Just a quick tip today. Here’s something neat I discovered with my old friend, Wikipedia. (Yes, I know, you have to double-check what you find on Wikipedia, but it’s a great place to start.)
If you need to do research on a particular year for, say, a historical romance you’re writing, you can type in something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1879
and it gives you major events, births, and deaths for that year. Substitute the year you want, of course.
Again, it doesn’t mean you can get away with no other research, but if you need a starting point to help you get a feel for a year, there you go. Enjoy!
Writing How-To: Quck Historical Research Tip