Night of the Long Knives (1962)
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The epithet Night of the Long Knives is given to July 13, 1962, when the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan sacked the following members of his Cabinet:
- Lord Kilmuir — Lord Chancellor
- Selwyn Lloyd — Chancellor of the Exchequer
- David Eccles — Minister of Education
- Harold Watkinson — Minister of Defence
- John Scott Maclay — Secretary of State for Scotland
- Charles Hill — Minister of Housing and Local Government and Welsh Affairs
- Lord Mills — Minister without Portfolio
This unprecedented action was named by the newspapers after the 1934 Nazi Night of the Long Knives although no blood was spilled in the British version.
Jeremy Thorpe, one of Macmillan's political opponents, is quoted as saying:
- "greater love hath no man than this, that he should lay down his friends for his life".
[edit] Trivia
Superstitious people used this as an example of the Friday the 13th effect, especially as the incumbent Conservative government lost power two years later.
