scott-moncrieff"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.scotlandstreetpress.com/jo</span><span class="invisible">urnal/who-was-ann-scott-moncrieff</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/scottish/" rel="tag">#Scottish</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/20thcentury/" rel="tag">#20thCentury</a> <a href="/tags/orkney/" rel="tag">#Orkney</a> <a href="/tags/womenwriters/" rel="tag">#WomenWriters</a> <a href="/tags/childrensliterature/" rel="tag">#ChildrensLiterature</a> <a href="/tags/kidlit/" rel="tag">#kidlit</a></p>

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1898.</p><p>Moscow Art Theatre&#x27;s first season opens with a double bill of Emilia Matthai&#x27;s Greta&#x27;s Happiness and Carlo Goldoni&#x27;s The Mistress of the Inn. The successful and influential Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull by Chekhov (its Moscow première), would open on 29 December 1898.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mistress_of_the_Inn" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mistress_of_the_Inn"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mist</span><span class="invisible">ress_of_the_Inn</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>