History in a Nutshell

Yesterday was my book store volunteer day.  I chose to read a real light-weight book, "Girl Cook."  It was a real chick book which I chose because its cover promised to give a glimpse into the kitchens of New York restaurants.  It did that, perhaps in more detail than the average diner wants to know, but the basic story was pretty slim and predictable -- the story of a 28 year old's search for meaningful employment in a misogynistic world and a man in her life.  How many thousands of books are written about that?

It was something like 225 pages long and I polished it off with an hour to spare.  I was going to give up and read the book I'm currently reading on my Kindle, despite my self-imposed principles about not reading an electronic book while working in a real book store.  But it was raining and we had very few customers and..who was going to see me? And who, but me, cared about my principles anyway?

I got out the kindle but then I happened to glance up to one of the top display shelves in the store and saw this book:

Now I need another "complete Gilbert & Sullvan" book the way I need another Judy Garland book.  But those are the two subjects that most draw me when I see them.  This is a big plush book which traces the history of theater in England along with the development and the stories behind the G&S operettas and...hey...it was only $8.  Such a deal!

So I bought it, paying my weekly dues for the privilege of working at Logos Books (there have been very few weeks when I did not buy at least one book!).

Last night, as we were watching Dancing with the Stars--the results show (the right person was voted off first...I predict there will be no little house on the DWTS prairie at next week's elimination), I started just thumbing through the book during commercials and discovered that toward the end there is an eight page chronological table of the most important events in the history of Gilbert and Sullivan, in the Arts, and in the World from 1836 (when W.S. Gilbert was born) to 1913 (when Helen Carte, the wife of Richard d'Oyly Carte died).  It was such a weird list of things that I had to share it here.  I'm just posting what the writers of this book think are the most important world events in various years--I won't use all the years.  There are usually 4-5 entries for each year; I'm just choosing the most interesting.

1836	Battle of the Alamo
1837	Queen Victoria comes to the throne Beginnings of Economic Depression Euston Station opens in London
1839	General growth of railroad Rugby rules devised
1840	Victoria & Albert married First postage stamps Afternoon tea made fashionable by Duchess of Bedford Hypnosis discovered
1843	Typewriter invented Appearance of the first Christmas cards
1846	Invention of ice cream
1848	Revolutions in Paris, Vienna, Prague, Rome Waterloo station opens
1849	California Gold Rush Bowler hat invented Harrods founded
1850	Last salmon caught in Thames--too polluted afterwards Tea overtakes coffee in popularity
1854	First distillation of petrol Vatican ruling of papal infallibility
1858	Lecture on survival of the fittest by Darwin and Wallace Bernadette of Lourdes has her vision Big Ben opened by Queen First refrigerator invented
1860	Garibaldi uprising in Italy First pasturization of milk
1862	Abolition of slavery Britain runs out of cotton due to American Civil War Cotton and crop famine in Britain Cross & Blackwell introduce canned soups
1864	Charing Cross station opens First fish and chips shops opened
1866	Invention of Dynamite Cook's tours begin
1872	First motion picture invented First chewing gum invented
1874	End of fist Gladstone ministry Lawn tennis patented
1876	Queen Victoria made Empress of India Invention of "Lily the Pink's" compound for "women's ills" Player piano invented
1877	Women allowed to practice medicine First telephones sold First Wimbledon tennis matches
1880	First newspaper photos First successful shipment of frozen Australian beef to England
1881	Venetian gondola outmoded by vaporetto Death of Disrali
1882	Street lighting by electricity begins First psychoanalysis experiments Married Women's Property Act passed
1883	Invention of the machine gun First Buffalo Bill Wild West Show
1886	Gold rush to the Transvaal Coca-Cola is sold as headache remedy
1888	Jack the Ripper murders Invention of Esperanto
1891	Amazingly there were NO world events of note during this year!
1899	Boer War begins aspirin and sticking plaster invented
1906	The word "allergy" is coined San Francisco earthquake
1907	Hoover vacuum cleaner invented

I dont know if that was as interesting to you as it was to me, but I hope you enjoyed it.