The Communist Manifesto of 1948 promised government investment in infrastructure, the development of suburbs, free universal education, the abolition of child labour. All these things came to pass.
1751 Gin Act eliminates small gin shops.
1902 The head of the Sistine chapel persuades the Pope not to hire any more castrati. He also forces his predecessor, the castrato Domenico Mustafà, to retire, ending a tradition that had lasted three centuries.
"You can have your own credit card, you can buy a house in your own name, you can sign your own documents - those things weren't even true when I was a young woman," says Karen Nussbaum, now 70, who campaigned for secretaries’ rights.
1965 The UK bans hunting with a bow and arrow.
1967 The British Phrenology Society disbands.
1987 Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant and Paul Boateng are the first black Londoners to be elected to the House of Commons (and Diane Abbott is the first black woman).
1988 Magdalene College Oxford admits women to the postgrad programme, and then goes co-ed. Some dons wear black armbands in protest. (Per an ex PhD student, the college is now mostly Asian, and largely female. And “its academic performance has soared now it’s not filled with Tim Nice-but-Dims".)
1990 Black South Africans can legally use the same public amenities as whites.
1991 Bill Morris becomes the first black British General Secretary of a major trade union.
2020
The heads of parliamentary parties in Lithuania are all female – and they’re forming a coalition.
October Ministers plan to boost number of female-only toilets to protect women’s safety (Sun headline) The review will consider the ratio of female toilets needed versus the number for men, given the need for women to always use cubicles, and will address misconceptions that removing sex-specific toilets are a requirement of equality legislation. (Well, glory hallelujah!)
Nov Twitter permanently suspends David Icke’s account. A few days later it also bans Steve Bannon permanently.
Lynx may be released in Kielder Forest.
Waterhall golf course near Brighton is to be rewilded.
7 Nov Scotland makes smacking children illegal.
7 Nov Thailand’s Minister Buddhipongse Punnakanta shut down Pornhub this week. He said Pornhub is “hosting illegal material from hidden recordings to non-consensual pornography, as well as sexual abuse of children, which obliges the ministry to block it.”
Nov Joe Biden wins the US election.
Early Nov UAE promises tougher penalties for family killings of women, and also decriminalises alcohol and lifts ban on unmarried couples living together. (Laws against honour killings have come into immediate effect.)
11 Nov Pfizer announces an effective vaccine to protect against COVID-19.
Morocco is the fourth country to make peace with Israel after UAE, Bahrain and Sudan.
Exercise therapy will no longer be prescribed to those living with ME in England.
Nearly all TV ads now feature mixed casts. (The only downside is that the ads are just as silly and humiliating as usual.)
Seven in ten pubs “could close in 2021” (Week headline)
Nov 30 Sudan says it will stamp out child marriage and enforce a ban on FGM.
Dec Argentina legalises abortion.
2020 Ministry of Justice drops “wealth rule” that denied legal aid to victims of domestic abuse (because they had a stake in the house)
2020 BILL AND OTI WIN STRICTLY COME DANCING.
LESS THAN CHEERFUL
1924 US Congress passes law excluding “inferior” immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe
1927 US Supreme Court ruled that sterilisation without consent was constitutional
2020 We are still racing greyhounds and allowing women to dance in pointe shoes, and there is still a global trade in donkey skins.
More here, and links to the rest.
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