23 DECEMBER

WINSTON CHURCHILL WITNESSES THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE VALLEY OF VILLAGES [ 15 September 1897 ] On 15 September 1897, Lieutenant Winston S. Churchill, who was temporarily freelancing as a war correspondent, joined a punitive British military expedition, under Major General Sir Bindon Blood, as it began to move against the Mamunds of the Watelai…

THOUSANDS MURDERED AFTER BRITISH LED IMPERIAL ARMY TAKES SUZHOU [ 5 December 1863 ] On this day in 1863, thousands of men and women in the Chinese rebel city of Suzhou were massacred, after the town was seized by imperial Chinese forces. Colonel Charles Gordon (later to become legendary as General Gordon of Khartoum) had…

Page to be updated with content soon. The next page with content is 16 October.

SHOULD PRIME MINISTER LUMUMBA FALL INTO A RIVER FULL OF CROCODILES ? Patrice Lumumba, who had become the first democratically elected prime minister of the Congo in May 1960, was a troublesome believer in independent economic development, who thought Congolese nationals rather than foreigners should be allowed to run the important offices of government and…

QUEEN GREETS KILLER TYRANT CEAUSESCU AND AWARDS HIM WITH A KNIGHTHOOD [ 13 June 1978 ] On this day in 1978, at the insistence of Britain’s Labour government, the Queen welcomed Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu at Buckingham Palace as part of a British effort to encourage the regime to continue to distance itself from Moscow….