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Latest online update: May 2010
Our May 2010 online update includes:
- biographies of 90 people who shaped British life between the thirteenth and the late twentieth century.
> See full list of new lives
Special focus on:
- Civilian heroes who achieved national recognition, including Wallace Hartley, Titanic musician; Alice Ayres, inspiration for London’s Postman’s Park memorial; and Barbara Harrison, the sole female recipient of the George Cross in peacetime.
- Linguists and modern Europeans: 35 biographies begin a new project on interpreters and promoters of European languages and culture.
- Social reformers and historical observers: including fruit-grower Patrick Matthew, whose intellectual interests in evolutionism led him to claim priority over Darwin, and Kenneth St Joseph who pioneered aerial photography for archaeological research.
- Themes: thirteen Theme articles including group essays on the Marlborough House set and the St Ives school of artists.
Read the editor's preface to the May 2010 update.
Extracts and highlights from the new update
September 2010
- 23 September: the ODNB’s latest update will add 100 new lives with a special focus on the history of policing.
- this month sees the visit of Pope Benedict XIV to Britain during which he will beatify John Henry Newman.
- it's also the 70th anniversary of the creation of the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery
- Lives of the Day: September’s anniversaries included the bicentenary of the birth of Elizabeth Gaskell (29th) and the 50th anniversary of the death of the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein (22nd); it’s also 125 years since the birth of D.H. Lawrence (11th). Other lives highlighted in September include the pioneer of the national park movement, John Gordon Dower (2nd); the heroine Grace Darling (7th), and the documentary filmmaker, Humphrey Jennings (24th) best known for his record of the Blitz which began 70 years ago.
Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Great Fire then Spitfire.
August 2010
- This month marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain. And 75 years after the formation of the Ramblers’ Association, five famous pedestrians.
- Lives of the Day: August’s dates include the anniversary of the death of Alec Guinness (5th), the births of children’s writer Edith Nesbit (15th) and astronomer John Flamsteed (19th), and the discovery of Lindow Man, the first-century sacrificial victim, also known as the Body in the Bog (10th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, leaders of their bands.
July 2010
- 30 July marks the 75th anniversary of the first Penguin paperbacks, published by Allen Lane which included works by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.
- Lives of the Day: July’s dates include the tennis champion Lawrence Doherty—in time for the men’s final at Wimbledon (4th)—and for all those wishing it ‘all over’, the 1966 commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme on World Cup final day (11th). Earlier in the month we’ve the little-known and short-lived prime minister Spencer Compton (2nd) and the shadowy Tichborne claimant (6th), followed on 21st by the Tudor school benefactor, Agnes Mellors, and massed ranks of the Rochdale Pioneers (31st). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, the power of love; the structure of DNA.
June 2010
- World Cup, wonders? Fabio’s alternative XI.
- Rude Britannia: 250 years of satirists accompany a new exhibition at Tate Britain.
- Lives of the Day: June’s dates include the centenary of the birth of the singer Peter Pears (22nd) and, of course, the start of the World Cup with Alf Ramsey (12th). Also in June there’s Basil Brown who discovered the Sutton Hoo burial site (1st), ballerina Moira Shearer (6th), Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (8th), Mrs Boswell (11th), and pioneering balloonist, James Sadler (20th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, 1966 and all that, plus the History Man.
May 2010
- Up close and personal: for Local History month, a gathering of maps and tips for finding people near you. Our Election Special is also available as polling day nears.
- 27th May: our next update is published, with a special focus on civilian heroes.
- Lives of the Day: May’s dates include the death of Edward VII (6 May 1910) and the 350th anniversary of the restoration of Charles II (29th). Notable centenarians include the crystallographer, Dorothy Hodgkin (born 12 May 1909) and the morality campaigner, Mary Whitehouse (13th). In between there’s J.M. Barrie (9th), Ealing film producer Michael Balcon (19th), and fitted-carpet king, Cyril Lord (29th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Penguin keeper and Postman’s Park.
April 2010
- Election special: campaigners, supporters, reporters, winners and losers as the UK general election nears.
- Lives of the Day: April’s dates include the 350th anniversary of the birth of the physician and collector Sir Hans Sloane (16th) and 40 years since the end of the Beatles (9th with George Harrison).Other April lives include the theatrical designers Motley (1st), the Labour politician Tony Banks (8th), the Irish giant Patrick Cotter (24th), and Rachel Erskine, a victim of kidnap who disappeared on 22 April (1732). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, false ghosts and Home Truths.
March 2010
- Rule, Britannia: patriotic lives on the tercentenary of the birth of composer Thomas Arne.
- Lives of the Day: March begins with plantsman Peter Barr, dubbed the ‘daffodil king’, for St David’s day, and continues the horticultural theme with Christopher Lloyd, creator of Great Dixter (2nd). Later in the month there’s the pioneer of water filtration, James Simpson (4th), novelist Sybille Bedford (16th), the Hanoverian actress Peg Woffington (28th), and an unlikely combination of ‘monk and pirate’ in the life of Eustace (18th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, the men behind wind energy and Mr Kite.
February 2010
- Lives of the Day: February’s lives include novelists Muriel Spark (1st) and Iris Murdoch (8th). They are joined by the seventeenth-century political theorist, Robert Filmer (2nd) author of Patriarcha, historian E.P. Thompson (8th), architect Giles Gilbert Scott (9th), whose designs include the telephone kiosk, Battersea power station, and Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral, and ballroom dancer Victor Silvester (25th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, two very different kinds of culture.
January 2010
- New update: 211 biographies of men and women who died in 2006
- New leaves: it’s 350 years since Samuel Pepys started to keep a diary. To mark the occasion, Pepys himself and a selection of fellow diarists.
- Lives of the Day: January lives include Freddie Laker from the Oxford DNB’s new update (7th) and Jean Armour for Burns’ night (25th). Along the way there’s the early modern herbalist Nicholas Culpeper (10th), naval officer David Beatty, 95 years after the failure of Dogger Bank (23rd), and poet and illustrator Edward Lear (29th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, swimming pools, scandal, and Lancashire ladies.
December 2009
- Podcast by place: selected episodes from our biography podcast are now available on a map. Who lived near you?
- ODNB in Ancestors magazine: December’s issue includes an article by editors Philip Carter and Mark Curthoys on how online resources offer new insights into national biography.
- Grand Old Man: five lives to mark the 200th anniversary of William Gladstone’s birth.
- Lives of the Day: in addition to Gladstone’s bicentenary (29th), December marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sidney Lee, who succeeded Leslie Stephen as editor of the first DNB, and 50 years since the death of the artist Stanley Spencer (14th). There’s also Thomas De Quincy (8th), historian and biographer Alan Bullock (13th), and two men whose names live on: Francis Beaufort (17th), of the wind scale, and the flour merchant and film-maker, J Arthur Rank (22nd) who gave us the man with the gong. Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Nights at the Circus, days in the lab.
November 2009
- Five spies: agents and double-agents on the centenary of MI5 and MI6
- Armistice lives: a selection of the ODNB’s coverage of people active during the Great War.
- Lives of the Day: November’s notable dates include the Armistice (11th) which this year features the war memorial architect Charles Jagger; St Andrew’s Day (30th), when we offer Scottish music-hall performer Tommy Lorne; and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Cecil Sharp (22nd), promoter of English folk dancing. In between there’s the botanical artist, Lillian Snelling (25th), and Ernest Lough, the chorister best known for his recording of ‘O for the wings of a dove’ (17th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, a spy exposed and a Jacobean thief.
October 2009
- 8 October: the latest online update of the Oxford DNB is published, adding more than 100 new biographies and themes—with a special focus on Scotland and Britons in Latin America
- legacy of Isaiah Berlin: Whitgift School, South Croydon, holds an annual essay competition to consider the legacy of selected people in the Oxford DNB born a century ago. Here’s this year’s winning essay.
- Lives of the Day: October’s anniversaries include the centenary of the birth of artist Francis Bacon (28th) and the 150th anniversary of the death of the civil engineer Robert Stephenson (12th). In between there’s P.G. Wodehouse (15th), Mrs Thatcher’s trusted deputy Willie Whitelaw (17th), and Cotton Club singer Adelaide Hall (20th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Hull poet and Scottish heroine.
September 2009
- Dr Johnson and friends: on the 300th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, we present the lexicographer, his biographer, and the great man’s literary circle.
- Lives of the Day: in addition to Dr Johnson, September sees other significant anniversaries. On 3 September we offer the life of Neville Chamberlain whose 11am announcement took Britain to war with Germany. A central figure from an earlier conflict, General James Wolfe, is recalled on 13th, the 250th anniversary of his death at Quebec. The life and work of composer Henry Purcell is remembered on 10th while on 23 September the Oxford DNB marks its fifth anniversary since publication with the story of its founding editor Colin Matthew. There’ll be more on this anniversary in October when we publish our next online update. Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, home front and heart of oak.
August 2009
- Book lovers and reading groups: a new permanent page with ideas for using the dictionary if you’re a member of a reading group.
- Lives of the Day: this month’s anniversaries include the bicentenary of the birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (6th) and 250 years since the birth of William Wilberforce (24th). On the morning of 8 August 1963 Malcolm Fewtrell was woken at 4.30am and so became the investigating officer in the Great Train Robbery. There’s also Helen Goff, creator of Mary Poppins (9th), Labour leader, Keir Hardie (15th), and John Stanhope Arkwright, whose celebrated First World War hymn ‘O valiant hearts’ was first sung in Westminster Abbey on 5 August 1917. Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, king’s pleasure and crowd pleaser.
July 2009
- Ashes cricketers: who played in the greatest ever Ashes sides?—cricket experts Christopher Martin-Jenkins and Jim Maxwell offer their choices.
- Lives of the Day: this month’s anniversaries include the centenary of high street man of fashion, Hardy Amies (17th), and Cyril Northcote Parkinson (30th) known for his ‘law’ that works expands to fill the time. July also includes Christopher Cockerell to mark the first crossing of the Channel by hovercraft (25 July 1959) and the 150th anniversary of the first striking of Westminster’s Big Ben, named after Benjamin Hall (11th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, Bodyline and Brunel.
June 2009
- Green and pleasant land: interactive map of gardeners who shaped the nation.
- May 2009 update is days old: special focus on gardeners and engineers of everyday life.
- Electronic Enlightenment: the ODNB now has more than 1000 reciprocal links with Oxford University’s new online resource, Electronic Enlightenment, which offers the searchable correspondence of eighteenth-century thinkers, writers, and publishers. Links are available in the left-hand margin of relevant ODNB entries (for example, Voltaire and Adam Smith).
- Lives of the Day for June: this month’s anniversaries include the death of Thomas Paine (8 June 1809) and the centenary of the birth of philosopher Isaiah Berlin (6th) and the actress Jessica Tandy (7th). June also has some notable lives in the history of health care, including the pioneering female physician, Elizabeth Garret Anderson (9th), epidemiologist Richard Doll, who made the connection between smoking and cancer (11th), and Cicely Saunders, creator of the modern hospice movement (22nd). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, ‘life, the universe and everything’, plus a rope, a bottle and a waterfall.
May 2009
- new update: highlights and extracts from the May2009 update which adds biographies of 87 men and women.
- Into Number 10: it’s 30 years since Margaret Thatcher entered Downing Street as prime minister.
- Oxford Poets: the new professor of poetry is elected on 16th May.
- Lives of the Day for May: this month’s anniversaries include the centenary of the birth of sporting figures Fred Perry (18th) and Sir Matt Busby (26th), the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Conan Doyle (22nd), and the bicentenary of the death of Joseph Haydn (31st). In between there’s Mrs Thatcher’s muse Keith Joseph (4th), novelist Monica Dickens, and engineer and lighthouse designer, John Smeaton (28th). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, swimming and Sissinghurst.
April 2009
-
History hoaxers for the 1st
- Lives of the Day for April: this month marks the 250th anniversary of the death of George Frideric Handel (14th) and the birth of Mary Wollstonecraft (27th). It’s also the centenary of Cubby Broccoli (5th) who brought James Bond to the screen. In between Bond and the Rights of Woman there’s cookery writer Patience Gray (12th), physician and collector Hans Sloane (14th), violinist Yehudi Menuhin (22nd), and English national emblem John Bull (23rd). Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, the cruel sea and Old Man River.
March 2009
- New print volume: 5 March sees publication of the dictionary’s first print supplement, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2001-2004. This volume includes entries on more than 800 men and women who died between 2001 and 2004, extending the 60-volume print edition into the twenty-first century.
- Annual newsletter: the 2009 issue of the ODNB’s newsletter is now available online.
- Van Dyck and Britain: a gallery of Carolinian sitters to mark Tate Britain’s new exhibition.
- Lives of the Day for March: this month’s biographies include the Welsh footballing maestro John Charles (for St David’s Day), the eponymous restaurateur Aldo Berni (born on 14 March 1909) and the writers Virginia Woolf (28th) and John Fowles (31st) Find out who’s currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, courage and catering.
February 2009
- Lives of the Day for February: this month’s anniversaries include bicentenaries of the composer Felix Mendelssohn (born 3 February 1809) and the naturalist Charles Darwin (12th), and the centenaries of TV chef Fanny Cradock (26th) and the poet Stephen Spender (28th). To mark this year’s Oscars (22nd) we offer director Alfred Hitchcock, a recipient in 1968. Along the way there’s the doyen of pantomime dames Jack Tripp (4th), the lawyer Rose Heilbron, the first female King’s Counsel at the English bar (21st), and William Harbutt (13th), art teacher and inventor of Plasticine. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, canvas and celluloid.
January 2009
- New update: highlights and extracts from the January 2009 update which adds entries on men and women who died in 2005.
- Lives of the Day for January: this month’s selection includes the poet Robert Burns (born 250 years ago on 25 January 1759), Tudor biographer William Roper (4th), William Friese-Greene, developer of motion pictures (15th), jazz man Ronnie Scott (28th), Norman Heatley (10th), the Oxford chemist whose unlikely contraption to extract penicillin was described as ‘Heath Robinson’, and the man himself, cartoonist and illustrator, William Heath Robinson on 31st. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, the ‘hand of history’ and a boat to Skye.
December 2008
- Votes for Women, 1918: marking the anniversary of the first female MP elected to the House of Commons, an exhibition of women who sought and won the vote.
- Lives of the Day for December: this month’s anniversaries include the poet and polemicist John Milton (9 December 1608) and the actress Celia Johnson (18 December 1908). The biography of civil engineer Owen Williams marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first motorway (5th) and that of crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin, the annual awards to Nobel laureates (10th). In between there’s the seventeenth-century fisherman Isaak Walton (15th), inventor of linoleum James Williamson (19th), and a seasonal favouite, Eric Morecambe (25th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, City gents and suffragettes.
November 2008
- Armistice 1918: a gallery of 36 men and women who shaped the First World War and its aftermath.
- Lives of the Day for November: this month we mark the centenary of the birth of broadcaster Alistair Cooke (20th), recall the extraordinary Victoria Woodhull, Anglophile and first US female presidential candidate, for election day (4th), followed on 5th by another would-be agent of political change, Guy Fawkes. Other lives in November include Elizabeth I (on the 550th anniversary of her accession, 17th); Frank Pick, the man responsible for the London Underground map (23rd); the story of Sutton Hoo (28th), and the ‘Piper of Loos’, Daniel Laidlaw (30th) for St Andrew’s Day. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, presidents and impresarios.
October 2008
- The October issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the October 2008 update which adds biographies of 125 new people and 21 reference groups to the dictionary.
- Lives of the Day for October: this month’s lives include Britannia ‘patriotic icon’, 3rd) and the extraordinary Chevalier D’Eon (‘diplomatist and transvestite’, 5th); Newcastle United’s greatest Number 9, Jackie Milburn is followed by the Haniverian impresario ‘Beau’ Nash (18th), Geoffrey Chaucer (25th), and the seventeenth-century diarist John Evelyn (31st). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, tales of words and war.
September 2008
- The September issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights winners and finalists during 40 years of the Booker Prize. Plus golfing greats for the Ryder Cup and ‘The Few’ to mark Battle of Britain Day.
- Lives of the Day for September: this month’s anniversaries include 30 years since the murder of the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge, London (11th) and the 250th anniversary of the birth of Horatio Nelson (29th). September also features Samuel Ryder, founder of the Ryder Cup golf tournament, 16th), New Zealand health campaigner, Ettie Rout, (17th), IT businesswoman Hilary Cropper (22nd), and Gordon Reece, the PR expert credited with transforming Margaret Thatcher’s image (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, traitorous Haw Haw and mysterious jaw jaw.
August 2008
- The August issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights those remembered for lives on, by or under the sea. Plus UK Oyster Day, and (inevitably) five golden Olympians.
- Lives of the Day for August include the ‘Mouseman’ woodcarver Robert Thompson for Yorkshire Day (1st August) and Ralph Vaughan Williams, on the fiftieth anniversary of his death (26th). Along the way there’s John Keats’s fiancé Frances Brawne (9th), circus proprietor Bertram Mills (11th), founder of Save the Children, Eglantyne Jebb (25th), and the journalist and editor Huw Cudlipp (28th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, Olympic games and baroque gourmands.
July 2008
- The July issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights the shapers of the National Health Service as it marks its 60th anniversary. Plus biographical holiday ideas, and independent-minded Americans for 4 July.
- Lives of the Day for July: this month's anniversaries include 150 years since the birth of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst (15th) and 100 years since the opening of the London’s 1908 Olympics, marked here with the life story of archer and gold medalist, Sybil Newall (20th). Along the way there’s racing driver James Hunt for the British Grand Prix (6th) and Francis Drake for Armada Day (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, A-Z and TV.
June 2008
- The June issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights new biographies added in the latest online update, with a special focus on garden designers, shapers of empire, and groups in British history. Plus a selection of tennis ‘champions’—on and off court—for the start of Wimbledon fortnight.
- Lives of the Day for June: this month's anniversaries include the centenary of the poet Kathleen Raine (14th) followed by the 50th anniversary of the death of the cricketer Douglas Jardine (18th). In between there's James Joyce for 'Bloomsday' (16th), as well as figures from the political left in unionist Hugh Scanlon (whose tanks gathered on Harold Wilson's lawn) and the radical journalist Paul Foot (3rd). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, tales of the greenwood and of the city.
May 2008
- 22 May - new update published: biographies of 91 men and women active between the first and twentieth century; plus 45 new groups in our history of British clubs, gangs and coteries.
- The May issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks Local History month with two interactive maps, plus some 007 lives for Ian Fleming's centenary.
- Lives of the Day for May: this month's selection marks May Day with the morris dancer, William Kimber, and the result of the London elections with the early modern mayor, John Leman (2nd). There’s also Stanley Mortensen, the footballer whose hat-trick won Blackpool the FA cup in 1953 (17th this year’s cup final day); along the way you’ll find drinks manufacturer James Horlick (7th), traveller and writer Freya Stark (9th), and modern artist Terry Frost (21st). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, Alice and James.
April 2008
- The April issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes historical hoaxers for the 1st and Bluestockings to mark the new 'Brilliant Women' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery
- Lives of the Day for April: this month's selection includes David Henderson, the officer who oversaw the formation of the Royal Air Force (on 1st April 1918) and the crystallographer and DNA pioneer, Rosalind Franklin, who died 50 years ago (16th). Sporting lives include the racing commentator Peter Bromley (for the Grand National on 5th) and Jim Clark, the racing driver killed on 7 April 1968. In between there's Margaret Duff, the political activist who took part in CND's first Aldermaston march on 4 April 1958, and the William Shakespeare for St George's Day. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a young Darwin and a Bull.
March 2008
- Oxford DNB editor receives Queen's Anniversary Prize
- The March issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks Mothering Sunday, Commonwealth Day, and St Patrick's Day.
- Lives of the Day for March: this month's selection includes land speed record holder, John Parry Thomas (1st), artist's model Margaret Lemon (4th), Francis Crick, discoverer of DNA (6th), Tadcaster brewer, John Smith (14th), football manager, Brian Clough (21st), and psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein (29th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, furnaces and fairgrounds.
February 2008
- The February issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich air disaster, plus Mills and Boon for Valentine's Day, and leap year lives for the 29th.
- Lives of the Day for February: this month's selection includes screen lives Hughie Green (2nd) and Fred Dibnah (25th), the garden designer Rosemary Verney (7th) and early modern herbalist John Gerard (18th), and along the way Bloomsbury memoirist Frances Partridge (1st) and Lucy Morton, Britain's first female swimmer to win an Olympic title (23rd). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a sporting tragedy and tales of romance.
January 2008
- The January 2008 issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the January 2008 update, plus diarists for a new year, and connections between ODNB and OUP's new online edition of Who's Who and Who Was Who.
- Lives of the Day for January: this month's anniversaries include the singer Al Bowlly, best known for the song 'Buddy can you spare a dime?' (7th) and John Moores (25th), creator of the Littlewood's football pools and now remembered in the name of a Liverpool university. Along the way there are the nawabs of Oudh (8th), cider champion Charles Cooke (16th), and vaccination pioneer Edward Jenner (26th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, Letters from America and Bogo the bad.
December 2007
- The ODNB 'Advent calendar' competition: one calendar, 31 people, three seasonal themes. Spot the links and you could win a set of Very Interesting People.
- The December issue of our monthly online
magazine marks the 125th anniversary of the announcement of the first Dictionary of National Biography (23 December 1882); plus circus folk in our very own big tent.
- Lives of the Day for December: this month's anniversaries include the author Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski on 3 December 1857) and the founder of Methodism, Charles Wesley (born 18 December 1707). Along the way come E.H. Shepard, illustrator of Winnie the Pooh (10th), choreographer Kenneth MacMillan (11th), and writer Aphra Behn (14th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a mystery man and Mr Men.
November 2007
- 15 November Queen's Anniversary Prize awarded for Oxford DNB
The University of Oxford has been awarded one of 20 prizes given by the Royal Anniversary Trust for outstanding projects in higher and further education. Oxford's Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood, said that the Oxford DNB had been an 'outstanding collaboration' between the University, its Press, and a worldwide community of scholarship on the British past.
- The November issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue highlights those who make us a 'Nation of Shopkeepers', alongside some sons (and daughters) of the manse.
- Biography quiz: there's still time to enter our history competition, marking the Oxford DNB's third anniversary.
- Lives of the Day for November: this month's anniversaries include the birth of poet and artist, William Blake (23 November 1757) and the Gunpowder Plot for which we feature the conspirator, Thomas Percy (5th). The 14th marks the opening the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, a modern feat of engineering marked with the life of the station's original engineer, William Barlow. In between you'll find ambulance driver Elizabeth de T'Seclaes (for Remembrance Sunday), writer Roald Dahl (23rd), and the ingenious Martin Dunbar Nasmith, submariner and winner of the Victoria Cross (17th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, Remembrance and Anglophilia.
October 2007
- Biography competition: it's three years since the Oxford DNB was publication in print and online. To celebrate, try your hand at our nationwide biography quiz.
- The October issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month's issue includes highlights from the October 2007 update, plus brothers and sitters to accompany Tate Britain's new Millais exhibition.
- Lives of the Day for October: this month's anniversaries include Henry III (born on 1 October 1207), Harriet Mill (born 25 October 1807), and Sylvia Plath who was born 75 years ago (27th). The work of another poet, Philip Larkin, is remembered on 4th for National Poetry Day, while the rugby world cup is a chance to highlight the life of the game's creator, William Webb Ellis, for whose cup two teams compete in the final (20th). Find out who's currently in the
Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, tales of calypso and courtly love.
September 2007
- The September issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we celebrate the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 4 with a historical dream schedule, from Today to Sailing By. Plus music makers for the Last Night of the Proms and a look at Welsh lives in the ODNB.
- Lives of the Day for September: centenarians this month include the poet Louis MacNeice (12th) and art historian and spy, Anthony Blunt (26th). Deception of a more benign kind was the life's work of another of this month's featured lives: Archibald Belaney, better know to many as Grey Owl (who appears on 18th). Elsewhere September offers glamour, speed, and fizz by way of actress Greer Garson (29th), racing motorcyclist Barry Sheene (11th), and Francis Showering (5th), cider-maker and creator of Babycham. Find out who's currently in the
Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a cello maestro and a Cheshire mystery.
August 2007
- The August issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we mark the 250th anniversary of Thomas Telford's birth with engineering lives. We also look at the shapers of independence for India and Pakistan, sixty years on; plus-some Liverpool figures as the former 'second city of empire', celebrates its 800th birthday.
- Lives of the Day for August: this month we mark the deaths of two prominent figures from 1960s' popular culture-playwright Joe Orton and Beatles' manager Brian Epstein-who died 40 years ago this month, on the 9th and 25th respectively. And to mark the start of the Edinburgh Festival we feature its founder, Henry Harvey Wood (10th). In between you'll find people of letters in the shape of Leonard Woolf (14th) and Mary Shelley (30th) and two men defined by speed: test pilot Roland Beaumont, on 4 August, and athlete Chris Brasher (21st) whose contribution allowed Roger Bannister to break the 4-minute mile, with 0.6 seconds to spare. Find out who's currently in the
Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, stories of experience, courage and coffee.
July 2007
- The July issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month we mark the 50th anniversary of 'Never having it so good' and 100 years of the Boy Scouts; plus—as Britain gains a new prime minister—a historical look at Downing Street people.
- Lives of the Day for July: this month's lives range from Edward I, who died 700 years ago this month, to Hannah Cullwick,
servant and diarist whose unusual marriage took her above stairs. In between, July's birthdays include George Bradshaw, master of the railway
timetable, while for the 20th it's Harold Macmillan who evoked the good life on this day in 1957. Find out who's currently in the
Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a king of the court and the man behind the Mac.
June 2007
- The fifth issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Sgt Pepper and the Summer of Love; plus, on the 150th anniversary of
its first investiture, Victoria Cross holders from the Crimea to the Falklands.
- Lives of the Day for June: the 1st sees the centenary of jet pioneer Frank Whittle's birth, followed on the 11th by art collector and
philanthropist, Paul Mellon. There's also George Mallory, victim of Everest (8th), and the Nazi sympathizer, Diana Moseley (17th). Marking the
anniversary of D-Day (6th), we include the life of General Bernard Montgomery, better known to many as 'Monty'. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week
gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and
podcast. This month, a boy hero of Jutland and queens on wheels.
May 2007
- The May issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online
magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—for Museums and Galleries month—men and women behind Britain's favourite institutions, from Ashmole to Whipple via Hayward and Horniman;
plus the English in Virginia, 1607–2007, and ten May Days in history.
- Lives of the Day for May: this month's lives range from Edward I, who died 700 years ago this month, to Hannah Cullwick,
servant and diarist whose unusual marriage took her above stairs. In between, July's birthdays include George Bradshaw, master of the railway
timetable, while for the 20th it's Harold Macmillan who evoked the good life on this day in 1957. Find out who's currently in the
Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the
life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast.
This month, a king of the court and the man behind the Mac.
April 2007
- NEW from April: the third issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Anglo-Scottish relations in the 300 years since union; exotic visitors to the NPG and, as the Simpsons turn 20, their British ancestors revealed.
- The Oxford Biography Index is launched. A free resource, on the open web, it contains the headword of every Oxford DNB article. It is, therefore, an authoritative index of notable people from British history. Anyone who needs to know exactly what someone was called, when they lived, or needs to refer to someone unambiguously and definitively, will find it invaluable.
- Lives of the Day for April: this month's birthdays include the golfer Margaret Scott (5th) the novelist Charlotte Brontë (21st) and author and magistrate Henry Fielding (22nd), who was born three hundred years ago this month. We keep the rousing Georgian theme going for the 23rd (John Bull, epitomist of Englishness) and in between there's Anthony Mildmay, the tallest jockey to have won the Grand National (14th), and Barry Bucknell, father of TV DIY (6th). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast. This month, the very old Old Parr and America's favourite princess.
March 2007
- NEW from March: the second issue of Oxford DNB's monthly online magazine is published, with topical free content and regular features. This month—slavery and abolition; European visitors as the European community turns 50, plus premonitions and advice for the Ides of March.
- Lives of the Day for March: this month's birthdays range from Jean Metcalfe (2nd), radio broadcaster and Woman's Hour presenter, to the craftsman and visionary socialist, William Morris (24th). There's also a tale of Irish philanthropy in Bulgaria for St Patrick's Day and a visit (on 9th) from Shen Fuzong, one of the earliest recorded Chinese people to come to England, where he met James II and helped catalogue Chinese books at Oxford. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast
February 2007
- NEW from February: the Oxford DNB begins a monthly online magazine, with topical free content and regular features. This month—Hanoverian faces by Hogarth, Brits at the Oscars, and a Valentine's Day treat for your loved one.
- Lives of the Day for Febuary: dates commemorated this month include the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements (22nd), and the centenary of W. H. Auden's birth (21st). For US Presidents' Day (19th) we have James Madison while director Carol Reed marks Oscar night (27th). Along the way there's Val McCalla, founder of The Voice (8th), and on the 14th that much-loved love poet, John Donne. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast
January 2007
- The ODNB picture board: January's reading room brings you face to face with our latest update
- Oxford DNB podcasts: new biographies, and some old favourites, as downloads and podcast
- Lives of the Day for January: anniversaries commemorated in January include the centenary of the birth of walker Alfred Wainwright (17th) and the 550th anniversary of the birth of Henry VII (28th). We mark Australia Day (26th) with Edmund Barton, the country's prime minister (1901–03), who comes shortly after one of the dictionary's most unusual subjects, self-styled druid William Price (23rd). As it's also a new year we begin, naturally, with a diarist, Samuel Pepys. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
December 2006
- Christmas competitions: spot the links in the Oxford DNB Advent calendar for a chance to win £200 of OUP books
- Five lives: this month, five children's favourites
- Lives of the Day for December: this month we mark two centenaries: 8th December is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard Llewellyn, author of How Green was my Valley, while 30th December marks the centenary of the death of social reformer, Josephine Butler. In between we range from architect Berthold Lubetkin (14th) to Salote Mafile'o Pilolevu Tupou III, queen of Tonga (16th). As this is the month for panto dames you'll also find Arthur Lucan (better known as Old Mother Riley) and an ‘old acquaintance’ for New Year's Eve. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
November 2006
- 007 lives for a new James Bond
- The ODNB Ashes: history's ultimate cricket series.
- Lives of the Day for November: November's lives highlight men and woman active in recent military conflicts: on 3rd we feature the military painter, Elizabeth Butler, and for Remembrance Day Neville Talbot, army chaplain and founder in 1916 of Talbot House, Poperinghe, Belgium. The military culmination to the Suez crisis is recalled between 4th and 6th with three lives, concluding with Eden. Meanwhile the American festival of Thanksgiving is marked by the colonial governor, Edward Winslow, while two lesser-known lives conclude the month: the irascible butler Henry Moat (28th) and the ironmonger, Jonathan Buttall, thought to be the subject of Gainsborough's celebrated Blue Boy portrait. Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Reading room for November: highlights new people added in our latest update to the dictionary, plus five people not to invite to dinner:> more
October 2006
- Lives of the Day for October: October's lives feature some household and lesser-known names. Prominent birthdays include the politician Barbara Castle (6th) and the astronomer Edmond Halley (29th). Less familiar perhaps are the Palau Islander Lee Boo, who came to Britain in the 1770s, and his near contemporary Hannah Lightfoot, the alleged first wife of George III. On the 5th we mark National Poetry Day with John Clare and commemorate two naval anniversaries on 11th (Camperdown, with the sailor Jack Crawford) and 21st (Trafalgar, with Nelson's captain Henry Blackwood). Find out who's currently in the Lives of the Week gallery, and sign up for the life of the day.
- Reading room for October: highlights some of the new people added in our latest update to the dictionary, published on 5th October:> more
September 2006
- Lives of the Day for September: September's lives are characterized by remarkable creative talents: on 2nd we mark the anniversary of the Fire of London with Christopher Wren, the man who shaped the post-fire capital; for the Last Night of the Proms (9th) there's Benjamin Britten, and on 28th we offer Hans Holbein to coincide with Tate Britain's major new exhibition on the artist in England. In between there's the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, Penguin publisher Allen Lane, and pioneering mountaineer Lucy Walker.
- Reading room for September: for ‘Local and Community History’ month a look at some lesser-known regional figures—from Cornwall's Dolly Pentreath to John O'Groats:> more
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