{"id":8904,"date":"2022-01-26T06:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=198392"},"modified":"2022-01-26T06:22:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T05:22:08","slug":"26-january-on-this-day-in-history","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/26-january-on-this-day-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"26 January: On this day in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Dominic Sandbrook\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 26 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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26 January 1885: General Gordon is killed at Khartoum<\/h3>\n

The revolt in Sudan sparks patriotic fervour in Britain<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

British political conversation in the first months of 1885 was dominated by one subject: where was Gordon? Was he still alive? Could he be rescued, before the Mahdi overwhelmed Khartoum?<\/p>\n

Charles George Gordon was perhaps the most celebrated British officer of the Victorian age. At the beginning of 1884 he had accepted a commission from Gladstone\u2019s government to organise the evacuation of Sudan. The country was nominally controlled by Britain\u2019s client state, Egypt, but had been consumed by an Islamic nationalist revolution led by Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi (messianic Islamic redeemer). But within months Gordon became trapped at Khartoum, surrounded by a vast force of dervish warriors. Rescuing him became a national obsession.<\/p>\n

On 26 January 1885, even as a British relief force was trudging south, the Mahdi ordered the final assault on Khartoum.\u00a0Starving, exhausted and demoralised, the garrison offered scant resistance. Accounts of Gordon\u2019s last moments differ widely. One onlooker claimed that he was cornered in the palace by four dervishes, who ran him through with their spears. But Gordon\u2019s own bodyguard insisted that his master fought to the bitter end, a loaded revolver in one hand, \u201ca drawn sword in the other, and a grim look on his face\u201d. At last, he sank to his knees, and the dervishes cut off his head.<\/p>\n

At home, the news of Gordon\u2019s death sparked a wave of national hysteria. Gladstone\u2019s government fell only months later, while statues were erected across the British empire. Above all, an enormously popular painting by George W Joy turned Gordon into a patriotic martyr. He is pictured standing at the top of the palace stairs, gazing calmly down at the mob of dervish warriors below. To the Victorians, there was no more compelling image of British heroism. | Read more about the Victorians and the British Empire<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Julian Humphrys rounds up smaller anniversaries<\/h4>\n

26 January \u00a01679<\/h6>\n

A serious fire in London\u2019s Middle Temple destroys the library of Elias Ashmole together with a large collection of coins and medals that he planned to donate to Oxford University for display in the Museum that nears his name.<\/p>\n

26 January 1808<\/h6>\n

William Bligh of\u00a0Bounty<\/a><\/em>\u00a0fame is faced with a second mutiny as he is deposed as Governor of New South Wales by the local military force.<\/p>\n

26 January 1823\u00a0<\/h6>\n

Edward Jenner<\/a>, physician and pioneer of smallpox vaccine, died aged 73 at his home in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.<\/p>\n

26 January 1871<\/h6>\n

The Rugby Football Union was founded at the Pall Mall Restaurant on Regent Street. Twenty one clubs were represented at the meeting. The London club Wasps were not present \u2013 although invited, they turned up at the wrong pub on the wrong day.<\/p>\n

26 January 1942<\/h6>\n

Some 4,000 soldiers from the US 34th Infantry Division became the first American ground troops to land in the European theatre of operations in WW2<\/a>, at Belfast docks.<\/p>\n

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