30 APRIL

MAN DIES OF HEART ATTACK AFTER BRITISH SOLDIERS SUBJECT HIM TO A MOCK EXECUTION. [ 11 August 1971 ] On this day in 1971, three civilians in West Belfast were killed by soldiers of the first battalion of the British Parachute Regiment, during a round up of men under emergency powers of detainment which were…

DISBELIEF AMONG TROOPS THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE TO DIE FOR FALKLAND ISLANDS [ 1 May 1982 ] Labour MP Tony Benn published a letter, although withholding the name, from the fiancee of a marine on the British task force which had been sent to seize the remote Falkland Islands, with a tiny population of some…

CHURCHILL “STRONGLY IN FAVOUR OF USING POISONED GAS AGAINST UNCIVILISED TRIBES.” On 12 May 1919 Winston Churchill, now widely acknowledged to be among the most admired Britons in history, wrote a memo in his newly appointed position as Secretary of State for Air regarding the best possible British military response to an anti-British insurgency in…

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…

CHANCELLOR ECSTATIC AS ‘INDIA’S HORDES’ FORCED TO SELL GOLD [ 20 February 1932 ] Today in 1932, Neville Chamberlain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a letter to his sister, happily acknowledged that ‘the astonishing gold mine we have discovered in India’s hordes has put us in clover.’ Please feel welcome to post comments below. …