Archive for the ‘History’ Category
The city of Nanjing: 1937 and 2000
September 4th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
In 1937, Japanese troops occupied Nanjing, then the capital of China, and massacred up to 300,000 Chinese. I have just seen an impressive Chinese film on the atrocity called “City Of Life And Death” which I have reviewed here. On the first of my three visits to China in 2000, I visited Nanjing and I […]
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The war that Canada won
September 3rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Most people in the Britain have never heard of the War of 1812 whose 200th anniversary is of course this year. Many Americans know little about it either. But the event has a special resonance in Canada. The war was between the United States and Britain and, in course of it, the Americans made repeated […]
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Gettysburg: the visit, the novel, the movie
August 28th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
The battle of Gettysburg was arguably the key conflict in the American Civil War which itself was a seminal period in US history. On a recent visit to the United States, I toured the battlefield and you can read my account here. Subsequently I read the award-winning novel of the battle called “The Killer Angels” […]
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“That’s one small step for (a) man …”
August 26th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I was 21 and a university student when Apollo 11 went to the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. As President of my Students Union, I kept the building open all night so that we could witness live this utterly historic event. So I mourn Armstrong’s death. […]
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Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg
July 23rd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
During our recent visit to the United States, we made a one-day visit to the site of the famous American civil war battlefield of Gettysburg [my account here]. I have just finished reading “The Killer Angels”, a brilliant novel by Michael Shaara set during the three days of the conflict [my review here]. I wanted […]
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An amazing act of wartime betrayal
July 22nd, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Sometimes we record an interesting programme on the television and do not watch it until some weeks or even months later. So it was only this evening that we viewed a BBC2 programme broadcast on 21 May with the title “The Fall Of Singapore – The Great Betrayal”. The programme told the astonishing story of […]
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An account of the American Civil War
July 14th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this ‘summer’, my wife and I had a holiday in the United States which included a visit to the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg [my account here]. Our one day tour of the site led me to buy a history of the American Civil War so that i could put the Battle of Gettysburg […]
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Discovering a new place in London
June 21st, 2012 by Roger Darlington
I’ve lived and worked in London for 40 years, but from time to time i still discover a new place of interest. This week, it was the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide. I went there to view a small exhibition on the Berlin Olympics of 1936, obviously timed as a […]
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The Anglo-American War of 1812
June 18th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Two hundred years ago today, a war commenced between the United States and Britain. Today the conflict hardly features in the history classes of either nation. You can read a short note on the war here and a longer account here. The war is mostly remembered in the USA as the origins of the national […]
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How many American Presidents have been assassinated?
May 11th, 2012 by Roger Darlington
Four sitting United States Presidents have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963. Two other Presidents were injured in attempted assassinations: former President Theodore Roosevelt and then sitting President Ronald Reagan. In all, there have been over 20 known attempts to kill sitting and former Presidents. […]
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