Bathsheba. Old Testament Hittite Wife of David, mother of Solomon.

Batista, Fulgencio. 1901-73. Authoritarian Cuban right-wing dictator 1933-4, 52-8. Toppled by Castro.

Bayer, Johann. 1572-1625. German astronomer. Star charts, 1603, include magnitude Greek symbols.

Beelzebub. New Testament prince of Demons. Satan.

Bellarmine, St. Robert. 1542-1621. Italian Jesuit defender of RC church vs Protestantism, Copernican theory, heretics. Galileo.

Bengal. 8C Pala emp. 11C Hindu. 13C Turk. 1576 Mogul. 1757 Britain. 1947 India(W)/Pakistan(E). 1971 E =Bangladesh.

Benin.1625 Abomey kingdom = Dahomey. 1892 France. 1895 French West Africa. 1959 Autonomous. 1960 Independent =Dahomey. 1975 =People’s Republic of Benin.

Bennett, Arnold. 1867-1931. English Staffordshire novelist. Meticulously detailed Naturalist. Clayhanger Series 1910.

Berengar of Tours. c999-1088. Questioned transubstantiation 1044.

Beria, Laurenty. 1899-1953. Soviet commisar in charge of Stalin’s security police 1938-.

Bevin, Ernest. 1881-1951. British labour leader, statesman. TUC. Initiated Colombo Plan.

Bhutto, Ali. 1928-79. Pakistani leader 70-77. Deposed by Zia.

Biedermeier. 1815-35. German bourgeois kitsch style of sentimental art and utilitarian furniture. Circular pedestal table.

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

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

Bode, Johann. 1747-1826. German astronomer: Laws of planetary distances, 1766.

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

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

Boltzmann, Ludwig. 1844-1906. Austrian physicist. Statistical Mechanics, 1870.

Borgia, Cesare. 1476-1507. Ruthless Italian Machiavellian statesman. Son of Pope Alexander VI.

Bosphorus. Strategic strait at Constantinople. Nelidov.

Bourgeois, Léon. 1851-1925. French statesman. League of Nations.

Bragg, William. 1862-1942. English discoverer of crystallography by x-ray diffraction. with son Lawrence (1890-1971).

Brancusi, Constantin. 1876-1957. Romanian abstract sculptor. Bird in Space 1919.

Brazzaville Declaration. 1944. Established colonial representation in French parliament, but not autonomy.

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