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Downing Street Mortar Attack
The Downing Street mortar attack was carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 7 February 1991. The IRA launched three homemade mortar shells at 10 Downing Street, London, the headquarters of the British government, in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister John Major and his war cabinet, who were meeting to discuss the Gulf War. One of the 140 pound (64 kg) mortar shells exploded in the back garden of Number 10, a few yards from the Cabinet Office. Due to bomb-resistant windows, none of the cabinet were hurt, though four other people received minor injuries, including two Metropolitan Police officers. The other two shells overshot Downing Street and landed on a green nearby. Background During the Troubles, as part of its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) repeatedly used homemade mortars against targets in Northern Ireland. The most notable occasion was the 1985 Newry mortar attac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Troubles
The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe. Sometimes described as an Asymmetric warfare, asymmetric or Irregular warfare, irregular war or a low-intensity conflict, the Troubles were a political and nationalistic struggle fueled by historical events, with a strong Ethnic conflict, ethnic and sectarian dimension, fought over the Partition of Ireland, status of Northern Ireland. Unionism in Ireland, Unionists and Ulster loyalism, loyalists, who for Plantation of Ulster, historical reasons were mostly Ulster Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the United Ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downing Street
Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament. Downing Street was built in the 1680s by Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, Sir George Downing. For more than three hundred years, it has held the official residences of both the First Lord of the Treasury, the office now synonymous with that of the Prime Minister, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, the office held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Prime Minister's official residence is 10 Downing Street, and the Chancellor's official residence is 11 Downing Street, Number 11. The government's Chief Whip has an official residence at 12 Downing Street, Number 12. Over time, government offices and officials came to occupy most of the street's townhouses. The house ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is headquartered in New York City and London and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The company's name is derived from a combination of the firm's predecessors. Harper & Brothers, founded in 1817 in New York, merged with Row, Peterson & Company in 1962 to form Harper & Row, which was acquired by News Corp in 1987. The Scotland, Scottish publishing company William Collins, Sons, founded in 1819 in Glasgow, was acquired by News Corp in 1987 and merged with Harper & Row to form HarperCollins. The logo for the firm combines the fire from Harper's torch and the water from Collins' fountain. HarperCollins operates publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Austr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine, with funding from Grosset & Dunlap and Curtis Publishing Company. It has since been purchased several times by companies including National General, Carl Lindner's American Financial and, most recently, Bertelsmann, which in 1986 purchased what had grown to become the Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing group. Bertelsmann purchased Random House in 1998, and in 1999 merged the Bantam and Dell imprints (amongst other mergers within the sprawling publishing house) to become the Bantam Dell publishing imprint. In 2010, the Bantam Dell division was consolidated with Ballantine Books (founded in 1952 by Bantam co-founders Ian and Betty Ballantine) to form the Ballantine Bantam Dell group within Random Hous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch
The Anti-Terrorist Branch (or SO13 by its designation) was a Specialist Operations (SO) branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service, formed to respond to terrorist activities within the capital and the surrounding areas. History The Anti-Terrorist Branch (originally known as the Bomb Squad) was formed in January 1971 to deal with the Angry Brigade. During the 1970s it assisted in the campaign against the IRA, alongside Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ... and the Security Service (MI5). In 2005, the branch had 345 officers attached to it, with funding for another 500 being sought. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, announced later that year that some of the specialist operations units were to be "re-aligned". In 2006 the Anti-Terr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South London
South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borough of Croydon, Croydon, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Kingston, London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth, London Borough of Lewisham, Lewisham, London Borough of Merton, Merton, London Borough of Richmond, Richmond, London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Sutton, Sutton and London Borough of Wandsworth, Wandsworth. South London originally emerged from Southwark, first recorded as ''Suthriganaweorc'',David J. Johnson. ''Southwark and the City''. Oxford University Press, 1969. p. 7. meaning 'fort of the men of Surrey'. From Southwark, London then extended further down into northern Surrey and western Kent. Emergence and growth South London began at Southwark at the south ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battersea
Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. History Battersea is mentioned in the few surviving Anglo-Saxon geographical accounts as and later . As with many former parishes beside tidal flood plains the lowest land was reclaimed for agriculture by draining marshland and building culverts for streams. By the side of this was the River Heathwall, Heathwall tide mill in the north-east with a very long mill pond regularly draining and filling to the south. Battersea () appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in Surrey within the Hundred (county division), hundred of Hundred_of_Brixton, Brixton () as a vast manor held by St Peter's Abbey, Westminster. Its ''Domesday'' assets were: 18 hide (unit), hides and 17 ploughlands of cultivated land; 7 gristmill, mills worth £42 9s 8d per year, of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC'', pp. 5, 17, 27, 93, 134, 271; Pen & Sword Books; following the partition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve. The RUC policed Northern Ireland from the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence until after the turn of the 21st century and played a major role in the Troubles between the 1960s and the 1990s. Due to the threat from the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who saw the RUC as enforcing British rule, the force was heavily armed and militarised. Officers routinely carried submachine guns and assault rifles, travelled in armoured vehicles, and were based in heavily fortified police stations.Weitzer, Ronald. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 Newry Mortar Attack
On 28 February 1985, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched a heavy mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base at Corry Square in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine RUC officers and injured almost 40 others; the highest death toll ever suffered by the RUC. Afterwards, a major building scheme was begun to give police and military bases better protection from such attacks. Background In the early 1970s, after the onset of the Troubles, the Provisional IRA launched a campaign aimed at forcing the British to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The IRA—particularly its South Armagh Brigade—had repeatedly attacked the British Army and RUC with home-made mortars, but with limited success. Between 1973 and early 1978 a total of 71 mortar attacks were recorded, but none caused direct British Army or RUC deaths. There were only two deadly mortar attacks before 1985. The first was on 19 March 1979, when Private Peter Woolmore of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bloomsbury Publishing
Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in New York City, an India publishing office in New Delhi, an Australian sales office in Sydney CBD, and other publishing offices in the UK, including in Oxford. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The company was founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton, who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books. A rights issue of shares in 1998 further raised £6.1 million, which was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Read ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H&S - About Us - Hachette UK hodder.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2023. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the . In 1861 the firm became Jackson, Walford and Hodder; but in 1868 Jackson and Walford retired, and[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrack Buster
Barrack buster is the colloquial name given to several improvised mortars, developed in the 1990s by the engineering unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). The improvised mortar properly called "barrack buster" - known to the British security forces as the Mark 15 mortar - fired a long metal propane cylinder with a diameter of , which contained around of home-made explosives and had a range of . The cylinder is an adaptation of a commercial gas cylinder produced by the Cobh company Kosangas for heating and cooking, and used in rural areas across Ireland.Geraghty 1998, p. 193 The Mark 15 was first used in an attack on 7 December 1992 against an RUC/British Army base in Ballygawley, County Tyrone,Geraghty 1998, p. 193Ryder 2005, p. 256 The projectile, fired from a tractor parked near the town's health center, was deflected by the branches of a tree beside the perimeter fence. A number of civilians had to be evacuated. It took ten hours for the British Army technici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
