Stephen Biko – Ingliando

On this day, British troops under the command of General James Wolfe outmanoeuvred and defeated the French troops under the command of General Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec. The one-hour battle, which came at the end of a three-month siege by the British, proved to be a decisive turning point in the Seven Years’ War. The battle took place on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec on land that was originally owned by a farmer named Abraham Martin (hence the name of the battle). The combination of surprise, innovative military tactics, better-trained troops, and a certain degree of good luck, gave Wolfe the advantage that he needed and the French were quickly forced to retreat and abandon Quebec. The decisive success of the British forces became part of what was known in Great Britain as the ‘Annus Mirabilis’ of 1759. Both Wolfe and Montcalm died in the battle.

Read Bob Lynn’s reflections “Theatre of War”
about the Seven Years’ War HERE

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On this day, the 30-year-old South African anti-apartheid activist, Bantu Stephen Biko, died in police custody having been arrested on 18th August for violating an order restricting him to King William’s Town. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialist, Biko was at the forefront of a grassroots anti-apartheid campaign known as the Black Consciousness Movement during the late 1960s and 1970s and his ideas were articulated in a series of articles published under the pseudonym Frank Talk. Exactly what happened while he was being held, naked and chained in police custody, will never be known, but during his interrogation he was severely beaten by at least one of the ten security police officers. On 6th September he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and died alone in a cell six days later. No police officers were ever prosecuted for his death.