British soldier and journalist in the Rhodesian Bush War (born 1948)

Lord Richard Cecil

Lord Richard Valentine Gascoyne-Cecil was a British soldier, Conservative politician and freelance journalist who was killed in Rhodesia whilst covering the country's Bush War. The second son of the 6th Marquess of Salisbury, Cecil was in Rhodesia with a freelance film-maker, Nick Downie, recording material for a television documentary about the war. Carrying a rifle and wearing a Rhodesian Army uniform, he was shot dead at close range by a member of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army. The Rhodesian government reported that Cecil had been "killed in action"; his body was returned to the United Kingdom for burial.

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1978

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1978 Died

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What else happened on this day, through history

1152 After an eight-year conflict, Baldwin III of Jerusalem wins sole control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his mother Melisende.
1303 The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII.
1303 The Bahri Mamluks defeat the Ilkhanate in the battle of Marj al-Saffar, marking the end of the Mongol incursions into Syria.
1535 A complex halo display is observed over Stockholm, Sweden, inspiring the Vädersolstavlan ("The Sundog painting"), the earliest depiction of such an event, and the oldest colour depiction of the city.

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The world in 1978

When Lord departed

april 14 Tbilisi demonstrations: Thousands of Georgians demonstrate against Soviet attempts to change the constitutional status of the Georgian language.
april 17 Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan.
april 27 John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
april 27 The Saur Revolution begins in Afghanistan, ending the following morning with the murder of Afghan President Mohammed Daoud Khan and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

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