A 15-month period (1655-57) of direct military government, in conjunction with Oliver Cromwell, during the Protectorate. Military rule was imposed with the help of a 'decimation tax' of 10 per cent on all royalists, and the regime imposed stringent restrictions on those it considered to be enemies of the state, as well as trying to lead a period of moral reform.
Rule of the Major-Generals
Fact of the Day
In 1875 the king of Fiji brought back measles from a state visit to Australia and wiped out 25% of his own people.
Quote of the Day
"One has not great hopes for Birmingham. I always say there is something direful in the sound.
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~ Jane Austen (Emma)
On This Day
1579 Thomas Gresham, merchant, financier, and founder of the Royal Exchange, died suddenly, apparently of apoplexy. He bequeathed his estate, after the death of his wife, to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company to set up a college to provide free lectures to the public; Gresham College thus became London's first institution of higher education.
1916 The hospital ship Britannic, sister-ship of Titanic, hit a mine and sank, killing 30.
1918 Ten days after the Armistice, the German navy surrendered to the British in the Firth of Forth.
1920 The assassinations of British intelligence officers ordered by Michael Collins in the Irish War of Independence led to thirty-one dead (from both sides) in what became known as 'Bloody Sunday'.
1974 21 people were killed and 182 injured when bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs. The IRA was probably responsible, but the real culprits have never been found. The Birmingham Six, originally convicted of the bombings, were released because of dodgy police practices.
1981 The proceedings of the House of Commons were televised live for the first time.