Amateur Historians

On this day 37 years ago, Hong Kong's lightrail service began! This method of transport helps tens of thousands of people commute around certain districts of the city and is invaluable to the city's infrastructure.

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Today in history - 2 September 1945

On 2 September 1945, 80 years ago, the Second World War officially came to a close.

An estimated 80 million lives had been lost over 6 years - setting the bleak record of the deadliest war in recorded history.

"The guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won... The entire world is quietly at peace" - General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.

Happy victory day!

Photo credit: Imperial War Museum UK

Today in History – 1 July 1997

On 1 July 1997, 28 years ago, Hong Kong, a British Dependent Territory, was returned to the People’s Republic of China.

Hong Kong began as a crown colony of the British Empire, but changed its status to a ‘Dependent Territory’ as it was prepared to be formally changed into Chinese control. The territory was returned after 150 years of British rule; symbolically ending the British Empire.

Happy handover day!

[Yesterday] marks the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings, cementing the fall of Germany during the Second World War.

Credit: Imperial War Museums

On this day, 8 May 1945, 80 years ago, World War II in Europe officially ended.

Colonel-General Alfred Jodl represented the German Army;
General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff represented the Luftwaffe, and;
Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg represented the Kriegsmarine in signing the unconditional surrender of N**i Germany.

On the Allied side, Major-General Ivan Susloparov was the Soviet representative;
Lieutenant-General Walter Bedell Smith was the Allied representative, and,
French General François Sevez acted as the official witness.

Happy Victory Day!

- We know we are late on this one! Apologies!

On 18 April 1941, 84 years ago, German and Italian troops reached the Italian city of Tobruk.

The colony of Libya had been administered by Italy since its annexation after the Italo-Turkish War of 1912. By June 1940, Italy had declared war on the Allies and assisted in the Invasion of France. The allies wasted no time invading the Italian colony through Egypt. British, French, Australian and colonial forces circled Tobruk and successfully took it as part of Operation Compass in January 1941. Allied troops secured the city with Italian troops surrendering within two weeks. The 9th Australian Division was tasked with holding the city.

Axis troops, under the overall command of General Erwin Rommel retook the areas surrounding Tobruk by late March, reaching Tobruk itself by 10 April. Eight days later, Tobruk was besieged. Major allied forces were pushed back to the Egyptian border as part of Operation Sunflower. Australian troops held out, using Italian built concrete emplacements, anti-tank ditches and trenches to hold up German tanks. Later, German troops referred to the defenders as “rats” due to their battlefield tenacity.

Both sides also had to deal with the weather; sand and dust choked engines of tanks, reducing their lifetimes by almost half. Additionally, sandstorms forced soldiers to wear goggles and masks to prevent irritation of lungs and throats. There was also little to no food to forage, limited water, ammunition and heavy weapons.

Australian, Polish and numerous other allied troops, numbering around 20 thousand strong, would hold Tobruk for 7 more months whilst it was supplied by the British Mediterranean fleet. The British eighth army would defeat Rommel in the Egyptian border within Operation Crusader, reaching Tobruk and relieving the garrison in November 1941.

On 4 April 1968, 57 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

King was born on 15 January 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second eldest child in the family, with an elder sister and a younger brother. He would receive formal religious education at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, of which he would become a pastor in 1954. One year later, King would receive his PhD in religious studies.

As King grew up, along with approximately 20 million other African Americans, experienced legalised racial discrimination and segregation under the “Jim Crow Laws.” To grossly oversimplify, “Jim Crow” was a distasteful term for African Americans introduced to Southern States after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

These laws advocated for “separate but equal,” in terms of where African Americans can and cannot use bathrooms, attend churches and gatherings, use certain areas of public transport among many other things.

In March 1955, Claudette Colvin refused to vacate her seat on a bus. Nine months later, Rosa Parks also refused to leave her seat; these events kick-started a series of civil-nonviolent disobedience; In 1955 in the Montgomery bus boycott; the Albany Movement of 1961; the Birmingham campaign of 1963 and the March on Washington in 1963.

King would be at the centre and leadership of all these movements. He advocated for nothing less than equality between everyone. It was at Washington in 1963, where he made his famous speech:

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.””

King continued further movements in Florida, Maine, New York City and Atlanta (his birthplace) in 1964. The “Jim Crow Laws” would come to an end in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When King visited Memphis, Tennessee on 29 March 1968, he would be shot in his hotel room by James Ray. The exact motivation for King's assassination is still not known, but theories include government intervention, the mafia and the local Memphis police.

King’s importance cannot be understated in leading for social and racial equality within the United States and cannot be done justice within a short post.

Thanks for reading! We hope you’ve enjoyed this one.

On 27 March 1938, 87 years ago, the Battle of Taierzhuang began.

In order to understand what led up to the Battle of Taierzhuang, we must look at the background that led to this event. Going back to the beginning, the Treaty of Shimonoseki saw a defeated Qing China and concluded the First Sino-Japanese War with Japan gaining dominion over the Korean Peninsula. 15 years later, Japan would formally annex Korea by an edict issued by Emperor Meiji – the same Emperor who overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate 21 years prior.

In 1931, Japan claimed a railway on the Northern edge of Korea was sabotaged by Chinese bandits and used it as a pretext to invade Manchuria located in Northeast China. Manchuria was taken within two months and Japan installed the overthrown Qing Emperor, Puyi in 1934 as puppet ruler. Despite objections from the League of Nations, Japan did not withdraw.

In 1937, Japan sought to use another caucus-beli to invade China proper, this time claiming a Japanese soldier was missing, demanding a unit to cross the Marco-Polo Bridge (Lugou Bridge) in Beijing to investigate. After the refusal by Chinese troops, the small skirmish turned into a full scale invasion. This was known as the “Marco Polo Bridge Incident.”

Japan would inflict heavy losses and capture huge swaths of territory, defeating Chinese troops in every battle. This would change in April 1938, when Japan reached Taierzhuang approximately 670 kilometers South of Beijing.

Taierzhuang is strategically important, as it held the first crossing point across the Han Zhuang Yu River in the Southern edge of Shandong. It is also at the heart of the local road and rail network, proving to be a crucial transport hub for the Chinese military. The Chinese garrison consisted of 250,000 troops, armed only with rifles and pistols. Additionally, there consisted of a few obsolete Soviet aircraft. Conversely, Japanese troops numbered at 60,000, but were equipped with mortars, artillery pieces, tanks, armoured cars and modern aircraft.

Chinese troops stood steadfast, as the city’s buildings provided cover for tanks and air attacks. Due to their large numbers, they were able to halt waves of infantry, with tanks unable to advance without troop cover. When Japanese troops entered the city, the house-to-house fighting made it impossible to continue. This is extremely similar to what would happen in Stalingrad in 1943. After two weeks of back and forth, the Japanese high command decided to withdraw and consolidate gains whilst preparing for another offensive.

This battle was significant as it proved to be the first time a Japanese advance was halted, thus providing China’s first major victory against Japan. Over 40 tanks, armoured cars and were destroyed, which were unrecoverable losses for the Japanese military. This battle humiliated the Japanese, to the point where newspapers at home downplayed the events significantly. This battle also broke the idea of “Japanese invincibility” and provided a huge morale boost for the Chinese army. China would hold this city for another four months before the next Japanese offensive.

Thank you for reading! We know this one was extremely long. We hope you enjoyed it!

On 16 March 37 AD, 1,988 years ago, the Roman Emperor Tiberius died.

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was born on 16 November 42 BC and reigned through 14 AD to 37 AD, a span of 23 years, passing away at the age of 77. Tiberius belonged to the Julio-Claudian dynasty founded by Octavian in 27BC and ended with the su***de of Emperor Nero in 68 AD.

Tiberius began his life as a politician and joined the court in his teenage years. Later, he was diplomatically successful in negotiating a peace between the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire, thus getting rid of a thorn in Rome’s East. Tiberius began his military career in 6 BC, commanding four legions in the height of his power. With these legions, he went across the empire and secured Rome’s borders as well as conquering parts of Germania, fighting mostly with the tribe of Marcomanni. With these successes, he was crowned emperor in 14 AD.

Tiberius experienced numerous political scandals within and outside the empire, leading to the diminishing of his reputation. The most notable was a praetorian guard by the name of Sejanus, who was a close bodyguard of Tiberius. Due to his association with the emperor, a lot of the government was exposed.

The death of Tiberius is unclear – although a clear date is known, a clear cause is not. Some accounts say Tiberius rejected food in his final days or weeks, dying to malnourishment. Other accounts say it was a sudden death – a heart attack, spontaneous failure of organs or other instantaneous circumstances.

Today, Tiberius is buried in the Mausoleum of Augustus, located in Rome, Italy.

On today, 13 March 1781, 244 years ago, the planet Uranus was discovered.

Uranus is a gas giant and has a radius of approximately 25,362 kilometers. It is the fourth largest object in our solar system, beaten only by Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun. To give a sense of scale, around 63 Earths could fit inside Uranus. However, Uranus only has 89% of Earth’s gravity. This means that if you weighed 80 kilograms (or 176 pounds) on Earth, you would weigh 71 kilograms (or 157 pounds) on Earth.

Uranus had been a butt of a joke due to its pronunciation ever since its discovery. Its name comes from the Greek God of the Sky, Ouranos, with the Latinised name “Uranus.” This was suggested by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode in the same year this planet was discovered, before being formally adopted in the mid 1850s. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, describes how “Uranus” should be pronounced:

“Uranus is “yr-ay-nuhs” until you’re eight years old. Then there on, it’s “yr-run-nus.””

Joking aside, the planet could have gotten an even more bizarre name. William Herschel, the astronomer who discovered the planet, received a £200 stipend (equalling roughly to £32,000 in 2025) from King George III of England. In his honour, Herschel decided to name the planet after the king, pitching the near overbearing name “Georgium Sidus” in Latin, or “George’s Star.” However, this was not popular outside of Britain and Hanover (as George III was an electorate of Hanover) and was widely disregarded.

Instead, astronomers across Europe proposed to name it “Herschel” to commemorate the discoverer, “Astraea,” “Cybele,” “Neptune,” “Hypercronius,” and “Transaturis,” among others. You may notice Neptune being familiar as it was the next planet to be discovered. However, none of these caught on, with most astronomers believing the scientific community should continue the trend of naming planets to Gods in different mythology. This was only formalised seven decades later in the 1850s for “Uranus” to be named.