15 NOVEMBER

INDIAN SEPOYS INITIATE A NATIONWIDE REVOLT AGAINST BRITISH RULE. 10 May 1857 – The Indian Mutiny, though it had many causes, broke out in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 miles north east of Delhi.  A day earlier, on 9 May, 85 Sepoys, serving as soldiers for the East India Company,  had been severely punished…

GENERAL AUTHORISES USE OF ARAB HOSTAGES TO PROTECT ARMY CONVOYS [ 18 September 1936 ] On 18 September 1936, Lieutenant General John Dill, who had arrived in Jerusalem five days earlier to take command of British forces in Palestine, informed Sir Cyril Deverell, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, that he intended to use…

THOUSANDS MURDERED AFTER BRITISH LED IMPERIAL ARMY TAKES SUZHOU [ 9 December 1863 ] On this day in 1863, thousands of men and women in the Chinese rebel city of Suzhou were massacred,  four days after the town was seized by British and imperial Chinese forces. Colonel Charles Gordon (later to become legendary as General…

ROYAL NAVY DESTROYS LAGOS – ‘AN IMMENSE NUMBER OF NATIVES BEING KILLED’ [ 26 December 1851 ] On 26 December 1851, British naval vessels began a three day bombardment of the coastal town of Lagos on the west coast of Africa, reducing it to rubble, at a cost, to quote a British press report, of ‘an…

MARTIAL LAW IN CEYLON, HUNDREDS SHOT ON SIGHT, THOUSANDS ARRESTED [ 2 June 1915 ] On 2 June 1915, Sir Robert Chalmers, the governor of Ceylon, on the pretext that ethnic rioting between Muslims and Sinhalese Buddhists had been provoked by German agents, declared martial law. There was, however, no evidence to suggest any German…

DAY AND NIGHT CURFEW IMPOSED IN NICOSIA [ 13 June 1958 ] On 13 June 1958, during an insurgency against British rule in Cyprus which had also exacerbated tensions between the Greek and Turkish communities, Major General Douglas Kendrew decided to order a day and night curfew on the entire population of Nicosia ‘until further…