19 OCTOBER

BAPTIST DEACON SAMUEL SHARPE HUNG FOR LEADING JAMAICAN SLAVE STRIKE 23 May 1832 – The Jamaican Baptist deacon Samuel Sharpe was hung by the British for leading a slave strike. He was the last of 326 slaves to be executed for the dangerous precedent of refusing to follow orders by not returning to work after…

Page to be updated with content soon. The next page with content is 22 March.

THE AUTHOR Alisdare Hickson is a graduate of the London School of Economics, with an MSc in Economic History. He also holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Essex. After a period working as a researcher, he returned to his true passions of history, politics and photography. As an amateur photojournalist, he covered…

BRITISH BLOW UP THE GREAT BAZAR OF KABUL – “AN INEXCUSABLE ACT OF VANDALISM” [ 10 October 1842 ] On this day in 1842 British troops under the command of Major-General Sir George Pollock, following the instructions of India’s Governor General, Lord Ellenborough, to leave “some lasting mark of the just retribution of an outraged…

BRITISH CRUSH OPPOSITION TO DUTCH COLONIAL RULE IN SURABAYA, KILLING HUNDREDS, INCLUDING MANY CIVILIANS. 10 November 1945 – British army launched a military assault on the Indonesian city of Surabaya where nationalist opposition groups refused to submit to Dutch colonial rule. Many hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed, including many civilians, as British and Indian soldiers,…

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…