Cambridge, United Kingdom, October 7, 2009 - A group of distinguished scholars, politicians, public broadcasters and members of the Annual Register Board last week celebrated 250 years of The Annual Register with a dinner at the House of Commons, hosted by Dr. Vincent Cable MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Doctor of Economics.

After his speech – ‘The Economic and Financial Crisis in a Historical Context’ Dr Vincent Cable, said, ‘It was a pleasure to host such an enjoyable and informative evening, in celebration of 250 years of extraordinary chronicles of The Annual Register. It really allows us to read the first draft of history, year by year, and provided excellent contextual information for my dinner speech at The House of Commons. Thank you to ProQuest and The Annual Register.’

Mark Furneaux, Annual Register Board Member and Business Development Director of WizeNordic AB said, ‘It was an honour to celebrate 250 years of The Annual Register at the House of Commons, and to reflect on a great tradition that began with the work and toil of Edmund Burke. In keeping with that great tradition of change and adaptation it’s a pleasure to see that The Annual Register is now discoverable online through the ProQuest platform.’

The Annual Register was first written under the editorship of the eminent philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke, and has been produced continuously since 1758. Each year, leading contemporary scholars compile a comprehensive record of the year’s critical events, providing an invaluable record of contemporary opinion, historical context and biographical information.

The Annual Register comprises articles on each of the world’s countries or regions, as well as articles on international organizations, economics, the environment, science, law, religion, the arts and sport, together with obituaries, a chronicle of major events and selected documents.

The complete full text back-files of The Annual Register (http://annualregister.chadwyck.co.uk) have been made available online by ProQuest, through an interface that allows facsimile pages of the original print edition to be scanned, downloaded and printed. This wide-ranging resource will appeal to a variety of readers from scholars of history, law, literature, religion, arts and sports to the local reader in the local library. Mary Sauer-Games, Vice President, Higher Education Publishing ProQuest said, ‘ProQuest is pleased to be the publisher of The Annual Register and see its historic heritage celebrated in its 250th year of publication’.

The Annual Register Online is being offered to public libraries in the United Kingdom for free as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations. Please contact Emma Beer at emma.beer@proquest.co.uk for more details.

Photos from The Annual Register 250th anniversary dinner at the House of Commons can be found here: http://www.proquest.co.uk/go/annualregister

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