November 6 - UN Condemns Apartheid in South Africa

This Day in History: 6 November 2020

 

6 November 1962

 

58 years ago, today, the UN condemned apartheid in South Africa, calling on all its members to end economic and military relations with the nation. In 1960, a massacre of unarmed demonstrators at Sharpeville near Johannesburg occurred where 69 Black people were killed and over 180 were injured. The international movement to end apartheid gained wide support, but few Western powers or South Africa's other main trading partners favoured a full economic or military embargo against the country. Nevertheless, opposition to apartheid within the UN grew, and the UN resolution in 1973 labelled apartheid as a "crime against humanity." The country was suspended from the General Assembly in 1974.

 

This government-sanctioned racial segregation and political discrimination against South Africa's non-white majority was enforced from 1948 to 1993. The black South Africans were forced to live in segregated areas and could not enter white-only neighbourhoods unless they had a special pass. Although white South Africans represented only a small fraction of the population, they held the vast majority of the country's land and wealth. In 1990, after decades of strikes, sanctions and demonstrations, many apartheid laws were repealed. The next year, the government repealed all remaining laws and began to write a new constitution. In 1993, the first free elections were held, electing political activist Nelson Mandela as South Africa's new president.

 

Want to find out more about the history of apartheid in South Africa? Click here for more information, or here for more about Nelson Mandela.

November 5 - The Gunpowder Plot is Foiled

This Day in History: 5 November 2020

 

5 November 1605

 

415 years ago, today, King James I learned that the Gunpowder Plot, a plan to explode the Parliament building, had been foiled, before he was scheduled to sit with the rest of the British government in a general parliament session. Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar under the Parliament building and ordered for the premises to be searched. Around 20 barrels of gunpowder were found, and Fawkes was taken into custody. During a torture session on the rack, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to destroy the Protestant government and replace it with Catholic leadership.

 

During the next few weeks, English authorities killed or captured all the plotters and put the survivors on trial. Guy Fawkes was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. Moments before the start of his execution, in January 1606, he jumped from a ladder climbing to the hanging platform, breaking his neck and dying instantly. November 5 was later established as a day of public thanksgiving and is celebrated today as Guy Fawkes Day. As dusk falls, bonfires are lit, fireworks are set off, and the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes take place.

 

Want to find out more about the history of Guy Fawkes Day? Click here for more information, or here for a video with more information.

November 4 - The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

This Day in History: 4 November 2020

 

4 November 1995

 

25 years ago, today, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was shot fatally after attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings Square in Israel. Later, Rabin died in surgery at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. He had been walking to his car when he was shot in the arm and the back by Yigal Amir, a 27-year-old Jewish law student who had connections to the far-right Jewish group, Eyal. Israeli police arrested Amir at the scene of the shooting, and he later confessed to the assassination. He explained at his arraignment that he killed Rabin because the Prime Minister wanted to "give out country to the Arabs."

 

Rabin had been a leader of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and served as chief-of-staff of Israel's armed forces during the Six-Day War of 1967. After serving as Israel's ambassador to the United States, Rabin entered into the Labour Party and became Prime Minister in 1974. In this role, he conducted the negotiations that resulted in a 1974 cease-fire with Syria and the 1975 military disengagement agreement between Israel and Egypt. In October 1994, Rabin and Yasir Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize, due to their formal peace agreement with the Palestinians.

 

Want to find out more about the assassination of Rabin? Click here for more information, or here for more about his life.

November 3 - The USSR Sends the First Animal into Space

This Day in History: 3 November 2020

 

3 November 1957

 

63 years ago, today, the Soviet Union launched the first animal into space, a dog named Laika, aboard the 'Sputnik 2' spacecraft. Laika was part Siberian husky, who had lived as a stray on the Moscow streets before being enlisted into the Soviet space program. She survived for several days as a passenger in the Soviet Union's second artificial Earth satellite, kept alive by a sophisticated life-support system. Electrodes were attached to her body, and enabled scientists on the ground to gain important information about the biological effects of space travel. Sadly, Laika died after the batteries of her life-support system ran down.

 

In the next few years, at least a dozen more Russian dogs were launched into space in preparation for the first manned Soviet space mission, and at least five of these dogs died in transit. Other non-human animals that have been launched into space include monkeys, apes, cats, tortoises, mice, frogs and insects. Seven national space programs have flown animals into space: the Soviet Union, the United States, France, Argentina, China, Japan, and Iran. In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to ever travel into space, aboard the spacecraft 'Vostok 1'. He orbited Earth before he landed safely back in the USSR.

 

Want to find out more about the history of animals in space? Click here for more information, or here for more about Laika.

November 2 - The Balfour Declaration is Written

This Day in History: 2 November 2020

 

2 November 1917

 

103 years ago, today, the Balfour Declaration was written. This was a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Britain's most illustrious Jewish citizen, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government's support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The letter stated that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." Britain had supported the Zionist movement due to the country's concerns regarding the First World War. Prime Minister Lloyd George did hold a genuine belief in Zionism's righteousness, but Britain's leaders also hoped that a supporting statement would help gain Jewish support for the Allied war effort.

 

The influence of the Balfour Declaration on the course of post-war events was immediate. According to the 'mandate' system created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Britain was entrusted with the administration of Palestine, with the understanding that it would support both the Jewish and Arab inhabitants. However, it did not succeed in maintaining the letter and spirit of the mandate. Britain announced its termination of its mandate over Palestine in 1947, after the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution to partition Palestine.

 

Want to find out more about the Balfour Declaration? Click here for more information, or here for more about the British mandate of Palestine.

November 1 - The European Union is Established

This Day in History: 1 November 2020

 

1 November 1993

 

27 years ago, today, the European Union was established, when the Maastricht Treaty came into effect. This was drafted in 1991 by delegates from the European Community meeting at Maastricht in the Netherlands, whose main architects were Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand, and was officially signed in 1992. The agreement called for a strengthened European parliament, the creation of a central European bank and common foreign and security policies. As well as this, it laid the groundwork for the establishment of a single European currency, known as the 'euro', and established European citizenship.

 

By 1993, 12 nations had ratified the Maastricht Treaty and joined the European Union: Great Britain, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Two years later, in 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden became members of the EU. After suffering through centuries of bloody and destructive conflict, the nations of Western Europe were finally united in the spirit of economic cooperation. However, in 2016, in what became popularly known as 'Brexit', the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU. They officially left in January 2020, and currently, the nation is in a transitional phase until December 2020.

 

Want to find out more about the history of the EU? Click here for more information, or here for more about the history of Brexit.

Black History Month - Paul Yaw Boateng

Black History Month: 30 October 2020

 

Paul Yaw Boateng is a Labour Party politician, who was the MP for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Boateng was elected to the Greater London Council for Walthamstow in 1981, which was then under the leadership of Ken Livingstone. Boateng was only the second person of Afro-Caribbean descent to be elected to the GLC. As chair of the GLC's police committee and vice-chair of its ethnic minorities committee, he advocated greater accountability in the Metropolitan Police and spoke out against racism in relation to their dealings with the black and Asian communities. In 1992, he became shadow minister for the Lord Chancellor's Department, a post he held until the 1997 general election, where he was a strong advocate for increasing pro bono legal services among UK law firms.

 

Boateng became the UK's first black government minister as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health, where he was responsible for social services and mental health. In that position, he published guidelines to end the denial of adoptions purely on the basis of race. Boateng is credited with building a close relationship to South Africa's ANC government, and it was reported that he privately worked to bring together bitter rivals in the crisis in Zimbabwe, although he publicly condemned the Zimbabwean government's illegal occupation of land from white farmers and the resulting turmoil, which Boateng labelled a "human rights crisis." On 28 May 2010, it was announced in the 2010 Dissolution Honours that Boateng would become a member of the House of Lords.

 

Want to find out more about Paul Boateng? Click here for more information.

Black History Month - Joe Clough

Black History Month: 29 October 2020

 

Born in 1887, Joe Clough became the first Black London bus driver in history. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and having been orphaned at an early age, became employed by a Scottish doctor to look after his ponies. When he was just 18, in 1905, this doctor offered to take him to England, an opportunity Joe quickly accepted. They arrived in 1906. As the doctor's servant, Joe learnt not only how to drive the horse drawn coach, but also the motor car, which was a very recent invention.

 

It was not until 1910 that he applied to work at the London General Omnibus Company. Initially employed for a while as a spare driver, once he had passed his test, he began driving number 11 B-type buses around London. He made huge contributions during World War One, as he drove a field ambulance for four years on the Western Front at Ypres. Once the war was over, he lived in Bedford with his wife and two daughters and was able to buy his own taxi in 1949. Sadly, he died in 1976 at the age of 91.

 

Want to find out more about Joe Clough? Click here for more information.

Black History Month - Sara Forbes Bonetta

Black History Month: 31 October 2020

 

Sara Forbes Bonetta was the goddaughter to Queen Victoria and was an Egbado princess of the Yoruba people in West Africa. During a war with the nearby Kingdom of Dahomey, she was orphaned, and became the slave of King Ghezo of Dahomey. In a turn of events, two years later, she was liberated by Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy on a diplomatic mission. From her birth name of Omoba Aina, she was renamed after Forbes and his ship HMS Bonetta. In 1850, she met Queen Victoria, who was impressed with the princess' intelligence. She had Sara, whom she called Sally, raised as her goddaughter in the British middle class.

 

In 1862, she was given permission by the Queen to marry Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies. He was a Yoruba businessman of considerable wealth, and after their wedding, the two moved back to Africa, where they had three children: Victoria, Arthur, and Stella. Sara kept such a close relationship with Queen Victoria that she and Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther were the only Lagos residents the Royal Navy had orders to evacuate in the event of an uprising. Many of Sara's descendants now live in either England or Sierra Leone, where she was educated. She died of tuberculosis in 1880. An obelisk-shaped monument was raised by her husband in her memory in Western Lagos.

 

Want to find out more about Sara Forbes Bonetta? Click here for more information, or watch the 2017 ITV series 'Victoria', where Sara is portrayed by Zaris-Angel Hator.

October 31 - Halloween

This Day in History: 31 October 2020

 

31 October 1745

 

275 years ago, today, the term 'Halloween' was first used. However, the celebration dates much further back, originating with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. During this, people would light bonfires and wear costumes in order to ward of ghosts. The day also marked the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time associated with human death. The Celts believed that on this night, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. When the celebration was over, their hearth fires were re-lit to help protect them during the winter.

 

After the Roman Empire had conquered the Celts, Halloween traditions changed. In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, also known as All-hallows, a day to honour the dead, most likely to replace the Celtic festival with a related, church-sanctioned holiday. It was still similar to Samhain, however. The day was eventually moved to November 1 sometime in the 8^th century. The night before it began to be called All-Hallows Eve, and eventually transformed into Halloween. Although British Halloween traditions include games such as bobbing for apples and telling ghost stories, it was from the United States that modern innovations like the use of pumpkins and 'treat-or-treating' originated.

 

Want to find out more about the history of Halloween? Click here for more information, or here for Halloween costumes inspired by history.