The World in 1897 the year a queen had reigned sixty years

Victoria had worn the crown for sixty years by that June. You had to be over sixty yourself to remember any other ruler.

Life back then

Medicine came in a bottle and nobody checked what was in it. Chemists sold soothing syrups for teething babies that contained opium, and tonics with cocaine in them for toothache and low spirits. A chemist working for Bayer made a steadier form of the drug we call aspirin that August, kinder to the stomach than the willow bark powders doctors used. Against the diseases that killed most people there was still little to offer beyond rest and broth.

The year in 8 events

• 🏃Apr 19 The first Boston Marathon is run from Ashland into the city. A small field sets off and John McDermott wins.
• ⚛️Apr 30 J.J. Thomson tells a London audience that atoms hold something far smaller inside them, later named the electron.
• 🧛May 26 Bram Stoker's Dracula goes on sale in London, priced at six shillings in yellow cloth boards.
• 🕯️Jun 12 A huge earthquake shakes Assam in north east India. Hills shift and buildings come down across the region.
• 👑Jun 22 Queen Victoria rides through London for her Diamond Jubilee, with troops brought in from across the empire.
• ⛏️Jul 17 The steamer Portland docks in Seattle loaded with Klondike gold. Thousands quit their jobs and head north.
• 🦟Aug 20 Ronald Ross, working in India, finds malaria parasites inside a mosquito he has dissected.
• 🎅Sep 21 The New York Sun answers a girl's letter in print. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

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