Zanzibar’s Quick Surrender

For those who think the coalition troops of Operation Desert Storm must have set some kind of record with their 100-hour ground assault against Iraq, the “record book” of history says otherwise. The shortest war on record was fought between Britain and Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) on August 27, 1896. The huge British fleet issued an ultimatum to the sultan of Zanzibar, then followed with 38 minutes of bombardment before the badly mismatched sultan surrendered! (Today in the Word, July 3, 1993).