Archive for the ‘History’ Category
The Hungarian revolution revisited
November 21st, 2006 by Roger Darlington
At the time of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution of 1956, I did a posting about the event. Today I finished reading an excellent new book published to coincide with the anniversary and you can read my review. In the decade and a half since the collapse of Communism in Central & Eastern […]
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The Czech Night Hawk
November 5th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
My wife’s father was a Czech pilot who was the Royal Air Force’s greatest night intruder ace in the Second World War. I told the story of Karel Kuttelwascher in a book published in 1985 called “Night Hawk” and his exploits are summarized in this piece on my web site. Recently his story featured in […]
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The Czech Night Hawk
October 28th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Today is the Czech National Day marking the anniversary of the declaration of independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 28 October 1918. To mark the event, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in the United Kingdom is holding a meeting in central London and I’ve been invited to give a speech. I’ll be talking […]
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The Hungarian revolution
October 23rd, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Throughout the media today, there are features marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the Hungarian revolution in 1956. I have some good Hungarian friends and have visited Hungary twice, so the anniversary resonates with me. My first visit was in August 1991 when Vee and I spent a week on holiday in Budapest. […]
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Five years on …
September 11th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11, there is really one subject on which I must blog today: the attack on the World Trade Center. I have visted NewYork four times and twice I went to the top of the World Trade Center: 31 August 1980 alone & 11 April 1984 with my […]
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30 years after Mao
September 9th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Huge picture of Mao Zedongat the entrance to the Forbidden City Today marks the 30th anniversary of he death of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. I have seen his embalmed body in Tiananmen Square during one of my two visits to China and I have read the highly critical biography by Jung Chang. Mao’s place […]
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Who downed Douglas Bader?
August 30th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
My father was trained as an RAF fighter pilot towards the end of World War Two (although he was too young to see action) which is why I am called Roger. My wife’s father was the RAF’s most successful night intruder pilot and this weblog is called NightHawk in his honour (you can read his […]
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Celebrating Kokoda Day
August 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Unless you are Australian (and I don’t suppose I have that many Ozzie visitors), you will have no idea that today Australia celebrates Kokoda Day and you will have no knowledge of the Kokoda Track campaign which the day commemorates. Yet the campaign was a turning point in the Second World War and consisted of […]
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Remembering the Grunwick dispute
August 24th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Thirty years ago this month, there was the start of the Grunwick dispute, one of the bitterest industrial conflicts of my time. The location of the dispute was Willesden in north-west London, close to where I now live, and my local Trade Union Council will be holding an anniversary event next month. I visted the […]
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The Peterloo massacre
August 16th, 2006 by Roger Darlington
Today – 187 years ago – 60,000 workers, artisans, journeymen and radicals congregated on St Peter’s Fields on the edges of Manchester to demand adult male suffrage and a repeal of the Corn Law price-fixing cartel. Workers had realised that without political power they would never reap the riches of industrialisation. When the crowd failed […]
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