16 FEBRUARY

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…

  THATCHER REFUSES TO DISCUSS NELSON MANDELA’S RELEASE [ 15 July 1988 ] On this day in 1988, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher replied to Bishop Trevor Huddleston, who was asking her to pressure the South African government to release Nelson Mandela.  He had requested that she might meet himself and 25 activists who were…

FIRST OF 306 FIRST WORLD WAR EXECUTIONS FOR DESERTION. [ 8 September 1914 ] [ relevance ? ] On this day in 1914, the First World War was barely a month old and the first British soldier to be found guilty of desertion was executed. Thomas Highgate was just 19 years old when he was…

CHURCHILL ON THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT OF BARBARIAN BREEDING AND ATOM BOMBS. On 23 October 1938 the News of the World published an article by Winston Churchill, now widely acknowledged to be among the most admired Britons in history,  entitled “What Other Secrets Does the Inventor Hold ?”  In it he laments the invention of contraception,…

BRITISH OFFICER – “I NEVER SAW SUCH BUTCHERY AND MURDER.” [ 21 February 1849 ] On 21 February 1849, during the Second Anglo-Sikh War, British troops under the command of Lieutenant General Sir Hugh Gough gave no quarter to Sikh soldiers fleeing the battlefield of Gujrat. BRITISH TROOPS IN CAIRO SHOOT DEAD TWENTY “RIOTERS” WITH…

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