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Library Journal Review
This is an interesting and useful concept for anyone wanting to plan a theme party or a happening or even for a journalist looking for filler. The years covered are 1993-2001. The anniversaries are the ``big'' ones, presented in 20-year increments for the first 100 years and in 50-year increments from 100 to 500 years. Each anniversary year has sections that include founding dates of organizations (private and public); popular books, music, etc., of the time; and a few famous birth and death notes. Each year also contains a chronological list of the major events by day of the month (a kind of ``famous firsts'' list). This is a quasi-reference book somewhat like The People's Almanac or the Book of Lists . Given its price, it is unlikely that any library can afford more than one copy to be kept in reference. The publication of a paperback copy for circulating collections would have been a good idea. Indexes not seen.-- Paula M. Zieselman, Fulbright & Jaworski, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-- A straightforward guide to significant occasions, organized by impending important milestones between the years 1993-2001. While the United States is the focus, people and events from elsewhere in the world that ``literate Americans might acknowledge as having an important influence on subsequent generations'' are included. Additional material in sidebars ranges from the foundings of museums, zoos, and business organizations to the release of popular movies. A sampling of 1993 entries includes: the death of Senator Robert Kennedy (25 years ago), the discovery of streptomycin (50 years ago), the construction of the hydrofoil by Alexander Graham Bell (75 years ago), the use of the word millionaire for the first time (150 years ago), and the arrival of the first horses in the New World (500 years ago). Useful for those who maintain calendar displays, trivia quizzes, and time lines, and for all those potential promoters among us.-- Mary H. Cole, Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School, Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
CHOICE Review
Among the various types of chronological reference works are handbooks of anniversary dates; this one treats the years 1993 through 2001. Within each year, as the "User's Guide" explains, 12 significant milestone anniversaries are highlighted, incidents that occurred 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400, 450, and 500 years ago. In addition to describing briefly several unique events in calendar order, the entry for each year highlights categories of selected anniversaries in boxes that deal with birthdays and death days and the founding or appearance of organizations, museums and zoos (but not libraries), music, newspapers and magazines, books and literary creations, movies, and colleges and universities. These naturally tend to clump in the more recent centuries. The volume opens with a calendar locator and anniversary glossary and closes with a bibliography of works used and an extensive index. A quick resource for editors, program planners, exhibit planners, and the curious, this work will assist in supplying historical color for informal commemorations. It will have limited usefulness in academic libraries. D. G. Davis Jr.; University of Texas at Austin
Booklist Review
Long's latest compilation will allow social directors, history teachers, and greeting-card producers to plan celebrations of significant anniversaries from 1993 through 2001. It also enables cultural historians and the merely curious to view past events in interesting, thought-provoking clusters. What was it about the year 1921 that produced the first successful demonstration of aerial bombardment, the introduction of drive-in food service at Royce Hailey's Pig Stand in Dallas, the first experiments with insulin treatment of diabetes, the lie detector, the first Miss America contest, Eskimo Pies, independent Ireland, Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Barron's Weekly, and The Sheik (starring Rudolph Valentino)? For each of the nine years to come, The Almanac of Anniversaries provides information about people, places, products, and events that will reach the "biggie" anniversaries: 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, and so forth through 500. There are birthdays, deaths, first performances (music, television, movies, and drama), premier editions (newspapers, magazines, and books), foundings (colleges, museums, zoos, and major businesses), inventions, and historical events. The emphasis is on the U.S., but people and events elsewhere are included if they are deemed important to our collective memory. Some items such as birth dates and foundings are just listed; events are described in two or three sentences. The bibliography lists works used in compiling the almanac and does not purport to be comprehensive. It features some subject-specific sources that might interest someone doing research in a particular field, such as Krug's Salient Dates in American Education (1966) and DuVall's Domestic Technology: A Chronology of Developments (1988). The extensive index includes every name, institution, creation, and event from the entries. Place-names are indexed when appropriate, such as cross-referencing Annapolis, Maryland, and the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy. Anyone who has spent time seeking the proper Latin term for the twenty-fifth anniversary (quartocentennial) will appreciate the "Anniversary Glossary" provided. The book's format is visually appealing, making use of boxes and milestone stars to cluster related events, but some confusion occurs when listings for one anniversary spill over to the page where the next begins. For example, it's difficult to know which anniversary the Peach Bowl will celebrate in 1993--the twenty-fifth or the fiftieth. The Almanac of Anniversaries will be fun to browse, helpful for historical research, and useful to those looking for a cause for celebration. (Reviewed Jan. 15, 1993)
