15 OCTOBER

PAUL BOGLE HUNG FOR DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR BLACK JAMAICANS [ 24 October 1865 ] Today in 1865, Paul Bogle, a Baptist deacon and the leader of a workers revolt in Jamaica known as the Morant Bay Rebellion, was hung by the British. TWO IRAQI VILLAGES FLATTENED AFTER THEY REFUSE TO PAY FINES [ 24 October…

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…

BRITISH CHAPLAIN SHOCKED BY THE BARBARITY OF HIS OWN ARMY [ 28 August 1842 ] On this day in 1842, during the advance of a British punitive expedition led by Major General Sir William Nott, the Reverend Isaac Allen recalled the indiscriminate slaughter of men in a fortified Afghan village, deemed to have been responsible…

THE TIMES ARGUES IRELAND’S POTATO FAMINE IS “A BLESSING” [ 22 September 1846 ] On this day in 1846, an editorial in The Times admonished those arguing for London to intervene to ameliorate the catastrophic potato famine in Ireland. Some might go hungry or starve, but this was a necessary evil, which would correct Irish indolence…

BRITISH ARMY LOOTS AND BURNS THE ETHIOPIAN CITY OF MAQDALA. [ 13 April 1868 ] Today in 1868, after slaughtering the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros’s army three days earlier, 12,000 British troops, under Lieutenant-General Robert Napier, seized the fortress city of Maqdala. GENERAL DYER ORDERS THE KILLING OF HUNDREDS OF UNARMED INDIAN PROTESTERS [ 13 April…

  UNGRATEFUL SHEIKH SHAKHBUT DEPOSED BY BRITISH LED COUP. 6 August 1966 – The British deposed Sheikh Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi in a military coup because he was failing to reward British military support by spending enough on British goods, although in the words of historians the serious problem his prudence presented has been more…