This day in history

The League of Nations votes to impose deliberately ineffectual economic sanctions against Fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). Steps that would impede the progress of the invasion, such as banning the sale of oil to Italy and closing the Suez Canal, were not taken out of fear of igniting hostilities in Europe.

In the first loss of Ethiopian independence in its long history, tens of thousands of Ethiopians were killed as the Italian army employed poison gas and other modern atrocities to suppress the country.

By the end of 1936, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia was complete. Ethiopia’s leader, Emperor Haile Selassie, went into exile but returned in 1941 when British and Ethiopian troops liberated the country. Ignoring the British occupation authorities, Haile Selassie quickly organised his own government.

The trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity begins in Baghdad.

A British aid worker, Margaret Hassan, who was married to an Iraqi national, is kidnapped. Despite widespread international condemnation and protests in Iraq, her kidnappers eventually kill her. 

In England, American illusionist David Blaine completes his latest stunt, ending his 44 days in a glass box by the River Thames in London without food.

British Petroleum (BP) announces that it has struck oil in the North Sea.