I come from a long line of teachers and used to say that if I ever went into education I would want to teach either creative writing or history. I still love writing and still enjoy digging into history, so I guess some things never change. Since I’m working on a novel set in 1900, here are some events that my characters would have known, or at least known about as recent history …
- The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia (Jan. 29, 1900).
- “She’ll be comin’ round the mountain” was one of the most popular songs of 1899.
- The game Tiddley Winks was only 2 years old.
- Cold cereals had just been introduced in 1897.
- President McKinley signed a peace treaty with Spain (1899).
- Congress authorized the use of voting machines for federal elections (1899).
See? That’s part of what I like about history — you never know what neat things you’ll learn until you take the time to look!
