Back in June we profiled Aung San Suu Kyi in a Keesing's Breaking History.  Over the weekend, Suu Kyi's detention has again been a focus of the news, as Rangoon, the largest city in Burma, has experienced mass demonstrations against the country's military junta. The Burmese police reportedly barred protesters from approaching the house of Suu Kyi (who won the Nobel peace prize in 1991), but Suu Kyi came to the gates of her home in an act of unity with the protesters. 

If you are interested in this weekend's protests in Burma, I would recommend reading the Suu Kyi Breaking History.  Suu Kyi’s life and current situation are vital to understanding the political situation in Burma. 

If you are interested in other political protests, click here to read about the “Tiananmen Square” student protests of 1989, or here to read about the 1963 “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”, at which Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous "I had a dream" speech.

I have previously mentioned how much I enjoy browsing the archive, but Keesing's really comes into its own when you want a specific piece of information.  There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to find what you are looking for, so here are a few tips which I hope will assist you in getting results:

Date range – The archive goes all the way back to 1931, but if you know a date connected to what you are looking for, try narrowing the date range. You can also choose to sort results either by newest (most recently published) articles first, or by oldest articles first.

Click on a cluster - Clusters allow you to organise your search results.   When you search for a topic, look at the bottom of the left hand side bar and click on a cluster to filter your search.  There are “country” clusters and “person” clusters and you can also tag articles and create your own clusters. 

Select a topic - You can refine searches by selecting a topic.  All Keesing's articles are given keywords which help to identify their content.  The list of topics can be found on the left hand side bar. Simply click on it to refine your search. 

The Keesing's topics are: appointments; constitution and governance;  disarmament and rearmament; economy; elections; environment; foreign relations; human rights; international organisations; legal issues; legislation; political parties; science and technology; social issues; terrorism and war. 

Keep things simple – sometimes being too specific can yield few results, so try a simpler search with fewer words.  For example, instead of searching for "February 2007 Sri Lanka government changes", search for "government changes", narrow the date range to February 2007, and use the nations cluster to find Sri Lanka.

I hope these tips will help you when using the site. 

For further information visit out “help” page which contains lots of useful advice on how to get the most out of the archive.  Happy searching!  

Whilst monitoring the news today, I have read numerous reports concerning the EU's decision to abandon its plans to turn the UK metric.  Many articles have humorously reflected on the British victory of retaining the right to drink a 'pint' and other articles have used the decision as a way of examining the relationship between the EU and the UK.

However, it was only when I searched the Keesing's archive that I managed to escape a Eurocentric view of metrication.  Within a few minutes I'd learnt how India had begun to introduce the metric system in 1958 and in the same year Japan had made the metric system compulsory in all shops and businesses. 

I could continue listing facts about metrication, but my point is that my search stands as testament to the Keesing's editorial principal of internationalism.  Whatever you choose to research today, I hope you'll also be impressed by the breadth of our coverage.  Click here to enter the archive and start exploring over 75 years of news from around the world.

Keesing's strives to accurately record the world’s most significant political, social, and economic events.  Much of Keesing's content concerns political developments, but in every issue we also document natural disasters, environmental issues, and scientific discoveries.  With Hurricane Felix approaching the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, I wanted to look back though the archive to see how Central America and the nearby Caribbean islands have previously been affected by hurricanes.

Hurricane Mitch, 1998.  The November 1998 issue of Keesing's records how Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America from Oct. 27 to Nov. 1, 1998, claiming more than 10,000 lives, destroying tens of thousands of homes, wiping out water, road, and electrical systems, and ruining crops.  As many as 2 million people were left homeless.  [For the full article see 'Nov 1998-Hurricane Mitch' p. 42608.]

Hurricane Hugo, 1989.  The September 1989 issue reports of the destruction caused by Hurricane Hugo.  The hurricane formed in the Atlantic Ocean, with winds of up to 140 mph, and first crossed land on Sept. 17 over the islands of Guadeloupe and its dependencies in the Leeward Islands, where six people were reported killed and 10,000 people made homeless.  The hurricane went on to cause widespread devastation in the north-eastern Caribbean and the south-eastern United States.  An estimated 25 people were killed on Puerto Rico and 100,000 left homeless.  [For the full article see 'Sep 1989 -Hurricane Hugo' p. 36891.]

Hurricane Allen, 1980.  In the August 1980 edition of Keesing's you can read a report on the devastation caused by Hurricane Allen.  The hurricane struck St Lucia on Aug. 4, devastating banana plantations and killing 17 people.  In the following days, the worst effects of the hurricane were felt in southern Haiti, where at least 67 people died and official estimates put the economic damage at over $400,000,000 (equivalent to about two-fifths of the country's GDP); in northern Jamaica, where there were at least six deaths and 4,000 people were made homeless; and in Cuba, where four deaths were reported and extensive economic damage was caused.  [For the full article see 'St. Lucia-Hurricane disaster' p. 30482.]

Puerto Rico, September 1932.  The archive started in 1931 and the earliest record of a hurricane comes from September 1932, when “a Hurricane devastated the islands of Porto Rico”.  The Red Cross reported from San Juan (the capital) that 197 persons had been killed and 1,800 injured.  Nearly 9,000 homes were destroyed and 75,000 people rendered temporarily homeless.  [For the full article see 'September 1932 Hurricane' p. 487.]

The Keesing's Archive has reports on natural disasters from 1931 to the present day.  If you are interested in researching the history of hurricanes, 'disaster' is one of the key topics by which you can orgainse your archive search results.  To read the full articles on the hurricanes, please click here to join Keesing's today.