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.

Bluebeard. 6C- legend of murderous husband.

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.

Boer War. 1899-1902. British defeat Boer Republic in South Africa. Vereeniging.

Bogart, Humphrey. 1899-1957. US film star. Maltese Falcon 1941. Casablanca 1942.

Bohemia. Celts. 5-6C Slavs. 9C Unified. 1061 HRE. 10C + Moravia + Silesia + Galicia. 1158 Kingdom. 1526 Hapsburg. 1918 Czechoslovakia. 1939-45 German. 1993 Czech Republic.

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

Borga, Assembly. 1809. Recognition of Finland as autonomous Grand Duchy under Russia.

Borghese. 13-18C. Italian noble family.

Borlaug, Norman. 1914-. US wheat scientist responsible for Green Revolution.

Bosnian Crisis. 1908-9. Russia sides with Serbian rebels after Austria-Hungary annexation. Black Hand.

Boston Tea Party. 1773. Colonials dump tea cargo to protest tax. Led to Intolerable Acts.

Bounty, HMS. 1789 Mutiny vs Bligh.

Bowdler, Thomas. 1754-1825. English publisher of expurgated Family Shakespeare 1818.

Boyar. 10-17C. Russ. noble landowners.

Braille, Louis. 1809-1852. French inventor of raised alphabet for the blind, 1824.

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