In all the excitement about 'Emmeline's Loving Comrade' don't forget about my two previous books, both of which have connections with Richard Pankhurst. The radical world of the later 19th century was a small but vibrant place!
JoannaMWilliams
@joannamw.bsky.social
Historian, nature and music lover. Author of historical biographies on Mancunian Victorians Abel Heywood and Lydia Becker. And now I have a new book out: ‘Emmeline’s Loving Comrade: Richard Marsden Pankhurst, the man who inspired the Suffragette leader’.
Alan Turing died on this day 1954, aged forty-one.
Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · last yr.Made in Manchester: Alan Turing (1912-54), mathematician and computer scientist, joined Manchester’s computing pioneers and also forecast the arrival of artificial intelligence. He died by cyanide poisoning after being prosecuted for homosexual acts. 1/6
The Reform Act in England and Wales gained royal assent on this day 1832. It widened the electorate to about 20 per cent of adult males and redistributed parliamentary seats to industrial towns including Manchester, Birmingham, Bolton, Salford, Rochdale, Ashton and Bury.
Hebden Bridge, west Yorkshire, photo by Alice Longstaff, 1907-92 (Pennine Heritage).
My book ‘Emmeline’s Loving Comrade: Richard Marsden Pankhurst’ includes fascinating and unusual images:
Surgeons trying to eliminate pain eventually arrived at anaesthesia – but not before a contest with older, more unusual therapies. Why was mesmerism so magnetic? ⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free buff.ly/zgdXFTB
Mesmerism: Pain Management before Anaesthetics
Surgeons trying to eliminate pain eventually arrived at anaesthesia – but not before a contest with older, more unusual therapies. Why was mesmerism so magnetic?
buff.ly
Our senior research fellow @martinspychal.bsky.social will be featuring on Today in Parliament at 11:30 p.m. on BBC Radio 4, talking about why MPs 'take the Chiltern Hundreds' to resign from the Commons. It will be available on catch up here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Today in Parliament, 22/05/2026
Sean Curran reports as rank-and-file MPs get the chance to bring in their own laws.
bbc.co.uk
21 May 1790 The first patient, Mary Cottery, was registered with the newly founded Manchester Lying-In Charity (later, St Mary’s Hospital), which provided midwives to ‘poor married women’.
Richard Pankhurst links with another of the outstanding people I have written about. ‘Manchester’s Radical Mayor: Abel Heywood, the man who built the Town Hall’ explains how their political careers intertwined in the 1880s.
Born #OnThisDay 1806 John Stuart Mill, philosopher, political economist and Liberal MP for Westminster, 1865-8. Here's what he was doing on his 61st birthday in 1867: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/t...
‘The only really important public service I performed’: John Stuart Mill’s women’s suffrage amendment, 20 May 1867
Our MP of the Month is John Stuart Mill (1806-73), who sat as Liberal MP for Westminster, 1865-8. One hundred and fifty years ago this week, the House of Commons voted for the first time on the que…
victoriancommons.wordpress.com
17 May 1966 Bob Dylan played the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, prompting a shout of ‘Judas’ from the audience for playing an electric set.
Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, defeated and captured Henry III at the Battle of Lewes on 14 May 1264. The victory secured de Montfort's position as the de facto ruler of England, and paved the way for his momentous 1265 parliament.
Simon de Montfort's 1265 Parliament and Magna Carta
Simon de Montfort's famous 1265 Parliament opened in Westminster Hall. This is one of two anniversaries this year, along with the sealing
historyofparliament.com
15 May 1815 A panic at the Collegiate Church (Manchester Cathedral) that the roof was falling in led to one child being killed and 5 injured.
Signed in 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement became shorthand for Western treachery, greed, and imperialism in the Middle East. ⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...
Sykes-Picot: Architects of Failure in the Middle East
historytoday.com
Have a listen about my new book about Emmeline Pankhurst’s husband
12 May 1785 In front of a huge crowd, James Sadler, possibly accompanied by a cat, ascended in a hot air balloon from a garden in Manchester. Balloon Street marks the site. The names of Sadler's Yard and Sadler's Cat pub commemorate the balloonist and his cat.
The #Cyrillic alphabet is celebrated across the Slavonic-speaking world, but not only as an appreciation of literacy – it has a political dimension too. ⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free www.historytoday.com/archive/hist...
Inventing Cyrillic
historytoday.com
Charles Barry, the architect of the new Houses of Parliament, died #OnThisDay 1860. He knew Westminster well, having been born and raised there, as this guest blog from @dustshoveller.bsky.social explains: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/a...
A Westminster Boy Made Good: Charles Barry (1795-1860)
Caroline Shenton won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 with The Day Parliament Burned Down and its sequel Mr Barry’s War is published this month. In this guest post she reflects on an o…
victoriancommons.wordpress.com
Checking what we have written on Somerset constituencies, we find we also have a candidate called Thomas Buckler Lethbridge, who stood for Bridgwater in 1837, when he described it as a 'scene of depravity and fraud'. Notoriously corrupt, it was punished by losing the right to elect MPs in 1870.
The Georgian Lords@georgianlords.bsky.social · 3mo agoOn 21 May 1807 the electors of #Somerset went to the polls for the first time in almost 100 years, the last contested election having taken place in February 1715. They celebrated the occasion by re-electing the sitting MPs: William Dickinson and Thomas Buckler Lethbridge... #SomersetDay #HistParl
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a bold new deal with the EU, forming a new customs union. Fixing our trading relationship with Europe is the only way to turbocharge our economy and fix the cost of living crisis. Add your name: www.libdems.org.uk/trade
Fix Britain's Trade
Liberal Democrats want to turbocharge our economy by forming a Customs Union with the EU, tearing down the trade barriers and red tape holding us back.
libdems.org.uk
9 May 1584 Manchester ‘No single women were allowed in the town unless under the guardianship of their relatives, or in others’ employ’.
Before the secret ballot, voting in Britain was a theatrical, violent and public affair. 🔓 This archive article is free for 7 days www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...
Voting Before the Secret Ballot
historytoday.com
Come on, guys, please let’s get the word out, and spread these articles around. Media complicity in Reform’s rise is truly shameful.
Peter Jukes@peterjukes.bsky.social · 3mo agoIf the mainstream press refuses to investigate Reform’s candidates and their scandalous backgrounds and attitudes, I guess @bylinetimes.bsky.social will have to do it. These are just some of our exclusives from the last couple of days Www.bylinetimes.com
Today in London a migrant took my blood pressure, ECG, & completed pre op assessment✅ Another took my blood✅ Soon one will keep me breathing & give pain relief during my op✅ Others will look after me in recovery & on a ward✅ They do this every year ❤️ Without them I’d be seriously ill or dead 🤷🏼♂️
War memorial plaque. St. Peter’s Church, Worfield, Shropshire. Boer War and Egyptian Campaign. #LestWeForget
This week in 1790 Manchester’s Lying-In Charity (later St Mary’s Hospital) was founded at a meeting at the Bridgewater Arms, providing midwives and ‘men-midwives’ (obstetricians) to poor married women in their own homes or in the Lying-In Hospital.