16 FEBRUARY

EARL GREY DESCRIBES IRELAND AS ‘OUR DISGRACE’ [ 23 March 1846 ] Earl Grey, addressing the House of Lords on 23 March 1846, as the Irish famine began to take thousands of lives, declared that ‘Ireland is the one weak place in the fabric of British power, Ireland is the one deep ( and I…

IRAQI VILLAGES AND CATTLE SUBJECTED TO PUNITIVE RAF BOMBING [ 27 January 1923 ] On 27 January 1923, after an RAF officer had been wounded in an ambush two miles north of the Iraqi town of Al Diwaniyah by insurgents opposing British rule, several nearby villages were selected for punitive bombing. Please feel welcome to…

CABINET BACKS UK’S SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN BOMBING OF NORTH VIETNAM [ 3 February 1966 ] In the Cabinet minutes, it’s described as ‘considerable disquiet’ and in Transport Minister Barbara Castle’s diaries as ‘the most spirited wrangle yet.’  Please feel welcome to post comments below.  If you have any questions please email alisdare@gmail.com © 2020 Alisdare Hickson All…

SIX THOUSAND GIVEN A FEW HOURS WARNING OF COMPULSORY DEMOLITION [ 16 June 1936 ] On this day in 1936, six thousand residents of Jaffa’s old city awoke to found leaflets, dropped by British aircraft, informing them that their homes would be blown up and that they had until 9 pm to vacate them permanently….

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…

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…