5 JULY

THE BRITISH STAGE A COUP IN SHARJAH. 24 June 1965 – The British orchestrated a coup in the emirate of Sharjah to remove Sheikh Saqr, who was considered to have too great an interest in independent development and had even allowed the Arab League to have a role in the small kingdom’s decision making, at…

BRITISH REDCOATS SHOOT DEAD UP TO FIFTY ABORIGINAL TASMANIANS [ 3 May 1804 ] On 3 May 1804, a group of about three hundred Aboriginal Tasmanian men, women and children were hunting kangaroos at Risdon Cove, on the outskirts of the first British settlement on the island, which had been established the previous autumn. Edward…

THE LORD MAYOR OF CORK DIES ON HUNGER STRIKE IN BRIXTON PRISON [25 October 1920 ] Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, died at 5.40 am on Monday 25 October 1920 on the seventy fourth day of his hunger strike at Brixton prison.  His biographer, Francis Costello, remarked that the MacSwiney’s ‘solitary protest would…

  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,…

‘HEADS (OF BLACKS) FIXED ON POLES IN VARIOUS PARTS’ OF DEMERARA [ 18 December 1823 ] Following a mostly non-violent slave insurrection in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana) in August 1823, in which the plantation owners had been locked into their homes, Governor Major General John Murray imposed a savage crackdown,  shooting dead…

MINISTER – PUBLIC BACKING FOR SHOOTING PRISONERS WOULD BE “AWKWARD” [ 21 June 1900 ] On this day in 1900, opposition was voiced in the British cabinet to General’s kitchener’s ruthless war against Boer insurgents in South Africa, including the destruction of entire villages and the shooting of prisoners on sight. However, it was not…