Blitzkrieg. 1938-45. German battle tactic. Rapid, deep assault with tanks supported from air.

Bloch, Ernest. 1880-1959. Swiss/US neoclassical composer. Jewish themes. America 1926.

Blockade. Naval strategy preventing access to an enemy’s coast.

Blondin, Charles. 1824-97. French tightrope walker over Niagara, 1859.

Blood, Thomas. 1628-80. Attempted to steal British crown jewels 1671.

Blood Purge. 1934. Hitler’s murder of 74 Nazi radicals.

Bloody Assizes. 1685. Trial of Monmouth’s rebels. 320 hung. 800 deported.

Bloody Sunday. 1887. Police kill 2 Socialists in Trafalgar Square Riot. 1905. Slaughter of petitioners to Winter Palace of Nicholas II leads to Russian Revolution. 1972. 13 killed in Londonderry riot.

Bloody Week. 1871. Paris Commune toppled. 20,000 dead.

Bloomer, Amelia. 1818-94. US temperance, women’s rights activist. Wore bloomers.

Bloomsbury Group. 1907-30. Agnostic English intellectuals searching for good, true, beautiful. Forster, Woolf, Keynes, Russell, Huxley, et.al.

Blow, John. 1649-1708. Westminster organist. First English opera, Venus and Adonis 1685.

Blücher, Gebhardt von. 1742-1819. Prussian general at Waterloo.

Blue Laws. US laws that control Sunday activities. 1781 originals on blue paper.

Blue Stockings. 1750s French literary salon held by educated women.

Blues and Greens. 5-9C. Byzantine political factions. Nika Revolt.

Blum, Léon. 1872-1950. French Socialist Prime Minister 1936-7. 40 hr. week.

Blurb, Miss. 1907. Photo appeared on novel jackets.

Bly, Nellie. 1867-1922. US star reporter.

Boabdil (Mohammed XI). -1538. Last Moorish King of Spain, 1482-92.

Boadicea. -60. British Iceni Queen. Led rebellion vs Romans over taxes, 60.

Boccaccio, Giovanni. 1313-75. Italian “father” of vernacular novel. Decameron 1348-53.

Boccador, Il. -1549. Architect Paris Hotel de Ville, 1533.

Boccioni, Umberto. 1882-1916. Italian artist. Founded Futurism. Riot in the Gallery 1909.

Bocskay, István. 1557-1606. Hungarian rebel vs HRE Catholicism. Gained Transylvania from Rudolf II. Vienna Peace, 1606.

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