The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale Timeline

Year	Historical	Literary	Author
1928	Universal suffrage for men and women Minimum voting age for women in Britain reduced to twenty-one from thirty years Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin (fully exploited from 1940) First films with sound in Britain	Blunden's Undertones of War Huxley's Point Counter Point Isherwood's All the Conspirators
1929	General election returns minority Labour government; Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member Wall Street Crash and start of international economic depression Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member	Graves' Goodbye to All That Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Priestley's The Good Companions Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (film version, 1930)
1930	Jet engine invented 11th May: Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight from England to Australia The Great Depression Nazis begin rise to power in Germany Foundation of the Nation of Islam (black national separatist organisation)	Blunden's Collected Poems Coward's Private Lives Faulkner's As I Lay Dying Maugham's Cakes and Ale
1931		Woolf's The Waves
1932	Hunger marches in Britain British Union of Fascists formed	Huxley's Brave New World Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes
1933	Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany	Auden's The Dance of Death Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris
1934	British Union of Fascists addressed by Oswald Mosley Adolf Hitler becomes Führer	John Masefield becomes Poet Laureate James' The Art of the Novel Pound's Make it New Priestley's English Journey
1935	Radar & nylon invented Italy invades Ethiopia	Launch of first Penguin paperbacks
1936	Death of George V Accession, then abdication of Edward VIII Spanish Civil war begins Jarrow March of the unemployed Accession of George VI	Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying Thomas' 25 Poems
1937	British policy of appeasement towards Italy and Germany Mass Observation Project starts	Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier Priestley's Time and the Conway's Woolf's The Years Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston	Harold Leslie Atwood, Margaret's elder brother, born
1938	Munich agreement with Hitler Supreme Court rules Missouri must provide access to public schooling for blacks as well as whites	Waugh's Scoop Day-Lewis' Overtures to a Death Greene's Brighton Rock
1939	End of Spanish Civil War Start of the Second World War Evacuation of children from London	Thomas' Twenty-Six Poems Eliot's The Family Reunion Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin Joyce's Finnegan's wake Orwell's Coming up for Air Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath	Margaret Eleanor Atwood (known as Peggy) born in Ottawa
1940	Churchill becomes Prime Minister Evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk Start of the Blitz	Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog Greene's The Power and the Glory
1941	Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour USA declares war on Germany and Italy	Coward's Blithe Spirit Eliot's Little Gidding
1942	US involvement in Second World War
1944	D-Day Landings in Normandy Butler Education Act	Eliot's Four Quartets
1945	Yalta Conference Death of Hitler USA drops nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders End of Second World War Clement Atlee becomes Labour Prime Minister	Mitford's The Pursuit of Love Orwell's Animal Farm Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Priestley's An Inspector Calls
1947	Independence of India and Pakistan The UK school leaving age is raised to 15 Princess Elizabeth – later Queen – marries the Duke of Edinburgh	Compton-Burnett's Manservant and Maidservant The Diary of Anne Frank is published The Maids, Jean Genet All My Sons, Arthur Miller A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1948	British Citizenship Act gives Commonwealth citizens subject status Policy of apartheid started in South Africa State of Israel founded	Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Leavis' The Great Tradition	Atwood taken with friends to see film The Red Shoes
1949		Orwell's 1984 Miller's Death of a Salesman The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
1950	Korean War begins	Greene's The Third Man Lessing's The Grass is Singing
1951	Festival of Britain Churchill becomes Conservative Prime Minister Spies Burgess and Maclean defect to USSR	Larkin's Poems Manning's School for Love	Ruth Kathleen, Margaret Atwood's younger sister, born Margaret Atwood starts to attend school full-time (previously, her summers had been spent in Canadian backwoods with parents: father was entomologist and zoologist)
1952	George VI dies Accession of Elizabeth II Britain produces an atomic bomb	Christie's The Mousetrap Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea Thomas' Collected Poems	Atwood attends Leaside High School
1953	Death of Stalin Coronation of Elizabeth II Ascent of Everest	Hartley's The Go-Between Fleming's Casino Royale Miller's The Crucible
1954	End of post-war food rationing US Supreme Court declares racially segregated education is unconstitutional	Amis' Lucky Jim Rattigan's Separate Tables Golding's Lord of the Flies Thomas' Under Milk Wood
1955	Rosa Parks, Civil Rights activist in USA, refuses to give up her seat on a bus	Beckett's Waiting for Godot
1956	Suez Crisis Russian invasion of Hungary Rosa Parks defies bus segregation in Montgomery Alabama	Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Osborne's Look Back in Anger Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Beckett, Waiting for Godot
1957	Wolfenden Report on Prostitution and Homosexuality Independence of Ghana Obscene Publications Act Martin Luther King elected President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	Larkin's A Girl in Winter Hughes' The Hawk in the Rain Murdoch's The Sandcastle MacInnes' City of Spades Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur Osborne's The Entertainer	Atwood goes to Victoria College, University of Toronto, where she is taught by Northrop Frye
1958	Notting Hill race riots Aden state of emergency CND founded	Achebe's Things Fall Apart Pinter's The Birthday Party Delaney's A Taste of Honey Bates' The Darling Buds of May Murdoch's The Bell Silitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Betjeman's Collected Poems
1959	First section of M1 motorway opened State of emergency in Kenya	Wesker's Roots Lee's Cider with Rosie Braithwaite's To Sir with Love Waterhouse's Billy Liar Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance Silitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansbury
1960	John F. Kennedy wins US election CND demonstrations in Trafalgar Square Penguin wins the right to publish D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover	Banks' The L Shaped Room Lessing's In Pursuit of the English Pinter's The Caretaker Barstow's A Kind of Loving Plath's The Colossus
1961	Commonwealth Immigrants Act restricts right to settle in UK Structure of DNA discovered Building of Berlin Wall	Osborne's Luther Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas	Atwood graduates with B.A. in English Literature (Honours) Atwood starts graduate course at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston, USA). [Radcliffe became part of Harvard by 1963]
1962	End of national military service Jamaica, Trinidad and Uganda become independent from UK	Burgess' A Clockwork Orange Al Alvarez (ed), The New Poetry Carson's Silent Spring Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1963	US President John F. Kennedy assassinated Kenya becomes independent Martin Luther King makes his 'I have a dream' speech	1960-1963 Wilson Harris publishes The Guyana Quartet Plath's The Bell Jar Theatre Workshop, Oh! What a Lovely War Dunn's Up the Junction	In summer, Atwood returns to Toronto. Takes job with marketing company Atwood engaged to James (Jay) Ford
1964	Beatles become popular Labour PM, Harold Wilson Harlem race riots in USA Martin Luther King awarded Nobel Peace Prize Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act banning segregation	Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings	Engagement to Jay Ford broken off. Atwood writing novel The Edible Woman Takes post as lecturer at University of British Columbia, in Vancouver
1965	Vietnam war escalates Abolition of the death penalty (UK) Rhodesia declares independence from UK Race riots across America	Osborne's A Patriot for Me Pinter's The Homecoming Plath's Ariel Bond's Saved Manning's The Balkan Trilogy	Atwood travels back from Vancouver to Toronto with her friend Jim Polk In Autumn, Atwood goes back to Harvard
1966	England wins the World Cup Guyana becomes independent from UK Television drama Cathy Come Home highlights homelessness in UK In China, Mao Zedong launches his Cultural Revolution	Orton's Loot Fowles' The Magus Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Jubilee, Margaret Walker The Concubine, Elechi Amadi	Publication of selection of Atwood's poems as The Circle Game
1967	Legalisation of abortion (UK) Homosexuality decriminalized (UK) First heart transplant Gough, Patten, Henri, The Mersey Sound	Carter's The Magic Toyshop Dunn's Poor Cow	Atwood wins prestigious Governor General's Literary Award for The Circle Game In June, marries Jim Polk. They move to Montreal, where Atwood takes up faculty post at Sir George Williams University
1968	National Front formed (UK) Race Relations Bill declares race discrimination illegal in the UK Student uprising in Paris Martin Luther King assassinated USA passes Civil Rights Bill Enoch Powell makes 'Rivers of Blood' speech in Birmingham National Front formed (UK)	Hines' A Kestrel for a Knave Bond's Early Morning End of theatre censorship in Britain When Rain Clouds Gather, Bessie Head	Atwood and Polk move to Edmonton, Alberta, where Polk has University post
1969	'Winter of Discontent' Americans land on the moon Start of Northern Ireland ‘troubles’	Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman Greene, Travels with my Aunt	Atwood takes up teaching post at University of Alberta
1970	Formation of Women’s Liberation Movement in UK Equal Pay Act, UK	Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Ted Hughes, Crow	Atwood and Polk leave Alberta to live in England for several months. Atwood writing Surfacing
1971	Decimalisation of UK currency Anti Vietnam war demonstrations	Bond's Lear	They move back to Toronto. Atwood takes post as Assistant Professor at York University, Toronto, lecturing on Canadian Women Writers Atwood getting to know writer Graeme Gibson
1972	Terrorist attack at Munich Olympic Games Equal Opportunity Act extends 'affirmative action' to colleges and universities in USA	Drabble, The Needle’s Eye Stoppard, Jumpers	Atwood publishes Survival - A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature
1973	Abortion legalised in USA USA pulls out of Vietnam Britain enters EEC	Alan Ayckbourn, The Norman Conquests Sula, Toni Morrison Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers Greene, The Honorary Consul	Polk and Atwood decide to separate; they are divorced In Autumn, Atwood and Gibson move to a farm on Alliston, north of Toronto
1974	President Richard Nixon resigns	Larkin, High Windows Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine	Atwood writing Lady Oracle
1975	End of Vietnam war Sex Discrimination Bill (UK) North Sea oil comes on line	Griffiths' Comedians Bradbury's The History Man Jhabvala's Heat and Dust Scott's The Raj Quartet Lodge's Changing Places Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time	Atwood and Gibson working on the farm
1976	Notting Hill (race) riots Advent of punk rock UK Race Relations Act strengthens anti-discrimination laws	Edgar's Destiny	Atwood's Lady Oracle published Atwood gives birth to baby Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson (Jess)
1977	Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee is celebrated Strikes by firefighters and riots against Far Right groups take place across the UK Public Works Employment Act - 10% of contractors to be from minorities First Virago Press publication First recognised AIDS death, New York	Dennis Potter, Brimstone and Treacle Our Sister Killjoy, Ama Aidoo Stoppard, Professional Foul	Atwood travels to Venice and England
1978	The first 'test tube' baby	Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea Weldon's Praxis McEwan's The Cement Garden Hare's Plenty	Atwood, Gibson and Jess travel for six weeks on world tour, via Paris to Tehran and Afghanistan and on to India and Australia
1979	Conservative party wins General Election (first female British Prime Minister) 'Winter of Discontent' Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family	Churchill's Cloud Nine Naipaul's A Bend in the River	Atwood publishes Life Before Man Gibson very ill with perforated ulcer
1980	Start of civil war in El Salvador Mount St Helens volcano erupts in Washington State, USA AIDS epidemic starts to spread		Move back to Toronto, where Jess starts school Gibson spends summer alone in Skye, Scotland, writing book In November, Atwood and Gibson rent house in Caribbean
1981	Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Riots in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden Falklands War Women’s anti-nuclear Greenham Common protests First CD players	Rushdie's Midnight's Children The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor Churchill, Top Girls
1982	Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden		Atwood on publicity tour of England and Scandinavia
1983	US cruise missiles stationed in UK	Swift, Waterland Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil	Atwood, Gibson and Jess, together with Atwood's parents, visit Galapagos Islands Atwood, Gibson and Jess go to live in Norfolk, England, for six months Atwood's father, Carl, has a stroke
1984	Miner's Strike (UK) IRA attempt to assassinate PM Margaret Thatcher Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, is assassinated by her bodyguards	Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate Carter's Nights at the Circus Amis' Money Ballard's Empire of the Sun Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot	Family go to West Berlin for six months. Atwood starts writing The Handmaid's Tale They move to Copenhagen then back to Toronto, where Atwood finishes The Handmaid's Tale
1985	Live Aid concerts for Ethiopian famine relief	Ackroyd, Hawksmoor Brenton & Hare, Pravda Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit	Publication of The Handmaid's Tale
1986	Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine		The Handmaid's Tale shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Atwood and Gibson fly to London for the award ceremony (though the novel does not win the prize, which goes to Kingsley Amis for The Old Devils) Atwood is President of PEN, a pressure group to free writers who are political prisoners
1987	Conservatives win General Election Race riots (UK) The Great Storm devastates southern UK IRA bomb, Enniskillen Stock market crash	Morrison's Beloved Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger Ian McEwan, The Child in Time Beloved, Toni Morrison Ackroyd, Chatterton Churchill, Serious Money	Atwood is writer-in-residence at University in Sydney, Australia Atwood planning Cat's Eye
1988	Death threats against Salman Rushdie PanAm flight 103 destroyed by bomb over Lockerbie	Rushdie's Satanic Verses Hawking's A Brief History of Time	Cat's Eye published in Canada Filming of The Handmaid's Tale
1989	Revolutions in Eastern Europe lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall Exxon Valdez oil tanker spills millions of gallons of oil off Alaskan coast Protesting students massacred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing	Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day Gwendolen, Buchi Emechera Winterson, Sexing the Cherry	Cat's Eye published in Britain and America Premiere in Berlin of film of The Handmaid's Tale
1990	Nelson Mandela freed from imprisonment in South Africa Germany re-unified	Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia Byatt's Possession
1991	Collapse of Soviet Union South Africa repeals apartheid laws		Atwood gives four lectures at Clarendon College, Oxford, on Canadian culture Atwood and Gibson in France. Atwood begins writing The Robber Bride
1992		Jazz, Toni Morrison Hornby, Fever Pitch
1993	Murder of Stephen Lawrence Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa UK National Lottery starts First female Anglican priests ordained	D'Aguiar's British Subjects	Atwood's father, Carl Atwood, dies Publication of The Robber Bride
1994	Nelson Mandela elected President of South Africa		Atwood undertakes promotional tour in France and Scandinavia
1996	Islamist fundamentalist group, the Taliban, takes power in Afghanistan		Atwood publishes Alias Grace
1997	Hong Kong returned by Britain to Chinese rule
1998		Hughes, Birthday Letters Motion, Selected Poems 1976-97
2000	Millennium celebrations Ishiguro, When we were Orphans	Zadie Smith, White Teeth	Atwood publishes The Blind Assassin, which wins the Booker prize She gives the William Empson lectures in Cambridge, England
2001	September 11th - destruction of World Trade Center towers in New York by terrorists flying planes into them	McEwan's Atonement
2002			Atwood's Empson lectures published as Negotiating with the Dead
2003	Invasion of Iraq by USA and Britain		Opera based on The Handmaid's Tale has English premiere at the Coliseum, London Atwood publishes dystopian novel Oryx and Crake
2004	Exploration of Mars by space probe Devastating Tsunami around Indian Ocean	Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty Alan Bennett, The History Boys Seamus Heaney, Beacons of Bealtaine
2006		Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder Brian Friel, Faith Healer
2007	Bovine foot and mouth epidemic Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister Widespread flooding First Kindle e-reader	Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach
2008		Toni Morrison, A Mercy Death of Harold Pinter
2009		First female Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Dufy	Publication of Atwood's dystopian novel The Year of the Flood, which has some of the same characters as Oryx and Crake Atwood undertakes an international tour to promote her new novel The Year of the Flood Atwood celebrates her 70^th birthday with a gala dinner in Ontario
2010	General Election in Britain results in coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats Ian McEwan, Solar		Atwood visits Israel and accepts prestigious literary award (the Dan David Prize), saying that she doesn't 'do cultural boycotts'

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