| 1802 |
The Society for the Suppression of Vice is established “to preserve the minds of the young from contamination by exposure to the corrupting influence of impure & licentious books, prints, & other publications…” |
| 1802 |
Thomas Jefferson impregnates his slave, Sally Hemings |
| 1816 |
Lord Byron claims that he “had different woman on 200 consecutive evenings” |
| 1823 |
Francis Place begins the birth control movement in Britain |
| 1824 |
Jean Prévost & Jean Dumas show that sperm are necessary for fertilization |
| 1830 |
The Can-Can is outlawed in France, for its revolutionary subtext |
| 1833 |
Joseph Smith Jr. practises the first Mormon Plural marriage |
| 1833 |
Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) is described by Wallace |
| 1836 |
Alfredo Donné discovers that Trichomoniasis is caused by the parasitic protozoan Trichomonas Vaginalis |
| 1837 |
Phillipe Ricord discovers the Neisseria Gonorrhoeae bacterium (Gonorrhoea) |
| 1838 |
The modern rubber Diaphragm (contraceptive) is invented |
| C.1840 |
Burlesque shows come into existence |
| 1843 |
Vulcanized rubber condoms are first manufactured by Charles Goodyear |
| 1846 |
William Haynes immigrates to New York and founds a firm publishing cheap erotic novels such as “Confessions of a Lady’s Waiting Maid” |
| 1847 |
The Town Police Clause Act criminalises selling of refreshments to sex workers sitting together |
| 1849 |
Dorothy Scraggs of Marysville, California places probably the first ever personal ad in a local Miners newspaper. Advertising for a wealthy husband, she demands that $20,000 be settled on her |
| C.1850 |
The rubber dildo is introduced |
| 1852 |
Leon Bassereau shows that Chancroid (Streptobacillus Haemophilus Ducreyi) is not the same as Syphilis |
| 1857 |
Cannabis is recommended as a therapeutic aphrodisiac, in a marriage guide |
| 1857 |
The Obscene Publications Act bans works having “a tendency to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences” |
| 1858 |
Dr.Isaac Baker Brown introduces the operation of Clitoridectomy for the consequences of “peripheral excitement” |
| 1858 |
The Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes is established, taking over the divorce duties of the Church courts |
| 1861 |
The penalty for conviction for sodomy is reduced from hanging to imprisonment |
| 1863 |
Conrad Eckhard demonstrates that stimulation of the Sacral nerves produces penile erection |
| 1864 |
Amyl nitrite is first synthesized |
| 1868 |
The world’s greatest lover King Mongut of Siam (9,000 wives & Concubines) dies of Syphilis |
| 1869 |
Dr.George Taylor develops the first vibrator (A steam-powered apparatus designed to treat “Female hysteria”) |
| 1869 |
The term “Homosexuality” appears in print for the first time, in a German pamphlet written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny |
| 1875 |
The Offences Against The Person Act raises the age of consent for girls to 13 |
| 1876 |
Importation of pornography becomes illegal under the Customs Consolidation Act |
| 1878 |
The Geestring (G-string) is discovered |
| 1882 |
The Married Women’s Property Act is passed, allowing women to own property on their own terms |
| 1884 |
Eadweard Muybridge films test footage, including cinematic glimpses of naked men & women in motion |
| 1885 |
The Criminal Law Amendment Act increases the age of consent for girls to 16 & outlaws sexual relations between men (but not women) |
| 1886 |
Captain Sir Richard Burton translates Shaykh Umar ibn Muhammed al-Nefzawi’s classic text “The Perfumed Garden” |
| 1886 |
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing describes S&M behaviour in his study of sexual perversity “Psychopathia Sexualis” |
| 1886 |
The Cosmopolitan magazine is founded |
| 1887 |
Sigmund Freud publishes his Seduction theory |
| 1888 |
Dr.John Harvey Kellogg advocates circumcision for males & application of pure Carbolic acid to the clitoris in females, as methods of allaying sexual excitement |
| 1889 |
The Moulin Rouge opens its doors |
| 1889 |
Sex education was first introduced into English schools |
| 1890 |
Polygynous marriage is outlawed in the US, to restrict the Mormon religious movement |
| 1892 |
Albert Doderlein first identifies the presence or absence of gram-positive rods in normal vaginal flora |
| 1892 |
Dr.August Forel recommends sterilisation on eugenic grounds |
| 1892 |
The word “Bisexual” is first used in its current sense, in Charles Gilbert Chaddock’s translation of Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia Sexualis |
| 1893 |
The first “official” vasectomy is performed |
| 1894 |
George du Maurier writes of ‘Svengali’ in his novel “Trilby” |
| 1894 |
Performance of the first public strip-tease dance |
| 1895 |
Oscar Wilde, on trial for ‘indecent acts’, talks of “The Love that dare not speak its name” |
| 1896 |
John C. Rice & May Irwin are the first couple to be recorded kissing, in the film “The Kiss” |
| 1896 |
“Fatima’s Coochee-Coochee Dance” becomes the first film in which a scene (Fatima’s gyrating & moving pelvis) is censored |
| 1896 |
Louise Willy performs the first on-screen striptease, in “Le Coucher de la Marie” |
| 1896 |
Russell Hunting is arrested and imprisoned, for making and selling indecent phonograph recordings |
| 1897 |
Edmond Rostand writes of Cyrano and Roxane, in his play ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ |
| 1897 |
The French have the first public screening of a film with a nude scene, called “Après Le Bal” |
| 1899 |
America’s first advert for a battery vibrator (in McClure’s magazine) as a cure for headaches, wrinkles and nerve pain |
| 1900 |
The British Museum destroys six boxes of “obscene” books from the collection that Henry Spencer Ashbee bequeathed to the library at his death |
| 1901 |
Notorious womanizer Stanford White, aged 47 takes the virginity of 16 year old chorus girl Florence Evelyn Nesbit |
| 1901 |
John Barrymore ‘The Great Profile’ gets Florence Evelyn Nesbit pregnant. He later marries & divorces Katherine Corri Harris, Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs, Dolores Costello & Elaine Barrie |
| 1901 |
Japanese poet Akiko Yosano publishes ‘Tangled Hair’, a book of poetry that replaces the traditional Japanese poetic approach to love (all emotions, no body contact) with frank sensuality |
| 1902 |
Alfred Stieglitz publishes “Camera Work”, the first nude photography magazine |
| 1902 |
Ernest Starling discovers Hormones |
| 1904 |
K-Y Jelly is introduced by Van Horn & Sawtell (initially as a surgical lubricant) |
| 1905 |
Calymmatobacterium Granulomatis (later Donovanosis) was described for the first time by Charles Donovan |
| 1905 |
Max Juliusberg discovers & documents the viral nature of Molluscum Contagiosum |
| 1906 |
Millionaire Playboy Harry Kendall Thaw murders noted architect Stanford White, after White makes disparaging remarks about Thaw to a group of chorus girls that Thaw is chatting up |
| 1907 |
Giovanni Ciuffo recognizes the viral nature of Genital Warts (Condylomata Acuminata) |
| 1907 |
Ludwig Halberstaedter & Stanislaus von Prowazek discover Chlamydia Trachomatis (Chlamydia) |
| 1907 |
The first Ziegfeld Follies opens in New York |
| 1908 |
Dr.Josef Weckerle publishes “Das Goldene Buch der Liebe”, a sex-technique manual detailing 531 positions |
| 1908 |
The first known pornographic motion picture, “A L’Ecu d’Or ou la bonne auberge” is made in France |
| 1911 |
The plug-in vibrator becomes the fith household appliance to be electrified |
| 1911 |
Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to pass a film censorship law |
| 1912 |
Benjamin Guggenheim, Playboy heir of a mining and smelting fortune drowns, when the Titanic sinks |
| 1912 |
E. Merck Pharmaceutical Company synthesizes 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) |
| 1912 |
The first nude woman appears on stage at the Folies-Bergere |
| 1913 |
Otto Ledever invents the Penis pump |
| 1913 |
The first American feature-length sex film is reported as “Traffic in Souls” aka. “While New York Sleeps” |
| 1914 |
Albert Einstein sends a shocking missive to his wife, making several cruel & degrading demands. He is later quoted as saying “Marriage is the unsuccessful attempt to make something lasting out of an incident” |
| 1915 |
“A Free Ride” is reported as the earliest-known silent “stag” (pornographic) film, with explicit sex scenes |
| 1915 |
The first mainstream American film with a nude scene “Inspiration”, starring Audrey Munson, is released |
| 1915 |
Theda Bara (The First Sex Symbol & “Femme fatale”) has her first lead role in the film “A Fool There Was” |
| 1916 |
Annette Kellermann causes a stir as the first major female star to appear nude on screen, when she is seen naked with her flowing hair under a waterfall in the film “A Daughter of the Gods” |
| 1916 |
After leading a scandalous personal life, frequently being seen picking up prostitutes & reputedly seducing Tsaritsa Alexandra, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is lured to a mysterious death by Prince Felix Yusupov & the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich |
| 1916 |
Lawrence Sperry & Mrs.Waldo Polk become the founding members of the Mile High Club |
| 1917 |
Mata Hari (Margaretha Zelle) is executed in Paris as a spy |
| 1918 |
Representation of the People Act gives single women over the age of 30 the right to vote |
| 1919 |
Magnus Hirschfeld founds the “Institut für Sexualwissenschaft” (Institute for Sexology) |
| C.1920 |
Flappers cause shock, by attending ‘Petting parties’, where men and women kiss and hug (but don’t usually have sex) |
| 1920 |
Ernest W. Goodpasture correctly postulates that large inclusion-bearing cells are the result of viral infection, calling them Cytomegalia (later Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection) |
| 1920 |
Margaret Sanger publishes “What Every Girl Should Know” |
| 1921 |
Rudolph Valentino becomes the first Hollywood male sex symbol, after starring in the film “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” |
| 1921 |
Seductress Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill) dies. Her notable lovers included Count Charles Andreas Kinsky, King Edward VII of England and King Milan of Serbia |
| 1921 |
Marie Stopes opens the first birth control clinic |
| 1922 |
James Thomas Harris (Frank Harris) publishes his autobiography “My Life and Loves” |
| 1923 |
Women are allowed to file for divorce solely for adultery (previously they needed to prove cruelty or desertion also) |
| 1923 |
Mussolini’s government orders Aleister Crowley to leave Italy, after hearing stories of drug induced bestial orgies and satanic rituals, when Crowley’s acolyte Raoul Loveday dies from gastro-enteritis |
| 1926 |
John Barrymore stars in “Don Juan” with Mary Astor & Estelle Taylor. The film sets a record number of kisses (reportedly 127) |
| 1927 |
Charles “Buddy” Rogers and Richard Arlen perform the first on-Screen Male-Male Kiss, in the film “Wings” |
| 1927 |
Clara Gordon Bow becomes the original “It Girl”, after appearing in the Hollywood silent film “It” |
| 1927 |
Exotic vamp Greta Garbo becomes a star in the film “Flesh and the Devil”, containing Hollywood’s first filmed French kiss, as well as the first kiss in American film to take place between two people in a horizontal position |
| 1927 |
Famous Screen Couple, Greta Garbo and John Gilbert appear together in the film “Flesh and the Devil” |
| 1927 |
Famous Screen Couple, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell appear together in the film “Seventh Heaven” |
| 1927 |
The Hays Office issues a list of “Don’ts” & “Be Carefuls” for film-makers. Amongst other things, Suggestive nudity, lustful kissing, rape or attempted rape, men & woman in bed together & deliberate seduction of girls are specifically listed |
| 1928 |
Alexander Fleming notices the inhibition of bacterial growth around a contaminant blue-green mould on a Staphylococcus plate culture. He subsequently discovers this is “Penicillium notatum”, and goes on to isolate Penicillin (the first modern antibiotic) |
| 1928 |
David Herbert Lawrence publishes “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” |
| 1928 |
Margaret Mead publishes “Coming of Age in Samoa” |
| 1928 |
The Equal Franchise Act gives women the right to vote, on equal terms as men (i.e. over the age of 21) |
| 1929 |
Swedish Psychiatrist Axel Munthe writes of an encounter with Guy de Maupassant, where he met Mademoiselle Ivonne, one of Maupassant’s many lovers (an Ether addicted ballet dancer) |
| 1929 |
Dr.Earle Haas invents the modern tampon (he later trademarks Tampax) |
| 1929 |
Ella Rice, wife of Playboy Howard Hughes, files for divorce. He allegedly had affairs with Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Gene Tierney, & Ava Gardner |
| 1929 |
Women become “persons” in their own right, by order of the Privy Council |
| C.1930 |
Latex condoms (lighter & softer than normal rubber) are introduced |
| 1930 |
Marlene Dietrich creates scandal when she wears a man’s tuxedo in the film “Morocco” and accepts a mouth-to-mouth kiss from a young lady in the cabaret audience (possibly the first filmed female-to-female kiss) |
| 1930 |
The British Family Planning Association is founded |
| 1931 |
Anaïs Nin meets Henry Miller, and shortly brings him and his wife June into her erotic worlds (both real and fictional) |
| 1931 |
Original Blonde Bombshell, Jean Harlow appears in the film “Platinum Blonde”, from which she aquires her nickname |
| 1931 |
Jean Harlow becomes the first woman specifically referred to as a “Tramp” in the talking picture “Goldie” |
| 1931 |
Famous Screen Couple, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford appear together in the film “Laughing Sinners” |
| 1931 |
Hertha Thiele and Dorothea Wieck perform the first On-Screen lesbian kiss, in the film “Mädchen in Uniform” |
| 1932 |
Strip clubs evolve out of Burlesque shows |
| 1932 |
Cary Grant has his first role as leading man in the film “Hot Saturday” with Nancy Carroll playing a small-town resident given a bad name by gossip |
| 1932 |
In the film “Night After Night” Mae West first flaunts her sexuality, full-figured body and irreverently makes sex into a comedy |
| 1932 |
In the film “The Sign of the Cross” Cecil B. DeMille shows eroticism with Claudette Colbert’s asses’ milk bath, sadism, lesbianism, homoeroticism, orgies & a flower-garlanded-tied nude blonde Christian martyr |
| 1933 |
Richard Shope discovers the first Mammalian Papillomavirus |
| 1933 |
Barbara Stanwyck finds fames in the film “Baby Face” in which she is seductive & sexually aggressive in using men for her ascent within the New York City banking world |
| 1933 |
“Ecstasy” starring Hedy Lamarr is the first theatrically-released film in which sexual intercourse is depicted. The film becomes the first to be banned by banned by U.S. Customs |
| 1933 |
Busby Berkeley features barely-clad bathing beauty starlets (clothed to appear naked) in his extravagant production “Footlight Parade” |
| 1933 |
The Nazis destroy the “Institut für Sexualwissenschaft” |
| 1933 |
Wilhelm Reich claims to have discovered Orgone energy, a form of sexual energy |
| 1934 |
Pressure from the Catholic Church’s League of Decency, results in the ‘Motion Picture Production Code’ becoming enacted and strictly enforced, making all American films subject to censorship (even “suggestive dance” is banned) |
| 1934 |
Henry Miller writes “Tropic of Cancer” |
| 1935 |
Errol Flynn becomes a sensation with his first starring role in the film “Captain Blood” |
| 1936 |
Edward VIII of England abdicates, in order to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson |
| 1936 |
Lisa Fonssagrives (the first supermodel) enters fashion’s big time, appearing in Paris Vogue |
| 1936 |
The Matrimonial Causes Act extends the grounds on which divorce can be granted to include wilful desertion, cruelty, incurable insanity and habitual drunkenness |
| 1937 |
Lana Turner becomes “The Sweater Girl” after performing a tight-sweatered walk in the film “They Won’t Forget” |
| 1937 |
Mayfair Playboy, Victor Frederick Cochrane Hervey (6th Marquess of Bristol) is declared bankrupt |
| 1939 |
The first Dating agency “The Heather Jenner Marriage Bureau” opens its doors |
| 1939 |
Clark Gable’s scandalous parting words in the film ‘Gone With The Wind’, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” costs Producer David O. Selznick a $5,000 fine |
| 1940 |
The first Sex doll is produced by the Germans, as part of the ‘Model Borghild’ project |
| 1940 |
E.I. du Pont de Nemours Inc. starts manufacturing Nylon for Stockings |
| 1940 |
Frank Sinatra finds fame with his seductive long line Bel canto singing, which especially appeals to overly zealous & usually teenage fans (Bobby soxers) |
| 1941 |
Jane Wyman & John Regis Toomey perform the longest screen kiss (3m.5s) in film history, in the film “You’re In the Army Now” |
| 1942 |
Famous Screen Couple, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn appear together in the film “Woman of the Year” |
| 1942 |
The shared use of cigarettes becomes a metaphor for the sex act, in the film “Now, Voyager” |
| 1943 |
Government papers reveal that “Feckless” Schoolgirls with “lax morals” caused concern by skipping school, soliciting GIs & catching STDs |
| 1943 |
20th Century-Fox insures Elizabeth Ruth “Betty” Grable’s legs with Lloyd’s of London, for the record amount of $1.25 million |
| 1944 |
Famous Screen Couple, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart appear together in the film “To Have and Have Not” |
| 1946 |
Over four and a half years, the Rev. Canon Bill Cook and his fiancée Helen exchanged 6,000 love letters, while separated, and set a World Record for longest and most love letters |
| 1946 |
Louis Reard unveils the modern Bikini (A swimsuit named after the Bikini Atoll atomic test ground) |
| 1948 |
Dr.Alfred Charles Kinsey publishes “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male” |
| 1948 |
Playboy Winthrop Rockefeller marries Barbara “Bobo” Sears |
| 1949 |
Marilyn Monroe is photographed nude for the 1952 “Golden Dreams” calendar |
| 1949 |
Simone de Beauvoir writes “The Second Sex”, a foundational treatise of contemporary feminism |
| 1949 |
The United Nations adopts a convention stating that prostitution is incompatible with human dignity, requiring all signing parties to punish Pimps, Brothel owners & Operators |
| C.1950 |
Nonoxynol-9 becomes available as a spermicidal lubricant |
| 1950 |
Burnet & Buddingh show that Herpesvirus Simplex (HHV-1) can become latent after a primary infection, becoming reactivated after later provocation |
| 1950 |
Ernst Gräfenberg describes female ejaculation & an erotic zone where the urethra is closest to the vaginal wall |
| 1950 |
Maurice J. Strauss & colleagues demonstrate the structure & composition of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) using electron microscopy |
| 1951 |
Eric Morley starts the Miss World pageant, which Kicki Håkansson of Sweden wins in its first year |
| 1951 |
Nymphomania is listed as a sexual deviation in the “Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” |
| 1951 |
Bettie Page poses for photographer Irving Klaw, and becomes the first famous bondage pin-up girl |
| 1951 |
Zsa Zsa Gabor files for divorce from Playboy Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, citing physical abuse |
| 1952 |
The American Medical Association decides hysteria is no longer an ailment |
| 1952 |
Christine Jorgenson becomes the first person to undergo a sex-change operation |
| 1953 |
Dr.Alfred Charles Kinsey publishes “Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female” |
| 1953 |
Electronic condom testing machines are developed, and introduced |
| 1953 |
Playboy Gianni Agnelli marries Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto |
| 1953 |
Ian Fleming creates the fictional British spy “James Bond” |
| 1953 |
Hugh Hefner first publishes Playboy magazine |
| 1954 |
“The Garden of Eden” skirts anti-nudity film restrictions, by claiming to be an ‘educational’ naturism documentary (it was also the first naturist film shot in colour) |
| 1954 |
Sun Myung Moon founds the “Unification Church”, & practises a ritual called ‘Blood separation’, in which female church members have sex with him to cleanse themselves of Satan’s influence |
| 1955 |
Janet Pilgrim (Charlaine Edith Drain) becomes Playboy magazine’s first Centrefold |
| 1955 |
Gardner & Dukes define a new organism (Hemophilus Vaginalis) that they feel accounts for almost all cases of what was then called non-specific vaginitis |
| 1955 |
Vladimir Nabokov publishes his most important novel, “Lolita” |
| 1956 |
The Sexual Offences Act criminalise men for living off immoral earnings & for “Controlling prostitutes” |
| 1956 |
Elvis Presley’s music is considered to represent a threat to the moral well-being of young American women |
| 1957 |
The film “And God Created Woman” causes waves of protest for being indecent, and makes a star of sex kitten Brigitte Bardot |
| 1957 |
“Mr.” magazine carries the first magazine article on wife swapping |
| 1957 |
The first lubricated condom is launched in the UK |
| 1958 |
Paul Raymond opens the ‘Raymond Revue Bar’, which becomes the first legal nude show with moving dancers |
| 1959 |
Famous Screen Couple, Rock Hudson and Doris Day appear together in the film “Pillow Talk” |
| 1959 |
Russ Meyer ushers in the age of ‘nudie-cutie’ films, releasing “The Immoral Mr.Teas”, a story about a man with X-ray vision, who can see through women’s clothes. This is considered by many to be the first pornographic feature film |
| 1959 |
Peter Karlson & Adolf Butenandt discover Pheromones |
| 1959 |
The Street Offences Act outlaws “Streetwalker” prostitutes |
| 1959 |
The film “Anatomy of a Murder” first includes specific details of a rape, with the shocking-at-the-time words “panties”, “sperm”, “rape”, “contraceptive” & “penetration” |
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