The 1740 Batavia massacre was a pogrom against ethnic Chinese in the port city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. The violence inside the city lasted from 9 to 22 October 1740. Unrest in the Chinese population had been triggered by government repression and reduced income from falling sugar prices prior to the massacre. In response, at a meeting of the Council of the Indies, Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier declared that any uprising was to be met with deadly force. His resolution took effect on 7 October after hundreds of ethnic Chinese, many of them sugar mill workers, killed 50 Dutch soldiers. The Dutch dispatched troops who confiscated all weapons from the Chinese populace and placed the Chinese under a curfew. Two days later, after being frightened by rumours of Chinese atrocities, other Batavian ethnic groups began burning Chinese houses along Besar Stream and Dutch soldiers launched an assault using cannons on Chinese homes. The violence soon spread throughout Batavia, killing more Chinese. Although Valckenier declared an amnesty on 11 October, gangs of irregulars continued to hunt and kill Chinese until 22 October, when Valckenier called more forcefully for a cessation of hostilities. Historians have estimated that at least 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1740_Batavia_massacre
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1774:
English explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the island of New Caledonia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonia
1812:
War of 1812: A coalition of Native American tribes began the Siege of Fort Harrison in Terre Haute, Indiana, by setting the fort on fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Harrison
1912:
The Albanian Revolt of 1912 came to an end when the Ottoman government agreed to meet the rebels' demands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_Revolt_of_1912
1964:
The Forth Road Bridge crossing the Firth of Forth in Scotland opened to traffic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Road_Bridge
1998:
Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in Menlo Park, California, to promote the web search engine that they developed as Stanford University students. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
2007:
Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda were arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both Frankfurt Airport and Ramstein Air Base. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_bomb_plot_in_Germany
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
snood: 1. A small hairnet or cap worn by women to keep their hair in place. 2. The flap of red skin on the beak of a male turkey. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snood
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Machines which ape people are tending to encroach on every aspect of people's lives, and that such machines force people to behave like machines. The new electronic devices do indeed have the power to force people to "communicate" with them and with each other on the terms of the machine. Whatever structurally does not fit the logic of machines is effectively filtered from a culture dominated by their use. The machine- like behaviour of people chained to electronics constitutes a degradation of their well-being and of their dignity which, for most people in the long run, becomes intolerable. Observations of the sickening effect of programmed environments show that people in them become indolent, impotent, narcissistic and apolitical. The political process breaks down, because people cease to be able to govern themselves; they demand to be managed. --Ivan Illich https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich