I just posted and (then deleted) a link to the BBC’s On this Day page, which I think is generally well worth a look. The reason for deletion was just that today is 19th September and the BBC were still linking to the 17th from their front page. Still, on _that_ day (the one I first linked to) the major item was the “60th anniversary of the Arnhem drop”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_3662000/3662264.stm , complete with links to audio footage and an animated map. But what also caught my eye was “a page about the Sabra and Chatila massacres”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_2519000/2519637.stm (22 years ago) by Lebanese Phalangists, a reminder that the murder of children is not the monopoly of any one faith or political current. Yesterday’s anniversaries were also noteworthy: they include “the arrival of the first Ugandan Asian refugees”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/18/newsid_2522000/2522627.stm in Britain (a great blow to the viability of Uganda and, as it has turned out, a major bonus for the UK). Today’s page has “the refusal of the US to allow Charlie Chaplin to re-enter the country”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/19/newsid_3102000/3102179.stm (1952) and the “Southall Rail Crash”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/19/newsid_2524000/2524283.stm (1997), the consequences of which are still very much with us.
{ 6 comments }
john b 09.19.04 at 9:57 am
The page has the refusal of the US to allow Charlie Chaplin to re-enter the country (1952) and the Southall Rail Crash (1997), the consequences of which are still very much with us.
Yup, not a day goes past when I don’t lament the lack of Chaplin movies produced in the last 25 years of his life.
Robin Green 09.19.04 at 10:26 am
In 1983, an Israeli state inquiry found the then defense minister indirectly responsible for the killing of hundreds of men, women and children at Sabra and Shatila camps during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. As a consequence of this inquiry he was forced to resign.
That minister’s name?
Ariel Sharon.
Dylan 09.19.04 at 3:48 pm
Wow, the 40th anniversary of Arnhem? Not only was the BBC two days behind in changing their link, but 20 years, as well.
[Thanks Dylan, I’ve fixed that now. CB]
John Isbell 09.19.04 at 4:23 pm
You may think of Sharon as complicit in a massacre, but I think of him as complicit in an illegal real estate deal. Choices, choices.
Elayne Riggs 09.19.04 at 4:38 pm
Their RSS feed is up to yesterday; I don’t think they’ve posted 19 September yet.
vernaculo 09.20.04 at 10:11 am
Not just the movies that weren’t made, but the pain inflicted on soul of the man who had made the ones he did.
Chaplin’s genius was in liege to the human spirit, that’s what was most harmed by the rabid viciousness he was subjected to; it was his love that made his work great, and he was punished for it, and for his innocence.
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