29 MAY

  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…

BRITISH TROOPS MURDER 24 UNARMED CIVILIANS 12 December 1948 – British troops executed 24 unarmed men, after separating them from the women and children at a Malayan rubber plantation at Sungai Rimoh near the small town of Batang Kali. The men had been subjected to mock executions before being herded into a hut where they were…

CHURCHILL – “PRIMITIVE MILLIONS OF INDIA” MUST REMAIN UNDER BRITISH RULE [ 2 February 1931 ] Speaking to a crowd in Liverpool on this day in 1931, Winston Churchill expressed his fear and indignation that Britain might ‘loose’ India. CHURCHILL – THE HINDU-MUSLIM FEUD A BULWARK OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA [ 2 February 1940…

SIX CIVILIANS SHOT DEAD BY BRITISH TROOPS IN WEST BELFAST [ 9 August 1971 ] On this day in 1971, six civilians varying in age from 19 to 50 years, including Father Hugh Mullan, a Catholic priest who was trying to help a wounded man and Joan Connolly, a 45 year old grandmother, were shot…

INDIAN SOLDIERS REFUSE ORDERS TO USE CARTRIDGES GREASED WITH PIG AND COW FAT [ 24 April 1857 ] On 24 April 1857, eighty five Indian soldiers of the Third Bengal Light Cavalry stationed at Meerut, a town 40 miles north east of Delhi, refused orders to use cartridges covered by paper greased with pig and…

  BLAIR CONSOLES GENERAL MUSHARRAF’S OVER UNFAIR STIGMATIZATION OF MILITARY REGIMES [ 5 October 2001 ] On this day in 2001, British prime minister Tony Blair, who had just flown half way round the world to consult with Pakistan’s military dictator over how to deal with the Taliban, found himself having to console General Musharraf,…