Biruni, al-. 973-1048. Arab scholar. Chronology of Ancient Nations.

Bismarck, Otto von. 1815-98. Prince. Prussian Prime Minister 1862-90. Founded German Empire; First Chancellor 1871-90. Provoked Franco-Prussian War. Ems Dispatch. Schleswig.

Black Hand. 1911-17. (Unity or Death) Serbian secret society assassinated Francis-Ferdinand 1914.

Black Prince. Son of Edward III. Captured King John II of France at Poitiers, 1356.

Black Thursday. Oct. 24, 1929. NY Stock Exchange crash.

Blackbeard (Edward Teach). -1718. English pirate in West Indies.

Blake, Robert. 1599-1657. English Commonwealth admiral.

Blake, William. 1757-1827. English mystical poet and engraver of his own books. Marriage of Heaven and Hell 1790-3. Job 1821. Dante’s Divine Comedy 1825.

Blanc, Louis. 1811-82. French Utopian Socialist. Theory of equal wages. National Workshops. Organization du Travail 1839.

Blanche of Castile. 1188-1252. Mother, regent for St. Louis. Hôtel de Nesle. Helped unify France.

Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider). 1911-14. Organization of Abstract Expressionist artists. Kandinsky. Klee.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Bodel, Jean. 1167-1210. Wrote first French miracle play. Play of St. Nicholas 1200.

Bodin, Jean. 1530-96. French political philosopher. Advocated democratic monarchy.

Boeotian League. 550-335BC. Federal government formed by Thebes. Opposed Sparta in Corinthian War. Defeated by Philip of Macedonia, 338. Destroyed by Alexander the Great, 335.

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