history · 13 April 1919 · 105 years ago
When Brigadier General Dyer had been sent with a force of Gurkhas to Amritsar, India, he was faced with an illegal assembly of several thousands who were being whipped up by agitators. Considering that his men were under threat and that the trouble should be nipped in the bud, he ordered his troops to open fire after warnings had been given to the crowd, resulting in 379 Indians being killed and many more injured. To placate Indian opinion Dyer was removed from his command, but there were many who considered that he had taken the correct course, and in a later libel action the judge ruled that it had been wrong to remove him.
More history on 13 Apr
OnThisDay.net