200 years ago Peterloo Massacre Jump to search "Peterloo" redirects here. For the film about the massacre, see Peterloo (film). Massacre of protesters in 1819 Peterloo Massacre Part of the history of Manchester please log in to view this image A coloured print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlile Location St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England Coordinates please log in to view this image 53°28′41″N 2°14′49″W / 53.478°N 2.247°W / 53.478; -2.247Coordinates: please log in to view this image 53°28′41″N 2°14′49″W / 53.478°N 2.247°W / 53.478; -2.247 Date 16 August 1819 Deaths 18 Injuries 400–700 Perpetrators Manchester and Salford Yeomanry Cheshire Yeomanry Manchester Special Constabulary British Army Regulars The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England on Monday 16 August 1819 when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. The appeal of political radicalism was enhanced in 1819 by the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England. The Manchester Patriotic Union was agitating for parliamentary reform, and they organised a demonstration in response, to be addressed by well-known radical orator Henry Hunt. Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry to arrest Hunt and several others on the stage with him. The Yeomanry charged into the crowd, knocking down a woman and killing a child, and finally apprehended Hunt. Cheshire Magistrates chairman William Hulton then summoned the 15th Hussars to disperse the crowd. They charged with sabres drawn, and 18 people were killed and 400–700 were injured in the ensuing confusion. The event was first labelled the "Peterloo massacre" on a frontpage headline on the Manchester Observer newspaper, the portmanteau juxtaposing the name of the site with the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier, and the attack on unarmed civilians. Historian Robert Poole has called the Peterloo Massacre one of the defining moments of its age. The London and national papers shared the horror felt in the Manchester region, but Peterloo's immediate effect was to cause the government to crack down on reform, passing the Six Acts. It also led directly to the foundation of the Manchester Guardian, but had little other effect on the pace of reform. In a survey conducted by The Guardian in 2006, Peterloo came second to the Putney Debates as the event from radical British history that most deserved a proper monument or a memorial. Peterloo is commemorated by a plaque close to the site, a replacement for an earlier one that was criticised as being inadequate as it did not reflect the scale of the massacre. A new monument is being built in front of the Manchester Central Convention Centre and will be unveiled on the 200th anniversary.
75 years ago today, one of the most documented battles of WW2 began with Operation Market Garden, where thousands of paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines and started capturing bridges over the Rhine, as immortalised in one of the best war films, A.Bridge Too Far, which concentrates mainly on the bridge at Arnhem. Today, as a commemoration, 1500 troops will again jump into the area... Battle of Arnhem: Mass parachute drop to mark WW2 assault - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49771180 A brave and daring assault, which ultimately failed due to the German counter, leading to over 6000 allied prisoners being taken and 1500 casualties
Following on from yesterday, what a hero..... Veteran, 97, parachutes again over Arnhem 21 September 2019 please log in to view this image Image copyrightMOD Image captionSandy Cortmann smiled and waved to the crowds after his tandem jump A 97-year-old Arnhem veteran has parachuted again over the Dutch city to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden. Sandy Cortmann, from Aberdeen, made an emotional return to the Netherlands on Thursday as part of the commemorations. He was just 22 when he parachuted near Arnhem in September 1944, where he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He made a tandem jump with an Army parachutist into the same drop zone at about 10:00. Mr Cortmann described his jump as "thoroughly terrifying", adding: "When the door opened I thought, Christ, what a way down." But he said it was "absolutely wonderful to see the ground so far below, my God". Operation Market Garden, portrayed in the 1977 Hollywood film A Bridge Too Far, saw 35,000 British, American and Polish troops parachute or glide behind German lines in a bid to open up an attack route for allied forces. The fighting around Arnhem saw more than 1,500 British soldiers killed and nearly 6,500 captured. Some 1,500 people took part in a mass parachute drop to commemorate the allied assault. please log in to view this image Mr Cortmann jumped with a parachutist from the Army's Red Devils display team over the Ginkel Heath nature reserve, to the the north west of Arnhem. "When the fighting started we were just in amongst it," he recalled. "You can describe it as brave, you thought you were brave, but once you got down there, Jesus Christ, terrified, absolutely terrified. "You just heard bangs and machine guns. I didn't understand what that was all about." Allied soldiers had been parachuted in to secure bridges on the Dutch and German border, with the expectation of being relieved within 48 hours. Many ended up fighting for nine days. Mr Cortmann remembered seeing treatment areas for the wounded "strewn with bodies" with "nobody complaining, nobody moaning, just lying still". He recalled one young soldier calling out repeatedly for his mother and being told to help quieten him. "I crawled out, I just touched his hand, grabbed it and he died," he said. "I thought, 'what a thing to happen'. I was choking, but I was alive." please log in to view this image Image copyrightPA MEDIA Image captionMr Cortmann's return to Arnhem has brought back many memories Mr Cortmann said he felt "very emotional" when he earlier visited a cemetery where a fallen friend named Gordon Matthews is honoured. His friend, who he said had a "happy smiling face", was killed instantly by a mortar shell during the operation. He said: "I wanted to come back, I wanted to see Gordon's stone so I could look at him and speak to him and just say 'hi pal' and think about him for a wee while." The veteran paratrooper and his comrades had tried to escape the fighting by crossing a river to safety, but Mr Cortmann was forced to admit he could not swim. He said that instead of abandoning him his fellow soldiers put their clothes back on and stayed. Mr Cortmann was eventually captured and endured a seven-hour train ride in a packed wagon to Germany where he was held for a year. 'Never seen him this happy' Alana Davidson, 27, who helps look after the veteran at the Fairview nursing home in Aberdeen and travelled with him to the Netherlands, said he still led an independent life. "I've never seen him this happy before," she said of his trip. "In the care home you don't have much time to sit for ages, but you hear the stories. I never realised how much of a hero he was," she said. "It's just unbelievable what they went to do at such a young age. It's just crazy." Mr Cortmann said the welcome he had received in Arnhem was "overwhelming" and that he had felt "happiness". "The attention I'm getting, I don't think I deserve it," he said
On this day in 1975 Brian Barnes, who passed away earlier this month, produced one of the greatest performances in Ryder Cup history with two wins in one day over the great Jack Nicklaus...
1989 Nine British army bandsmen and one civilian were killed when an IRA bomb exploded at the Royal Marine Barracks in Deal, Kent. 1918 Hanz Scholl, founding member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany, who was executed in February 1943 along with his sister, Sophie, born in Forchtenberg
London Calling to the far away towns, where were you 40 years ago today. I remember I was buying the latest Clash album and playing it non stop.
The London Calling Album cover is one of my all time favs. I was lucky enough many many years ago to work with Paul Siminon's mother-in-law who managed to get my double gatefold album cover autographed for me the Clash bass man.