Starting points, oddities and curiosities
Among many similar books, this is one of the better ones, with more than just historical dates relating to people, places and events. Each day of the year begins with a short narrative about a key event that took place on that day e.g. March 15: the Ides of March and the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC; August 4: the outbreak of the First World War in 1914; August 13: the first complete performance of Richard Wagner's opera cycle 'Der Ring der Nibelungen' "began on this day in 1876, at the New Festival Theatre in Bayreuth, Germany, and continued on 14, 16 and 17 August" . Births and deaths of the famous, the not so famous and the infamous follow along with information about historical and cultural events. Even in the age of the internet, there is a place for such chunky books and though they can never cover every historical figure or event, they may encourage one to look further at something which catches one's attention. For the curious, this is an excellent book to dip into, even if one does it for five minutes at a time.
As stated on the title page, it is 'a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar' -
full of anecdotes, oddities, curiosities and entertaining trivia.