On this day in history

[goodoldboy]

I remember the shuttle explosion well.We fixed the leak on the plasma cutter the next day .having had a whiff of gas for months.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day, 28 January 1942, Australian troops armed with machine guns, rifles and bayonets attacked striking Chinese sailors in Fremantle.
Around 500 Chinese sailors on six ships had gone on strike and sat down on deck, demanding equal pay with white Australians, as well as better conditions and a guarantee that they would not be sent back to Japanese-occupied China.
On January 28, the 5th Garrison Battalion attacked the workers, killing Tong Youn Tong, 44, with a bayonet and shooting Ping Sang Hsu, 22, in the back. One of the workers managed to grab a rifle and shoot back, injuring one of the sailors, before eventually the workers surrendered. The strikers were then arrested, sent to a concentration camp and then most were drafted to the Chinese Labour Corps and used as forced labour for the Allies fighting against Japan in northern China. The Australian press described the workers as "of a cunning, ruthless type never before seen in Australia".
Around the same time, a Chinese crew aboard a Norwegian ship tried to disembark, and several were then shot by Norwegian guards. Elsewhere, after a Chinese ship fireman complained that an Australian had kicked him in the mouth, the whole crew walked off the ship in sympathy.

 

[Chas]

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[goodoldboy]

On this day, 29 January 1935, workers at the sugar factory in St Kitts joined the strike of cane cutters which began the previous day demanding a pay increase. The workers assembled in the yard at Buckley's plantation, but when they failed to disperse the manager fired his gun into the crowd injuring several workers. British armed police then arrived, but workers still refused to disperse, demanding that the manager be arrested. However instead police opened fire on the workers, killing three and injuring eight. The following day a British warship arrived, and marines disembarked to suppress the strike. 39 strikers were arrested and six jailed for two to five years.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1661,
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When King Charles II was recalled from exile, his new parliament, in January 1661, ordered the disinterment of the elder Cromwell's body from Westminster Abbey, as well as those of John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton, for a posthumous execution at Tyburn. The three bodies were left hanging "from morning till four in the afternoon"[1] before being cut down and beheaded. The heads were placed on a 20-foot (6.1 m) spike above Westminster Hall (the location of the trial of Charles I).

In 1685, a storm broke the pole upon which Cromwell's head stood, throwing it to the ground[2] (although other sources list the date anywhere between 1672 and 1703),[3] after which it was in the hands of various private collectors and museums until 25 March 1960, when it was buried at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, Cromwell's alma mater.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1972 British paratroopers opened fire on a protest march in the Bogside area of Derry Northern Ireland .26 people were shot and 14 died. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers, and some were shot while trying to help the wounded.
In 2010 a report that took 12 years to complete concluded that the killings were both "unjustified" and "unjustifiable". It found that all of those shot were unarmed, that none were posing a serious threat, that no bombs were thrown and that soldiers "knowingly put forward false accounts" to justify their firing . The murders caused a massive increase in violence.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1984 Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces the end of the halfpenny.

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1998 A NATO aircraft severs a cable car at an Italian ski resort, killing 20 people.

Military jet causes cable car tragedy, 1998

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1953 the Batepa massacre took place in Sao Tome when hundred of natives were killed by the colonial administration
Batepá massacre

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1974 Eleven people - including eight off-duty soldiers and two young children - are killed, and 12 seriously injured, when a coach is blown up by a suspected Provisional IRA bomb on the M62 in West Yorkshire.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day, 4 February 1913, legendary civil activist Rosa Parks was born. While many histories of her life depict her as a "quiet" woman who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white passenger because she was "tired", Parks was a lifelong, committed militant in the struggle for a better world.
As a 6-year-old, she would sit with her grandfather who had armed himself with a shotgun to protect their family home from the KKK. Later on in her youth she armed herself with a brick to confront a white bully, and she described Malcolm X as her personal hero.

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1919 a strike started in the Barcelona Traction Light & Power company protesting against the sacking of 8 workmates who took action against their wage cut , having been moved from permanent contracts to temporary. In the face of threats and sackings from the company the strike escalated into a general strike that paralysed 70% of Industry in Cataluña .The strike ended on 19th of March in victory with wage rises and the worlds first 8 hour working day .

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1952 Princess Elizabeth is proclaimed Queen after the death of her father - watch the footage here

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1943 Lepa Svetozara Radic was executed by the Nazis . She was a Bosnian Serb partisan who was captured in a battle against the SS. After torture for several days in an attempt to extract information, she was sentenced to death by hanging.
With the noose around her neck, she cried out: "Long live the Communist Party, and partisans! Fight, people, for your freedom! Do not surrender to the evildoers! I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me!"In her last moments at the scaffold, the Germans offered to spare her life, in return for the names of the Communist Party leaders and members in the shelter, but she refused their offer with the words: "I am not a traitor of my people. Those whom you are asking about will reveal themselves when they have succeeded in wiping out all you evildoers, to the last man." She was 17

 

[goodoldboy]

On this day in 1937 thousands of civilians fleeing for Malaga to Almeria were attacked by Spanish , Italian and German Fascists . They were machine gunned from aircraft and shelled by naval gunfire .An estimated 3 to 5000 people died. After the fall of Malaga 4000 people were rounded up and executed

 

[Chas]

On this day in 1990 Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela is freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
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The man who once was a terrorist;
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Mandela became involved in politics from a young age, and was one of the first to call for armed resistance to apartheid through his political party, the African National Congress (ANC).
Mandela went underground in 1961 and founded the ANC’s armed wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe, which means “Spear of the Nation” in Zulu. He spent the next year travelling throughout Africa and Europe, studying guerrilla warfare and building support for the ANC abroad.
South Africa’s government charged Mandela with incitement and sentenced him to five years in prison. The courts extended Mandela’s sentence to life in 1964, after he and several other ANC leaders were convicted of treason for trying to sabotage the government.

Information gleaned from globalnews.ca

 

[goodoldboy]

The man who once was a terrorist;

Depends on your point of view . Lepa Svetozara Radic and many 1000s of others executed by the Nazis were considered terrorists.

 

[Chas]

Always liked this picture but then I like a lot of odd things.
On this day in1994 One of the world's best-known paintings, The Scream by Edvard Munch, is stolen from a museum in Norway.
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[Chas]

On this day February 15th 1971, the UK went Decimal

 

[Chas]

On this day in 2005 A ban on fox hunting comes into force in England and Wales.