Historial Dictionary of Stockholm

Jake bought me this book called the Historical Dictionary of Stockholm, by Dennis Gould. Now that I'm living here and learning the city better, it's really amazing to read some of the entries.

Kungsholmen ("the king's island"), the neighborhood where I live, is one of many islands that makes up the city. According to the book, in the middle ages Kungsholmen was used as grazing land for animals, and at the end of the 1600s it was named in honor of the king, Karl XI. At one point it had been named Munkläget for the Franciscan monks who owned it before Gustav Vasa incorporated it, and it was also called Liderne which apparently comes from the old Swedish word for hillside. Seems fitting as I have to walk up a big bloody hill to get to my apartment. In the 17th century it was home to lots of craftsmen, and in the 18th century the Royal Hospital was here, and then in the 19th century there was a lot of heavy industry and it was a very poor part of the city - the book says that it was a place where "underpaid workers, such as blacksmiths, pewter pot makers, and Italian workers specializing in glass-blowing sweated at tedious industrial jobs." On October 31, 1878, there was a huge fire that lit up the whole Stockholm skyline at a steam mill called Eldkvarn located where Stadshuset, the city hall, is now, which is like five blocks away from me. It seems like this little island has had a pretty interesting history.

There is also a mysterious entry in the city chronology section that says "On September 27 (1981), the first trial since World War II of the city's defenses against a possible coup d'etat took place, with about 1,500 people and a number of tanks participating" but despite my formidable googling skills I can't seem to find anything else about this anywhere.