20 JUNE

UP TO 128 CAPTURED MAORIS STRIPPED NAKED AND SHOT ‘LIKE DOGS’ [ 5 January 1869 ] It was a crime which Maoris have never forgotten, committed when New Zealand, though technically self-governing, was still, both in name and in the thinking of much of its settler population, a colony of Great Britain. CHURCHILL SLASHES SHIPPING…

BRITISH ARMY MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO PREVENT EXECUTION OF  IRAQI CHRISTIAN. [ 24 December 2003 ] On this day in 2003 British soldiers failed to intervene when local Shia militia executed a Christian man in the town’s main marketplace for the crime of selling alcohol. Over the preceding months, following the joint British-American invasion in…

WINSTON CHURCHILL RECOMMENDS STRAFING CROWDS OF IRISH NATIONALISTS On 20 September 1920, twenty years before he became Britain’s legendary prime minister, Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for Air, urged the Chiefs of Staff to seriously consider the use of fighter aircraft against gatherings suspected of protesting or plotting against British rule. In his view,…

BRITISH EXECUTE AFGHAN VILLAGERS AS A “LESSON” 8 November 1879 – A British cavalry detachment surrounded the Afghan village of Indikee where shots had been fired at the invading British army the previous month. They gave the village headmen five minutes to round up thirty suspects. The correspondent of the London Daily News explained that…

REDCOATS SHOOT DEAD FIVE BOSTONIANS WHO HAD BEEN HURLING SNOWBALLS [ 5 March 1770 ] The anniversary is commemorated every year with an annual reenactment in Boston, Massachusetts, but is virtually forgotten in Britain. CABINET ‘MAD KEEN TO LAND BRITISH TROOPS SOMEWHERE’ [ 5 March 1956 ] On 5 March 1956, ministers were briefed at number…

THE SPECTATOR – ‘NEGROES ARE MADE ON PURPOSE TO SERVE THE WHITES.’ [ 16 September 1865 ] In the 1860s, The Spectator was one of Britain’s leading weekly magazines with a relatively progressive reputation. It had, among other liberal causes, supported the Federalists and the principle of emancipation during the American Civil War. Despite such…