Black and Tans. 1920-22. Brutal British police sent to suppress Irish unrest. Irish Free State.

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

Black Hundreds. 1905-9. Russian movement. Opposed revolution. Persecuted Jews-50,000 dead.

Blanchard, Jean. 1753-1809. French balloonist. First aerial Channel crossing 1785. Velocipede 1779.

Blanqui, Louis. 1805-81. French militant socialist. Coined: “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”, “Industrial Revolution”, 1837. Unsuccessful uprising 1839. Commune leader. Secret societies.

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

Blenheim, Battle. 1704. Bavaria. Marlborough’s victory in War of Spanish Succession. First French defeat in 50 years, saves Vienna.

Blériot, Louis. 1872-1936. French aviator. First plane to cross Channel, 1909.

Bliss, Arthur. 1891-1975. English subjective composer. Colour Symphony 1922.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Bohr, Niels. 1885-1962. Danish atomic physicist. Electron quantum levels, 1913.

Boito, Arrigo. 1842-1918. Italian poet, librettist: Verdi’s Othello, Falstaff.

Bokassa. 1921-96. Central African Republic dictator 1966-79. Overthrew Dacko, who was restored by France.

Boleslav the Cruel. -967. Brother, murdered St. Wenceslaus to become Prince of Bohemia, 929.

Bona Dea. Roman fertility goddess. = Fauna.

Book of Concord. 1580. Lutheran liturgy: Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creeds, Augsburg Confession.

Bordet, Jules. 1870-1961. Belgian bacteriologist, immunologist.

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