Scott Allsop's Blog, page 2

18th October 1565: European and Japanese naval forces fight for the first time

European and Japanese naval forces fought for the first time at the Battle of Fukuda ...

17th October 1943: The Thailand–Burma ‘Death’ Railway completed using forced labour including Allied prisoners of war

The Japanese used approximately 60,000 POWs, mainly British, Dutch, Australian, and American, to construct the railway alongside an estimated 180,000 to 250,000 Asian civilians. It is estimated that around 12,000 Allied prisoners and up to 90,000 civilians died during ...

15th October 1923: Rentenmark introduced in Weimar Germany in an attempt to stop the hyperinflation crisis

The new currency was backed by land that was used by businesses and agriculture, and was introduced at the rate of one Rentenmark to one trillion ...

14th October 1892: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle first published, containing 12 stories

The twelve stories that make up The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were originally serialised between July 1891 and June 1892, and included cases such as “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and “The Adventure of the Speckled ...

12th October 1915: British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad

British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad during the First World ...

11th October 1986: Reykjavík Summit takes place between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev

The Reykjavík Summit quickly developed into one of the most significant negotiations of the era, with both sides beginning to address the escalating nuclear arms race during the Cold ...

8th October 1856: Second Opium War begins after the arrest of the crew of the Arrow, a Chinese-owned but British-registered cargo boat

Chinese officials boarded the Arrow and arrested its crew on suspicion of piracy and smuggling, prompting British authorities to claim that the Chinese had violated the vessel’s British protection, and prompting ...

7th October 1949: The creation of East Germany, formally known as the German Democratic Republic

The establishment of the GDR ensured that the division of Germany that had been implemented in 1945 was made ...

5th October 1914: First recorded aerial combat victory takes place when a French Voisin shoots down a German Aviatik aircraft

Contemporary reports state that the French crew fired a long burst on a machine, hitting the German Aviatik and fatally wounding its crew before the plane crashed behind enemy ...

4th October 1936: The Battle of Cable Street took place in London’s East End

The Battle of Cable Street saw demonstrators block a march by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of ...