9 DECEMBER

BRITISH ARMY LOOTS AND BURNS THE ETHIOPIAN CITY OF MAQDALA. [ 13 April 1868 ] Today in 1868, after slaughtering the Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros’s army three days earlier, 12,000 British troops, under Lieutenant-General Robert Napier, seized the fortress city of Maqdala. GENERAL DYER ORDERS THE KILLING OF HUNDREDS OF UNARMED INDIAN PROTESTERS [ 13 April…

BRITISH TROOPS RANSACK THE CRIMEAN PORT OF BALAKLAVA [ 26 September 1854 ] On this day in 1854, the British army ransacked the small Crimean port of Balaclava.  Professor Saul David comments that when they arrived they found “the port was largely deserted.: most of its 1500 inhabitants had already fled… leaving their homes to…

EARL GREY DESCRIBES IRELAND AS ‘OUR DISGRACE’ [ 23 March 1846 ] Earl Grey, addressing the House of Lords on 23 March 1846, as the Irish famine began to take thousands of lives, declared that ‘Ireland is the one weak place in the fabric of British power, Ireland is the one deep ( and I…

THE KIRUARA MASSACRE 23 November 1952 – In the marketplace of the Kenyan village of Kiruara, a young man claimed to have a vision of the end of British colonial rule and his preaching attracted a crowd of several hundred locals.  Several white police officers then arrived leading a unit of black policemen and loyalist…

FA CHIEF APOLOGISES TO THE NAZIS AND TOASTS HITLER On Wednesday 4th December 1935, the visiting German national football team had been invited to an after the match dinner reception at the Hotel Victoria in London. William Pickford, the vice president of the Football Association and the man who first introduced markings on football pitches…