Bidisha, English journalist, author, and critic
Bidisha Mamata (born Bidisha Bandyopadhyay), known professionally as Bidisha, is a British broadcaster and journalist specialising in international affairs, social justice issues, arts and culture, and international human rights activist.Publishing and broadcasting under her first name only, Bidisha began writing professionally for arts magazines, such as i-D, Dazed and Confused, and the NME, at the age of 14, and published her first novel at 18. She writes for The Guardian and The Huffington Post and works as a TV and radio presenter for the BBC, presenting programmes such as Woman's Hour.
She also does outreach work in UK detention centres and prisons, in affiliation with literary and human rights organisation English PEN.
1978Jul, 29
Bidisha
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Events on 1978
- 11Feb
Aristotle
Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. - 27Apr
Watergate scandal
Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes. - 25Jul
In vitro fertilisation
Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF. - 22Oct
Pope John Paul II
Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II. - 18Nov
Jim Jones
In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.